Boo lays in bed that night, restlessly watching the shadows dance across her ceiling while her mind spins in circles. No matter how hard she tries, she can't get her grandmother's frightened voice out of her head.

"Get out!"

Martha's shrill scream replays over and over. Boo's throat tightens as she briefly wonders what her grandmother's last words were; if she sounded as terrified during the hurricane as she did on the tape.

In a time as confusing and frightening as this, Martha would be the first number Boo dials for comfort. Each dull thud of her heart is heavy with the things she's dying to ask her grandmother; so many questions left unanswered, only keeping her from healing. Beneath that, Boo longs for the simple stability that came with her grandmother, before Monroe so cruelly uprooted her last thread of safety-all the quiet mornings they shared together, just talking about their days or their plans for the future. A life Boo once thought boring is now the only thing she wishes she could have back.

But with that option long gone, she's left to resort to her next companion.

Harry.

To her surprise, he picks up after only two rings despite it being well after eleven at night.

"You're awake," she blunders, unable to think of a proper greeting.

He laughs breathily. "It would appear that way, yes. Did you just call to confirm that?"

"N-No," she stammers, somewhat caught off guard by his reply. "Sorry, I just . . . I can't sleep. I keep hearing her in my head."

He exhales softly and Boo knows that he knows. "I'm sorry, love. Tell me what you need and it's yours."

She pushes a hand through her bedridden hair. "Would you mind coming over? Just for a little while. I could use the company."

Her ears fill with the sound of muted shuffling and a door creaking open. "I'll be there in ten."

« • »

Ten minutes later on the dot, Harry shows up on Boo's doorstep in a pair of black sweats and a tattered gray shirt. He gives her a boyish grin as she pulls open the door and she has to refrain from swooning into his arms.

"C-Come in," she chatters, brought back to reality by a gust of cool wind sweeping in through the open door.

He flashes her his dimples before ambling inside. Boo shuts the door and sighs quietly, keeping her back to him for the smallest of moments.

"Thank you," she says softly, turning to see him already watching her. He nods immediately and she brushes past him, heading for the kitchen. "Can I get you something to drink? You hungry?"

He stays curiously quiet. Boo hesitates, waiting for his answer, before finally glancing back to see him already seated on her couch, fully engrossed in something on the television.

"What is it?" she asks, padding over.

He gestures to the screen. Boo's eyes widen when she sees the name Damien Burkwell flash across the screen in bold lettering.

Of course. Eugenia had mentioned the forty-fifth anniversary of his disappearance was today. Boo slowly sinks down into the cushions beside Harry, strangely drawn to the news special covering Damien.

"They've been running this segment all day," Harry whispers in her ear. "I saw it earlier this morning."

"Funny how people only care about him now that he's a commodity," she replies bitterly.

"Damien Burkwell, a local resident of Jack Creek, disappeared under mysterious circumstances during the early summer of nineteen-sixty-nine while on a supposed fishing trip. Since he vanished, no evidence of his whereabouts or his fate has ever been found.

"There are dozens of theories to explain what happened to him; however, the most popular theory, and the one the police have publicly backed, is that Damien simply skipped town due to numerous rumors about his sexuality."

Boo frowns. That's news to her. She glances at Harry, who seems equally confused.

"His sexuality?" he asks softly. "Why would he run away over that?"

Boo chews on the inside of her lip. "It was a different time. On top of being black, if Damien really was gay . . . he definitely wouldn't have been safe here. Who knows, maybe he really did just run away."

The newscaster continues with a voiceover of Damien's past while showcasing several grainy school-age photographs of him. "Damien was born to two loving parents, Yvonne and Carlson, in nineteen-forty-nine. He graduated from Primark High School in nineteen-sixty-seven and was an avid sportsman. His younger half-sister, Hazel Commons, is still alive and currently resides in the family home. Miss Commons has always been vocal about her beliefs regarding what happened to her brother."

Another smiling photo of young Damien flits onto the screen, accompanied by a crackled audio recording of a woman's voice, presumably Hazel.

"He ain't run 'way, I tell you that," she says somberly. "My brother loved me. He would'a never left me behind."

The room suddenly seems frighteningly cold. Something about Damien's disappearance always had the chilling ability to crawl under Boo's skin and affect her in the most debilitating way. She sinks further down into the couch and begins vigorously chafing her arms for warmth.

"Are you cold?" Harry laughs quietly. He shifts to look at her and the blue light from the television throws strange shadows across his angular features. Boo finds herself momentarily caught in a trance from the way he's looking at her.

"Yes," she grumbles. "It's summer but God, sometimes it feels like I live in an icebox."

A Cheshire grin spreads across his face; seems he's spotted an opening he intends to take advantage of. "Do you want to lay with me?"

Her heart nearly stops beating in her chest. Sand fills her throat and she fumbles to string together a proper sentence. He takes her silence as a yes and immediately moves to a reclined position, hands folded lightly on his stomach and a smirk on his lips as he waits for her reply.

"Can I?" she finally asks in a small voice. Her cheeks begin to burn in embarrassment.

"Are you waiting for a written invitation?" he whispers cheekily.

"Shut up," Boo laughs quietly, already inching closer to him. Her knee brushes his leg and she can feel the stark heat of his body even through his sweatpants.

Harry merely flashes her another crooked grin before opening up his arms to her.

Without further words, Boo crawls over and nestles into the crook of his arms, tucked snugly between the couch and Harry's left side. His arm wraps around her back while one of her arms comes to rest on his chest, gently tracing circles into the fabric of his shirt. He breathes in, she breathes out, moving in time like dancers in sync. A moment of calm passes before Boo moves her ear to his chest, silently memorizing the familiar way his heartbeat sounds. Each beat is a gentle reminder of safety; a lighthouse's swirling lamp finally cutting through the gloomy fog.

Her eyes go back to the television. The news is finishing up their short segment on Damien. Boo sighs and the muted rumbling in her lungs briefly returns.

"Can't believe someone can just vanish like that," she murmurs. "Imagine how his family must have felt."

Her heart thumps painfully in her chest, feeling not only the weight of Martha's death but now a kindred sense of grief for Damien's family.

Harry's arm tightens around her shoulders. "Strange how a town this small could have this much heartache attached to it."

His words strike a chord. Boo briefly wonders what it is about their little town that attracts such unrelenting misery. Surely something evil lingers within the city limits; there had to be a reason that terrible things keep happening to Jack Creek. The thought of encountering the reason for the city's misfortune makes Boo shudder in fear.

She squeezes Harry tighter as a response, shrinking closer to his warmth as if he could somehow shield her from the inevitable impact of tragedy.

hello friends, it's really good to see you again. i hope you didn't mind me taking a little break (again lol), but sometimes life becomes overwhelming and costs me the one thing that brings me great joy, which is writing. this step back has helped give me new perspective as well as challenged the way i look at myself as a person and as a creator. i have a few projects in mind for the future, but for now dandelion will remain an only child. hope you enjoyed this chapter!

what have you been up to since we last spoke? are you happy at the moment? x