Defy the Dark (11 page)

She lets her fists come loose but holds on to her frown. “Pruitt?”

I stand and brush the dirt off my knees like it's the most natural thing to be hiding in a bunch of rocks in the middle of the night. I try to smile but my mouth won't cooperate. “Hey, Delilah. What're you doing out here?”

She crosses her arms and lifts her chin. “It's my land, too.”

One sentence in and I've already stepped in it. “I know. I just meant, uh, what brings you?”

“Oh.” She shrugs and drops her arms to her sides. “Same as you, I expect.”

“Yeah?” My voice is too high, but I can't control it. “What's that?”

Her lips curve up a little in an almost-smile. “Trying to escape.”

“You know about the ridge?” The hairs on my arms stand at attention.

Delilah's almost-smile disappears as quick as it came. She rolls her eyes and walks past me to stare out. I can't tell if I'm relieved that she don't seem to think the ridge is magic.

Delilah slips her hands underneath her long hair and lifts it up. My eyes fall to the spot where her neck curves to meet her left shoulder and I get lost in the thought of running my fingers along it.

“I come out here to think sometimes,” she says, and then she turns and catches me looking. Her mouth falls open in surprise.

There I go again, making a mess of things. She probably thinks I'm a pervert now. “Well.” I take a step back so she don't get the wrong idea. “I'll leave you to it.” My face is so hot, sweat's beading up at my temples.

“You can stay, Pruitt.” She moves away from the edge and sits down on the ground with a shrug. “I mean, I can't kick you off your own property.”

It sounds crazy, but the way her eyes hold on to mine for a second, it almost seems like she wants me to stay. She lies back in the grass and looks up at the stars. I feel like I might fall over just trying to get down there next to her. Maybe this whole night is a dream.

When I've finally settled into a spot that's close but not too close, Delilah asks, “Aren't you tired of it?”

“Of what?” She smells like lilacs, and I take a long, deep breath of it.

“Being a Reese, and all the mess that comes with it.” She rips up pieces of grass and tosses them as she talks. “Being locked up tight in someone else's idea of who you're supposed to be.”

“Hell, yes.” Every single day. But I'd have never thought Delilah felt like that, too.

“I swear it feels like I'm never getting out of here. Like I'm never gonna turn eighteen and go away to college. It's like time keeps on passing, but everything stays the same.”

I don't know why I'm surprised. If anyone from Stillwater was gonna go to college, it'd be Delilah. It's just, far as I know, no one's ever left. But I keep that thought to myself and tell her, “I keep waiting for summer to end and school to start, but it never does.”

Delilah tilts her head to me and looks me in my eyes. She takes a deep breath, like what she's got to say is important. “Sometimes I dream we're all trapped—the whole town—inside a snow globe. And I just have to find the hole they used to fill it to get out. But I always forget what I'm looking for before I find it.”

Her eyes stay locked on mine while she waits for me to say something. I want to reach over and hold her hand, but my palms are sweaty and I don't think she'd appreciate it anyhow. It's nice to know I'm not the only one who dreams of escaping this place. “You ever feel like something's not right about this town?”

“Yeah,” she sighs, and turns her eyes back to the sky. “All the time.”

We're both quiet for a while, and then, out of nowhere, Delilah laughs. It's the kind of laugh that gets right under your skin and spreads.

“What?” I ask, a grin already fixing itself on my face.

“My daddy would kill me if he knew I was out here talking to you.” It's a fact that should have me running for the house, but her smile is brighter than the moonlight and I know I could never leave as long as she's aiming it at me.

“Mine too.” I picture my daddy's face so twisted up with rage, he looks like a cartoon character—and that's all it takes. We laugh until we can't breathe.

Seems like she's done talking, but I'm all right with that. I've never been too good at it, anyways. 'Sides, just being with her, the stars look a hundred times brighter. I've thought about kissing Delilah more times than I can count, but somehow just lying here next to her, knowing that she understands me, feels better than kissing ever could.

