Giselle leans back in the booth. “I think our priority should be to find out what his gift is—if he has one.”
Ron doesn’t know as much about gifts as Chrys does but she has heard about a couple through Chrys. There’s no rhyme or reason to them, and just about anything seems to be possible. Ron thinks back to Carl and Noah. Identical twins. You could easily mistake one for the other.
“Iris, remember a couple days ago when you had that monster dream?” Ron asks.
Iris shudders. “I keep having that dream too—had it ever since I was a girl.”
“Is Carl in it every time?”
“No, it’s usually just me and the monster in the hall. I’m telling you, that’s why Carl really freaked me out in that dream. He doesn’t belong there.”
“You think his gift might have something to do with dreams?” Giselle asks, wearing that focused expression she always has when we talk about the gifted.
Ron shrugs. “It’s just a theory. Anyway, I agree that we should find out what his gift is, if he has one, but what about after that?”
“I don’t know.” Giselle puts a hand on her chin. “I think—”
“I’m sorry, ladies,” the server says. At some point, she had walked around the bar to their table. “Power’s out and it looks like it won’t come back on any time soon. Paul called the power company and they said they don’t know what the problem is yet, but could be hours. So I’m afraid you’ll have to come back another time. Can’t finish making the food. Stove’s electric.” As she starts to walk away she mutters under her breath, “Knew we should’ve never switched from gas. But no…”
She goes into the kitchen from the door next to the bar.
Giselle and Ron exchange looks.
“How long do you think that laptop’s battery will last?” Ron says in a hushed voice. “I think the power’s been out since the music stopped a while ago.”
“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure Carl doesn’t have any backup power source out there. He’d have to wait until the power’s back up.” Giselle stands up. “Iris, get up. Let’s go.”
Iris stays seated, blocking Giselle from getting out of the booth. “No. You’re going to do something stupid, aren’t you?”
“You want to stay here forever?”
“Don’t go there. You don’t have to help him, Giselle.”
“Iris, we have portable generators in the store.”
“So you’re just gonna waltz into his house with a generator? And how you gonna explain that, huh? How you gonna explain why you’re there helping him?”
Ron gets out of the booth and stands by the table. “That man could die, Iris.”
Giselle bends over and says in a low voice, “Do you really think Carl is that dangerous? He’s not.”
“He could hurt you,” Iris whines.
Giselle pushes Iris’s shoulder—not very forcefully, but just a nudge to try to get her to move. Iris finally caves and gets up and out of the booth.
She glares at Giselle. “Don’t get yourself killed, you idiot.”
She storms out of the diner, snatching a paper from the rack as she leaves.
Giselle sighs and makes her way out of the booth. “Come on, Ron.”
Ron follows after her. Giselle goes to the store next door. She pulls out a ring of keys from her pocket.
“Iris does have a point, though,” Ron says behind Giselle. “I mean, I think we should help, but how will we explain?”
Giselle unlocks the door and goes in. “I don’t know. Maybe Carl isn’t even there right now.”
Ron follows Giselle through the aisles. “Let’s hope so.”
Giselle goes to the back of the store. There are a couple generators on two wheels on one side and a handle on the other so you can lift them up and wheel them. Giselle lifts the smallest one at an angle and points at the shelf behind the generators.
“Get a can of propane,” she says.
Ron nods and takes a small canister. Giselle wheels the generator out of the store, Ron lugging the canister behind her.
As they walk to Carl’s house, Giselle says, “Oh god, should we be doing this?” But she doesn’t stop walking. “Should we knock? Should we break in again? What should we do?”
“I think we’ll have to figure that out when we get there.”
Giselle nods. They go through the forest. Giselle struggles to wheel the generator through so Ron helps her lift it and carry it with her free hand.
They arrive at the clearing and set the generator down. Carl’s motorcycle is parked outside.
Giselle peeks through the window. She turns back to Ron and shakes her head.
“He’s not there,” she whispers. “What should we do?”
“There’s a window around the back,” Ron says, pointing. “Let’s see if he’s down there.”
Giselle nods.
Ron sets the canister of propane down next to the generator and leads the way to the back. They kneel down by the window and peek into it, Giselle peering over Ron’s shoulder.
Carl is kneeling on the ground holding Noah in his arms, shaking him with tears running down his face. Noah’s body shakes stiffly, his head lolling around. Carl looks like he’s saying something, but they can’t hear him through the closed window.
“Ron,” Giselle whispers, her mouth right next to Ron’s ear, “I think we’re too late.”
Chapter 25
Hunter is sitting at his desk in our cabin, bobbing his head to the music playing through his headphones. He doesn’t notice me enter. His backpack is sitting on his lap unzipped. His legs are clad in his usual black skinny jeans but these have a couple rips in them.
I walk up next to him and tap him on the shoulder with one finger, where his skin is covered with his black T-shirt.
He glances over and then digs through his bag. He takes out an old-looking MP3 player and presses pause. Then he pulls off his headphones and puts that and the player in his backpack. He zips it up. “Ready to go?”
“Well, Li says we don’t have to go anymore,” I say. “Valeria basically figured
