Luminosity (Gravity Series #3) (The Gravity Series) Page 16

  “What’s wrong?” I nearly shouted.

  He stayed back from me, not making a move to get closer. “You disappeared!”

  “What?”

  “You disappeared, like full-on invisible. Only for a second, but I definitely saw it.”

  “Oh. That kind of happens when Jenna and I touch.” I tried to be as casual about it as possible to stop him from freaking out.

  Henry, still leaning back on his hands, looked around at the fireflies twinkling in the dusky light. “Oh, that kind of… Let me get this straight. Your friend’s ghost is hanging out with us right now?”

  “Hanging out isn’t exactly the word I would choose,” I said, scowling at Jenna who was standing by. “Barging in is more like it.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes. “Yes, I was interrupting your make-out time. Sorry. If you weren’t such a desperate virgin….”

  “Definitely not prepared for that,” Henry said, his eyes still wide. He ran his hand through his hair, chest still heaving beneath his t-shirt.

  I pulled the necklace out by the chain from beneath my shirt. I had polished and cleaned all the rust off so that it glittered. “Well, I discovered that when I’m wearing this, Jenna and I can touch. And when I touch her, it’s like it pulls me into her world, Limbo.”

  I could tell he was trying to keep up, hanging on my every word with his full lips a little slack. I could almost see cartoon birds flying around his head.

  “Is he okay there?” Jenna asked, tilting her head and observing his ashen face and his awkward position.

  “Uh, I think so. You’re not going to pass out, Henry, are you?”

  He blinked and the color seemed to return to his cheeks. He shook his head. “No, not yet. Go on.”

  “I want to use this invisibility to spy. Namely on your father’s operations at the office or the meetings.”

  “Ariel, that’s really dangerous.” He hopped to his feet. “Which, I’m sure, is exactly why you’re doing it. What if he catches you?”

  “He won’t,” I said firmly, still rooted to my spot on the ground.

  “How can you be sure? Are you absolutely certain the invisibility works with everyone? That it will last for as long as you need it to?”

  “Jenna and I have been testing it out for a few weeks, walking around stores and through town. No one ever sees us,” I explained. “As long as I’m careful and as long as we don’t stay so long that Jenna gets tired, I’ll be fine. I’ll make sure it stays that way.”

  “I can’t talk you out of anything, can I?” Henry said with a sigh, running his hand through his hair.

  I stood up and wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer to me. “Nope. Don’t feel bad. I can’t even talk myself out of anything.”

  “Well, you’re not going to the meetings. I’m not the type to forbid my girlfriend from doing what she wants, but if I was, it would be right there. I’ll do whatever I have to do to stop you from that. Even I’m not able to go to the meetings. They go in there and lower the lights and chant. It’s like they go into this different world.”

  A shiver trickled down my spine. “That would have been good to know before.”

  “I figured you had some idea because your mom is one of the people that goes. They look bleary eyed afterward, like Rip Van Winkle after his snooze.”

  “Winkle Sleep. I wonder if that’s part of the reason why my mom changed so rapidly.”

  “It’s a very good possibility. But I can see that gleam in your eye, angel, and it’s not going to happen. If he caught you at a meeting, he would probably have you arrested. At the very least, his reaction would be bad, and like I’ve told you before, I don’t want you in danger.”

  “Then what about the ballroom?” I pleaded.

  “I don’t know what you can find there, since that’s when they’re doing their boring town activities. But if you’re really sure, it’s probably a good place to start. You can get closer than I can.”

  CHAPTER 19

  FOLLOWING A WORK schedule that a still-reluctant Henry provided me, Jenna and I went up to the ballroom headquarters to spy the next day. It was the last week of August and we didn’t have much time left. Once school started, I would be trapped at Hawthorne all day during their main operating hours. I didn’t want to start my final year by sneaking out of class.

