Gone

she gave you up and kept Sam?” Drake said, laughing in his enjoyment of Caine’s humiliation.
    Caine swiveled away from Diana and extended his hands, palms out, toward Drake.
    “Mistake,” Diana said, though whether she was talking toDrake or Caine wasn’t clear.
    Something slammed Drake’s chest. It was like being hit by a truck. He was lifted off his feet and thrown against the wall. He smashed a pair of framed prints and fell in a heap.
    He made himself shake it off. He wanted to jump up and go for Caine, finish him quick before the freak could hit him again. But Caine was there, looming over him, face red, teeth bared, looking like a mad dog.
    “Remember who’s the boss, Drake,” Caine said, his voice low, guttural, like it was coming from an animal.
    Drake nodded, beaten. For now.
    “Get up,” Caine ordered. “We have work to do.”

    Astrid was on the front porch with Little Pete. It was the best place to get some sun. She sat in the big white wicker rocker with her feet propped up on the railing. Her bare legs were blazing white in the sunshine. She had always been pale and was never the kind of person who obsessed over a tan, but she was feeling the need for sunlight today. Days with Little Pete tended to be spent indoors. And after a couple of days of that, the house was turning into a prison.
    She wondered if this was how her mother had felt. Did it explain why her mother had gone from spending her every day and every night devoting herself to Little Pete to finding any excuse she could to dump him on anyone who would take him?
    The street Astrid lived on had changed in small ways since the FAYZ. Cars sat and never moved. There was never anytraffic. The lawns were all getting shaggy. The flowers that Mr. Massilio two doors down always kept so beautiful were fading, limp from lack of care. Flags were up on a couple of mailboxes, waiting for a mailman who was never coming. There was an open umbrella blowing listlessly down the street, moving an inch or two at a time. A couple of houses away some wild animal, or maybe just a hungry pet, had overturned the garbage can and spilled blackened banana peels and sodden newspapers and chicken bones down the driveway.
    Astrid spotted Sam pedaling furiously on his bike. He’d said he would come by to take her to the grocery store and she had been waiting for him with an uncomfortable mix of emotions. She wanted to see him. And she was nervous about it.
    The kiss had definitely been a mistake.
    Unless it wasn’t.
    Sam threw his bike on the lawn and climbed the steps.
    “Hi, Sam.” It was clear that he was upset. She lowered her legs and sat forward.
    “Anna and Emma just poofed.”
    “What?”
    “I was standing there. I was watching them. I was holding Anna’s hand when it happened.”
    Astrid rose and without really thinking about it wrapped her arms around Sam like she did when she was trying to comfort Little Pete.
    But unlike Little Pete, Sam responded to her touch by awkwardly hugging her back. For a moment his face was in herhair and she heard his ragged breathing close to her ear. And it seemed like they might do it again, the kissing thing, but then, both at once, they pushed away.
    “She was scared,” Sam said. “Anna, I mean. She saw Emma disappear. They were born just six minutes apart. So, first Emma. Then Anna, waiting for it. Knowing it was coming.”
    “How horrible. Sam, come inside.” She glanced at her brother. He was playing his game, as usual.
    Astrid led Sam to the kitchen and poured him a glass of water. He drank half of it in a single gulp.
    “I have five days,” Sam fretted. “Five. Days. Not even a week.”
    “You don’t know that for sure.”
    “Don’t, okay? Just don’t. Don’t tell me some story about how it’s all going to be fine. It’s not going to be fine.”
    “Okay,” Astrid said. “You’re right. Somehow, age fifteen is this line, and when you reach it, you poof out.”
    That confirmation seemed to calm him down. He had just needed to have the truth set out clearly without evasions. It occurred to Astrid that this was a way she could help Sam, not just now, but in the future. If they had a future.
    “I was avoiding it. Not thinking about it. I’d kind of convinced myself it wasn’t going to happen.” He managed a wry grin, mostly, it seemed, for her benefit. He could see his own fear reflected in her and now he was trying to tamp it down. “On the plus side, it means I don’t have to worry