Chapter 46

Eric Walker

Eric, Heidi, Leah and Frisby sat on the stone walkway of “the hook,” a curved concrete barrier that extended into Lake Michigan, sheltering part of the North Shore Beach and terminating in a little lighthouse. The location offered an excellent view of the Gold Coast skyline to the south. They looked out at the waves and clouds, intermittently responding to Banana Quest 2 and wondering about angels.

Heidi sat beside him, fiddling with a glass bauble tied to one wrist by a leather cord. Leah, on the other side of Heidi, kept looking at it, but Heidi appeared not to notice.

“I need to use the bathroom,” Leah announced out of nowhere.

Eric stood up and stretched.

“This is where you’re going to practice swimming?” asked Heidi as she stood beside him.

“I guess. Or, you know, somewhere.” Smooth? Check.

“It doesn’t look very challenging.”

“Hey sometimes it is. I know a guy who moved here from California and tried to surf on windy days.”

Heidi looked doubtfully at the placid lake. “Hmm…”

“And of course there’s the cold.”

“Cold?”

They wandered back down the stone walkway. “Sometimes in the winter,” said Eric, “this whole part of the lake freezes over. If you come out here then, you can hear all the ice creaking and breaking. See all that cement area over there? When it’s cold the waves wash up over it and freeze. You get these crazy ice formations, sometimes taller than me.”

“Wow,” said Heidi. “Is this true, Leah?”

Leah, walking in front of them, nodded without turning around.

“I’ve never really experienced a cold winter,” said Heidi. “I’ve only seen snow from a distance.”

“Huh. Okay so there’s bathrooms in that building there. Yeah. Have fun!” Eric waved them off from a crossroads in the sidewalk. He turned to look at the skyscrapers. At night the lights of Navy Pier reflected over the waters.

To his immediate right stood a little shop that sold beach stuff during the summer. Past that was a grassy park area. A little sheltered pagoda, right next to the running path, had chess-boards inscribed onto its benches. People often sat there and played games. Eric wondered if Kate or Heidi enjoyed pick-up games of chess. Heidi might be a little too shy. Chess-waffle. Ha.

A man whom Eric had disregarded as a random passerby stopped beside him, and Eric felt the stranger’s gaze. He faced the newcomer, thoughts of Isaac’s Pikeston Killer flashing through his mind. But he saw no monster. He saw a businessman in a grey suit-coat, looking all set for the important board meeting. He was average height, dark hair, tanned skin. The only odd thing about him was that he wore broken sunglasses. The right lens was missing. The stranger smiled at him.

“Eric Walker,” the man nodded at him. “Hey there.”

“Sup. Who are you?”

“Name’s Shade. I’m here to kill you.”

“Bummer. Why?”

“I have to end the cycle. It’s nothing personal.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Eric was split into three parts. The first part was calm, an autopilot conversationalist casually running its mouth because it knew the best thing was not to react, not to show alarm, to just remain calm and keep talking. The second part was doing the adrenaline-fueled thinking; it was remembering who and what was around him, plotting an escape route, noticing that this Shade guy wasn’t holding a weapon, looking for signs of drugs in the stranger’s eyes, posture, speech. This part of Eric had got a lot of practice from living in Chicago; about once a month he was in close proximity to some coked-out druggie on public transit.

The third part was new, and it was looking at the other two parts of Eric from a detached perspective, and it was trying to put things together in his mind because it already knew that this was not a regular Chicago druggie. A psychopathic killer in Pike; Jim’s house gets blown up; Heidi gets mailed a gun in Chicago; Liz meets weird strangers; Kate thinks something bad’s about to happen. Eric Walker receives an ominous, staticky phone call from his future self. Cracks in the sky, October Industries, Banana Quest. He was trying to put the pieces together, but they were all from different jigsaw puzzles, and he wasn’t Jimothy Whyte. Who the hell was Shade, and why would he want to kill Eric Walker?

These thoughts hummed through Eric in several heartbeats, the time it took for the stranger and he to exchange a few lines of dialogue.

“What cycle?” Eric asked (the first part, just keeping this guy talking).

“The cycle upon which my existence is predicated.”

Eric didn’t understand that, and he didn’t care. He tried to detect whether Heidi and Leah were returning out of the corner of his vision. On the one hand, having Heidi around was a comforting thought when faced with someone potentially dangerous/crazy. She had a gun, albeit one without bullets. On the other hand, he wanted Leah as far away from such a person as possible. But it was too soon; they had just left. He needed to stall.

