Page 43 of The Shade of Things
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After carefully checkingourselves for injury, Eli and I topped up with water and power bars before tackling the fog that led the next part of the game. The mood between the three of us had shifted. While there was no more joking around, a bond had solidified.
I touched the amethyst earring, sending Sadie thanks for the good luck.
Until we found Laurent, however, our team wouldn’t be complete. I didn’t know how he’d survived the Morph, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if he’d found a different way in. My only question was why he hadn’t stuck around? Even if he was mad about our presence here, that was nothing new. He was always annoyed with me when I was in danger. Besides, if Tatiana had sent him, then he was aware this wasn’t exactly a walk in the park.
There’d been that moment when we’d seen each other at Lonestar HQ when it had seemed like he knew about my parents’ role in Tatiana’s car crash. Was his anger now confirmation of that?
“Ready to go?” Eli swung his pack on.
“Yeah.” I tightened the straps of my own backpack, adjusting them from Emmett’s larger frame. “I’ll cloak us through the fog.”
“You sure you’re up to it?” Eli said.
“I’ll expend less energy on that than confronting something that jumps out to kill us.”
“Good point,” Emmett said.
Once we were hidden, I released Delilah before it would be too dark to do so in the fog, because her green night vision made it possible for me to navigate.
I stumbled over the uneven terrain, my body aching.
The fog had a sickly-sweet smell like it came from a fog machine, which was entirely possible. Why waste magic when technology accomplished the same thing? We were in there only a couple of minutes tops before the fog glowed. Dimly at first, then brighter as the mist grew thinner.
“This is even creepier than the graveyard,” Emmett said when we cleared the fog. “It’s not a city either.”
All the houses on this cul-de-sac were identical, about the size of a double-wide trailer with an attached carport and a large picture window along the front wall. They alternated between pale yellow, pale blue, and white, each with a stubby palm tree on the front left corner of the lot.
“It looks like the retirement community in Florida that my cousin Goldie lives in,” I said.
Multiple streetlights buzzed, but as with the cemetery, there were no mosquitos or birds.
“We’ve gone from death to retirement.” Eli headed for the only house with lights visible through filmy curtains. “Let’s see if anyone’s in there. If so, we push through our fatigue and get as far away as possible.”
It was comical how we crept inside, clearing each room like TV cops, because we were still cloaked and Emmett kept trying to lead, knocking Eli into walls.
Eli finally pushed him to the back of our line, and we finished our sweep, which admittedly didn’t take long. There was no furniture and no personal items.
No, what we found was much more interesting.
I dropped my cloaking in the kitchen beside the large table containing two small daypacks numbered three and eleven—the deceased players we’d found at the cemetery.
The vinyl blue packs contained water, protein bars, a switchblade, a box of matches, and slender lengths of rope. I dumped my canvas bag on the table, motioning for Eli’s as well, then distributed the new items between us.
“These game people are smart,” Emmett said. Off our incredulous looks, he expounded. “They’re total psychos too, but think about it. You guys were talking before about how if this race was the journey humans take, then it should have started with birth, not death. But birth isn’t something people remember, so it’s hard for it to be scary. Death is. It might be part of how they broke the perception filter.”
Eli flicked a light switch, but it didn’t move, and the lights didn’t turn off. “That’s a good theory. Psychologically, running this backward makes a twisted kind of sense. They’ve survived death and crossed the metaphoric bridge back to the land of the living.”
“Where they’re rewarded with food, shelter, and a weapon.” I nodded. “They’re given hope. Good job, buddy.”
Emmett preened and tapped his head. “I’m more than a pretty face.”
“Let’s set up camp in one of the darker homes on this street,” Eli said.
“It’ll make it harder for Laurent to find us,” I said sullenly.
“Good.” Emmett shrugged at my hard stare.
