“Oh, no, not a chance. Well, no harm in telling you now. It’s too late anyway.” Grammy stares at the TV. “Henry was supposed to help Abigail, Charlotte, and Javier get on a shipping boat. They were going to start their lives over down in Manzanillo, where Javier was born. But when Henry learned how much Abigail was worth, he kidnapped her instead, right from her bedroom. He figured he could get money from her husband and from Javier, who he’d blackmail about the affair—it would be worth so much more than whatever measly amount Javier had paid him for the tickets! But then the hurricane came through. Javier saved Abigail, and Henry died a crook.” Grammy laughs and stares up at the ceiling. “It turns out Henry Emmert had done that sort of thing before, up in Kansas. Kidnapping. He was a wanted man. The cops gave Javier a big reward for turning in Henry Emmert dead. They did that sort of thing in those days.”
“Why wasn’t that in the paper?” Claire asks before she can stop herself.
Grammy’s face turns cold. “You went investigating all of this?”
Claire tightens her fingers on the chair. She glances toward the hallway. She can run faster than Grammy. She can get out. Lawrence is waiting on the other side of the door.
“Of course you did. Your mother always said you were inquisitive. I don’t know why it wasn’t in the papers. The monsters coming through, it changed so much, it made people confused. That’s what they do, you know. Confuse us.”
Claire doesn’t say anything. The monsters do confuse the people of the town. It’s hard to look at them straight on. They erase your memory of them when you pass the city limits. But they’re not the real danger. They never have been.
“Anyway, afterward, Javier became Indianola’s big hero, people congratulating him everywhere he went.” Grammy’s eyes glitter. “That was the start of it. When the monsters started causing problems, where did the town turn? Who did they beg to help them?”
Claire doesn’t say anything.
“Javier Alvarez.” Grammy spits the name. “He sat down with the monsters, orchestrated the treaties. Gave them your great-great-grandfather’s land. And I told you what happened then. Without the oilfields, the money dried up.”
“That’s not Javier’s fault,” Claire says in a trembling voice.
Rage flashes across Grammy’s face. “Of course it is!” she bellows. “By then he and Abigail decided eloping was too risky, and he opened that goddamned hotel. Which did shockingly well for a nowhere place like Indianola.”
Claire narrows her eyes.
Grammy makes a huff of annoyance. “I have to spell it out for you? Javier made some kind of deal with those monsters. Wouldn’t surprise me a bit if he did a little timeline rearranging himself. He made the money while our family lost it. And we switched places.”
Grammy looks over at Claire with her fierce glittering eyes. Claire can’t breathe.
“Why wouldn’t Javier have rearranged the timelines so he and Abigail could be together?” Claire demands. “He didn’t steal our family’s money! It was just stupid luck!”
“Don’t be a fool,” Grammy mutters.
“You’re the fool!” Anger surges up inside Claire’s chest. “You would have killed me so you could—what? Reverse what happened? You think someone else wouldn’t have given the Sudek land to the monsters?”
Grammy glowers, curling her fingers in. “Javier wanted to punish Gregory Garner,” she snarls.
“Even so! That’s worth killing me over?” Claire trembles. “You’re sick. It’s not like you could live your whole life over again—”
“I wouldn’t have to,” Gammy says, eyes flashing. “It would be my life. Don’t you understand? At this point my life is nothing but memories. I wanted to die with good ones.”
Claire stares at her. She’s still shaking. Memories. “You wouldn’t remember me,” she says. “Or what you did to me.”
There’s a long and weighted silence.
“It was a sacrifice,” Grammy says. “A small loss to compensate for the larger one a hundred years ago.”
Claire lets out a shout of fear, of frustration.
“Don’t be like that,” Grammy snaps. “You weren’t the only sacrifice. That alien wouldn’t do it for free, you know. She was taking days of my life away from me. The energy that lets us live. It’s what she eats, apparently.” Grammy gives a harsh laugh. “She’s going to kill me too, you understand, probably after you leave. Only before, I was to die with the memories of my new life, the life Javier Alvarez stole from me. I was to die in our ancestral home. Now I don’t even get that.”
