Didn’t matter how long I had been runnin’ or how soakin’ wet I was. What difference did anything make anymore? They all were chasin’ me now as I blindly ventured deep into their lairs. Ever since I came out of the water from the house, they had been hellbent on nippin’ at my heels and divin’ down from above to scratch at my face. Blamin’ me for the loss of our brother, knowin’ that in some way the fault laid at my feet. If I just hadn’t left the damn house when Stanton came callin’—that seemed like a lifetime ago—if I hadn’t sent off our boat, or even saved Celeste from a hideous death, careenin’ off the rock face into the waters below—a sacrifice to the gods maybe, but maybes were for naught … How I hoped Lonnie burnt crisp before his instincts kicked in, before the lake extinguished his
