Chapter 35

BY THE TIME we arrive at the hospital, my power has started to come back. Not the sparks themselves, but the beginnings of them, the tingle in my fingers and the buzzing in my bones.

“Here we are,” EMT #1 says, smiling, and opens the doors. I brace myself, expecting to see Them already there, surrounding the car, waiting for me.

But the parking lot is quiet and still.

“Whup,” EMT #1 says, chuckling. “Can’t forget this.” He picks up my backpack from the storage area and sets it on the foot of the stretcher.

They wheel me through the emergency entrance. The waiting room is just as hushed as the parking lot, and the only reactions I get are a few glances and a cough.

They’re not here yet. I still have time.

The EMTs stop to talk to the lady at the front desk, and my mind is spinning over what I’m supposed to do.

I have to get out of here.

I have to find Zahira and Aaron.

I have to go back to Suddence.

I focus on my sparks again, begging them to please come back, and this time the buzzing goes up to my forearms, and I manage a bug-sized spark before I melt back, already dizzy. The spark wasn’t even bright.

Just stay calm, Dany. Just stay calm and wait. It’s no good wasting your strength like this.

But it’s hard to stay calm. Every time I see a car pull into the parking lot, my heart seizes. I’m expecting a line of black cars to pour in any minute now, and what would I do then? I’m useless without my sparks. I’m weak. I won’t be able to get away.

“Hey, kid,” EMT #1 says, while EMT #2 is still talking to Front Desk Lady. “It seems like the doctor is a little busy with something right now, so we’re just going to get you into a room first, and get you onto a comfier bed.” He smiles, like he wants to show nothing about this is scary, and I wish he would stop doing that. “How are you feeling? Does it still hurt the same? Still a two?”

I nod, even though it feels like my whole waist is on fire.

“Are you feeling dizzy at all? Nauseous?”

I shake my head, which sends the whole world spinning. By the time everything stops swirling around like the inside of a snow globe, the EMTs are wheeling me down the hospital hallway.

Outside the emergency room door, a car pulls into the lot, and my pulse stops.

White truck. Yellow stripes. Rectangular lightbulbs on the roof like a police car.

It’s the security vehicle from Suddence.

“Wait,” I say, but the EMTs roll me around a corner, and the emergency room vanishes. I crane forward, my side screaming in pain. “Wait. Go back.”

But EMT #1 only gently presses me back and promises it’s going to be alright, and then I’m being wheeled into an elevator. I watch the doors close, my heartbeat pounding in my skull.

I need to get out. I need to go back.

I grab the strap over my chest, fumbling for the buckle, but the EMTs only pull my hands away and feed me their speech about how I’m safe and it’s alright and there’s nothing to be afraid of, and they don’t understand. Zahira and Aaron might be out there. They’re out there, and I have to get to them before They do.

The elevator reaches the second floor, and the EMTs roll me out.

“I have to go back down,” I say. The panic is clear in my voice, but I don’t care. “I need to go back. Just for a second.”

EMT #1 says, “We need to let the doctor see you first, alright?”

No. It’s not alright. I stare down at the straps again. I could unclip the one across my chest fast enough, but the EMTs will grab me before I can reach for the one over my thighs, and I’ve seen enough medical shows to know that once I get rowdy, they’ll inject me with something to make me fall asleep, and I’ll be useless, and They’ll take me, and I’ll never reach Suddence. Never.

Numbness creeps up my fingertips.

Come on, Dany.

The numbness begins to burn. Pins and needles. It crawls up my arms, up to my shoulders, spilling down my spine and filling my head. I glare at the buckles on the straps.

I need them to be gone.

I want them to be gone.

Snap!

The buckles explode, and I flinch back as bits of plastic fly. The EMTs yelp in surprise, slowing the stretcher. I kick the lifeless straps aside and roll off the side, but pain screams up my leg and I cry out, crumpling.

“Oh!” EMT #2 cries, reaching out to catch me. I scramble back, releasing another spark. It’s meant to only be a jolt, a static shock just painful enough to make her let me go, but when she screams, I see that she’s bleeding.

EMT #1 backs away, startled. EMT #2 is clutching her hand and wailing.

“I’m sorry,” I say desperately. I didn’t mean to hurt her. But I can’t stay to make sure she’s okay, or to explain, or to show that I really mean it. I’m sorry.

I scurry to my feet, grab my backpack, and run.

“Wait!” EMT #1 shouts, and I hear his footsteps as he chases after me. “Dany, stop!”

Gritting my teeth, I reach behind me and spark an empty stretcher across the hall. EMT #1 shouts as he crashes into it.

I drag myself into the elevator and jam the ground floor button, and as I cling to the railing for balance, I catch one last glimpse of EMT #1’s panicked face between the closing doors.