A Drop of Night(85)

I look across the room at Will. He’s sleeping, his face bruised, one arm slung across his forehead. Jules is awake. He catches my eye and starts making winky faces at me until I grin.

“Anouk?” I glance over. Lilly’s propped up on her side, peering across the gap between our beds. She looks hollowed out and tired. Her head is bandaged, both fists, too, like a boxer. But now she grins and there she is again.

“Yeah?” I say.

“We made it.”

“We did.”

“Parts of us.” Will’s awake now, too. His hand has gotten a real bandage, and I think he looks great, all things considered. Who needs ten fingers anyway? We sit up in our beds in our white, sterile hospital room, and we stare at each other like: Well, that was crazy. Down in the street journalists are screaming, cars are passing, pigeons are warbling, but in here it’s just us. And I smile at the others. Really smile, a bright, warm smile that I feel in my chest.

“Thanks,” I say.

I doubt they have any clue what I’m thanking them for. But I know, and they smile back, and that’s all I wanted anyway. I think of flying back across the ocean, talking to my parents, hugging Penny. Technically this whole thing was a massive failure. But I still feel like I’ve done something great. Something awesome. I see a black Mercedes, speeding toward a pale chateau and an underground palace full of monsters. A girl with her head against the cold glass, thinking: There’s this special talent humans have that they can be unhappy no matter where they are. But humans have another special talent: We can be happy almost anywhere, too. We can be happy because we’re not alone.