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happening, I would have assumed I was crazy like the rest of them. I wonder how many people like me assume they’re crazy, check into a “rehab” facility, and never come out again.
    “I can’t believe she’s dead.” Leela reaches into my lap and takes my hand. “I’m so sorry.”
    A lump rises in my throat. I didn’t know my grandmother, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t imagine what it might be like getting to know her, having her with me at the hub. An actual family member. I swallow before the lump can grow any larger. “The guy you drove to the Greyhound station—Clive? He betrayed us.”
    Leela’s mouth drops open.
    “You have to promise me you’ll be careful. That you’ll be on the lookout.”
    “For what?”
    “Danger. Everything’s changing, Leela. We have to leave where we are. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to visit like this again.”
    She picks at the nail polish on her thumb. “You’ll come back, though, right? When this is all over? This mess will get straightened out with you and your dad and you’ll come back and you and I can start senior year together.”
    The lump returns like a ball of hot emotion. She has no idea how much I want it to be true. I nod down at my lap, even though I’m not sure a world like that can exist again. I don’t think going back is ever really an option. And yet, that’s exactly what I want to do—go back to the way things were, when strange dreams and flashes of unexplainable light were my worst problems, before I knew anything about prophecies and transurgence. Maybe that’s another one of the enemy’s weapons. Making us so fixated on what was that we aren’t able to step forward into what is .
    Leela catches my eye and gives me a smile so reminiscent of the one she wore that first day in school that it pulls me out of my melancholy. “Can you stay for awhile?”
    I smile back. Yes, I can. We have all night, in fact. For now, that’s enough.
    She grabs a small bin of nail polish from under my bed and removes her favorite color. “Wanna hear a funny story about Beamer and a bottle of ketchup?”
    “Yes, please.”
    Leela twists off the cap and applies the pink shade to my pinkie nail. “It has to do with Summer.”
    “Even better.” The two of us grin at one another.
    Leela gets six fingernails into her story when I hear the faint, but unmistakable sound of screaming. Like the concert is coming back. Only no. This screaming is different. It’s not thousands of raised voices. It’s one.
    “He found out how to get into her locker and—”
    “What is that?”
    Leela stops. “What is what ?”
    “That screaming.”
    She cocks her head.
    The sound grows louder, more defined, and it turns my bones absolutely cold. Because I’ve heard it before.
    “Tess, are you okay?”
    “I’m sorry. I have to go.” Without explaining anything more than that, I startle.
    My eyes pop open in bed.
    The screaming continues.
    I tear off my covers and sprint toward the noise. Lights come on. Doors open. I sprint faster, then skid to a stop in front of Luka’s room. Declan kneels over him as he thrashes in bed and for one illogical moment I think Declan’s hurting him. He’s hurting Luka in the same way Scarface hurt Luka, because the way he screams and twists is the same, too.
    “Wake up, man!” Declan rattles Luka’s shoulders.
    Luka arches up, his scream splitting the air.
    I dig my fingers into my hair. My nails bite into my scalp. Stop. Make it stop!
    “You’re having a nightmare!” Declan yells.
    Luka’s eyes fly open. He sits up, his sweat-slicked undershirt plastered to his heaving chest. He looks at Declan, looming over his bed. Then he looks at me, huddled in his doorway with my hands smashed over my ears.

Chapter Thirteen
    Off, Off, and Away
    “E verybody back to bed,” Cap orders, wheeling down the hallway.
    Declan slips past me in the doorway.
    Lights turn off. Doors close.
    I force my shaky legs to stand, to go to Luka. But he