The Moon He Could Never Reach

"Still sulking? Come on. There's a big event at the haunted house tomorrow. Penelope texted me asking if you'd come, so I signed you up. Let's go together, get your mind off things."

My knuckles went white around the phone.

He'd forgotten again.

I had night blindness. I was afraid of the dark.

Somewhere on his end people were pushing drinks on him. Jordan said, quick and careless, "That's settled, then. If you get home first, just go to sleep."

The dial tone hummed in my ear, and I broke down all over again.

The next day, at the entrance to the haunted house, Jordan walked ahead, holding my hand.

Penelope trailed behind us. Today she wasn't playing one of the actors. Today she'd come as Jordan's invited guest.

The first time an actor lunged right up into my face, my whole body seized and I flinched back on instinct. Jordan pulled me in to steady me.

"Don't be scared. None of it's real."

Beside us, Penelope let out a low little whimper.

Almost at once, Jordan's head turned toward her, and his grip on my fingers went slack.

"If you're scared, say so. You all right?"

Penelope shook her head. Before she could get anything out, we hit the fork in the path, and the crowd began to shove.

Penelope stumbled from the press of it.

I clutched Jordan's fingers, but he left me without a flicker of hesitation.

His arm went right past me. He turned, put himself in front of her, and gathered her into his arms.

The crowd was still splitting and scattering. I was carried along, pushed deeper inside.

When I looked back, Jordan and Penelope had already disappeared into the entrance of the stairwell on the right.

When he came out through the exit, Jordan narrowed his eyes for a moment.

Then he looked down at Penelope. "You're not hurt, are you? You lost your footing back there. Did you twist your ankle?"

Penelope was just starting to gesture when a staff member came rushing past them.

"There's a girl who didn't come out on that other path. Call the others, quick. Somebody's going back in to find her."

"Is it that girl with the flaxen curls?"

"Yes, that's the one! On the security feed it looked like she fell, clutching her stomach…"

"She's not pregnant, is she? You can't let that kind of thing wait."

The moment Jordan heard it, the color drained from his face.

Only then did he realize Caroline was gone. When had they even gotten separated?

With a shaking hand, he dug out his phone.

"The number you have dialed is switched off."