Helen heard something up on the roof. She ran up the
stairs to the widow?s walk and threw the door open as
fast as she could, but the widow?s walk was empty. She
sighed, relieved. She didn?t want any of the Delos kids
sleeping on her roof anymore. She especially didn?t
want Lucas listening to her while she had nightmares, and she had
just woken up from another horrible one. She looked around at the
empty widow?s walk, feeling desolate and lonely, but she wasn?t
sure if that was because of a dream or because of her waking life.
She went back down to her bedroom and forced herself to notice
the writing on the mirror. Then she wrote I SAW IT AGAIN in
Claire?s green eyeliner and made herself to stare at the words. That
was two nights in a row she?d seen the river she couldn?t remember.
She was racking her brain trying to picture it, but her mind?s
eye kept looking away. Suddenly, she spotted her own reflection in
the mirror and gasped.
Her cheeks were sunken in, her nightshirt was pulled out of
shape, and her arms and legs were covered in icky black muck.
River muck.
She had seen a river with black banks and gray water. She could
remember thirst and not being able to drink. But why was it such a
struggle to remember anything else that had happened? She focused
her thoughts to try and bring the memory back.
Her thirst was tormenting her so she had gone down to the water.
She leaned over the foul banks of black mud and saw pale,
crippled fish bumping around clumsily, as if they had forgotten
how to swim. She backed away from the river, refusing to drink
that water even if she died of thirst with the sound of its current
rushing in her ears. . . .
Helen ran to the bathroom and threw herself into the shower, rubbing