Part One

By the Pricking of My Thumbs

August—November 1956

Marco Guaraldi had a new grill that he liked almost as much as his new car. His "new" car. The way Antonia Guaraldi, his daughter, saw it, he was proud of the life he was living and was providing for his family. The way Shannon Malone, Toni's best friend, saw it, he liked to have things to show off. Both were most likely true.

Either way, the grill was probably the reason the Guaraldi family decided to cap off the summer with a barbeque for their friends and neighbors. Mr. and Mrs. Guaraldi whipped up enough food to feed probably the entire town. Of course, Shannon Malone and the entire Malone clan had made it, as had Shannon and Toni's friend Robbie Edwards and his family. A whole menagerie of other guests was spread out all over the Guaraldis' lawn, adults and children alike. It was a beautiful day, shaping up to become the perfect summer night, and a feeling of cheer was palpable.

Antonia Guaraldi was shoving cake into her mouth with both hands.

"I don't think you're supposed to be eating that yet," Robbie Edwards pointed out. He, Shannon, and Toni were in the Guaraldi house, away from the crowd. Toni had dragged the other two into the kitchen the first chance she had, looking for the chocolate cake her mother had made for the occasion.

"My mom made three cakes," Toni said through a mouthful of crumbs. "And they're all gigantic. It's not like there won't be enough."

She took another mammoth bite to accentuate her point. Robbie rolled his eyes, but the corners of his lips were twitching.

"I don't think that's really the problem," Shannon said casually, reaching over to take some of Toni's piece of cake for herself. Robbie shook his head. "I think the point is your mom was saving these for after everyone ate. You know, she was gonna have a whole cake cutting ceremony or something."

"Pah," Toni said, waving one hand. "She has two more cakes she can ceremony...ize."

"Yeah, that's not a word," Robbie said, before shrugging and taking a piece of Toni's cake as well.

"I don't see you two really putting up that much of a fight," Toni said pointedly. "Besides, practically the whole state of Wisconsin is in my backyard; my mom will never know who got into the cake."

"She's gonna know it was you," Shannon said, snickering.

"Okay, probably," Toni said with a shrug. "But there are two other cakes."

Shannon snorted and leaned against Toni's kitchen table. The taste of chocolate coated her mouth. Mrs. Guaraldi's baking was immaculate. She could easily see why Toni was so eager to get into the cake as soon as possible.

"Toni, your friends are here!" Rosa Guaraldi's voice rang from outside.

"Oh, dammit!" Toni said. She crammed the rest of the cake in her mouth and swallowed it in a mighty gulp. "She's gonna know it was me!"

"She was always gonna know it was you," Robbie said.

"Oh, shut up, Robert," Toni said. She took Shannon and Robbie's arms in her hands. "C'mon, you know who that's gotta be."

Toni looked at Shannon pointedly, and Shannon rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, 'cause you don't have any other friends."

"Ugh, I did not almost die for this." Toni dragged Shannon and Robbie behind her, headed towards the backdoor. "Oh, and if my mom asks, you don't know anything about the cake."

"She's really gonna know it was you," Robbie asserted.

"Why do I talk to you two?" Toni asked the ceiling, letting go of Robbie to open the backdoor. Robbie smirked, looking at Shannon proudly. Shannon bit down on a smile of her own.

The Guaraldis' backyard was not particularly large, so most of the space was occupied by people. Toni could navigate her way through the crowd with practiced ease, however, tugging Shannon along all the while. Somehow, Robbie managed to stay close behind.

The density of the crowd was the largest closer to the house, and eventually Toni, Shannon, and Robbie pulled free, winding up near where some yard games had been set up. Just as Mrs. Guaraldi had said, three children milled about awkwardly, obviously looking for someone.

"Hey!" Shannon called cheerfully, skipping over to embrace the only girl in the group. Ginger Beaumont hugged back enthusiastically.
"You'd think they hadn't seen each other in years," Dexter Bradbury said, leaning conspiratorially towards Jared Wilkins. Jared snorted.

"Is Ollie coming?" Toni asked, looking around like the girl in question might be hiding somewhere.

