“Found it!”
Relieved, I swim over to him. He takes one hand, and Asher takes my other. We all suck in deep breaths, and go back under, letting Gavin guide us to the stairwell.
It takes both Gavin and Asher working together to open the exit door, but then we’re slipping through the crack and swimming up. This time when we surface, we’re in a much smaller space and there are stairs leading up.
We swim over to where the stairs meet the water, and start climbing. I go much slower than them, though, because no matter what I do I can’t get these visions out of my head. They’re just flashes. I can’t make out what they are, but they slow me down, nonetheless. Gavin and Asher pause to wait for me, and so I suck in breaths and go as fast as I can.
Each time we reach a new floor, Gavin pokes his head out the door to check if we’re at the floor with what he calls the Tube station. According to him, he’ll know it when he sees it because it’s the only floor that is completely open. That kind of terrifies me. Open to what? We’ve already been almost drowned. I don’t really want to try that again. Maybe Gavin’s right. Maybe it is time to head back to the Surface. Between the stuff that almost ate Asher’s foot and now practically drowning in a sea of dead bodies, I have to admit that Gavin was right about it being dangerous. He was probably right about a lot of things. Yet … we’re so close to the answers I want. The answers I need. I can feel it. If we leave now, I’ll never know who I was. Who I am.
So I don’t say anything about turning back. I keep going, but when we stop for what feels like the hundredth time, a huge wave of déjà vu hits me. My head swims and I have to lean against the wall.
Asher turns around to smile at me, and a hallucination hits me so hard, I stumble.
The hallway is so dark I can’t even see Timothy, but I know he’s there. His uneven gasps blow across my cheeks.
“Are you going to tell her?” he asks.
“First thing in the morning,” I reply, feeling a familiar tickle in my stomach, and smiling.
“You won’t forget,” he teases.
Before I can reply, he kisses me again, pressing me back against the cold concrete. I push harder into the warmth of his body, closing my eyes.
When I open them again, I’m back in the stairwell, gasping for breath, those black dots back in my vision. Asher is watching me warily.
“Everything okay, Evie?” he asks. Gavin must have slipped out of the stairwell to do his quick look-around.
I wave Asher away, not wanting to waste what little breath I have to assure him I’m fine when I’m not completely confident I am.
His brows furrow, but he doesn’t say anything. He only continues to watch me. Gavin returns and I push quickly off the wall, as if I’ve only been biding my time and not trying to figure out what in the world that was all about. He shakes his head before heading up the stairs to yet another level.
Between the ordeal at the hospital in Rushlake, the race back to the village, and now almost drowning, exhausted doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel. I want to groan, but I still haven’t caught my breath and I’m sure even that would be too much, so I just put one foot in front of the other. I stumble when I don’t lift my foot up high enough. I put my hands out to catch myself, but Asher catches my arm and pulls me back up to my feet. I give him a grateful smile before I turn back around to try that step again and notice Gavin watching us.
That hallucination—me, pressed against another boy—makes me feel incredibly guilty, and I duck my head and start trudging up the steps again.
I can feel Gavin’s curious gaze, but he keeps moving after a second or two.
At the next landing, Gavin looks out the door and whoops. “Found it!” He dashes out the door.
“Finally,” Asher says, and follows.
I follow, just at a bit slower pace. When I step out the door, I can definitely see the difference between the other floors and this one. It’s absolutely gorgeous, for one. The floors are all concrete, but the walls! The walls are floor-to-ceiling windows, the outside is all lit up and I can see the ocean. It’s so peaceful, I think, walking over to it. I press my hand against the cool glass, and watch as a school of brightly colored fish swim by.
A grouping of brightly colored and strangely shaped rocks gather on the bottom of the window sills. This. This feels right. Finally, I think. The glass feels so marvelous against my hand, I decide to press my face against it too. A moan escapes me at the feel and I hear a chuckle behind me.
“That good, huh?” Asher asks.
Gavin clears his throat from the other end of the large hallway and I open my eyes to see him smiling at me. “If you’re done molesting the glass, we should get to the Tube.”
Asher chuckles and, flushing, I push away from the wall, but keep a hand to it as we walk toward where Gavin is.
Just before the hallway turns, there are more splashes of that green goo again. Almost the entire floor, from wall to wall, is spotted in the strange pools. But when I get close to them, I shudder. Each one looks like a body. Flat, green, liquid bodies. As if someone painted them onto the floor. Some are larger than others, like some are children and some are adults. Some have their arms close to their torsos; others have them stretched out as if reaching for the puddle next to it. I don’t know why, but the scene has a lump forming in my throat and tears stinging my eyes.
Gavin frowns down at them. “This is so weird.”
“What is?” Asher asks.
Gavin looks up at me and I blink the tears quickly away so he can’t see them. “This is where all those people were, remember?” he asks.
“No,” I say flatly, trying not to let it bother me that he obviously forgot I don’t remember anything from here except those flashes.
His eyes close for a minute. “That’s right. I can’t believe I forgot.” I shrug and he stands, brushing his hands together. “Never mind. It’s not important. Come on, let’s get to that Tube station.”
I stare at the green bodies for a bit longer, letting his words tumble through my mind, trying to remember something, anything, so I can begin to understand, but nothing comes and Asher tugs on my arm to get me to go. I have to practically run to catch up with Gavin in the next room, but when I do, I stop short.
I remember this room. Or at least one similar.
I’m waiting in the dark, peering out over a thousand faces. I’m leaning against a brick wall. The area around me looks like the streets in Rushlake City, only with short squat one-story buildings lining each side of the street instead of the several-stories-tall buildings that were in Rushlake. The street in front of me is filled with people with identical faces, all staring up at a woman. The woman who frequently stars in my nightmares.
Mother.
She’s making a speech on the platform in the Square about working together and how everyone is just one cog in a giant machine. A commotion to my left draws my attention. A man close to me is arguing in whispers with the woman next to him. She’s vigorously shaking her head and glancing in my direction.
In response, I step out of the shadows and up to the couple. The crowd around them disperses quickly, watching me as carefully as I watch them and the pair I’m walking to. They’re both taller than me, but when they see me looking up at them, they freeze, identical expressions of terror on their almost identical faces. I don’t say anything, I don’t have to and I know it.
But the man suddenly glares at me. “Monster,” he whispers. The woman’s face goes completely white.