We head inside and I turn right toward the stairs.
“Can you tell what floor the villain is on?” Landon asks.
“No, but I can sense that something is going on upstairs,” I say as I hurry up the steps with August in front of me and Landon taking up the rear.
“Like… should we take the elevator? I think we should take the elevator.”
“The villain could be camping the elevator. They could dump acid in it the second the door opens,” August explains.
“My legs are saying that they’re willing to take that risk,” Landon says. “I’m going to check the second floor, okay?”
“They’re not on the second floor,” I tell him.
“Yeah, but… they could be,” Landon says as he eyes the door leading to a life of less stair climbing. “Hear me out… if I pick up the entire building with my mind and then like… flip it over and shake it like a little Tic Tac container… the villain might fall out one of the windows.”
“I approve of this message,” I say, halting in my steps, very interested in seeing this happen.
“Come, I’ll carry you,” August offers, like the sucker he is.
“Yay! We could fight like this, you know? You carrying me, me beating the shit out of people with my telekinesis. My superhero slogan could be like: ‘I would never be opposed to riding you, ChronoBendMeOver.’”
“Sounds romantic,” August says.
“I might go wait outside with the other two before I throw up all over,” I mutter.
“Aww, you’re just jealous that the man you have the hots for is stoic and only likes having a stick up his ass.”
“Am I?” I ask, quite uncertain.
We rush onto the fifth floor where August hesitates before turning. “They’re here.”
“I agree,” I say as I pull the door open and August hurries inside with Landon still on his back.
A woman looks up from where she’s dragging a man who is blubbering and pleading.
She scowls at our entrance. “How about you all worry about yourself and I’ll finish up here?”
“Please, please help me,” the man sobs.
“He doesn’t fucking need help,” she says. “He deserves this. Don’t you? You want to tell them what you did? Yeah?”
He twists hard, breaking free and leaping to his feet. He doesn’t get far before she throws up a wall of acid that rains down. He screams as he reels back, his skin sizzling where the drops touched him.
And that’s when I get a bad feeling.
I freeze where I stand, but it’s not like I can hear or see anything from this far away.
“I need to go back,” I say.
“What?” Landon asks. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. You two have this?”
“Yes, we’ve got it,” August says.
I spin fast and dart through the door and back into the stairwell as I pull out my phone and call Ellison. He doesn’t answer the phone, so I quickly call Lex, but the phone rings and rings.
I leap over the railing, dropping half a flight, and then do it again, making it down to the first floor in record time. When I slip out the door, Ellison’s illusion isn’t waiting for me.
