by K M Frost
I’d never imagined Leah could cry—I mean, of course I knew she could, I just never thought she would. There was something almost scary about it.
I hesitated. But, I reasoned, I’d pressed this far. I might as well go all the way.
“Then . . . Who is it?”
Leah was quiet for so long I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to answer. In fact, I was so sure, that when she spoke I nearly jumped.
“It’s my mom.”
Her voice was soft and unsteady. She had tear streaks down both cheeks now, but she didn’t seem to notice.
She pushed her hair behind her ears, avoiding my eyes. “Do you remember when I told you that my dad likes to make up stories to deal with reality?”
I nodded. She’d told me that just last night. She’d mentioned something about nightmares. I wondered if the picture I was holding was something from a nightmare.
“Well, he’s always been that way. For as long as I can remember, whenever something bad or scary would happen, he’d make up a story to explain it. And it never bothered me—until that one.” She nodded at the picture in my lap.
I looked at it, too, at the woman sleeping peacefully under the tree, and I shivered a little.
“After Mom left, Dad told me she’d just gone on a walk.” Leah almost sounded like she was talking to herself now, staring at the drawing, lost in the memory. “He said she must have fallen asleep under a big tree, and when she woke up, she would come home. But she never came back.”
Leah seemed to realize for the first time that she was crying, and she quickly rubbed her palm against her cheek, wiping the tears away.
I quietly passed the book to her. “I’m sorry. But, isn’t it better to imagine that your mom’s just asleep, that she might be coming back any minute?”
Leah took the book from me and gazed at the picture. An odd expression crossed her face, and then she turned the page. “Yeah, I guess so.” Then she smiled.
I looked down at the new picture. It was a drawing of Stewart, big toothy grin and all.
I laughed a little. “It looks just like him.” She’d even captured the excited light in his eyes.
“I guess.” Leah turned the picture this way and that with a satisfied grin.
I was relieved she was done crying, and I was definitely glad I’d finally discovered the source of her bitterness. Anyone would have a hard time if their mom left them.
I couldn’t blame her for being so defensive about her past, but I was glad I’d gotten a peek at it. I could understand her a little better now, and a part of me was glad she had someone to confide in. It made me feel important.
I decided I liked being a friend.
Chapter 18
I wake up to the sound of deep breathing, which is really creepy. But before I can get too freaked out, I remember that Leah asked me to sleep in the double bedroom, so she wouldn’t have to be alone in the dark house.
Sure enough, when I roll over I can just make out the shape of a body curled up on the bed across the room.
I think about going to see if anyone else is awake yet, but then I glance at the gaping doorway, the long shadows in the hallway beyond, and I decide it won’t hurt to wait until Leah wakes up.
It’s not long before her breathing stutters and then speeds up. I wonder if she’s remembering the creepy city and dark house, the dead man down the street . . .
“Leah,” I say softly, trying not to scare her.
She jumps anyway, then she mutters something too low for me to hear. Her tone makes everything clear, though.
I grin. Maybe now she’ll stop sneaking up on me and giving me heart attacks. I sit up and she does the same.
She slowly unwraps the dusty blanket from around her shoulders. “Where’re the others?”
I shrug and glance again into the darkness. “I was waiting until you woke up. I . . .”—I scramble for an excuse that won’t mark me as a pansy—“I didn’t want you to wake up alone. You seemed pretty insistent last night.”
Leah snorts and shakes her head, but I think she’s blushing. “Admit it—You were just too scared to walk around all alone.”
“So what? You’re scared of this place, too.”
She mumbles something in reply (probably a grudging agreement) and gets off the bed. I stand up too, and wait for her to lead the way, but she doesn’t move.
I roll my eyes and step into the hall, even though it’s the last thing I want to do.
We creep down the still hallway and knock on Rogue’s door. He was the only one to close a door last night; everyone else was too nervous.
The Entity hunter answers immediately, strapping his holster to his back. He doesn’t say anything to us, but he follows us to the next room: Rick’s.
He’s still asleep, so Leah and I move onto Stewart’s room. He’s awake, sitting up with a blanket wrapped around his head, his brown eyes wide and fearful.
“Jonas!” He leaps out of bed and runs to my side.
“What’s wrong?”
I worry what might have happened while I was asleep. What if he’d come into my room and not been able to find me? Maybe he was asleep when Leah and I moved to the other bedroom.
But before I can feel too terrible, he shakes his head with a toothy grin. “I’m fine. I just want to get out of here.”
“Me too.” I’m glad he doesn’t seem to know that I slept on the other side of the house. “Let’s see if Rick’s awake yet.”
When we file back into Rick’s room, he’s sitting up and talking with Rogue. He sees us and hurries to climb to his feet, though Rogue seems entirely unhurried.
Rick heads for the door. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”
We rush down the stairs and out of the huge house; I feel like we can’t escape fast enough.
The wide street is just as creepy as it was last night, and the buildings seem impossibly bigger and darker.
We don’t even look around for water. We silently agree we’ll find water once this city is behind us.