  I held Jenna’s hand and walked through the washed-out streets. We moved faster than other people, almost like we were running when they were merely walking, although I didn’t have to exert myself. My instincts still told me it was dangerous. A car was heading straight for me; I froze out of fear for a second. The car swished through me; I barely felt anything.

  “Keep moving,” Jenna whispered.

  I did as I was told. Everything was muted grays and pastels, blurred as though I needed glasses.

  “Do you see everything as pale?” I asked her, curious.

  “Pale as compared to what? I don’t really remember how life used to look.”

  I paused outside of the entrance to the ballroom, staring at the new sign above—Thornhill Society it read simply. I hadn’t been back there since the showdown with Warwick, even though Erasmus was thirty seconds away at the end of the row of buildings.

  “We should move so we can take advantage of as much time as possible,” Jenna said gently, stirring me from my recollection. “I don’t know how long I can keep you here before I get too tired.”

  We slipped in through the wall, feeling the sensation of passing between cotton again. And yet I’d found that when I wanted to sit or lean on something, if I focused hard enough on my goal, I could. That explained how Jenna could sit on my couch and lie on my bed.

  The front area, which when I’d last seen it had still been completely under construction, was now bustling with activity. Cubicles containing Thornhill workers at modest desks fill the room, acting as a kind of command station. People were on their phones, making all kinds of agreements and arrangements like the stock exchange.

  There were many people in the room as Jenna and I wandered down the narrow center aisle. If I was going to be seen, it would have happened almost instantly. But no one acknowledged our presence, even the few that looked at us dead on.

  Still, tension made my shoulders lock up and I gripped Jenna’s hand tighter. We went through the wall into the next room.

  My eyes immediately fell on the yellow curtains. The room spun three-hundred and sixty degrees in ten seconds, and I felt like I was beginning to fall. My knees started to buckle.

  “Ariel, snap out of it,” Jenna commanded at my ear.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered back, eying the curtains. This was the room that Warwick had lured me to, and although most of it had changed, they still hadn’t taken down the rows of mustard-yellow curtains. I forced my eyes away.

  Henry was positioned to the right, in front of a row of filing cabinets with a rolling cart next to him. He had his sleeves rolled up and was rooting through the files.

  I sneaked up behind him with Jenna in tow.

  “What are you doing?” she asked, sounding irritated.

  “Playing a little trick. I couldn’t with Theo, but he’s tougher.”

  “You won’t stop until he has a heart attack, will you?” she observed.

  “Probably not.”

  “You guys are kind of grossly cute.” She rolled her eyes but I thought she probably meant it as a compliment.

  I crept up behind Henry, who was still hunched over the files, and blew on the back of his neck. The small hairs there didn’t even twitch.

  “Henry…” I whispered just loud enough for him to hear.

  He stopped what he was doing and turned around, looking directly at me. His eyes shot back and forth, and then he turned back to the files.

  Phillip and Cliff Ford, Lainey’s father, were talking behind a standing screen printed with big red poppies. Jenna and I exchanged an apprehensive glance and got closer so that we could hear what they were saying.

  I c
ould make out Phillip’s huge mahogany desk behind the screen. The orchestra stage was like his throne. Jenna and I pushed through the partition and watched them. Ford was standing with his arms crossed and Phillip was coolly sitting in a leather chair.

  “McPherson is a liability,” Phillip said, leaning back in his chair, the leather squeaking. He tented his fingers and peered up at Ford. “I think he’s the one who broke the security cameras.”

  I gulped, my throat going dry.

  “What do you suggest we do about him?” Ford asked.

  “We need to get him out of that school. Now rather than later. His mind is starting to warp much too fast. We don’t want him to spill anything.”

  “I told you he was one of the weak ones,” Ford said accusingly.

  “And he’s served his purpose,” Phillip said through gritted teeth. His intense eyes were unblinking. “You can go now.” He made a little flapping motion with his hand in the direction of the exit.

  Ford lumbered out of the room, past a doctor who had just arrived. The doctor was carrying an old-fashioned, oblong black medical bag, wearing a lab coat beneath his jacket.

