Down World by Rebecca Phelps (beach read TXT) 📗

building was not tall, and it didn’t seem to have too many windows. Yet something about it seemed oddly familiar, certain shapes and shadows striking me as though I had seen them hundreds of times—the way the trees formed along the skyline, and the curve of the road that led to the parking lot. I found myself spinning around in my seat, undoing my seat belt, and almost hurling myself out of the car.

And even when I started to put together the inevitable truth that was staring me in the face, I still couldn’t quite process it. I knew that road, and I knew those trees. And now that I looked at the building, I realized that I knew its outline quite well.

We were at the high school. We were home, in the parking lot of our own school. But it was changed. And this wasn’t some small thing like a brick wall covering a door. This time, no one could deny what was happening. The school had changed. It had become something dark and sinister overnight, and it didn’t occur to me at first how that could possibly be.

“What is it?” I asked Kieren, who had also left the car.

“Don’t you know?”

I shook my head.

“M, it’s the base. The military base. Like it used to be.”

I stared at him over the dark form of the car. “It can’t be.” My legs wobbled beneath me, my throat going dry. “Is it a different dimension? Did I come back to the wrong place?”

“No,” he insisted, and I finally noticed the half-moon circles under his eyes, the strain across his face, telling me that he hadn’t slept. What if this wasn’t even my Kieren?

“What’s the last thing you remember saying to me?”

But Kieren just smiled, shaking his head. “At the train station. I told you I’d take Robbie’s place.”

I relaxed a bit, realizing that only my Kieren could have known that.

“You’re in the right dimension, M. But it’s changed.”

I nodded dumbly, but I still didn’t understand.

“The day after you and Brady left, we woke up and it was like this. There were guards driving around with MP written on their armbands. The school had changed, just overnight.”

“MP?”

“Military police.”

The breath expelled from my lungs with an audible hum. “Has anything else changed?”

“No, not that I know of.”

Before Kieren could explain any further, a car pulled into the lot with bright lights mounted on its roof, shining in our direction.

“What are you doing there?” asked a man’s voice, booming over a loudspeaker from the car.

“Nothing, sir,” Kieren was quick to respond, holding up his hands. “Show him your hands,” Kieren whispered to me, and I did as I was instructed.

The car stopped, and I saw that it was a security vehicle of some kind. It wasn’t a traditional police car, but rather something similar with an intimidating-looking emblem on its side. The man who had been speaking to us got out of the car and approached, a flashlight in our eyes the whole time. As such, I couldn’t really see a thing as he walked closer.

“This area is off-limits.”

“Sorry, sir. We were lost,” Kieren replied.

The man finally lowered the flashlight and stared me in the eyes, as though looking for some sign that we were telling the truth. His gaze was intense and cold, just like the Russian police in the plane under the lake.

“Get unlost,” the man said, turning to Kieren. “Get back in your vehicle and go. Next time, I’ll bring you in.”

“Yes, sir,” Kieren replied, curtly and with no hint of emotion. He waved me back into the car, and I knew better than to hesitate. I got in and put my seat belt back on.

Kieren drove out of the lot before the officer in the car had a chance to change his mind, and we traveled in silence for a moment until he could turn off the main road and park along a side street.

“I’m sorry,” Kieren said. “I guess I shouldn’t have taken you there at night, but I knew you’d want to see it.” He looked to the dashboard clock to check the time. “We need to go. There’s a curfew now. We have to be inside in fifteen minutes.”

But I wasn’t really listening. “What have we done?” I asked. I buried my head in my hands, trying to process it. “Who was that guard? Was he from here or from . . .” I let the sentence trail off. I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.

I felt Kieren put his hand on my shoulder. “Do you want to go home?”

The thought of the dark, empty house was too horrible to even imagine. My family was gone. And I shook my head, too afraid to even think about the quiet rooms that awaited me there. “I’ve never slept in it alone.”

“I could stay for a bit. My dad thinks I’m camping with Scott anyway. That’s how I got away.”

It seemed the only option. I offered a weak nod, and we drove silently through the empty streets.

The house was cold, and it felt like a million years since I’d been there. I walked through the vacant rooms like they were part of a museum or something. Like I had never lived in them.

“It’s strange,” was all I could say. “I’m the only one left.”

“Don’t say that,” Kieren pleaded, following me past the kitchen and into the abandoned living room. “They’ll be back.”

I could only smile. “I’m so tired,” I finally said.

Kieren stood awkwardly. “Listen, if you want some privacy, I can go crash at Scott’s. I’ll come back for you in the morning.”

A voice in my head was screaming not to let him go. I walked up and gave him a small kiss, aiming for the lips, but missing the mark a bit. I felt a little ridiculous, trying to recapture the time his kiss had come so naturally. “Come upstairs for a minute?”

Kieren let out a small laugh, and for a moment, I felt I had made