“You’re new, and we didn’t want you starting off on the wrong foot,” Finch said, putting a conspiratorial arm around Jim. He had pitched his voice to a stage whisper so that Cade could hear.
“This guy, he’s not right for you. Apu here can sell you a candy bar at his convenience store, but he’s not your friend. Get what I’m saying?”
He tightened his grip around Jim’s shoulders, and the boy stared down at his plate, avoiding Cade’s eyes.
Cade felt the anger rise in him, like hot bile. Apu … from The Simpsons. He had been dismissed by this boy like some caricature, to be ignored. Avoided.
But the fear that had kept him silent before remained, and all he could do was grit his teeth.
“You should sit with us,” Finch said, placing a hand on the back of Jim’s neck. “Like, now.”
Cade could see the wheels turning in Jim’s head, calculating the risk of turning Finch down. Then he gave a nod, his shoulders hunched.
Finch looked up at Cade, his lip curling with disdain.
“Go find somewhere else to exist.”
Cade stood, but when he went to pick up his tray, Gobbler slammed a palm down on top of it.
“Leave it,” Finch snapped.
Cade felt the blood rush to his cheeks. Fear and anger twisted in his stomach like a coiled snake. His last school hadn’t been like this.
Oh, he’d experienced racism before. The disapproving stares when his mother and father went out together. The “random” selections at airport security. But nothing like this.
For the briefest moment he wanted to stand up for himself. Wasn’t that what people said you should do with bullies? But this was a new school. He wasn’t that guy.
Finch placed his clenched fists on the table, then looked up at Cade with an anger in his eyes that Cade could hardly believe was possible.
“I think he wants to say something, Finch,” Gobbler mumbled through a mouthful.
But Cade didn’t.
Instead, he hurried away, even as shame at his cowardice sent blood rushing to his cheeks.
CHAPTER
3
Place:Unknown
Date:Unknown
Year:Unknown
It hung in the air in front of Cade like a glazed sheet of glowing glass. An opaque barrier bisected the chasm, disappearing into the red-dust walls on either side and extending up to their summits.
Cade had almost run into it, for it had appeared suddenly in front of him, stopping him in his tracks.
He had been staring at it for the past few minutes, steeling himself to touch its surface. There was no other way out—the creature lay in the other direction.
Cade tried not to ask himself what the barrier was, or who had created it and why. He just needed to get as far away from the injured creature as possible. It could be following him, even now.
He extended a trembling finger and prodded the sheet as if it were a sleeping giant. The barrier was smooth. Smooth and chilly, like wet-slicked ice; as soon as he put pressure on it, his finger slipped to the side. It was strange to the touch, and he pulled his hand away, inspecting his finger for frostbite. But his fingertip wasn’t even cold.
Suddenly, as if it had never been there at all, the barrier was gone.
“What … the … hell?” Cade said slowly, waving his hand through where the wall had been.
This was too strange. He tried to stay calm, think logically, even as his heart raged in his chest. He had no choice but to follow the path; see where it led.
Cade rounded a shallow bend and saw that the passage widened ahead. He stopped, confused. Rubbed his eyes, looked again.
The chasm ahead of him appeared almost exactly like the area he had started in. The same ledge—the same rocky outcrop opposite.
Had he gone in a circle? But the path he had taken was relatively straight. There was no way this was possible.
Stranger still, the wall above the ledge was caked with dust, and the same kind of rock he’d used as a hand axe was there too, protruding like a black jewel. This was all the same … but somehow different. As if the entire area had been sculpted to the same exact design as where he had been before. But how was that even possible?
He heard a bellow. Loud and far off, like a wounded bull. Only—it sounded human.
Cade didn’t think. Instead, he hurried in its direction, cursing the twisted ankle that sent shooting pains up his leg. The yelling only got more frantic as he neared it, but he didn’t care. Anything was better than being alone in this desolate hellscape.
Then he saw them. Another monster, crouched in front of a tall kid, his back against another slick barrier like the one Cade had seen before. He wore only his underwear, using his uniform as a matador’s cape in one hand, his other in a balled fist.
Strangest of all, Cade recognized him, even in the shadows of the chasm. The pale blond hair was unmistakable, as were the broad, muscled shoulders. Eric. Another kid from his school.
If Eric had seen Cade, he gave no sign, instead punching at the beast’s face as its claws tangled in the cloth. As he did so, the creature darted forward, and the boy barely managed to evade its snapping fangs.
Cade wanted to turn back, but he knew that once the monster was done with Eric, it’d be after him. His best chance at defeating it would be when it was distracted.
So he charged, his heart pounding as he held the hand axe high.
Ten steps away.
Five.
He slipped in the wet mud, slamming onto his back. Ahead of him, the monster spun with a screech, its black eyes narrowed. It leaped onto him, and Cade lashed out, yelling with fear and desperation.
His hand thrust into its open gullet, the length of the hand axe all that stopped the teeth from clamping on his wrist.
The creature choked and screeched, its claws sinking into his chest, the points breaking the skin. Blood ran down his arm, the stone’s tip slicing the roof of the beast’s mouth. Desperate, Cade kicked out, and the creature reared up, wrenching the stone from its maw.
Cade swung blindly, screaming as the monster’s head whipped toward him. But the bite never came. Instead, the beast was yanked back, blood-flecked saliva spattering his face as it choked, crooked claws grasping at its throat.
Eric had whipped his uniform’s belt around the beast’s scrawny neck, and now he heaved on it, falling to his knees.
Cade watched as Eric’s knuckles whitened, tightening the loop of leather as he pulled back on both ends. The monster’s black eyes bulged as if they might burst from their sockets. Then there was a snap, and the eyes glazed over in death.
For a moment they remained that way, Cade panting on the ground, Eric holding the creature upright, the belt still in his hands. Then he let it fall, and stood. He kicked the corpse derisively and looked at Cade.
“Thank you,” Eric said.
Cade stared back. It was the first time he had ever heard Eric speak. Not in the entire six months he had known him.
Eric had kept to himself, back at school, and most of the other kids were too scared to approach him. There were even rumors that he had killed someone. Cade only knew his real name because a teacher had said it in class once.
“You’re … you’re welcome,” Cade stuttered as Eric helped him to his feet.
Eric craned his neck to see the back of his shoulder. Cade saw furrows in his flesh where the monster had managed to catch him with its talons. The marks didn’t seem too deep and had already started crusting over, leaving a trail of dried blood down his back. Eric winced as he prodded at them with a large finger.