Rick leads the way, and we follow silently. I know we’re all thinking about the dead body we found the other night, but no one wants to talk about it—especially me. The silence is eerie, but I can’t think of anything to say, so I keep quiet.
I expect the city to fade away soon, but it’s much bigger than I thought. It just keeps going and going, the buildings never ending, the darkness absolute.
There are so many of the horseless vehicles, I begin to wonder if maybe they did work once. Why else would there be so many?
But they don’t work now; all they do is congest the road, forcing us to worm between them as we make our way through the street.
The city sprawls on endlessly, and soon enough, I can’t see the forest we came from yesterday—just more buildings and winding roads.
I stumble over a root that’s broken through the road and grab the roof of the horseless carriage next to me. I manage not to fall, but my skin catches painfully on a rough edge.
I pull my hand quickly away from the dead vehicle, wincing. I can’t see what cut my hand, but I can see the thin line of blood across my stinging palm.
I move cautiously around the front of the vehicle, feeling paranoid and a little silly, but this place scares me. I feel like there’s something in the darkness, just waiting to attack me.
Suddenly, there’s a rustle behind me.
I whirl around, but can’t see anything. My hand is starting to throb. I see nothing out of place—just the same abandoned street and huge buildings. But I know I heard something, and when I glance over my shoulder, I see that everyone else has stopped, too.
“Stay close.” Rick’s voice is low and tight. He waves for everyone to gather around him, keeping his eyes on the shadows all around.
We’re in a tight group now, but I don’t feel much safer. We keep walking anyway.
I think we’re going a little faster now, but this city is endless. I used to think Capernia was big, but compared to this city, my villag
e is a tiny side yard.
We walk for another ten minutes or so, but we still can’t see the edge of the city. Then we hear another sound behind us, and this time when I spin around to look, I glimpse a shadow darting inside one of the houses along the street.
I look quickly at Rick and know he saw it too.
“What do we do?” I keep my voice low and watch the doorway where the shadow disappeared.
Rick turns his back on the shadow and starts walking again. “Just keep moving. The longer it thinks we’re oblivious, the better chance we have of getting away.”
My instincts tell me not to, but I turn my back on the shadowy doorway and follow Rick.
Stew’s terrified, and Leah looks jumpy too now.
Honestly, it’s taking all of my willpower to keep walking steadily and not break into a dead-on sprint; I can hear something moving behind us, following us. I glance back a couple times, but I can never make out anything more distinct than a tall shadow.
We move like that for what seems like an eternity, huddled together, walking down the wide street, ignoring the sounds coming from behind us.
Then, at last, the parallel walls of buildings open up, and I can see the end of the enormous city.
Rick starts to walk a little faster, and I begin to hope we can make it. If we can just make it out of the city, hopefully whatever’s following us will give up.
But I’ll never know if it would’ve stopped at the edge of the city or not, because soon after we see the end, our predator does, too. It realizes that soon we’ll be out of the cage the city provides—and it makes its move.
Moving faster than I would’ve believed possible, the thing comes running out of the shadows.
With a rush of fear, I recognize it: an Entity.
“Run!” Rick shouts as soon as the Entity shows itself, and we all obey immediately.
The broken road makes it hard to run, but at least it seems to be slowing the Entity down, too.
We’re making good time, and I actually start to think we can outrun the Entity and find safety in the forest beyond, but then I hear an awful metallic scream and two other Entities appear, streaking out of buildings on either side of us and closing quickly. I know there’s no way to escape the Entities, but I keep running. What else can we do?
Suddenly Rogue runs past me, heading in the wrong direction.
“Rogue!” I slow down uncertainly, looking back at him.
He brandishes his firestick and tosses a grin over his shoulder. “Keep going, pal! I’ll catch up!”
I don’t see how he can take on all three Entities by himself, but then he blasts one of them against a building with his firestick.
I keep running, and I almost grin until I see three more Entities come out of the darkness.
I feel myself slowing down, and then Rick is beside me, pulling me by the arm, eyes fixed straight ahead.
“He can handle it.”
I run with him, feeling oddly detached from myself. I keep expecting Rogue to appear beside us at any moment. But the firestick explosions continue to shake the air until we’re out of the city.
We take cover in the woods and try to catch our breath.
How many Entities have come? Rogue must have blasted at least twenty by now, but he’s still firing.
Finally, the explosions stop and we wait in anticipation for Rogue to find us.
After ten minutes, I start to wonder what’s taking so long.
Stew breaks the long silence. “Do you think he’s lost?”
Leah frowns. “Not Rogue. He knows what he’s doing. Besides, we just ran straight out of the city—it wouldn’t be hard to track us down.”
“Then what’s taking so long?” I turn back toward the city and squint.
Everything is still and quiet.
Rick folds his arms tightly across his chest. “Isn’t it obvious? He ditched us.”
Stewart shakes his head. “No. Rogue said we were growing on him. He wanted to stay.”
“Well, maybe he changed his mind!” Rick’s sudden anger makes us all jump. “Maybe he decided hunting Entities was more fun than hanging around with us.”
Stew’s still shaking his head, but he looks less certain now.
