Chapter 8

CHAPTER EIGHT

FRANKIE

The drive home was weird.

I kept looking over to say something to Mei-Ling only to find the backseat empty. Why do I keep calling her by her Chinese name? She's Elizabeth, always has been. My post-coma brain was confused. All I wanted was my phone so I could text her and get a smidge of normalcy back, but Aunt Kimmy was holding it hostage.

Honestly, I couldn't blame her. I'd caught a glimpse at it and all of my apps had at least triple digit notifications. Five months of being away from texts, calls, emails, and all my social media accounts. Re-entering society was actually quite intimidating and overwhelming, so I wasn't really fighting her too hard on it. I just wanted to be able to text Mei— Elizabeth— like normal.

Maybe I should just get a new number and delete all my accounts and start fresh? I bet I could ask Mei-Elizabeth to set up all new accounts for me and she'd have it done and ready within a couple of hours.

"How are we doing back there?"

I jumped and looked to the passenger seat to where Aunt Kimmy was doing her best to pretend she wasn't hovering. I forced a smile. "I'm okay?"

She smirked. "You're not, and that's okay. What were you just thinking about? You were making quite a face."

"Dammit." I sighed and scrubbed my face with my hands. "I was thinking about all those notifications I saw on my phone and wondering if I should delete the accounts and start over."

Her smile turned a little sad. "What if I asked Elizabeth to log in to all of your accounts and go through your notifications? Get everything back to normal and stuff?"

I opened my mouth, then closed it. "That's a good idea. But can I FaceTime her later and ask?"

"You don't need an excuse to call your best friend, love," Uncle Kyle said softly from the driver's seat. He turned into our neighborhood and then looked up at me through the rearview mirror. "I'm sure Elizabeth would love if you called her every ten minutes."

That made me smile. "I just need to feel normal any way I can."

I didn't miss the way they looked at each other or the knot that formed in my stomach, but I chose to ignore all of it. My gut told me the universe wasn't quite done with me yet, that the other shoe was gonna drop any minute now. However, everyone said ignorance was bliss, so I wanted to give that a try. I leaned against the window and focused on the clear blue sky over our heads. It was March in Florida, so it was gorgeous. Birds flew overhead, chirping and carrying on with their normal day-to-day life. The windows were closed, but I knew it was a lovely seventy-five degrees with that spring crispness in the air, still months before the torture of humidity returned to haunt us. Despite the five months in a coma, my neighborhood looked exactly the same. Every palm tree, every mailbox, even the cars in the driveways . . . all the same as if Halloween was yesterday.

I'd never thought Florida's lack of typical seasonal changes would be a good thing.

It was actually helping a little.

Just as my chest was loosening and I started to breathe easier, we took a left turn onto our street and I spotted my neighbor walking her dog . . . her golden retriever that had been a quarter of the size it was now the last I saw it. Two houses down, my neighbor Marissa's daughter was walking down the sidewalk with her. Walking . Little Daphne was not walking back at Halloween. And Marissa did not have that pregnant belly either. I gripped the edge of the leather seats and clenched my teeth.

It's okay. This is normal life stuff. This doesn't affect my life at all. I closed my eyes and took deep breaths. This is all fine. Everything will be fine.

But then the car slowed and my eyes flew open. We're home. I looked out the window and gasped. There were people in Elizabeth's driveway, walking from a car I didn't recognize to the front door. They unlocked the door and let themselves in. A whole family of like six people that were definitely not related to my best friend.

" Who are they? " I screeched. " What are they doing ? —"

"They live there now? — "

"WHAT?"

"They're in China, love. You know this," Aunt Kimmy said softly. "They're just renting the house out for a bit while they're gone."

I pressed my face to the glass to get a better look as our car turned into our driveway. The second it stopped moving, I yanked my seatbelt off and leapt out of the car, fully expecting to charge across the street and find my best friend hiding in a closet or something. But when I crossed from the driveway to the front sidewalk, I slid to a stop. My body turned to ice. I opened my mouth, but a whimper came out.

There, in my front yard, was a For Sale sign.

With a SOLD sticker on it.

The other shoe had dropped. My stomach rolled, sending my entire breakfast shooting up my esophagus like a rocket. I clenched my teeth to keep it in. The world spun around me. I staggered a few steps, then found myself sprinting to the sign as if getting closer would change the outcome.

SOLD.

SOLD.

SOLD.

