Darkest Dawn (6 page)

“No frickin’ way.” I didn’t care if anyone heard me. I could always pretend to be the girl who others had mistaken me for.

It would be easy.

She looked
exactly
like me. From my slightly long nose ending at a point to my oval-shaped face. I couldn’t tell the most unique factor from the picture. If she had two different-colored eyes, it would seal the deal. I brought the screen closer to my face, bringing the impossible to light.

A loud voice boomed across the room and I gasped, dropping my phone on the table. The voice on the intercom made announcements about an upcoming school dance, and a delayed meeting time for the chess club. My blood ran cold as the man read off stats from the most recent swimming meet, giving me the second craziest idea since I’d made the decision to come to Willows Lake.

I’d never believed in fate, especially after the accident, but I couldn’t think of another word for it. Had the person who summoned me to Willows Lake known about Bri? Had she been the one to find out more answers about the accident? If there was a scandal, she would probably try to keep her identity from me. I knew I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen her face for myself.

At the front of library, the kids were shuffling around. I hesitated, going back and forth on my decision. I could go back to the motel and hope that someone would make contact. Or I could take initiative. What harm could a detour do? If it wasn’t her then the person could wait a little while, since he or she had sent me on a wild chase. Maybe Bri would have some answers. It seemed to be the best option at the moment.

When I reached the hallway, I lifted the hood of my sweatshirt over my head to keep my identity hidden. I didn’t need another one of Bri’s friends to mistake me for her. Or for that other guy to find me. I was on a new mission now and like hell would anyone stop me. I asked a younger student waiting outside a classroom where the pool was. He was a little too eager to reply. I assumed he didn’t have much contact with girls. I followed his instructions, leaving through the back door of the building and following the parking lot to the annex building.

***

I entered the one-floor faded brown brick structure. I vigorously wiped my wet sneakers on one of the thick mats inside the main entrance. I didn’t want to slip on them again in case I ran into that guy.

Across the hall was an open door and as I neared it, the sounds of sneakers and dribbling basketballs grew louder. A man shouted something. I couldn’t make out his words among the other sounds. I peered into the gym, watching the dozen or so guys move across the court. Half of them wore netted vests and were doing drills in pairs. An otherwise conventional practice session.

My gaze fell on a familiar face. Jake, from the diner, knocked the ball away from one of his teammates and he dribbled the ball at breakneck speed up the court. Toward me.

I cleared the doorway and pressed my back against the wall, my heart hammering in my chest. A ragged breath parted my dry lips. If I didn’t know any better I’d think he was stalking me.

Even though you’re at his school.

I headed in the opposite direction. I didn’t want to pass by the open doors for fear of being recognized so I traveled along the corridor until I reached the empty outer hallway of the building. The dribbling basketballs faded as I traveled further from the gym. I tested the bottom of my shoes; they were dry enough. I jogged down the hallway until I reached another corridor. This time I peered down it to make sure there weren’t any other openings to the gym. One close call had been enough.

A placard for the natatorium was plastered to the wall in front of me next to a windowless door.

I strode up to the door and placed a clammy hand on the surface. A whooshing sound in my ears stopped me and I stumbled backward. The same sick feeling rolled around in my stomach as earlier. My vision blurred momentarily before catching a sign for the girls’ locker room. I staggered down the hall and pushed through the doors. A large windowless room opened up around me with rows of lockers against the walls. I shuffled past the benches covered with strewn clothes and bags across the room to a small enclave with a bank of sinks and toilets.

I turned on the closest sink and cupped my hands under the cold water. Immediately the frigid temperature shocked me back to reality and I splashed water on my face. I drew in deep breaths until my racing heart calmed to a somewhat normal rhythm. I stared at my pale face in the mirror, resembling a drowned rat more than a girl. My stomach revolted, growling at me from deep within my abdomen. I swallowed a few times. The last thing I needed was to get sick when I was so close.

