My ex shrugged. “I own everything in this house anyway.”
The fuck he did.
Anger like nothing I’d ever felt in my life coursed through me. Breathing hard, I tried to calm myself, but it was as if white hot fire filled my lungs and the air warmed around me like the moment before a volcanic explosion. I even imagined the ground starting to shake. It had to be in my head, but it was all I could do to keep from clawing at this bitch with my good hand. I couldn’t attack her, though, because if she fought back I’d pass out from the pain in my arm.
Lifting my good hand I pointed at them both. “Karma’s going to get you!” And I knew I sounded a little crazy, but then the toad on the ground croaked again, and I said the first thing that came to mind. “You—you’re both freaking toads!”
From one blink of the eye to the next, they were gone.
I stood, confused, when I heard a croak and slowly lowered my eyes. There, where they were standing, were two toads, and their clothes beneath them in piles. And one of the toads had my mother’s necklace lying over it.
Slowly, I knelt down and picked up the locket.
The toads gave me sad croaks as I blinked back down at them, and my legs shook as I slowly stood back up. Did I just turn them into toads? That was not possible. This was like the old lady and the car. I was having some kind of breakdown. I was losing my mind.
I needed to get out of here. I raced inside and ignored the messy living room. Going to my room, I used one hand to pick out a shirt, pants, and a bra, and I dressed one-handed, finally giving in to the pain and screaming when I had to get my arm into the shirt. Then, fully dressed, I grabbed my keys and headed out the front door.
There, parked in my driveway, was my ex’s car.
My heart raced. I moved through the backyard like I was in a nightmare. The toads weren’t on the piles of clothes anymore, but I knelt down and found my ex’s wallet and keys in the pants.
If this was some sort of breakdown, it was a good one.
And if I really just turned them into toads, I needed to hide the evidence. I’d seen way too many detective shows. If they turned up missing, I was the first person anyone would look into. And if the police found their clothes and car here, I was in trouble.
I didn’t know what I was doing when I grabbed their stuff with my good hand and ran back out front, but I threw their clothes into the passenger seat and put the keys in the ignition. The back seats were full of my ex’s stuff, and I saw my jewelry box on the floor.
Gritting my teeth, I put the car in reverse and pulled out of my driveway. I was going to toss the clothes in a random dumpster, then leave the car at his new apartment complex. When I was done, I’d take a cab to the hospital near me and get my shoulder fixed.
Oh, and I was going to take back my jewelry box.
After that, I had no idea. But I had to figure out what the heck was going on.
And get out of town until I got a grip. Fortunately for me, I knew just where I was going to go.
Home.
3 Emma
Mystic Hollow was the perfect little town, and as I drove down the coast, windows rolled down, I felt another wave of anger at my ex. I should’ve never left this town. The salty water, the white beaches, even the woods, they were all a part of me. I had all of my best memories in this place.
It’d never stopped feeling like home.
But he hadn’t wanted to move here. So, we didn’t. I resented him for that, but I resented myself even more. Because with each day that had passed since the Day of Strangeness, I’d started to realize how many times I’d given into Rick.
I’d given in and given in until I was living a life I wasn’t happy in. And that was just as much on me as it was on him.
I shifted my shoulder in the brace, and took the next one-handed curve in the road slowly. The urgent care doctors had said I’d probably bruised my bones, but they’d fixed the dislocated shoulder, so it wasn’t nearly as painful as before. Not that you’d know it from the gnarly bruise that had spread over my painfully white skin. Still, I was hurting as I came to this last stretch of the drive. A couple days in a car was already hard on my bum, back, and neck. The shoulder just added a whole other fun element to being crammed into a car all night.
Slowing down even more, I reached the road with all of the beautiful beach houses spread out, facing the ocean. If I stayed on this path, I’d come to the town of Mystic Hollow, and if I kept going, I’d find woods in every direction. This place was isolated.
Which was exactly what I needed.
I turned another curve and saw the spot where the road broke off. One way led to the quiet street with beach houses, and the other went into town. I took the quiet road, watching the ocean waves between the houses and tilting my face up to feel the sunlight on it. My gaze pulled from the ocean, and I looked ahead, waiting to catch sight of our house. But when it came into view, I was a little surprised. It was in rougher shape than I remembered.
Pulling into the driveway, I killed the engine and climbed out. Outside, the scent of the ocean was even stronger, and