“If your existence is predicated on a cycle, haven’t you already failed?”

“That’s not quite how it works.”

Stall. “Of course it is. You exist, so you already began existing. Unless…are we talking about time travel? Like, alternate timelines?”

“I don’t want to get into details, right? Let’s keep this civil. I have to kill you, that’s all. Don’t bother attempting to escape.”

“Um. Why not?” And why would he say it like that? Like some James Bond supervillain about to explain his entire scheme. Something was wrong here; someone really serious about killing him would have already done it by now. Right? Eric had never wanted to kill anybody, but if he did, he was pretty sure he wouldn’t walk up to them and spend half a minute having a weird conversation first.

The man in the suit tapped his broken shades and smiled. “I can see several seconds into the future.”

Keep stalling. Heidi would come. “And then you act on what you see? But then what you saw wasn’t the future. As soon as you see it, it changes. Like the, uh, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, right?”

“Well yes, you are correct. What I see is more your intentions.” Shade raised his eyebrows. “I am impressed. Of course, you are the time guy. I suppose it makes sense. Or maybe…you remember.” The man seemed both surprised and fascinated.

“I’m the what?” Eric tried to remember what the caller on the train had said this morning. Something about time. And someone falling?

“Anyway,” said Shade, “I need to kill you.” Although he said this, again, he still made no threatening moves. He stood there, hands in his pockets. Was he serious about being able to see a couple seconds into the future? Well, both Kate and Jim could somehow see the future so Eric wasn’t about to risk his life betting against it.

“I should at least get straight why you’re killing me though.”

“Your understanding of the situation is not requisite. I will kill all six of you, if necessary. Now—”

Eric planned to move at this point. His idea was to simply run away, in the other direction from Heidi and Leah. But Shade stepped aside to block Eric before he could so much as shift his weight.

Shade smiled in the most irritating way. “Now I told you,” he said, “I—” He blocked Eric’s punch before Eric could even begin to throw it, “- can see the future.”

Eric froze, trying to think. He had no ideas.

Shade removed a handgun from behind his back. “Again, nothing personal. I quite like you, actually. You were the one who…well. Nevermind.”

As Shade spoke, Eric saw something behind him. Something bright, colorful. And this Shade guy, he liked to talk.

So Eric said, “Okay, one last thing though. Those shades let you see intentions, right?”

“Again, that is an approximation. But essentially, yes.”

“So I guess that means you can only see the future for people you’re looking at?”

“That’s enough.” Shade raised his weapon at Eric. He looked aside just before a sharp click sounded nearby.

Heidi, somehow, was there beside them, only steps away, aiming her own firearm at Shade, her eyes narrowed. Leah was nowhere in sight, thank God. Eric glanced behind Shade and sought out those bright colors he had glimpsed before.

Shade smirked at Heidi. “Please tell me,” he said, “you had a better plan than pointing an empty firearm at me?”

The pale hand holding Shade’s weapon swiveled to aim at Heidi.

“I have a plan,” said Eric. “To keep you from looking behind you.” Eric attempted to control his intentions: look behind Shade, look behind Shade, look behind Shade.

Shade laughed. “Clever,” he said. “But really. Do you think—”

The edge of a bass guitar crashed into the side of Shade’s head, throwing him to the ground at Heidi’s feet.

For just a moment: silence. The three of them stood over Shade’s prone body, staring at it. The newcomer was a tall girl with long dark hair, a colorful painted lab coat, and an electric bass. Eric had no doubts about who this was.

Kaitlyn Carter screamed. It was not a cry of rage or triumph as might be expected from someone who had just knocked a man out with a guitar. It was a scream of pure distress, panic, adrenaline. Her guitar was still half-raised as if to strike another blow. She breathed heavily, and her hair and scarf drifted sideways in the chill wind. She also had something all over her face. Was she hurt?

Heidi knelt, seized Shade’s firearm, patted down his body. “Unconscious,” she said, “but not for long. We should go.” Heidi stood, handed her own empty gun casually to Eric, then turned to Kate.

Kate seemed frozen in attack position. She screamed again, but this time it was only a breathy wheeze.

Eric considered that he should say something. “…Kate?” he asked.

