Dying Light (12 page)

A full-sized bed sits in the corner
with a thick downy comforter and too many pillows in shades of
purple and pink. Posters line the wall illustrating boy bands who
wear more eyeliner than I do. Soft music seeps from a stereo in the
corner playing some weepy tune about never being loved for who they
are.

A Hello Kitty alarm clock tells me the
time from the corner and a teddy with a name tag that says
Frederick sits on top of a black and white checkered
beanbag.

“
What the—?” I search the
ceiling for the air vents that will surely send the death gas at
any moment. “—hell is this?”

A door opens and a girl a little
taller than me bounces into the room with earbuds dangling from one
ear. A musical device sits clutched in one hand, a bowl of water in
the other. She’s scrolling through her playlist.

Winston bounds toward her, clamoring
over a mess on the floor, papers and pens and shoes and vinyl
records and books.

“
Hey buddy.” The girl
stoops down to scratch him behind the ears. “Here’s your
water.”

“
What the
fuck
?”

She jerks her eyes up to meet
mine.

“
What are you giving my
dog?”

“
Chill. It’s water.” She
closes the door behind her.

“
Where am I?”

“
My room.”

Maisie. “You’re my sister.”

“
So I’ve heard.” She
shrugs and arches her eyebrows “Though what Dad thinks will happen
here, I’ve no clue.”

Dad. My mind spins again and I try to
still the room by reaching out and grabbing onto the closest solid
object—a white dresser cluttered with makeup and folded clothes.
Winston laps water loudly at the water bowl.

“
You call him
Dad.”

“
What do you call him?” I
don’t like her half-bored, half-angsty tone.

“
Caldwell, son of
Satan.”

She frowns. “He said you didn’t like
him.”

“
It’s hard to feel warm
and fuzzy about a man who buried you alive in a box after gassing
you to death. Oh, and he abandoned me at eight, leaving me at the
mercy of a rapist.”

She arched her eyebrows
again.

“
But
you
wouldn’t know anything about
that, would you? Apparently, he’s doing fine by you. You probably
had presents at Christmas and cake on your birthday.”

“
If you say so.” She
scoops up Winston from the water bowl, wet face and all.

“
So can I take my dog and
go or is this like a trick?”

The kid smirks. “You
can
try
to
leave.”

“
Are you threatening me? I
will throw you off a roof, kid.”

She snorts. “Find a roof.” She turns
towards the door.

“
Hey,” I yell after her.
“Don’t walk away from me.”
What a
punk.

From the doorway she turns back and
gives me another sardonic stare. “Are you coming or
what?”

She walks out of the bedroom without
waiting for me to answer, so I run after her. She’s halfway down a
dim hall that lights up as she passes an opening to a huge circular
space. It’s more like a bubble than a room.

The walls are rounded and transparent.
On one side stands Chicago, bright and illuminated. On the other,
all I can see is the dark expanse of Lake Michigan.

“
We’re in The Needle?” I
remember seeing The Needle when we first drove into Chicago. A
tall, thin building with a rounded tip emerged from the waters of
Lake Michigan, alone and isolated. Because of the rocks, no boat
can approach it and the special glass prevents news crews and other
airborne ships from seeing inside, but it must be one-way glass,
because from here I can see the city fine. It is rumored that a
rich eccentric dude built it as his private fortress. I didn’t
realize I knew the dude.

“
You live here?” I search
Maisie’s face for deception.

She sighs. “For the last forty-eight
days.”

“
Alone?”

“
I am sixteen. I can cook
and clean for myself.”

“
Who brings the food?”
I’ve never died of starvation and I sure as hell don’t want to
now.

“
My mom visits. And
Dad.”

“
And we leave,
how
?” I ask. I’ve
managed to do an entire lap around the room and have yet to see a
single door.

“
We don’t. Dad is the only
way in and out. I’m sure you know what I’m talking
about.”

“
Unfortunately,” I say.
“But why the hell did he drop me off here with you?”

“
How am I supposed to
know? Do you think he tells me everything?”

“
You call him
Dad!”

Winston snuggles into her chest and a
spike of jealousy hits me.

“
Give me the pug.” I grab
Winston, but her hold on him tightens. Winston makes a small sound
of protest, something like a choking squawk and Maisie lets
go.

I win.

Cradling the fluff ball to my belly, I
sink onto the sofa with him. He tries to squirm free but I hold him
tighter. How ungrateful can he be? Does he have any idea the risks
I took to get his curly-tailed butt back?

My eyes fix on a boat in the distance.
Who the hell would be out on the water in these freezing
temperatures? “Is there a way to go outside? Get fresh
air?”

Maisie scrolls through her playlist
again. “You’ll die if you jump.”

“
So? It won’t be the first
time or the last, I’m sure.”

“
Even if you survive,
Winston won’t make it.”

Shit. She’s right, unless I can shield
him. But I don’t know how the shield works against water. Would I
run along the top like a hamster ball? And if I break our fall but
die like I did with Ally. Winston couldn’t handle the freezing
temperatures. He’d be dead from hypothermia before I
regenerated.

I meet her eyes. “Back up. Why have
you been here for a month?”

“
Forty-eight days,” Maisie
corrects.

“
Whatever. Is this like a
grounding or something? Did you make out with someone
cute?”

Maisie looks away. “Yeah, something
like that.”

“
Shit. Harsh
punishment.”

Maisie’s face softens. All the hard
ass reluctance melts away. Her eyes round, her bottom lip sticks
out a little farther. “You’ve no idea.”