I’m having a hard time believing it too, but then I think back on what I know about Rogue and his past. He’s spent the last four years hunting Entities on his own. He definitely has the ‘loner’ personality. Is it so ridiculous to think he’d abandon us?
But even in the short amount of time we’ve spent together, Rogue’s become an integral part of our group. I’d thought he cared more than this.
Leah shifts her weight to her other foot, looking uncomfortable. “Shouldn’t we . . . at least go back and make sure?”
Irritation flares in Rick’s blue eyes. “What’s the point? He’s gone, and there’s no telling if he took care of all those Entities. We should just keep going. We still need to find a shelter for tomorrow.” Without another word, he turns his back on the vast city and walks away.
I peek at Leah uncertainly.
She’s just as reluctant to leave as I am, but what can we do?
Besides, Leah’s right about one thing—Rogue knows what he’s doing. If he hasn’t decided to leave, he should be able to find us. I hope.
Either way, we’re losing Rick in the darkness and we don’t really have another choice.
So, after looking back toward the dark city one last time, I turn my back on it, too. Leah and Stewart follow immediately and silently, and we leave the city behind.
No one makes a sound as we walk through the forest, always following Rick. He moves at a determined pace and we have to work to keep up—we probably wouldn’t have been able to talk about anything anyway. Not at this pace, at least.
I think the forest will go on forever, just like the city, but just as the sky starts to lighten, we stumble across a small, damp cave. It’s not as comfortable as the cave we left behind in the valley so long ago, but at least it will keep us sheltered and hopefully safe during the day.
We can find something better tomorrow. Maybe by then Rogue will have caught up to us. Maybe he knows of a good place to hole up.
But until then, we’re on our own.
Rick crouches down and moves inside the cave without any ceremony and we follow, too exhausted to complain.
Inside, the cave is drafty, damp, and very dirty. There’s a foul smell nearby, like something crawled in here to die, and the floor is littered with all sorts of broken things—from rocks to clay to sticks.
I ignore the debris and lay down on the rough, uneven ground. Surprisingly, I miss the dusty bed in the dark city. I smile wryly at that thought, my last thought before I drift off to wake up.
Chapter 19
Ellie pounded on my door, clearly irritated. “Jonas! Get up already!” With a last slap on my closed door, she stalked away, muttering to herself.
I frowned and wondered what had put her in such a bad mood. How could anyone be so crabby on the weekend? Then I remembered: the weekend was over.
Where did it go? I wondered sourly, and reluctantly got ready for school, pulling on my worn, cotton clothes and shoving my books into the old leather bag.
The last thing I wanted was to sit through a long day of lectures and humiliation, but there wasn’t much I could do about it. Just in case, I felt my forehead, but there was no way I could pull off being sick.
Out of options, I grabbed my book bag and headed for the kitchen.
Mom was bustling around, looking busy and not in the mood to deal with a whiney kid.
Trying not to look too depressed, I slid into my chair at the table and grabbed some toast and oatmeal. I ate, but the food didn’t taste the way it should. It was bland and left a bad taste in my mouth when I swallowed.
Ellie hurried into the kitchen a few minutes later and tore into her own food, eating like there was no tomorrow.
“What’s up with you?” I heard the sourness of my tone and frowned. It
wasn’t Ellie’s fault I was having a bad day.
But rather than snapping at me, Ellie just sat up a little straighter and gazed at her spoon with a haughty look. “Nothing. Who cares if Louise is having a party today? Not me. So what if she invited everyone from class except me? I don’t care. And does it matter that all my friends are going to be there without me? Not at all.”
I watched her fuming in surprise. I mean, I’d seen Ellie get upset before—I’d been on the receiving end more times than I could count—but I’d never seen her this worked up. It was almost scary, yet oddly hilarious.
I found myself fighting a smile.
Ellie let out a huge sigh and returned to her breakfast with a little less gusto.
My lips twitched. “Well, I’m glad you’re fine.”
Ellie glanced up. Her face darkened when she saw my expression, and she threw her spoon across the table.
Luckily, she was so mad, her aim was off by a mile, but I still jerked out of the way reflexively.
That seemed to cheer her up for some weird reason and, after getting a clean spoon from the drawer, she finished up her breakfast without another scowl.
Mom sent us on our way with a pair of distracted kisses.
Ellie and I walked in silence for a minute, and I could tell she was brooding again.
I had never understood Ellie’s need to be invited to parties and always have a large group of friends, so I didn’t really know how to help her, but it bothered me to see her so upset. Call it whatever you want, but I wanted my sister to be happy.
I tried to think of something wise or encouraging to say, but nothing came. Finally, I just said the first thing that came to mind.
“Thanks for sparing me from the wrath of your spoon earlier.”
Ellie looked up at me in confusion.
I felt a smile forming on my lips. “I mean, I know if you’d actually meant to hit me, you wouldn’t have missed.”
Ellie’s expression slid from gloomy to smug and she nodded. “You’re right. Count yourself lucky, Jonas. Next time you cross me, it’ll be the last thing you do.”