Kate opened her mouth for a second, then snapped it shut and nodded hard. The bass lowered. Kate reached a hand up to scoot her big round glasses back up the bridge of her nose.

“We need to go,” said Heidi. She had noticed what Eric had not: people were watching. There weren’t a lot of people nearby, but Kate’s shriek had drawn some attention.

“Um,” said Eric. Should they call the police? Maybe not. Shade would awaken before they could get here, and…something about what was happening made Eric think that maybe this wasn’t a police kind of issue.

“Yeah,” he said. “Let’s get outta here.” He took another look at Heidi, who had made her new loaded gun disappear, and Kate with her guitar. “Need to keep up,” he muttered. He knelt down and carefully removed the broken sunglasses from Shades’ face. The guy groaned softly.

They took off at a jog. Heidi led them back to Leah. Kate stopped long enough to pick up her bag and a stuffed turtle.

Leah had been watching from a distance, and she stared in excitement as they approached. Eric scooped her up and kept running without pause. “Back to the park,” he said. There were more people in the park. Maybe Shade wouldn’t try anything there, or maybe he would have more difficulty finding them. And from there they could take a bus back home. But what if Shade knew where Eric’s house was? How had he known to find Eric at the beach?

The fact that Kate had arrived didn’t really sink in until they were all crossing the pedestrian overpass over North Shore Drive. He slowed to a stop in the middle of the overpass. The others stopped with him. Vehicles zoomed past below; the walkway vibrated beneath their feet. A cool breeze blew.

Leah struggled in his arms; he let her down onto the walkway. Heidi watched the place they had come from. Her hands were in the pockets of her jacket, and one of them clearly gripped a gun. Kate still had something on her face. What was that, a tattoo? Her eyes were blue like the sky behind her. She looked at him. He needed to say something.

“So, Kate…is your bass okay?” She had it gripped to her chest with both arms.

She blinked a few times, then dropped the bass, lunged forward, and hugged him.

“Whoa.”

Eric hesitantly hugged her back. This was not at all how he had imagined his first encounter with Kaitlyn Carter. “I’m fine, Kate.” It wasn’t too bad, though.

Kate let him go and stepped back, a little embarrassed. She smoothed away the wayward hair flying in front of her face and stooped to pick up her bass. It was green and black and looked like parts of it were metal. She probably made it herself.

“So is your bass okay?”

She inspected it quickly and tilted her hand back-and-forth at him with a grimace.

“You going to say anything?” He had imagined Kate being a lot more talkative than this.

Now Kate really looked embarrassed. She bit her lip and her face turned red, all except the crazy spider-web tattoo or whatever the hell that was. Could she maybe not speak or something? Was that why she only ever texted?

“We should keep moving,” said Heidi.

“I remember you,” said Leah, looking at Kate. “You were in my dream.” Kate beamed down at Leah and gave her a thumbs-up.

“Yeah, yeah,” said Eric, “we’ve all seen Kate in our dreams, what else is new? Let’s go.”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

They continued across the overpass and through the park. Eric did a quick double-take at every figure in a grey suit, not that there were many, but none of them were Shade. He took them to the entrance of the zoo. A little cluster of buildings gathered around the pond in front. They had obtained ice cream here not long ago. Eric led them into the coffee shop and directed them to a table back in the corner, out of view of any windows and near an emergency exit.

Everyone relaxed a little when they sat down. Kate put her bass back in its case. Eric decided to speak first, and if at all possible, to get Kate speaking as well. “So,” he directed his gaze toward Kate, “do you know who that was?”

Kate hesitated.

“Why would she know?” asked Heidi.

Kate put her hands on the table, furrowed her brow in concentration, gritted her teeth, and took a deep breath. Everyone watched her.

“I-I-I d-don’t…kn-kno-know.” Her face again turned bright red. “S-s-s-sorry.” Her turtle pillow appeared suddenly in her arms, and she hugged it hard.

“Hey, that’s cool,” said Eric. “Just thought you might know. So you have a stutter?”

Heidi, to his left, elbowed him sharply in the shoulder.

“Gaah! Hey, what? It’s no big deal.” Kate appeared torn between relief and more embarrassment. Yeah, he deserved the elbow for that one. Dammit.

“Hello, Kaitlyn,” said Heidi, reaching across the table to shake her hand. “I mean, Kate. Nice to finally meet you. I would tell you to not mind Eric but you probably know that.” Kate smiled and shook her hand.

