Infinite(47)

“I’ll do that. Thanks a lot.”

I left the building and went back to the street. The wind whipped through the trees, and I shoved my hands in my pockets as I took the sidewalk north. As excited as I was at the idea that Karly was close by, I also found myself confronting an unhappy truth. I was trying to find a stranger. More than that, I was trying to find a stranger who’d gone through something dark in her past. Trauma.

In my mind, I couldn’t escape the idea that Karly knew me. I’d see her, and she’d be my wife, and she’d be in love with me. But none of that was true. If I simply showed up at her door, a man who’d met her once on an awful blind date years earlier, she’d wonder why I was there and what I wanted.

What did I want?

Honestly, I had no idea. I needed to protect her, but I didn’t know how to warn her of the danger from someone who was actually me.

When I got to the residence hall, I hesitated at the alley. A few lights were on inside the building, and I could see a handful of summer students through the open curtains and hear music through their windows. I debated whether to stay or just leave. What would I say if I found her?

Then, not far away, a door opened. A woman emerged from inside the dorm, lingered briefly under the lights, and then turned away toward the gardens in back. She was visible for only a moment, and all I could see was a hint of blond hair and the curve of her jaw.

The woman looked like Karly, but I couldn’t be sure. Maybe I just wanted it to be her.

Even so, I followed. I took the alley to the back of the building, where the dormitories and fraternities came together in a kind of quad. It was almost impossible to see in the darkness back here. Trees crowded the open lawns and blocked my view. Ivy-covered walls butted up to the cobblestoned sidewalks. I didn’t see Karly—if it really was Karly—but she couldn’t have gone far. I heard the tap of her heels on stone, but the noise bounced between the walls and made it hard to tell where she was.

I crossed beside a building with Greek letters engraved over its doorway. Bike racks were crowded near the rear door, and I smelled weed through one of the windows. I stopped by the dense, overgrown hedges and listened again, hearing no footsteps this time. Then, on the far side of the lawn, I spotted a flash of her blond hair as she passed under the glow of a lamppost. She disappeared into a narrow corridor between two buildings. I changed direction to go after her, navigating between the trees. The branches dangled low to the ground, scraping my face as I hurried through the damp grass.

When I was halfway across the lawn, I stopped.

A stab of horror ran through my body. Ahead of me, a silhouette detached itself from the thick trunk of an elm tree. It was a man. He stood on the fringe of the grass, framed in darkness by the lamppost. I recognized the outline of his body, because I’d seen it in photographs throughout my life. That was how I looked, with my lean, small frame, with my shock of wavy hair. It was me. It was him. He headed after the blond woman with a determined stride, and as he crossed under the light of the lamppost, I saw the dirty leather of his coat. My father’s coat. I also saw a glinting reflection of something metal in his hand.

A knife.

He was carrying a knife.

I tried to run, but the slick mud under my feet slowed me down. When I got to the walkway between the buildings, the corridor was already empty. I sprinted to the far side and found myself in a wooded area where four sidewalks met in a cross, with more ivy-covered walls on every side. My doppelg?nger was gone. So was Karly.

Was it Karly?

Was I going to lose her again?

I didn’t know which way to go—left, right, or straight. In front of me, the cobblestones led beneath an archway between two buildings, and I ran that way, finding myself in another dark quad where brick walls loomed around the square. The area was silent, except for the noise of the tree branches rustling together. I saw no one, and I turned around to reverse my steps.

There she was. Right behind me. Staring right at me.

She was fit, young, and attractive, with bobbed blond hair, but she wasn’t Karly. They looked similar, but this woman was a stranger. In her hand was a small canister that she pointed at my face.

“Freeze, shithead. This is pepper spray. One more step, and you’ll be choking on the ground, and I’ll be kicking the crap out of you. Got it?”

I backed away and held up my hands. “Hey, I’m sorry. I saw someone following you, and I was just trying to help.”

“Yeah, you were following me. And now you’re done. I’m calling security, so unless you want to explain why you’re on campus stalking women, you better get the hell out of here and not come back.”

She didn’t take her eyes off me. With the can of pepper spray still poised, she backed to the doorway of the nearest building and disappeared inside. I didn’t want to be around when campus security arrived, so I walked quickly back the way I’d come.

Even so, when I reached the alley that led toward Sheridan, I stopped.

No one was in sight, but the shadows offered plenty of hiding places.

I waited to see if he would show himself, but he didn’t. Regardless, I knew he was here. Our minds were linked, and I could feel him watching me from the blackness. I’d stopped him tonight, but this wasn’t over. We both knew the stakes.

He was in this world, and he was hunting for Karly.

I had to get to her first.