Surreal Ecstasy (30 page)

I called information and got the
number for Extended Stay, and when it rang, Bree answered the phone,
thankfully.

"Hi, Bree. It's Morgan
Constantina. I, um, checked in this morning."

Her voice seemed to brighten at my
name. "Oh yes, hello. How is your room?"

I hesitated, not knowing if I
should continue. I threw my concerns aside, realizing it didn't really matter
how crazy anyone thought I was. I had something to ask. Time to toughen up.

"Bree, I had a man visit me in
my room, and he's dangerous. I ran off, but I don't want to come back until he's
gone. Is there a way you could have someone check and see if he's still there,
or anywhere near the hotel?"

There was a pause. "What?"
Her voice was anxious. "What happened? What did he do? Who was it?"

"He's an old boyfriend of
mine, and he came to start a fight with me, I think. He has people keeping tabs
on me, and I didn't see anyone following me today at all, but you never know."
I closed my eyes, mentally cursing the few tears that began to form under my
eyelids.
Don't cry, Morgan. Stop it. Be strong and tough. Be a bitch, even.

"Oh, my god. I'll call the
police. Where are you? Are you okay?"

"I'm at Lynndale Park. Please don't tell the police that unless you have to," I added, not knowing why I
was suddenly confiding in her. "It's after closing hours here, but I didn't
have anywhere else to go."

"Okay. We're going to straighten
this out. Okay? Hang in there. We'll take care of this right away. I'll have
someone take a look at the grounds. Can you describe him for me?"

I did, and thanked her for being so
concerned. She asked for my number and said she would call me back, but one
look at the flashing battery icon on my phone told me I wouldn't be receiving
calls anytime soon. Bree got even more anxious after I related that to her. It
almost got to the point where I felt like I had to comfort her, instead of the
other way around. I was touched by her concern about me, but I had to hang up
before my phone cut us off.

We hung up and I turned off my
phone to conserve the tiny bit of battery I had left in case I needed it. I
wanted to kick myself for not plugging it in the car charger on the way to the
park, but this was no time to dwell on regrets. I had a lunatic ex-boyfriend
looking for me, a person with a power known as Fire Claws.

I couldn't think about that right
now either. I had to save my thinking power for the struggle that lay ahead of
me. Even if he'd run off, now that Adim knew which hotel I was staying at, he
might return at any time. I knew I wouldn't be able to think straight unless I
had some sort of backup plan, so I considered for a few minutes. If nothing
happens for a while, I'd walk very slowly back to my car, keeping an eye out
for him along the way. I'd jump in, start the engine, plug my phone into the
car charger, then call Bree again and find out if anyone had seen him. Then,
depending on her answer, I'd either go back to my room or ask Bree if she knew
where else I could stay safely. She seemed to be sympathetic to my situation,
so I was confident she'd give me good advice.

I sat there on the plateau
cross-legged, keeping a careful watch on any possible movements. What felt
like, I don't know, maybe less than an hour, I heard a branch snap behind me. I
moved like lightning, grabbing my backpack and taking off in the opposite
direction of the sound. No time to look back. Just run, run, run, I told
myself.

My heart pounded once I stopped to
catch a breath. I chastised myself, thinking it was most likely a little
squirrel or rabbit. I couldn't be afraid of my own shadow. I was making a big
deal out of nothing.

Then I started to argue with
myself. No. No! I am
not
making a big deal out of nothing. I could have
been beaten or raped by Adim tonight. I was alone and scared that I may not
survive this. I had a right to take precautions.

Crack, snap, crack!

Three branches cracked, one after
the other, and I might have been crazy, but I was pretty sure the spacing of
the noise was just right for the sounds of a person taking steps on small,
fallen branches.

Taking steps in my direction.

No time to panic or cry. I took off
again in the direction I'd been heading, but soon came to a little stream that
I had to walk around, which almost sent me back in the direction I came. Shit.
I was totally getting lost now, not to mention I might very well be walking
back to Adim's psychotic arms.

