by Gwen Cole
She needed to drift. My first time drifting has never left my memory. It was the most terrifying and exhilarating moment of my life. Even if it had been an accident.
“Sam.”
When she looked at me, her eyes were darker than before, like the pain within was spreading everywhere.
I’d never experienced what she was going through, but I’d heard stories. Every drifter has.
“So I really have to do this?” she asked quietly.
I tried to give her a smile, nodding. “You’re making it sound like it’s a bad thing.”
Sam was almost to the point of shaking again, and her fingers gripped her blanket like it was the only thing she had to hold on to. “I don’t know if I can do it, Reid.”
A tear ran down her cheek. I didn’t even think as I moved closer to her, to the point where I was sitting right beside her, facing her with only inches between us. I put my hands over hers. They were cold. I felt a nervous rush run through my veins being close to her, but I made myself look into her eyes and nowhere else. They held a fear of the unknown. I felt the urge to look away, but I fought it and never broke eye contact.
“Drifting is nothing to be afraid of,” I told her. “It should be the opposite. You know the feeling when I took you along with me for the first time? It’s so much better than that. It can’t even compare when you do it yourself.” She still didn’t seem convinced. I didn’t know what else to say. So I told her the only thing that came to my mind. “It’s who you are. When you drift, you’ll realize that. It’ll be like completing one of your puzzles: you’ll see the whole picture for the first time and it will all make sense.”
Something in her eyes brightened, which was what I’d been hoping for. She needed to see this wasn’t a bad thing—it was a gift. She also needed to experience it for herself to fall in love with it. After that, she would never doubt again.
I realized my hands were still over hers, and I pulled them away.
“Why didn’t I feel better when I went drifting with you that night?” she asked. “Shouldn’t that have taken it away?”
“No, it needs to be you. When you go with me, I’m the one drifting, and you’re just along for the ride. To make this all go away, you have to perform the action yourself.”
She seemed surer this time and gave me a small nod. I could tell she was nervous, but that was the predrift jitters. That’s what Dad had always called it. Before my heart could sink at the thought of him, I said, “Come on, you should do it before you get any worse.”
Neither of us moved and I waited.
“Where will I go?” she asked.
“Wherever you want, but I do have a question. What’s the one place that keeps coming to your mind over everything else?”
Sam didn’t hesitate, already knowing the answer. “Cliffs, somewhere near the ocean.”
“Where?” The corner of my mouth lifted when she looked up at me.
“What do you mean, where?”
“Think about it again and tell me where.” I knew she could find out, she just had to simply think about it.
“It’s in Ireland.”
I nodded, smiling. “That’s your drift point, then. Everyone has one. It’s the place you go when you have no time to think of somewhere else. It’s like your personal homing beacon. If you drift without thinking, you’ll go there. Some of them make sense, like somewhere from your past, but others are just random. Jake’s drift point is an alleyway in Cuba. It’s the weirdest thing. The neighboring kitchen knows him quite well.”
Sam smiled at that and asked, “Where’s your drift point?”
My smile faltered a bit, but I shrugged, hoping she wouldn’t notice. “A field in Finland, of all places. Nothing worth talking about.” I stood up from the bed and looked down at her. “Are you ready?”
She hesitated for a moment before saying, “Yeah, I think I am.”
SAM
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
IT HAD TO BE SOME SORT OF JOKE. THERE WAS no way we—I, my family—were drifters and I had never known about it.
But if Reid was right, if all of this was what he said it was? Why hadn’t they told me? Why?
I pushed those thoughts from my mind and focused on the here and now.
I stood next to Reid with my stomach turning, not knowing what to do. I had gotten dressed in something more appropriate than shorts and a T-shirt, and I definitely stalled in the process. Nerves clawed at my stomach and I felt like I might throw up. If it was true, then this wasn’t just an upset stomach, and my body was shutting down. I was dying.
But not for long. I was about to do something I hadn’t known anyone to be capable of until two days earlier.
“How do I do it?” I asked again.
“You just do.” There was a hint of a smile in his voice. “Think about the place and then let yourself go. It’ll be like coming up for air after being underwater.”
“You make it sound easy.”
“It is easy.” There was a laugh in his voice, making it raspier than usual.
I looked at him one more time, trying to gain enough courage. I felt ridiculous standing in my room, thinking I was about to appear in an entirely different country. The pain in my stomach came again and my head felt like it was splitting apart.
I just wanted it to stop.
“You’ll be right behind me?”
“Yes, but you have to take the leap yourself.”
He was right. This was something I had to do myself. I thought about closing my eyes, but I found that I wanted to see this. I barely had to think of the place; it came effortlessly.
The image of the cliffs and ocean came so clearly. The black sky was just beginning to become light with dawn. My heart pounded so hard I thought it would explode. When I saw the place as clearly as I saw my bedroom, I stepped forward.
And nothing happened.
I turned back to Reid, whose eyebrow was raised. “Huh.”
“What do you mean, huh?” My voice was one pitch higher than it should have been. “That’s all you have to say?”
