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What if they were already inside? What if Michael?

She heard a soft, silvery note, and knew that Michael was playing downstairs So about that helped - pushed the shadows back, turned the sounds into so It was just a house, and they were just kids sharing it, and if there was anything wrong, well, it was outside

She must have slept then, but it didn't feel like it; some noise startled her awake, and when Claire checked the clock next to her bed it was close to five thirty The sky wasn't light outside, but it wasn't totally dark, either; the stars were faded, soft sparkles in a sky gradually turning dark blue

Michael's guitar was still going, very quietly Didn't he ever sleep? Claire slid out of bed, tossed a blanket over her shoulders over the T-shirt she wore to bed, and shuffled out and into the still-dark hallway As she passed the hidden door she glanced at it and shivered, then continued on to the bathroootten that out of the way - and brushed her hair - she crept quietly down the steps and sat down, blanket around her, listening to Michael play

His head was down, and he was deep into it; she watched his fingers s, his body rock sloith the rhyth bad could happen around Michael She just knew it

Next to him, a clock beeped an alarot up and put his guitar away She watched, puzzled Did he have soo to bed? Wow, that was obsession

Michael stood, watching the clock as if it were his personal enemy, and then he turned and walked over to the

The sky was the color of dark turquoise now, all but the strongest stars faded Michael, holding a beer in his hand, drank the rest of the bottle and put it down on the table, crossed his arms, and waited

Claire was about to ask hi for when the first ray of sun crept up in a blinding orange knife, and Michael gasped and hunched over, pressing on his stomach

Claire lunged to her feet, startled and afraid for the look of sheer agony on his face The ht his attention, and he jerked his head toward her, blue eyes wide

"No," he"Don't"

She ignored that and jumped down the stairs to run to his side, but once she was there she didn't knohat to do, didn't have any idea how to help hiasps, in terrible pain

She put her hand on his back, felt his fever-hot skin burning through the thin cloth, and heard hi she'd ever heard in her life

Like soht in panic, and opened her mouth to scream for Shane, Eve, anybody

Her hand suddenly went right through hiht in her throat as Michael - transparent Michael - looked up at her with despair and desperation in his eyes

"Oh, God, don't tell the way off, a whisper that faded on the shafts ofsun

And so did he

Claire, mouth still open, utterly unable to speak, waved her hand slowly through the thin air where Michael Glass had been standing Slowly, then faster The air felt cold around her, like she was standing in a blast from an air conditioner, and the chill slowly faded

Like Michael

"Oh my God," she whispered, and clapped both hands over her mouth

And muffled the scream that she had to let out or explode

Sheshe knew, she was sitting on the couch, next to Michael's guitar case, and she felt kind of funny Bad funny, as if her brain had turned liquid and sloshed around in her head

Weirdly calh She reached over and touched the leather cover of his guitar case It felt real