At one point, I found the stream
forked, and I took a moment to decide which direction would be smarter to go
in. In the back of my head, I imagined my mother telling the sheriff,
My
daughter died in the woods after running from a psycho, you say? God was
probably testing her, and she failed the test. Leave her in the woods. She
doesn't deserve a burial.

Confident I'd put a lot of space
between Adim and me—and my legs aching and feeling like they were going to fall
off—I slowed down to a walk, keeping close to the stream. Even though I was
lost, at least this was a way of keeping track of where I've been. So much for
me knowing this place very well.

Crack!!

Unbelievable! How in the world
would Adim be able to keep up with me? I was never in the Olympics or anything,
but I could certainly keep up in phys ed in high school.

Snap, crack!

He was getting closer. I turned to
face the direction of the noise while continuing to walk.

I really need to stop doing two
things at once.

I tripped over something and
dropped, my head falling against something hard, making me dizzy and giving me
an instant migraine. I turned a little to see that my head had hit a rock,
which it was currently resting on. Apparently, there was a little cluster of
rocks here, and I'd tripped on one of the smaller ones.

Shit.

Still lying on the rocks, I turned
back the other way to see how much farther the stream went.

And that's when someone touched my
shoulder.

Chapter 20

I screamed to the top of my lungs,
spinning my torso back around to see who was standing above me.

It was Bree.

Delirious from stress and tired
from all the running, I laid there pitifully, looking at Bree in patient
detail. She was blonde, but not Erica-blonde; it was more of a multi-tonal
light brown-blonde combination that made her appear beautiful but approachable.
The constant smile on her lips probably helped, too. Her eyes were green, and
right now they were focused on me, a worry line creasing her forehead.

I exhaled loudly, relaxing my body
as much as I could with that dreadful headache.

"I'm sorry I scared you!"
she cried, looking worried.

"Bree? How…how did you…how did
you find me so fast?"

"Shh. You're hurt—I saw you
fall. Are you okay? Do you need medical attention?" She had her phone out,
ready to dial.

I groaned as I tried to sit up.
Yikes. I needed about twelve Advils.

Bree rushed to my side to help. "Adim…"
I muttered.

"What?"

"Adim. My ex. Did anyone find
him? Did you see him on the way over here?"

She shook her head, her light brown
locks swooshing side to side. "No, no one from our staff was able to find
him, and your room appears to be safe, too. We checked."

"Thanks for doing all this. I
mean, you didn't have to come here. It couldn't have been easy finding me."

She smiled, her face lighting up. "It
actually wasn't that hard," she said modestly. "I was taught how to
trail people in the woods once. Anyway, this is the sort of thing I'm supposed
to do. I'm Worthy."

I groaned automatically, not really
knowing why. It was probably because I'd somehow thought that leaving Ree and
Dess behind would also make the entire God Generation disappear from the
planet. I'd had a hard enough time getting through this life just being Morgan,
let alone some type of Architect human helper that was all mixed up in the GG's
business.

"I'm just here to help,"
she added, looking a little hurt at my negative reaction.

"No, don't—I'm sorry. Nothing
personal. I'm a choop," I added hastily, figuring that was the best way to
explain my involvement with the God Generation. Not that I didn't trust her,
mind you—you just never knew when someone else was listening, and the way I saw
it, the less people I tell my Architect secret to, the less GG people would
look for me, and the less trouble I'd have. "I've just had a lot of
strange things happen these past couple weeks."

She looked as if she were going to
say something, but apparently thought better of it and closed her mouth. "All
God Generation-related?" she asked good-naturedly.

I nodded. "It's like, you find
out about this stuff, and suddenly, every local angel, demon, and former god
comes out of hiding." A thought occurred to me. "How did you know to
tell me what you were? I mean, I'm sure you guys don't go around announcing who
you are in public."

"I…had a feeling. Sometimes we
get an inkling about the status of a person we see." She offered a modest
smile. "Besides, if you didn't understand, I thought that you might be too
distracted to really worry about it."

