* * * * *
The parade’s boring, but I feel better afterwards, more like a person with a real life. Tommy walks me home, then goes to join his own family. My parents grill and afterwards, Dad announces that we’re going to go to the fireworks this year.
“The fireworks?” I ask. “We never go.”
Dad smiles. “It’ll be good for you to get out tonight, Allie.”
“It’s not going to rain, is it?” I ask, pulling out my phone. I’ve checked my weather app about twenty times today.
Dad laughs. “No. Not until tomorrow.”
It’s a happy laugh that makes me wonder why I ever lied to my parents in the first place to go on that trip. Why I ever hated my home.
I send Tommy a text and ask him to meet us there just in case. I can’t be too careful.
They always let off the fireworks near the high school every year. A lot of people are already there when Dad pulls into the parking lot. I scan the football field for Tommy. He said he’d be at the front gates of the field. I find him standing next to Bethany. The two of them are talking under the streetlight, although Bethany’s turning away from him like she wants to be anywhere but there.
I know why.
It’s not Tommy she wants to escape from.
It’s me. He must have told her I’m coming.
Dad finds us a parking spot right up near the school building, right under the sign that has the cardinal flexing his bicep. I should be nervous or ticked off about facing Bethany, but I’m not. It just doesn’t seem important anymore.
I know who my real friends are now.
“Go ahead,” I tell my parents, eyeing the filling bleachers. “We’ll find you.”
“Hey,” Tommy says when we walk up to the gate.
“Hey.” I wave to him and Bethany. She returns my wave with a tiny one. It’s cold. Subzero, in fact.
Tommy shifts leg to leg. He’s uncomfortable. I don’t blame him.
And Bethany’s turning away and playing with her phone. The last time she did that, she was trying to avoid talking to her ex who she found out was cheating on her. Her nickname for him after that, well…
The growl rises up inside me.
Okay. I am angry at Bethany.
“Why don’t we go find a seat?” I ask. I wait until a family with kids passes us and goes through the gate. “I promise I won’t destroy the football field. Or impale the audience with flying debris.”
Bethany’s gone.
She’s running through the gate and towards the bleachers so fast that she almost trips over her own feet.
“Allie!” Tommy’s shocked. He laughs. “That—“
“Wasn’t a nice thing to say,” I admit, grabbing the chain link fence. Why did I let that come out of my mouth? “Come on, Tommy. All she was going to do was stick her nose up and tune out anything else I would’ve said. She’s already made the decision not to be my friend anymore. I’m not going to change that.”
Tommy sighs. “It’s just that you guys have known each other since what, the fifth grade?”
“I know.” I’m shocked at how much it hurts. How much I do care. “If I find a cure for this, and then she wants to talk to me again, forget it.”
“Don’t blame you.” He locks his hand with mine and we enter the football field. “I tried to tell her that you’re OK. I didn’t say anything about Evansburg. That wasn’t your fault, anyway.”
Evansburg. They’re not having any celebrations right now.
It’s almost full dark. Eyes are on the woods and the fields beyond were they’re going to launch the fireworks. I spot Bethany sitting on the top level by herself, looking at the Williams Town water tower like she wants to fly away to it. She cranes her neck so much that it’s going to hurt tomorrow morning. Her parents sit four rows under her.
I look straight ahead, pretending that I don’t care.
We find a place above my parents on the very top row. People dig into snacks, fiddle with phones, and shift on the uncomfortable benches, waiting for the exact same fireworks that they let off every year. Bethany’s way at the other end of the row. I know the only thing keeping her from leaving is her parents. If she could, she’d run away now.
“Almost ten,” Tommy says, checking his phone. “Still nothing on the radar. I wonder if Madeline’s found her victims yet.”
“I don’t—“
The rest dies in my throat.
There’s a van pulling up to the gate, blocking it. The light reflects off the windshield, almost blinding for a second. It’s a maroon van that’s got a dent in the back and a taped-up taillight.
The doors open.
A woman with chestnut hair climbs out. A man jumps down to join her.
It’s Madeline. And Kyle.
And Uncle Cassius.
He comes out last, straightening up like he’s about to face the firing squad.
They stand on the other side of the chain-link fence, staring in. Staring at everyone who’s seated with their eyes on the sky. Uncle Cassius shows no signs of seeing me or my parents. He doesn’t know we’re here.
“Allie?” Tommy asks.
“Um…” I start, fighting for the words. “Tommy? Madeline’s found her victims.”
She’s chosen the town for the Deathwind to turn.
Mine.
Chapter Twenty-Two