Penelope pulled her chin back. "You've never answered a question in any class. Ever." Then she caught her breath. A look of fear washed over her face and before Josie could say anything else, Penelope spun around and dashed out the door.

TWENTY-THREE.

6:15 P.M.

JOSIE SAT IN THE BLEACHERS, WATCHING NICK at track practice. She'd been there for almost three and a half hours, waiting.

He'd avoided her at lunch; that was clear. Josie knew from Jo's cheat sheet that they had third lunch together, but Nick had never appeared in the cafeteria. It had been the weirdest lunch period of her life. Just like in the hallways between classes, people were constantly stopping by her table to say hi and ask if she needed anything, but no one sat down near her. In fact, no one sat down at the table. She had the whole, long cafeteria table to herself.

If this was popularity, Jo could keep it.

By the beginning of fourth period, she would have talked to the school janitor, given the opportunity. She was desperate for conversation.

She and Nick were supposed to have fourth-period European History together. Finally, she figured he'd be forced to at least sit in the same room with her. Apparently, not so much. Same as lunch, Nick never showed.

But if this Nick was anything like her Nick, track practice was the one place he would absolutely, positively be. Josie was right. Twenty minutes after the final bell, Josie saw him trot out onto the all-weather track in his usual red-and-white track shorts. He'd glanced in her direction and paused. Josie had waved at him, but instead of waving back, he'd turned and sprinted to the far side of the field for his stretches.

Ugh. It was like she was reliving her own crappy life. What was going on?

She had less than twelve hours to spend with Nick. She was determined to make every second count.

Even if that meant camping out on a hot, metal bleacher for three hours while Nick went through the longest workout in the history of track workouts.

It was deja vu all over again. Sitting in the bleachers watching Nick at track practice, while Nick basically ignored her very existence.

This had to be a parallel universe. Nothing was more parallel than what Josie felt.

It was the slowest three hours of her life, for sure. With the exception of the bodies moving around the track, there wasn't much to look at. Although every once in a while, Josie caught a movement out of the corner of her eye, a figure in the trees on the south side of the track. But when she'd look in that direction, there was never anyone there. Josie shook her head. She was just being paranoid, like Penelope and her talk of serial killers and dismembered bodies in the woods. Ridiculous. Those deaths took place in a different world, far from where Josie was now.

Nick was the last to leave the track. The coaches and managers were already packing up when he finished his last sprint. Again, he glanced at the bleachers. He must have seen her. But instead of coming over to talk to her, he turned on his heel and headed straight to the boys' locker room.

What the hell? He was avoiding her, of that Josie was sure. Was it about Tony? Josie was determined to find out.

She just had to find him. And there was one place Nick would have to show up.

Josie shouldered her bag and marched into the school parking lot. There were only two cars left: Jo's black BMW and a beat-up old SUV.

Bingo.

Fifteen minutes later, her patience paid off. Nick exited the side door of the gym and made a beeline for his car.

"You want to tell me why you've been avoiding me all day?" Josie asked, stepping out from behind his car. Her mock-up of Jo's confidence was finally starting to feel more "make it" and less "fake it."

Nick flinched and dropped his keys on the ground. "Shit, Jo. You scared me. What are you doing here?"

"I want to know why you're avoiding me."

He bent down to pick up his keys and slowly straightened up. "Avoiding you?" he said. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Really? Where were you at lunch? And fourth period?"

Nick looked her dead in the eye. "I was excused for both."

"Is this about Tony?" Josie blurted out. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here for you."

Nick flinched. "What are you, my mother?"

"I'm your girlfriend," Josie erupted. She wasn't sure which Nick the anger was directed at. Maybe both.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You heard me." She totally failed at keeping the exasperation out of her voice. She pulled the necklace out from under her sweater. "Remember this?"

"Your mom's necklace? What does that have to do with it?"

Josie's mouth went dry. "My mom's necklace?"

"I told you the other day when I gave it back to you."

Returned. That's what Mr. Byrne meant. Josie felt as if she'd been punched in the stomach. It wasn't a gift; Nick had just been returning something to her.

"It got mixed up with my brother's things after the accident," Nick continued, emphasizing every word, like he was talking to a small child who might not understand.

"The accident . . ." Josie shook her head. Was that why Jo's mom wasn't around? Had there been some sort of car wreck or something? Something to do with Tony?

Nick let out an exasperated sigh. "Look, I've told you at least twice so let's make this the last time. You and I are just friends. That's all we are and that's all we'll ever be. So no more picnic invitations; no more hugging episodes like in the hall this morning, okay?"

