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Lana, for instance, claimed to be able to see people’s auras, that everyone was surrounded by a cloud of color that said something about them.
every once in a while, Mom mentioned Jesus like he was one of her best friends from childhood whom she hadn’t spoken to in a long time.
I won’t hurt you. Not if you do as I say. Tell me: Do you know who I am? She swallowed. The tears rolled down the sides of her head. She whispered into the dark: You’re Him.
I think if you have to work, it’s better to have a job where you’re helping people than one where you’re just, like, working a cash register or something.”
I believe you when you say you’re seeing something. But I don’t see it, so it’s not real to me.”
I don’t know what to do. I’m so alone. You’re not alone. Not anymore.
You know how you do things in a dream that actually make no sense but while you’re in the dream it all seems to make sense?
She supposes this is what they were trying to warn them about in those seminars at Needmore on responsible use of social media, how addictive these sites can be, how it’s possible to feel like your real life is happening online instead of in the flesh and blood world.
She has balled her hands up into fists, and her whole body is trembling. At first, Maddie thinks the other woman is afraid of her, but then she realizes that the look on her face is rage.
“There’s always been something a little off with the Prescott girl.”
She had never said anything to Maddie, but Maddie knew that Lana didn’t like it that she already had boobs. She could just tell.
It was the most fun Maddie had had all summer, and she hadn’t thought about Lana or Him all day. No, Maddie thought, glancing at Sage, who was lying in the sun with her eyes closed, it was nice to not have to think or talk about Him. Today, right now, she was free.
As it was, this was the last real day of Maddie’s childhood, though of course she didn’t know it. In some other timeline, this is the day that begins Maddie’s close friendship with Sage. Maybe she draws closer to Sage and drifts away from Lana. There it is: another life.
A tall billboard near the entrance cast long shadows over the pavement, and it was there, in the shade, that she saw Him. A single man, standing completely still, watching them; He appeared to be wearing a long, dark coat, and it was this detail—a long coat in the middle of a hot day in July—that made Maddie’s breath catch in her throat, made her sure it was Him.
Everyone you know is blind. Only you can see. There’s a price for seeing things you’re not supposed to see.
Maddie was actually an inch taller than her. The only advantage she had was surprise. The knife had to go in clean on her first try.
Wow so she first planned to murder her bestie?
Lana might have thought she’d feel jealous to have to share Him with anyone, even Maddie, but she didn’t feel that now. It was such a relief, to know that it wasn’t just her, that she wasn’t actually going crazy.
It has to be an innocent
Maddie remembers how easily he was caught, how poorly planned the rape was, and she thinks that Luke can’t be very smart.
“Don’t. Don’t do that.” His voice cuts through the air. Everything else he said has been a little canned, rehearsed perhaps, and this is his first genuine utterance, a refusal to even entertain the possibility of her apology. It silences her completely.
“Well, that’s just great. What are we going to tell Steve?” “That’s what you’re thinking about?” “It was a miracle Cindy was willing to hire you. That was a good job that you just threw away.”
Woooww
They had never been close, but after what Maddie did, it was like Mom just shut part of herself off, walled herself away from her. She gave everything she had left to Steve.
Yea super unhealthy relationship between her and Steve
“It has to be a person. He says we have to sacrifice a person. If we want to be with Him forever. A life for a life.”
“I can’t. I just can’t do it. There must be another way.” She would remember this later, how good she felt when she said this, how morally certain, how everything, for a brief moment, was so clear.
“If you’re really my best friend, you’ll do this for me.” This was a phrase that always in the past would have been met with Maddie’s compliance, but somehow it was the exact wrong thing to say at that moment, as if Lana could bully her into doing something she didn’t want to do, something this big. The energy shifted; suddenly Maddie was no longer under Lana’s spell.
Someone’s evil twin was pretending to be her. Someone the characters all thought was dead was not.
Sounds like an episode of "Pretty Little Liars" to me. LMAO
Henry had pointedly left his behind at Aunt Kate’s, saying that you couldn’t really take pictures of something and truly experience it at the same time.