He shook his head, almost laughing. I didn’t think anything was funny about it. “You’re thinking too much,” he said
“What—”
He pushed me forward, cutting off my words. They were still lingering in my mouth when the image of him faded. My stomach dropped like I was free-falling, like I was going down a roller coaster at a dangerous speed, everything all at once. The air caught in my throat for the moment I was in between places.
When I could breathe again, I stood where I’d always imagined, where I’d been dreaming of. The water far below me, crashing against the rocks, and the sky still dark with hints of red on the horizon. The wind blew through my hair and clothes and that’s when the realization hit me:
I did it. I drifted.
Reid was right. The pain in my stomach was gone, replaced with a sense of feeling whole, even though I had never known anything had been missing. I felt alive. I felt like I could fly.
I looked out across the ocean and realized something else—this was only the beginning. Without a plane, boat, or train, I could go wherever I wanted. I could finally travel, like I’d always wanted to, in a way that I had never known existed. The world was at my fingertips and all I had to do was take a single step.
“You did it.”
“You pushed me,” I said without looking over my shoulder
“Uh, yeah, sorry about that.” Even though he apologized, he still smiled.
“I guess it worked, didn’t it?”
“It looks that way.”
“Do you think you’ll have trouble doing it again?” he asked.
I shook my head, already knowing the answer. “No, but do you always have to step forward to do it?”
“No, I just wanted to give you the basic idea so you wouldn’t overthink it.” He smiled at that, knowing I had anyway. “But you can drift as long as you’re moving, even if the motion is really small. When you move your ar
m, it still disrupts the air, and that’s about the amount of movement you need. Or you could do the opposite and jump off a building. All you need to do is find a breeze to ride on.”
Find a breeze to ride on. He had an odd way of explaining it, but I understood all the same. “You’ve jumped off a building?”
“Cliff, building, it’s all the same. But it’s twice the rush.”
“I don’t think I’m ready to jump off a building yet.”
“No, don’t. You’ll get the knack of drifting in no time. It’s a part of you, but take your time trying new stuff until you’re ready.”
“Like fighting?”
“Like fighting,” Reid agreed with a small smile, causing the tiniest hint of his dimple to appear.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye for a moment. His hair blew across his forehead in the breeze. He was the only reason I knew anything about this world and where I fit into it. And thinking about it made me realize how little I knew of it.
“Will you tell me more about the sliders?” I asked. “What are you guys so worried about?”
“Things have gotten complicated between us,” he started. “We’ve always been at odds with each other, but it’s getting worse.”
“They can slow time?”
“Yeah, so if you see them coming, they just look like a blur. Too fast for you to see or react. So if you don’t drift fast enough, it’ll be too late. Once they’re close to you, you won’t stand a chance.”
“Like that night of the fight? When that guy had the knife to your ribs, you couldn’t go anywhere because he would be faster than you?”
“As soon as he felt me move or try to drift, he would have killed me.” He looked over. “Make sure you never take chances like that. Don’t ever think you’re fast enough to escape them when they’re close to you.”
I nodded, not having any words. “So they’ve been giving everyone trouble?”
“Drifters have been disappearing, and we think a man named Knox is behind it. You could say he’s the unofficial leader of the sliders.”
That made me pause. “Drifters are disappearing?”
“Yes, and for some reason, we can’t find them,” Reid said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“It’s the ability that comes with drifting,” he explained. “Instead of thinking of a place to drift to, you can think of the person. A friend or family, but sometimes you can even find someone you’ve never met if you know their name and what they look like.”
All I could think was wow. “So if you wanted to, you could find the president and just . . . drift to him?”
Reid nodded. “I mean, that would probably be a death sentence with all his security, but yes, you could. But it only comes with practice.”
“So with all these people disappearing . . . nobody can find them?”
“Yeah, it seems to be the case. We’re just . . . we’re hoping they’re not dead.”
I looked at him sharply. “Sliders could be killing them?” I whispered.
“We don’t think so, but the possibility is there.”
“Not the greatest time to be a new drifter, huh?” I joked half-heartedly. What sort of world had I just become a part of?
“I’m sure it’ll blow over. It always does.” Reid took a deep breath and looked over. “We should go back. You should get some sleep after the night you’ve had.”
“Yeah, probably,” I agreed.
But Reid paused, looking at me a moment long enough for me to wonder if he wanted to kiss me. The thought sent sparks down into my stomach.
Then he looked away and asked, “I’ll meet you outside on the steps, all right?”
I nodded, wishing he would meet me inside instead. But he was right; I did need sleep, and if he came inside, I wouldn’t want him to leave.
This time I had no trouble drifting.
Like Reid had promised, it was like breathing.
SAM
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
REID WAS THERE WAITING FOR ME ON THE BOT-tom step when I appeared with my small rush of wind. It was really early in the morning, the sky still black, which made me remember I had school the next day. I grimaced at the thought.
“What’s with the face?” Reid asked.
