Various interesting things

The first wrong note appeared at exactly nine seventeen. Almost no one in the Bellwether Ballroom noticed it.

The storm had cancelled every ferry out of Port Briar, but no one had gone home. Passengers crowded beneath

The storm reached Bellhaven shortly after midnight. It came in from the sea with enough force to shake

The first laugh rolled across the ballroom before Nora Bell had even realized that everyone was looking at her.

The first sound came just after the storm began. It was faint enough to be mistaken for a branch scraping

The first sound Margaret Sloan heard was not the approaching truck. It was the horses. All four of them

For 15 years, our stepmom told us our mom abandoned us — until I showed up alone on Mother’

Sixteen-year-old Leo Arden had spent his entire life learning how to disappear. Not literally.

The first scream cut through the music just as the orchestra reached the final note. For half a second

Rain hammered the glass roof of the Aurelia Conservatory, turning the city lights above it into rivers