No, no, no, no, no. In the back of my mind, I registered my aunt and uncle speaking to me, but my ears were ringing too loud to hear anything. Uncle Kyle unlocked the front door and pushed it open, then turned back and yelled something. I sprinted across our front lawn, through the front door, and then slid to a stop on the shiny hardwood floors.

The walls of our foyer and living room were lined with cardboard boxes. They were all taped shut and labeled with words like books, dishes, living room— I squeezed my eyes shut. My chest tightened like a vise on my heart, squeezing the life out of me. I forced deep breaths. This is a dream. This has to be a dream. I'm going to open my eyes and be back in that hospital bed. A few breaths later, I reopened my eyes and whimpered. Nothing had changed.

The only furniture still out and unpacked was a black sectional sofa that I had no memory of. No rugs. No end tables or coffee table. No lamps or charging cords. I stumbled forward and looked to the left only to find the kitchen table was gone. Our kitchen counters were completely vacant of everything. It looked as if we'd just bought the house and hadn't moved in yet.

I pushed my hands through my hair and shook my head. "No, no, no."

"Frankie, we can explain."

I spun to face her, fully prepared to lose my shit when I realized belatedly that my three dogs had not greeted me yet. My heart stopped. Panic like I'd never felt consumed me. "Where are the boys? BOYS? BOYS! "

Howling erupted from across the house. I recognized Bo's higher-pitched howl, Houdini's rapid barks, and Bubba's deep howl. Relief washed through me. Not that I expected my aunt and uncle to have them packed away, too, but logic had gone out of the window.

"They're in your room," Uncle Kyle said from the hallway right outside my bedroom door. He smiled and nodded. "Brace yourself for impact."

I nodded. He pushed the door open, and it was a stampede with all three of them trying to get through the doorway at the same time.

Tears filled my eyes. "BOYS!"

Bubba got to me first, still howling, and started throwing punches at me with his fat paws.Bo leapt forward like a jungle cat and landed gracefully into a sprint, then slammed nearly full speed into my leg. Houdini wiggled so hard he could barely walk. He sneezed and licked the air rapidly, then pushed between Bo, still perched on my leg, and Bubba, who was still attacking my other leg. I giggled and dropped to the ground so they could tackle me. I wrapped my arms around them, trying to pet them as fast as I could. For a moment, all was right in the world. As they punched, licked, and climbed all over me, I felt something settle inside of me.

But that moment was shattered the second I looked up and spotted the boxes labeled master bed, master bath, and library. There were dozens and dozens of boxes all looking ready to board a moving truck. My aunt and uncle hovered in the foyer as if the boxes didn't exist at all.

"What's going on?" I glanced back and forth between them. "Someone start talking."

Aunt Kimmy's face fell. She gnawed on her bottom lip and spun a ring around her finger. "Your uncle lost his job? — "

"But I found a new one!" he added with a smile, as if that somehow answered anything.

" But it's in Tampa." Aunt Kimmy shrugged. "We don't have a choice but to move there."

I opened my mouth, then closed it. The idea that I'd be moving across the state, hours away from my home and school and friends . . . that was almost too much for my mind to handle in the moment. I couldn't seem to process the emotions I was definitely feeling, like perhaps my brain was merely ignoring them. I had too many questions to ask before I dealt with feelings.

"You didn't know when I was waking up." I gestured to all the boxes. "Yet we're all packed and the house is sold? What about me? Were you just gonna leave and visit on the weekends? — "

"NO!" they both practically screamed.

"I was going by myself so your aunt could stay with you until you woke."

"We've barely been in this house since Halloween anyway, so I was just going to stay in the hospital room with you."

"What about the boys?"

"I was taking them with me to Tampa."

I shook my head. "How could . . . I don't understand . . . you expect me to just leave now ?"

"Well . . ." Aunt Kimmy shrugged one shoulder, her blonde brow furrowed. "Elizabeth won't be back until summer at the earliest, and you've missed a lot of school, so we thought starting over somewhere new would be best for you."

"Somewhere no one knows what happened? — "

" People know what happened? " I shrieked as a cold chill slid down my spine.

Their faces fell.

"Who knows? WHO? How? What do they know?"

Uncle Kyle held his hands up. " We never told anyone but . . . Franks, it was huge. That entire party in the frat house saw you two making your escape. You stole a car from someone. There were so many witnesses."

My stomach rolled as the memories threatened to come back.

