Duality: Vol 2, Euphoria (A New Adult Paranormal Romance) (3 page)

“Be right back,” said Jasmine.  “I hope.”

“Where’s she going?” squeaked Rae.

“I have no idea.”  I had kind of brushed off the awful stuff that was waiting for us at the front door in favor of checking out the righteous underground hideaway I found myself in.  The space was huge, way bigger than I’d expected.  The walls were lined with shelves, the entire structure done in concrete.  The thing nearest the stairs was a desk with a computer setup much like the one that Jasmine had upstairs.

Something soft hit me in the back of the head.  “Get dressed,” said Jasmine, before closing the door above us and shutting out the sounds from her room.

Chapter Three: Rae

SOMEONE COULD HAVE KNOCKED ME over with a feather.  I was standing at the bottom of the stairs in a real, live panic room.  And I was freaking out like I never had before, so it was totally appropriate.  That didn’t make it feel any less surreal, but at least I was in the right place at the right time for a change.

I picked up the clothes that Jasmine had thrown at us just before she disappeared.  The door had clicked shut behind her, and looking behind me at the blank walls next to the top of the stairs, I couldn’t see how to open it again.  My mind had just started to wander into that land where I wonder if I’m ever going to get out alive when Malcolm’s voice broke in and stopped that train before it got going too fast.

“Holy crap … do you see this stuff?”  He was wandering next to a shelf, his hand trailing along and touching different things sitting there.  “Food, enough Ding Dongs to feed Kootch for a year … water, bleach, dried milk?  Gross.  Who’d drink that?”  He continued down the line, and as he got farther across the floor, lights flickered on above his head.  “Motion detectors.  Cool.”

“Cool?  You think this is
cool?” 
I hated the way my voice trembled, but this was all just a lot too freaky for me to just act like it was no big deal.

Malcolm turned, and after catching the look on my face, came back.  “Well, cool in a way.”  He reached down and took one of my hands in his.  “And really not cool in every other way.”  His voice dropped and became soft.  “Don’t be scared.”

I laughed bitterly.  “Yeah, right.  Like that’s even possible.  There are cops upstairs, and Jasmine’s ready to go all commando on them or something.”

He sighed.  “You heard her at the door?”

“Not all of it, but some.  What was she doing?”  I felt the hysteria creeping into my voice.  I was barely holding on, wanting to scream just so I could get the stress out of my body.

“She was just protecting us, like a good friend would.  And I have a feeling Jasmine’s family has kind of trained her for this kind of thing.”

“How is that even possible?  This stuff doesn’t happen in real life.  Not in any real life I’d been a part of, anyway.”

“She said her parents are ex-military, and Kootch kept calling them conspiracy people, so I’m just adding it all up.  Maybe they practice situations where cops come over, I don’t know.  I’m just trying to figure this stuff out, but I’m as in the dark as you.”

“Then why aren’t you scared like me?” I asked, pouting a little.  I hated being such a wimp when everyone around me was so tough.

He took my other hand, squatting down for a couple seconds so our eyes would meet.  “Are you kidding?  I’m scared to death. I almost crapped my pants back there.”

I laughed.  “Stop.”

“I’m serious.  Listening to Jasmine … she scares me.  I hope she goes to law school someday because I’m pretty sure she could get people off death row.”

“Do we want her getting people off death row?”  It was so silly, talking about stupid stuff like this.  But it was making me less afraid, so I went with it.

“Only if they’re innocent.”  Malcolm pulled me to him and hugged me.  “I’m sure this will all work out soon.  Just know that … I’ll be thinking about you when we’re not together anymore.  I’ll never forget you.”

My heart constricted painfully in my chest.  His recognition that this was a temporary thing - being together - made me so sad.  I clung to him without thinking.  “What do you mean?”

He spoke over my shoulder.  Somehow it was easier to listen when I couldn’t see his face.

“What Jasmine said … I wish it could be true.  Be that easy.  The yin and yang thing.  But we both know it can’t be.  That even if it’s true, we can’t be.  You know?  Like us be … together.”

Tears sprang to my eyes.  “Yeah.  I know.”  I wasn’t sure if I did know, not like he was saying.  But there was no way I was going to beg him to be with me when he so obviously didn’t want to be.