I opened one of the stalls and sat on the toilet, giving my jelly legs a moment to get back to their normal strength. The porcelain seat was the cleanest I’d ever seen at a school. The residual dizziness faded. I pulled my damp hair away from my flushed skin and into a bun at the top of my head. I’d come here with a specific goal and I needed to get back on track. After a few more minutes of calm breathing, I tested my legs.

The echo of a door slamming made my already fragile heart skip a beat. Girls’ voices floated across the space, bouncing off the empty locker room. It wouldn’t be empty for long.

I didn’t have a chance at getting out of there without someone seeing me, so I closed the stall door and locked it before standing on the toilet. After five minutes of keeping still while listening to the girls talk about dates to some event and gossip about other girls in school, I wondered if I should have risked leaving when I had the chance. One girl even tried the stall I was in, pushing it hard enough to almost move the flimsy lock from its place before giving up. I counted the seconds through my quickening breaths and soon enough the pack of girls left in one noisy group.

I gave the stragglers a few seconds to clear out before I stepped down from the toilet.

I took a breath, opened the door, and bolted for the entrance of the locker room. I didn’t stop, even when some girl cried out when I knocked her purse to the floor.

The hallway was cooler and I sucked in deep breaths when the dizziness returned with a vengeance. I stopped and leaned against the wall, terrified of what might happen next. I knew I shouldn’t be out in the open for fear of someone thinking I was Bri but my legs were solid blocks on the floor. A bead of sweat traveled across my hairline and dropped like an icicle on a hot day.

The ceiling lights buzzed and crackled. I lifted my gaze to them. They were flickering wildly. The ceiling moved in a slow circle above my head. My mind put it together that this wasn’t right. Someone at the end of the hallway caught my attention. The person’s body blurred as I tried to focus on him or her. My eyelids drooped as I fought to stay conscious. My legs propelled me forward even though my head wanted everything around me to stop. As I neared the person it was as if I’d entered a carnival mirror room. In front of me was me. I cocked my head to the side and tried to focus on me.

As much as my brain was fuzzy, I knew I wasn’t looking into a mirror. I’d found Bri. I didn’t need to wonder if she felt the same way as she staggered toward me. We were both jelly-legged yet pulled together by the same strange force. The lights continued to flicker and the buzzing intensified. Then as suddenly as the buzzing started, my hearing turned inward as if the world had swallowed all sound. I couldn’t take my gaze from her eyes. Both of them were dark green, matching my left eye.

Mom’s face flashed before my eyes. The look of horror as she fought for control of the wheel. She turned in her seat and her face was my face. The face of the girl in front of me.

I grounded myself in the present and reached for the girl, needing to touch her. I needed to know that this was real.

And as our fingers brushed all sound returned forcefully. A crack like thunder shook the ground beneath us as I clasped her hand in mine. She returned the grip as something sharp hit my cheek. Her eyes bored into mine and at that distance I saw the faint outline of a contact lens in her left eye. I didn’t need to think about what color would lie under the lens because I knew it was blue. The only physical difference between me and this girl. A warmth spread through my body as if I’d been waiting for this moment my whole life. It was as if I was transported back to the day before Mom died, when the world was right and perfect.

The girl gasped and ripped her hand from my grasp, her eyes blinking rapidly. I leaned toward her, wanting more of the feeling her touch gave me.

“Who are you?” my voice said from her lips.

“Sloane,” was all I could manage.

Bri’s gaze touched every spot in the hallway before landing on me. I looked around us where the hallway was darker than it had been before. The bulbs above us had shattered, casting long shadows and shards of glass down the hallway. I touched my cheek. That’s what had hit me. My hand came away clean; it hadn’t broken the skin.

She spoke through ragged breaths. “What’s going on?”

I inhaled deeply for the first time since I’d seen her. “You know as much as I do.” Or maybe she knew more?

Her head shook a few times before she spoke. “Where did you come from? And why—”

“Do we look the same?” I finished.

A group of voices carried down the hallway. Bri’s eyes widened before she grabbed my arm and pushed me through the closest door, which happened to be the boys’ bathroom. The lights in this room were on, leaving no mistake as to what we were seeing.

