For Nevermore Season 1

overlooking the sea. She went outside to join him. Only it wasn’t her dad on the balcony, but rather Dante. He turned, his dark hair blowing in the salty wind. He smiled, but there was a sadness in his eyes.
    “You’re here!” she said, wanting to run to him and hug him, hold him, and never let him go. But for some reason, he never let her touch him. As if doing so would cause him to vanish.
    “Noella,” he said, “You can see me?”
    “Yes, of course I can. It’s been so long,” Noella cried. “Where were you, and where have you been?”
    “You didn’t need me.”
    How can he say I didn’t need him? Doesn’t he realize that I always need him, and missed him when he went away, like winter waiting on a summer sky?
    “But you’re back now?” Noella asked, confused and terrified by whatever he wasn’t saying.
    He nodded.
    “Why?” Noella whispered.
    “Because now you need me,” he said. “They found you. They’re coming for you.”
    “What do you mean? Who’s coming?” Noella asked, fear growing in her gut.
    Dante never answered. He was gone, and Noella was suddenly bobbing on her back in an endless ocean, the sky churning above her in dark swirling clouds. Lightning pulsated behind the clouds like strobe lights, almost blinking a pattern. Thunder exploded above her, so loud it scared her and she momentarily went under. She surfaced, spitting salt water from her mouth, as the sky’s light show sped up.
    It is a pattern!
    But what does it mean?
    Another explosion rocked the world, and she went under again. When she came up, she was back in her bed, bladder about to burst. She ran into the bathroom and peed what seemed a gallon.
    Noella crept back to bed, still half asleep, though suddenly alert at the sight of the house across the street. A light was on in the upstairs room directly across from her — Sam’s old room.
    Someone was inside.
    Not just someone . . . he was inside.
    She rubbed her eyes and blinked at the impossible.
    Dante was in the house across the street, staring right back at her, real and in the flesh.
    No way!
    She looked down at her bookcase in search of the binoculars she hadn’t used in more than a year. Her hands found them and removed the caps, then brought them to her eyes to focus on the house across the street.
    The light went out and Noella was suddenly in the dark, alone with the impossible.
    She had to be seeing things.
    Tears flooded her eyes, convinced that she was losing her mind . . . again.
    Noella pulled the curtains closed, then crawled back into bed, terrified.
    He isn’t real.
    He can’t be.
    Things were about to get bad. Her dreams were invading her world again. Even though it was the last thing in the world Noella wanted to do, she decided that she’d have to tell Josie tomorrow, so they could call Dr. Foster.

    * * * *

CHAPTER FOUR

    Friday, October 26
    morning

    Day one of Noella’s blackout fell on her birthday, which meant waking up miserable, just as she’d spent every birthday since she knew what miserable meant. Each year seemed to be worse than the one before, though nothing could be worse than the first, except for maybe the seventh.
    Noella pushed herself from her funk and tried not to mope through the house as she made her way through the usual chores, giving extra elbow grease to every line on the list since Randy would come home looking for any reason to make her start again at the top, or hand her a new list altogether. That meant hospital corners on all the beds, an extra layer of Liquid Gold on the wood, and pointy triangles on every fresh roll of toilet paper.
    As weird as it was, Noella liked doing housework. It was one of the few times that she could focus on something other than her constant internal chatter. Concentrating on doing housework meant not having to dwell on things.
    However, as much as she put into her work, nothing could keep her eyes from drifting across the street every time she passed the front window.
    The moving truck was gone, and in its place, a midnight blue and gray Honda Element. Since it was daytime, she couldn’t see what was happening behind the open blinds in the windows of the house. Other than the Element, the property looked every bit as vacant as it had with the “For Sale” sign decorating the lawn.
    “Curious about the new neighbors?” Josie said, sneaking up behind Noella and following her gaze across the street.
    Noella leaned on the broom and turned to Josie. “Yeah, just wondering