Page 39 of Convergence

“Well, it looks like there’s no Professor Hoffmann at this school, dear. There's Professor Holden, but he’s in engineering,” the woman said, looking at Everett, Nate, and me over her glasses.

My stomach dropped and my mouth went dry. Nate grabbed my hand and gripped it tightly.

“Can you look up a student for us?” Everett asked in his smooth accent.

“I shouldn’t, but your faces- you three look like you’ve seen a ghost,” she said, and her fingers rested back on the keyboard.

“Francesca Rossi, please,” Everett directed her and looked back at us. He pressed his lips in a firm line and his blue eyes showed his unease.

“No, sorry dear. Nobody by that name,” she said and looked over at us again. “Is something the matter?”

“Everett Monroe,” Everett said, his voice barely a whisper.

She typed in his name, a crease in her brows. “Not a student.”

My stomach roiled and I broke out in a sweat.

“Nathaniel Gibson,” Everett whispered.

She typed and then shook her head.

“Evangeline Reid.”

Another shake of her head. “Dears, do you need to sit down?”

A buzzing had begun in my ears, and I was sure I was about to faint. Black spots danced in my vision. I clutched Nate’s hand harder with my sweat slick palm.

“Thank you, ma’am,” Everett said hoarsely before stepping between me and Nate and grabbing us both by the arm and leading us outside. The cold air brought me back and cleared the black spots, but not the panic.

“What the fuck?” Nate asked as we raced to the truck across campus. I jogged to keep up with their long strides. Everett let go of our arms once we were a few feet from the building. “Why are we not students? And why do Daisy and Professor Hoffmann not exist?”

Everett shook his head. “I don’t know, but something is going on”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Nate snapped.

“Let’s not talk out here,” I said as a few people turned to look at us when Nate shouted.

We rushed back to the house and stood in the kitchen. I made a pot of coffee to have something to do with my hands. Nate was pacing the kitchen, running his hands through his freed hair, and Everett stood with his palms flat on the island and his head hanging between his shoulder blades. We didn’t speak for many minutes as the coffee pot bubbled.

I couldn’t think of any explanation other than someone had tricked us. There was no way the college let us use an entire lab for a project that wasn’t part of the curriculum, right? The college wouldn’t give us unlimited funds and a house right off campus and a golf cart for transportation if we weren’t part of the college, right?

I poured everyone’s coffee and prepared it in our preferred ways and passed it out. We each only took a sip or two, the anxiety running through our blood had fueled us enough. Everett then grabbed bottled water out for each of us. I chugged that down, anxiety always gave me cotton mouth.

Nate paced a few times before he chucked his half-drunk water bottle towards the sink. It bounced out of the sink, hit the bottom of the mug cabinet, and then fell onto the countertop before rolling to the floor. Something small clattered to the countertop, and I looked to see what it was as I bent to pick up the thrown bottle. I froze.

There was no way.

Icy fear poured through my body like a waterfall. Electric ice flushed through my veins as my breath hitched.

“What, Eva?” Everett asked.

I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. No sound came out when I opened my mouth.

“Spit it out, Eva,” Nate said, irritated. If I didn’t know him and I wasn’t, in fact, gaping like a fish, I may have been offended.

“Camera,” I whispered, trembling.

“A what?” Nate asked as both he and Everett raced around the island to me. They both put their hands on me as I pointed to the countertop.

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