Mezzanine

| 42 |

"What kind of place are we looking for?" Carter asked as we walked down Fifth Avenue. "Like a house or something?"

I shrugged. "I don't know, but there was a fire there two years ago and apparently it was never repaired, so I assume we'll know it when we see it."

We passed a few old, Victorian-style homes. Their wood siding had warped with age, and what was once white trim was now grimey and stained by the humid, salty air. The autumn had turned the lawns to a dry, hay-brown. Bare trees and bushes made the entire street feel dead.

"All of these places look like they could have been destroyed in a fire," Carter said.

"Keep your voice down," I hissed. "Someone might hear you."

"Sorry." Carter kicked a small stone down the sidewalk and crossed his arms over his chest. "But it doesn't even look like anyone lives on this street anymore," he muttered under his breath.

We walked in silence for a few minutes. Carter did his best to keep his thoughts to himself, and I tried my best not to listen.

Lola was quiet, her gaze fixed on the road ahead.

She'd been like this since we'd left the psychic shop. What was she thinking about? It couldn't have to do with Tessa's thoughts during my palm reading, could it? If those curtains made it so I couldn't hear Carter's thoughts on the outside, then surely that meant Lola wouldn't have heard Tessa's thoughts on the inside either.

Right?

"Everything okay, Lola?" I asked.

"What?" She startled and turned to me. She shook her head like she was trying to clear something from her mind before tucking a strand of stray hair behind her ear. "Yeah, fine. Why?"

"You've been...quiet," I said.

"I guess I'm just thinking."

"About what?"

She crossed her arms tightly, rubbing them to keep warm. Something about her seemed off, but I couldn't place what.

"I don't know," she lowered her voice to a whisper. "I just have this weird feeling...like we shouldn't have left town. Like we've made a mistake coming here." A pause. "I don't know how to explain it."

A gust of wind blasted down the street, and a chill crept up my spine. I'd gotten the same strange feeling when we'd left this morning...like I was making a mistake. Like something wanted—needed—me to stay.

"We never should have left." Lola's voice faded as a second tone dueled for dominance, distorting it like a corrupt recording.

My breath caught in my throat. Had her lips even moved? Was I imagining things?

Return to me.

The thought echoed through my mind, but I had no idea where it was coming from. It was all around me—consuming. The sky darkened as a cloud passed over the sun, the rim glowing like a ring of fire.

"Hey guys," Carter jumped in before I could say anything else.

"What?" I nearly shouted, shaking myself from the strange sensation clawing into my mind.

"Any chance that's the place?" He pointed to a house at the corner of the street. Traces of pastel yellow paint poked through the lines of charred black on the siding. The roof had collapsed, leaving a few dark black beams sticking up into the sky like scorched kindling.

A "DANGER, DO NOT ENTER" sign was posted on an orange mesh fence around the perimeter, but parts of it had bent from time and the elements...or perhaps people sneaking onto the property.