I didn’t know what to do, so I did what you always do in a situation like this. I put my arms around her and pulled her in close, letting her know that she was loved and creating at least the illusion that she was protected. It’s not that I wouldn’t give up my life for her. It’s just that I don’t know that it would even help.

It was weird. I could see that I held a child, but she felt like the grownup Jilly I knew. It was as though whatever enchantment made her appear young was only working on my eyes.

I’d forgotten how perfectly she fit in my arms. I’d been away to L.A. and then when I got back she was always in a wheelchair, which just didn’t feel the same as holding her at this moment did. It was like old times, like the hugs she always had for me when we met somewhere.

I was facing the window and could see the two little girls in the overgrown yard below, one with hair so bright it had to be dyed. The man who’d been accompanying them was nowhere to be seen. I started to look away when I realized two things:

The second little girl with the bright red hair looked a lot like a young Lizzie.

And she had no mouth. There was only smooth skin between her nose and chin.

“Jilly,” I said into the hair of the child I was holding. “Is Lizzie here with you?”

She pushed away from me to look out the window. Her hands went up to her own mouth as she stared down.

“Oh, god, oh god, oh god . . .”

She turned to me, her face a mask of anguish.

“I did that to her,” she said. “If it wasn’t for this sick little world I’ve made, nothing would ever have happened to her.”

I tried to hold her again, but she pushed away from me.

“You have to go before something horrible happens to you, too,” she said. “You can’t help me. Nobody can help me.”

“You can say that again, sugar.”

We turned at the sound of the new voice. The man who’d been with the girls outside now stood in the doorway. He leaned casually against the door jamb, grinning at us.

This had to be Del.

My hands clenched into fists at my sides. This was my chance to finally do what I’d been wanting to ever since Jilly’d told me about the horror show he’d made of her childhood.