"The . . . monsters who did this to you two . . . they went to jail," Aunt Kimmy's voice was rough and raw. "All of those kids at that party came out and testified. It was all over the news. There was nothing we could do to conceal it."

Uncle Kyle nodded. "The nice young man who carried Elizabeth and helped you get into the car? — "

"Malik — "

"What?"

"That's his name, Malik—" Streaks of neon color like a rainbow flashed in my eyes. I shook my head and blinked. "What was his name?"

Uncle Kyle frowned. "I . . . I don't remember. But he was under investigation until they were able to prove his innocence. The school suspended him and cut him from the team? — "

" WHAT? That's horrible. He saved our lives? — "

"He did. And luckily, another university saw his character and welcomed him to their school. Outside of Florida, far from the drama." Uncle Kyle ran his hand through his black hair. "Naturally, your entire high school knows. It's the reason Elizabeth's parents took her back to China. To get away from all of it, to heal."

"So, you're doing the same thing as them, making me move for my own benefit without my opinion."

"No." His silver eyes darkened. "I had to find work where I could and that led to Tampa. It's entirely unrelated. I just thought . . . I just feel like it's the universe looking out for you."

"Maybe fate knows this is what you need and forced our hand to give it to you?" my aunt added.

I shook my head and ignored the tears brimming on my lashes. It wasn't adding up. This wasn't like them. My entire life they'd made a point of asking my opinions on things that involved me. Never before would they have just up and moved us to another city. In fact, to make it easier for me, they'd given up their whole lives when my parents died so that I wouldn't have to relocate. This made no sense for them. The idea that the only job my uncle could get was all the way in Tampa was suspicious as fuck. "None of this makes any sense. There's something you're not telling me, and I want the truth."

"Frankie, we just told? — "

"Bullshit. You told me bullshit. " I climbed back to my feet and pointed right at them. "I think I've been through enough, and for that matter, so have you. We all deserve honesty with each other, so stop acting like robots I've never met before and tell me the truth. What's going on?"

Uncle Kyle looked pointedly at my aunt and arched one eyebrow. "We tried."

My eyes widened. "Tried what? "

Aunt Kimmy sighed and it sounded like it hurt. "The truth isn't always the easiest to hear, my love. You've been through a lot. We were just trying to take it easy on you? — "

"Screw that. Rip the damn Band-Aid off. Please."

They stared at each other like they were communicating telepathically.

"Guys. Please!" I looked back and forth between them. "I'm begging you. Just tell me the truth. I don't care if it's harder to hear. I'm already not okay. I'd rather have the truth than live a lie just to break again later." I gestured wildly to myself. "The trauma healing hasn't even started yet, so I'm basically still in shock. That means you have nothing to lose."

Uncle Kyle smirked. "We raised her with honesty and respect, we knew a coma wouldn't change that. If she hadn't sniffed it out, then I would've gone along with it, but . . ."

"I know, I know." Aunt Kimmy smiled at me, but it was a sad smile. "In the name of honesty, you're not going to handle the truth very well. At least not at first."

"Well, I'm not handling the lie all that well either, so . . ."

"It's a hard pill to swallow." He pointed to the couch. "Want to sit?"

"I've been sedentary for five months. I need to feel my muscles working while I'm freaking out. Just start talking."

She opened her mouth then shut it and frowned. "I've been waiting fourteen years to tell you this, and I still don't know how to say it."

Uncle Kyle cleared his throat. "See, the thing is . . . some people aren't like other peo? — "

"For the love of God, just rip the Band-Aid off and SAY IT."

She nodded. "You're a witch, Frankie."

I gasped and jerked back. "Excuse me?"

Uncle Kyle grinned. "You heard her, Franks. You're a witch."

Aunt Kimmy sighed again. "Band-Aids serve a purpose, ya know."

I stared at them. Of all the things they could have said just now, that was not one I'd expected.

"I don't think she heard us." Uncle Kyle leaned down into my line of sight and grinned. "We said you're a witch, Franks."

I had no idea what face I'd made, but she nodded and brushed her blonde hair over her shoulder. "She heard us."

"What . . . I don't . . ." I pinched the bridge of my nose. "Okay, I get it. You say something outlandish to trigger an extreme reaction so that when you tell me the truth it lacks a punch. Right?"

Uncle Kyle chuckled. "That would've been brilliant. What could we have led with? Maybe, sorry, Franks, you really shift into a dragon and play with your pet kraken . That would've softened it a bit."