Claire stares at her in horror, tears streaming down her face.
“And think of what it would have done for the rest of the family!” Grammy says. “Your mother and aunt would have grown up in splendor—”
A fresh wave of terror washes over Claire. “Did Mom know?”
“What?”
“Is that why she sent me here? Did she know?”
Grammy frowns and settles back in her chair. “No,” she says. “I knew she wouldn’t understand. She’s never been proud of the Sudek name.”
Claire’s sobs turn to the laughter of relief.
“You’re just like her,” Grammy whispers. “You don’t understand either. It’s lost now. Everything. This family will continue to slide into decline.”
Claire stands up. She wipes the tears from her eyes, lets the last choking sobs die away. The house is suffocating her. She doesn’t want to breathe the same still air as Grammy anymore. It’s bad enough they share the same genes.
“The monsters aren’t the monsters here,” she says.
Grammy looks away.
“Audrey’s coming, you know,” Claire says. “To collect the rest of her payment.”
“I know.” Grammy taps her fingers against the arm of the chair. She never looks at Claire, just keeps staring at the wall, the dim lamp light flowing around her. “But don’t play the hero, Claire. You won’t be able to stop her.”
Claire feels shaky. Her heart pounds in her ears.
“Go,” Grammy says. “There’s nothing here for you anymore.”
Claire is crying again, and she doesn’t know what she’s crying for, if it’s the horror of what Grammy did to her, or if it’s the strange pain of Grammy’s resignation.
“Go!” Grammy shouts. “I don’t want you here when the alien arrives.”
Claire stumbles out of the living room, into the hallway. Grammy keeps staring at the wall. The front door is a long way away. Claire turns. She walks toward it.
And then she runs toward it.
And then she bursts out into the damp night.
Julie paces back and forth across the driveway, her hands jammed in her pockets. Lawrence is standing alert in the yard and he strides forward when he sees Claire and calls out her name. “Claire! Are you all right?”
Claire nods. Julie stops pacing and lifts her head. Claire runs toward her, weeping so hard, the world looks as if it’s underwater.
Julie doesn’t say anything, only pulls her into an embrace. Claire presses up against her and cries. They stay like that for a long time, wrapped up together in the middle of the yard while the stars twinkle on unchanged above them.
Grammy’s house stays dark. She never comes outside. There’s no sign of Audrey, either. At least not yet.
“She wanted to kill me,” Claire whispers. “All so she could be
rich.”
Claire tells the rest of the story, in fits and starts. Saying it aloud cements the hideousness of it all; she thinks back to the suffocating light of Audrey’s car, the rain pounding against the roof, the waves washing up on shore.
Her own grandmother did that. She sacrificed herself, just to let Claire die.
“The monsters told me to save you, you know,” Julie says suddenly. “After you—they told me I had to save you.”
Claire peels away from Julie and blinks up at her through the veil of her tears. “They said if I saved you, then I saved Indianola.” Julie ru
ns her thumb down the side of Claire’s face. “I think if her plan had worked, Mrs. Sudek wouldn’t have gotten rich. I think the whole town would have just been undone.”
Claire wonders what Grammy would say to that, if she’d believe it. Or if she’d ignore it all to restore the family name, to die with a lifetime’s worth of new memories.
“C’mon,” Julie says. “We should get you out of here. You can stay at my place. My parents won’t mind.”
She loops her arm around Claire’s shoulder and pulls her close. They walk toward the driveway a few paces before Julie stops, sucking in her breath through her teeth.
Claire looks up and there’s Audrey, illuminated by the yellow glow of the car’s headlights. The world around them has frozen again. Audrey glides forward, her strange, inhuman bones shadowing beneath her skin.
“I’m not here for you,” she says to Claire.
And then she brushes past Claire and Julie.
Claire turns around, her breath in her throat. Audrey steps onto the front porch of Grammy’s house and pulls the door open and steps inside.
