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Penny

PENNY TILTS HER HEAD BACK AND DRINKS THE BLUE LIQUID DOWN. IT’S mild on her tongue, but as she swallows it, her eyes shoot open. Everything looks brighter and feels closer. There’s a gasp that sounds like Naomi’s voice, but that’s impossible. Naomi is too far away. But when Penny looks across the field, Naomi’s shoulders are rising and falling—and the sound of her breathing is in Penny’s ears.

“What the fuck,” Dylan whispers from far away.

Behind them, Milton starts chanting in a low whisper.

“Close the circle.

Open the door.

Close the circle.

Open the door.

We command you.

Show us the door.”

Corey’s voice joins in, then Naomi’s, then Dylan’s. Penny whispers along with them, their voices layering to cut through the sounds of the marching band and the audience’s cheers. The wind picks up, and the pastel colors of the evening sky disappear behind quick-moving storm clouds.

There’s a crack and a boom . Lightning? Up to that point, the crowd had paid no attention to the wind, almost as if they couldn’t feel it. But the lightning is very real, and it seems to wake everybody up. The tenor of the cheering changes to screams as people point at the sky.

“A storm is coming in fast!” someone shouts.

“We need to get inside!” says somebody else.

“Move, move!”

“Close your eyes,” Alonso whispers to Penny.

She does, and then Alonso whispers words Penny can’t quite hear. Because she’s drifting off to sleep…

Mom , she thinks. Where are you?

All at once, Penny is pushed forward, and her body rises into the air. She moves through something like cool mist, and it makes her blood rush.

The crowd goes silent. The bleachers are solid underneath her, but the air around her is not the same.

Penny opens her eyes.