My chest clenches. Shit. Why does she
look so sad? I know better than to ask. I have no interest in being
sucked into anyone’s problems. And really, I half-believe this is a
trick. Caldwell is going to use this girl against me somehow, I
know it. Better to keep my distance.

Yet, I find myself letting go of
Winston and nudging him in the direction of the girl. She opens her
arms to accept him immediately and he licks her face before
flopping against her chest. I watch her love him for a long
time.

She catches me staring and rolls her
eyes. “What?”

“
Nothing. You remind me of
someone.”

“
Who?” Maisie asks,
looking interested in something I’ve said for the first
time.

Me
. “Just a girl I used to know.”

Jesse

“M
om!”

I jolt awake at the sound of Maisie’s
piercing exclamation. My heart is pounding and my mouth is
sticky.

“
Hi, baby,” a woman’s
voice says.

A blonde woman steps into the light of
the dim room. I must’ve slept most of the night away. Dawn creeps
on the horizon. The water is bluer than when I closed my eyes and
on the horizon itself, I can see a thick line of purple blooming
red, like blood seeping into the water.

I stretch and take note of Winston
sleeping on the couch. Maisie finally lets go of her
mom.

The moment I get a good
look at her, my shield goes up. “Oh
hell
no.”

It’s Caldwell’s second—the polished
princess in a pantsuit who stands at his side for all public
appearances. I think the press calls her his “primary advisor”. The
last time I saw her, I had my ribs broken by one of Caldwell’s
goons and she basically told me to walk it off. “What the fuck do
you want?”

“
Please don’t swear in
front of my daughter,” she says, straightening. “I know you’re an
adult and can do what you please, but Maisie is still a
minor.”

Okay. This is the weirdest fucking
thing I’ve heard all day.

“
It’s not like I’ve never
heard the word, Mom,” Maisie says.

I get a sense of silken wings darting,
but Gabriel can’t materialize. His voice is little more than a
whisper in the back of my mind. “Calm yourself.”

I can’t. I see this woman and all I
can think about is being Caldwell’s captive. Maisie caught me off
guard, being all teenager-y, but this woman—no. She’s a stark
reminder that Caldwell is a monster who wants to kill me. I need to
get the hell out of here.

“
Where is he?” Blue flame
starts to lick up the side of my arms.

The blonde steps in front of Maisie,
shielding her.

“
I’m right here.” Caldwell
steps out of the shadows and comes to stand beside Georgia. “Don’t
hurt my family.”

He’s grinning like he’s on the verge
of laughing hysterically, like this is one giant freaking joke to
him.

The blue flames spike,
growing in diameter, pushing everyone to the outermost edges of the
room. “Are you
trying
to piss me off?”

“
You’re my family too.”
His eyes are luminous in the firelight, flames dancing in those
shadowed orbs. “That’s why I brought you here, Jesse. I want us to
all be together.”

“
Stop fucking with
me.”

“
I only wanted you to meet
Maisie. I’ll take you back to your friends now.” He takes a step
toward me like he has no problem grabbing a girl that’s on
fire.

“
Don’t touch
me.”

His grin doubles. He laughs like I’m
being absurd. “I’m the only way out of here.”

“
Find another way to let
me go or I’ll burn this place to the ground.”

“
Your sister—”

“
She’s not my sister. If
you wanted me to have a sister, you should’ve raised me with her
instead of leaving me in that hellhole.”

“
Please.” Georgia steps
forward, placing herself more fully in front of Maisie. “Please
don’t hurt my daughter.”

“
Georgia,” Caldwell snaps.
His face warps from glee to fury in a second. “There’s no need to
beg. She won’t hurt Maisie. Will you, Jesse?”

He’s right. I can’t firebomb a kid any
more than I could firebomb Winston, who sits trembling at her feet.
His fear dowses my anger. The flames flicker and die
away.

What do I do?
Gabriel doesn’t answer me. Maybe Caldwell is
right. Maybe the partis really do block each other’s
signals.

The flames are gone but I keep my
shield up.

Caldwell comes closer, his grin back.
“Don’t wear yourself out.”

“
You’d like that wouldn’t
you?”

His smile is
brilliant.
Yes
,
the smile says.
Go ahead and weaken
yourself for me.

A long, thick silence stretches
between us, tension still palpable in the air.

“
Be careful with that
one.” Gabriel’s voice makes me jump. A look of curiosity crosses
Caldwell’s face.

Caldwell? Tell me
something I don’t know.

“
Maisie. She isn’t like
the others.”

My eyes fall on the girl wrapped in
her mother’s arms. What are you talking about?

Silence.

“
So?” Caldwell asks. “Will
you allow me to carry you out of here?”

For a moment I can only blink at him.
It can’t be this easy. He can’t simply have wanted to arrange a pep
talk and reunion and then he’s going to drop me off with my friends
only to start trying to kill me tomorrow. Also, the longer I’m
here, the more I learn about him. Maybe I can figure out how to
kill him once and for all.

I might not be able to
fight him
now
. If
we blow up this needle, Winston will definitely get caught in the
crossfire. I can’t bring myself to endanger him like that. I also
don’t trust Caldwell to take me home. I’ll wake up somewhere worse
and I know it.

If he wants to play the batshit crazy
card, so can I.

“
No, we have so much
catching up to do. I think I’ll stick around for dinner.” I mirror
his grin, daring him to challenge me. “What’re we
having?”

Ally

G
loria’s erratic driving doesn’t seem nearly as bizarre in
Chicago as it did back home. I thought Nashville drivers were bad,
but fifteen minutes on I-80 has reeducated me in a way I never
expected. Even at this late hour, the traffic is unruly.