PETER SCANNED THE parking lot for strangers. One glance at Jackie’s bashed arm and bloodied shirt would force any sane person to dial 911.
Only a few cars aside from Jay’s occupied the strip mall parking lot. The sun had set during their drive to Grovestown, and the pink-tinted sky made the gloomy atmosphere of the strip mall even more nerve-wracking. Their only source of light came from a collection of building windows to their left.
On the corner stood a gas station, its connected convenience store emitting a nasty yellow glow. Next to it was Grove Aid, a local drugstore where Jay currently rummaged through first-aid supplies. The remainder of the buildings in the area had closed, their light-up store names dimmed and windows blacked out.
Jackie and Kat stared at the busy road to their right. Across the street from the strip mall parking lot was Grovestown High, which meant they were currently in central Grovestown—the most active part of Grovestown—as hard as that was to believe. Peter had never spent time in Grovestown before, but he’d always imagined that it’d be at least slightly more exciting than what people made it out to be. It really wasn’t.
“Grove Aid? Really, that’s the best name those losers could come up with?” Peter tried to spot Jay through the windows. “Why don’t we wait for him inside the car?”
“Aw, Peter’s scared.” Kat tilted her head to the side, eyes nearly red under the orange haze of dusk. “I guess in this scenario it’s a good thing that I’m”—she paused—“broke and clueless. Helps me feel comfortable in a place like Grovestown.”
Peter stood silent, struck by the fact that Kat had quoted the entry he’d written about her during his sophomore year. She’d never seemed like the type of insecure person to bother reading his sick blog.
“I’m not scared because we’re in Grovestown, dummy.” Peter pointed at Jackie’s arm. “Do you see that? It looks like Jackie’s an extra in some zombie apocalypse film.”
Kat nudged Jackie’s good arm. “Someone’s awfully quiet.”
“It’s Jackie.” Peter chuckled. “Of course she’s quiet.”
Jackie grinned as the front door to Grove Aid slid open, revealing Jay’s silhouette under the dull lights bouncing off the sidewalk. He had a phone pressed between his ear and shoulder, likely on a call with someone.
“Here, hold this.” Jackie handed Peter her phone as Jay approached the car with a plastic bag dangling from his grip. Peter spotted a few bottles of water, paper towels, and a package of rolled gauze.
Peter leaned over as he took the phone from Jackie and whispered into her ear. “I’m not sure if I’d trust Jay’s doctoring skills.”
Jackie stepped away from the car, approaching her brother with a shrug. “Anything’s better than risking a hospital.”
Jay set the plastic bag on the ground. “Yeah, Jackie’s with me.” A subtle mumbling came from the other line. “Of course, Dad. We’ll be home soon. I love you too.” He ended the call and tucked the phone into his pocket before leaning over to retrieve a water bottle that had rolled out of the bag.
As Jay poured water over Jackie’s injured arm, she forced her left hand into a fist to keep from jolting away.
“So let me get this straight.” Jay stopped pouring, and Jackie sighed with relief. “You three are stuck in a game that only you can see. And it gives you these—these powers.”
“Wow.” Kat gasped. “You finally caught on.”
Jay tossed the empty water bottle back into the plastic bag and retrieved the pack of gauze. “And how do I know that Peter isn’t behind this?” He struggled to break the package open. “Surely he’s somehow involved.”
“Good observation. I’m definitely a superhuman who can teleport and stop time.” Peter didn’t bother hiding the annoyance in his voice.
“I’m sorry. You’re right.” Jay finally managed to break the package open. He gritted his teeth when his focus returned to the gash in Jackie’s arm. After a deep breath, he started wrapping the gauze around it. “I hope you don’t blame me for being suspicious. With your—you know—internet history.”
“Oh leave him alone, Jay.” Kat pushed her glasses up her nose.
“Whoa, the feline standing up for me?” Normally Peter did his best to keep his emotions in check, cloaking everything with a joking tone, but for some reason the humor didn’t come through. He sounded more surprised than he’d wanted to. “That’s new,” he added, the smile in his voice apparent this time.
Peter waited for him to speak, but Jay pretended as though he hadn’t started this conversation in the first place. As Jay wrapped Jackie’s forearm with the gauze, Peter remembered the phone Jackie had handed him and took a few steps away from the horrid scene. He disappeared behind the trunk of Jay’s car, swiped to the second page of Capsule, and tapped the new badge labeled FOUR.
“Hey Kat!”
Her footsteps grew louder until she joined him behind the car. “What?”
