Heat on my cheeks like someone lit a fire under my skin.
Then…
“I can’t stop running. LikeI can’t stop,” Mimi whispered.
“I haven’t slept in a month.” The Diamond boy.
“I constantly feel like I can’t breathe, even when I feel the air going down my throat.” The Diamond girl—potentially Erith.
“I cry every night.” The Club.
“I never want to dance anymore.” Cook.
We looked at him—and even though logic said that not wanting to dance wasn’t really a big deal…it was.Something there, something in my gut that whispered it to me, as senseless as it sounded.
And I didn’t think I was the only one, either—the look in all their faces said they, too, understood, even without the sense.
I looked at March, hoped he’d say something, waited…
“I want to know the truth,” said Levana the Heart. “But how am I going to trust people who’ve kidnapped me? They’reTimekeepers.”
Nowthatmade perfect sense to all of us. Rational thinking. Based suspicion. A very strong argument.
Except…
“Nobody will give me answers,” I said, a little afraid of myown words. “I think…I think I’m willing to doanythingto get them.”
“That’smylife,” Mimi whispered, eyes full of tears she wouldn’t let slip yet. “That’s a whole month ofmylife that’s gone, and according to this…” She raised her green notebook in front of her face just as the first tear slid down her cheeks, as if it were happy to finally be free. “Someonestolethem. Someone stolemymemories.”
She was getting angrier by the word.
And nowIwas getting angrier, too.
Because what if she was right? What if this was really the truth?
“Mimi, are you absolutely sure thatyouwrote that?” the Heart boy asked from my other side.
“Yes,” the Club said, and when she bobbed her head to nod, the rest of her tears spilled, too. “Yes—I know my handwriting. I know it. I wrote this.”
I believed her.
“So, we just…trustthem?” Levana whispered, looking up over my head and to the Timekeepers. They were still sitting there, both staring at the floor in silence, as if they were trying to give us privacy.
“We don’t,” said Seth. “We don’t have to trust them. But they arethe onlyones so far who are willing to tell us the truth.”
“Yeah, guys. I don’t think they care about the decree,” said Cook.
“I think theywouldtell us,” potentially Anika whispered, all their eyes on the Timekeepers still.
“So, what do we do?” asked the Diamond boy.
It was obvious what wewantedto do, but…
“We find out what they want from us first,” the Heart boy whispered, as if he’d read the words in my mind.
“Let’s do it. Let’s ask, then.”
A rush of excitement went over me, brand new and stronger as we turned to face the Timekeepers again.