  “Dr. Briggs is here for you,” called the secretary that had sidled in with him. Phillip gave her a dismissive wave, too.

  “Right on time,” Phillip said. He excused everyone else out of the room, including Henry. When they were gone, he brought the doctor up to his desk. I looked over him with interest. He was younger than I’d imagined, wearing round, silver glasses on his nose. I could see the resemblance to Harlow—he was reedy and well-groomed, seemingly reserved.

  “How are you doing?” I asked Jenna.

  “I’m okay for now.”

  Unlocking the silver buckles on his bag, Dr. Briggs pulled out a stethoscope and listened to Phillip’s heartbeat.

  “Business call physical,” Jenna said. “The perks of being rich.”

  “You have to be very careful about any strenuous activity,” Dr. Briggs said, wrapping the stethoscope back up.

  “I can’t stop exercising completely.”

  “You need to, or else. Rest as much as you can. Take all your medication every day. And if the headaches get worse….”

  Phillip scoffed and shrugged his suit jacket back on, buttoning it up. “The headaches are excruciating as it is. But I only have to live with them for a little while longer. Until the transformation.”

  “If your plan works.”

  “My plan will work,” Phillip said, scowling unabashedly at the doctor. He didn’t seem fazed, packing his things back into his bag.

  “Ariel, I’m getting tired,” Jenna warned from beside me. She rubbed one eye with her free hand.

  “Already?”

  “I think it’s all of the practice we’ve been doing. I feel like I’m going to go out soon.”

  “Just another minute? Please?” I said, enthralled with the possibilities of Phillip’s bad health.

  “Overconfidence could be your worst enemy,” Dr. Briggs warned.

  Phillip bared his teeth, his pink gums showing. “It’s only nine months. Just until May. That time will be nothing compared to eternity.”

  The doctor stopped with his hands resting on the handles of his bag. “You might not have until May. If you don’t play your cards right, you might not have past February.”

  “Then you need to do a better job. Remember that’s the main reason I brought you here.”

  “We could try exploratory surgery,” Doctor Briggs suggested.

  “I’m not letting you cut into my brain. Tumor or not.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered out loud. Henry’s father had a brain tumor.

  “Ariel, we need to go,” Jenna pleaded. For a split second, I thought I saw a shadowy fog hovering around her face. Then I blinked and it was gone.

  “Okay, let’s get out of here.”

  We rushed out past the crowd of volunteers in the front room. I felt like I was pulling Jenna, instead of her walking with me. My movement seemed to stir a stack of papers, and one of the women looked up towards me, squinting.

  “We need to hurry,” Jenna said, swaying on her feet, her eyelids drooping. Her grip on my hand was growing weaker.

  We ran out through the wall, and it felt more solid around me, like I was pushing through foam. We ran into the street, and suddenly Jenna was gone. I was back in the real world.

  A car honked and squealed on the brakes, stopping an inch in front of me. I stared at the cursing driver, my eyes wide, then ran off onto the sidewalk. A woman waiting for the commuter bus did a double take at me. I jogged off down the sidewalk towards my neighborhood, thanking my sliver of luck.

  CHAPTER 20

  I ARRIVED AT home unscathed, and Claire bought my excuse that I’d been out at the library. The coffee table was covered with design magazines, and she was clipping out pictures with scissors. I was very tired, and my speech and movements were slow, but she didn’t notice. In fact, she hardly looked at me. I brought my dinner down to the basement and left it there untouched. I was too nauseated to even think about food.

  I immediately stored the necklace away in the top of my dresser. The room around me spun until I laid down on my side and shut my eyes. I couldn’t remember ever feeling so dizzy.

  For the rest of the weekend, I was confined to bed. This was a much more drastic, severe fallout than from my visit to Dark; I could barely get up to go to the bathroom. I felt depressed, which wasn’t like me, like I couldn’t face the world. Life seemed gray and hopeless.

  I sent short replies to the text messages I received from Theo and Henry.

