The Rift (2 page)

“
Is that… did it work?” Dirk
asked.

James peered into the circle; a tunnel
stretched into nothingness, the top just a bit shorter than him.
The walls were cut in a spiraling, corkscrew shape. It extended for
maybe a hundred yards; a faint glow came through from the other
end.

“
It’s open,” James said.

“
What now?”

“
We go through and start our
resistance.”

“
No. They’ll follow us. I’ll guard
it from this side.”

“
That’s insane! It’s you against
the five of them.”

“
Listen, all I have to do is delay
them for a few minutes. It’ll close, and you’ll be
safe.”

“
And you’ll die.”

“
Says the one who injured himself.
What makes you think I can’t take them?”

“
Overconfident as always,” James
said. “If you can, avenge my sister’s chastity on Jed.”

“
Gladly. Enjoy the Shadowlands.”
Dirk’s voice wavered. “For my sake.”

James slung his pack over his shoulder and
turned off his armor. The pack’s weight tugged him down and the
pain in his side roared, but he needed to conserve the time he
could use his armor. He took a deep breath then walked
forward.

Warmth radiated from the walls of the tunnel,
and his footsteps echoed. About halfway through, he could make out
a field on the other side. Tiny points of light hung like jewels in
the night sky. The beauty shocked him.

A young woman’s voice came through. “Someone’s
coming.”

“
A double date?”

That’s what he’d been so excited to tell her
about? Vero snapped the padlock shut on her locker and stomped
toward the parking lot.

“
It’s for a friend of mine, maybe
my best friend.” Pieter walked backward in front of her, his green
eyes locked on hers. Pieter happened to call a lot of people his
best friend. “Neil. You remember Neil, right?”

Yes, she did. A plump Asian friend of Pieter’s
with round glasses and round cheeks. She’d met him just a couple
times. The name brought a vague unease. That’s right, video games.
The guy couldn’t talk about anything else.

“
How could I forget
him?”

A small group of guys walking by waved to
Pieter. He nodded back. Vero, who came up about to Pieter’s
shoulders, curved an arm around his waist and tugged him along.
They walked together out into the gentle fall sunlight.

“
Come on, he’s not that bad,”
Pieter said. “Look, it’s just one night. The guy’s never had a
girlfriend. Barely a date, even. I wanted to, you know, help him
out.”

Twenty-eight days together. Her happiest month
in a long time. It seemed a bit soon for this kind of thing. They
passed under the old oak, a tree that outdated South Obispo High by
a couple centuries. Yellow, grassy hills rolled in the distance,
and the rocky crag of Bishop’s Peak towered just a couple miles
away.

“
We can hang out after, if it’s a
train wreck,” Pieter said. “The worst dates always make the best
stories anyways.”

She laughed. “Yeah, sorry. Been a long week.
Did you know Kristin broke up, again?”

Pieter sighed and shook his head, waving back
and forth the little gelled spikes of his brown hair. “Didn’t even
know she was with someone.”

“
Yeah, it was a short one. Been
texting her all week. You know how she gets.”

“
You’re a good friend for
her.”

He tugged her arm, and they sat in the grass
with their backs against the old oak. The grass scratched against
her legs. She swiped her hair over the front of her body to keep
the dirt out. The new brown highlights were a little too light
against her natural black.

Pieter slipped his arm around her shoulder. His
fingertips brushed her skin. “Let’s just hang out, okay? And we
have today, right?”

A couple girls came by and waved to Pieter; he
waved back. Vero leaned a little closer. Sometimes the sheer number
of people he knew got a bit overwhelming.

“
So… do I have to find someone for
him?”

He sounded offended. “You think I’d have any
trouble with that?”

“
Who’s the lucky girl?”

“
Gloria. Gloria Stone. You know
her?”

“
Name sounds familiar.”

“
She’s lived here about as long as
I have. Nicest girl I’ve ever met… but not dated, that is. She’s
had a really rough life. She needs someone, too.”

Gloria sounded as desperate a case as Neil.
“Can’t really say no to that, can I?”

Vero leaned against a mailbox planted in the
cement of the sidewalk. Overhead, the sky changed to dark blue as
the sun painted a few last wispy clouds pink. Streetlights flipped
on. Behind her, a happy family enjoyed the clean interior of one of
San Luis Obispo’s homes. She sighed.

SLO, about halfway between Los Angeles and San
Francisco, was definitely an improvement over Bakersfield and the
Central Valley. Here, grassy hills created a matchless scenery
surrounding the small town. Parks and trails spread around the
city, and the beach was about fifteen minutes down the highway.
Everyone joked how Oprah had once named it the happiest town in
America. With the flawless weather, friendly population, and safe
neighborhoods, Vero missed nothing about her old hometown, except
friends.

But last spring had been an awful time to move.
Right now, she should be jumping into her senior year with friends
she’d had since forever. Instead, she lost her boyfriend and came
to a town where she knew no one beyond her family. Meeting Kristin
and Carrie had helped. She’d also somehow managed to land the most
connected guy in the school, a huge boost to her own status. Still,
these white kids in idyllic SLO had grown up in a different world
from the heat and dirt of the Central Valley.

A white two-door Toyota with a dent in the
bumper and a scrape across the driver’s side pulled around the
corner. Pieter had gotten it for his eighteenth birthday. His dad,
a physics professor at Cal Poly SLO, tended toward expensive
presents. It seemed like his way of competing against Pieter’s mom
for his son’s affection.

“
Hola, chica,” Pieter called from
behind an open window. It was about the extent of his Spanish,
despite two years. He smiled that smile that never left his
lips.

