Sign Here(21)

It made me hungry.

“I want the dad,” Cal said, smiling the kind of smile of those who throw themselves out of airplanes for fun.

“Boss?”

“I can take Jake’s mom,” KQ said as she pushed herself up, but I could feel how badly she didn’t want to. I could feel both of them, their itching anticipation, their collective high on the sweet atmosphere. They could feel me too.

“All right, team,” she said. “Don’t forget—we need to get the same deal at the same time. If the dad wants Jake dead and Jake wants to headline Warped Tour, we’ve got nothing. Needs to be exactly the same. Pey, you’re taking the lead on this. What’s our deal?”

Cal looked at me with something like deference and maybe, if I were arrogant enough to believe it, admiration.

“Let’s keep it simple,” I said. “Parents on both sides are certainly going to wish this never happened, and I bet I can get Jake to agree. How about a Rewind?”

“Okay. Hop to it! If we pull this off, we can get a beer before we have to go back.” KQ clapped once and disappeared. Cal gave me a thumbs-up and took off toward the house. I rolled my shoulders and closed my eyes.

I could hear him, Mr. Jake Sutherland. Not out loud, of course. I could hear him on the inside, asking for me.

Asking for someone, at least.

When I opened my eyes, I was in the hallway.

I don’t remember much about my life on Earth. But every once in a while the ancient part of my brain still sticky with human sap will catch a scent and send me flying backward. This was one of those moments. The hallway was long and cool and dark, especially compared with the bright sunshine outside, and it smelled of darkness. The stale air was circulated over wood floors and faded wallpaper only by the whir of fans, turned up all the way at night. It was a disappointing smell, but a safe one. The smell of coming inside to do chores instead of playing with friends. Hints of dinnertime and sunscreen and Lemon Pledge, the things well-loved kids complain about.

Up ahead there was a bang, the butt of a gun against wood. Jake was pounding on the bathroom door.

“Rebecca, just talk to me!”

“Hello there, son,” I said as I approached, my hands out. Of course, bullets couldn’t touch me. But I was going for Trustworthy.

“Who the fuck are you?” Jake yelled. He was tall and pale, sweating in his black hoodie. He still looked like a kid. Not in the way his young hostages did—the ABCs way, the I-know-you-are-but-what-am-I? way—but he held his gun sideways like in the movies and wasn’t much older than Sean.

“You prayed, didn’t you? You asked for help? Well, here I am.”

I kept my hands out and did a slow spin.

“That’s impossible,” he said, but his voice wavered.

“How else do you think I got in here? Got past the police? Who are gathering, by the way.”

I closed my eyes and felt through the wall into the white-tiled bathroom. I could see them clinging to one another in the old claw-foot bathtub, the cloudy-looking shower curtain pulled across them. The room smelled like urine, and I could see the boy’s pants were wet.

“Fuck, fuck this—fuck!” Jake yelled, and he shoved the muzzle of his gun deep into the fleshy underside of his jaw, pale like the soft part of a turtle. If he offed himself before I got to him, we would lose the whole deal.

“Jake,” I said, taking another step. “You don’t have to do that. I can fix this for you. That’s why I’m here.”

Jake slammed his fist into the wall. I could feel Rebecca’s pulse surge through the door as if I held her neon heart in my fist.

“If she hadn’t been such a fucking cunt—”

“Rebecca,” I said. “Your girlfriend. You were about to celebrate one year together.”

“How did you know that?” Jake snapped, pointing his gun at me. I fought the urge to roll my eyes. We didn’t have time for this.

“I told you—I am here to help you. I know everything, Jake.”

“So you know she fucking dumped me when I said I wanted to marry her? When I said the realest thing I’ve ever said to anyone, when I tore my goddamn heart out for her—she fucking dumped me, because she wants to ‘work it out’ with her rich ex. To be more stable for the kids, she said. Fuck that. She’s nothing but a gold-digging whore.”

From behind the bathroom door, a whimper pierced the silence.

“I know, Jake. But you didn’t want it to go like this, did you?” I took another step toward him. “Let me fix it.”

“Fix it how?” he asked, studying me.

“I can undo all of it. I can rewind time, Jake. And then I can make Rebecca love you, marry you, whatever you want.”

“That’s impossible. You’re a fucking cop.”

“You met Rebecca when you were on your first landscaping job. She was working at the plant nursery. She helped you choose the right plants—the ones you’d picked out would’ve died in that soil. The first thing you noticed about her was how the freckles exploded across her nose when she stepped into the sun. You used to go for girls your mom would call ‘cheap,’ but Rebecca was different. Even your mom agreed Rebecca was different that night she cooked you both lasagna, right?”

Jake fell back against the wall and took a ragged breath.