"She'll be here once she gets done up at the school," Jared said. Shannon pulled away from Ginger, wincing sympathetically at what Jared said. Toni looked personally disrespected.

"At school? In the summer? On a Saturday?" she said, shaking her head. "That's gotta be illegal or something."

"That's what happens when you're a late bloomer," Ginger said. "Gotta catch up to the rest of us."

"If she's a late bloomer, what does that make me?" Shannon asked.

"Dead on arrival," Jared said without missing a beat.

"Thanks," Shannon said unenthusiastically.

"So are you really the only one of the group that isn't gifted, then?" Toni asked, looking at Shannon. Immediately, Shannon hushed her, waving her hands around spasmodically.

"Keep your voice down," she said, looking around furtively. Once she was satisfied no one was paying any attention to them, she sighed. "Yeah, I am."

"Wow," Toni said, raising her eyebrows. She gave a short laugh. "Wouldn't want to be you."

Shannon shook her head and didn't reply, instead turning to look at the three newcomers. Shannon had met Ginger, Jared, and Dexter last year at school. She'd been a fish out of water at a new school, the prestigious and mysterious Briargate, but the three of them, along with Ollie O'Brien, Allison Groves, and Caleb Vance had become some of her closest friends.

"Aw, don't feel bad, Shannon," Ginger said. "No one knew...y'know, about Ollie. We all thought she was normal."

"I'm still waiting to get my gift," Toni said easily. "I'm sure it'll be something totally cool."

"I wouldn't hold my breath," Robbie teased. Toni dismissed him with a flick of her wrist. Shannon smirked and Jared snickered.

"Come on," Toni said, "let's get some food before it's all gone."

The group followed Toni without complaint. Once again, Toni bobbed and weaved through the crowd without any trouble, leaving the others to try to keep up. A whole long line of picnic tables was set up parallel to the back of the house—where they all came from was anyone's guess—and spread out all across them were platters of just about every food Shannon Malone could imagine. She was pretty sure that Mr. and Mrs. Guaraldi had been working on the feast since dawn. Mr. Guaraldi was still at it, dishing out more burgers and brats and hot dogs as fast as he could make them. Mrs. Guaraldi had slowed on the production of food; now her time was occupied by flitting from place to place to ensure that each one of her guests had everything they wanted.

Shannon and her friends dodged around bodies, meandering all around the picnic tables looking for the food they wanted. Shannon wondered what would be done with the leftovers—and, boy, would there be leftovers. Toni would probably be complaining about eating them months from now. Shannon grabbed a burger and a bun and an ample helping of fruit and was just barely prepared when Toni grabbed her by the arm again and dragged her off. (A person got used to being manhandled when they were friends with Toni Guaraldi.) Robbie, Ginger, Jared, and Dexter weren't far behind. Toni led them to an open section of the yard, plopping down gracelessly, nearly upsetting her plate of food. Shannon, Robbie, Ginger, Jared, and Dexter settled down next to her.

"Watch for ants," Toni warned. "They'll get everywhere."

Immediately, Toni struck up a conversation. The topic was of little consequence; Toni could probably talk to a brick wall. As she spoke, her brown hair shifted off of her neck, and Shannon caught a glimpse of two tiny white scars.

The beginning of the summer had been tense between Shannon and Toni. They had still been dealing with the fallout of the fight between them that had driven a wedge down the middle of their friendship. Then Toni had been attacked...Perhaps Shannon Malone would never realize just how much she blamed herself for what happened to Toni Guaraldi earlier that year. They were able to patch up their friendship—almost immediately, in fact—but Shannon had had a tough time getting past what had been done to Toni at the hands of a vampire. And Toni...well, Toni had had a hard time believing.

"Ugh, I don't want to start school again," Toni complained. "All my brothers say Mr. Gershwin is awful."

"Eileen liked him," Robbie said.

"That's because Eileen's a goody two-shoes," Toni replied.

