“I’m sorry, Dad,” Lester said as he examined Bernard. While he was relieved to find his brother breathing, he still remained in some sort of catatonic state.

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, son,” said Mr. North.

“But it’s my fault,” said Lester. “If I’d come to you and given you the opportunity to explain—”

“We could still have ended up where we are right now,” Mr. North said, adjusting his position atop Thomas, who could do little more than mutter the occasional curse word. “There’s no point in dwelling on regret. Sometimes, the mistakes we make lead us to where we’re meant to be. Believe me, I know better than most.”

Lester had never really thought of his father as someone with a past. Let alone one that must have included some troubling choices.

“We can talk about all of this later,” Mr. North said. “Right now, we need to figure out what to do with your friend here and get help for Bernard.”

“Will he be okay?” Lester asked.

“We’ll bring them both to Mr. Noxumbra. He’ll know what to do.”

Before they could put their plan into action, a loud rustling came from the edge of the marsh. A second later, a haggard-looking Ben Titus burst out of the reeds.

“Edward North!” he shouted. “Get off that poor boy, now!”

The old postmaster’s uniform was soaked through and covered in mud from the chest down. He’d obviously failed to find the path across the water or perhaps fallen off.

Amanda and Mae, on the other hand, must not have had as much trouble. Following the sound of pounding footsteps on wood, both girls appeared at the boardwalk’s exit. They spotted Lester kneeling beside his brother and quickly came running over.

“I’m sorry we’re late,” puffed Amanda. “Why is your father sitting on Thomas? And what’s happened to Bernard?”

Perhaps feeling Amanda had covered the basics, Mae stood silently, looking around with wide eyes. As her gaze settled onto Thomas, there was a change in her expression. It was something Lester had never seen before. Was she angry?

“Thank goodness you’re here,” Thomas called to Ben, his voice shaking. “They’re both crazy! That one,” he said, motioning to Lester with a jerk of his head, “lured me down to this field, so his weirdo father and brother could ambush me. Someone call the police!”

“It isn’t what you think, Ben,” said Mr. North, pushing down on the struggling Thomas. “He attacked my sons.”

“All the same,” said Ben, “you’re going to get off of him, or you and I are going to have a problem.” He brandished his walking stick like a weapon.

Leaving Bernard in the care of Amanda and Mae, Lester jumped to his feet.

“Careful, Dad,” Lester said. “Ben’s a member of The Light. He told me so himself.”

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Mr. North gaped at the old man, a look of bewilderment on his face. It was as though he were attempting to incorporate this new information into years of memories.

“It’s true. I am,” Ben said. “And I’m only going to ask you one more time to let that boy go.”

“If you belong to The Secret Order of The Light, then take a look around you,” said Mr. North. “Odd weather for October. Can’t you feel it? This is no ordinary kid.”

“Be that as it may,” said Ben, “I’m still going to have to insist you hand him over to me.”

“You knew,” Lester said. It wasn’t a question. He and Ben had gotten to know each other well over the last few years. “You knew about Thomas. About who he was and what he was here to do.”

“I had my suspicions,” said Ben.

“Then why didn’t you do something?” asked Lester. “Don’t you care about the damage he could cause to Giles Hollow? To the people of this town? To me?”

“Of course, I care, Lester,” Ben said, his tone softening. “I would never willingly put you or your friends in danger. But that is not my choice to make. Those of us that follow The Light must be bound to it. For generations, we’ve fought to keep lost souls like Thomas from meeting a brutal end at the hands of The Dark. People like your father think by eliminating them, they’re somehow fixing the natural order. But the Lingering are the natural order.”

“How can you say that?” asked Lester. “Look at my brother. Before you got here, Thomas was trying to do the same to me.”

“It can be difficult to accept,” said Ben. “But since the beginning of time, whenever the world has grown too overpopulated, polluted, or corrupt, something has always come along to restore the balance. Sometimes it’s a devastating flood, a famine, or a massive earthquake. The Black Death alone killed 25 million people. And like a fire that burns through an overgrown forest, incinerating the rot to make way for new life, the Lingering are here to enact a cleansing.”

“That’s demented,” said Lester. “You can’t believe that?”

“It’s no use, son,” interrupted Mr. North. “You can save your breath. Their kind can’t be reasoned with.”

“And what about you?” Ben asked, leveling his walking stick at Lester’s father. “You Dark in your melodramatic black suits, sneaking around like a bunch of greedy undertakers. You lurk in the shadows of every tragedy, hoping for another victim. How many Lingering have you and your kind burned to cinders over the centuries? A thousand? Ten thousand? Has it slowed society’s decay? No. Yet you still think you’re saving the world.”

“What about what happens to the Lingering we don’t find in time?” said Mr. North. “Is that part of the grand plan too?”

“That’s a myth,” derided Ben. “More fairy tales perpetuated by The Dark to justify their twisted cause.”

“No. It’s not,” said Mr. North. “I’ve seen it myself, admittedly only twice. Once three days ago out by Whipple Hill.” He paused as if choosing his next words carefully. “And once the night your wife died.”

Ben’s stare was full of pure hatred. “You mean the night you killed her.”

“What?” said Lester, gawking at Ben. “What are you talking about? My dad didn’t kill your wife. You told me yourself she died in a car accident.”

“That’s true,” said Ben. “But what I didn’t say was that when help finally arrived, they found Molly’s car engulfed in flames — and your father standing there watching it burn.”

Everyone turned to look at Mr. North. Even Thomas managed to crane his head around from his spot on the ground.

“He claimed he just happened to be passing by that night,” continued Ben. “What he couldn’t explain was why he was out there all alone in the middle of nowhere. Of course, The Council used its influence to cover the whole thing up.”

Ben’s watery eyes glinted in the moonlight.

“No,” Lester said, his heart sinking. “It was an accident. You’re wrong. Tell him, Dad.”

“I’m sorry, son,” said Mr. North. “I can’t do that.”