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"Yes But also siblings Gods, that sounds creepy But it’s true We were together pretty much all the time, from the ri side-by-side like necking teenagers

"When did he die?"

"Years ago I was just eighteen We were still in high school It was an accident, but also my fault" Even now I couldn’t believe how easily I said that, and how I could say it and knoithout feeling like I needed to go bury myself alive in order to repent

"Hoas it your fault, if it was an accident?"

"He caught rowing up around here knows you can’t swim in our waters, let alone anywhere near the Sow But he saw my clothes And he went in afterwhile

"Wow," she said, eventually

"Yes," I replied

"You do knoasn’t really--"

"My fault?" I finished for her "Yes, I understand, now, that I didn’t cause Jason’s death, in the sense that I didn’t push hie the fact that he died that night, and it was because he found hed

"I do understand that it’s not entirely my fault, now I’ve come to terms with that But his death and the circuet either"

"That’s intense, babydoll I’m sorry"

"Thank you"

"And you still have a connection to the farandparents died pretty soon after Jason did Their hearts were broken: It’s like all the life went out of them The people who took it over are Grays, but they’re not family At least not to me But the house…" I trailed off, unable to finish

"The house was so," she said, her turn to finish my sentence

"Exactly It feels sometimes like Jason’s been wiped off the face of Rockabill Nobody talks about him anymore Nobody seems to re the subject because they’re trying to be nice to me But it feels like he never existed, so ot really bad, I’d drive by here Or walk from my house, just like I used to when I wouldBlondie’s words

"Those ‘soently with the arm she’d wrapped aroundI wasn’t supposed to trust her

She’s either a ht

We sat for a few rateful for Blondie’s silence, and for her being there I still believed she was up to so, but I had to admit I felt I could trust her, deep in ht then, so patiently, made me want to believe that instinct rather than question it

"Well," I said, after scrubbing my hands over ’ In the meantime, we need to find out what happened" And with that, I pushed gently away fro it like that, it was bound to happen with anything involving Jason, but the clock was ticking

Blondie got out with ether alked forward to where Caleb was questioning Sheila and Herbert Gray As we got closer, we could see that the house was still there, sort of It had just fallen through the ground into what appeared to be an absolutely enor in nature, I thought, grimly At least not around here

Sinkholes were coe it would s a house whole

As for the Grays, they’d been responding eagerly to the satyr’s questions Undoubtedly Caleb had glamoured them to believe he was a journalist or a policeman, but when they saw ar passed over Sheila’s face