8. A Storm is Brewing

~ Kelsie (a few minutes earlier) ~

I had just pulled the casserole Mom left for me out of the stove when my eyes were drawn to the windows again.

Ever since I got home I hadn’t been able to stop looking outside for Cain. But now there was some other instinct at work. Something didn’t feel right.

It took a moment to realize what it was. There were no lights on over at Cain’s house. At all. His whole property was dark. Had he left?

It surprised me the way my whole body reacted to that thought.

But then the lightning flashed and even through the heavy rain rolling down the glass, I could see the outline of his car in the driveway. That brought a sense of relief. But then confusion. Had he gone to bed at six o’clock? That seemed unlikely.

Then it dawned on me. It was dark because he was in the Thompson’s house.

The Thompsons had lived in that house my whole life. And when I was little, they used to come over to our place a couple times a year when there was especially heavy rain.

Their und