Black River Falls by Jeff Hirsch(47)

“Card, wait.”

I stumbled through the spiral. Greer was there when I came out on the other side.

“Buddy! Good to see—”

He dodged out of the way as I ran past, strapping on my mask as I went. He called my name, but I kept going, up the stairs and into the lobby. Those three pages unfurled through the dark. Sally Sparrow. Cardinal. Blue Jay. Then you were there too. And Mom and Dad. And me.

I ducked through the opening in the door and suddenly realized that I’d left Dad’s comics behind. Part of me wanted to just go, but I knew I couldn’t. I slipped into the shadows of a nearby hallway and waited. Surely Hannah and Greer would head back to Lucy’s Promise soon. Minutes ticked by. An hour, maybe. Finally I couldn’t wait any longer. Who cared if they were there or not.

I made my way back down the stairs and into the Serra room. It was quiet. Maybe they’d gone out another way. I passed the first two sculptures and started into the spiral of the third. There were voices up ahead.

“. . . turn up anybody who saw what happened last night?”

It was Hannah. I eased myself into the dark a few feet away from the opening that led to the center of the ellipse. The lantern light threw two sketchy shadows against an inside wall.

“I talked to a guy who lives near the park,” Greer replied. “He said there was some kind of fight the Guard broke up. Somebody on the ground. A bunch of people around him.”

“He see who they were?”

“Couldn’t make out the face of the guy on the ground, but it sounds like it was Card. Said it was too dark to really see any of the people wailing on him, except for one. Older white dude. Bald, with glasses. That sound like the one who tried to grab you?”

There was a pause, and then the shadow Hannah nodded.

Greer got up, appeared and disappeared as he stalked through the ellipse. “What the hell was he even doing down here?”

“Looking for a fight?”

“What? No way. Card?”

“You didn’t see him that day he found me.”

“You mean the day he saved your life?”

“You weren’t there,” Hannah said. “You didn’t see it. The way he went after those guys. And what about the morning he left? The way he looked? He was one second from hitting you. You had to have seen that.”

“So—what? You’re saying Card’s dangerous? That’s insane.”

“How do you know he’s not?”

“Because I know Card.”

“All you know is what he’s told you,” Hannah said. “You don’t know anything about him from before.”

“Before doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters!” Hannah said. “How do you even know for sure that he doesn’t remember you? I mean, how likely is that? It’s a small town. You guys went to the same school. He says he doesn’t remember you, but—”

“I know he remembers me.”

I moved closer to the opening. Greer was sitting up against one of the walls, his arms crossed over his chest, his head down.

Hannah leaned in toward him. “What? How do you know?”

Greer shrugged. “Things he says. The way he looks at me sometimes.”

“But you’ve never asked him to—”

He shook his head.

“Why not? You said you think about it all the time. You said—”

“If Card thinks I’m better off not knowing, then maybe I am.”

“You trust him that much?”

Greer laid his head against the steel wall, looking up at the skylight. He shrugged helplessly.

“He’s my best friend.”

Not long after that, they decided it was too late to hike back up the mountain. They pulled sleeping bags from their packs and blew out the lantern, dropping us into darkness. Once they were asleep, it would have been the perfect time to get my things and go, but I didn’t move. I sat there in the spiral with my back against the wall, my eyes closed, hearing Greer’s words over and over in my head.

Greer came up to Lucy’s Promise for the first time just before Thanksgiving. I was leaving the supply shed when I heard someone walking up the trail. Not knowing what to expect, I ducked back inside and watched through a crack in the door. As soon as I saw who it was, I dropped what I was carrying and reached for my knife.

“Hello?” he called. “Anybody here?”

There was something off about his voice. It wasn’t the growl I remembered. It was lighter, softer, less certain. For a second I thought maybe it wasn’t Greer Larson at all, just someone who looked liked him, but then he came closer, and there was no question. Before I could decide what to do, the first two kids appeared behind him. Ren and Makela. They were a mess. Blank-eyed, in dirty clothes. Carrie came next. Then Isaac and Tomiko. They all huddled around Greer. He made a joke I didn’t hear, and they laughed nervously. I came out of the shed slowly and stood between the cabins, my hand resting on the hilt of the knife.

“Hi there!” Greer chirped when he saw me. “Few quick questions.”

“Uh . . . okay.”

He waved his arms around the campsite and the surrounding woods. “All this—it’s not a mirage, right?”

“No. It’s real.”