“Right.” Her mom paused. “Okay, well, drive safely. I’ll call you later.”
Josie clicked off her phone. Part of her was relieved when her mom worked late: the tension between them recently had been almost unbearable. But since her dad had moved out, the house was lonely, and the idea of spending another night there by herself was incredibly depressing.
Her mood sinking like lead in water, Josie flipped on the radio. It was programmed to the AM news station.
“From the evidence at the scene,” a man said in a cool academic voice, “we have determined that the attacks were not caused by a bear. They appear to be the work of a predatory cat of some kind.”
A reporter cut into the prerecorded statement. “When pressed for information, Captain Wherry stated that local investigators are targeting known collectors of exotic animals in hopes of finding the cause of the recent attacks. For WPTN, I’m Morgan Curón.”
Josie rolled her eyes. A cat? Really? Sixteen dead bodies and all the authorities could come up with was an exotic cat?
Maybe Penelope was right: it was a cover-up.
“Time for weather on the nines,” the news anchor said in his overly cheerful radio voice. “And we’re looking at glorious weather for this April fifteenth.”
Josie’s stomach dropped. Today was April fifteenth?
Holy crap, no wonder Nick had looked so upset when she left. Today was their one-year anniversary.
And Josie had completely forgotten.
Shit, shit, shit. Major relationship screwup. How could she have forgotten? It was just a few weeks ago that she and Nick had been at the mall and he’d pointed out a necklace he thought she might like in the window of a chain jewelry store. Entwined hearts with little red stones at the apex of each. No wonder he’d been acting so weird that afternoon. He was waiting for her to wish him a happy anniversary so he could give her the necklace.
She reached for her phone; she needed to talk to him right that second. But he’d be in the middle of practice. Damn. She’d have to wait until after her shift and then maybe they could celebrate tomorrow?
She was the worst girlfriend ever.
Josie sped around a corner, tapping the brakes as lightly as possible so as not to lose momentum, and veered onto Leeland Road. Another glance at the time. 3:50 p.m. Ten minutes. She pushed Nick and their anniversary from her mind. There was nothing she could do about it, and right now she had to focus on getting to work. As long as she didn’t get caught at the railroad crossing she was totally going to make it.
Wishful thinking. Josie heard the peal of bells before she even saw the flashing lights. Train coming.
Crap.
Option A: slam both feet onto the accelerator and pray her car had enough power to slip under the rapidly descending crossing arm. Option B: slow down and wait for the train. Option A: decent chance of a gruesome, fiery death. Option B: decent chance she’d get fired.
Kind of a close call, but after a moment’s hesitation, Josie hit the brakes and screeched to a stop just as the railroad-crossing arm locked into place across the road.
It didn’t take long for Josie to regret her sensible decision. Immediately, she realized it was a government transport train leaving Fort Meade. Probably the same one that had just delivered the shipment to her mom.
Oh, the irony.
Josie counted the cars as they ambled by. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen. She checked the clock. 3:57 p.m. “Come on!” she said through clenched teeth.
Twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four. Josie leaned over the steering wheel and craned her neck, trying to get a view of the rails stretching south through the thick greenery of forest that hugged both sides of the road. She could barely see twenty feet down the tracks. Was there an end in sight? She couldn’t tell.
Twenty-six, twenty-seven, twenty-eight. Josie reached for her cell. She’d call work and explain. See? It wasn’t her fault. She would have been on time if it hadn’t been for the stupid train. How could she control that?
3:59. With a heavy sigh, Josie scrolled through her contacts to the coffeehouse’s number and hit the green button.
