Everbound: An Everneath Novel (18 page)

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.

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.

I turned around to see an official-looking dark sedan.

My dad’s car.

The Surface. My dad’s car
.

B
efore I could figure out what to do, my dad jumped out of the passenger seat.

“Nikki!” He paused for a moment as he took in my red-caked pants, and then his arms were around me. “Where have you been?” he said into my hair. Then he pulled back to look at me. “What happened?”

My mind couldn’t work fast enough to tell a believable lie. “I don’t know.”

“You don’t
know
? Then where were you?”

“I … How did you find me?”

He pushed some of the hair from my eyes and then held my face in his hands. “Your phone.”

I glanced down at the phone in my hand and then back to my dad. “What, like GPS?”

He didn’t admit it, but he looked guilty. “What do you expect, Nikki? Your strange disappearances? Your missed appointments? And then last night your signal disappeared. I’ve been waiting for it to reappear every since.”

I shook my head, still staring at my phone. My dad pulled on my elbow. “Come on. Get in the car. We’ll discuss this on the way to Dr. Hill’s.”

“What?!”

“I called her on the way. She’s squeezing you in, and you need it now more than ever.”

I jerked my arm free and backed away. “No! Dad, I’m sorry; I can’t explain right now, but I have to go.”

“You’re not going.” He no longer had me in his grip, but there was nowhere for me to run. I looked at his eyes. His tired eyes. He didn’t understand that this was life or death. Jack’s life, or his death. I’d been hiding the truth for so long. Was this one of those times when only the truth would work? I don’t know if it was my exhaustion or my desperation, but I blurted out the first honest thing I’d said in a long time.

“I know where Jack is! He’s trapped, and I have to go or he’s going to die.” It was simple. And it was the truth, and yet the words still had the power to cut me to the core.

He froze. “Where is he?”

How to explain? “He’s … not here. He’s somewhere else. And I was on my way to find him last night—”

“When you got caught in a paint fight?” He was eyeing my red-covered pants, and his tone was more sarcastic than I’d ever heard from him. A sign that he was frustrated.

He didn’t believe me. Of course he didn’t believe me. But I had to get rid of him before Cole came.

“Dad. Look at me.” We were eye to eye. “Trust me. Believe in me. Jack will die if I don’t get to him. And I’m the only one who can. He’s in … sort of an alternate reality. I know it sounds crazy, but look at me. Do you see my pupils dilated? Do you see any other signs that I’ve lost it? You have to give me forty-eight hours. Alone. I can save Jack. But I need to go.”

It was working. I could see it in his face. He believed me.

He turned toward his car and called to the driver. “James. Can you get me a bottle of water?”

Water
. It sounded so good. James came around the car and handed it to my dad. My dad twisted it open.

“Here,” he said, handing it to me. “Drink.”

I gulped the entire thing down without pausing for a breath. My dad sat on the ground next to me and leaned his head against the wall. I handed him the empty bottle.

“I’m sorry I’ve been so crazy. But once I find Jack and bring him home, things will get better.”

“Just relax, Nikki. You’re back now.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder. He needed to know I wasn’t back for good, but the words to explain weren’t there. I was tired.

So tired.

When I woke up I was on a couch. I rubbed my shoulder. “Ow.”

I heard the squeak of someone shifting on leather. “Sorry, Nikki. James accidentally bumped into the wall when he was carrying you in.” Was that Dr. Hill’s voice?

“I’m not supposed to be here.” My mouth felt like cotton.

“Drink some water.”

The water. My dad had given me water. “What was in it?”

Dr. Hill frowned and set a glass of water aside. “I’m afraid your father did something rash. He put Valium in your drink. He was worried about you, but he shouldn’t have done that.”

“My dad drugged me,” I said, incredulous. “And here I was thinking he believed me.”

“Believed you about what?”

I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs inside. I’d slept, but I hadn’t dreamed. Was it because it was an artificially induced sleep? “I have to go.”

“Of course. After we talk for a bit. After you start telling the truth.”

The truth
. If the past few hours had taught me anything, it was not to be honest.

She clicked her pen open and shut a couple of times and then held it again to the yellow legal pad resting on her lap.

“What happened to you?”

I shrugged, glancing at the windows in her office and wondering if I could maybe squeeze through one. But we were on the second floor.

She inhaled loudly. “Nikki, your father found you on the side of the road, your pants covered in … something, and talking incoherently about alternate dimensions. I know you don’t feel safe with anyone; but if you want to get out of here, you’ve got to give me something.”

I thought about it. “I don’t know where to start.”

“Close your eyes. Count backward from ten. Let your mind go.”

Dr. Hill called this a guided imagery exercise. She had me do it at every appointment. It was supposed to get the conversation flowing. I nodded and then did as instructed.

“Now open your eyes.”

I did, but it wasn’t Dr. Hill’s therapy face that caught my attention. It was something else, in the corner of the room. Behind Dr. Hill’s rolling chair. A hand, pale and ghostly, coming out of the floor.

A phantom hand.
Crap
. Maybe I
am
crazy.

“Talk, Nikki.” Dr. Hill was losing patience.

I tried to keep my eyes on her, but the hand was waving toward me, as if it was trying to get my attention.

“Nikki? You have to give me something.”

The hand pointed to the side wall, opposite the entrance, where the bathroom was. I tried not to stare directly at it and risk Dr. Hill seeing it. Or maybe it really was a hallucination.

The hand made insistent gestures toward the bathroom.

“Um … may I please be excused?” I said.

“No more excuses.”

“I can’t help it if I need to use the restroom. I won’t be able to think until I do.”

She glanced at her watch. “Make it quick.”

I stood from the couch and started walking toward the door, and the hand followed me, slinking along the floor and up the one step that led to the bathroom.

What the … ?

I went inside and shut the door, and the hand came through the wall. It reached out, fingers together, thumb up, as if it would shake my hand. I crouched down and noticed markings around each of the fingers on the hand. Tattoos.

I hadn’t seen them before because the hand itself was practically translucent. There was only one person I knew with those tattoos.

“Cole?”

The hand went limp, as if exasperated, and then gave me an exaggerated thumbs-up signal.

I stood up to consider. Would I really be able to get to the Everneath from my doctor’s office bathroom?

And how would my doctor explain it?

I was pretty sure there would be a manhunt after this; but Jack was down there, and Cole was waiting.

I had no choice but to grab the hand.

I took it as if I were shaking it; and within an instant I was gone again.

The Everneath. The Ring of Water
.

I
landed hard on the dirt pathway, my lungs compressed painfully. I coughed a few times.