“You think you got it?”Marin asked, turning to Blake so that their cheeks brushed together.Blake nodded, still attempting to suppress a blush.Marin smiled, pulling away.It was a little pathetic, but Blake immediately missed his proximity and touch.
“Show me what you’ve got,” Marin instructed, resuming his original project, which looked like some sort of star.Determined to please him, Blake crumpled his clay back into a ball, starting the project anew.
They worked in tandem, silent but not awkward.Despite the urgency of the coming days, Blake found himself at ease for the first time in hours.There was something uniquely pleasant about being in quiet company.
The clay transformed easily beneath Marin’s expert touch.He rolled it thin with a small pin, draped it across the pentagram of his tinfoil and sealed away the edges under the glide of his thumb.Small, uniform shapes were carved into the clay with a twirl of his hobby knife.Using a damp sponge, he smoothed away the fine wrinkles left behind by his fingertips.He held his tongue between his teeth as he worked, brow furrowed and black eyes sharp with concentration.Blake watched as he tilted his long neck to get a better look at a small detail, watercolor tresses spilling across his face.His process was as mesmerizing as it was relaxing, and Blake nearly forgot about his own project in his hands several times, so enraptured in the art of Marin’s creation.
After a while of maneuvering, Blake managed to make a pinch pot that was more or less acceptable to his meager standards—while it was still a little lopsided with a wavering rim, it at least appeared to have a consistent thickness and looked like it could hold a small amount of water.
“How’s this?”Blake asked, turning to Marin for approval.Marin set aside his tools, taking the pinch pot up in his hands and turning it to and fro.
“Much better.”He nodded in approval, grinning at Blake.“You’re a fast learner.”
“You’re a good teacher,” Blake responded with a smile of his own.“How’s your project coming—oh!”
The moment Blake’s eyes fell upon the figure in Marin’s hands, he was struck with realization.Initially, he’d assumed that Marin had been carving a starfish, but he had decorated it with a small gem and facets in the center that immediately made it recognizable as something else.
“It that a Pokémon?”he asked, gesturing towards the sculpture.
“A what?”Marin asked, cocking his head.
Blake leaned over to the nearby sink, washing residual clay from his hands before bringing up an image on his phone.
“It’s a game where you catch and battle little animals,” he explained, turning the screen towards Marin to show him the starfish-like creature.“What you made looks exactly like a Pokémon called a Staryu.You probably remember it from before—unless it’s something you saw at the park or while we were in transit.”
“I don’t think so—it popped into my head out of nowhere,” Marin said, staring at the picture on his phone and then down at his creation.“That’s… uncanny.All the details are down to the point.”
“That’s a good thing, though,” Blake said, dropping his voice so that Trinity and the others couldn’t hear.“Pokémon didn’t come out until the late nineties—if you remember one, it gives us a shorter time frame to work with when it comes to figuring out when you…” he trailed off, the sentence a bit too dark to finish.
“Died?”Marin filled in with a wry smile.
“Yeah,” Blake agreed.“We have to figure out when Water Zone opened, or at least when the pirate ship you were on was installed.”
“I’d imagine that would be easy enough,” Marin was saying as Blake opened up his text messages to update Celeste.Surprisingly, there was already a text from them about Paul Aberley.
“Hey, I did that search and narrowed it down to a few Paul Aberleys in Nor Cal,” they’d said.“I’m reaching out to them with the contact info that I got.I’ll keep you updated.”
“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver,” Blake texted back.After taking a quick moment to update them about the Pokémon situation and his associated theories, Blake glanced at the clock on his screen.
“I don’t know if you’re done, but we’re gonna have to wrap up here real soon,” he told Marin.“My shift starts in a little more than an hour.”
“No problem, I’m all finished.It just needs to be painted and fired at a later date,” Marin replied, gently moving his sculpture onto a small wooden board beside his teacup and Blake’s lumpy monstrosity of a bowl.
“I’ll ask Trinity when we can come ba—” the words died in Blake’s throat as Marin brought the sculptures over to the drying rack.
His mind’s eye flickered to the posterboard where Celeste had scrawled ‘Don’t screw it up’.If Blake didn’t manage the conditions, there would be no coming back.The thought of the little starfish alone amongst the other projects, abandoned and unfinished, was enough to make his throat squeeze in upset.
No,Blake thought, watching as Marin exchanged pleasantries with Trinity, who was marveling over his work.There was still clay drying on his soft hands, powder falling from them as he gesticulated, hiding a flustered grin behind his palm.I’m not gonna fail you, Marin.I’ll keep that smile alive.
8
In the massive parking lot of Water Zone, Blake and Marin stood propped up against the side of Blake’s motorcycle.Blake had opened up the drawing app on the iPad and used it to scribble a small, horrible diagram of the inside of the castle.
“So when you go up the stairs, you’ll see the party rooms on your right,” he explained, tapping the small boxes with the tip of his finger.“The last door at the end of the hall leads to the break room, the security office, and the manager’s office.They shouldn’t be locked.We were back there last night.My best guess is that the files you’re looking for are going to be in one of those rooms.
“My manager Lovepreet and the security guy Noel are usually out on the floor during the afternoon shift, so you shouldn’t run into them.If you do, tell Lovepreet you’re looking for the break room.She won’t question you, even if you’re knee-deep in restricted files—she’s nice like that.You’ll know her when you see her: she’s the pretty Punjabi lady with a long braid and bracelets.”
“And Noel?”Marin asked.Blake grimaced.
