Walking into the empty kitchen, Lester found a lone plate of food sitting on the table, covered in plastic wrap. Next to it was a note.

Lester. I hope you had a good visit. I can’t wait to hear all about it. Be home late. Don’t wait up. Love, Mom.

His stomach gurgling with hunger, he poured himself a glass of milk and sat down to eat his cold dinner.

Mathis must have called ahead to help smooth things over. Before departing Salem, Lester had taken some final advice from his brother. Since their mother had no way of knowing about the things Lester and his friends had discovered, she would believe they’d simply had an argument. After which, Lester had lost his temper. The best thing to do was to act as if nothing had happened.

“Besides,” Mathis had said, “if there’s one thing the Norths are exceedingly good at, it’s pretending a problem doesn’t exist. I’m living proof of that.”

Their mother’s note seemed to confirm his brother’s assertions.

When he finished eating, Lester went to his room and fell onto his bed. The bus ride home had been long, and there had been so much to think about. Exhausted, he closed his eyes and, within seconds, was sound asleep.

He was back in the field atop the hill. The bonfire was raging, creating a warm circle of heat as he stood in the cold night. This time, the journey had been easier, and he’d quickly wound his way along the path, following the glow through the trees. When he’d reached the edge of the flames, he’d found himself alone. There was no sign of his father, and peering dangerously close to the fire, he’d been relieved to discover nothing but wood inside.

A strong gust of wind sent clouds drifting across the bright moon, and the bonfire was snuffed out like a candle on a birthday cake. Lester stumbled. Plunged into darkness, he reached out, groping, blind. The sudden black was so complete that he couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or shut.

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Moving carefully, Lester inched his way around the top of the hill. Then he spotted a shimmering beacon in the distance. Walking toward it, he slowly descended into the valley below, and the shimmer became a man.

“Hello!” Lester called, but the man didn’t answer. Instead, he continued on as though he hadn’t heard, his long legs striding through the tall grass.

Lester followed him across the field and out onto a wide dirt road. As he drew closer, the darkness surrounding them began to brighten. At first, Lester thought they were returning to the bonfire but then gasped as he recognized the town of Salem. It was as it had been the day before, except every building was now engulfed in flames.

“Who did this?” Lester asked in a hushed voice. And to his surprise, the man stopped and turned around.

He was bald, and his pale blue eyes matched the color of his suit, the same one he’d been wearing at Bernard’s Drawing-In ceremony.

“Why don’t you do something?” said Lester, gesturing to the fire.

The man in blue gave a quizzical tilt of his head, but he did not speak. Staring at Lester, he took out a deck of black and white cards and began to shuffle. As he did, the cards rippled from one hand to the other in increasingly larger arcs. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he sent one sailing through the air to Lester, who caught it.

“What do you want me to do with this?” Lester asked. He flipped the card over to reveal the hourglass symbol from the old mailbox. “Is this some sort of trick?”

Remaining silent, the man let the rest of the deck slip from his hand. As the cards fell to the ground like the wilted petals of a dying flower, he turned and began walking away.

“Why are you giving this to me?” Lester called after him. “What am I supposed to do with it?”

Lester looked down at the card and was surprised to see it vibrating with a pulsating hum. Panicked, he tried to drop it, but it stuck to the ends of his fingers. He pulled it free using his other hand, but still, it refused to let go. The buzzing sensation grew until it felt as though he were clutching a hive of angry bees.

“Hey!” Lester yelled to the receding figure. “Take this back! I don’t want it! Do you hear me! I said — I DON’T WANT IT!”

But the man was gone, and Lester stood alone in the middle of an empty street, the world burning down around him.