Josie wasn’t quite sure what happened next. The Teal Monster idled at the crossing, the occasional shudder of the strained engine rumbling beneath her. Then, suddenly, the car lurched so violently that Josie’s head smacked into the roof. She screamed—half from surprise, half from fear—and smashed her foot onto the brake pedal. Had someone hit her? She frantically looked into the rearview mirror but saw only the barren expanse of Leeland Road twisting into the woods. Confused, she turned all the way around to make sure a deer hadn’t accidentally rammed her. That’s when she noticed the mirror. It lay cockeyed in the back, and the blue blanket had slid to one side. The mirror must have shifted in the backseat while she was stopped at the crossing.
Huh?
She reached back to see if the mirror had been damaged, when a light flashed—fierce, white, and so intense that a searing pain shot through her eyeballs to the back of her skull and left her irises screaming for mercy. It was a clear, sunny afternoon in the middle of April, but the light that filled Josie’s car blinded her as if she’d been sitting for hours in utter darkness and someone had suddenly shone a spotlight in her face. She slapped a hand over her eyes, desperate to block out the blinding flash. Blood thundered through her temples, and her eyes ached against the piercing light. Josie buried her face in her hands, and felt the car shudder . . .
Then everything went dark.
FOUR
4:09 P.M.
A HORN BLARED. IT SOUNDED CLOSE, YET MUFFLED.
Then a voice. “Hello? Josie? Are you there?”
Josie blinked her eyes open, half expecting to still be blinded by the mysterious flash. Instead, Leeland Road stretched before her, open and empty. The train was gone. The crossing arm sat vertical and inert, the warning bells dead silent.
Her car was still running, her cell phone still gripped in one hand, and her manager’s voice pierced the haze that had settled over her brain.
She absently lifted the phone to her ear. “H-hi,” she said lamely.
“Josie, do you have any idea what time it is?”
Another horn blast. An irate driver in a pickup truck swerved around her through the oncoming traffic lane, flipping her the bird as he passed.
“I said,” her manager repeated. His voice was steely. “Do you have any idea what time it is?”
Josie shook her head, trying to jar her brain back into working order. Time? What time was it? Her eyes drifted to the dashboard clock.
“Four oh-nine?” She couldn’t keep the question out of her voice. Ten minutes? She’d been at the train crossing for ten minutes? That was impossible.
“Exactly,” he said. “You’re fired.”
She heard the phone go dead, yet Josie didn’t move. She stared at the digital clock display wondering what the hell had just happened.
4:21 P.M.
Josie eased the Teal Monster onto the soft shoulder of Leeland Road and cut the engine. She felt disoriented and confused, and her head still ached from the blinding flash of light that seemed to come from nowhere. She sat in the car, her heart pounding, and tried to figure out what she was going to do next.
She could have gone home, but to what? An empty house and no one to talk to. Not what she needed.
Other options: Penelope would be home, posting on one of her favorite online forums, but she’d immediately theorize that Josie’s experience at the train tracks was part of a government mind-control experiment gone haywire or something equally off the rails, and Josie wasn’t quite in the mood for that. Nick would still be at track practice. She hated bothering him while he was training for regionals, but maybe if she texted to explain what had just happened . . .
Josie paused. What had just happened to her? She had absolutely no clue. One minute she was counting train cars, then the Teal Monster jumped off its tires and something blinded her. A flash. From the train, maybe? She though
t it had come from that direction, but what on the train could have produced a flash that painfully bright? She remembered squeezing her eyes shut against the blue-white light. And then . . .
Nothing.
She needed to talk this through with someone right away. Someone who would listen and wouldn’t judge. Like Madison.
Josie drove crosstown, the stupid mirror sliding back and forth in her trunk at every stop sign. All this drama for a mirror. She wanted to stop the car, haul the thing out, and smash it into a million pieces.
At the sight of Madison’s car in the driveway, Josie breathed a sigh of relief. She ran up the driveway, taking the wooden steps to the enclosed patio two at a time, and rang the doorbell.
Josie crossed her right foot behind her and tapped the toe of her pink tweed Converse impatiently while she waited. Come on, Madison! Answer the damn door. After what seemed like forever, Josie rang the bell again, leaning on it so the old-fashioned chime tolled half dozen times.
