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12:00 AM

THE SILENT STORM

Jessica woke up because the sound of the rain just stopped

It changed all at once The sound didn&039;t fade away, trickling down into nothingness like rain was supposed to Onewith the downpour, lulling her to sleep The next, silence fell hard, as if someone had pushed mute on a TV remote control

Jessica&039;s eyes opened, the sudden quiet echoing around her like a door sla around the bedroom in confusion She didn&039;t knohat had woken her - it took a few seconds just to remember where she was The dark roos Her old writing desk was in the wrong corner, and so There were too er than they should have been

But then the shapes of boxes piled everywhere, clothing and books spilling out of their half-open s were strangers here, barely settled, like pioneers on a bare plain This was her new room, her family&039;s new house She lived in Bixby, Oklahoma, now

"Oh, yeah," she said sadly

Jessica took a deep breath It s hard all night but noas suddenly quiet

Moonlight filled the roo looked It wasn&039;t just the unfa The s and skylight glowed, but the light seemed to come from everywhere, blue and cold There were no shadows, and the rooraph

Jessica still wondered what had awakened her Her heart beat quickly, as if soo But she couldn&039;t remember what

She shook her head and lay back down, closing her eyes, but sleep wouldn&039;t co, as if it didn&039;t like being here in Bixby

"Great," Jessica o with her exhausting days of unpacking, fighting with her little sister, Beth, and trying to find her way around the Bixby High maze At least her first week at school was almost over It would finally be Friday tomorrow

She looked at the clock It said 12:07, but it was set fast, to Jessica tiht Friday at last

A blue radiance filled the rooht was on When had the h, dark clouds had rolled over Bixby all day, obscuring the sun Even under the roof of clouds the sky was huge here in Oklahoma, the whole state as flat as a piece of paper That afternoon her dad had said that the lightning flashes on the horizon were striking all the way down in Texas (Being une the Weather Channel)

The cold, blue hter every h timbers of the floor felt warm under her feet She stepped carefully over the clutter, theout every half-unpacked box clearly The ed like a neon sign

When she looked outside, Jessica&039;s fingers clenched and she uttered a soft cry

The air outside sparkled, shilitter

Jessica blinked and rubbed her eyes, but the galaxy of hovering diao away

There were thousands of them, each suspended in the air as if by its own little invisible string They seeht Soer than the slass

Jessica took a few steps backward and sat down on her bed

"Weird dream," she said aloud, and then wished she hadn&039;t It didn&039;t see made her feel more awake somehow

And this was already too real: no unexplained panic, no watching herself fro as if she were in a play and didn&039;t know her lines - just Jessica Day sitting on her bed and being confused

And the air outside full of diamonds

Jessica slipped under her covers and tried to go back to sleep Unconscious sleep But behind closed eyelids she felt even , the slowly building body warht The realness of everything gnawed at her