“Trust me. It’s this way!” I called out to him over my shoulder.
I ran at a flat-out sprint. Cole shouted for Max to catch up to me, maybe because he had the longer legs of the two, but I was too far ahead. Even Jack wouldn’t have been able to reach me.
Jack.
My feet faltered, but only for a moment, and I glanced down at my hand. I was clutching a piece of paper; but I didn’t know what it was, and I couldn’t think about that because I was so close to my destination. I made one more turn before the maze opened to a clearing and a large, beautiful lake.
There was one moment of warning, a split second when I knew that everything about that lake said stay away; but before I could pass that message along to my feet, I was running—sprinting—to the water.
EIGHTEEN
NOW
The Everneath. The Ring of Water.
I heard Cole shout my name, but it didn’t make any sense. When I was a few yards away from the edge, I sprang off the ground and hovered above the surface for a moment before I descended.
As I hit the water, I had just enough brain power to notice that the lake didn’t quite look right. But it was too late. I was underwater.
Only it didn’t feel like water. It felt thicker.
I tried to open my eyes; but it was dark, and the liquid stung. Where was the surface? My arms and legs flailed about, but I couldn’t figure out which way was up. I stretched my legs, trying to feel for the surface with my feet, but the lake seemed bottomless.
My lungs seized up, and I knew I needed air. Involuntarily, my mouth opened, and the liquid poured in.
It wasn’t water. It was too rich. Too smooth. It had a metallic taste to it.
Blood.
Blood.
The realization triggered my gag reflex, but that just made me take in another deep breath.
Frantically I struggled to right myself, but I couldn’t. The blood coagulated around my limbs. It was like trying to swim in a vat of cement. The more I fought for the surface, the more I sank.
So I held still. I let the blood settle between my fingers, my toes. I didn’t sink or float, and then the blood didn’t taste so bad.
I forgot how I’d gotten there, and then I forgot where I was. No more struggling.
Suddenly, something grabbed me around my waist. I was too tired to fight as the something dragged me farther under. Down to where I didn’t need oxygen anymore. I’d never need it again.
At that moment we broke through the surface of the lake. “Nik!” Cole was yelling.
I was lying on the muddy beach. Someone was slapping my face.
“Nik! Can you hear me?”
I tried to speak, but only a gurgle came out.
“She drank it,” I heard Max say to Cole.
“Shit.”
I coughed some more and tried to open my eyes. There was a red film over them that cast a deeper scarlet glow over everything I could see.
Then there was Cole’s face above mine, his eyes tight with worry. He was cradling my head in his lap. “You’ve got to kick her, Max.” His voice sounded strained. Reluctant.
“Why me?” came Max’s reply.
“Because I can’t.” Cole leaned down and put his lips to my ear. “Nik, remember when I told you the maze runs on Surface time and we would kick you to the Surface every night?”
I nodded but still couldn’t speak.
“I’m going to do that right now. It’s not quite time, but if you stay here, you’ll drown.”
I tried to open my mouth to tell him I wasn’t in the lake anymore and that I couldn’t drown, but my vocal cords had clamped shut. My body was acting as if I were still underwater. I started to panic. What if being on land didn’t matter anymore? What if I never caught my breath again?
“It’s okay. You’ll be okay once you reach the Surface.”
“You sure about that?” Max said.
“Yes,” Cole growled. “If you do it now!” Then his lips were at my ear again. “Remember to sleep, and I’ll find you in the morning.”
He yanked me to my feet with Max’s help, and the next seconds seemed to happen in slow motion. Max took a few steps backward and then ran full-out toward me, cocking his leg back and sending his foot flying into my stomach with such force that I left the ground. My lungs crushed together, and I didn’t have any air left in me to scream. Everything around me disappeared.
There was no light. There was nothing. Until the moment my cheek hit something hard and cold.
“Mmph.”
Footsteps neared my head.
“Nikki?”
I opened my eyes. A man’s face was staring down at me. Ezra. The clerk at the Shop-n-Go. “Is that blood? Why are you covered in blood?”
I shut my eyes again. Max had kicked me back to the Surface.
NINETEEN
NOW
The Surface. Outside the Shop-n-Go.
I staggered out to the street, with Ezra’s shouts following behind me, demanding to know who was going to clean up all the “red stuff” on the floor.
The natural sun was bright even though it was beginning to dip below the horizon, and I raised my hand to shield my eyes. That’s when I saw how red my hand was. But not wet. The blood, or whatever it was, now looked like a dried powder. And it was all over me.
But at least I could breathe again.
I tried to brush it off my arm, but it was like a stain. People were staring. I must’ve looked like a giant raspberry walking down the street. Even my clothes were stained red. I was still clutching the Ever Yours note. How had I forgotten what it was?
I ducked down a side street and leaned against an abandoned brick building, trying to get my bearings.
I ticked off on my fingers what I knew:
I was in the Everneath.
A Wanderer fed off me, and two tethers appeared.
I took a swim in a lake of blood. Now that I thought about that one, I couldn’t believe I’d jumped in.
Max kicked me.
I landed in the Shop-n-Go.
Why did he kick me? I rubbed my forehead, trying to remember what Max and Cole had said about it. The time in the maze ran concurrent with the time on the Surface, so they said they’d have to kick me out to sleep at night.
I looked at the stretching shadows along the ground. It was dusk now. But hadn’t I left for the Everneath at night?
Two recycling bins stood at the end of the alley. With my head down, I walked over to read the dates on some of the papers scattered in front of them. Most of them were dated Wednesday, but then I found a couple of newer-looking ones. Thursday. I’d left on Wednesday night, and now it was Thursday night. I’d somehow missed a night of dreaming.
