Chapter Fifteen

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

WE FOUND THE cat in the music room.

Sitting on the piano. Staring at the keys like it was trying to decide if it remembered how to play.

It was orange. Fat. Regal. Like it owned the damn ship.

Evelyn smiled and walked right up to it. Scratched behind its ear like they were old friends.

“This is Ghost,” she said.

“You named it Ghost?”

“No. That’s its name.”

“…Right.”

She sat beside the piano. I stood near the window. The cat looked at me, then slowly blinked.

“He shows up when something’s about to change,” she said.

“What kind of change?”

“The irreversible kind.”

Ghost meowed. Loud. Once. Then hopped off the piano and waddled into the hallway like it had somewhere very important to be.

Evelyn looked at me. Serious again.

“I think we’re almost out of time.”

“Halfway,” I said.

She nodded.

“Do you know how it ends?”

I hesitated.

“…No.”

She didn’t believe me.
I didn’t believe me, either.

We didn’t kiss that night.

We sat on the edge of the deck and watched the moon rise in silence.
Her head on my shoulder.
The ocean whispering secrets we weren’t ready to hear.

Somewhere far away, thunder cracked.

But not from the sky.

From underneath.