Two hours later, Mr. Caldwell still had not arrived with a change of clothes for Reese. She was getting buggy and bored. Paul had left shortly after arriving and she had resumed the pacing. She was tempted a dozen times to peer into the velvet bag but just as her fingers wrapped around the drawstrings, she had shoved it back into the pillowcase. She felt as if she was holding on to Pandora’s Box and opening it would unleash the hounds of hell. She wanted to go for a walk in the hallways but feared leaving the amulet behind in case in fell into the wrong hands. How she wished she had a pocket to put it in when a stroke of genius graced her.

She pulled a second pair of hospital slipper socks on and tucked the small bag into the socks at her ankle. No one would notice the lump unless they were specifically looking for it. She walked by the nurse’s station and asked for another Johnny. As she put it on backwards so as not to have an embarrassing moment of exposure as she walked the halls, Demi materialized to her right and slipped an arm through Reese’s. She leaned close to Reese and whispered, “Come on. You’ve got to see this,” as she stirred her away from the desk and through a door to a staircase.

“Where are we going?” Reese whispered back.

“You’ll see.” Demi said bouncing down the stairs hurriedly with Reese barely able to keep up with the teenager’s agility. Reese might have been feeling great after her ordeal, but a forty something year old body was no match to that of a teen in obviously great shape.

“How long ago was your accident?” Reese asked, curious.

“Five days ago,” Demi called up from the next landing down.

“And you almost died?”

“I did die,” Demi answered in a springy voice, like she was proud of her accomplishment.

“Pretty energetic for someone who was just seriously injured,” Reese said as she turned a bend in the flight of stairs.

Suddenly Demi stopped and turned back to Reese. She looked up at her and Reese stopped as well. The girl’s eyes were so dark that Reese couldn’t discern her pupil from her iris.

“It’s like drinking from the fountain of youth. Every visit rejuvenates you.”

“Every visit? How many times have you been there?”

“More than once,” Demi said and smirked. “Oh I don’t have to die to go there. Other people do, but not me. It just so happens that I actually died the last time.”

“Does your brother go there too?”

“Who Jonah?”

“Yes. Do you have another brother?”

“Will.”

“Will. Okay. Yes, I was talking about Jonah.”

From above them a stairway door opened and slammed closed and the sounds of footsteps echoed. Demi placed a finger to her lips and she gestured for Reese to continue. They went down one more flight and them Demi steered them through a maze of corridors until they approached a pair of automatic swinging doors to the outside. Demi tugged at Reese’s arm and pulled her into a room ten feet away from the doors. Demi shut the door but peered through the elongated double-glass window.

“Are we escaping?” Reese asked, hoping they might be but at the same time knowing she would be the one to get into trouble for leading a minor out of the hospital.

“No,” Demi said and shook her head. “Just wait.”

Demi continued to monitor through the window and Reese looked around in the darkened room. It looked like a small janitor’s closet with bags of ice melt, caution tape, a mop and bucket, and bags of rags.

After a couple of minutes, Demi said, “Here they come.” She gestured for Reese to come to the window. Reese stared out and saw the back of an ambulance steadily approaching the emergency doors. Suddenly a rush of doctors and nurses ran past the closet and one of them slapped the wall button springing the doors into action. There were an absurd number of hospital personnel attending to the opening ambulance door. The EMT hopped from the back of the ambulance and he and one of the nurses pulled a gurney from the back. The nurse pried opened the patient’s closed eyes and with a penlight shining a concentrated beam into them, she looked and then went into action. They rolled the patient in Reese’s direction. As the gurney came her way, Reese could see it was a young girl, probably Demi’s age. Her skin was a strange tinge of blue and her lips were unnaturally bright like she had just eaten a candy apple.

They passed the janitor’s closet and Reese collected her thoughts. What was it she was supposed to be witnessing? She turned to Demi who was bouncing from one foot to another and had one of her thumb nails forced between nibbling teeth. “What was that about?” Reese asked.

Demi flicked her hand toward the window. “Keep watching,” she said.

Reese turned around just as another ambulance rolled to the back of the door. It was the same scenario as before. Another unconscious teenager with bluish skin and bright cherry lips. Reese said in a lowered voice, “Carbon monoxide poisoning?”

Demi didn’t verbalize a response so Reese turned to look at her. The girl shook her head. “No. Keep watching,” Demi said just barely above a whisper.

As the second ambulance pulled away another one backed to the door but just before it was unloaded another gurney came from the side. The patient must have died. There were no rushing movements from the nurse accompanying the EMT as they spoke across the body. Another teenager, blue skin tone and stained lips. As they moved down the hallway, they steered toward the side to let the fourth teenage victim rush by. Reese watched the fourth one, in the same condition as the three before and didn’t pay heed to the dead kid until yelling erupted. “She’s still alive!” The nurse hollered. Reese turned her head just in time to see the girl’s eyes open wide as she pulled her head up and focused on Reese through the glass. She smiled ever so slightly and her head dropped back down. The patient and her entourage disappeared toward the emergency room. And goose bumps exploded all over Reese’s body.

