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to fuzz, the hallway.
    Nikki shoves Angel’s hand away.
    “What are you doing?” Nikki says.

     
    IN THE BATHROOM MIRROR Nikki is doing something weird, distorted, with her mouth.

     
    THE BATHROOM DOOR SLAPS OPEN.
    “I wanna go,” Renee says.
    Nikki looks at her. Renee’s hair’s a mess. The skin all around her mouth is red.
    “Why?” Nikki says.
    Also one of her bra straps is hanging out of her tank top.
    “I wanna go right now.”
    “Did he say you could?” Nikki says.
    “What?” Renee says.
    Like she even needs a bra. Nikki’s sitting on the floor between the toilet and the shower with a towel wrapped around her and Renee’s hovering above her.
    The rest of Renee’s face is white, pale. Nikki doesn’t know what she’s so upset about.
    “Did you know my mama died?” Nikki says.
    “What?”
    Renee stares at her.
    “She jumped off a cliff.”
    Nikki pulls the towel up to her chin. She’s shivering.
    Renee’s crooked eyes go everywhere, to the electric shaver and the shower curtain and the window that is little and high.
    “The law’s gonna be looking for me,” she says.
    Nikki shrugs.
    “I guess.”
    For a second Renee’s nose bunches up like she might cry. Then she puts her hands on her hips.
    “I gotta puke,” Renee says.
    She runs into the hall.
    “You should puke in the bathroom. Renee.”
    After a second Nikki pulls herself up.
    “God,” she says.

     
    NIKKI WATCHES RENEE fly across the yard into the dark. She watches from the trailer’s top step.
    She feels him behind her. She turns and looks at him.
    “Well, go fucking catch her,” Coy Hawkins says.

     
    “RENEE,” Nikki says.
    Luckily the moon is huge. Luckily Renee’s tank top is white. Nikki chases after her, dodging old toilets and mattresses and bricks.
    “Renee.”
    The yard shoots up to their waists. The woods are a black wall. Renee doesn’t even flinch.
    “Renee.”
    Nikki plunges in, too. She gets tangled in brush. Giant weeds attack her. And then it’s so steep they’re crawling on their hands and knees. Nikki scrambles behind Renee’s feet.
    All of a sudden the trees break. The moon shines back. They stand up on a crop of rock. This is the very top of the hill. They just came up the deer cut, Nikki thinks.
    Above her Renee turns around.
    “Where are you going?” Nikki yells.
    Renee puts her hands on her knees.
    “He raped me.”
    Nikki looks over her shoulder at Coy Hawkins.
    “He raped me.”
    Renee’s voice bounces off all the smaller hills, rolling away on every side, the darkest things and shimmering.
    “He raped me.”
    Coy Hawkins pulls the gun from his boot and shoots Renee in the face.

     
    RENEE LIES ON A ROCK LEDGE below, her face a hole.
    “The old woodpile in the yard, go pull the ax out. There’s trash bags in the kitchen,” Coy Hawkins says.
    He sounds far off though he’s standing right in front of her. He has a flashlight. He throws it at Nikki.
    In shock she skids down the deer cut.
    The woodpile is around the side of the big house with the ax still stuck in it.
    “Did you catch her?”
    Nikki looks at Angel. She is just standing in the yard with her eyes like saucers. The ax is rusted and Nikki has to brace her foot against the log. With both hands she has to yank the handle.
    “Yeah,” Nikki says.
    Angel backs toward the trailer.

     
    COY HAWKINS is nowhere. She opens her mouth to call him and thinks she doesn’t know what to say.
    “Hey,” Nikki says.
    “Down here,” Coy Hawkins says.
    Coy Hawkins is down on the ledge, squatting by Renee. He squints in the flashlight and points at the path.
    The deer cut makes a sudden switch left and leads down the other side of the hill. Nikki has to stoop because this is not a trail made by humans. She is afraid she is going to fall into nothingness. By the time she reaches him she is sweating.
    Coy Hawkins stands up.
    “Grab my waist. We gotta pull her off this,” Coy Hawkins says.
    He is skinny when Nikki loops her arms around