Nick's face hardened as he spoke. Josie knew that look. She'd seen it before on her ex-boyfriend's face. Just once: the last conversation they had before she caught him cheating with Madison. Nick had wanted to talk to her, but she didn't have time, and the same fleeting look passed over his face.

That's what she saw in this Nick. Disgust.

The realization came crashing upon her, like a spring thunderstorm barreling down the Potomac Valley. Nick hated her.

Josie felt her body sway. It was happening again, same as before. Her skin had gone clammy. Her brow beaded up with sweat, but she felt cold and shivery as if she was running a high fever. She pressed her hand to her temple and noticed that the parking lot of Bowie Prep was tilting ever so slightly to the left. As she started to lose her balance, she could have sworn she saw a figure duck behind her car.

"Jo? Are you okay?" Nick moved toward her, placing a hand on her shoulder, but Josie shook free. It was even worse here than it was back home. Not only was this Nick not in love with her, he absolutely hated her.

Josie's face burned. She was so humiliated, like she was reliving Madison and Nick's betrayal. She hadn't thought anything could be as bad as that moment, but the hatred she saw in Nick's eyes was definitely worse. She wanted to get out of there, to run as far away from Nick Fiorino as she possibly could, in this universe or any other.

Nick glanced up at the horizon. "Sun's going down. You'd better get in my car. I'll drive you home."

"Get in your car?" Was he crazy? Josie backed away. "I'm not going anywhere with you." She wasn't going to be the victim anymore. She wouldn't put herself in the position to be hurt by this Nick in the same way she'd been hurt by her own. It was the only thing she could control.

"Jo, wait!"

Too late. Josie didn't care if Jo's BMW sat in the school parking lot all night. She needed to get out of there. Now. She swung around and stumbled around the corner of the gym, out of Nick's sight.

TWENTY-FOUR.

6:45 P.M.

HOW COULD SHE HAVE BEEN SO STUPID? HOW could she have thought things would be any different here? Whatever she'd seen in her dreams, whatever Jo had led her to believe, was all a fantasy.

Shadows started to creep across the landscape as Josie wandered aimlessly beyond the front lawn of Bowie Prep. She glanced at her watch. A few more hours until she could cross back through the mirror to her own wreck of a life. A life that suddenly didn't seem so bad.

Josie paused when she reached the sidewalk. Nick was right: the sun was going down and it would be dark soon, and her feet hurt in the high-heeled booties. She should walk back to the parking lot and drive Jo's swanky car home. But she couldn't. Nick might see her, and that . . . well, she'd had enough humiliation for a lifetime at the hands of Nick Fiorino. It was only four miles or so back to Jo's house. She'd just suck up the pain and walk.

The streets were mostly deserted. No one sat on their porches enjoying the warm spring evening. No one was out walking their dog. No one pushing kids in strollers. A few cars whizzed past her, and several of them honked at her. Well, at least someone somewhere in some universe still found her attractive.

As dusk stole across the town, an unnatural chill descended. Josie looked up, expecting to see towering thunderheads piling up into the heavens, but the sky was clear, though perhaps darker than Josie would have thought for that time of evening.

The bright streetlamps bathed the neighborhood with light, but without warmth or cheerfulness. Unlike the ones on Josie's block back home, these were starkly blue, sterile, and extremely intense. In house after house, blinds were being drawn, shutters latched, like every household was hunkering down for the night. As Josie tramped along, she got a creeping feeling up the back of her spine. The entire town had an air of hostility.

Maybe it was the strangeness of the neighborhood, or maybe it was her confrontation with Nick, but in addition to seeing figures in the shadows, Josie now thought she could hear someone walking behind her. Footsteps, heavy and sharp, matching her beat for beat. But every time she turned her head, there was no one behind her.

Without thinking, Josie quickened her pace.

Up ahead, a trail cut through the thin woods that surrounded the neighborhood. Just like her favorite shortcut back home, it would eliminate a half mile off her walk. The sun's rays had completely disappeared, leaving the light purply glow of twilight as night rapidly approached. But she knew this trail like the back of her hand, and the sooner she got back to Jo's bedroom, the better. It was a no-brainer. She rounded the corner and ducked into the trees.

As soon as she was off the street, the atmosphere changed. It was silent. A complete and total lack of sound. The wind didn't blow; there was no backdrop of chirping birds or the occasional car zipping by on the street that was just a few yards away. It was as if she were in a vacuum, utterly devoid of life.

