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Something about—about—experiment at school—
Oh, God, I couldn't breathe. No, that's not right, I was breathing, but there just wasn't anything there to breathe. Nothing but my own carbon dioxide.
I remembered, as suddenly and clearly as if it were happening in front of me, that I'd done this before. Not as the subject. As the experimenter.
I'd done this to a lab rat. Removed all the oxygen from the air surrounding him and made it a clear poisonous shell around him, so no matter where he ran, no matter how he tried to get away—
I hadn't killed the rat. I'd popped the bubble once I'd mastered the technique, and the rat—white, with a pink nose, fu
But whoever was practicing on me wasn't popping the bubble.
Focus, dammit!
My brain was starting to send out hysterical flashes, distress signals. Flashes of color across my eyes. A strangely realistic memory of my mother reaching down for me, giant-size in my perspective. Delilah spi
I realized I had stopped breathing and couldn't seem to make myself start again.
Something wrong. What was it?
Clear as a bell, I heard my mother say, I wish this didn't have to happen. She sounded so disappointed in me.
Yorenson. Disappointed. Standing at the head of the class, listening to my wrong answer. Really, Joa
Couldn't remember. It was dark. Very dark. Warm in there, in the night, but no stars, no moon.
No. Hallway. Something at the end. I was moving toward it without any sensation of moving, there was light, and light and—
I was sitting in a creaking wooden school chair, and the room smelled faintly of Pine-Sol and chalk, and Yorenson pulled at his tweed jacket like a fussy girl and asked me a question that I didn't understand, and I felt panic rising like storm surge along the coast. I had to get this right, had to. He looked at me in disappointment and turned back to the blackboard. He drew an air molecule, chalk squeaking.
I was the only one in the room. Staying after class. Remedial weather theory. No, that wasn't right, I had never—
Pay attention, he said, without turning around. Squeaking chalk. This takes delicacy, my dear.
On the board. The answer was on the board. All I had to do was—was—
Crystal sparkles around the edge of Yorenson's blackboard, eating. Darkness all around, eating the answer.
No.
I reached out with my hand, and the chemical structure on the board became reds and blues and yellows, three-dimensional, spi
Again. Faster. Reaching for thousands of spi
Yorenson turned from the blackboard and put the chalk down and smiled at me.
Breathe, he said. Don't forget to breathe.
— and suddenly there was sweet, sweet air in my lungs, and the noise, my God, the noise was terrific, people shouting, feet ru
I swept in breath after breath after breath and listened to my pounding heart and thought, I hated that goddamn class.
Someone was cushioning my head. I blinked and focused and saw that it was David. He looked deathly pale, and I could feel his hands trembling. For some reason his glasses were off, and his face looked different. Stronger. His eyes glittered with flecks of copper.
"Hi," I whispered. He started to say something, but didn't.
Somebody slapped an oxygen mask I didn't need over my face.
Fu
It was kind of cute, really.
I had to sign releases and I-won't-sue waivers, not to mention endure dire predictions of disability and death from the local doc-in-a-box who'd arrived on the scene with personal injury lawyer in tow.
By the time it was over, I'd grabbed David by the elbow and said, "I'm starving," and he still hadn't said anything through the entire walking, ordering, and eating process.
Now, as I gulped the last of my water and scooped up the last errant grains of orange-specked rice, he leaned forward and asked, "Done now?"
"Guess so." I ate a last mouthful of naan, licked my fingers, and used the napkin as a last resort. People were still watching me, either because of my excellent fashion sense or because they were waiting for me to fall down and foam at the mouth again. Probably the most exciting thing to happen in the mall since the Christmas pageant.
He was watching me that way, too. "You want to tell me what's going on with you?"
"Not really," I said. "Listen, no offense, but I think it's better if you just take the twenty I gave you and look for another ride. It isn't that I don't like you, it's just that—"
"You might have another one of those?"
Yeah. I might, this time while driving Delilah at top speed. Or next time, my invisible enemy might decide to wrap a mantle of poison around David instead of me, to distract me while he pulled another little trick out of his magical hat. Somebody really didn't want me to reach Lewis. Who? Why? Who even knew I was looking? The Dji
And that Dji
"If you have another one of those fits, you're going to need help," David said. "Besides, I get the feeling you're driving a long way. I could use the lift. Really. I've got a long way to go."
"Yeah?" It was the first information David had offered, however oblique. "To where?"
"Phoenix," he said. "My brother's in trouble. I'm trying to get to him."
I found a last grain of rice and coaxed it onto my fork. "What's his name?"
David hesitated, then looked away. "Joseph."
"Biblical theme."
"We're a very religious family."
I shoved the tray away and put my hands flat on the table. They weren't shaking anymore, which was an improvement. And I didn't feel anything much happening around me, not from an eldritch standpoint, anyway—plenty of screaming kids, arguing adults, booming bass from stereo stores, babble in a hundred languages. All in the real world.
What had almost killed me didn't belong here, in this world. My enemy had been precise this time, tried to get at me personally. Now that I was on my guard, he wouldn't have as much opportunity. Next time, he might try something messier.
I couldn't afford to be around people when that happened.
"Phoenix," I repeated. "Look, seriously, it's not safe to be around me, okay? Call it what you want—epileptic fits, demonic possession, poison, Mafia enforcers. It's just not safe. So do yourself a favor, buy a bus ticket, catch a commercial flight, rent a car, just turn around and walk away. Right now."