I forgot sometimes that Trey’s life had this huge pop-culture black hole. The only shows he remembered were from 20 years ago. He’d never seenStranger ThingsorAmerican Horror Storyor evenSupernatural. I wished we’d had more time so we could have watched movies and TV shows together and I could have introduced him to Netflix. I bet he still thought TV had commercials.
When I freed him, we were going to have some serious fun.
IfI freed him.
After waving goodbye to our driver, we peeled off the main road as quickly as we could and entered the woods. My stomach twisted as we began the long climb up the peninsula. We passed by a strange rock formation – a jagged circle of sharp points ejected from the earth beneath like predator’s teeth. Trey leaned in between them and deposited his rock in a small gap, hiding it beneath a pile of dead leaves and moss. “I don’t need to keep carrying that around now,” he said, picking up an old t-shirt wrapped around another object.
“What’s that?” I pointed to the damp bundle.
Trey unrolled the edge of the t-shirt, showing me the collection of hammers and chisels wrapped inside. “I stole them from the maintenance shed,” he said proudly. “We’re going to need them.”
After twenty minutes, we both puffed as we clambered over craggy rocks and scrambled through dense forest. Nothing looked familiar, but I guessed I’d only ever traveled this far from Derleth blindfolded, under cover of darkness, or sedated. After what seemed like hours, we mounted a wooded ridge and I could just make out the roof of the dormitory building sticking out above the trees.
The moon was high by the time we reached the edge of the fields. Trey stood behind the row of rose bushes where we hid after tagging the gymnasium wall. I looked over the field – they’d painted the wall a blazing white to cover over our graffiti. A line of charred earth burned through the middle of the field, breaking the symmetry of the space with its cruel irregularity.That’s from the fire in my dream.
My dream was real. My fire could reach beyond my subconscience and impact the real world.
What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck?
I didn’t have time to ponder it in any great depth. Trey turned to me, and the look on his face was unreadable. “What do we do now?”
“We’re going to see my friends. Quinn told me there were three secret passages into the school, and Andre and I found an additional one that leads to Ms. West’s lab. The swinging mirror was bricked up, and I don’t like our chances with the icehouse. Where are the others?”
“Neither of them will work,” Trey said. “One goes into the faculty wing, the other one comes out near the gymnasium, and it’s filled with those… shadow things.”
I shuddered at the memory of the shadows that attacked me in the gym. “No thanks.”
“Agreed. It’s why we never use them. Show me the bricks. We’re going to have to get through them. Luckily, I’m now a champion at chiseling.”
We picked our way back through the woods to the edge of the cliff, where rough stone steps led down to the ancient pleasure garden. At the top of the stairs, Trey thrust out an arm, holding me back.
“What gives? You almost—”
The fierce look in Trey’s eyes silenced me. It was then that I heard the voices rising from the garden below. Students laughing. Not just any students. I recognized Courtney’s unmistakable purr.
We’re not alone.
Unable to stop myself, I laid down the tools and flattened myself against the ground. I drew out Zehra’s knife from my boot and gripped it in my hand as I peered over the edge of the cliff down onto the pleasure garden.
“Oh, Ayaz!” Courtney squealed in delight. She stood on the edge of the grotto, her panther-like body clad only in a white bikini. She held up her hands to her face as a figure in the water splashed her playfully. The figure laughed, his voice like velvet.
Ayaz.
The sight of him made heat flame inside me. He looked amazing, his torso glistening with water and painted with tattoos, his dark hair lost against the murky water. He picked up a squealing Courtney, threw her over his shoulders, and dragged her into the water. I leaned out further, twisting my head to see, but they’d gone under the rock shelf and deeper into the grotto.
To the place he had kissed me, when I told him I’d seen Zehra.How can he be there with her? How—
A hand grabbed my shoulder, yanked me back into the trees. Trey frowned at me as he clutched me against his chest, sandwiching my arms in place with his superior strength.
“We should get closer,” I whispered, struggling against his iron grip. “We need to hear what they say.”
“We can’t. They’ll see us as soon as we leave the trees.”