“N-nice to f-f-inally meet you t-too! I’ve b-been s-so ex-ex-c-c-ex- excited !” She buried her face in the turtle. “S-s-sorry I’m screw-crewing it all up! I’m m-m-making it awkward!”

“Naw, you didn’t screw it up. It was the dude trying to kill me. This Shade guy.”

Oh yeah. Right. Only a few minutes ago, someone had pointed a loaded gun at him, after announcing his intention for murder. That was a thing that had just happened. Right.

Leah sat silently, with the posture of a professional businesswoman awaiting an interview, but she kept shooting furtive glances at both Kate and Heidi. Curious but shy.

Kate’s eyes widened and she leaned over the table at Eric. “W-w-eren’t you s-sc-scared?”

Was he? Had he been? He honestly couldn’t remember. It was unreal, like he had just played that scene in a videogame. The whole experience seemed detached.

He said: “Eh…”

Kate winked at him. “S-so c-c-cool!”

“Yeah, so cool I had to get rescued by my two badass friends I’ve met for the first time today.” Eric realized he just said ‘badass’ in front of Leah and mentally kicked himself. He also realized his hands were trembling slightly. “I guess in times of distress I shut down my emotions.”

Heidi nodded. “That’s what Alan says when I ask him about times he’s been in dangerous situations.”

“Okay cool. But now, actually, I think it’s hitting me…and…I’ll be right back.” Eric stood up.

Heidi began to stand as well. “Where are you going?”

“Just the restroom, chill. I’ll be right back.”

He took a little longer than planned in the restroom. He stared at himself in the mirror after washing his hands. He had come very close to dying, but it sure wasn’t sinking in very quickly. Maybe he was a little immunized against such things, since he fantasized about dangerous situations so much? But no, it was there—a lurking hysteria. His life had almost ended. It had almost all been over. Just like that.

But still, he was calm. He took deep, steady breaths. His hands weren’t shaking. Maybe they would later. For now, he had to be calm. For Leah, he had to think clearly.

It was a one-man restroom; the door was locked. He took this opportunity to remove the broken sunglasses from his pocket and try them on. He looked in the mirror and immediately noticed that he looked like a moron. He wondered if what Shade had said was true…

In his left eye, through the lens, he saw his arms reach up and remove the glasses. In his right eye, no such thing happened.

The view in the left eye immediately changed; he saw himself in the mirror stepping back in confusion. Nothing happened in his right eye until, a second later, he stepped back in confusion.

The view in his left eye began stuttering rapidly; he saw his reflection perform a number of actions with small variations, but each changed the moment he saw it. Some of the things he saw in his shaded vision transferred to things he actually did in the bright light of the mirror.

A headache began gnawing at the base of his skull. He groaned and closed both eyes. Blessed, peaceful darkness. How the hell could that Shade guy just wear these around everywhere? How could anyone deal with constantly changing possibilities of the future, even if it was only a couple seconds ahead?

Someone rattled the bathroom doorknob. He pocketed the shades and left, rubbing his temple.

When he returned to the table, he saw that someone had got them all drinks. Had he been gone that long?

“Eric!” said Kate when he sat back down. “W-we w-w-were w-worried!”

“Calm down with those double-u’s. You’ll hurt yourself.”

Kate grinned at him. “Heh heh heh!”

A caramel latte sat before him. His go-to. Thanks, Leah.

“So is that a scar?” he asked as he reached for the cup. His reach turned into a parry as Heidi attempted to strike him once again. He successfully deflected the blow. “What was that for?”

“She is clearly self-conscious about it. That’s why she is wearing a scarf.”

“C’mon, if she wants to hide it she needs to be wearing a mask too.” Heidi narrowed her eyes at him. Eric leaned away from her and took a sip of his latte. Overpriced.

“It’s okay!” said Kate. A British accent came through when she said this. “I j-just d-d-didn’t want you g-guys to w-w- to worry.”

“Worry?” said Heidi. “ Is it a scar? What happened?”

“Well…” Kate hugged the turtle and looked into her drink. “I b-b-blew up m-m-my, I, Iblewupmylab!”

“Whoa, what?”

“I was d-d-doing an ex—an exp-expe-pe-peri—an…” She gritted her teeth and glared down at her drink.

“We get it, an experiment,” said Heidi.

“But holy sh—I mean, yikes, Kate, what leaves a scar like that?”

