Page 63 of If Anything Happens To Me

“It meansbeyond sleep. Orapart from sleep,” Abigail said.

“But you are asleep when the episodes come,” Hayley said. “We’ve seen you.”

“It might look like regular sleep,” Abigail said. “But you can’t see what’s going on inside. It’s anything but regular.”

“What do you know about parasomnia?” Hayley asked Abigail. “What does Fitch tell you?”

“He hardly tells me anything,” Abigail said. “He wants to keep all his knowledge to himself. But I’ve read about it on my own, of course. Parasomnia isn’t exactly a disease. It’s a disorder—it’s called a ‘disorder of arousal.’ Meaning I can’t be aroused from sleep, I can’t wake up. It happens during really deep sleep. But only part of the brain is asleep. The other part is awake.”

“Is that the part that feels as if it’s in a trance?” I asked.

“Yes. In many cases, the disorder is not rare. But mine is an extreme form. Instead of having convulsions and thrashing, like some people do, I turn into stone. My muscles tighten, and I don’t move. Not even my lungs, not even my heart.”

“So you actuallycoulddie each time you have one,” Hayley said.

“Yes,” Abigail said.

“What do blood types have to do with it?” I asked.

“We’re not really sure. Maybe nothing. But all our family members who have developed full-blown parasomnia had AB negative. Like me. Like all of us.”

“Like Eloise,” I said.

We were all silent for a few minutes. Thoughts raced through my mind. Whatever Fitch was doing to find a cure for Abigail had killed my sister. And was he even trying to help Abigail? Or just use her?

She had said she believed he had personally killed the birds hanging from the ceiling. I looked up, at all the dead and dusty gulls and owls and songbirds swinging from the old rafters, and wondered how he had felt taking their lives. What kind of monster was he?

“You mentioned the Sibylline sisters’ names,” I said.

“Yes,” Abigail said. “Athena, Daphne, and Circe.”

“Daphne,” I said. “I met her, downstairs.”

“Yes, that’s her,” Abigail said. “My great-aunt. The only one of the sisters to survive. Andreallysurvive—she’s a hundred.”

“Is she in on this?” Hayley asked. “Does she know about Fitch, what he’s doing with AB girls?”

“She’s not,” I said, and I felt sure of it.

“I agree,” Abigail said. “She knows I have the disorder, and she’s so sympathetic. I can tell she’s skeptical about Fitch—he acts nice to her, but she sees through him. She’s an oracle, after all.”

But did Daphne know what was happening up here? It seemed she didn’t. And what about Minerva? Was she on her way back with the brochure? What would she think if Iris and I weren’t outside waiting? I could only hope that she would ask Daphne if she had seen us, and Daphne would tell her that we were inside.

But maybe they were all on Fitch’s side; maybe they didn’t want us to get away.

At one point I would have hoped that Matt’s and my connection was strong enough for him to come bursting through the door to rescue us, like a hero in a fairy tale, but I knew that was just a fantasy. One that had been smashed to bits.

Be a hero to the goddess, Fitch had said. No: Hayley and I were going to be heroes to ourselves. If only we could figure out how to escape this unescapable prison. It was up to me, and I was going to make sure we did.

It was dark. I had been pacing around the attic, tapping on walls, looking for cracks, for any sliver of light that would show me a weakness in the wood that I might be able to break through. A few slants of dull, yellow light came through the salt-coated windows. Outside, the wind had picked up. A storm was brewing or had already arrived, blowing off the sea. It felt weird to not be able to see the weather, but my body registered it, as if I was a human barometer. The whistle of the wind made the voice sound distant, made me jump.

“Hello, Oli,” I heard.

At first I wasn’t sure who it was.

Before I could turn, he reached for my hand. For one second the warm touch lifted my spirit. But then he leaned closer, and I saw his face, and I felt as if I was grasping a snake—cold-blooded and scaly, with flat, black eyes behind thick lenses.

It was Fitch.

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