Thatwas why he’d seemed so familiar that day in the gas station. I’d already met him before—sort of.
And I’d caused the death of his sister.
“I need to go,” I announce, my lips barely forming the words while my brain struggles to process this information.
His sister.
My fault.
“All right,” Lexington says, closing his computer. “I’ll walk you out if?—”
As soon as he moves to get up, the lights on this floor go out. My heart hammers inside my chest, panic seizing my throat, making me feel like my organs are suddenly too heavy and large to exist within my skin. I grip the edge of the table, trying to steady myself when no emergency floodlights come on either.
“Shit,” Lexington grunts, turning the flashlight on his phone toward me.
Jeez, why didn’t I think of that?
With trembling fingers, I fish my phone from my pocket, fear coating every nerve ending in my body. I send Quincy a text, asking if there’s a power outage we should be aware of, but she doesn’t reply.
“Come on,” Lexington says, grabbing my hand. He drags me to the stairwell, shoving open the heavy metal door and pushingme inside. “The automatic locks time out a few minutes after an outage. If we aren’t careful, we’ll get stuck in here.”
Swallowing, I grip the journal tight to my chest and follow him down the thirteen flights. Our phones at least provide enough light for it to not feel quite as suffocating.
Sacrifice tumbles into Lake Lerna and does not resurface.
I can’t get that line out of my head, even with the darkness pressing in around me.
“Elle.”
Lexington’s voice pulls me out of the spiraling thoughts, and I realize we’re standing at the front entrance. He grabs my shoulders, shaking me.
“The doors are already locked.”
I blink at him, the words not fully registering in my Jell-O brain. “Locked?”
“We’re trapped in here.”
Shaking my head, I glance around the lobby quickly. Where is everyone? The Obeliskos hadn’t closed for the night yet, but I don’t see anyone hanging around or panicking to find an available exit.
Did they leave as soon as the lights went out?
Or before that?
Anxiety swells in my chest, like a cloud of air pressing on my lungs and closing off my esophagus. I unlock my phone to call one of my siblings and see my service is nonexistent.
Clutching the journal, I grit my teeth, spinning around in a circle and taking in the various tall, pointed windows.
“We can’t be trapped,” I tell him, even though my tongue is so dry it feels like it’s cracking when I speak. “Building fire codes require manual exit doors. We just have to find one.”
Lexington points to the faint red sign above the rotating doors. “This is the fire exit. Normally, the push bar works, but…”He reaches forward, trying to shove the glass barrier with no luck. “It’s jammed or something.”
Heavy footsteps thud on the floor above us.
We glance at each other. Are we alone or not?
“Something feels off about this,” he whispers.
I nod. No shit.
