Valerie had constantly been looking bad. There wasn't any reason for her to not be overly paranoid, and at this point she needed to be. She wanted to tell Danny what was going on, but there wasn't any time, not now, and she had no idea how he was going to take it anyway. As she hurried along she paused and saw that the color had drained out of Danny's face, and he seemed rooted to the spot. Valarie was slowly starting to realize how bad a role Dan played in his life, but she had no intention of letting that continue. She grabbed Danny by the arm and dragged him along, not unkindly but with urgency.

"We can't stop Danny, not for anything!" Valerie said. "And we stay together. I should be the last one saying this, but this is no time for any of us to go off on our own. If we can't run away, then we're not going to get picked off one by one either. You remember what he's like."

Valerie looked up and saw a familiar shape in the sky. It was only in her dreams, but now a nightmare was coming to her, and she wanted to be as alert for it as possible. She grabbed Misha's hand and clutched it.

"Get ready, Misha. We might have to fight."