Page 26 of Big Witch Energy

“I know,” Gert said. “It just pains a parent, to make a child responsible for their burdens.”

“Well, get over it,” Caroline replied bluntly. “We don’t have any other options.”

Rather than comment on Caroline’s saltiness, her mother changed the subject. “What do you think of this Cole character?”

It mattered that her mom was asking her opinion. She rarely did that.

“Well, he has a lot of experience with historical properties, which we need. We only want to do this once. Dad, I guess, didn’t know what he was doing. And it was finished quickly, after Chris…”

Her mother nodded, blinking away the moisture gathering in her eyes. Caroline immediately regretted saying her brother’s name so casually. “I suppose we’re lucky it held together for so long.”

As they stepped off the curb to cross the street toward the Rose, Caroline heard a noise to her left. She glanced up Waterfront Street, toward Shaddow House. A teenage girl was riding a dark-purple moped toward them at breakneck speed. In that weird, absent way only possible when panic makes time slow down, Caroline thought, I think that’s Ben’s daughter.

The girl had carried herself with a lot of bravado when Caroline had seen her in Starfall Grounds with Ben, wearing jeans in “emergency-vest orange” and a lime-green sweater, but she didn’t have that bluster now. Her eyes were wide with panic as the moped seemed to be streaking out from under her. She wasn’t in control of the bike, that much was clear. And the wet streets didn’t seem to be helping as her hands wrenched the brakes.

Caroline grabbed her mother’s shoulder and jerked her back, flinging Gert against the sidewalk. Caroline was turned away from the moped when it felt like she’d been punched in the side by a fist made of glass shards and nails.

Caroline was tossed onto the ground, rolling across the cobblestones like a tumbleweed. She couldn’t breathe. Everything hurt. Everything felt like it was on fire, from the top of her head to the tips of her toes. It was like her body went into reset mode and she couldn’t grasp onto any single sensation or thought. She forced herself to take in air.

No. No. Mistake. Air made her insides burn, too.

“Mina!” Ben was running toward them, pelting down the sidewalk, carrying a blue medical bag. Caroline wanted to tell him to slow down, to stop running, or he could trip. But again, her insides were on fire, burning the wires connecting her brain to her mouth.

Caroline’s eyes rolled up to the gray skies overhead, the wisps of white rolling by. The next thing she knew, Ben’s face was hovering over hers. He was barking out orders at the people around them. She could see Cole kneeling next to him.

Cole seemed more confused than afraid, which was a weird thing to stick in her brain, but it did. Ben, on the other hand, was completely panicked. But somehow, he was still able to examine her with a clinical tenderness that made her heart hurt. Dammit, that was the one thing that didn’t hurt.

Gert was so still, her eyes blank and glassy with terror. Riley was there, too, holding Caroline’s hand. She could hear Alice yelling in the distance.

Aw, so many people I love, right here. This is nice. And the more Riley squeezed her hand, the less Caroline hurt. That was nice, too. Oh, wait, no, she remembered reading somewhere that it was bad when you stopped hurting. It meant you were going into shock.

Was she going to die? No, no. She was safe here, on the island. She should be safe here. Why wasn’t she safe here? Her eye landed on Alice, holding Mina, shushing her gently as the girl sobbed into Alice’s shoulder.

That was good. Caroline didn’t want Mina to feel bad about this. She didn’t mean to hurt Caroline. Kids did stupid things sometimes. None of them had ever figured out how Chris had set the shower curtain on fire. While he was in the shower.

Chris.

Was this how Chris felt before he died? Scared and fading from everything around him? Was she going to see him again now? Part of her almost longed for it, as much as she wanted to live. Chris had been the one she could trust, the closest to her in age, the other “dependable” one.

Ever since she’d met Plover and all the others, she’d wondered. Was her brother a ghost out there somewhere? What would he have been attached to? His laptop? His guitar? Her parents hadn’t been able to bear changing anything in his room, even all these years later. No, she would have sensed it, if Chris’s spirit was still somewhere nearby. But she wished he was nearby. She missed her brother so much.

“Caroline,” Ben panted, checking her eyes. “Sweetheart, please, stay awake, OK? Please.”

“Caroline, look at me, OK?” Riley commanded her. “I need you to focus on me. Listen to my voice and keep your eyes open. Caroline!”

Riley squeezed her hand, and Caroline felt better. The fire inside her middle was almost entirely out now. But her head felt fuzzy, like she couldn’t grab on to her thoughts…

Oh, Riley. How was Caroline going to help Riley with the ghosts if she died? She wasn’t about to become a ghost, haunting Starfall. If she saw a light, she was running toward it. She’d been stuck on this island her whole life; she wasn’t about to be stuck here after death.

And then, Caroline remembered, Riley’s mom had died in a car accident. She didn’t want Riley watching this happen.

“Go,” Caroline whispered.

But also, holy hell, producing that one word had hurt so much.

“No, I’m staying,” Riley whispered back and held her hand impossibly tighter.

Caroline looked beyond her, to the Rose, where she could sort of see the blue tarps flapping on the roof. The woman in the purple dress was standing in front of the entrance, staring at Caroline’s body like she was a specimen in a jar. And she looked annoyed again, which was a weird response.

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