Still nothing. Maybe Madison had the music cranked up in her room and couldn’t hear?
Josie retreated down the steps and snaked around to the backyard. Madison’s house was in one of the newer developments, with lots of land in between the homes and absolutely no fences, unlike the craftsman Josie’s parents owned in the old part of town, where the lots were practically on top of one another. Josie half expected to hear Madison’s favorite Pandora station blaring from the open window of her second-floor bedroom, but the whole house was oddly quiet.
Where the hell are you, Mads?
She pulled out her phone and checked the time. Four forty-five. Nick might be done with practice. It was worth a shot. She hit the call button and held her breath.
As the phone rang in Josie’s ear, another sound drifted down from above. A tinny rendition of Josie and Nick’s song. Which was also his custom ringtone for her calls.
Josie froze. Her phone continued to ring before it went to voice mail. “Hey, this is Nick. You know what to do.”
Josie hit redial before the beep. She didn’t even hold the phone to her ear, her arm lank by her side as she gazed up at the house. Once again, the opening chords of their song drifted down from the second floor. Through the open window in Madison’s bedroom.
With a shaky hand, Josie ended the call and immediately dialed Madison’s cell.
Another cell-phone ringtone pierced the stillness of the afternoon—“Weird Science” by an old eighties band called Oingo Boingo—which Madison had programmed for Josie.
From the room above, someone silenced the phone after just a few seconds of ringing.
“Shit,” said a male voice.
Nick’s voice.
Josie caught a flicker of movement at the curtain in Madison’s window. A flutter as if someone had peeked out, then quickly let the fabric fall back into place.
“Shit.” Madison’s voice echoed.
Josie felt all the warmth drain out of her body. Her hands went numb, and the landscaped backyard blurred in and out of focus. The realization was slow and painful. Her best friend. Her boyfriend. The oldest cliché in the book.
“Seriously?” Josie said out loud. Her voice shook. “On our anniversary? Seriously?”
Nick’s head of disheveled black hair filled the window. “Josie,” he said. “I can explain.”
“Explain? Explain what?” Josie tottered backward across the uneven lawn, then forced her legs to work. She needed to get to the car. She needed to get out of there.
Josie rounded the front of the house just as the patio door creaked open.
“Josie!” Madison screamed. She was still buttoning up the cashmere sweater she’d worn to school that day. “Wait.”
Josie broke into a run, desperate to get to the Teal Monster.
Nick was faster. She could feel his runner’s stride pounding up behind her as she yanked open her car door. “Josie, stop!”
“Screw you.” Josie ducked inside and locked the door. Nick slammed his fist onto the driver’s-side window, but Josie didn’t even look at him. She couldn’t. She fumbled with the keys; her hand shook violently as she turned over the ignition and she could already feel the hot tears pouring down her cheeks.
Josie took one look as she peeled out of the driveway. Madison stood on the lawn with her hands covering her face. Nick was in the middle of the street, arms outstretched toward her retreating car.
He hadn’t even bothered to put on his shirt.
FIVE
5:45 P.M.
“IS THAT YOU, JOSEPHINE?”
Josie froze midtiptoe. Dammit. Her mom was supposed to be staying late at the lab like, you know, she mentioned on the phone not even two hours ago. And when her mom said she was staying late at work, she meant it like 99.99 percent of the time.
But no. Not today. Today of all days, her mom surprised her by coming home early.
Perfect.
Josie had driven around for almost an hour, trying to decide what to do. A variety of choices crossed her mind, everything from plunging her car into the Anacostia River, to driving back to Madison’s house to tell them both exactly what she thought of them, to several other options that would have gotten her thirty to life in a state penitentiary.
For the first half hour or so her phone had rung off the hook. First Nick, then Madison, then Nick again. Rinse, repeat.
Then the texts. First Madison, in a rapid, manic stream.
