deepest stage of twilight has fallen. Night has not yet quite arrived, but already this is a truer darkness than is ever experienced in the city, with only flashlights and a flickering campfire below, and the wheel of stars above.
The camera rests on a small tripod, all of the LARC researchers and their young tagalong in frame. Sophia curls against her mother’s side, watching the other adults with wide eyes.
NOVAK: —for us to be out here, but not her? Sophie’s been camping all her life. It’ll be fine.
KAPOOR: Maybe we should take this as a sign that we should all go back.
HARDCASTLE: We don’t all need to go back.
BAKER: I’m not going back, no way.
HARDCASTLE: Joy, you take her, and—
CARREAU: And what? Then we are here and we have no boat. The girl is quiet as a mouse. The number of times she’s been in the room and I didn’t notice until she nearly gave me a heart attack . . .
He laughs.
BAKER: We can’t keep a kid around while we all get drunk.
CARREAU: So some of us will not drink. I don’t drink anyway, after all.
BAKER: I thought all Frenchmen drank.
CARREAU: And yet, here I am.
NOVAK: I won’t drink either. And I’ll make sure she doesn’t bother you.
It doesn’t seem to bother Sophia that she’s being discussed. She scooches closer to the camera and wets her lips, then whispers.
SOPHIA: The singing’s going to start soon. Shhh. Listen.
The adults do not seem to hear.
CARREAU: And now, we wait.
HARDCASTLE: We might be able to spot a few meteors even before true dark.
CARREAU: I’m in no rush. Honestly, I am out here more for the human company than for a few fleeting lights in the sky.
BAKER: I was having fun before this turned G-rated.
She cuts a look at Sophia, who doesn’t seem to notice the scrutiny.
HARDCASTLE: I’m sure we can manage at least PG.
He winks at Carolyn, but she’s sunk solidly into her sullen mood and only grunts.
KAPOOR: I don’t think we should be here.
HARDCASTLE: Come on, Dr. Kapoor. Live a little. Break some rules.
KAPOOR: That’s not it.
She’s looking up. A dim flicker, the first pale hint of the Perseid meteor shower, glimmers behind her, but that isn’t what she’s looking at.
HARDCASTLE: What is it, then?
KAPOOR: For a bunch of scientists who came out here to stare at the sky, you’re not very observant. It’s August 13th—well, 14th now.
BAKER: So?
NOVAK: Oh. Oh, my God. What—
KAPOOR: Exactly.
CARREAU: I don’t understand.
KAPOOR: This is the second night of the full moon.
HARDCASTLE: And?
Sophia tugs her mother’s sleeve.
SOPHIA: But Momma. There isn’t any moon.
One by one, the researchers look upward.
The stars begin to fall.
9
THERE WAS A buzzing deep in my bones. I spun around. Expecting, hoping, to find an empty room, and Abby and Liam looking at me with that what’s wrong with her look I knew so well.
And there they were, startled into silence by my abrupt turn. But they seemed faded, their figures stuttering, as if under a dying bulb. And each time they dimmed, the beast in the shadows flickered more solidly into being.
A hole in the shape of a man. Six wings, outstretched so that they filled the church—so that they were larger than the church, the very space around it warping.
I screamed. The shadow lunged for me, past the flickering images of Abby and Liam, becoming more real as they grew less so. I threw myself backward, away from it, and hit the wall hard. I scrambled sideways, diving out the door, but my foot caught, and I spilled onto the ground, scraping my knees.
A hand grabbed my arm, yanked me around. I stared, barely comprehending, into Abby’s face. Her features were blurred, streaky like looking through dirty glass. Her words distorted.
“What’s wrong? Sophia, you have to tell me what’s happening.” Behind her, in the doorway of the church, the winged creature advanced, step by step, almost curious in its approach.
I tried to speak, gasped, tried again. “There’s something there,” I managed.
“There’s nothing there,” Liam said, bewildered. He had the radio in his hand.
“It’s coming closer,” I hissed, gripping Abby’s arm. Her expression was focused, fierce. Help me, I wanted to tell her, but the words withered in my throat as my mouth turned dry with fear.
“What’s happening to her?” Liam demanded.
The creature had stopped at the threshold. It watched me—I couldn’t see its eyes, only that empty black, but I could feel them on me. The humming in my bones was painful now. Abby’s and Liam’s forms were becoming more and