Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144277 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 721(@200wpm)___ 577(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
When Elsha and Veyra showed up, I didn’t even get one question out before they started doing it too.
That was power walking day.
What a disaster. The three of them all showed up in the lobby with little ear plug things that played music. Which I didn’t have—because I didn’t even know they existed. So they made a big production about putting them in and… whatever. I don’t even know what they were doing. Listening to the same song, or something. Because all at once, their lips started moving like they were all silently singing the same words.
The next thing I knew, they were power walking out the damn door. And I don’t know how long they’ve been power walking, but for me, this was day two. They were fast. Much faster than last time. I spent the entire session almost running alongside them to keep up.
By the time we made it to the beach, I was sweaty and exhausted, and had forgotten my little backpack with my bathing suit in it. They hadn’t said a single word to me. Nothing. And that’s how it stayed. They kept those little ear plugs in, the tinny sound of music leaking out of them, as I sat there in my walking clothes, ready to pass out.
Which, I did end up doing. Only to wake up and find they’d left me there! Alone! Didn’t even bother to shake me awake! And it was late afternoon. The sun was sitting low on the horizon. I must’ve slept on that beach for hours.
Walking back to the Observation Tower, I was in a daze.
What was happening to me?
What was happening to my perfect new life?
Things were decidedly off that night when Finn came home. He didn’t even look at me. It’s like I wasn’t there. And when I woke up in the morning, he was gone.
That was not normal.
Was that day seven? Or day six of his augmentation?
I can’t tell anymore. I’m losing track of… well, everything.
Again, I went downstairs early to meet the girls for painting. And they were there, no ear plugs, either. They were chatty, laughing. So I was hopeful.
And it was OK for a little bit. On the walk over to the art studio, I listened to their casual conversation about their husbands. Veyra and Elsha, at least. Maelis didn’t say much. But she was a little bit quiet, anyway.
But then, when we walked into the studio to work on our paintings, Lilika’s painting was still there. So I walked over to it, pointing. “Should we take this to her? It’s too pretty to just let it sit here.”
Veyra snickered.
Elsha sneered.
Maelis said, “And where might we find Lilika, that we might return this painting to her?”
I shrugged. “She lives in the tower, right? We take it to her as a pretense to visit and make sure she’s all right.”
Veyra laughed out loud.
Elsha’s eyes narrowed down into slits.
Maelis said, “Every spark has its purpose.”
And that was the last thing any of them said to me that day. Because every time I spoke after that, they would all say, in unison, “Every spark has its purpose.”
When it came time to cover our paintings and go to the movies, I didn’t do it. I didn’t move.
And they just left without me.
That was yesterday.
I went home, didn’t even grab food—hoping against hope that once Finn came home, I could convince him to stay awake long enough to go out to eat. I have this coin card with my name on it. Enough coin to pay for anything I want, and Finn and I haven’t even had a chance to use it for dinner.
But I was crying at this point.
Which makes me tired.
So I just fell asleep.
Today, is the next morning and the bed sheets next to me aren’t even wrinkled.
Because Finn never came home last night.
I’m sitting on the floor of the room, backed up to a corner, staring at the door. Willing, with all my might, that he will come home.
He doesn’t.
Eventually, I get up, dress, and make my way down to the lobby.
But it’s like I’m walking through a nightmare. Because the entire place is empty. And the reason the entire place is empty is because this lobby is no longer attached to the upper dimension.
I’m back in the factory world. Standing inside a decrepit building with blown-out windows. Outside, there are workers pushing crates around.
And then, an elevator dings. And when I turn, Xi steps out. Looking just like he did when we first met him.
Which is funny, but not in a funny way.
Because he told Finn he wanted us to meet the real him.
But he never came to see us in the upper dimension.
This is when I understand the meaning of the words, ‘too good to be true’.
He didn’t bring us here to save us.