“Thank you,” he whispered.

“I stopped counting at 1,473.”

“You called me,” Anom said, his voice like a radio losing signal. “The last cycle, I was the sacrifice. This time, I’m the memory. Don’t let Dom do it again.”

Her phone buzzed. A single word from an unknown number: Anom.

Anom didn’t remember dying. He remembered the feeling of dying—the cold rush, the sound of a train whistle, a girl named Chantal screaming his name. But then he woke up. Or something like waking.

She didn’t know who “Anom” was, but the message had arrived at the same moment the sky turned the color of a bruise. Chantal turned and ran, not away from the town, but toward its heart.