  Are you sure you’re okay? Henry wrote. No more visits from boogeymen? No more bad dreams?

  No more of either, I told him. I wasn’t completely sure I was okay, though.

  All the while, Jenna stayed away from me. I was worried because of the way she’d acted the last time I saw her. She finally appeared Monday night, stepping casually into my room as I was attempting to read.

  I was instantly on my feet. “Are you okay?” I asked. “Where have you been?”

  “I’m fine. I’ve just been tired and thinking about things. I need to talk with you.”

  I sat down at my desk chair, the initial promise of panic disappearing, and swiveled towards her. “Okay, shoot.”

  “We’re not doing this anymore; using the necklace to spy. At least, I’m not going to be a part of it.”

  “Why?” I asked. My voice was still croaky and I could barely hold my head up, but her words immediately made me feel anxious. “It’s the most useful thing we’ve attempted so far. We’ve finally found out real, important facts. Thornhill is going after McPherson and Phillip’s got a brain tumor and is talking about eternal life. Why would we stop now?”

  “Okay, that’s pretty helpful intel. But I don’t like what that necklace is doing to you.” She gestured up and down at me. “Look at you; you look like you have Spanish flu or something.”

  “Remembering your history lessons after all, huh?” I asked warily.

  “I only remember that because it was awful and killed people. My point is, you look like you stepped back from the verge of death.” Her tight, angry expression softened. “I feel sick too, Ariel. I don’t ever think I’ve felt this bone tired. I don’t even know if I have freakin’ bones anymore.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, guilt starting to creep in. I tried to fight off the feeling of desperation ravaging through me at the thought of not being able to use the necklace again.

  “I’m not looking for apologies. I’m serious, Ariel. You need to put that necklace away. It’s starting to really affect you, and I don’t want to be a part of it. We’ll figure out some other way to get answers that isn’t detrimental to your health and doesn’t turn you into an addict.”

  She had known me for so long that I trusted her judgment. But I didn’t know how to not have the necklace with me.

  I took out the box in which I’d concealed it. Carrying it to the closet, I stuffed it bene
ath a stack of old pants.

  “We’ll find another way,” Jenna said again. Looking relieved, she got off of the bed and walked out. I leaned back to make sure she was gone, and instantly rushed the necklace back out. I almost lifted the lid, but forced myself to keep the little box shut. Jenna was right. This wasn’t the right way.

  Yet I couldn’t run the risk of having it found by leaving it out in the open. I shoved the necklace into my backpack instead, hiding it in one of the pockets. I laid belly-down on the bed and shut my eyes, my temples throbbing like I was being punched in both sides of the head. I drifted into a hard, uneasy sleep.

  ###

  Summer closed its door and school started again. We were entering the home stretch. I couldn’t believe I was finally a senior. Alex was happily picking on freshman, especially during lunch, much to Theo’s consternation. The freshman looked like elementary students to me, though, so I could understand the urge.

  My seventeenth birthday was skipped over, other than a nice card and email from my father and Claire picking me up a cake at the store. She was still miffed at me for what she saw as picking sides, not taking into account the fact that I’d chosen to stay living with her. I didn’t mind the lack of presents; I’d already gotten my car. But I did mind the lack of family time.

  After having other people replace him on the morning announcements for most of the previous school year, McPherson got on the intercom on the third day of school.

  “I have some distressing news for you and all of your student bodies,” McPherson said, his voice crackling with static. “I was recently demoted from my place at the Thornhill Society. I knew gossip about it would fly all over the place, so I wanted to tell you all up front. I believe that this is a grave injustice, but I will set it right. And now, onto lunch menus…”

  His odd choice of words made me wonder. It reminded me of the strange, angry reaction he’d had when he issued me detention.

  I asked Henry about it on the phone when I got a chance.

  Dad told me about it last night. He and my father got into a fight. He thinks McPherson is having a nervous breakdown.

  He sounded like it. I saw him at the mall a few weeks ago following girls around.