Madison: Josie, please just listen.
Madison: It’s not what you think.
Madison: I mean, it is, but it’s not like that.
Madison: Nick just needed someone to talk to.
Madison: And you’ve been so busy.
Madison: And things just happened. I didn’t mean them to. I swear.
Then Nick. His texts came more slowly, as if he labored over what to say.
Nick: I’m sorry.
Nick: I didn’t mean to hurt you. It just happened.
Nick: You’ve been so distant lately.
Nick: I know that’s no excuse.
Nick: I don’t know what else to say.
Josie had ignored them all. She didn’t want to talk to either of them. Especially not Nick. She didn’t want to hear him beg for forgiveness. Or worse, maybe he wouldn’t. Josie recalled the conversation they had after school. There’s something I need to talk to you about. Maybe this had been his way of breaking up with her?
“Josephine?” her mom repeated. Her voice was louder, and Josie could clearly hear her footsteps ascending from the basement.
She should have stayed in the car.
“Josephine!” Her mom stood in the doorway that led to the basement lab, still in her white coat, with the top half of her dark brown hair twirled up on the top of her head and secured with two ballpoint pens.
“Is everything okay?”
Josie opened her mouth to say something, but the words froze on her tongue.
“What?” her mom said.
Josie flinched. She wanted to tell her mom the truth—about Nick and Madison, about her job, and about the train. She wanted a squishy hug, to feel her mom’s long fingers comb through Josie’s hair and for her mom to tell her that everything was going to be okay. But there had been such a strain between them the last few months, a divide that neither of them seemed able to cross, and the last thing Josie needed at that moment was to be rejected by her own mother.
“I’m fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Josie leaned against the wall and closed her eyes. She felt suddenly dizzy; the cramped quarters of the hallway spun around her. She just wanted to crawl into bed, pull the covers over her head, and pray that when she woke up, she’d discover that she’d gunned the engine on her car and outrun the oncoming train.
Maybe then, none of this would have happened.
“Where’s the mirror?” her mom asked abruptly.
Right. The real reason her mom was even talking to her. “I left it in the garage.”
Josie shook herself. “Oh.” Great. Was her mom dating now?
“Just back to the lab,” she said, as if reading Josie’s mind. “Running an experiment. Need to check in. You’ll be okay here?”
Josie shrugged. “Sure.”
“Good.” Her mom paused as if she was going to add something, then shook her head again in that odd, distracted way. “Get some rest, Josephine. You look tired.”
2:37 A.M.
Time abandoned her.
Josie had been lying on her bed in the dark, staring at the ceiling for what felt like days, yet the alarm clock on her nightstand mocked her. It had only been four hours.
Stupid clock.
Her mom said she looked tired, but that was an understatement. She was exhausted, plain and simple. Hours of crying would do that. Her temples throbbed from the headache that ravaged the very depths of her brain, and her raw, bloodshot eyes ached beneath swollen lids. Her limbs were heavy, a mix of fatigue and despair, and her entire existence felt futile.
Her body and mind were completely worn down, yet she couldn’t sleep. Not for half a second had she slipped into blissful unconsciousness. She’d been aware of every moment that passed, even the sound of her mom quietly opening the front door when she got home, and dragging something heavy down the hall and into the basement. The stupid mirror, no doubt. Josie had been wide awake for all of it.
She’d tried to fall asleep, of course, for hours. All her usual tricks: counting sheep, pretending she was on a tropical island with Nick—she even looked for comfort in her favorite childhood stuffed animal, Mr. Fugly Bear. Whenever there was a thunder-and-lightning storm, her dad would bring her Mr. Fugly Bear (so named because he was missing an ear and the “thumb” off his right paw due to a washing-machine incident), who was the bravest, most rugged bear in town and would protect her from any and all danger. He’d prop Mr. Fugly Bear up against Josie’s pillow, facing the window in case any monsters tried to crawl in that way.
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