Something wasn't right about this place: the woods, the night, the whole damn world. She expected her eyes to adjust to the encroaching darkness after she got out from under the intensity of the streetlamps, but the woods stretching before her looked darker than they should have. Sure, it was night, but the last beams of sunlight should still have lingered on the horizon. She wasn't sure why, but she began to jog down the path. She could see the light at the end of the trail, signaling the street on which Jo lived, but it seemed forever away. Again, she could have sworn she heard something behind her, rustling the low foliage that lined the trail. This time she didn't look back, but broke into a dead run. She glanced up at the sky. It was inky black and dotted with stars.

There was movement above her. A dark form blocked the stars from her view. Just as before, it was only a flash, a momentary glimpse of something that looked like wings flapping in the darkness. Deep brown, threaded with black and gray. Gone in an instant.

That's when she heard it.

It sounded far away at first, a dim rustling noise, but in the complete absence of sound, it was jarring. The noise grew louder, rushing toward her from above. Faster and faster, like an enormous flock of birds swooping down on her. She knew that sound. She'd heard it before. A grating, shrieking flapping of wings in the darkness.

The sound outside the window.

In the darkness.

The bright lights, rooms without switches, houses shuttered up against the coming of night. Suddenly it all made sense. There was something in the dark, something that came with the onset of night. Something dangerous. Something to be feared.

And Josie was in the middle of the woods without any light at all.

The noise grew exponentially louder with every passing second. She pressed her hands against her ears to block out the painful, deafening sound, but it did no good. The noise of the darkness swamped her, dulling her senses and slowing her down.

Josie had a sensation of wind rushing by, air beating with the onslaught of dozens of wings. She caught glimpses of movement, of flesh and talons and beaks, but nothing concrete. It was as if they were moving in and out of a spotlight, and she could only catch a fleeting glance as they passed above her, swooping through the dark woods amidst their deafening shrieks.

The speed of the flying creatures increased, and suddenly Josie felt like she was surrounded by them, an impenetrable wall of these monsters of the dark.

Panic blinded her. "Help!" Josie cried out. "Someone help me!"

She felt one of the creatures swoop around her, circling directly above. Then something swept across her head, brushing her hair. It felt like a wing, only harder. Less like feathers and more like leather. A second wing glided across her back. This time she felt the fabric of her sweater tear as something sharp ripped through it.

Suddenly, there was a shift in the air rushing around her. A pause in the movement and the sound, the eye of the storm. A single shriek tore through the silence, then another echoing ahead. Another and another, as if the creatures were communicating to the rest of the flock. She heard a rumbling in the distance, crescendoing with each passing second. They were coming back. The swarm had been called back.

A talon slashed across her arm. Josie cried out as a searing pain shot from her wrist to her elbow, and she could feel the hot trail of blood trickling from the wound.

In an instant, the air swirled above her; the beating of wings pressed against her from every side. They were swarming, circling, preparing to attack. The light at the end of the trail faded, blocked by the swarm. She waved her arms in front of her face, attempting to cut her way through whatever blocked her path. The creatures of the darkness sliced at her hands, at her arms, at whatever open flesh they could find.

Whatever lived in the night was trying to hurt her.

To kill her.

Josie forced her legs to move as she blindly stumbled forward, but they were on her now. Pecking and cutting, forcing her down. Josie sank to her knees and covered her head with her arms, trying to protect herself. This was it. This was how she would die.

Without warning, they stopped. She could still hear their screeching, but it was muffled. She felt a weight on top of her, like a body shielding her from attack.

"Hello?" Josie said.

"Quiet!" a voice barked. Harsh and raspy, barely discernible above the chaos surrounding her. "They'll follow your sound." She felt an arm around her, then a hand on her wrist.

Suddenly she was being pulled to her feet and practically carried down the trail. She stumbled and tripped, but the strong arm around her waist kept her moving.

Light flooded her eyes and Josie felt the hard concrete of Round Tree Lane. She half expected to be bombarded again, but the screeching and fluttering was gone. Whatever attacked her in the darkness had vanished.

She turned, looking for the person who had saved her life, but all she saw was a pair of car headlights bearing down on her.

"Jo!" a voice yelled. A voice she knew. "Jo, what the hell are you doing? Get in the goddamn car!"

Nick.

Josie shielded her eyes as another set of lights illuminated the street. Floodlights mounted on the roof of Nick's SUV. They cut a swath through the dark expanse to where Josie stood under the streetlamp. She stumbled forward, feeling like all the strength had been drained out of her.

Blood poured down her arms and she could feel a sharp pain at the back of her neck. She reached the SUV, steadying herself against the hood as the engine idled.

"Hurry up," Nick barked. "We've got to get you out of here."

Right. Out of here. Yes, back to the mirror. She had to get back through the mirror.