Penelope didn’t care what Adeline said. She screamed. Or at least, she tried to scream and found she couldn’t. She tried to fight. She couldn’t. Penelope stood under the water of the shower, stock-still, as those five long nails sank deeper and deeper into her brain. Into her mind.
The nails found something inside her, something vital. They squeezed.
With a great shudder, Penelope sank to her knees beneath the shower’s jet. She was there for a minute. Maybe more.
When Penelope rose, she wasn’t Penelope anymore.
“It’s safer if I do this part myself,” Adeline whispered. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Polly.”
HUNTER
He opened Sarah’s purse and found a wallet resting near the bottom where it always did, full of cash like it always was. Hunter scattered the bills along the long dresser, nice and distracting. He bent down to unzip Sarah’s luggage, toss her clothes.
He plucked up the knife from the side table.
Sarah made no effort to stop him. She seemed too stunned to move. “Why are you doing that?”
“Keep your voice down. I’m making things look more complicated than they are. I’d rather Ethan not figure out that I’m doing this.”
“Who’s Ethan? Why would he—”
“Because the twins are going to try and scare everyone into investigating your death. They have no idea what the ceremony really entails. They’re going to think someone’s killed you before it can start and the world is going to end because of it. They’re going to want revenge.”
“You mean their father never told them what’s going on here?”
“No. He was a piece of shit by the sound of things, and they’re more than a little cracked themselves. I can usually convince Ethan and the others not to bother investigating, but I always cover my tracks. Just in case.”
Sarah finally realized the full weight of what he was saying. “You mean the ceremony has really worked? We’ve done this before?”
“Yes. More times than I can count.”
The mountain is getting restless.
Every night, every time he had a cigarette with Ryan, whenever Hunter heard those awful words of The Chief’s, it all came back to him. With a sensation like a tooth being ripped out of his mouth—out of his mind—Hunter’s migraine evaporated. He remembered. He remembered everything, from the first night they’d done this until now. All in a rush. Every time.
But tonight, Hunter hesitated. For the first time in a long time, things felt different. Off. Hunter could always smell trouble, and hesmelled it now: Ethan and Kyla were acting strangely. Tabitha was nowhere to be seen. Last night, something had happened that had never happened before, and Hunter was still trying to grapple with its consequences.
Last night, Hunter had died, and he had no idea what had happened after that.
Now, in room 4, Hunter thumped his chest to clear a painful wad of phlegm. He plucked up Sarah’s knife from where it rested on the corner table and tossed its sheath under the bed. He tested the edge of the blade against his thumb, just like his father had always told him to. Old habits.
He motioned Sarah toward the bed. “Get moving. Please.”
“But I’m confused. If the ceremony works, why are we doing this at all? My death is supposed to be the catalyst that powers everything. Are you saying the ceremony restarts from a timebeforeI die?”
“Yes. At four p.m. every afternoon, when the silver light passes over the sky, a new loop kicks in. Everything before then is just a memory. A vivid one, so strong people don’t realize they’re seeing stuff that actually happened ages ago.”
“Four o’clock? By why would it start over so early?”
Hunter was getting twitchy. Normally, he could hear Fernanda in room 5 next door: opening a drawer, washing her hands. Could hear the soft, almost imperceptible creak of Ryan Phan’s snore in room 3.
Not tonight. Tonight, the motel was silent. No sounds from the desert. The mountain. Not even aSHRIEKfrom the Guardians.
Silent.
“I don’t know why the ceremony starts over so early. If I had to guess, it’s some kind of fail-safe. Or maybe just a flaw in the whole operation,” Hunter said. “I don’t ask a lot of questions. I just need to get this done. Now.”
He wanted to get back to his room. He wanted to get back to Ethan, and not just because the boy would grow more suspicious the longer he stayed here.
