Page 20 of The Glittering Edge

The name echoes, not making sense. Penny remembers her mom’s words from this morning:

You know how I feel about those families. They cause a lot of hurt, and they take other people down with them.

“Sorry,” Penny says, “did you say HelenBarrion?”

“Yes. She rode with her in the ambulance, too, though your mother was already unconscious by then.”

Penny stares at the tile floor, because she’s not sure what expression is on her face. A few hours ago, her mom was giving an impassioned speech about why Penny should stay away from the Barrions. So why was Anita with Corey’s aunt?

And why wouldn’t she tell Penny?

The doctor keeps talking, saying they’re not sure what caused the coma, that the X-ray showed no signs of long-term damage to her lungs, that she could wake up any second. But Penny is only half listening. All she can see is Helen Barrion, all faded blond hair and sad eyes.

A nurse appears at Dr. Nussbaum’s side. “Doctor, we need you to sign off on some paperwork.”

“Sure thing,” Dr. Nussbaum says. “Penny, stay here, okay? I’ll be right back.”

Penny sits still for as long as she can bear it. Then she wanders back to room 505, where one nurse is typing something into the computer and the other is switching out a bag of fluids. Penny stares at the screen of the heart monitor, wishing she knew what a strong heartbeat looked like. Her mom’s seems faint. Slow.

“We put her jewelry in that dish, if you’d like to take it home,” a nurse says, pointing to a small plastic tray on the bedside table.

There’s her mom’s wedding ring, which she never takes off, as well as her favorite leather bracelet and at least six skinny bangles. And there, at the bottom of the tray, is the necklace. The black crescent moon. The charm is rough, its edges uneven, but Penny’s hand is drawn to it like a magnet.

The moment Penny touches the charm, something feels wrong. The necklace is heavier than it looks, and it’s so cold that the hairs on Penny’s arms stand straight up. She should take it home for safekeeping, but it slips through her fingers, landing on the table with a clatter.

“Are you okay, hon?” one of the nurses asks.

“I need a second,” Penny says, exiting the room as quickly as she can without running. She leans back against the wall outside her mom’s room, closing her eyes, trying desperately to make sense of all these details.

Her mom. The Barrions. The necklace. The dock “breaking” at Elkie Lake.

The Barrions cause chaos by proximity. That’s what Anita said. And then she ran off to spend the afternoon with one of them.

Penny opens her swollen eyes. Just as she’s about to go back into the hospital room, movement down the hall catches her attention.

The ICU is far from deserted. There are doctors and nurses dashing between rooms and typing notes into computers on wheeled desks. A tired elderly man pours a cup of coffee, and two people in Colts sweatshirts huddle together, speaking in low voices.

And there’s someone else, too. Someone watching Penny.

They’re standing at the other end of the long hallway. Even though Penny is sure they’re staring straight at her, she can’t quite make out their features. She blinks a few times, but the figure remains the same.

A blurred outline. A shadow of a person.

Someone says Penny’s name, and she whips around, her eyes strained and searching.

“Hey,” Naomi says, grabbing Penny’s shoulders to steady her. “I got a call from Ron, he’s on his way—”

“Naomi, there’s somebody—” Penny says, but when she turns around, the figure at the other end of the hallway is gone. Like it was never there in the first place.

Corey

THE HOSPITAL PARKING LOT IS QUIET IN THE NIGHT. COREY’S AUDI SITSunder a broken light, cloaked in shadow. He’s waiting for visiting hours to be over.

For Anita Emberly to be alone.

Right after Corey learned the truth, he found Julian. His cousin was holed up in the basement screening room, where an old giallo horror movie was casting the room in ugly primary colors.

“Do you want to come with me?” Corey asked. “To the hospital?”

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