“For a few minutes upstairs I was dreaming about it, though,” he said.

I pulled back away from him slowly, looking up at his expression.  “You were?”  I searched his face, wondering if he was just being friendly or putting up a smoke screen to cover his lack of interest.  But he looked wistful.  Like he actually had been dreaming.

“Yeah.  I was thinking about how I’d always imagined running away alone and how it was really cool to think about doing it with someone else for a change.”  He looked at the floor and took a step back, putting more distance between us.

“I have plans to run away too.”  I felt foolish saying it.  If he asked me for details I’d have to admit I had none.

“Where are you going to go?”  He put his hands in his pockets and hunched his shoulders forward a little.

“Somewhere far.”

“Still in the United States?  Or Mexico or Canada or someplace like that?”

“I was thinking … Washington.  Or Oregon.”

“Do you know those areas?  Is that why you picked them?”

I shook my head, lost in the landscapes I’d built in my head.  I never looked those places up online because I was always paranoid my parents would search my Internet browsing history and figure out my destination.  I had no idea what those places looked like outside of snatches of things I might have seen in movies or heard in school, maybe seen in a textbook.  But it really didn’t matter.  I just needed to get lost in the wilderness somewhere.  Which wilderness made no difference.

“I always thought I’d go to Canada,” he said, sounding happy.  “In a forest somewhere, in a cabin.  Living off the land and stuff.  Maybe Alaska, even.”

“Sounds … cold.”  I smiled.  I could picture him in flannel with a beard-scruffy face, and decided he’d be even hotter in Alaska than he is here.

“Yeah it’s cold, but I can build a mean fire.”  He smiled at me.

“Maybe I’ll visit you sometime,” I said.  My heart pounded in my chest and I could hear the blood rushing past my eardrums.  I steeled myself for his rejection. 
Stupid, stupid … why did you say that?  He just said you can’t be together!  Stop being a feeble dork!

“Yeah, maybe.  I’d like that.  Maybe … maybe we can have a code word and an email address and exchange messages and meet up someday.  Like when we’re old.  Twenty-five or something.”

The idea lit a fire in my chest.  I could totally picture myself doing that.  Getting my life together, getting a handle on all this Rainbow craziness and then finally being in a place where I could share my life with someone, the one guy who could love me for me.

“So what would our email address be?” I asked.

“It would have to be new.  Something that doesn’t connect us to each other or to ourselves even.”  He sounded like he was seriously considering it.

“And it should have the word popcorn in it,” I said, feeling goofy but not caring.

“Or it could have Ding Dong in it.  And since we can’t reserve the address online now, we have to make sure it’s not going to be already taken.”

“So what will it be?  And what will the password be?  I promise, I’ll log onto it once a month and check for a message.”  The idea of being forced back to my parents and moving to another town didn’t feel quite so awful now, knowing maybe I had a tiny back-up plan where I could see Malcolm again, when we were all grown up.

“How about … kootch eats ding dongs all day at gmail?”

“All one word?”  I was smiling uncontrollably.

“Yeah.  All one word.  And the password will be popcorn two-zero-one-three, the year we graduate.”

“I thought we weren’t supposed to use a number associated with us.”

“Fine.  Use the year a man landed on the moon.  Nineteen sixty-nine.”

“I hope I can remember that.”  I was only messing around.  I’d never forget the email name or the password. They were burned into my brain forever.

“Better?” Malcolm asked, stepping up to be close to me again.

I nodded.  “Yeah.  Better.”

“Good.  Want a Ding Dong?”

My face instantly flamed red and my voice came out sounding strangled.  “Excuse me?”

Malcolm used his chin to gesture towards the shelves.  “Cupcake thingy?  Kootch’s favorite Scooby snack?”

I laughed in relief, so embarrassed about where my mind had gone for a moment there.  “Yes.  I think so.  I’ve never had one.”

“Oh, man.  You’re in for a treat,” said Malcolm, leaving me to go to the shelf.  “Just don’t lick the hell out of it like Kootch did.  I’m not sure I’ll be able to control myself and keep my hands off you if you do.”

