Page 34 of Death Match

The best thing I could do at this point was follow. Maybe then I could find out what this was all about. As I stepped off the curb, that all-too familiar prickle started inside my mind, the tiny pinpricks stabbing into the center of my brain where the emptiness from Azrael’s mindwipe lingered. Where my memories should be stored.

Déjà vu on steroids.

I stopped in the middle of the street, reexamining everything around me; the other me trudging ahead. The trash collecting in the sewer drains, the smells of the grime baking in the heat… I knew this place. Knew it well, too.

Excitement buzzed through me as I took it all in. I was watching something play out before my eyes. Something I’d seen before. At another time. Another place.

Another lifetime.

Mylifetime.

Could it be? Was this one of my memories?

Could it be true?

My insides trembled just at the possibility. I remembered Eli telling me the Trials would restore what had been lost during the mindwipe. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. Definitely not now. I figured it was a winner’s only prize, along with my powers.

Maybe I shouldn’t be celebrating anything yet. There was still a good chance this was a Trial or something else entirely. I had to keep it together.

Figure out what’s going on, then freak out.Good plan.

When I looked up again, my other self was already halfway down the opposite sidewalk and hauling ass.

Oh shit. Slow down!

Not even bothering to look both ways, I rushed the rest of the way across the street to catch up with her—myself—whatever.

I’d seen some weird shit in my afterlife, but this had to take the cake. Extra level stuff.

When the other Jade passed the group of men on the stoop, one of them whistled her way, while another with a red bandana on his head shouted something about her ass—my ass—looking good in those jeans.

I was about to shout to the wanna-be gangster to fuck off, but Jade’s head whipped his way and she snapped, “Fuck off, Gerald,” taking the exact words right from my mouth.

That made me smile. If this was a memory, it looked like some things never changed.

“The name’s Yonny now!” the guy with the bandana shouted angrily after us as we continued to speed-walk down the street.

“Changing your name doesn’t make you any less of an asshole,” living-Jade called back, not even bothering to look over her shoulder. I, on the other hand, did, only to find the scene behind us fading away, replaced with the same swirling silver smoke as the archways.

I hurried my steps, worry propelling me closer to Jade’s heels.

Whatever that smoke was, I didn’t want to get caught up in it, but part of me wished I had gotten a chance to see Gerald’s reaction to living-me’s jab. He was probably steaming.

Keeping up the fast pace, we walked down a few more blocks before turning right. At the corner, there was a small convenience store with the name ‘Ricardo’s Mini Market & Deli.’ A green ATM sign glowed in the window, along with posters of the week’s deals all written in Spanish. This week it looked like avocados were ninety-nine cents each, and a certain coffee brand was back in stock.

That’s what I was guessing, anyway. Hell if I knew since Spanish wasn’t my forte. Not in the slightest.

To my surprise, other-Jade walked into the bodega, and the bell above the door jingled as she stepped inside.

I glanced over my shoulder briefly to see the swirling blankness creeping closer to me. It seemed it followed wherever the other me was not. If this actually was a memory, that’d make sense, wouldn’t it? Since living-me was inside now, I wouldn’t have a memory of what happened out of the store.

It made sense when I said it that way.

As the smoke swallowed up the rest of the street, I stepped inside the store. The first thing that greeted me was the smell. It was such a strange combination of ripe fruit, muskiness, and hot spices…I couldn’t even explain it. But the moment it hit my senses, the déjà vu tingles started again, and that meant this wasn’t my first time coming here.

The store was packed floor to ceiling with everything you could think of. Cleaning products, canned goods, lottery scratch-offs, birthday gift bags… Even the checkout area at the front of the store doubled as a deli and sandwich station with a wide array of different meats and cheeses in a display case.

I didn’t have much time to ogle over it all, though. Other-Jade was moving quickly through the center aisle. She knew exactly where she had to go.

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