Toni and Robbie had met Ginger, Jared, Ollie, and Dexter in June. Toni was in the hospital for nearly a week. Shannon went to visit her with the other Guaraldis countless times, and she told Ginger, Jared, Ollie, and Dexter all about Toni's condition every time she came back. Toni had been home for a few weeks when Ginger first suggested meeting her and Robbie. Shannon had been nervous—she wasn't sure how Toni would handle meeting her new friends, testaments to her year at Briargate, a supernatural school—but Toni had taken a shine to them immediately, as had Robbie.

"What's the year gonna be like for you guys?" Toni asked. "You know, since you're magical and all."

"Honestly," Shannon scolded her, "can you keep your voice down? My parents are out here somewhere."

"Didn't Professor Nadig tell you that you had to tell them?" Jared asked, laughing slightly. "Last year?"

"Yes, I know, I know," Shannon said. "All of you constantly bring it up."

"I can't believe you haven't told them," Toni said, shaking her head. "What's gonna happen when your teachers have a conference or something with them and they bring up how not magical you are?"

Shannon rolled her eyes. "I don't really think I have to worry about that. And it's not exactly easy, anyway. What am I supposed to say? 'Hey, Mom, Dad, last year I was marked for death and some monster tried to kill me and so I was invited to a school where most of the staff and students have some sort of supernatural ability and also I may have helped kill a group of vampires'?"

"Yes," Toni said.

"It's so good this didn't happen to you," Shannon said, sighing. "You would have given your parents a heart attack. Or gotten sent to the loony bin."

"I'll remind you, some monster tried to kill me, too," Toni said. "I'm just trying to keep you prepared."

Shannon shook her head and pinched the bridge of her nose. Toni grinned smugly at her, beyond pleased with herself. For half a second, Shannon wondered on the probability of Toni actually cutting out the middleman and telling Shannon's parents about Briargate herself, but she shook that thought away. All that would succeed in would be Shannon's parents believing she needed new friends.

"Oh, it's Ollie," Dexter said, mercifully bringing a stop to the current conversation. Sure enough, Shannon turned and caught a glimpse of Ollie O'Brien's bright red pigtails.

"Hi, Ollie!" Toni called excitedly, waving furiously, as if she was afraid the other girl would not see her.

Ollie trudged over slowly, head down, fidgeting with her hands. She looked up shortly at Toni's call and gave an unenthusiastic smile before looking back down to the grass. She plopped down in between Ginger and Jared, heaving a deep sigh.

"Hi, Miss Sunshine," Jared said, nudging her with his shoulder. Ollie trained her half-hearted smile on him, picking idly at a blade of grass.

"Hi, guys," she said.

"You can go get something to eat," Toni said. "My parents made...most anything you can think of."

"Thanks," Ollie said, "but I'm not hungry."

"You're not hungry?" Jared asked, his eyes popping wide. "Oh, man, you must have had a bad day."

"It was okay," Ollie said, shrugging. Shannon noticed that she seemed to be very mindful of the placement of her hands. "Long. I don't know what I'm doing."

"With your gift, you mean?" Dexter asked. "None of us do. We're all just faking it."

"What exactly is it you can do again?" Toni asked. She rested her chin in her hand; in her eyes, there was childlike wonder. Sometimes Shannon was still taken aback by this complete attitude change. She supposed it made sense though; Toni had been adamant that nothing supernatural was real, until an encounter with a vampire had changed her mind. Toni was the type of person who had to see something to believe.

"That's sort of the thing," Ollie replied. "I don't really...know. We're still...trying to figure it out. Just...sometimes I think things, and then things happen."

"Wow," Toni breathed. "Neat."

"I guess," Ollie said, frowning. "It's just...it's so hard to control when I don't even know what I'm trying to control." She looked around. "On second thought."

Ollie reached out and snatched a handful of potato chips from Jared's plate. He barely seemed to notice. In a way that could only be described as nervous, she began to nibble on one of them.

"You'll get the hang of it," Dexter assured her. "Everyone's bad at first. Once, when I was younger, I accidently teleported myself into someone else's parked car. I was in the parking lot of the grocery store with my mom. She didn't even realize until she was done loading the groceries. She had a fit."

"I've never heard this story," Jared said, grinning. "I think it's beautiful."