That also meant I had never gone home last night. My dad probably woke up to find me missing, which wasn’t completely unusual; but then I missed my appointment with Dr. Hill too.
Where was I supposed to go now? Home, only to disappear again? How long before my dad called for a search party? I’d gone missing before, and it had taken him a while to figure out I wasn’t coming back, and even longer to figure out what to do. If I disappeared again, would he assume I’d be back soon? Or would he call the authorities even quicker?
I sank down to the ground, pressing my back into the brick wall and breathing in and out for a few minutes; but I couldn’t staunch the flow of tears. I wiped them away with the back of my hand. It was still red, but now it was smeared.
What was the deal with that lake? Was it really blood? I put my head in my hands. Crap. I just swam in blood.
But even worse, I had missed a night. An entire night. Had Jack looked for me?
As I sat back on the cement, I heard a scraping sound from my back pocket.
My phone.
I pulled it out and pressed the on button, but nothing happened. Maybe it needed to dry out from that swim in the lake.
I closed my eyes and let out a breath. There was really only one place I could go. Will’s house was a couple of miles away, but I could make it there before it got too late. If I could crash with him tonight and dream of Jack, then I could leave a note for my dad in the morning saying that I needed to get away and I’d be back in a few days.
The porch lights were off at the Caputo home, but there were a few lights coming from the bedrooms. Will’s room was in the basement, just below Jack’s. Looking inside, I could see Will lying on his bed, eyes closed, earbuds in his ears. I crouched by the window and knocked softly.
Whatever he was listening to, it wasn’t very loud, because he popped right up and put his face near the window to get a clear view. When he saw me, he ran out of his room.
I went around to the back, and Will opened the basement door.
“Becks! Where have you—”
He must’ve noticed my appearance, because his voice cut off completely. He motioned me inside and then threw his arms around me.
“What happened to you?”
I put my arms around him and buried my face in his shoulder. And sobbed.
Five minutes later, I was in the shower adjacent to Will’s bedroom. I scrubbed and scrubbed until every bit of the red stuff disappeared down the drain.
LATER THAT NIGHT
The Surface. Will’s bedroom.
I’m relieved when Jack appears, because that means my night away didn’t kill him.
He is watching me expectantly.
“I’m coming for you. Do you know this?” I say.
Jack doesn’t answer. He is watching my face, searching.
“What is it, Jack?” I say. “Are you in pain?”
His anguish is plain on his face. “I … I can’t remember your name. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.” He closes his eyes and shakes his head.
He can’t remember my name. We can’t be to that point already, can we? I try not to show my worry, but all I want to do is scream my name loud enough to carry the sound from Will’s bedroom on the Surface all the way to the Tunnels of the Everneath. Could one night away from him have done this much damage? I have to force myself to stay still. He can’t know I’m falling apart. I reach out my hand to touch his cheek, but it slips through the air. “It’s Becks,” I say. “It’s okay.”
“Becks,” he says. I know he is wrapping my name inside of him, folding it in the blanket of his heart. I know this because I used to do the same thing with his name when I was in the Feed.
“Becks,” he says again.
“Yes,” I say. Wrap it up tight, I think. You’ll need something to hold on to.
The next morning, I shot out of bed, nearly stepping on Will, who was asleep on the floor.
“Wha??” Will jumped up and looked all around, trying to figure out where the threat was coming from. When he saw me, he sank to the floor and seemed to remember everything all at one. “Becks,” he said. “Are you okay? Did you dream? Was he there?”
I nodded in a manic staccato sort of way. “I’ve got to get back.”
“Cole said he’d bring you back down in the morning?”
I nodded again. I couldn’t stop nodding.
“How?”
“I don’t know. My leaving was … abrupt, and they didn’t get a chance to explain it.”
He tilted his head. “What if something happened to them?”
“I can’t think about that.”
The familiar buzz of my phone powering up sounded. I’d forgotten about it. Apparently it had dried enough to finally work. Pulling it from the pocket of the hoodie Will had loaned me, I groaned.
“Eight voice mails, twenty-two texts,” I said, reading the screen. “All from my dad.”
The most recent one simply read CALL ME. NOW.
I shut the phone off and put it back in my pocket. “Can you give me a ride home? I want to leave him a note before I go missing again.” Especially since time was passing just as fast on the Surface as it was in the maze.
“But you’re coming back every night. Can’t you just … explain why you’re gone during the day?”
I shook my head. “He wants me to go to Dr. Hill for some extra therapy, and I already missed my appointment yesterday. If I keep showing up at night, it will just be an endless confrontation. I think it’s better if he thinks I’m going to be gone for the next few days but then I’ll be back.”
“You’re sure?”
“I don’t have a choice!” The words came out too sharp. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Will said. “I’ll get the keys.”
“Wait,” I said as something occurred to me. “Maybe I should walk. I have no idea how exactly Cole is going to find me, but I would imagine it will be harder in a moving car, don’t you think?”
He shrugged but then nodded.
We quickly embraced. I had no idea when Cole would come for me, but I wanted to get the note to my dad before he did.
“I’ll call you tonight,” I said.
He nodded. “Stay safe.”
As I walked away from his house, I realized my jeans were still covered in the red stuff. The Caputo household had absolutely no pants that would’ve stayed on me. I started to jog, and I’d made it two streets over when I heard the sound of a car’s tires crunching against the gravel. It was coming from behind me, and I moved to the side so it could easily pass; but it skidded to a stop.