Page 44 of Call Off the Dark

Her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Gracie put a hand on Helen’s arm and said, “It’s okay. I was just being morbid. I’m sure there’s no tsunami.”

To Helen’s relief, her parents showed up a minute later, but then they gave Gracie some troubling news. Gracie’s father, Gary, was headed back to his room with Evelyn—because Evelyn wanted to grab some jewelry.

“He told me they were leaving!” Gracie’s shoulders sagged and she let out a bitter laugh. “That’s just like her. Jewelry?”

Tyler’s SUV came tearing around the corner then, and the mess in Helen’s chest started to ease slightly. As her mother helped her into the front seat, Helen heard Gracie tell Tyler about Evelyn’s last-minute quest for jewelry, and Tyler swore under his breath.

Once they were all inside the vehicle—Helen’s tulle skirt a fluffy bundle in her lap—Tyler shifted the gear into drive, then paused. He looked toward the inn and shook his head.

“Dad,” Tyler said, and he glanced at Gracie in the back seat.

“Do you want to check on him?” Helen asked. She didn’t want to be driftwood, but could they really leave someone behind?

“There’s no time. It’s been over ten minutes. We need to go.”

“Maybe I should run inside real quick?” Gracie said.

“No, Dad knows he needs to get out of here. There’s more than one parking lot. They could have left from the back, and we didn’t see it,” Tyler said, but the worry was plain on his face. “We have to go.”

Just as Tyler let his foot off the brake, Helen shouted, “There they are, there they are!”

Gary escorted Evelyn out of the inn. Her hand was tucked in his arm, and they weren’t walking with much urgency. Evelyn was apparently too elegant for urgency.

In a flash, Tyler was out of the SUV, opening the back hatch, and Helen heard him say, “Get in.” She spun around in her seat in time to see him shove aside a box and some sports gear as Gary climbed into the cargo space.

“The luggage compartment?” Evelyn said, incredulous.

Tyler took Evelyn’s arm, and she made a little huffing sound but didn’t protest further as she let him help her into the back.

Moments later, Tyler accelerated out of the parking lot, racing toward the nearest bluff where the red and white lighthouse stood tall. To Helen, who calculated everything in her head by how long it would take to jog there, it looked like it was about three miles away.

“Hold tight, Evelyn!” Tyler said, and if Helen wasn’t feeling a sense of mounting fear, she would have found the whole thing amusing.

The road to safety paralleled the coast for what felt like an endless stretch. It wouldn’t turn to higher ground until just before the lighthouse. Several cars in front of them were speeding down the coastline too.

Helen stared out the window at the expanse of blue. How ironic that something as beautiful as the ocean could bring such a feeling of tranquility on its best day and be so destructive on its worst.

“Really, wouldn’t the sirens be going off if a tsunami was coming?” Evelyn said, implying that Tyler could slow down.

“Do you really just want to hope the emergency systems are working today?” Tyler said.

Evelyn sniffed. “I guess not.”

“Corner!” Helen called out just before Tyler rounded a bend.

Evelyn let out an undignified squeal, and Gary murmured something to her in a soothing tone.

“No news yet,” Gracie announced. She was looking down at her phone. “I’m trying to see if the epicenter was in the ocean.”

“How long has it been?” Helen peered ahead—When would the land start to rise in elevation?!—but it was still flat all the way to the next bend.

“We’re good,” Tyler said.

“Twelve, thirteen minutes, you think?” Gracie said.

Suddenly, the car in front of them slowed to a stop.

Helen’s mom leaned forward. “What’s happening?”