Starlight (Book 1)

20: Halley Knows Best

"Are you okay, honey?" asked Halley quietly, kneeling over to bring herself closer to my height.

"Fine," I tried, but my voice betrayed me, and Halley sighed.

"No, you aren't," she replied. "Listen, it's not going to be as bad as you think—"

"And if it is?"

Her gaze softened. "I've got a badge for a reason, y'know. I'm going to be in the room the whole time. Trust me, if I see anything I don't like, I will tell her right then and there."

I nodded, knowing Halley would protect me. I wasn't ready for what was about to happen, but I'd already known that. It didn't ease my whirlwind of emotions, though. The storm had rapidly changed from nauseous to anger to scared, and had then settled somewhere back at the beginning again.

The only respite I had was the reminder that if anything went awry, at least I wouldn't have to call the police.

I'd looked around Halley's apartment many times since I'd first walked in, but I scanned her kitchen again, if only to have a task to preoccupy myself with. She had notebooks and loose paper scattered everywhere, and it reminded me heavily of Papa's office, only less organized.

On the kitchen table near where I was sitting rested a police scanner where voices spoke every few minutes relaying codes I didn't understand back and forth. I had no idea how Halley managed to recall what each of them meant.

The time flashed repeatedly on the stove; the numbers a few minutes behind the time shown on the cat-shaped clock sitting on the wall. Both of them were decidedly past four, though, which meant...

"She's late," Halley said, finishing my thought. "Man, I hope she found the place all right. What type of car do you think she drives?"

"Maybe she doesn't have a car yet," I said weakly.

"Fair point, kiddo," replied Halley, drifting over to the window again. An icy mist covered the clouds, looming over the buildings in the distance like a ghost with its arms wide open, preparing to strike. "I wouldn't fancy a bus ride myself right about now."

"I hope the snow waits until Monday," I said. "What's the status on that?"

"Negative," said Halley teasingly. "10-74."

Just my luck. As I was thinking that, Halley's phone lit up.

She turned the screen towards me, so I could see the caller ID was 'Front Door: Visitor.'

I groaned. I had about ten fragile seconds before I met my mother, and I'd never wanted to be invisible as desperately as I did then.

"Come in!" Halley called to the sound of footsteps by the door, and my heart thrummed painfully in my chest.

The woman who stepped into the apartment was a few inches taller than I would have been standing up. We had the same long chestnut hair, and the same dull copper brown eyes, though her cheeks were sallow and her eyes dotted with red. It was the only time I'd been in the presence of someone who looked every inch like me.

"Hi," she said. "Can I sit?"

I looked at Halley. She had put herself in the space next to me, so that Grace had to sit on the opposite side.

"Feel free," Halley replied mildly. The scanner buzzed alone in the silence. I traced the patterns in the hardwood floor, silently counting the tiles.

"Can you turn that thing off?" said Grace after I had transitioned to watching a leaf on Halley's orchid tumble free and land in a patch of light on the floor. It was next to a plant she had told me was called a sempervivum; I guess after it blooms, the plant dies.