“
Hey.”

“
Hop on in the White
Lady.”

She opened the door and climbed
inside.

“
You know, you don’t have to wait
out there. Your mom’s not
that
bad.”

Vero shook her head. “No, it’s fine. I wasn’t
waiting long.”

He stared as though wanting to say more, as
though he suspected something. Or maybe it was just the length of
her skirt.

As they drove, he stayed quiet. Wind whipped
through the windows, but Vero smelled a faint aroma of
weed.

“
You nervous or something?” Vero
asked.

“
Nah, tonight’ll be great.” His
voice faltered. “It’s just that Steve’s in town.”

“
Steve…”

“
My brother.”

“
Oh, right.
Steve
.”

“
He showed up today and tried
staying with Mom. She turned him down, for once.”

“
And now?”

“
He’s somewhere around
town.”

His car idled at a red light. She put her hand
on his on top of the gear shift and squeezed
sympathetically.

“
I just wish he’d get his life
together,” Pieter said. “Anyways, I’m glad to have plans for
tonight. Feels good to get out.”

They parked in front of a hole-in-the-wall shop
called Thai This. It shared a strip mall with a guitar shop, liquor
store, and Mexican restaurant.

Vero stepped out and glanced around. “You see
them?”

Pieter pulled out his phone, then
laughed.

“
What?”

Pieter showed her the screen. It read, “I can
hav grl in car! grl!”

A teal Honda cautiously turned into a nearby
spot. Neil climbed out in a light-blue, button-down shirt and black
slacks. He almost looked classy, except for the tennis
shoes.

Gloria, in jeans and a sweater, with black hair
about to her shoulders, stepped out of the passenger’s side. She
followed Neil at a distance, her footsteps a little cautious. Vero
recognized her, though she wasn’t sure from where.

Vero gave Neil a friendly hug. “It’s good to
see you again!”

Neil’s body went rigid. “H-Hi. Good to see you
too, Veronica.”

She twitched at the sound of her full
name.

“
Hi, I’m Gloria,” said Neil’s
date.

“
Vero,” Vero said with a glare at
Neil. She embraced Gloria and remembered, midhug, where she
recognized the girl from. “We have sixth period together, don’t
we?”

“
Um, yeah, we do,” Gloria
replied.

Silence hung in the air.

“
What took you so long?” Pieter
barked at his friend.

“
A raid. We had a bad pull, and it
took a while to escape.”

The words sounded like a foreign language. Vero
made a puzzled sound. “Huh?”

“
Oh, sorry, that’s WoW. Uh,
World of Warcraft
. I’m the raid leader for the Army of
Pwn.”

“
Hey, let’s get some Thai food,
okay?” Pieter said.

Vero tried her best to smile. They always made
the best stories, later.

Pieter held open the door, and Vero and the
others walked out. Two smiling Thai men waved to them amid the
aromas of curry and garlic.

A cold breeze slapped Vero’s bare legs. Behind
her, Neil laughed. He seemed to think the night had gone well. Vero
eyed Pieter’s car like a bank robber eyes a getaway
ride.

“
All right, where to?” Pieter
asked. “Night’s still young.”

Vero locked on his eyes and begged through her
gaze for him to put this thing out of its misery. He blinked and
turned away.

“
No preference,” Neil
said.

“
How about you, Gloria?” Pieter
asked. “Anywhere you want to go?”

“
Oh, anywhere, I guess,” she said.
Four words, about as many as she spoke during the entire
dinner.

“
No, come on,” he said. “You have
any favorite spots?”

Gloria paused and looked at each of them in
turn. “Well, there’s the bike path near here.”

“
Bike path?” Pieter
asked.

“
The one by the railroad tracks.
It’s quiet. I like walking it sometimes.”

“
Sounds good,” Pieter said.
“Vero?”

No, they needed to part ways, right now.
Besides, what kind hangout was a bike path? It was probably a good
place to get mugged. Though that was her upbringing in the Central
Valley. Even the sketchy parts of SLO were safe, compared to where
she used to live. It was the company she wanted to part ways
with.

“
Sure,” she said, a little too
cheery. “Sounds great!”

They walked out of the shopping center and
around the corner. Some condos rose in the distance. Unlike most of
the housing in SLO—single story and dating back at least half a
century—these were modern, skinny, and tall. SLO, far as Vero could
tell, had some kind of development war between grandmas wanting to
keep it a small town and Cal Poly graduates wanting to start
businesses and live in new homes like those.

On the right, they passed an empty lot with a
large
For Sale
sign. Trees surrounded the lot on three
sides, and a creek bed ran between it and the shopping center. The
creek was silent after the long, rainless summer.

“
You see that?” Gloria
asked.

Vero glanced over and noticed some flickering
light toward the back of the lot. A group of trees hid the
source.

“
Probably some homeless,” Neil
said.

“
No, they wouldn’t light a fire
where people would notice.” Pieter pointed to the
condos.

The light vanished.

“
And a fire wouldn’t just vanish
like that,” Pieter said. “You guys want to check it
out?”

“
Sure,” Neil said.

“
Go check out a homeless camp? No,”
Vero said.

“
Oh, come on,” Pieter said. “This
is SLO. The homeless population is actually pretty friendly, though
grungy.”

“
I’d rather not,” Gloria
said.

Pieter stepped in front of her. “Come on.
What’s the worst that could happen?”

“
Worst? Probably kidnapping,” Neil
replied.

“
Pieter, I am
not
going in
that field,” Vero said.

“
Come on,” Pieter said. “I’ll keep
you safe. And Neil’s secretly a ninja, you know.”