I think this might be the best moment of my whole life.

I don't know how long we watch the sky before Delilah sits up.

“I gotta get back to the house. My daddy always checks in on me at midnight.”

I sit up, too, and fight the urge to grab her hand and beg her to stay when she stands. “I should get back. Early start tomorrow.”

“Yeah.” She cocks her head and smiles at me. “You're all right, Pruitt. You know, for a
Reese
.”

I feel myself grinning like a fool. “You ain't so bad yourself.”

She laughs as she backs toward the trees, and it makes me brave. “Maybe I'll see you out here tomorrow night?”

“Maybe,” she calls over her shoulder, just before she gets out of sight.

I stay right in that spot, my face aching with the smile I can't wipe off, till Delilah's been gone long enough to reach her house. Then I let out a shout.

She doesn't hate me.

I know I should get on home, but I don't want the night to end yet. I'm afraid if I go to sleep, I'll wake up and find that none of this ever happened.

Knowing that Delilah hates living in Stillwater as much as I do has got me wired, so wired that it takes me a moment to realize that things have gone quiet. Too quiet. My mind flashes back to my dream. I remember how, just before the lights showed up, it was dead silent then, too. Almost like the whole world went to sleep, and only me and Matt were awake to see.

I look over to the ridge and everything beyond it is dark. Above it the sky's split in two. Stars—not stars. Like one of them black holes they have in space just sucked up part of the world. I walk to the edge of the ridge and wait.

It starts with a sound. A faint
whoosh
, and then another, and then the black in front of me flickers in and out. Behind it are tiny points of light all red and white and orange. I can hear cars driving, and the hum of streetlights, and underneath it all, the faint sound of water, lapping at a shore.

It takes every bit of strength I have to keep standing. I pinch my arm hard, but nothing changes. There's a whole world out there. So close I can almost touch it. I can
smell
it—exhaust fumes and smoke and this metallic scent that must come from the city. Moonlight glints off something below me and I look down. In the place where the dried-out creek bed should be there's a pool of water.

I follow the faint ripples to the shore. And what I see there knocks my legs out from under me. A great big rock sits close to the edge of the water. Painted on it in big, white letters is a message. For me.

 

PRUITT

JUMP!

—MATT

 

On my hands and knees, I read that rock over and over. It wasn't a dream. Matt's real. He got out.

All of a sudden, a heavy wind starts blowing. It pushes me back, away from the edge of the cliff. I press my back against a boulder and watch as my view of the outside world gets smaller and smaller. The black closes in around Matt's message until there's nothing left but darkness. Then the wind settles down and just like that, I'm alone, wondering if I lost my mind.

I'm shaking something fierce. My heart's fixing to beat right out of my chest. I don't know what I'm more afraid of, the idea that I'm crazy or the idea that this might be real.

But it ain't till I stand up and turn around that I realize I didn't know the meaning of the word
scared
. 'Cause scratched into the rock I've just been leaning on is another message:

 

DON'T FALL ASLEEP

 

But that ain't even the craziest part. The craziest part is that I recognize the handwriting.

It's mine.

 

M
y message said not to fall asleep and I'm taking it to heart. I'm on my third pot of coffee when the sun starts to rise. My thoughts have been running around in my head all night, but there's only one that's dug its heels in and stuck—I ain't leaving without Delilah.

Far as I can figure, last night wasn't the first time I saw that hole open up in the sky. What I don't get is why I don't remember. And how I could forget my own brother. But I got all day to work that out. First, I need to see Delilah.

“Pruitt? Did you make the coffee?” Mama stands in the kitchen doorway looking perplexed. She usually has to drag me out of bed in the morning.

“I thought I'd get an early start for a change,” I tell her.

“Well, isn't that nice.” She gets herself a mug from the cabinet and ruffles my hair on the way to the coffeepot. “Your father will be impressed.”