“Looks like you missed out on the new power-up. Listen to this one.” He read the description aloud. “Clear the previous hour of memory from another mind. Eye contact must be made with the person of interest during activation. That would’ve been perfect to use on Jay. And it only costs two hours. What a deal!”
Kat had explained everything to Jay on the drive from Emmeline’s tree to Grove Aid, but Peter wasn’t convinced Jay had fully grasped an understanding of their situation, especially because Jay had accused him of somehow playing a role in Capsule’s development. The fact that he’d agreed to forgo a trip to the hospital was proof that at least some of the story had seeped in. Even the strangeness of finding the trio must have been enough to partially suppress his common sense. First he nearly ran over Peter on Quasso Drive, next Jackie fell from Emmeline’s tree, and finally, Peter and Kat magically appeared in the back seat of his car. While he was driving. The poor guy would probably eat up any answers he could get.
“Actually, I’m happy with the power-up I used. Jay deserves an explanation for once, even if it’s only in this timeline.” Kat faced the road bordering the parking lot, watching the cars rush down the bustling street. “Remember what Jackie told us? About how Jay reacted to our disappearances?”
“Your disappearance.” Peter shut off Jackie’s phone with a bold click and tucked it into his pocket.
“Fine, my disappearance.” Kat leaned her back against the trunk of the car, watching the dull impression of stars appearing above them. “Jackie said he was constantly scrolling through social media, searching for clues. But there was one thing that really stood out to me about her story.”
“Really building the hype here.”
“Jackie said he started reading his own music again. That she saw a page with the words Dear Stranger in his hand. But that wasn’t his music. It was the collection of poems we found together on one of our trips to Quasso Drive. Two years ago, Jay and I found the poems resting under a—”
“Blue hydrangea. I saw, remember?” Peter frowned. Where is she going with this?
“What I’m trying to say is that Jay thought my disappearance had something to do with Emmeline’s death. Isn’t that crazy? Can you imagine how confused he must have been? He personally knew two sisters. One missing, one dead. I’m sure he wanted answers more than anyone, and I bet it was eating him alive.”
Kat had said she couldn’t feel anything, but as Peter looked at her that night, her eyes radiated warmth, and it made him smile. Maybe she really could be genuine.
His focus wandered from Kat as chattering filled the air. He peeked around the opposite side of Jay’s car, spotting a group of four girls exiting the convenience store next to Grove Aid. He held his breath, worrying they might make a left turn and spot Jay’s unprofessional first-aid operation, but thankfully, they walked forward together, cold frappuccinos in hand. The drinks must have come from one of those filthy gas station coffee dispensers.
Overpriced sugar bombs at night. Peter frowned. How accurate for a group of teenage girls.
The girls were dressed with clothes slightly too elegant to be labeled as casual and had their hair straightened so thin Peter nearly assumed they were malnourished. The only girl with any volume to her hair was the one to the far right of their group, whose natural locks sprouted from her head. She wore a navy corduroy jacket over her dress to keep warm with the logo of Ravensburg University Prep embroidered at the chest. Peter huffed at the sight of it, but then he saw her face.
And it was her.
The girl.
Staring at her glittering gold dress in the parking lot of the Grovestown strip mall, he couldn’t deny it. Her hair was longer now—almost obnoxiously long, as it reached down to her waist—and she wore heavier makeup than Peter thought a girl her age should bother with, but it was her.
Isabella.
Peter stepped away from the back of Jay’s car to get a better view.
“No way.” Kat joined him at his side. “It’s her.”
She was the girl Nicholas had saved. The girl Peter had shouted at when she’d tried to help him. She was her.
Isabella.
To the rest of the world she was just a high school girl. But to Peter, she was a nightmare.
A tragic miracle.
A wrong place at the right time.
Peter’s face grew red. He stepped closer to the group of girls, who were now approaching a car a few empty spaces away. He was eager to catch Isabella’s attention, but when her eyes met his, he froze.
Two years.
Nearly two years had passed since he’d last seen her, and people could change a lot in two years. Peter sure had. Isabella was fourteen now, a freshman in high school, and she looked different. Recognizable, but different. Her honey eyes glimmered under the dull light, enhanced by her tears. She deviated from her group of girls, approaching Peter nearly at a running pace and wrapping her arms around him.
Peter gulped. Why? He’d shouted awful words at her, yet she’d continued to send him her letters. Letter after letter for nearly two years straight. It didn’t make sense.
Peter knew how people worked. The pattern was always the same. Always. He’d say rude things, they’d say ruder things back. He’d show hatred, they’d show malice. Some people took longer than others to snap. He thought Isabella simply had a high tolerance for his toxic self, but even now, she’d failed to give Peter what he deserved. After all those months, what he needed was a punch in the face.
