"How does a fish kiss?"

"All pucker. A bit too much suction."

"Oh."

"You wanna go home?" he asked, stretching his arms above him, the muscles of his torso responding appropriately.

"Home. You don't live with us remember?"

"Dollface,irds a trust me, come tomorrow mornd joined Eddi

I changed quickly, and we were off in no time meandering toward home together. It was kind of nice to have someone to walk with. Not that I really felt unsafe walking home in the dark, it was just creepy walking along some of the dirt roads. So dark. People from the city didn't always get how dark that could get.

But the way home from Lacy's had a couple houses along the way, so it wasn't pitch black. And there was a small crescent moon in the sky. You could actually see several feet in front of you as you went. Still, walking with Gabe felt good. A bit, and here was a confession that ached, like walking with Chris. Not that he and I ever had parties to walk home together from. Also we didn't live together. Not that Gabe and I lived together. Not like that. It just felt comfortable, like we'd known each other forever, the way Chris and I had. And he made me feel safe. Also like Chris had. I willed the ache to go away, pushed it aside, and tried to focus on not falling in the dark instead.

He'd started to sing about five minutes in. I liked it. It was something I enjoyed doing too when I walked. But on my own. Not in front of everyone. I think the only person I'd ever sung in front of was Chris and only because he asked me to. He'd caught me singing as I walked home from school one day thinking I was alone. I had been super embarra.s.sed, but he'd thought it was awesome.

Anyway, most people didn't just tend to sing like that here. Well, not young people. Some of the older people in town would. And okay actually not that many of them either. Maybe I was just thinking of Etta Mae. She had this amazing throaty voice, kind of haunting, and she'd sing songs her grandparents had sung. "You sing 'em to remember," she'd explained to me once. They'd send chills up my spine. But in a good way. You'd hear her coming. You'd watch her pa.s.s. You'd hear the music fade as she went on her way.

Sing 'em to remember.

Gabe was singing a different kind of song, though. He was singing a song that made me think of the movie Grease or something. A song I guess from when he was a teenager. I mean, he still was a teenager, but before, when he'd lived...before.

My baby has a bright blue Cadillac

She drives it so fast I think it could fly

And someday soon we're gonna go to the moon

Aim that bright blue Cadillac right into the sky.

"Let's take a short cut," I said. Gabe stopped singing, and I hadn't meant him to. He had a nice voice. Untrained, but on key as far as I could tell. Warm.

"Okay."

I turned off the road and started to stomp my way into the brush. It wasn't a thick forest or anything here, and off in the distance you could see downtown. Far off. But at night, of course, you couldn't see all the brambles and stuff. So it was still a little tricky.

"You don't know this short cut?" I asked him, as he followed close behind.

"Nope. But I don't think I ever needed to get to your place before." There was a pause. "Funny. Now that I think about it. I think I knew your grandaddy."

I stopped and turned around. I couldn't really look him in the eye, but I pretended to.

"You did?"

"He lived in your house, right?"

"Yes."

"Last name, Fowler?"

"Yes."

Gabe started to laugh.

"What's so funny?"

"He was below me in school. I'm older than your granddaddy."

That was a seriously freaky thought.

"Were you friends?"

"Nah, he was much younger, and we came from different kinds of families. Where's he now?"

"Dead. Both dead, my grandmother and grandfather. Not old age," I always felt I needed to explain it. "Car accident. It's one of the reasons we came back here."

"You were a baby?"

"Never really knew them."

Gabe was silent. So was I. It was kind of a huge revelation that he knew my grandfather. Though also a pretty obvious one. There were people in the town who might remember him. But they'd all be old now. He'd be old. If whatever had happened hadn't. He'd be old.

I couldn't see his face, like I already said, but I tried to anyway, to see if I could get a sense of what he was thinking. Something then caught my eye. Just beyond him, over his right shoulder. It was white or maybe not, but something light in the darkness. What it was reflecting was hard to say. I guess the sliver of a moon could have helped but...

"What's that?"

