“What the hell, Nolan?” I pushed his leg with my foot.
“Holy shit. I would apologize, but that was the highlight of my week,” he huffed. I kicked him in the shin, and he laughed harder. “Ouch. Okay, I’ll stop. I’ll stop.”
I crossed my arms and waited. He laughed a few more times until he finally recovered and stood up, dusting off his joggers and grey school sweatshirt. I started walking again.
“Why are you walking all alone anyway?” He started walking beside me. “You know the rumors aren’t just rumors. That girl really did disappear.”
“You mean Lana?” I looked at him quickly. I was already on edge for so many reasons, and he’d gone and brought her up. “What do you know about it?”
“Not much except that she disappeared.”
“Do you think she’s alive?”
“I think if she was, she would’ve been found by now.”
“So you think she’s dead.”
“I mean, her parents had crews of privately hired people who looked for her everywhere.” He shrugged. “It is sad though. She was a great girl.”
“You knew her?”
“She used to take pictures of the team. Kind of the way you do.” He smiled a little. “She was always nice.”
“Do you know if she got into any bad things?”
“What’s your definition of bad?”
“What’s yours?”
His eyes danced. “I don’t know but something tells me your definition of bad is way tamer than mine.”
“Probably,” I said. “Do you know if she was with someone? Like in a relationship?”
“I don’t know.” He glanced away from me and looked forward as we walked. Something about the way he answered that question and the way he looked away, made me think he was lying. “Some people think she ran away,” he added.
“Why would she run away though?”
“Dodging responsibility? I don’t know.”
“Would you run away to dodge responsibility?”
“No.” He chuckled. “Even if I did, responsibility would hunt me down and find me.”
I thought about that. Would Lana have run away? Maybe once things ended with the man she was seeing, she decided to leave? Maybe she’d left because she wanted to prove a point, to make him miss her? It didn’t make sense, but anything was possible.
“Have you seen any cloaked people walking around?” I asked.
“Why? You looking for one?”
“No.”
“Well, that’s unfortunate.” Nolan’s wide grin sparkled in the moonlight. “Because we’ve been waiting for you to leave the damn library all night.”
Chapter 22
The look on my face must have said all the things my voice couldn’t, because Nolan stopped walking and set a hand on my shoulder. Despite the sympathetic look he was giving me, my fight or flight response was kicking. Adrenaline coursed through me, the way my martial arts instructors had often described to me, but I never actually experienced until this very moment.
“Relax. We’re not going to hurt you.” He grinned. “Much.”
“I’ll scream.”
“Scream.” He shrugged.
“I’ll fight.”
“You think you can take all of us?” As he asked that, five figures appeared out of the shadows behind him, walking toward us in unison, all wearing black but not cloaked, no longer cowering beneath sheets.
In the darkness, I couldn’t tell who was who. I could only tell there were also women amongst them and I could only pray that a woman wouldn’t let them hurt me, not physically anyway. I met Nolan’s gaze.
“What’s the game? What are you going to do to me today? Lock me up in another dungeon?”
“Of sorts.”
“Of sorts,” I repeated the words back slowly, fighting the fear they brought with them. “What does that mean ‘of sorts?’”
“If it makes you feel any better, we’ve all done some version of the things we expect you to do.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Well, you won’t be alone tonight. Maybe that’ll make you feel better.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then you’re shit out of luck. Let’s go, Bastón.” He turned around, facing the others. “You want answers, we got them, but you need to play our game.”
He didn’t make an attempt to grab me or carry me or anything that I expected. Instead, he walked, leaving enough room between them and me to make it clear that I was free to make the decision. With words like those, it was impossible for me to just go home right now. Following them into the dark seemed crazy, and a part of me argued that it was stupid, but another part of me, the part vibrating with adrenaline, wanted to chase after him. I hesitated for a second.
Thanks to Lincoln and his little “let’s lock you in the dark closet” games when we were kids, I wasn’t just afraid of the dark, I was terrified of it. I was also the kind of person who ran toward things that scared me, not because I wanted to get over my fears, but because I’d been so sheltered my entire life that I felt I had something to prove to myself by conquering small feats. It was that thought that made me take a step forward, toward the darkness, toward the row of strangers dressed like they were going to a funeral, and for all I knew, it would be mine.
Three of the five in front of Nolan walked in another direction, not bothering to turn around to say goodbye. Nolan glanced at me over his shoulder.
“You’ll meet everyone when the time comes. For now, onto the first challenge. It’ll be easy.”
He led me through an archway between buildings that led to a park I hadn’t seen, not that I’d ventured out much. There were two more people dressed in black. Logan. My pulse spiked when our eyes met. I wanted to punch him for telling me to stay away from the cloaks and not admitting he knew what the calling card was when he saw it that night. For all I knew, he was the one putting them on my doorstep. I glared.
They led me to a spot in the grass that had cones all around it and a big bright light—like the ones you see in outdoor arenas—shining over it. I almost laughed. Were they going to make me do drills? I wasn’t sure I could do any drills right now.
“If you look closely, you’ll see that the grass is covered with blades,” a guy I didn’t know or recognize said.
He waved me to walk forward. I moved forward and saw some sort of iron square laid out with what looked like pieces of shards glittering through, each of them placed like stakes coming out of the ground. They were placed on the iron in a way that made it impossible to do a drill around them, not a fast one anyway. You would have to meticulously step in order not to drive one of them into your foot.
“What is it that you’re asking me to do?” I looked between Nolan, the guy, and Logan.
“It’s a trust drill. We expect you to go from point A to point B by following your guide’s instructions,” Nolan explained.
I balked. “Without looking down?”
“Yep.”
“Yeah, right.” I started to laugh nervously, but stopped when I realized they were serious. “Is that even physically possible? At one point I’ll look down. It’s human nature.”