“I have school today.”
He snorted. “Good luck with that. At least you’ll get a few hours of sleep before then.”
I nodded, admitting, “It’ll be nice to sleep again. Maybe my dreams will be normal for once.” My cell phone buzzed in my pocket and I sighed, pulling it out, expecting to see something from Nella that perhaps hadn’t delivered when I was outside my service range. “It’s a voice mail from my mom.” I debated whether to listen to it right then. I didn’t want to, afraid that Reid would leave too soon, but I hadn’t heard from my mom since the day before yesterday.
“Are you going to listen to it?”
“I will when I go inside.” I shoved my phone back in my pocket and looked back up at Reid. He was hesitating, not knowing what to do or say.
“See you later?” I asked.
“Yeah, of course.” He grinned.
I slowly turned away, still reluctant. I thought maybe he would stop me—hoped he would stop me. He didn’t. When I was at the top step, he said, “Sam?”
“Yeah?” I glanced over my shoulder, just to see him breathing a bit heavy.
“I—I’ve been having a really great time with you, and—” He was lost for words, unable to say anything.
I nodded in return, knowing exactly what he meant. “Me too.”
A hint of another smile appeared and he nodded once.
I unlocked the door and went inside, not turning back to see him disappear. It had become something I didn’t like seeing, no matter the brilliance of it. Levi licked my hand the moment the door shut, and I let out a long breath. It was the oddest thing, being back inside the same house but not being the same person.
I was about to go upstairs but I paused, thinking about my options. I could walk up the steps, the same as usual, or I could be extremely lazy.
I smiled, thinking of the latter.
My alarm clock went off for a good ten minutes before I was able to quiet it. I sat up in bed and rubbed at my heavy eyes. I looked down and groaned. I hadn’t even undressed before going to bed. My legs were tangled with my comforter from the result of having jeans on the whole night. My entire body felt dirty and too warm.
I let out an audible groan.
At least I wasn’t sick anymore—it was so much a relief that I actually smiled, right there and then. I’d never felt more like myself.
I checked my phone and realized I had never checked the voice mail from Mom last night. It was probably nothing important anyway, but it wasn’t like me to forget. I quickly listened.
“Sam, it’s me.” Her voice sounded shaky and out of breath, like she was going up a flight of stairs. “I need you to call me as soon as you get this, all right? Not a moment later.” There was a pause. “I love you, Sam.”
My eyebrows creased as I pulled the phone away. Mom never left me messages like that, ever. Thinking about her made me realize again that she had never told me about drifting. Why hadn’t she told me? Why hadn’t either of them? Just like Reid had said, they must have had their reasons.
At least, that’s what I wanted to believe.
I tried to call Mom back. It rang about seven times before the voice mail came on. I left a quick message saying to call me back, but even after I hung up, I had a bad feeling about it. I couldn’t ever remember not being able to reach Mom.
The voice mail she left me put a bad taste in my mouth.
I was showered and redressed fifteen minutes later. And again, instead of walking downstairs, I drifted straight into the kitchen. My hair ruffled when I appeared and Levi just stared at me from the hallway, waiting for his breakfast.
No wonder he doesn’t think it’s strange.
When Reid and Jake were here, the dog didn’t res
pond any differently to their odd ways of coming and going. Right then I knew why—he was already used to either Mom or Dad, and maybe even Logan, doing the same thing. It was normal to him.
The thought made me more bitter than before.
Why didn’t they tell me?
I walked to the subway as I normally would have, making it to school just on time. The day was a blur and my lack of sleep the last few nights hadn’t helped. School was the last thing I wanted to focus on.
Reid wouldn’t stay out of my head for more than a few minutes at a time, and I couldn’t help but wonder when he would show up again. I half expected him on the subway this morning, but he never showed.
When school was over a little after three o’clock, I walked drearily to the coffee shop to meet Nella. The weather matched my mood and rain threatened to come down at any minute. I regretted telling her I would meet up. I just wanted to go home. But it was inevitable that we were going to talk about the boy she’d discovered in my house.
I pulled out my phone and tried to call Mom again and it went straight to voice mail. I was starting to get worried.
I tried calling Dad next, for good measure, and I went to his voice mail, too.
The bell over the door dinged as I walked inside the shop. Nella was already waiting at our table with her arms crossed, eyes on fire. I sat down gingerly. Finally, after a few minutes of silence, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“I’m sorry, all right?” I blurted out. “But it’s not like you told me about Luke either.”
“So you decided to give me a taste of my own medicine?” Her eyes narrowed behind her glasses. “Nice, Sam, I really appreciate it.”
“It’s not like I’ve known him for a while. Only since last week.”
Her eyebrows pulled together. “Last week? Moving a little fast, don’t you think?”
The fact that that was the first thing she thought of—us moving too fast—was hurtful. She didn’t bother asking where we met, or what he was like. She didn’t care about him. She just cared that I hadn’t told her right away.
“It’s not like we did anything. He came over because I wasn’t feeling well.”