Page 36 of Enter if you Dare: Part Two

What feeds the ground but can never grow again?

What does every fire eventually become?

Something is wrong with Valli’s frequency. I have no better word for it, but every person hums, and it’s something I learned to listen to before I hear anything they actually say. It helps me gauge their mood, and I read it automatically before anything else. Being able to tell the difference between a good day and a bad day is important. Noa hums loud and erratic, where Cipher is low and steady. Valli normally hums like the wind through my field, comforting me.

She said she was tired after a long day. Though her words were believable, underneath my girl was crackling like my cornfield before a storm—it doesn’t seem right.

I lie still all night with my arm over her, listening as she pretends to sleep. Her body doesn’t know how to lie. I wish I could doze, but I keep watch over her, waiting for whatever is coming. No matter what it is, I will be there.

Morning arrives too quickly, and as the sun comes up, Valli rises and makes us coffee. At her movement, we all get up and trail behind her, and I watch as she kisses Noa for too long, then stands behind Cipher at his workbench, her arms wrapped around him and chin resting on his shoulder.

Finally, she comes to me at the door. “Ask me one,” she says. “Before work. A riddle for the road.”

She has been doing this for the last few weeks. She thinks she is sly by getting me to talk to her under the guise of riddles.

I look down at her face, but what I want to ask of her I can’t. What is wrong? Who hurt you? Why does your hum sound like you want to leave us? But I can’t form the words for any of that because I will never let her leave. She belongs here with us.

“What do I hold with open hands?”

She reaches up and places her palm on my chest, and for a split-second her frequency rights itself.

“Me,” she replies with a smile.

Yet when she removes her hand, everything feels wrong again, and she moves past me and out the door. I watch her go and will myself to stay, but I know it’s pointless. So I follow behind her, far enough back that she doesn’t see me. I shadow her movements all day, keeping myself at a distance, though I’m not proud of spying on her.

She works, smiles at people, and signs off on paperwork. At lunch she doesn’t eat, simply moves her food around her plate. In the afternoon, she leaves the office and walks to the cemetery fence where she watches Noa for a while. He performs for her, digging and telling terrible jokes.

Valli laughs, but even that sounds wrong to my ears. Noa doesn’t seem to notice, but I do. Something is wrong with our girl. I have never had to be gentle with anyone before—if they had information I wanted, I scared it out of them. But not her, as Valli is not afraid of me.

By dinner she seems more herself, but her frequency is still not right. She does all the normal things—laughs at Noa’s stories, passes Cipher the salt before he asks, and eats her food. Valli has spent the day loving us hard, separately, which is not unusual but not quite right either.

It reminds me of a time so long ago, before I was free. There was a boy two beds down, and one day he shared all his food. He helped everyone clean up, gave away his good blanket, and then by morning he was gone. I never learned what happened to him, just that people fill their cup before they go.

I don’t understand what is happening. Valli is happy here, I know she is, so what has changed?

Eventually, we go to bed, and Noa is the first asleep, followed by Cipher. I lie with my eyes closed and listen to her breathing. Whatever is coming will have to get past me, and I hear everything.

At around two, her hand lifts my arm just enough to slide out of the bed. I lie there and listen, hoping she is only getting herself some water. Instead, she takes her jacket off the hook and sits down to put on her shoes. I wait until I hear the door open, then I get up and follow her. By the time I step outside, I see her shadow going down the path.

I know this island the way I know my own scars—every blind spot, every shortcut off the main path. So I follow silently behind her, keeping myself hidden.

She heads toward the residential area and takes something out of her pocket, then lets herself into the Jester’s house. Anger rises inside me like an inferno. I will kill the Jester with my bare hands if he is trying to take what’s mine.

I stand and wait for movement, for the lights to come on, but they don’t. It’s then I remember the Jester is off the island one night a week. No one knows where he goes, and no one asks. Dread fills me when she comes back outside with Rowan trailing behind her. She figured it out.

Everything I have tried to fix crumbles before me.

I want to stop her, but my feet are cemented to the ground, so I watch as my whole world shatters. She drags him behind her, and I know she is helping him leave. She will know I played a role in this, and now she will see the truth of what I am. Her, Cipher, and Noa. They all see the good in me, but there is next to no humanity left if I don’t have them.

I will myself to move; I cannot let her leave.

Something in me snaps at the thought, so I slip into my cornfield, moving alongside them until the path they are on comes to the end of the field, and I step out in front of them. He is not leaving with her—I won’t let him ruin her anymore. Rowan screams, falls on his ass, and scrambles backward. Valli steps between me and her brother, her arms raised, protecting him from me, even after everything he has done to her, and everything I am to her. Something inside me tears and breaks further.

“Cave, look at me. We’re leaving. I’m taking him off the island. Look at me.”

I do as she asks, diverting my gaze to her. My hands open and close at my sides, then as the beast inside me needs somewhere to go, I grab her. She fights me, and I fold her against my chest while her fists land on me. Rowan makes a sound behind us, and I turn my head to glare at him. He sits down, his whole body shaking in fear.

I carry her into the cornfield, to the post in the center, and there I set her down and bind her wrists. Yet as I am tying the rope, I can’t bring myself to do it right, meaning she could break free with ease.