Page 13 of Black Hollow: Awakening

“Are you… very busy?” Oscar asked.

“Uhh… Right now?”

“No, just in general. We haven’t seen each other in a while, so I was thinking…”

Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God, this was really happening!

“…if you wanted to, of course…”

Will stared at Oscar’s lips, literally hanging on his every word.

“…we could…”

And suddenly, a sharp impulse shot through Will’s body. An impulse that seemed to burst from his skin, and then everything went dark as all the machines stopped working. Murmurs of surprise filled the air.

“No cause for alarm!” Kubrick called out. “We have a backup generator. Everything should be back to normal in a moment.”

And sure enough, within seconds the lights flickered back on and the machines whirred back to life. Will felt uneasy. As if it were his fault, even though it couldn’t have been. To make matters worse, Liam and Blake were staring at him strangely. It wasn’t just them, either. That girl… Norma… she seemed to have sobered up too, studying him intently.

“I’m sorry,” Will blurted out reflexively, then mentally kicked himself for his stupidity.

Seriously? He was apologizing for a momentary power outage?

After the commotion, one of Oscar’s friends started talking to him. And that was the end of that invitation.

The trip came to an end. Will reached into his pants pocket to check Dan’s reply, but to his surprise, his phone wasn’t there. How was that possible? He’d had it with him. He was sure he’d had it. He’d even been texting Danny on the way here.

He looked back toward the lab. He mentally retraced the number of rooms they had passed through and quickly concluded that no one would let him search them all again for a stupid phone. Dammit!

Although… maybe he hadn’t had it with him at all? The more he thought about it, the less certain he was that he had actually texted Danny on the way. Maybe he’d done it back at school? Before putting his things in his locker? Maybe he’d accidentally tossed his phone in there?

Will had to check.

He returned to the school. It was well after four, and classes seemed to be over. The hallway was completely silent. Rummaging through his locker, Will checked every inch of it for his own peace of mind but quickly realized his phone wasn’t there. He swore under his breath. What an awful day.

Hearing footsteps, Will slammed the locker door shut.

“Hey,” a girl’s voice called out. He turned his head and saw Norma. She twirled a golden lock of hair around her finger, smiling at him sweetly. “Can I ask you for a favor?”

“What is it?” Will asked uncertainly.

“I need to reach something, and it’s crazy high up. You know, short people problems.”

Will gave her a careful look. She wasn’t short at all.

“I’m barely taller than you.”

“Barely is enough. So? Gonna save a girl’s life?”

Will really didn’t feel like it…

“Sure.”

…but he wasn’t a complete asshole, so what else could he say?

He followed Norma into a nearby classroom. Will had barely crossed the threshold when someone closed the door behind him. Looking over his shoulder in surprise, he saw Blake. On the other side of the room stood Liam, and sitting in one of the desks was that petite, dark-haired Asian girl he’d seen in the library.

“What’s going on?” Will asked, looking around.