Elena peeked out the window. The houses on the street were bigger and more freshly painted than she had expected. All of the lawns were perfectly cut, and the whole town was quiet.

The door to the cabin swung open, and Michelle climbed up inside. "Sam, is this your old house?"

He glanced out of the window, then immediately ducked down to the floor. "Don't let them see me!"

"That's probably for the best," Michelle said. "Elena, you come with me."

She stood. "Okay. But why me?"

"We're going to go in as school teachers from last year." She picked up her reading glasses from one of the cabinets. She rarely wore them—as far as Elena could tell, she didn't really need them, except when she needed someone to take her more seriously than usual. "Well, I will. You'll be my teacher's aide."

That was believable enough. "Okay. What do I do?"

"You can mostly be silent. I'll ask the questions."

Elena clenched her teeth and followed Michelle out of the camper. She glanced over her shoulder, and Patrick waved at her.

She hung back a couple of steps as Michelle approached the front door. "It's okay, Elena," Michelle muttered under her breath. "You're just a teacher's aide. You've done nothing wrong, and you're assuming Sam is still here."

"Planck," Elena whispered.

Michelle nodded emphatically and pressed the doorbell. "Thanks for reminding me."

The door swung open, and a middle-aged woman in long skirt and wearing thick glasses stood at the door. "Who's that?"

"Hello, my name is Michelle Johnson, I'm a teacher from the elementary school. Are you Mrs. Wilson?"

"I am." She remained behind the screen door. "What is this about?"

"Well, we're here to see Planck, actually. Some of his test results were very interesting."

The woman's face turned pale white. "The demon boy."

Michelle blinked, and her eyes widened. If Elena didn't know her, she would have believed she was surprised. "Demon boy?"

The woman opened the screen door. "Come in. I'll tell you."

Elena followed Michelle into the cramped little living room. The woman told them to sit down at the kitchen table and insisted on fixing them a cup of tea before she would tell any stories. Elena thanked her for the tea, but she had no intention of drinking anything that woman prepared.

When Mrs. Wilson was settled down across from them, she placed her hands on the table. "That boy was possessed."

Michelle kept her eyes wide. "We had no idea. How did you find out?"

"Little odd things, at first. You know, misplaced items here and there. Eating odd food combinations." She shuddered and lowered her voice. "Writing with his left hand."

"Wow," Michelle said. "I can see why you were concerned."

Elena made herself nod, but she felt sick. How had this woman been approved for foster care?

"Oh, it's not just that," the woman said, sitting back in her chair. "I've seen that before. But with Planck, we saw worse terrors than we'd ever witnessed."

"Like what?" Elena asked, but she had a hard time keeping the incredulity out of her voice. They'd wasted their time coming here.

"Like my husband's light board."

Elena sat up straight. "His what?"

"My husband works for a company that makes LED's with very exact colors. And whenever Planck was around, the colors would be just slightly off."

Michelle and Elena exchanged a look. That was Sam. "Can we see the lightboard?" Michelle asked.

The woman stood. "Well, I don't know. I'd have to ask my husband, he's at work right now."

"Mrs. Wilson," Michelle asked, "is there any way you can call him? It's very important that we take a look."

"What's important? Have you seen Planck?"

Michelle raised her eyebrows. "Isn't he your foster child?"

She shook her head. "No, we sent him back a long time ago."

"How long ago?" Elena asked.

"Oh, about four weeks?"

That was how long ago Sam had said he'd run away. It would never have been Elena's inclination to believe the word of an eight-year-old over a middle-aged-woman, but this woman was clearly off her rocker. "Mrs. Wilson, what do you do to get rid of demons?"

The woman narrowed her eyebrows. "There's not much I can do. Tried to show him kindness, gave him what we could."

"Did you ever hurt him?"

"Of course not." She straightened up. "I would never."

Elena stood and slammed her hands down on the table. "Then how do you explain the burns on his knuckles?"

Flaming heat rose to her cheeks, but dissipated to numbness as the woman's eyes widened. "You've seen him. Recently."

"No, I—what I mean is—"

"You've consorted with the demon boy." The woman ran to her phone. "Get out of my house, both of you! I'll call the cops!"

"Mrs. Wilson, please." Michelle stood and tried to walk closer to her, but Mrs. Wilson held her finger over the call button on her phone and pointed to Michelle. "We're trying to help S—Planck. If there is something off about him—"

"He can't be helped!"

"But the light box—"

"Tainted! Cursed! It's catching. Away with you, all of you!" She picked up a broom and raced toward them.

Elena ran, nearly tripping as she forced her injured ankle to bear her full weight. Michelle followed close behind, and they raced for the motor home.

"He's in there, isn't he? You're harboring the demon child!" She ran after them down the driveway. Michelle darted into the cab, and Elena ran up the stairs to the cabin. The woman jumped onto the step just as the camper pulled away.

"Michelle, she's on board!" Patrick cried. "Elena, what happened?"

Sam trembled in the corner as the woman pointed a finger at him. "Planck, you get down here! I'll burn it out of you, child! I'll burn it out of you!"

"Oh, for the love of—" Elena jammed a foot into the woman's chest, and the woman tumbled out of the motor home onto the concrete. "Michelle, step on it!"

The whole camper jolted as it sped up. Elena slammed the door shut and turned to face Sam. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and Patrick had already gone over to sit beside him.

"Sam," she said softly. "We are never, ever going back there."

"Did you find out anything?"

Elena nodded. "They did experiments with light bulbs, too."

"The lady screaming about demons?"

"No. Her husband. I mean, basically, they did experiments. He built LED's."

Sam gasped. "I didn't do anything to the LED's, I swear! I didn't try to!"

"She said the colors were slightly off whenever Sam was around."

"I didn't mean to."

"Hey." Patrick nudged him. "Sounds like you were using your superpower."

"It was an accident! I didn't do it on purpose! Please don't hurt me!" Sam wrapped his arms around his knees and sobbed into his jeans.

Patrick let out his breath and put an arm around Sam. He gestured to Sam's other side with his head, and Elena went to sit on the other side, though her arm felt awkward around Sam's shoulders. "Sam, I want you to listen to me," Patrick said.

Sam responded with a sob.

"I need you to listen really good. You'll have to look at me to do that."

Sam kept his hands covering his face, but he peeked through his fingers so one of his gray eyes was visible.

"Sam," Patrick said, "we're never, ever going to hurt you."

Sam uncovered his face with his hands and rested his head on Patrick's shirt. Patrick kept his hand on the child's back, and Elena touseled his hair the way she had seen Patrick do.

The boy had been mostly unable to describe what the anomalies felt like. God forbid they should ever hurt. She couldn't bear the thought of breaking the promise.