For a moment the world seems to hold its breath, and then the light burning in the living room window blinks out.
A blast of sea breeze blows Claire’s hair into her face. She turns to Julie, who pulls her arm a little tighter around Claire’s waist. “Are you okay?” she whispers as the wind picks up, bringing with it a strange metallic scent that Claire knows, somehow, is connected to Audrey.
She nods numbly. She doesn’t know what to say.
Together they walk away from Grammy’s house, toward the end of the driveway, into the future.
CHAPTER
Twenty-One
JULIE
The next morning, Julie wakes up to hot sunlight flooding her bedroom, as if the sun itself has been made brighter by last night’s storm.
She lies for a moment in her early morning haze, but then the memory of everything that happened the night before comes rushing back. Claire. Claire almost died. Claire’s grandmother was the one who wanted her dead.
And Claire is staying down in the hall, in the guest bedroom.
Julie flings the covers off the bed and slips out into the quiet house. The scent of coffee wafts up from the kitchen. The door to the guest bedroom is closed, and Julie pads over, knocks once.
No answer.
A cold fear seizes her—has Audrey come back?
She flings the door open and finds the room glowing with yellow sunlight, the bed neatly made, Abigail’s gray dress hanging to dry over the back of a chair. It’s been ruined, seawater stains set deep into the fabric.
A sheet of notebook paper sits in the middle of the bed. Her chest tight, her hands shaking a little, Julie picks it up—but it’s a note from Claire. Went for a walk along Sweetbriar Avenue. Come find me!
Come find me. An invitation this time, not a rescue.
Julie darts back into her room and changes into the first clothes she can find: cut-off shorts and her Lunachicks shirt and her busted-up old Doc Martens. Then she bounds out into the morning’s shimmering brightness.
It doesn’t take her long to find Claire. She’s at the playground at the end of Sweetbriar Avenue, sitting on the swing set in a sundress she borrowed from the back of Julie’s closet. Julie’s mom bought that sundress last year, and Julie always refused to wear it—but the tiny floral pattern suits Claire, her hair neat and shining in the lemony morning light, the sea breeze pushing it back away from her face. The air smells clean, the way it always does after a storm, as if the rain washed away all the old layers of salt from everything.
“Hey,” Julie calls out, suddenly nervous.
Claire twists around in the swing and gives Julie a wave. Julie moves toward her, picking through the patches of muddy water left over from the storm last night.
“Hey,” Claire says as Julie slides into the swing next to her.
They sit quietly for a moment. Claire leans her head against the chain of the swing, her gaze distant.
“How are you doing?” Julie asks.
Claire looks over at her. “I’ve been better.” She laughs. “But I’ve been a lot worse too.”
Julie isn’t sure how to react, if it’s okay for her to laugh at that.
“Everything still feels—” Claire knots the fabric of the dress up in her fist. “I don’t know. I’m going to have to call my mom. Tell her something. I mean—” Claire looks up at the sky. “Audrey was going in there to—to take the rest of Grammy’s life away. I don’t—”
“We can send Lawrence over there,” Julie says, pressing her hand against Claire’s back. Claire looks up at her and smiles a little, and something flutters sweetly in Julie’s stomach. “He can take care of all the official reports and stuff. He can call your mom. It’ll probably just look like natural causes, you know?”
“And she was sick.” Claire shakes her head. “I mean, Audrey had been—feeding off her for weeks.”
Julie nods.
“I wish I could tell my mom the truth.” Claire sighs. “But there’s no way she’d believe it. I hardly believe it myself, you know?”
“Yeah.” Julie squints out at the sun. “It feels like a bad dream.”
And it does, especially in the buttery light of morning. Like it could all slip away, a memory undone.
But Julie knows she can’t let that happen. She’s going to have to sit down with her dad, with the entire council, and explain to them about Audrey and Mrs. Sudek. Lawrence will back her up. They have to know that the monsters aren’t enemies. They saved the town. They saved everyone’s entire existence.
Just like Javier saved Abigail, all those years ago. And just like Julie saved Claire.