Kate buried her face in the turtle. She said something, but it was so muffled they couldn’t make it out. She raised her head again, took off her glasses and began cleaning smudges off of them with a napkin. “It’s emb-b-barrassing! It l-looks like a sp-spi-spiderweb! Like a l-l-lame t-t-tattoo!”

“And you didn’t tell us because you didn’t want us to worry?” asked Heidi.

Kate nodded and placed her glasses back on her face. “I guess that’s s-s-tupid n-now.”

Leah, who had up until the point appeared disengaged with their conversation, leaned over and gave Kate a hug. Kate smiled and hugged her back.

“Okay, look at this,” said Heidi. She stood up and tried to raise her leg up high enough so that Kate could see it over the table. But she was too short. Eric nearly snorted hot coffee out of his nose watching her attempt. She slugged him; he narrowly avoided spilling any of his drink.

With an air of defiance Heidi stood on her chair and placed her left foot up on the table to reveal her darkly tanned skin. A complicated tangle of reddish welts covered most of the back of her calf. “I have a scar too,” she said.

“Crikey!” said Kate. She leaned in closely to inspect it, her brows furrowed in concentration. Eric imagined her whipping out a magnifying glass from her lab coat and almost laughed up his coffee again. “Are these j-jellyf-fish s-sc-scars?”

Heidi nodded proudly and stepped down from the table.

“So c-c-cool!” said Kate, her eyes wide with excitement.

“Kate, you are the coolest person I know,” said Heidi.

“H-have you heard E-er-eric’s music?”

Heidi nodded and opened her mouth to reply but Eric cut her off. “I think we can, like, get to that business later. For now, since you’re here Kate, maybe you could use your future powers and grace us with some explanation.”

“You have future powers?” said Leah. She observed Kate critically, assessing her.

Kate leaned over and whispered something in Leah’s ear, using her stuffed turtle to block the sight and sound. When she had finished, Leah turned a look of awe upon Eric, then looked back at Kate in confirmation. Kate smiled and put a finger to her lips.

“What future powers?” said Heidi. “Is this a joke I missed?”

Eric sighed. Had Heidi not figured it out yet? Well, she’d only known Kate for two months. “Kate can see the future somehow, but good luck asking her about it. Now you know. Moving on…”

Heidi looked back and forth between Eric and Kate, unable to discern whether this was a joke.

Eric stood. “You know, Shade’s probably awake.”

“Kate hit him hard,” said Leah.

“Yes it was very cool and awesome and she saved my life,” said Eric. Kate looked thoughtful upon hearing this. “But he’s still out there, maybe looking for these,” he patted the pocket with the shades, “and definitely looking for us. One thing he said was—” Eric looked around to see if anyone was within earshot. They weren’t but he lowered his voice anyway “—was that he would kill ‘all six of us’ if he had to. I think we should get back to my place, at least for now.”

They agreed and rose from the table.

They hurried to a bus stop along Lincoln Park, all on high alert, looking around for any sign of the grey-suited man. They didn’t have to wait long for a bus, and it was the bus which would take them almost the whole way to Eric’s apartment.

They boarded and sat together in the back. Few other passengers made an appearance. Tuesday afternoon.

The four of them occupied back seats. Leah sat by Kate, and Frisby began growling menacingly at Kate’s turtle. The turtle growled right back, dodging playfully back and forth.

“Kate, focus,” said Eric. “I know you get some kind of twisted pleasure about keeping everyone in the dark, but what can you tell us about what’s happening? Or what’s about to happen?”

Kate frowned down at her turtle and fidgeted. “I think s-s-omething is going to h-hhappen called a c-c-c a cascade. Umm…” She shook her head violently, whipping Eric in the face with her hair. “I c-c I can’t explain it all n-n-now! It’s t-t-too c-complicated!”

She leaned over and looked intensely at Eric and Heidi. “Y-you n-n-nnneed to f-find your angels!”

Heidi nodded slowly as she kept a careful eye on the rest of the bus and every passenger that entered. “Elizabeth said something about that in the group text.”

Oh right, the text. Eric said, “Yeah, white animals, right? Like Callie.”

Kate nodded hard.

“Sorry, haven’t seen any. Do you have one?” asked Eric.