Aunt Kimmy narrowed her eyes. "That's quite the visual."

"Or maybe you're actually a werewolf and the next full moon you'll shift and ? — "

"GUYS." I stomped my foot. "This isn't funny."

"Humor is a wonderful coping mechanism, Franks."

"Good, I'll have somewhere to start with my future therapist." I snapped my fingers. "Joke is over. Ha ha, you got me. What's the truth?"

Uncle Kyle opened his mouth, but Aunt Kimmy held her hand over it. "Love, more jokes aren't going to help her right now."

"Correct."

She turned her hazel eyes to me and the edge in them made me stand straighter. With a grimace, she said, "The truth is that you are a witch. As wild and crazy as it sounds, it's true."

I blinked like I was shaking an Etch A Sketch. "I don't know what you expect me to say to this."

"We know. We expected that. You are a witch. Your uncle and I are witches." Her smile turned sad. "Your parents too."

"My parents. Right. So, if I'm a witch, then where's my magic? Hmm?" I waved my arms around. "If I'm a witch, why did you wait until I'm eighteen to tell me? Is it like that movie where I get my powers at this age? — "

"You had magic. You lost it."

A strangled sound left my lips. I pressed my fingers to my temples. "I lost it?"

"You lost it when you were little. The trauma buried it, so we let you heal without it and live as a human." Aunt Kimmy's voice was soft and thick with emotion. "We hoped you'd never have to know. We hoped you'd live a happy, ignorantly blissful human life."

"Because once you start using your magic, you become a target for demons." Uncle Kyle's whole face darkened. "The world is at war right now, and it's only going to get worse? —"

" War ? What war? With who?"

"Lilith and her demons."

" What? What does that even mean? What are you saying to me right now? Is this some kind of sick joke?" I shook my head and gestured to the boxes. "This is a weird lie to run with? — "

"We're not lying."

"Right, because I should believe that right now? — "

"We were protecting you? — "

" From what?! " Tears filled my eyes, and they felt like lava pooling on my lashes. "My whole world has flipped inside out and you wanna tell me this crazy shit? I can't handle this? — "

"Which is exactly why we weren't going to tell you until we got to Tampa." Aunt Kimmy cocked her head to the side and arched one blonde eyebrow. She put her hands on her hips. " We know how wild this sounds. How impossible and crazy. We knew it would be too much today, so we wanted to wait a few days until you'd settled into the new house."

Uncle Kyle walked over and wrapped his arm around my shoulder, then gently led me over to the couch. With a soft push, he sat me down in the corner seat and sat to my left. "Lying to you is the hardest thing we've ever had to do. It kills us to keep secrets from you."

Aunt Kimmy sat on my right side. "We can explain everything and answer all your questions, but you have to let us. You don't have to pretend you're not freaked out."

"Oh my God. You're serious about this?"

They nodded.

Witches. Witches. I was starting to think they were legit, that this was somehow the truth, because it was unlike them to be intentionally cruel. They never lied to me. They never made jokes when I was hurting until I made jokes. My stomach tightened into knots. I wrung my hands together.

"Franks." Uncle Kyle put his hand over both of mine and held tight. "We're right here. We are gonna walk you through this. We're taking this slow. But you are a witch, like we are, and it is the reason for many, many things."

"I don't know how you expect me to believe this."

"We — "

"Prove it." I leaned back and wrapped my arms around myself. "Prove we're witches."

They looked to each other, then nodded. At the same time, they both pulled out wooden sticks about a foot long that looked straight out of the Harry Potter universe. Nothing fancy, just wood with etchings carved into them, but I couldn't see what those were.

Aunt Kimmy held hers up. "This is my wand. And this is your proof . . ."

She did a swish and flick with her wand and white light shimmered from the tip. The boxes straight across from us popped open at once. Stacks of our blue plates lifted into the air and then shot into the kitchen and began putting themselves away.

I gasped and sat up straight. "What the . . . Did you just . . . Did you just?—"

All of our fuzzy blankets rose from another box and flew toward us. They shook themselves out, refolded, then draped themselves over the cushions. Three other boxes opened and sent out a rapid-fire release of books, one after another shooting across the living room toward the library behind us.

My jaw dropped as I gripped the edge of the couch for support. "What did — did you — you just —bibbidi bobbidi boo ?"