“What the hell?” Reese turned and murmured to Demi who was still gnawing on her thumbnail with a devilish grin on her face. The girl pulled her hand away from her lips and nearly skipped to the closet door.

“Come on, let’s go,” Demi said as she reached for the knob but Reese snagged Demi’s hand away and forced her around to face her.

“What was that all about?” Reese demanded. “Why did you bring me here to see that?”

The grin slipped from Demi’s mouth. “Just trust me, will you?”

“Why should I trust you? I don’t even know you.”

Demi took a confidant step toward Reese. “You’re not going to know who to trust. They’re looking for you. Those kids, the ones who just rolled in here on the threshold of death? They’re glorified scouts, looking for you. And they are closing in. You better decide who to trust and soon.”

“That makes no sense.”

“Not yet. But it will. And you better be prepared. Cause all hell is about to break loose.”

“I don’t want to play this game with you, Demi. You seem like a nice kid. A bit odd, but nice. But I have my own life and my own problems.” Reese lifted her ankle to take the amulet out of her sock.

“Hold on to that. It’s too dangerous for me to have it right now. Besides, you might need it.”

Reese lowered her leg. How the hell did Demi know it was hidden in her sock? The girl was psychic or a witch or something. Maybe just crazy. A perfectly good reason for Reese to end their friendship before it was too late.

“Look, I need to get out of here. I don’t know what this is all about, but I don’t want anything to do with it.”

Demi snorted. “Neither do I. But sometimes we don’t have a choice.”

Reese wondered if the teenage girl was a psychiatric patient with a persecution complex. God, how she wished Luke wasn’t missing.

“Come on. Just five more minutes of your time. If I can’t convince you in that time, you can give me my amulet back and be on your merry way.”

Reese hesitated.

“What’s five more minutes?” Demi encouraged.

“Five minutes. That’s it,” Reese said.

Demi didn’t respond but instead and turned and pried open the door slightly. She looked in both directions and then stepped into the hallway. All personnel was hovering and swarming like bees over the four newly arrived patients. Two EMT’s headed in their direction and Demi and Reese stepped to the side to let them pass as they wheeled their respective gurneys back to their ambulances. One of them said, “Friggin’ suicide pact. I heard there was another group down in Barnstable a few hours ago.” They continued, oblivious to Reese and Demi.

Upon hearing their words, Reese turned to Demi who was staring at her like she was waiting for the obvious to sink into Reese’s head. They didn’t say anything to each other, but rather started walking to the emergency area again.

There were a lot of loud voices rolling on top of each other. Demands for IV’s, tests, someone to call the kids’ parents. From her right, Reese felt a sudden rush of another person as a uniformed cop ran past her. Reese watched as he stopped short in front of a middle-aged, pretty doctor. She turned and looked at him with a grimaced face.

“This is bad, Officer Sikes. Just like the other group in Barnstable, they each had a note on them,” the doctor said.

“What did it say?” The officer asked.

“You have one objective. Keep her from finding Luke,” the doctor answered.

Reese felt the strength flow out of her body like water down the drain. Demi clasped an arm around Reese. “Don’t pass out,” Demi whispered through Reese’s hair into her ear.

Reese shook her head no, she wouldn’t pass out. She didn’t feel lightheaded, just physically stunned like she had been zapped by a lightning bolt.

“You believe me now?” Demi said as she escorted Reese back toward the main hallway, pulling Reese to the staircase. Reese wasn’t sure if she could take the stairs and looked longingly for the elevator. “I didn’t even need five minutes, huh?”

Reese took a few more steps and spied an elevator but Demi steered her toward the door for the staircase. Reese wanted to whine out that she couldn’t take the stairs. But as she came to the door, the symboled picture depicting the person taking the stairs in case of a fire came into focus. They indeed had a fire blowing toward them and Demi forcing Reese to take the stairs was to keep them out of the line of danger, to avoid being seen. It was not exercise for their health. This girl knew what she was doing. Reese knew who she had to trust.

As Demi pulled the door open, Reese pulled back from her supportive hold. Demi looked at her oddly. “We have to take the stairs,” Demi nearly pleaded.

“I know,” Reese answered. “Lead the way.” She gestured in the direction of the stairwell.

Demi nodded like she understood that Reese had chosen who to trust and then turned back to face her. “I’m leaving the hospital tonight,” she said.

Reese nodded. “That’s good.”

“I’m not being discharged.”

Reese looked at the black haired girl with the moonless midnight eyes. She looked older than she was. Without a doubt, Reese knew Demi was heading into danger. She didn’t feel a maternal need to protect the girl, keeping her safe from doing something stupid. Rather she felt like she was in the presence of her peer, a partner. She knew their paths would cross again. But for now they each had a separate direction to go.

“I know nothing,” Reese said as she smiled and waved her hand to the steps for Demi to keep going.