But she hugged him.
And for some reason, he calmed his nerves and hugged her back.
The two stood in the middle of a mostly-empty parking lot. Her drink pressed against his back, but he didn’t shiver. Neither of them said a word. There were no explanations needed.
Peter’s eyes watered, so he shut them and hugged her tighter.
Nearly two years since Nicholas had died, and to each other, they were all they had left of him.
When they pulled away from each other, Isabella reached into the zippered pocket of her jacket. She held the screen of her phone out so Peter could see. “Maybe it’s weird,” she said, “but I still keep his photo with me.” Her lock screen featured Nicholas Moon. It was the same black-and-white photo Peter’s dad had given him following his uncle’s death—the one Peter had used for his own phone’s lock screen. Mr. Moon must have given one to Isabella too.
“Thank you.” Peter rubbed his eyes as he took a step back. “I haven’t read any of your letters in a while, by the way.”
“It’s okay.” Isabella shook her head. “You didn’t have to.”
He paused. “Well, what was in them?”
Her smile lit the parking lot on fire. “I wrote about all of the amazing things that have happened in my life—all that I’m grateful for.” She zipped her phone back into her pocket as the orange warmth in the sky started to fade. “I have Nicholas to thank for everything, but I can’t really thank him personally, so I figured the least I could do was make sure you know that his death wasn’t in vain.”
Peter wasn’t sure what to think anymore. He’d been told by various sources that Isabella must have felt guilty for what had happened that day. Nicholas had died for her. Peter assumed she lived in misery and that her letters, at some point, had shifted from kindness to hate. But that hadn’t been the case at all. Isabella was trying to make the most of what Nicholas had gifted her.
“I’m sorry about what I said.” Peter looked away from Isabella, his eyes landing on the presence of Jackie and Jay stepping around the front of the Honda. Jackie wore Jay’s checkered flannel, buttoned all the way up to cover the stains of blood on her blue shirt. Her arms were shielded by the sleeves, so the only sign of injury was a thin strip of gauze wrapped around her palm. “I just—he was so perfect and I couldn’t help but wonder—”
“Why it had to be him,” Isabella finished. “Me too.”
The three high school girls behind her stared at the scene with grinning faces. Although Peter didn’t recognize them, they were dressed similar to Isabella and most likely were also from Ravensburg University Prep. Quite a drive.
“So what are you doing in Grovestown?” Peter asked.
“The high school here is hosting a spring dance.”
“Spring dance? Like prom?”
“No, not prom.” Isabella’s friends burst into laughter, and she offered them a harsh glare. “Grovestown’s really small, so they have a spring dance open to all grades.”
“And all schools,” one of her friends shouted. “That’s how desperate they are to get a full gym.”
“You should come with your friends,” Isabella added. “I heard it’s pretty lame, but the people are great.”
Peter scanned his thrift store outfit. “I don’t think so.”
“Well, it’s Grovestown. Doesn’t have to be anything fancy.” A car door slammed shut as Isabella’s friends loaded into the car, a subtle sign for her to hurry up. Isabella walked backward, making a gradual exit. “Think about it.”
“We can’t.” Peter made eye contact with Jackie. “We’re in a bit of a rush.”
“It’s cool. But Moon?” Isabella pointed at Peter, her hair rustling over her shoulders as she opened the back door to the car. “Write back to me sometime, will you?”
Before Peter could open his mouth, Isabella had already disappeared into the car. He stared at the door long after she’d entered it, his heart pounding, mind racing. None of it made sense, and it was driving him crazy. Why wasn’t she mad? How did she manage to be so kind to him despite all he’d done?
Peter couldn’t explain what he felt, but he knew he was glad he’d run into Isabella.
As the car with Isabella and her friends pulled out of the parking space and disappeared, Jackie, Jay, and Kat approached him.
“So who was that?” Jay asked.
Peter grinned. “Isabella.”
“Okay,” Jay said slowly. “And Isabella is who exactly?”
Peter reached into his pocket, unlocked Jackie’s phone, and opened the Capsule app. “I need to use the first power-up.” He narrowed his eyes at ONE, which upon activation would give them an extra glance into the past. A bonus memory.
“Power-up?” Jay asked. “Like the crazy thing that happened in the car earlier?”
“Don’t worry about it. To you it’ll be like nothing happened.” Peter hovered his thumb over the activation button, stopping to seek approval from Jackie and Kat. Jackie didn’t protest, and Kat smiled lightly, so he tapped the screen and muttered, “Show me how Nicholas saved Isabella.”