“Calm down,” policeman number one said, taking me by the arm. “There is no sense in getting yourself upset. As you can see, your friend is alive and well.”

“That’s not my friend!” I shouted, frustrated to my back teeth with the fact that no one seemed to be listening to me. “That’s an imposter. Or his twin. Or something, but it’s not the man I saw get killed right before my very eyes!”

“I think you should come with us now,” the ambulance man said, taking my other arm. “You are upset and a little time away from the situation should calm your mind.”

“My mind is perfectly calm,” I told him, digging in my heels to stop them from dragging me to the ambulance. “And don’t think I’m not aware of what you’re doing. You think I’m deranged, don’t you? Well I’m not! They are!”

The second ambulance guy got to me at that point, which was a shame because he intercepted my run for freedom.

I won’t go over the next few hours because they were tedious and frustrating beyond belief. The more I protested that I was telling the truth, and that the impossible really had happened, the more people gave me the look that indicated they didn’t believe a word I said. The people at the hospital where I’d been taken were all very nice, but none of them listened at all, and they certainly didn’t believe me. They shot me up with something that made my brain feel like it was full of molasses and put me to bed in a room with bars on the windows. The following morning my sister Bee and brother Rowan showed up. I explained to them what happened and requested release.

“I’m sorry, Aoife, but the doctor says you’ve had a mental breakdown,” Bee told me. “He said it wouldn’t be good for you to be out on your own just now.”

Rowan smacked her on the arm. “You weren’t supposed to tell her that.”

“Breakdown?” I sat on the edge of the bed, wearing only my underwear and the loose hospital gown, wanting nothing more than to go home and curl up in my own bed. “I haven’t had a breakdown. I saw a murder conspiracy! An impossible one, yes, but I know what I saw.”

“What you said happened was impossible,” Bee said with a shake of her head. “You couldn’t have seen it. You must have imagined it. Did you have anything to eat before the event? Perhaps your date drugged you.”

“Drugged me?” I gave her a look that dealt with such a ridiculous idea. “Of course I wasn’t drugged. No, I did not eat or drink anything in Terrin’s company, so you can scratch that off your list of possibilities and just accept what I’m telling you.”

“That you saw a man disappear into smoke?” Rowan looked doubtful. “Aoife, that just doesn’t happen.”

“Just get me out of here, and I’ll make you understand,” I begged. “I’ll take you to the GothFaire, and you can see the place for yourself, not that there’s probably much to see, but if you were to stand where I was standing, then you’d see that I couldn’t mistake what was happening right in front of me.”

They slid each other a glance, and to my horror, Bee shook her head. “We had a long talk with the doctor, and he really thinks that if you spend some time with people who know how to deal with situations like what you’re going through, you’ll be right as rain in no time.”

Fear crawled up my skin at her words. “You’re not… you don’t mean—”

“We’re signing the papers to have you admitted to a facility. It’s called the Aardvark Center for the Deranged.”

“Arvidsjaur Center for the Bewildered,” Rowan corrected.

“Same difference. The doctor says it’s really nice, and very modern, and we’ll visit you just as soon as they say it’s okay.”

“I am not crazy!” I wailed. “You can’t do this to me! All I did was see a man die and another man disappear in smoke—”

“Aoife, love, this is for your own good,” Bee said in a calming tone of voice.

Rowan, thank the gods, looked a little less sure. “I don’t know, Bee—putting her away like this does seem to be a little… harsh.”

“Very harsh!” I said, panic filling me. I had to get out of here, get away from them so I could get my wits together and present my case calmly and intelligently.

“Maybe if she stayed with you in Venice for a few weeks—” Rowan suggested.

Bee sent him another unreadable look and gave a little shake of her head. “It’s for the best, it really is. She’ll be well cared for.”

I lost it at that point. I didn’t know why my sister was so adamant to have me locked up or why she didn’t believe me when I told her what I’d experienced, but I wasn’t going to argue with her anymore. I made a dash for the door.

It was, of course, the wrong thing to do, and by the time the nurse shot me full of more brain-molasses stuff, Rowan and Bee were gone. The next day I was driven down south to the booby hatch.

I don’t care what anyone says happened. I know what I saw.

Three

“I don’t see how this can possibly be a good idea, Bee.”

My sister looked up from where she was throwing some clothing into a suitcase. “Leaving you by yourself? Dr. Barlind says you’re perfectly fine to be on your own—”

“Of course I’m fine to be on my own. Two years of intensive therapy have done wonders,” I said with a bright, “I’m not insane anymore” smile.

“Me going to Africa, then?”

“No, of course I think that’s a good idea. You’re going to be helping all those people get fresh water.”

She dumped her drawer full of undies into the suitcase, glancing around the room. “I don’t know why you want to stay here by yourself, I really don’t. Rowan won’t be back for a couple of months, so you’ll be alone here in the house.” She shot a look out the window. Beyond a scraggy hedge, the dull gray and brown sand could be seen stretching out to pale bluish gray water. Overhead, a couple of gulls rode the currents, searching for signs of food, and even through the insulated glass I could hear their high, piercing cries. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.”

“That’s because you’re a city girl now, Miss Lives in Venice.” I rubbed my arms and leaned against the wall, looking out at the endlessly moving water. “I like the isolation of the Swedish coast. Especially after spending two years in a house with forty other people. You can hear yourself think here.”