Kate hesitated. She reached into the recesses of her big lab coat and brought out something shiny. She held it up in front of them. A tiny crystal butterfly, the size of a quarter, rested in her palm. It shone with light, making little rainbows all over the four of them. Eric was distracted from the sight of the crystal by Kate’s face. Her expression looking at the crystal butterfly was one of sheer delight. It could have been a trick of the light, but it looked like the crazy broken-glass scar on her face shimmered with color.

“Ohhhhh,” said Leah.

Kate closed it in her hand, stifling the light. “I th-thhhink this is m-m-mine!” she said. “S-s-sssomehow.”

“Woah,” said Eric. He looked over at Heidi. She was inspecting something in her hand. The glass teardrop thing she wore around her wrist. Heidi whispered something to herself. Eric couldn’t make it out, but it sounded like, ‘don’t lose it.’

“So-something b-bad is g-g-goin to happen s-soon. B-but! I thi-I think we c-can make it!”

“Make it?” said Heidi. “Where?”

“The M-mu-Museum!”

“Oh man, there’s a lot of museums here,” said Eric. “Okay, whatever, which one we need to go to? Should’ve told me before we got on this bus.”

Kate shook her head. “The D-dr-dream M-museum. Y-you need an angel t-to get there. I think.”

The bus ride took about 20 minutes. During the remainder of the ride, Kate would not hand out details about what exactly the Cascade was, or about the deal with this Dream Museum, or how they should find their angels. It seemed like she knew things but didn’t want to tell them. Maybe she was afraid of jinxing something?

If Kate could see the future, then maybe she knew how much information Eric needed in order for things to work out. Maybe she saw a good future and was trying not to change it by her actions. Eric thought about what it had been like looking through Shade’s shades. Of course, doing it in a mirror was probably hard mode. But what if Kate could somehow see out, not just seconds, but days? Months? How could anyone handle that?

“Eric, stop staring at her,” Heidi whispered in his ear as they neared their stop.

He jumped in surprise. Had he been staring? Kate was playing with Leah, doing a funny voice for her turtle as it bopped heads with Frisby. Eric leaned over to Heidi and whispered back as he watched Kate and Leah. “Couldn’t help it. Is that scar changing colors?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been watching for Shade.”

“Oh. Right. Good thinking. Did you know that Kate’s like basically a mad scientist?”

“Yes. I’m pretty sure Alan mailed her the things that she blew up to get that scar.”

“Whoa.”

Heidi continued. “Did you know that I received an email from my past self, one I can’t remember sending, on the day that Kate first contacted me? It told me to trust her.”

“Sounds legit. Did you know her uncle is a straight-up for-real mad scientist?”

“Yes. Did you know that Alan used to work for a company that used her uncle’s special materials?”

“For nefarious purposes, no doubt.”

“D-di-did you kn-know that I h-h-have very g-good hearing?” said Kate. She didn’t stop playing with Leah, but she turned and grinned at them.

They disembarked soon after. At 12 stories, their destination towered over most of the surrounding structures. Eric’s apartment was on the ninth floor, with a view of the street below. It was a pain to get up there sometimes, especially if taking the stairs, because of an elevator malfunction, but it had a nice view.

“We should go to a store and get some supplies,” said Heidi as the bus pulled away. “I didn’t bring much with me. If we’re going to be doing something dangerous, I mean, if we might get hurt…”

Eric nodded. “Right.” First aid stuff, and maybe…uh, flashlights? Hell, he had no idea. Heidi probably knew. But he didn’t like the idea of Leah being out in the open in public as long as Shade was out there.

“Okay, how about this,” he said. “Kate, can you…I mean, Leah can you take Kate home and show her around?” Leah considered this and nodded. “Heidi and I will be over soon, okay?”

Eric tossed his keys to Kate and turned to take Heidi to the store. But he saw, as he turned, something in Kate’s expression that made him pause. She caught the keys and turned. “C-c-come on, Leah!” she said in a cheerful voice. Leah scampered off down the sidewalk and Kate followed. She walked a few steps, paused and looked back. A chill crawled through Eric. She looked scared. Scared and sad. Afraid of Shade?

He nearly ran to catch up with her when Heidi whacked him on the sleeve and said, “Eric? You coming?”

Kate was going with Leah, and she would never take Leah into danger. So they should both be fine, right? Maybe Kate was more shaken up than he’d realized about Eric nearly being shot.

“Right. Yeah. Let’s just make it quick.” He went with Heidi in the other direction.