I laughed in spite of myself. She
had a point.

She gave a polite smile and stuck
her hands under my arms. I got up slowly as if I hadn't walked in weeks.
Different places of my body stung a little, but it was manageable.

Once I was upright, she regarded me
carefully. "Can you walk? If not, I'll call an ambulance."

"No, Bree, don't bother with
an ambulance. Thanks, though. I really appreciate it. I'm not feeling perfect,
but I don't need medical attention. I just need to lie down."

"Come on," she said,
taking my elbow. "I'll walk you to your car and follow you back to the
hotel. Or, if you can't drive-"

"I'm okay. I promise. You've
done more than your share."

Our walk back was slow and almost
maddening. I had no idea I'd run so far.

"Do me a favor," Bree
told me gently as she helped me in my car about forty minutes later. "Don't
tell anybody about me, okay?"

I gave her a strange look as I
settled in my blue VW bug. "Why?"

She sighed to herself. "I'm on
the run. I don't know how much you've learned about the God Generation so far,
but it seems like when one knows something, every single being in the universe
knows it." She sighed again and shook her head to herself. I nodded. I
could definitely understand where she was coming from. "Just to be safe, I
want the whole community to forget I exist, at least until I…until I'm at a
better place." She paused and stared off into space for a while. "Anyway,"
she said, sounding more like her cheery self, "Are you sure you're okay?
This doesn't feel right, leaving you here."

I found it a little odd that she
changed the subject so quickly, but I decided that running this far to save my
life earned her some breathing space. "No, I'm okay. I promise. I'm going
to call someone right now." I suddenly felt guilty about leaving the house
without explaining anything to Dess. It wasn't her fault that her eyes reminded
me of her brother's. She was my best friend, and I needed her.

Bree paused and looked off in the
distance, as if trying to decide what to do. "Alright. But you need to
swear that you'll call me if you need me." She gave me her number, hugged
me, and left.

I put my car on accessory and
plugged my phone in the charger, closing the car door and locking it, just in
case. I turned on my phone and sent a text to Dess:

Sorry I left—I'll explain later.
Adim found me at the Extended Stay. I hit him and ran to Lynndale Park. I'm at the northwest end by the baseball fields. Please come quickly. For all I know, he
might still be out there.

I sent the text and drove around
the park toward the three baseball fields. They were an easy landmark for
anyone to find. I pulled up on the street and parked, resting my eyes while I
waited for Dess.

I caught myself nodding off a
couple times, then decided to give in to the fatigue, so I tried to make myself
as comfortable as possible and dozed off a little.

When I opened my eyes again, I had
no idea how much time had passed, since I'd been too distracted to take note of
the time earlier. Regardless, it felt as if a long time had passed—I'd guess
one to one-and-a-half hours. I wondered if Dess had a hard time finding the
baseball fields—the park
was
pretty gigantic. I removed my cell phone
from its charger and took my keys out of the ignition, getting out of the car.
I locked it and walked closer to the main intersection, hoping to get a glimpse
of Dess' Kia on the street and wave her in the right direction. I did see a
car, but it was some Honda or Toyota sedan, and it passed by me quickly.

"Morgue!"

I never thought I'd be so happy to
hear that word.

Dess was about twenty feet away
from me, standing next to my car. Her Kia was parked right in front of mine.
She must have sneaked up on me.

I've really got to learn how to be
more observant.

She ran to me and hugged me, and I
relaxed into the embrace, almost wanting to cry. "Morgue, what happened?
Are you hurt? God, that wimpy bitch Adim is gonna get his ass barbequed!"

She continued to rattle on and ask
questions, so I began to explain everything to her, but I stopped short.

I saw a figure get out of Dess'
car.

Oh, god. It was Ree.

I looked at Dess. "I don't
want to deal with this right now," I told her, my heart pounding. I didn't
allow myself to think about how much I missed him. He'd hurt me. There was no
going back.

"He wanted to come, Morgue.
You might want to hear what he has to say."