“Lost?” I asked.
He opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times. “I hadn’t slept or eaten in like two days.” He looked at me. “I can’t really remember. I’m sorry.”
“That’s okay,” I replied.
“I mean, we can just do some spatial deduction from this point anyway,” Kyle said. “Although we’re a little far from the original building.”
“Oh!” I yelped, then turned around and ran back to where we found Brayden’s blindfold. “Brayden,” I called. “It’s not that you don’t remember. You went too far.”
Everyone came back to where I was as Brayden asked, “How do you know that?”
“You said before that they just sort of dropped you and eventually you pulled your own blindfold off, right? You didn’t walk for that long blindfolded.” I pointed at the doors nearby. “The first building he led us to is over there, but maybe there’s an underground tunnel or something that led here.”
“That would be very like my dad,” Nathan said.
“He walked pretty confidently up to the end of the block,” Kyle said, and then put his hand on a door right near the corner. “Here maybe?”
Brayden looked down the brick wall and then his eyes widened. “Yeah! It’s that door! It opened to the right. I remember bumping against the open door frame on the left side.”
“He’s right,” Nikita said. “The rest of these doors look like they open the other way around.”
Jaxon walked over to the door Kyle was standing near and started to fiddle with it. Kyle and Brayden watched over his shoulder, and I did a quick cursory glance for any onlookers or cameras. Security was low in a place like North Postings, I knew all too well, but I still wanted to be able to see if someone was coming.
Eventually, Jaxon managed to get the door free and opened it. Brayden stepped inside and then back out. “This is it. I remember going upstairs. Two flights.” Jaxon pulled a gun out of his waistband and held it up as he led the way in, and we all filed in behind. Nikita propped the door open so we wouldn’t somehow get locked in, and then we followed Jaxon and Brayden down two flights of stairs. “There were lots of hallways,” Brayden said. “Twists and turns, but there will be a door first.”
We got to the bottom of the stairs and all stopped dead in our tracks. All at once, each one of us deflated entirely. It wasn’t that there were no twists and turns.
There was nothing at all. It was a big, empty room that stretched in all directions for probably two blocks.
“Do we have the wrong place?” I asked.
Nathan shook his head. “No. We’re in the right place. My dad just made sure it was totally cleaned out before he moved on. Even had the walls torn down. That’s just like him.”
“He tore the walls down?” I asked. “That’s excessive even for him. Are you sure?”
Kyle walked a little further into the room and pointed down. There were bright lines cutting through the floor, dividing it into halls and rooms like some sort of blueprint. “Here’s where the walls used to be. The dirt and grime is significantly less here.”
Nathan looked at me. “You shouldn’t underestimate my father. We wouldn’t be in this position if he wasn’t a lunatic.”
“So what do we do next?” Brayden asked.
“Nothing,” I replied. “We just hit another dead end.”
14
Deon
“You have to go get the fire extinguisher!” I screamed at Felicity. “Hurry up! Everything is burning to the ground!”
“I don’t know where it is,” Felicity barked back.
“On the counter over there! Hurry!”
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.”
“Felicity!” I screeched.
“Shut the fuck up! I’ve got it! Move so you don’t catch on fire.”
On the screen, big, bright red letters that said ‘mission failed’ appeared. I turned and looked at Felicity, who was still flicking the button on her controller that operated the fire extinguisher as if we hadn’t already lost.
“I think you can stop,” I growled.
She held her hand up in my face. “Don’t look at me like that, you brat. The kitchen caught on fire because of you.”
My jaw dropped. “How was it me? You were supposed to be watching the fries!”
Felicity was sitting in her favorite spot on the couch, while I was sitting in the comfortable armchair. Concrete was curled up in a ball next to Felicity on the couch, and his ears flicked every time we yelled back and forth at one another, like he was irritated we were disrupting his nap.
“You were supposed to be watching the fries,” Felicity whined back at me. “I was doing the pizzas.”
“The ovens for the pizzas aren’t even on your side,” I argued. “That doesn’t make any sense.”
All the playful frustration left Felicity’s face as she stared at the course layout on the television. “Oh… Yeah, you’re right.”
“Okay. I’m going to try again. Please don’t let the fries set the whole kitchen on fire.”
She side-eyed me. “Don’t get lippy with me.” Just as I was about to hit the button to restart the level of the co-op cooking game we were playing, Felicity’s phone rang. She glanced over at it on the table next to the couch, and then sat up a little straighter. “Oh. Hang on. It’s Nico.” I sat up at attention too as she brought her phone up to her ear. “Hello? Hey.”
She stood up and walked out of the room and though I was tempted to follow her, I let her go. She preferred to have conversations isolated, I’d noticed. It was less about keeping information from me, because she always told me everything, but more about being able to focus her thoughts. All I could do was hope that his call was a sign that he’d found something.
“Concrete.” I tapped my leg. “Come here, boy.” Concrete turned his head in my direction and looked at me, but didn’t move. “Come here.” He offered a couple of blinks, but stayed in place and I snickered. “Fine. I guess I’ll come to you.” I stood up and his tail immediately started to flap, growing more excited as I closed in and sat down where Felicity had been moments before. I sat down and he did move then, but only enough to scootch forward and set his head in my lap and bear his belly. “Brat.”
I started to scratch his stomach, and in no time at all his tongue rolled out of his mouth and to the side and his eyes drifted shut again. As I laughed at him, I realized how difficult it would be to leave him when the time eventually came. I’d have to get a dog of my own as soon as could, probably one very close to Concrete. I smiled, imagining moving into a small, modest place with Cherri and getting a dog. Maybe Venom and Felicity could come and visit and bring Concrete and our dog could bond with him. Was it dangerous to dream of such a delightful life? I had very little faith that I’d ever have that kind of life, but it didn’t keep me from wishing for it.
“Hey,” Felicity said, walking back into the room.
“Hi,” I said. “Any news?” She frowned, and that was enough of an answer. “No luck, huh?”