The Storm Between Seconds

# The Storm Between Seconds The storm was supposed to pass by morning. In late May of 1995, Cedar Hollow is counting down the final days of school. Maggie Carter wants summer to start. Her little brother Ben just wants everyone to stop treating him like a scared kid. Their friends Jay and Lena are ready for bikes, freedom, and ordinary small-town trouble. Then the sirens scream. A wall of black-green clouds swallows the town. Lightning flashes violet. Rain hangs frozen in the air. Roads stretch for miles where only three blocks should be. Houses age, burn, rebuild, and rot in the space of a heartbeat. Every clock stops at a different time. And when the kids crawl out of the basement, the adults are gone. With only each other and a muddy, storm-sensitive dog named Echo, the four kids must cross a ruined Cedar Hollow that no longer follows the rules of distance, weather, or time. The storm loops streets, freezes lakes in May, plays radio broadcasts from impossible years, and hides things that click in the drains and spin black thread in the dark. Worse, they are not alone. Men in yellow coats move through the storm like hunters. They are not rescue workers. They know too much about the disaster. They want Echo. And they may be the only people who understand what Cedar Hollow has become. To survive, Maggie, Ben, Jay, Lena, and Echo will have to learn the storm’s rhythm, outrun the things inside it, and find a way out before the next pulse traps them forever. But escaping the storm does not mean finding home. It means discovering that Cedar Hollow’s disaster is only the beginning. A middle-grade / young YA sci-fi survival mystery with time storms, found family, loyal-dog courage, impossible roads, and kids fighting to stay together when the world breaks between seconds.