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nightmare was the lesser of two evils. The nightmares were sporadic. Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling for eight hours a night did nothing for me except force me to replay the scenes of horror in my mind.
    Katie had met Chad outside the building where her Psychology class was held. Ironic, considering Chad turned out to be an insane lunatic.
    She was a freshman at UCLA majoring in marketing. She had ambitions. I was a freshman in high school. I aimed for graduating from school and getting the hell away from my mother. My goal was realized; hers never was. Chad had taken it from her.
    We talked every single day. I missed her company since we’d spent every night at each other’s houses for as long as I could remember. Katie was the one person in the world who understood what it was like growing up the daughter of a rock star. Our friendship was built upon the strong foundation of that common trait. We understood each other in a way that no one else ever could.
    She started talking about Chad almost from the first day she arrived on campus. I’d met him a few times, and he always seemed a bit off to me. Something shady lurked behind his eyes, but I was naïve enough to ignore my intuition because my best friend had fallen in love. I chalked it up to jealousy. He got to spend time with her while I was forced into the background, a place I’d never held with her.
    They started dating exclusively. She started sleeping with him.
    And then one day, Fern didn’t hear from her. She ignored her mother’s intuition that something was amiss, figuring her daughter was busy living the life of a college freshman.
    Another day passed. It was unlike Katie to miss her daily call to her mother, but it was even more unlike her to miss her daily call to her best friend.
    When Fern called me and voiced her concerns, a strange terror burned in my abdomen. I immediately knew that something was wrong.
    Fern and I went together to her dorm. Her parents had paid for her to have a single room at her request, so there was no roommate to account for her whereabouts.
    No one had seen her in a few days. No one, it seemed, could account for her absence.
    Fern called the police, and Chad was questioned. He had an airtight alibi and a fantastic ability to act.
    He convinced us all that he was as worried as we were.
    Her body was recovered days later. She’d been found west of Topanga State Park. Her neck was badly bruised with finger marks, clear evidence that she’d been strangled to death. I couldn’t listen to the police reports anymore, couldn’t deal with the trial, but I’d been by Fern’s side through it all. I’d tuned out as much of it as I could, focused on the indifference instead of the emotions. It was when I first learned how to block out emotions.
    It took years before Chad was convicted. He maintained his innocence until he cracked under the pressure of a high profile trial. It turns out his goal had been to get into the good graces of the Reynolds family by showing how much he loved Katie even after her death.
    But it had been cold-blooded murder. He had taken away my best friend, Fern and Mikey’s beloved daughter, a selfless and loving woman who would be forever missed.
    I would never get over the loss of my best friend.
    It wasn’t until I had met Damien that I’d even been able to smile again. But then he left me, too.
    And I hadn’t smiled again until earlier that night. Parker had put that smile back on my face, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the divisibility of three.
    Bad things always happen in threes.
    I’d lost Katie.
    I’d lost Damien.
    I couldn’t get close to another person, because I’d only lose him, too.
    He’d be the third.

seven
     
    I had a second dream that night.
    This one was different from the first.
    It was that voice.
    That voice was like honey cascading down the side of a cliff like a waterfall and landing in a pool of warmth at the bottom of a ravine. I stood at the bottom of the