She smiles at me and I smile back, but we both know that ain't true. Nothing I do will ever impress him. “I best get going, then.”

I make sure to kiss her cheek on my way out of the house. Seeing my mama makes me realize I've been considering running off and leaving without so much as a good-bye. My daddy will probably say “good riddance” when I'm gone, but Mama, well, that just seems cruel.

I skip my usual deliveries and go straight to the Stillwater Café. Delilah is just tying on her apron when I burst through the door.

“Delilah,” I practically shout. “You won't believe what happened last night!”

Delilah just stares at me with her eyes all wide. “What?”

“Last night after you left, it was—” The words dry up in my mouth. Delilah's looking at me like I'm spouting nonsense.

“What are you talking about?”

My heart's racing and I can't tell if it's from the coffee or something else. “Last night, up at the ridge?” If she don't remember, I don't know what I'm gonna do.

She shakes her head back and forth real slow.

I want to take her by the arms and shake her or something, but I just stand there with my hands out like I'm begging. “We saw each other, remember?”

“I was nowhere near the ridge last night.”

She's looking me dead in the eye, so I know she ain't lying. The way she's standing there with her arms crossed and frowning at me, it's like the whole night never even happened for her.

Then I notice she's wearing her red Stillwater High T-shirt, just like yesterday, and it all makes sense—what Matt meant about a full night's sleep making you forget, why I left that message for myself, why Delilah keeps having that dream.

“All right, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but you know that dream you have about us all being stuck inside a snow globe?”

Her mouth drops open. “How do you know about that?”

The coffee's got my mouth sped up and my words tumble out all over each other. “You don't remember, but you told me. And it's true, I can prove it. I found the opening last night, and I think you've seen it, too.” I reach for her without thinking, and my hands are on her shoulders before I can stop myself. “Meet me up at the ridge tonight, a little before midnight, and I'll show you.”

Delilah stares up at me like she's trying to figure me out, and my heart kicks up just from having her eyes on me so long. I know I should let her go, but all I can think is how I'm close enough to kiss her. And how even though I've never touched her before, it feels
right
.

Delilah's still got her eyes locked on mine. She leans toward me, just a tiny bit, but I could swear she feels it, too. “I can't,” she says, but doesn't move away.

She bites down on her bottom lip and that settles it—if she won't come with me, I'm just gonna lie down and die.

“Please.” I'm so desperate, my voice is practically a whisper. “Something ain't right about this town, Delilah. Even if you don't believe me about last night, I know you believe that.”

My breath is coming up short, like I've been running. Delilah presses her hand to my chest and suddenly our heads are a whole lot closer together. And then I know, sure as the sun comes up every morning, I'm gonna kiss her and she's gonna kiss me back.

“What in the hell?” Delilah's daddy shouts so loud it echoes off the pots and pans.

I jump back from Delilah but it don't even matter, her daddy's already got me by the collar.

“Daddy, don't!” Delilah reaches out for us, but we're halfway to the door.

I raise my hands up high. “I'm sorry, sir.”

Mr. Reese unloads a stream of curses while he drags me out, and I hold my tongue. Even when he calls my whole family hillbilly white trash. I don't know if it's just 'cause I'm wired on caffeine, but I can see it real clear now. Delilah's daddy, our family feud, this whole town, they ain't nothing but background noise. The only thing that matters is Delilah.

She follows us out, screaming for her daddy to stop.

When he slams me against the cab of my truck, I twist my head till I can see her, and when we meet eyes, I do my best to smile. I got the wind knocked out of me but I mouth the words, “We can get out.”

“Okay,” she says, real quiet, just to me. The tears in her eyes catch the light as she nods her head. “Just let him go, Daddy. He didn't do anything.”

Delilah's daddy shoves my head against the door and holds it there. I'm sure it's gonna ache something fierce later, but right now I don't feel a thing. He presses my temple into the metal and leans in close. “You touch my daughter again, I'll shoot you. You hear?”