Dexter rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Of course, the owners of the car were coming out just then. A whole family. And there I was in the backseat of their car. I've never seen my mom look so embarrassed. All the way home she kept looking over her shoulder to make sure I was still there."

"Oh, you've gotta be joking," Toni said, laughing.

"No, all true," Dexter replied, cracking a grin. "She used to come check on me at night just to make sure I hadn't gone anywhere in my sleep."

Toni threw her head back and laughed merrily. The others chuckled softly; even Ollie smiled.

"Now that story I knew," Jared said.

"You guys should really be quiet," Ginger said, but she was smiling. "We're surrounded by normal people and we are really not supposed to be talking about this."

"Aw, just trying to make Oliver here feel better," Jared said, slinging an arm around Ollie's shoulders. Ollie continued munching her chips, unfazed.

"It's just Toni," Robbie said. "She's a bad influence."

"Aw, that sounds like your mother talking, Robert," Toni said, giving him a smug grin. Robbie rolled his eyes.

"That sounds like anyone who's ever met you talking," Shannon teased.

"Oh, I love you too, Shannon, my dear," Toni said. She looked at Shannon and made an over-exaggerated kissing face. Shannon laughed and threw a strawberry at her, hitting her right on the nose. Toni looked down. "Ooh, yum."

The group ate in a silence for a while, comfortable enough to be quiet. The day really was beautiful, and the sun warmed Shannon's face. Pointedly, she pushed away all thoughts of the impending school year. She wouldn't have said it, but in some ways she was dreading it as much as Toni was.

It wasn't long before a loud groan cut through the air. Toni looked up immediately, looking concerned but not particularly surprised. Shannon looked back towards the crowd, trying to see what was going on. A young man staggered out of the mass of people eventually and plopped down on the grass, laying back to stare at the sky. He looked disheveled; his brown hair hung in his eyes, his shirt was wrinkled and only halfway tucked in, and it seemed he hadn't shaved in a week. He seemed vaguely familiar to Shannon.

"Oh no," Toni said. She buried her face in one hand.

"Who's that?" Ginger asked.

"That's...that's my cousin," Toni said through her fingers. Shannon took a closer look at the man and realized why he seemed familiar: she'd met him before a few years ago at Christmastime. He'd gained a bit of notoriety in the town at the time because he had sung "How Dry I Am" outside Town Hall for four hours while intoxicated. If Shannon wasn't mistaken, he was drunk again now.

"Is that Matteo?" Robbie asked.

"Yes, that's Matteo," Toni replied. Her voice was completely muffled now; Shannon was barely able to understand what she said.

"Doesn't he live in Milwaukee?" Shannon asked. Embarrassment was radiating off of Toni in waves; behind her hand, her face was red.

"He's visiting," Toni mumbled. "He came to go to Steve Bellfrey's funeral."

"I didn't know they knew each other that well," Robbie said.

"They didn't," Toni replied. She was squeezing her eyes shut tight, like she might be able to just disappear from existence if she wished on it hard enough.

Shannon focused her attention on the man on the ground, who was now whistling a jaunty tune she didn't recognize. Various other people from the crowd by the house were watching him as well, but Matteo either didn't notice or didn't care. Steve Bellfrey had been Matteo's partner in crime on Christmas a few years ago; Shannon knew that much. She supposed people who got really drunk together and sang songs outside of Town Hall could form some sort of lifelong bond. She didn't know for sure; she'd never tried it.

"It's too bad what happened to Steve, really," Jared said. "I kinda figured he'd be around forever...y'know, drunk and passed out on someone's doorstep."

"I guess we should've seen it coming," Ginger said. "With the amount of times that he was drunk and passed out on someone's doorstep, we should've known it would get him in the end."

"Yeah, we should've," Toni said. "You'd think Matteo would realize that. But no, he's using it as an excuse to be even more smashed all the time."

Toni removed the hand from in front of her face and looked up, but she looked so miserable it was like her best friend had died.

