Kneeling, I took a closer look. In the darkness of the night, the trumpet-shaped blooms and oval leaves were such a deep shade of gray they nearly blended into the nothingness around them. Clearly, this wasn’t their natural state, and I had a feeling I knew what had done this. I glanced back at the home, remembering how the grass had crunched when we walked. That’d happened outside of each house. I hadn’t paid much attention to it then, but I had a feeling we’d see many lawns of dead grass come morning. Aware of Emil and Hisa watching me, I reached out and brushed my fingers over a curled
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