Page 171 of Meet Me at the Metro

I bolt off the floor, trying to keep my steps deft and noiseless as I sprint for the bathroom. I reach the doorway just as his feet hit the landing.

“Great porno stash you got under your bed,” I tease, attempting to mask my breathlessness.

“Mhmm.” Connor hums, rolling his eyes. “You going to come to help me with these lines or stay getting off to myMarvelcomics?”

I huff a small laugh and hope it sounds believable enough to conceal the dismay causing my thoughts to run rampant. “Yeah, let’s go.”

It felt wrong to keep this from him, but at the same time, I couldn’t find the nerve to tell him about the papers burning a hole in the back of my jeans.

Connor follows me downstairs, and I work to calm my hammering heartbeat as we sit back against the couch and return our focus to our playbooks, but I can hardly think straight. My mind is screaming, my thoughts scrambling and fighting one another for my attention.

They put me so on edge that the buzz of my phone has me jumping up from the cushion beneath me.

Connor chuckles at my skittishness, utterly oblivious to the gravity behind it. “Bloody spazz.You alright there?”

“S-sorry. Just give me a second,” I mumble, excusing myself to the house’s entryway as I read the incoming text from Theo.

Heading to campus. You still with Conn-twat?

I can’t even pay the joke any amusement as my trembling fingers type out my response.

Where to? I need to talk to you.

Administration’s office.

My breath hitches at the message, but I try to keep my rising anxiety at bay. However, it feels impossible to do with the revelation suddenly weighing on my chest. For some reason, my gut tells me this runs deeper than some embezzlement scheme.

Something feels very wrong, and I can’t place why.

I don’t hesitate as I reach for my book bag hanging against the coat rack in the foyer and slip out the front door. I don’t have time to warn Connor of my sudden disappearance as I hurry down the city sidewalk. The day is growing dim as the sun sets along the cityscape,but I don’t let the approaching night slow my steps as I bound for the staircase of the underground station emerging ahead.

The need to confess everything to Theo expanded with every swift step my feet took, and when a new text from him rang through, a greater sense of urgency was suddenly humming through me.

What’s up? Are you okay?

It’s about Kim.

42

TIMELY NIGHTMARES

T H E O

Rain streams from the sky in a rageful downpour, soaking my hair and clothes. The shadows of the night fill the back of city alleys I pass as my feet move quickly along Baker Street. The shops and restaurants around me are asleep, vacant of lights, or city-goers who usually frequent them during the daytime.

I had grown acquainted with being alone over the years following my dad’s death, but this isolation didn’t feel right. My head whips around, searching for any sign of life, whether a passing car or a familiar face, but I come up short of anything of the sort.

I’m completely, utterly alone.

My voice is strained with worry as I call out to the only name my mind can seem to conjure. “Nora!”

Her name echoes through the void of the desolate avenue ahead and behind me, taunting me with the silence that follows it.

Something isn’t right about this place. Something feels very, very wrong.

I run to escape the ominous air settling around me, sprinting down the vacant sidewalk as fast as possible. The sights around me blur as I race for relief, and suddenly, without warning, the world around me pivots. I swear my eyes—or mind—are playing tricks on me as everything starts to spin frantically, morphing the once tall, terraced buildings and towering city structures into something new.

Somewhere new.

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