Within These Walls

Chapter 5

I wind up in the shower room a short trip down the hallway. It's a big room with sinks and mirrors down one wall and at least ten stalls lining another. The slate-gray vinyl tiles are pristine, just like everything else in this place.

I want to sit in a corner of the bathroom and breathe through my anxiety, but I can't let myself crack apart like that. I go over to one of the sinks and turn on the faucet. The water is freezing. I splash my face, trying to wash away the taint of a nightmare lingering on my skin.

When I look up into the mirror, I see a girl with washed-out skin, dark hair pulled back into a knot that's coming undone, and pale blue eyes. I squeeze my eyes shut and open them again. They're a little better, but it's not good enough.

Try harder.

That's what Sam would say if he could see me now. He'd tower over me, disdain on his face, and he'd force me to pretend to be better. Tougher. To hold myself together.

"April?" Willow says, appearing at the doorway. Her eyes flit around the shower room and take in everything. They return to my face, loaded with concern. "Are you okay?"

I take deep and even breaths like Sam taught me. "I'm fine. Did I miss anything while I was gone?"

"No." Her eyes are intent on my face. She knows I'm brushing off her concern, but she seems to understand that I want her to drop it. Her gaze moves over to the row of mirrors next to us. "Is it crazy I'm kind of glad to be here instead of at home?"

I study her face as she inspects her reflection and smooths one hand over her hair. "It depends on what the alternative is."

"I've spent my whole life being told what to do and how to live my life. It's nice to have some time to myself without someone looking over my shoulder."

"Parents?" I ask.

She smiles tightly. "Marcus is an idiot. But I think I know why he keeps picking on you."

"You do?"

"He feels threatened. You're smart and you know how to get people to listen to you. Marcus wants power. You're in the way of that."

I let her words sink in. All his sneers, those implied threats. Could it be because he thinks I'm challenging him?

"Now that you know, it should be easier to stay out of his way."

"Thanks." I return her smile. "It's nice to know someone's got my back."

She nods. "Now come on. Let's get back before we miss out."

Something's different. I feel it even before we enter the cafeteria. It's too quiet. The kids have congregated around the TVs and are staring at the black screens.

No, not completely black. I see the white lettering on the screen closest to me.

05:19:11.

"What's that?" Willow asks the guy closest to us.

"A timer," he replies. "The last two numbers keep changing."

"Five days, nineteen hours, and eleven minutes," I read. If nothing else, this means we'll be stuck here for almost a week.

"April!"

Alec is waving me over to his group on the other side of the cafeteria. Marcus is with him. He turns to me when Alec calls out, and his eyes narrow.

I give Alec a half-hearted wave and turn my back to him. He hasn't done anything to deserve the cold shoulder, but Willow is right. I should keep a low profile and stay out of Marcus's way. He'll get bored and be forced to move on to someone else. Unfortunately for them.

"Hmm," Willow says. "I think he likes you."

"Marcus?" I ask, startled.

"Alec."

I glance back over my shoulder. "We barely know each other."

"Maybe he likes what he sees so far. You have a boyfriend back home?"

"No," I answer stiffly. "You?"

"Not anymore. We broke up over the summer."

My gaze whips back to her face. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It was doomed from the start."

"Doomed?" I repeat. I wouldn't characterize a teenage romance outside of Romeo and Juliet as being doomed. It almost sounds tragic, the way she says it.

"Yeah." She shrugs. "Relationships built on lies usually are."

"Funny," Carson drawls behind us. "We've got some sort of a clock counting down to something, maybe the world ending, and y'all are over here talking about boys."

He grins at us when we turn around, and I smile back. It's hard not to feel at ease around Carson. He has a way of diffusing my anxiety without trying.

"Weren't you with Alec and the others?" I ask.

"Marcus told me to beat it. Not like I want to hang around those guys anyway." He rests his hands on his waist and looks up at the screen. "What do you think it means?"

"Something is going to happen soon," Willow says. "This must be their way of giving us a heads-up."

"How nice of them."

She sighs. "We have six days to figure it out. We should check the rooms. See if we can find clues."

"Maybe we're clues, too," I say. "If we can find more similarities—or connections—between us, we might be better prepared for what we're going to face."

"Alright," Carson says. "So far, we've got two clues: most of us are from the East Coast, and we're a pack of healthy kids. What else do we need?"

"Names and ages. Backgrounds."

He groans. "That could take forever."

"It's not like we have anything better to do," I point out.

As long as our takers don't throw another wrench into our lives, we have a few more days to explore and get to know these strangers. To discover allies and potential threats. Marcus is already recruiting people for his gang. Tough, athletic, dominant, attractive: basically, the same crowd at the popular table at school.

"What do we do about Marcus?" Carson asks.

Willow purses her lips. "Let me deal with him. I'll be right back."

She walks over to Marcus's group. I don't know what she says to him, but a few seconds later, he follows her to a corner of the cafeteria. I'm surprised by the smile on her face as she speaks to him. She's at ease, touching his forearm when she leans in to whisper something.

He crosses his arms and takes a small step back but doesn't push her away. He almost looks uncomfortable.

"Any luck?" Carson asks when Willow returns.

"Kind of. He wants to run the show, but he didn't shoot down our plan."

"How did you get him to agree to that?"

She gives us a mischievous grin. "I know how to speak Marcus's language. All you have to do is treat him like a special little prince."

"All hail Queen Willow," he says with a laugh.

Willow's expression turns serious. "Actually, he does have one condition."

She's looking at me as she says this, and I get a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"He wants something from me, doesn't he?" I ask.

"Yes. He wants you to join his team."