She pushed past me and stood a few feet away from the mirror above a sink. I took my place next to her as we both stared at each other through the glass. Very subtle differences riddled our faces. Mostly because the corners of her lips were tight. I’d already known there was a girl who resembled me in this town, causing the mix-ups. For Bri, this would be a shock. I was prepared to figure out what the hell was going on though. And Bri was the one I had to do it with.

Bri whirled around and stuck her finger close to her eye. Mine started to water. She moved the contact lens away from her iris. The matching pale blue shone through. “Not all the same.” She replaced the lens and stared at me, as if I’d done this to her. “You don’t cover yours.”

“Why would I?” As much as I hated the questions about my abnormality, I always thought it made me who I was. Mom had always encouraged me to embrace my differences.

“More importantly,” she pushed past her own question, “how did you know about me?”

“I didn’t.” I didn’t want her to think I’d come here to find her. Even though I sort of had. “I was—” Sent here? Summoned? I couldn’t pinpoint the word I needed without sounding like a total weirdo. “Here.” I opened my jacket and Bri flinched. Did she think I was going to hurt her? Every part of my body vibrated with the need to protect her. I pulled out the letter and handed it over. She glanced at the letter then back at me. I shoved it at her until her fingers pinched the paper and I let go. I turned to the sink, giving her privacy. I leaned on the cool porcelain with my hands, remembering only twenty minutes ago how I’d stared into my pale reflection.

I looked over my reflection’s shoulder at Bri. Her hands gripped the letter tight enough that I feared she’d rip it. My palms broke out into a sweat at the thought. An eternity stretched and I counted the seconds until she was finished.

When she finally looked up she spoke in a low, clear voice, as if she was steadying her own nerves. “What does this have to do with me?”

“I don’t know.” I didn’t need accusations from her. This situation was already getting stranger by the second. “Do you think it’s odd that someone asked me to come to a place where my—” I shrugged “—twin is?”

Her eyes squinted. “How can we be twins?”

The question hung in the air. “Well, whatever. We look identical. And I thought…”

“You thought that I sent this?” As if she’d plucked the words from my brain.

I stared at the ground. “I don’t know. The person I was supposed to meet never showed up and then I came across you. What would you think?”

She bit her lip. “Probably the same thing.”

“It can’t be coincidence. Can it?”

“Bri?” a girl’s voice called from outside the door making us both jump. Her eyes met mine for the first time since the hallway. She glanced at the door then back to me as if I had all the answers. I wished I did. I didn’t want anyone else involved in whatever insanity we’d found ourselves in.

I moved away from the door, unsure if whoever was looking for Bri would open it. “Do you have to go?”

Bri shifted her weight from foot to foot. “I have a ride home. If I don’t go my friends will ask why.” She licked her lips. “Where are you staying?”

“Willows Lake Motel.”

She nodded quickly. “Do you have a phone?” Her eyes moved to the door.

I rolled my eyes. “Are you serious?”

“There’s a patch of woods behind the motel that leads straight to my complex.” She rattled off her phone number. “Meet me there in an hour.”

I typed her number into my phone and called it. I’d tricked a few guys by giving them fake numbers, so I wasn’t a fool. Her phone rang from her bag.

The door to the bathroom opened and Bri’s eyes widened to big round circles. I stepped back, plastering myself against the wall, hidden from the view of whoever had come into the room. I recognized the voice right away. It was the girl who’d mistaken me for Bri earlier that day. “One hour,” I mouthed and then she was gone.

“You know this is the guys’ room?” the girl’s voice grilled Bri.

Shuffling feet moved away from the door and Bri and the girl disappeared out into the hallway. I set a timer on my phone. This was one meeting I wasn’t going to miss.

CHAPTER SIX

Bri

Bri barely registered the few minutes’ walk with Max to the front entrance of the building. Thankfully Max was too nose-deep in her chemistry book to notice how distracted Bri was. Had she hallucinated the last ten minutes? The random run-in with Kael had completely fled her mind when she met Sloane.

Bri checked her phone and saw a missed call from an unknown number. Unless her imagination really had been on overdrive she knew she hadn’t made it up.