Page 43 of Call Off the Dark

Helen felt the emotion well up inside her. “Tyler. How long?”

His face sobered. “If the epicenter was in the ocean, like the Cascadia fault, it could be here in under fifteen minutes.”

“Good Lord.” Helen lifted her skirt and started to jog, carefully, down the hallway.

Tyler kept a steady hand on her arm as he quickened his pace too. “I don’t want you to trip and break your leg.”

“I’ve run in heels before!”

“But have you run in a wedding dress?”

“Yes, all the times I was supposed to get married.”

They both laughed. For that brief moment, everything felt okay.

As they descended the stairs, Tyler’s phone rang, and he had a hurried exchange with his mom. “I’ll find Gracie, and we’ll be right behind you,” he assured her just before he hung up. Then he told Helen how when he’d announced that everyone should go to the lighthouse, his brother Leo had immediately run for the parking lot behind the inn where his car was parked. She couldn’t help but smile. Leo had saved up for years to buy that 1970 classic Mustang. He’d probably be the first one to the lighthouse.

They reached the parking lot and saw many people rushing to their cars.

“Have my parents left yet?” Helen asked, just as a full car stopped beside them.

“I’m not sure,” Tyler said, as one of his groomsmen rolled down the passenger window and shouted, “We can squeeze you guys in!”

“I need to find my sister,” Tyler said. “She’s running around the inn telling people to evacuate.” He escorted Helen toward the car’s back seat as he told her in a reassuring voice, “I’ll find your parents too.”

Helen stiffened in Tyler’s arms. “What are you doing?”

“Go with them.”

“No!” she said. “I’m not going without you.”

The groomsman leaned out the window. “Gracie said if the Cascadia just ripped apart, a huge tsunami could hit us any minute. It could tear the entire hotel off its foundation.”

Helen stilled, her eyes never leaving Tyler’s, and an unspoken conversation passed between them in a matter of seconds. She would not leave him behind at sea level while she went to higher ground. Never, ever.

Tyler drew a slow breath and said, “I need to get the car.” He glanced down at the four-inch heels peeking out beneath her full tulle skirt.

She felt so delicate, so useless. “Go fast.”

So Tyler told his groomsman to go ahead, then broke into a run across the parking lot. Pulling out her cell phone, Helen drifted to the lawn so she wouldn’t hold up any more people trying to escape. She tried to call her parents, but it went to voicemail. Their phones were probably on silent for the wedding.

From the lawn, she could see down to the beach. There was a man and woman building an early evening bonfire, the fresh flames and oily heat barely visible in the summer evening light. Why weren’t they evacuating? Helen’s eyes followed the edge of the sea out to a sailboat on the horizon. At any moment, a wall of water could come bearing down and swallow the sailboat, then crush the couple on the beach and sweep Helen into the deadly tangle.

She remembered the worst of the footage from the Japan tsunami—the people who walked, instead of ran, as the water came toward them. And then they were gone.

Suddenly Gracie was there, hands pressed to the front of her baby-blue cocktail dress as she caught her breath beside Helen. “Where’s Tyler? Should I get my car?”

“There you are.” Helen let out a long exhale. “Tyler’s bringing our car now, and Leo was one of the first to leave.”

“Good. Because if the epicenter’s out in the ocean—you know, the big one—we’re about to be driftwood.”

“Why is everyone in your family a tsunami expert?”

“Because they’re incredible! Tsunamis can move hundreds of miles per hour.” Gracie bounced from one foot to the other. “Shit! We really need to go.”

Helen swallowed. “Have you seen my parents?”

Gracie had not, and it added to Helen’s rising dread. How long had it been since the earthquake? Five minutes? Ten? If they weren’t going to make it to the lighthouse, she wanted to be with Tyler. She wanted to be holding on to him when the water ripped through them. The power of the wave would instantly pull them apart, but she wanted to be in his arms in the terrifying moments while they watched it come toward them.