Her cheeks burn a little, thinking about it.
“Thank you again,” Claire says, looking down at her hands. “For everything. For letting me stay with you. It probably won’t be for long, I’m sure my mom’s going to make me go back to Houston.”
Julie closes her eyes. She’d been trying not to think about that.
“I don’t want to,” Claire says quickly. “But—”
“Hey,” Julie says. “We’ll work it out. We can talk on the phone. You won’t remember the monsters, but I’m sure you’ll remember me.” Julie isn’t sure of that, though. She just doesn’t want to think of the other possibility: that Claire will pass the city limits and disappear completely.
“I hope so. I mean—” She peers up at Julie, her eyes big and luminous, her cheeks pink from the morning heat. “You saved my life. I just—thank you. Thank you so much.”
Claire looks so beautiful in that moment that Julie doesn’t want to think about her leaving for Houston. She doesn’t want to think about conversations with the council about monsters. She doesn’t want to think about anything.
Julie can’t help it: She leans forward in her swing and kisses Claire on the mouth.
And Claire kisses back without hesitation, just as she did last night after she was free. She touches Julie lightly on the arm—hesitantly, at first, but she pulls Julie closer, dragging her out of the swing.
“Ow!” Julie laughs, stumbling to her feet. Claire’s blushing. Adorable.
“I’m sorry,” she says.
“Hey, no worries.” Julie grabs her hands and pulls her up to standing and they kiss again, properly this time, their bodies twining together. Claire pulls back, giggles nervously, then kisses Julie along her jawline, along her neck. Julie’s whole body flushes with fever.
“Is this okay?” Claire whispers.
“More than okay,” Julie says, her heart swelling.
And then something snaps in the shrubbery behind them.
Julie whips around, grabs Claire’s hand—but it’s just a monster, the one that looks like a small silken alligator. It stands up, unsteady on its hind legs. The red scarf wrapped around its neck flutters in the wind.
“You!” Julie says, surprised.
“Girl,” says the monster, nodding at her. Then, to Cla
ire: “Girl.”
Julie glances sideways at Claire. She doesn’t look afraid, the way she did the first time this monster came for a visit. The first time Julie ever saw her.
The monster drops forward on all fours and ambles toward them, its long thick tail swishing through the muddy grass. Claire squeezes Julie’s hand.
“Girls,” the monster says.
Julie smiles, glances at Claire. “That’s about the whole of it, yeah.”
The monster crawls closer, then rises up on its hind legs again. Claire stumbles back a little, but Julie holds firm, looking the monster in the eye. If there’s another threat, she’s going to stop it.
Instead, the monster drops back down to all fours and scurries away, vanishing into the grass.
“What was that about?” Claire says, a tremble in her voice. “Do you think Audrey—”
A tremor vibrates through the ground, rattling Julie’s bones. The air takes on a heavy quality, thick and hard to breathe. Like the air inside the power plant.
And then a towering figure materializes, stepping out of nothingness like it’s stepping through a doorway. It unfurls itself against the blue sky. Human-shaped, but not quite.
“Aldraa?” Julie gasps.
Aldraa bares his teeth in that way that’s meant to be a smile.
“It’s okay,” Julie says to Claire, who’s gaping up at him. “This is Aldraa. He’s—” Julie looks over at him. “He’s like the leader of the monsters.”
“Not exactly.” His voice booms out and the playground equipment rattles, clanking like chains. Claire slaps her hands over her ears.
“Forgive me,” he says. “I don’t often leave the power plant. I know my presence is disturbing to your kind.” He bends down, lowering one of his long, strange arms. The gray monster jumps out of the grass and scurries up to Aldraa’s shoulder, peering down at Julie and Claire with its bright eyes.
“But I have a gift,” he says. “On behalf of all of the xenade.”
And then he reaches out and presses the tip of one bony finger against Julie’s forehead. Something sparks inside her brain, like all the synapses are firing at once. She yelps, reaches out to Claire just as Aldraa does the same thing to her. Claire jerks back, rubs her head.
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