He stood there at the shelves opening the box, not knowing that he’d just blown me away and lit a fire of hope in my heart that I was going to keep alive for as long as I could.

Chapter Four: Malcolm

I PROBABLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN more freaked out about what was happening, but I couldn’t get over the coolness factor of the panic room I was standing in.  The place was stocked, probably so well we could survive the zombie apocalypse or whatever.  I picked up a can of beans and looked at the label.  This stuff would last forever.

I put the can back and grabbed a box of Ding Dongs off the shelf.  After opening it up, I took out a package to share with Rae.  She was seriously scared, and I was hoping the sugary cake would help calm her down.  She was better now that we’d talked about maybe being able to see each other again, but I could tell she was still nervous.  I hadn’t seen her dimple come out for a while.

“Here,” I said, handing her a sticky cake I’d taken out of the clear wrapper.  I tried not to stare at the pink tongue that came out to lick the frosting.

“What?” she asked, pulling her tongue back in and smiling.

There’s that dimple. 
“What?  Nothing.  I didn’t say anything.”

“You’re staring.”  She took a big bite of the cake and then smiled, chocolate frosting and cake coating her teeth.

I couldn’t help but laugh.  “That’s nasty.”

“Vese are goob.”

“Yeah.  Delish.”  I shoved one whole into my mouth.  No way was I going to lick the thing like Kootch had.  I smiled big at her, very satisfied when she cringed in disgust.

She swallowed her cake.  “Nice manners.”  She still had chocolate in her teeth.

“Better check a mirror before you scold me,” I said, pointing to one I could see in a small alcove where I assumed the toilet was.

She left me standing there, grabbing her clothes off the stairs on her way.  I watched her walk away, thinking about what we’d just decided; we were officially going to try and keep in touch.  The idea gave me hope.  Hope that I wouldn’t be alone out there in the world.  Even if I was up in the mountains in Canada or the deserts of New Mexico, I could find an online connection somewhere and communicate with her.  And then maybe one day, we could actually hang out together.

Is that what I want?  To hang out with Rae and no one else?  To make her a permanent part of my life?
  I’d only known her for a day, but she’s special.  She gets me.  She gets what I go through every day.  She’s the only one in the world I’d ever met who I could say that about.  But is that enough to sustain anything more than friendship?  I thought about our kiss, and just the memory got me all hot and tingly again.  I was definitely interested in doing that again, and more stuff too if she’d let me.  As she walked back towards me with her street clothes on, I wondered if I’d ever get the chance.

“Have you ever seen a compost toilet before?” she asked. “It’s wild.”

“No.  Is it like a regular one?  Or do you go over a hole in the ground?”

“Nope.  It’s mostly like a regular one.”

I had to see this thing.  “Be right back.”  I walked across the room and into the alcove.  Behind a closed-off space was a big white toilet.  It had a lid, seat, and tank, just like a regular one, but with a much bigger base.  Using it would be like sitting on a big toilet box.  I nodded my head in appreciation; a panic room with a toilet no one could shut off from the outside. 
What will the world think of next?

“This thing is cool,” I said, raising my voice so it would carry out into the room.

I heard Rae go, “Eeep!” and then running footsteps.

Rushing out of the alcove, I noticed immediately that she was no longer standing at the bottom of the stairs.  And feet were coming down into the panic room.  Whoever it was, he was wearing jeans and dirty sneakers.

“Yo, what’s up, freakazoids?” asked Kootch.  He saw me coming out of the bathroom and grinned like a fool.  “Oh, sorry.  Did I catch you on the scrap crapper?”

“No,” I said, looking up the stairs and then around the room.  “Where’d Rae go?”

“How the hell am I supposed to know? She’s down here with you, right?”

“She was, but then you opened the door and I guess she disappeared.”

Kootch looked around.  Then he smiled again.  “I bet I know where she is.  Follow me.”  He walked across the room to a door I hadn’t explored yet.   Pushing it open, he gestured inside.  The room was lit already.  “Voilà.  Welcome to the range.”

“The range?” I asked, stepping into the room.  Rae was standing in the middle of it, looking around with her eyes so big they took up half her face.

I could see why she was so shocked.  There were guns and all kinds of other scary looking things on the walls and shelves around her.