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"Shut the door" I jammed my foot on the accelerator, and she jerked backward in her seat Noere going too fast--she couldn’t jump "Shut the door"

"Pull over"

Faster, faster, even though I could hardly see; even though the rain was heavy as a curtain, loud as applause cresting at the end of a play "No Not until we finish talking"

"We are finished talking For good"

"Dara, please You don’t understand"

"I said, pull over" She reached over and jerked the wheel toward the shoulder The back of the car spun out into the opposite lane I slammed on the brakes, spun the wheel to the left, tried to correct

It was too late

We were spinning across the lanes We’re going to die, I thought, and then we hit the guardrail, burst through it in an explosion of glass and ine, and for one split second ere suspended, airborne, safe, and somehow my hand found Dara’s in the dark

I remember it was very cold

I re, orat all

AFTER

Nick

3:15 a or how far I’ve run until I see Pirate Pete loo above the tree line, one arht white FanLand His gaze see lot, transformed by the storm into an atoll: a series of dry concrete islands surrounded by deep ruts of water, swirling with old trash

The sirens are going again, so loud they feel like a physical force, like a hand reaching deep insidequick flashes of es

Dara’s hand on the , and the iers

RIP, Dara

We’re done talking

I need to get away--away froht

I need to find Dara, to prove it isn’t true

It isn’t true