Fuck this shit. I let out a small cry, knowing that it would be impossible now for me to escape. I swatted at the air, tears threatening to spill down my face. I was so close to Dex, so close to my world, our life, and I was going to get stuck here.
The spiders began to give off a low, guttural growl, like a drooling dog on the attack. I looked behind at them again. At their pace, they’d be at me in ten seconds. I glanced around for plan B – did I even have enough time to find a weapon to fight them off? – when I saw yet another problem.
A creature emerged from the side of one of the buildings. She might have been a woman in another life, but here she could barely be called that. She pulled herself along the sidewalk, the lower part of her severed off, guts trailing behind her like a flowing tail.
Her head was on backward. I could see bald patches through her ratty, dark hair, as she crawled toward me, skeletal arms and fingers reaching my way, worn down to the bone.
I would have probably thrown up at the sight of her if it wasn’t for the fact that I was about to be eviscerated by giant spiders in a few seconds.
“Perry!”
I whirled around in time to see Ada emerge from the shimmering air, across the park, near the coffee kiosk we had gotten our lunch.
I couldn’t afford to be mad at her for coming through, not now. She was saving my ass.
I yelled back and quickly ran past the spiders, trying to avoid them. One leaped straight for me, tackling me from behind. Hairy legs tangled in my hair and the sheer weight of it threatened to pull me down.
Screaming, I ripped around, stumbling wildly in an attempt to get it off. Somehow it did, painfully taking out strands of my hair as it did so, and let out a high-pitched whine as it fell to the ground. There was no time to dwell on it – I kept running and running, now keenly aware that the spiders were in hot pursuit, coming faster now.
Just when I thought Ada was about to disappear – she was growing fainter before my eyes – she ran forward and grabbed my hand. I could barely feel her grip in mine, her body somewhere between solid and liquid. Her eyes darted over my shoulder and widened. I didn’t dare turn around again.
She yanked me toward her with all her might and in an instant I was being sucked into the shimmer, the familiar pressure kicking out from the inside of my brain.
My ears popped and there was a moment of blinding light and screams before I found myself tumbling forward and falling down into the dirt.
Dirt. Brown, smelly, earthy dirt under my hands and knees. I breathed it in deep, taking a moment to be grateful for this world.
Then I looked up – remembering what this world was willing to accept. There was old lady on the bench across from me, reading a book and staring at me with her mouth open. I quickly looked around. Ada was standing beside me, offering her hand, her face both worried and sheepish. Behind us was the coffee kiosk, blocking our view from most of the park. It seemed that only the lady had seen me materialize out of thin air.
I let Ada help me to my feet, her grip solid again, and I dusted off my jeans before I gave the stunned lady my most winning smile.
“Magic trick,” I explained to her with a slight shrug. “Looks like we got it right this time.”
Then I led Ada away from her and to the other side of the kiosk. In seconds we were joined by Maximus, breathing hard from running across the park.
“What the hell did you do, Perry?” he asked, though he put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it affectionately. “I told you.”
“I know you did,” I said. “But it worked! I found Dex! Quick, we have to hurry.”
He didn’t smile at that, nor did he remove his hand. “Ada had to go after you. I couldn’t stop her. If she hadn’t, you might have been lost in there forever.”
I swallowed hard and looked them both in the eye. “I know. I wish you wouldn’t have,” I said to Ada. “But you got me out and you seem fine too. You feel fine, right?” Good lord, I hope she felt fine.
She nodded and gave me a crooked smile, though I had noticed she was being more quiet than normal. I forgot that a trip to the Veil can you leave you slightly shell-shocked for a while.
“Did you really find Dex?” Maximus asked, turning my attention back to him.
“Yes!” I cried out, feeling the hourglass tipping over again. “I saw him and I think he heard me. It was like a window opened up and I was able to see into this world, but not cross over. He was on the Brooklyn Bridge. Alone.”
“Just like your dreams,” Ada mused blankly, still sounding a bit out of it. “Or whatever they were.”
“Exactly. I should have known to go there, but it didn’t occur to me. But he’s there. And he’s alive. If we hurry, maybe we can catch up with him. At the very least, at least we know he’s in the city and he’s got to be looking for us.”
Maximus sighed, though he was relaxing a bit. “All right. If you ladies are both feeling okay to hightail it to the bridge, I reckon it’s worth a shot.”
He could barely finish his sentence. I was already on the run, heading to Dex.
CHAPTER SIX
Dex
“Excuse me, sir, are you all right?”
The quiet but concerned voice brought everything into focus. I found myself staring into the eyes of a hipster. That was my first thought, anyway. She was wearing a plaid, short-sleeved collared shirt, had close- cropped hair and lime green glasses that didn’t seem to have lenses. Oh and a septum nose ring.
I blinked at her a few times, stupidly. Behind her the brown buildings of Brooklyn gradually appeared, like the whole world was being painted into place. Well, Brooklyn certainly explained the hipster.
It did not explain why I was standing on the middle of the Brooklyn Bridge, hands gripped to the railing of the pedestrian walkway like a f**king loon.
“Are you tripping?” she asked.
The polite, earnest way she said that made me laugh.
I most certainly was tripping. I had no f**king idea why I was in New York City. In fact, I think I finally, finally lost my damn mind. I’d been waiting for this moment for a very long time.
“Doctor put me on new meds,” I lied. “Can’t seem to figure out how I got here.”
She smiled at me, a lot warmer now. I’d wrongly assumed she was a lesbian, now she seemed to be into me. “Where are you from?” she asked slyly, which only cemented the suspicion.
“Seattle,” I said. “I’m on vacation with my girlfriend,” I added quickly as I felt the blood drain out of me. Jesus crackers, where the f**k was Perry? How the hell did I get here? I had way too many questions to keep inside my brain and I was afraid that if I spent another minute with this woman, I was going to say something that would get me committed. Unless being tits-up crazy was suddenly cool. It wasn’t when I was young.