Nobody suggested going to their rooms. Nobody mentioned the beds upstairs behind the taped doors. The idea of being alone behind a closed door made Levi’s stomach hurt, and fromthe way everyone arranged themselves around the fireplace without discussion, he wasn’t the only one.
Couch cushions ended up on the floor, every top sheet and comforter they could find dragged into the room, until it resembled an almost cozy eight person sleepover.
But Tyler remained in the chair he had been placed in all day, unmoving, occasionally blinking. Maddie tried to move him — her hands on his arms, her voice soft,come on, come lie down, you’ll be more comfortable— and Tyler’s body lurched, but remained stiff, still staring at the fire. Maddie settled on the couch nearest to his chair, her hand reaching across the gap to hold Tyler’s wrist as she dozed off.
He and Asher tucked into a corner against a wall near the bar, and Levi made no effort to loosen Asher’s grip on him. It felt good. Safe. Secure.
Levi closed his eyes. He told himself the windows were sealed and the doors were taped and the group was together.
He could sleep.
Levi woke to screaming.
He bolted upright before his eyes were open, and Asher’s hands were already on him, checking his face, his arms, scanning everything as though Levi had been the one screaming. “I’m fine,” Levi said. “I’m fine, it’s not me —”
Then he turned.
Maddie was on the floor beside Tyler’s chair, her hands on his arm, pulling with a force that wasn’t trying to move him. Her screams collapsed into sobs.
Tyler was still in the chair, but somewhat deflated, still not moving. One of the decorative framed photographs was on theground in front of him, the glass cracked cleanly in half, and in Tyler’s lap, loosely held in fingers that had stopped holding anything, was a shard of bloody glass.
Blood had run down his forearm and pooled in the crease of the chair’s upholstery, dark and still.
He was three feet from her...
Zoe had her hand over her mouth. The others were on their feet, grey-faced in the fog’s light. Asher’s hand found Levi’s and squeezed.
“I’m okay,” Levi said. He stared at Tyler, at the frame on the floor and the shard in his lap and Maddie on the floor beside the chair, her hand still on Tyler’s right wrist, squeezing for a pulse that wasn’t there anymore.
We stayed together. We sealed the windows and taped the doors and put everyone in one room and it didn’t matter. Tyler was surrounded by people, one of them was holding his hand, and the fog still got him.
If proximity isn’t enough — if the fog gets inside us and stays and nothing flushes it out — what comes next?
20
The Nerd
Levistaredoutthewindow at the fog as he waited for Asher to come back from putting Tyler’s body upstairs and out of sight.
“I need to ask you something,” Levi said as Asher started down the steps towards him, “about the kitchen.”
Asher cocked his head a little. “Okay.”
“What was actually in there before you cleaned it?”
“Three dead people,” he said with a shrug. “Staff, from the uniforms. One of them had a knife, it looked like she attacked the other two and then…” he made a stabbing gesture at his neck.
Levi’s stomach turned. “You moved them?”
Asher gave him a bewildered look. “Of course, you can’t have a date with corpses as decoration, Levi.”
“Okay,” Levi said.Is it bad I still think it was romantic? Probably.
“Okay?”
“Okay.”
When they returned to the lounge, Maddie was on the couch with Elliot beside her, a hand on her back. Owen made tea —chamomile, he’d said when he’d pressed the mug into Maddie’s hands.It’s soothing.He handled the mug with a carefulness that looked almost painful, like he wasn’t sure if the fragile thing was the cup or himself. Jasper was on the floor near Maddie, not touching, not talking. Just there.