Gabe turned around. We were both staring back out at the road.

"No idea."

I guess I've always just been curious, probably again comes from my Daddy. I started to walk toward the strange something, pa.s.sing Gabe. He grabbed my arm lightly as I went by, but I felt compelled to move on and shook off his grip.

"Riley," he said, now forced into following me once more, "I don't think this is a good idea."

I couldn't help but laugh. Mr. Tough Guy was nervous?

"Feels rotten, feels wrong," he said.

I didn't care. At the time it hadn't occurred to me just how odd I was acting. But I remembered later and it spooked me. I'd never been drunk, so I'd never really known what it was like to have that kind of loss of self-control. But as I approached that white affected by our powerun, felt something, I felt it now. I'd started to do so not because I wanted to, but because I had to. I had no other choice.

We found ourselves back on the road, and I started to walk toward it. It became less of a something and more of a figure. A human shape. Someone was standing in the middle of the street. Staring at us. Or was his back to us? You couldn't really see a face. I kept going and realized I'd started to jog, and Gabe's footsteps were behind me. Keeping up with me.

And then I stopped.

And then I stared.

The someone stared in return.

I realized I was looking at its front, not its back. It was maybe twenty feet away, arms limp to the side, feet slightly apart, facing me direct on. It was wearing some kind of tunic, white or maybe not, trousers. No shoes. And covering its face was a white fabric, thin, but not sheer. The fabric wrapped lightly over the face and waved gently out behind it in a breeze that didn't exist. All you could see was the imprint of a face, a b.u.mp for a nose, hollows for eyes.

And for all the world I couldn't tell you what was lighting it. But I could see it all clear as day.

It didn't move. It didn't speak.

There was a violent pull at my elbow, and I was jerked back as Gabe thrust himself in front of me.

"Stay away from her!"

I started to feel cold. Which wasn't right. Even though it was late at night, it stayed pretty warm this time of year. There was no reason I should be feeling like this. But a cold started to creep up through me, seep into me. Reach inside of me.

I felt Gabe take a step backward, pus.h.i.+ng against me, forcing me to do the same.

So cold. Everything felt so cold.

"Run Riley," I heard Gabe whisper.

"What?"

"Just run."

He turned.

"Not without you," I said.

"Obviously."

He grabbed my hand, and we were running. But I felt so funny. Like I was in one of those dreams where you try to run but you can't. Your legs are heavy, stuck in some invisible mud or something.

"I can't," I said and started to slow down.

Gabe didn't stop, just kept running, practically dragging me along until I finally collapsed on the ground. This forced him to stop.

I looked up behind me, to see if we'd got away.

The figure had followed us, or at least so it seemed, as it was exactly the same distance away from us as back before we'd run for it. Still. There was no evidence that it had chased after us. It just was there.

"We can't outrun it," I said, my voice thin.

Gabe bent down. "You okay?"

"What does it want?"

"How would I know?"

I looked at Gabe as he helped me up. He looked just as freaked out as I felt.

"Are you cold?" I asked when I was on my feet.

"No."

We turned and faced the figure.

It stood there. Doing nothing.

And then in a moment it was right in front of us, it was almost touching us. We both staggered backward, as if pushed by a wave or something. It stayed close. The thin cloth that covered its face moved slightly with its breath. Then it was standing several feet away from us again, as if it had been the whole time.

Then it was a few more feet away.

Then it was gone.

Not affected by our poweron ak that it disappeared. Even though it had. But it wasn't like it had vanished. It was almost like it had never been. d.a.m.n it's frustrating trying to explain it all.

"What the h.e.l.l was that?" asked Gabe.

I shook my head. Of course I had absolutely no idea, but I felt wrong. Exhausted, cold...and like I did know what the h.e.l.l that was. "Let's get home."

We retraced our earlier steps back into the forest. He walked behind me, silently, and I trudged along, trying to get the blood flowing, trying to warm up.

"Was it an angel?" asked Gabe suddenly.

"No," I replied. "Angels have wings."

"So you've never seen something like that before?"