Page 105 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

She was a good mom.

The best.

They each said their goodbyes, Hector blubbering like a girl. Then they just sat with him as afternoon turned to evening. Alex perched on the foot of the bed. Hector sat by the window, looking out. Tavo stood directly behind Maverick, a heavy hand on his shoulder.

Once the tears subsided, they started chatting, joking—the way you do when death comes. Because it feels like the end of the world for a while until you realize it isn’t, not for you, not yet. If his mom could hear them, she would have laughed along with them because she always loved his stupid, crazy friends. They all stayed with her until the nurse told him it was time to take her body away.

And now standing on this path in the storm, he felt as he had then.

Afraid, alone, powerless. Like the world was too big, too complicated, and he was too small, not up to the forces working against him. His whole life was a battle against that feeling. And every wave, or jump, or climb, or obstacle course he’d faced was just an allegory for that struggle. Sometimes he won. More often he lost.

The only time he didn’t feel that way was when he was with Angeline. When she looked at him the way his mom used to, seeing him, all of him, and loving him anyway.

He wasn’t going to leave this time.

He broke into a jog toward Enchantments, wind so powerful he had to push against it, debris flying across his path, lightning flashing on the giant dark structure, illuminating it weirdly, light pooling in dark spaces, only to disappear again. Thunder like a freight train.

Inside the grand entrance, he thought things would get quieter. Instead, the wind whipped through all the open places, whined and moaned, slapped at his pants, his jacket.

“Angeline!” he yelled. “Angeline!”

His voice was taken by the noise. He spun in a panicked circle, and then he saw down the elevator shaft maybe the slightest hint of light leaking up from below.

He took out his phone and went live.

“Hey, guys,” he said to the camera. “I’m live from inside Enchantments. And let me tell you what. It is scary AF. But I’ve got to find Angeline and then the other hiders. You can probably hear that the storm is raging. We’re trapped here, and someone has Ange. This was supposed to be fun and games, but it’s real now. Too real.”

He propped his phone up against some debris, then he took his rope and fastened it around a pillar, checking its stability once, twice, three times, pulling hard.

“I think she’s in the belly of the beast. That’s right. Down this empty elevator shaft somewhere in the basement of Enchantments. I can already hear water running, lots of it. So I hope it’s not flooded down there. I’ll go live again when I get down. Wish me luck.”

He ended the live, stowed his phone.

Then without thought, he rappelled down into the darkness.

Surf3rDud3:Oh, my god. Mav you are a wild man.

KillerCraig:What a tool. Ur gonna die.

Mavericksbride:I love you so much. I wish you were coming to rescue me.

Fr$4dsterNinja: This is so fake.

Sk4techick666:When’s the next challenge, Mav?

More comments, fade out.

41

VIOLET

“Who do you think is in there?” asked Coral.

They’d hatched a plan. Coral was going to wait in the car with the engine running, and Violet was going to ring the bell, then step back toward the vehicle.

“Blake, for one,” answered Violet. She stared at the door. The house had the air of desertion; it was hard to imagine someone inside. Why was it so familiar, though? Had she been here? When?

So Violet would ring the bell, move back toward the car, and then if anything should go crazy-bad, if Violet couldn’t get back to the car, Coral was supposed to call 9-1-1 and drive away.

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