"Well, make sure he doesn't end up in Dyer's Park in the middle of the night," Robbie said, not unkindly. Toni sighed dramatically and dropped her head into her hand once again. Robbie gave her a look that was part sympathetic and part amused.

"I hope he's okay," Jared said. He was looking at Matteo with a strange expression on his face, much more serious than he usually was. He looked deep in thought, and something gave Shannon the impression that it was only partially to do with Matteo Guaraldi and Steve Bellfrey. In fact, though he was looking at Matteo, Shannon didn't think he saw him at all.

"You gotta admit: Dyer's Park doesn't have such a good history," Dexter said. "Isn't that...where you saw the Follower last year, Shannon?"

"Yeah," Shannon said. She frowned. "That place gives me the creeps."

"Did you guys see the missing poster for Julia Buchanan at the park?" Toni asked. "Someone scribbled something on it. 'It's coming,' or something. I don't know, it's weird. Kinda creepy."

"Oh, yeah, I saw that too," Robbie said. "Probably a high school student thought it was funny."

"Maybe," Toni said.

Julia Buchanan had been the talk of the town since the end of June when she'd disappeared from her house one night. Most asserted she'd just run off. It happened sometimes; a teenager got a little stir crazy and ran off. After everything that had happened last year, no one could've blamed her if she wanted out of the town.

But then, after everything that happened last year, some people couldn't help but wonder if she really ran. Shannon Malone was one of them.

Matteo Guaraldi began giggling to himself on the ground, jarring Shannon out of her thoughts. Toni groaned.

"He does that a lot," she said. "He must think the funniest things ever."

"Antonia Guaraldi!" A voice roared from somewhere inside the house. Toni whipped her head up, eyes wide.

"Oh no," she said.

"She found the cake," Robbie said under his breath.

"Oh, I'm dead," Toni said frantically. "I'm so dead."

Rosa Guaraldi appeared in the backyard, eyes ablaze in fury. She walked right overtop of Matteo, whose laughter intensified. When she caught sight of Toni, she raised a finger and launched into an angry tirade that Shannon only caught bits and pieces of. The woman was talking too fast.

"We will talk more about this tonight, young lady!" she said finally, then looked around at the group, smiling easily. "Hello, everyone, I hope you're having a good time."

And just like that, she was gone again.

"Wow," Jared said.

"That went...better than I was expecting," Robbie said, watching Toni's mother as she retreated back towards the house.

"It's not over," Toni said miserably. "She'll kill me very slowly and very painfully tonight."

"Well, it was nice knowing you," Ollie said, sounding very nearly serious.

"There are three cakes!" Toni cried dramatically to no one in particular, looking a bit like she wanted to crawl away to never be seen again.

"Cake cutting ceremony," Shannon reminded her, and Toni shook her head, making a noise that sounded a lot like the word 'egg.'

"Speaking of cake cutting ceremony," Dexter said, "I think it's happening now."

Shannon looked towards the rear of the house. The mass of people was crowding in even more, but Shannon could just make out Toni's mother standing near two large cakes.

"Ooh, I want cake," Toni said, seeming to have completely recovered.

"You had cake," Robbie said. Toni waved a dismissive hand at him, already getting to her feet.

"C'mon," she said. "You don't wanna miss out."

The rest of the group followed her example, getting to their feet with their mostly empty plates. They moved towards the cluster of people, maneuvering around Matteo who still lay giggling on the grass. Toni froze suddenly, looking around as if her eyes were chasing a fly. Shannon paused with her, the others seeming not to have noticed.

"What?" Shannon asked.

Toni didn't say anything for a moment, then muttered in confusion, "Nothing, I...Did you say something?"

"Not me," Shannon said, frowning.

"I don't know, I thought I heard..." Toni continued looking around for a bit longer, then shook her head. "Nothing, must have been someone else. Come on, she'll give away all the good pieces."

Toni walked off, not paying attention to whether Shannon was following her or not. Shannon pursed her lips, looking around just like Toni had been before. Only Matteo was near.

Sighing, she followed after Toni. She tried to ignore what she was thinking. But somewhere deep down, she couldn't shake the feeling that something wasn't right, a feeling that had been building for most of the summer.