I kinda agree. It's Why I don't like taking too many vids on my phone when I'm at an event
the more she said nothing about the woman, the more it seemed she had nothing at all to say to her father. She didn’t understand what she’d seen, but she knew instinctively it was something she was not supposed to see, that it was something wrong.
In her black coat with her pale skin and dark hair, it occurred to her suddenly that she was dressed like Him, that she looked like Him.
The throng of people walking down the boardwalk were faceless—or rather, where their faces should have been, there were only patches of color, as if someone had smeared wet paint.
Maybe He exists after all, she thinks, just not in the way that she and Lana thought.
“Do you want to, like, kiss or whatever?”
LMAO wow really? They barely know each. I'd be appalled at the thought as a 12 year-old and thinking about this as an adult I still am!
She wasn’t sure what was happening until her knees were in the grass and Ethan was taking his penis out of his swimsuit.
WTH! That sure escalated quickly ! It's like a bad porno scene which is even more disturbing since this one stars horny middle schoolers *gags*
If she had to choose, she would choose herself, every time. If she had to choose between Sage and herself, she would choose herself. If she had to choose between Sage and Lana, she would choose Lana. But choosing Lana also meant choosing Him.
“So now you know,” Lana said. “She’s not one of us. She’s not really your friend.”
Odd logic. So Sage likes the same boy that Maddie does, who Maddie refused to admit she even liked, so naturally it follows she wasn't Maddie's true friend?! What!? lol
she’d thought they were going to kiss. She hadn’t meant for it to go that far, not with some boy she barely knew.
well I'm glad to hear that at least . Guess that whole situation was a result of peer pressure and hormones.
If she thought about it like something that had already happened, a decision already made, then it didn’t feel so bad; then it was just something that had already happened, out of her control.
they no longer fear her as much as they once did. A set of dull knives has found its way back into the cutlery drawer in the kitchen, and sometimes a single, small paring knife has been left on the counter when she does the washing up.
But maybe it’s foolish to think that leaving the past behind could be as simple as changing your physical location.
In the end, everyone saw through Lana’s lies. All the physical evidence was against her: the knife was from her house, her prints were all over it, the blood was all over her clothes. But that didn’t do much to make Maddie feel better; it didn’t diminish the gut punch of betrayal that day in the courtroom, when she realized she’d never really known Lana at all.
Gabriela’s lips turn up in a smile, and a look passes between the two of them, as if they have some special secret. Maddie understands suddenly that she is only here to give Gabriela a chance to have drinks with Omar.
The man was in front of her. She was finally going to get what she deserved. Then Gabriela and Omar saved her. A mistake: they don’t know who she really is.
“I’m twenty-two. I’m a grown-up, and you can’t tell me what to do.” “You’re a grown-up living in my house. And yes, I know, I’m not your father either. But your real father isn’t here, is he?” Maddie blinks. They both know it’s a low blow.
This guy is such a douche
I am a twenty-two-year-old female and I believe that I would make a suitable sacrifice. I would be happy to die for the cause of allowing HIM to cross over.
“Where’s Merlin?” Maddie asked, probably because she had noticed the same smell. Lana shrugged. “He’s around somewhere,”
Have we seen this cat even once? lol We keep hearing about him but he's always absent. Part of me thinks this is gonna be a clue and the book'll reveal Lana is a full-on psycho who's practiced murder by mutilating her cat first.
Lana closed her eyes. This time she spoke to Him. Please, stop. When the indicator tugged again under her fingers, she waited for it to find the N, but instead it stopped at M. She looked over at Maddie, who frowned, looking just as puzzled as Lana.
I really wanna know if HE is real or if it's just either of them subconsciously acting as HIM because of their delusion without even realizing it.
Maddie glanced at her, but her face gave nothing away. Lana’s face was often like that recently, a kind of blank slate.
suddenly she saw again that moment behind the pool house, Sage on her knees, Ethan’s head thrown back with a strange look of concentration and pleasure on his face, the hint of a smile on his lips. “Do it!” Maddie heard herself scream. “Do it now!”
“We’ll get help,” Maddie said. Of course they were lying, but she thought it was kinder for Sage to believe that help was on the way. She didn’t want her to be scared.