"Sure." Uncle Kyle cackled. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me to my feet, then swished his wand at me. " Bibbidi bobbidi boo! "

Light flashed and swirled all around me. In the blink of an eye, my leggings and oversized shirt turned into a full satin ballgown with lace embroidery and rhinestones. The socks and sneakers on my feet changed to strappy stilettos.

I whined and swayed on my feet. All three of my dogs rushed toward me barking as if I'd been attacked.

"Now . . ." he pursed his lips and eyed my dogs, "which one of them should be Gus-Gus?"

"NO!" I sank to the floor and pulled all three of them to my lap. "Oh my God. Oh my God!"

Aunt Kimmy shook her head and chuckled. There was a flash of light and then I was back in my clothes. My breath left me in a rush. I pulled my dogs all the way into my lap so we were one big cuddle puddle. They were my emotional support.

"Truth is, we started packing this morning." Aunt Kimmy grinned and flicked her wand, and all of the stuff went flying back into their boxes. "While you slept, we took turns packing up so we'd be ready to move."

I stared at the boxes, waiting for them to open back up again. "I don't understand. How do these things connect? I'm so confused. Let's assume I believe the whole witch thing, let's assume I don't expect to wake up any second, I'm still lost. Why do we have to go now ?"

"Because of this." Aunt Kimmy pointed the tip of her wand at my arm. There was a cold tickle and then neon-blue flames wrapped around my body.

I screamed and swatted at it—except it didn't hurt. My jaw dropped.

"That's your magic, Frankie," she said. She sat down on the ground beside me and covered my blue flames with her hand, putting them out entirely. "I did that to prove that you have magic as well. If you're ready to hear more, we're beyond ready to tell you."

I stared at my arm and nodded.

"We know this is a lot. And because you're so smart, we can't just give you the bullet point notes. We have to tell you as much as we can. To do so, we need to back up a little bit."

I nodded again. Words were too hard for me in the moment.

"The real name for our kind is arcana, but along the way witch became the slang term and we've all rolled with it. Now, you remember the story of the Garden of Eden a certain way, the way all humans do, but the truth is much different. Lucifer was never evil. He never fell from Heaven, and while he is the King of Hell, he is also the most powerful angel. He is God's right hand. His favorite. And because he is so kind and wonderful, so entirely selfless, he took the blame for the dawn of evil in our world. Lilith is darkness incarnate, the meaning of evil. She caused the fall, she caused demons to enter, and she caused darkness in the souls of humans and angels alike. There are a number of angels who did truly fall and turn to her side."

"But Lucifer is not one of them." Uncle Kyle nodded. "It is important you remember that."

I blinked and licked my lips. I tried to summon words, but none came, so I nodded.

"Heaven has been at war with Lilith since. The humans were not capable of fighting off her demons, so the species of arcana were born to serve as guardians of the realm. There's a long, long list of details and stories about the lineage of witches that we can tell you about later. The important thing right now is to understand that witches were born to protect this world against Lilith, and that is why we have magic." She took a deep breath and rubbed Bubba's belly. "If you look back in human history at all of the dark times of war and treachery, Lilith is behind all of it."

That caught my attention. "Like what? An example please?"

"The Salem witch trials." Uncle Kyle's whole face darkened. "In an effort to protect our realm from Lilith, two twin witches accidentally ripped a hole in the dimensional wall around us, letting evil waltz in without even a speed bump. That caused the witch trials, because it caused the humans to lose their minds a little with what they saw happening around them. That hole was only permanently closed . . . on Halloween night."

My eyes widened. "The night of my accident."

They nodded.

"Continue," I whispered.

"Another example is the One Hundred Years' War that happened in the fourteenth century. King Henry the Sixth was actually the ruler of all witches at the time. He led us to victory against Lilith. That's when witches stepped out of human politics forever."

I shook my head. "That's the war you referred to before?—"

"No," they both grumbled.

Uncle Kyle pulled Houdini into his lap. "When that war ended, Lilith was not killed. She was just blocked from returning temporarily. She's been trying to rebuild strength and return since. We've officially been at war with her since last summer, even if none of us realized it."

Aunt Kimmy shuddered. "She has not returned here herself. She's just been acting through others. But she is coming, of that The Coven has been abundantly clear."

"The Coven?"

"The twenty-two witches who are Marked by Heaven to be the rulers of the species. Anything that isn't human, actually, report to them and follow their laws."

