Lewis’s mother, Betty, dressed in a nightgown, greeted Lewis outside his room.

“Hi, baby,” she whispered as she shut the door to her room behind her.

“Hi, mom” said Lewis as he shut his own door. “I’m just going down to get some water.” His heart was racing. He wasn’t supposed to be seen by anyone.

She approached him. “That was a strange way to start your first day back in school,” she said, referring to the window Mr. Gray’s portal blew out that morning when he first appeared to Lewis. “Your father is worried you aren’t adjusting well.” She gestured for Lewis to walk ahead of her down to the kitchen.

“I didn’t break the window,” said Lewis. He wished he could tell her everything but he knew she wouldn’t believe him. “On purpose, I mean.”

“I know, honey,” she said. “You’ve never been a troublemaker. We’re just worried you aren’t handling stress very well. It’s natural for a boy your age to have certain urges. You spent a lot of time in your room alone this summer, and while it’s perfectly fine to handle your business, it’s also important that you get outside every once in a while and do other things. See your friends.”

“Mom!” Lewis was mortified. His face grew so hot he wanted to bury his whole head in the freezer.

“Your father is too bashful to have this conversation with you,” she said, “so it’s up to me.”

Lewis, now at the bottom of the stairs, spun around to face her. “I am not having this conversation with you. Not right now. I literally can’t do it.”

His mother flipped the hall light on, casting a beam directing down on top of his head. She narrowed her eyes as she moved in close to his face. “Is that…” she dabbed at Lewis’s lip with her pointer finger. Lewis leaned away but she still managed to get him. She rubbed her finger and thumb together underneath her nose. “Lipgloss?” she asked with a pleased smirk on her face.

Lewis quickly rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. “No…” he said. “It’s chapstick….”

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“The shiny kind, that smells like strawberries?”

There was a pink smudge on the back of his hand. “I’m going to bed,” said Lewis.

“Without water?”

“Not thirsty.” Lewis ran up the stairs two at a time and closed himself back in his room. Jenny’s music stopped.

“Goodnight,” his mom whispered through the door.

“Goodnight,” Lewis mumbled back. He was so embarrassed he could die.

I’m going to have to jump out the window.

It was a stark realization. Everyone was awake and the sugar cubes were beginning to smoke. If he tried to sneak out down the stairs someone was bound to hear him. Lewis carefully removed the plastic covering from the broken window and climbed up into the opening.

The last time he jumped out of his bedroom window he was nine years old and still friends with Landon Mathews. They thought it would be fun to try to jump down to the grass, and it was. The landing was only a bit jarring on their legs, but they weighed considerably less than Lewis did now.

Lewis launched himself off the windowsill, but he didn’t get as much forward momentum as he’d intended. He fell like a sack of bricks and landed halfway in the bush below his window. The bush broke his fall, but he still landed hard. He grunted as he rolled out of the shrubbery. There was nothing left to do but limp back to the creepy house.

Mr. Gray was waiting for him on the front lawn when he approached the house, the large jar of jellybeans from Jeremy’s party clutched to his side. “Hello, Lewis,” he said. “We must wait here a moment.”

Lewis took a handful of jellybeans and sat down on the porch to shake out his legs. He followed Mr. Gray’s gaze as it drifted over to the side of the property. A portal was already forming. It was difficult to see it in the dark—thin, wispy lines, twirling like smoke, barely discernible in the light from the street lamps. Lewis tossed the remainder of his jellybeans in his mouth as another version of Mr. Gray appeared. The portal shot apart with a crack like a firework going off.

The two Mr. Grays approached one another. The new Mr. Gray helped himself to some jellybeans. “The other Lewis is helping clean up Josie’s house,” he said as he munched on the sugary treat.

Another pop sounded behind them. Lewis jumped, fearing the Agares. He spun around to find yet another Mr. Gray walking over to join in on the feast at the jellybean jar. Lewis had no idea what point in the timeline the third Mr. Gray was from. He didn’t say anything. He seemed to only be there for a snack. The jar of jellybeans diminished quickly as the three hungry critters chowed down like pigs at a trough.

The second Mr. Gray stepped back and gestured for Lewis to follow him. “You’re with me,” he said with a giggle. “It’s time to travel through the Beyond again. You need to do something else at the same time you’re starting the fire.”