Timepiece (Hourglass 2)

“Something’s wrong,” I yelled. “It won’t even slide into the lock.”

“I don’t know. Go to the front. I’ll be okay once I know there’s no fire inside.”

We rounded the corner to the front of Murphy’s Law, but then we stopped dead.

The whole north side of town was on fire. Main Street burned with complete abandon.

Even from two blocks away, the heat pushed across the pavement with a physical force. Closer to the blaze, the asphalt became pliable again. The glass in storefront windows popped, cracked, and then exploded.

“How? This couldn’t have happened this fast.” Lily was shouting, but I could barely hear her. The roar of the flames sounded like a waterfall. “We would have heard something, smelled something.”

“Where are the fire trucks?” I took her hand and drew her close, assessing the situation. “I don’t even hear them now.”

“I don’t, either. Where did they go?”

“Lily! Kaleb!”

Tires squealed as Michael pulled over to the curb in front of Murphy’s Law. Emerson jumped out of the car and flew toward us at top speed, with Michael right behind her. She launched herself into Lily’s arms. “Where have you been? We haven’t heard from Kaleb since this morning, and neither one of you was answering your cell.”

“We drove down here to look for you,” Michael said, pushing down his fear, choosing concern instead. “And now … the fire….”

“I can’t get in touch with my brother.” Flames reflected in Em’s tears, and two escaped to roll down her cheeks. “This is everything he’s ever worked for, and it’s literally going up in flames. He and Dru both worked tonight—there was a party for the community theater troupe. Thomas always keeps his phone on him.”

“Thomas and Dru are at the Phone Company?” I asked, looking from Em to Michael. His frown deepened as he looked north.

Shock.

Em’s fear had become so familiar to me that I knew the second it came.

The Phone Company was on the north side of town.

“Emerson, no!”

Michael wasn’t quick enough. She’d already started racing toward the smoke. We followed.

The closer we got to the fire, the more something about it pulled at my memory. The base of the flames was beyond blue, almost an electric purple. The flames consumed stone and wood, burning both with the same speed and intensity. Only one person could make fire like that, and only one person could spread it so destructively.

“Hurry. Em hasn’t reached the Phone Company yet.” Lily pulled at my arm and panted for air. “Come on!”

“This isn’t normal fire.”

“What?” She let her arm go slack, but I held on to her hand tightly.

“This is the kind of fire that burned my dad’s lab. Jack and Cat did this.” Maybe Ava, although I hoped that wasn’t true. “Look around. Why aren’t there any people on the street? Where are the cars? This doesn’t look like Ivy Springs; it looks like a movie set, or a ghost town.”

Doubt. Realization. Fear.

I squinted over my shoulder through the smoke, from the direction we came. “Lily, look.”

No pumpkins sat on the street waiting to be lit for Halloween. Gone were the decorative pots of flowers and wrought-iron benches used to adorn the spaces between red maples and pear trees. The replica gas streetlights remained, but only a few were lit, and the rest was broken sidewalks and weeds. A power surge hummed, and everything went dark. The only light came from the fire glowing orange in the night sky.

Now Lily squeezed my hand. “Something is wrong.”

Very wrong. “I don’t think we’re really here.”

“What?” Lily breathed.

“I think we’re in a rip.”