"Oh. Oh, okay." I scrubbed my face with my hands. "Okay, so . . . but like . . . why not tell me?"

"Because witches are being hunted now more than they ever have been."

"Demons can smell our magic. They sense it. And once you encounter one, it will only get worse and worse?—"

"Like Percy Jackson and the monsters," I heard myself whisper. "Once he knew the truth, the mist no longer protected him."

"Yeah, kind of like that." Uncle Kyle chuckled. "I love fantasy books. They really help explain shit to new witches."

"But why now? Why do I have magic now ?" I held my hands up to inspect them as if I could still see the magic on my skin. "Did the coma trigger it?"

"The accident did."

I gasped.

"This is not going to be easy to hear, my love, but you had magic as a toddler. We have photos and even videos of you using my wand. But . . ." she licked her lips and closed her eyes. "Your parents were killed my demons."

A broken cry slipped up my throat.

"You almost died with them." She took my hand and squeezed. "Your mother had gone out to try and . . . well, she was trying to prevent you all from dying. You were with your father. At the last moment, he managed to hide you in a safe place using magic. That magic he used on you . . . forced your own magic to go dormant, like it was in a deep, deep sleep."

"He sent us a fire message and we came as fast as we could, but it was too late." Uncle Kyle shuddered. "We thought your magic would return when it was ready. It didn't."

"And when you'd seen us using our magic, you were terrified. You'd scream and shake . . . So we stopped using it in front of you."

"PTSD?"

They nodded.

I scrubbed my face with my hands that were shaking. "Keep going, please."

Aunt Kimmy took my hand in hers. "Your Uncle did not lose his job. That was a white lie. The truth is we have to move because your magic has awakened."

I scowled. "I don't understand."

"There's a huge community of witches in Tampa, a neighborhood bigger than ours full of families with kids and such."

Uncle Kyle grabbed my hand and flipped it over. "Let me show you something."

He dropped his wand in my palm. The second it touched my skin, blue flames shot out of my hand. I cursed and threw his wand back at him, but my magic just followed. It was like throwing gas on a fire, everything I did just made it worse and worse.

Uncle Kyle just chuckled. "See? All I did was put my magical wand in your hand and boom ."

" Kyle. " Aunt Kimmy huffed and shook her head. She pointed her wand at my raging magic, and it vanished. "Not that he's wrong. And this right here is why we have to move you to Tampa. There, you'll be able to learn and practice your magic in a safe space. There are teens your age. Here, you'd have to hide. Here, if your magic was provoked at school, it would be . . . really bad. But in Tampa, at Gulf Shores High School, you'll be surrounded by witches."

"I'll be safe from demons there?" They both grimaced. "That's not the reaction I wanted."

"Demons can find you almost anywhere, but at least in Tampa the other witches can help protect you."

Uncle Kyle bumped my shoulder with his. "We had not planned any kind of move until you woke up last night. We sold the house to a friend who had been looking. All of what you see happened this morning once we knew you were being discharged."

I took a deep breath and sighed. "Because living here is dangerous?"

They nodded.

"I'm a little . . . overwhelmed by all of this." I looked to them and waited until they nodded. "Imma have a ton of questions. Like, I need a lot more information."

"We're prepared. And we'll get on the magic lessons."

"If Elizabeth were still here, I would not be okay with this."

"We know." Aunt Kimmy held her hands up. "And we're not against using magic to get the Chen family to move to Tampa once they return."

My eyes widened. "Humans live in the same town?"

They smiled and nodded. "She won't be across the street, but she can be around the corner."

I pointed to them. "I'm gonna hold y'all to that."

They laughed.

"When do we have to leave?" I asked.

"We wanted you to have one last night here. We leave in the morning."

I glanced around our living room at all of the packed-up boxes with my entire life in them. It would only take a few minutes for them to get the rest ready to leave. There hadn't been a moving truck out front, but my gut told me they could have one here in minutes. They said they wanted me to have one last night at home . . . but I wasn't sure I needed it. Or wanted it. This already didn't feel like home. The furniture wasn't even the same as I remembered it. Everything else was packed in boxes. There was no way I would be able to relax knowing what I did now and knowing I was moving hours away in the morning.

What's the point in staying? My chest tightened. Elizabeth wasn't across the street. I had no interest in answering a million questions from my other friends. Dragging out the inevitable just sucked. I licked my lips. "Let's just leave now. The trauma won't care where I am."