Jamie had outdone himself this time. The markings on the woman weren’t the typical kind made by tools in the white room; this bruising was more personal than that. Richard would have to have a talk with him.
Across the small apartment a door slammed open and—speak of the devil—Jamie came striding into the room.
“Richard, old man,” Jamie said jovially. “The Warden passed along a message. Said you wanted me.”
“Yes,” Richard said, continuing to dab at the forehead of the woman lying in the bed. He thought he saw Jamie’s lip curl up in disgust. “It is my understanding that you have brought my granddaughter to be a resident of the Eschatorologic.”
“As requested,” Jamie said. “Your wish is my command, old man.”
“Good. Then I need you to increase the testing—across the board. Time is of the essence now.”
“You sure you don’t want to do it yourself?” Jamie asked. There was mockery in his tone. Richard didn’t like to be made fun of.
He dropped the sponge in the tray, causing the water to splash over the edges and soak into the gray bedsheets. “You will be wise to remember your place, Mr. Griffith.”
“My place,” Jamie said with a sneer, “is to do your dirty work, old man. Don’t forget: your hands get to stay pearly white because of me.”
“Go,” Richard snapped.
Jamie walked backward to the door, cruel laughter dancing in his eyes, then left without another word.
When he was gone, Richard sank back into the side of the bed, picking up the sponge again. “Oh, how I wish you were here,” he said, absently dabbing at the woman’s bloodied forehead again. “You would understand. You would see what I have to do.”
He knew this wasn’t his daughter, his Mary, but still it was nice sometimes to pretend. Looking into this woman’s eyes—her now dead, empty eyes—he could almost see a reflection of his Mary there.
It wrenched something inside him but helped him to remember what was at stake.
He wouldn’t repeat the mistakes from the past. Everly was in the building, which was good. It gave him more time. And he knew he could do it this time.
He’d find a way to save her.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
On her second morning as a resident of the Eschatorologic, Everly sat in the dining hall looking closely at Caleb.
The circles under his eyes seemed darker than before, and his head hung limp, like it was too much of an effort to keep up. Everly frowned, watching him, and glanced at Luca, who met her eyes and shook his head slightly.
Suddenly, Caleb’s face blanched and he sat bolt upright. Everyone else at the table turned to see what he was looking at, and Everly felt a pit growing in her stomach when she saw Jamie striding through the cafeteria, right for their table.
Caleb was shaking, and Everly saw Luca put his hand on his friend’s shoulder, watching him carefully. Anker looked nervously between Jamie and Caleb, and it was clear to Everly that they all thought something was about to happen to Caleb. When Jamie reached their table, though, he didn’t even spare a glance at Caleb—he looked right at her.
“Miss Tertium,” he said in a tone far too chipper for the tense atmosphere that encircled the table. “Would you mind accompanying me for the morning?”
Her eyes slid briefly over to Luca, who was sitting tense, with a pale face and shifting eyes that wouldn’t meet hers. Catching her look, Jamie chuckled. “Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m sure Mr. Reyes will function just fine in your absence. Shall we?”
Slowly, Everly slid to her feet, her heart pounding in her chest. Jamie started to walk away before she could say anything, and with a fleeting, desperate look back at her table, she was forced to follow behind him.
Jamie walked quickly, only pausing once to make sure that Everly was still following. She jogged to keep up with his long-legged pace, panting slightly. “Where are we going?” she dared to ask, her desperation to know where he was taking her outweighing her fear of what he might say.
“Testing room,” he said without looking back at her. “It is required for all residents here to undergo frequent testing, to upkeep the functionality of the building.”
Everly frowned. Luca and Caleb had both mentioned tests to her, but none of what they had said conveyed anything that would keep the building running. She wanted to ask Jamie more, to find out what he was going to do to her, but before she could find the words, he stopped, pulled out his keys, and unlocked a door.
This. This is where it stops.
Her memories.
She.
Everly.
She can’t.
This is where her memories stop and she can’t pull them back, couldn’t pull them back, wouldn’t want to pull them back.
This is where Everly’s memories stop.
Not forever, though maybe that would have been its own kind of mercy.
Not all of them, not even all of those from the building.
But from that room.
The Testing Room.
Here’s what she knows (knew):
Everly followed Jamie into a room, and it was white, almost blindingly so, and she froze because it was the room, the same from upstairs, the same as the one drenched in blood that she had hidden in, and now she was back, only she couldn’t be because she was a hundred and one floors lower and this room was white but it wasn’t covered in blood.
