For a good ten minutes, I stare at the ceiling, then sigh and sit up, letting my legs dangle off the side before placing my foot on the floor. But there’s something squishy, and warm, underneath it. I squeal and jump back onto the bed. Whatever it is pops up and lunges at me, making me fall off the bed on the opposite side and onto my back end on the floor with a thump. It looms above me, looking down at me from its perch on the bed. It’s too dark to make out what it is, but I’m suddenly sure it’s the monsters from my dreams coming to get me.
I scramble back until I’m crouched with my back up against the wall. As it slowly comes nearer me, I hear that click in my head. Everything focuses, just like before.
So I can see the monster better, I reach out and grab a handful of cloth and yank it to me. The fabric rips, fueling my desire to hurt whatever this creature is and prevent it from hurting me. But even then, it’s too dark to really see anything but a pair of wide blue eyes staring into mine. And, only because they look frightened, I decide not to kill it right now.
I tighten my grip on the cloth, tearing it farther and pulling the creature after me, dragging it to the lamp in the corner. With a flick of my fingers, I switch the light on and turn to see … Asher. He’s staring at me, his eyes still wide as he watches me. His shirt is ripped practically from his shoulders, hanging by nothing but a few threads.
His tongue flickers out nervously and wets his lips before he says, “M-morning, Princess.”
I scowl and release him. His shirt pools at his waist when he falls to his knees.
“What did you think you were doing?” I demand, my voice hard and hardly recognizable.
His tongue flicks out again, but he only says, “You squealed and I was trying to see what was wrong.”
Things are starting to get blurry again and I feel exhausted. I let myself sink to the floor next to him as I recall what happened.
“I guess I must have stepped on you,” I finally say. “I stepped on something warm and squishy and it scar … startled me.” No need to admit I was scared. This is embarrassing enough. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
He looks at me with an embarrassed smile. “I was too … startled.”
He rubs a hand across his chest and even through my blurry eyes, I can see the distinct lines my fingernails left across his bare skin. Five distinct scratches across his chest that stretch out in a long line from his right pec to the center of his abdomen. Blood oozes down.
I touch his chest gently and bite my lower lip, wrinkling my nose. “Oh, Mother, I’m so sorry, Asher. I … I don’t know what happened.”
He takes a shaky breath, and his eyes swim with something other than pain when he takes my hand. “It’s all right. My fault. Completely. I should’ve known better than to jump up like that.” He squeezes my hand.
“Still.” I try to pull my hand back. “That’s no excuse. I could have seriously hurt you. I don’t know what’s wro—”
He cuts me off when he places his finger over my mouth. “It’s okay. I’m not hurt. I’m just fine. Are you?” he asks. “Hurt, I mean? You fell off the bed pretty hard.”
I take a minute to get my emotions under control—it’s not like feeling guilty and angry with myself is going to change what I’ve done. Besides, hopefully, in a few hours, I’ll know exactly what’s wrong with me and how to fix it.
Gavin
I run until I collapse from exhaustion. Even lying in the dirt, my whole body shakes. My eyes are heavy, gritty and dry. They hurt almost worse than my shoulder. I tell myself I’ll only close my eyes for a second. Just to catch my breath. But when I open them again, it’s freezing, pitch dark, and there’s so much cloud cover I can’t even see the stars.
Cursing under my breath, I fight the urge to laugh, because I’m sure once I start, I’m not going to be able to stop. With my luck, the noise will tempt the coyotes back.
Coyotes. Shit.
I’ve got to get up. Have to keep moving, but I don’t know where I’m going. I don’t even know if I ran in the right direction. There’s an empty, gnawing feeling in my stomach. My head swims and I’m having difficulty concentrating. I decide that I just don’t care if the coyotes find me again. Maybe they’ll carry me somewhere useful this time.
Until morning, I huddle into myself, trying to keep warm. By some miracle the coyotes don’t find me. When the sun rises, I’m cramped and my body is reminding me how much it hates me. When I see the sun, I just stare at it.
“Damn it!” I yell and hear it echo for miles and miles—hundreds of repeats of the word, reiterating my frustration back to me.
I went the wrong way. The completely wrong effing way. I run a hand over my face, still cursing myself over and over in my head, but I push myself to my feet and begin the long trek back the way I came.
For the next several days, I hike with the sun at my back in the mornings and follow it to its horizon in the afternoons. Nights are for lie-downs and fitful sleeps, while I try to keep one ear open for carnivorous wild animals and one hand on my gun.
Every day my muscles get heavier. It requires more and more effort just to keep walking. Even my bones feel like they’re made of lead. Several times, I’m certain I hear voices. And once I even hear Evie’s laugh. I spin around looking for the source; I even backtrack a few steps looking for someone, hoping it’s Evie and Asher, only to find there’s no one there. Which only fills me with bitter disappointment and makes it even harder to keep blundering my way forward.
Finally, I stumble upon another set of footprints. Two sets. One is about my size; the other is much smaller. It can’t be them, though. They have Starshine. There’d be horse prints. Unless they ran into coyotes like I did.
It’s impossible to know for sure, but I follow the prints anyway. Wherever they lead, there will probably be people on the other side, and I hope that means Rushlake, too. My thoughts are fixed firmly on finding Evie. She must be so worried about me. It’s been days with no contact, and she has no way of knowing if I made it away from those vulture-hawks. I keep her face in my mind and put one foot in front of the other, knowing each step takes me closer to seeing her in person.
I panic a little when the footsteps lead into another set of trees. The vulture-hawks prefer forested areas, but they’re diurnal. Thank God. I’ll wait them out and slip into the trees while they sleep.
As soon as the sun sets completely, I step into the woods, keeping the shotgun drawn and cocked, but nothing happens and I push through the woods as quietly as I can.
The footprints disappear in the slightly marshy underbrush of the woods. There’s not enough light, but I remember from the map that the city is just on the other side of a set of woods. So I just keep heading as straight as I can, hoping that I’m almost there. Then, as if I willed it to appear, I find myself on the other side of the trees and staring at Rushlake City.
Evie
I sit in the waiting room, my knee bouncing up and down and my heart beating almost in rhythm to it. I grasp my necklace and run my fingers over the edges of the rose. Whatever happens here at the medical facility, I know it’s going to determine everything. I just have to hope that this time these tests will tell me exactly what I’m supposed to do. And the possibility of knowing the answers scares me almost more than not knowing them.
Asher puts his hand on my knee, but he’s shaking almost as much as I am. For some reason that makes me feel slightly better. To know he’s just as nervous as I am.
The door pushes open and the doctor stands there, silhouetted by the bright lights coming from the room behind him. My mind goes entirely blank and my mouth goes dry. Like I’m back in the Outlands.