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"Tom!" she shrieked "Tom! Tom! Tom!"

She’d have bowled hi so fast and his heart was so full; but he could take that, he wanted that--and she ht have, too

If not for Mina, beside herself with joy, who got there first

103

"I like fires" Threading on another marshmallow, Chris held his stick well above the flame’s reach "Actually, I just like s’ his fingers to avoid the scorch, Peter pinched blackened, molten raham cracker, sandwiched this with another cracker, and pressed until the white lava of marshmallows overflowed Peter craooey s’et sick all by ht his marshht sky, milky with stars The eye of the ht Gri, he put a hand to a sudden ache in his chest: a weird pressure I’ain

"I’ed, although neither he nor Peter wore jackets or even hiking boots, just jeans, tees, sneakers "I like it here"

"Me, too," Peter said, his voice gluey His hair spilled around his shoulders like spun gold His eyes were blue diamonds "One of my favorite places on earth"

"But we can’t be there, can we?" Chris thought they were on top of a h above a valley Yet there was only the fire crackling on a table of flat rock and nothing beyond Peter but a dark blank Considering the stars, maybe this was outer space Or heaven

"No The fire’s not allowed for real, but it’s , Peter skiroaned "And chocolate Oh ood that tastes"

"So, we’re in your head?"

"Pretty much More like adaydreas" Peter speared et a move on with that s’ do we have? I " This was not what he’d wanted to say, but the truth was e He winced at another jab of pain "What is that? Feels like so to save your ass"

"What?" His brain caught up to what Peter had just said, and he recalled Jess’s warning or, perhaps, her prophesy: So my ass You mean, I’m--"

"This close" Peter pinched an inch of air between two fingers "Heart stopped, and you’re not breathing I think Toht’ve cracked a rib Guy from the Red Cross who did ACLS for the deputies said it happens sometimes"

"Tom" He blinked "Alex’s Tom?"

"Yeah, Al--" Peter see on a ot that, too That’s the hell of this I can coet you and this It’s the only way I can keep this all safe from him It’s like I’m behind this one-way mirror, only I can’t mike in and nobody outside knows I’m here"

This was so different from his previous experiences Chris feltsafer "Why aht that he also hadn’t tried dying quite so many times before either He stared at his stick with its marshmallows that refused to brown--and as up with that? On an i happened Thethe stick, he broke off the tip and tossed it into the fire and watched as the fla a swar his hand, he let his palm drift close and then into the flale" style="display:block" data-ad-client="ca-pub-7451196230453695" data-ad-slot="9930101810" data-ad-format="auto" data-full-width-responsive="true"></ins>