“Yeah,” her husband said uncertainly. “Yeah, I’m sure that’s it. Well, you should go rest. You’ve had a long day. I’ll clean all this up.”
“I feel like I should refuse, but really, I think you might be right.” She laid a hand on his arm. “Thank you. Wake me for dinner, will you?”
He said sure thing and went about collecting the torn apart bits of streamers and the discarded plates with half-eaten slices of cake and the party hats that had been taken off and stomped on, or perhaps sat on, and he threw them all unceremoniously into a large garbage bag. His pigtailed daughter trailed in his wake, picking up items of her own, some of which were trash and some of which, like the small elephant figurine they kept on the kitchen counter, were most definitely not.
An hour later, the house was in order again, and he looked around proudly, knowing how pleased Mary would be when she woke up. Then he decided to go about making dinner, figuring she’d be half starved by the time she got up. All they’d eaten since breakfast was cake, and he hadn’t even seen her eat more than a single small slice.
Another hour and dinner was ready: crab cakes and cornbread and mashed potatoes with cheese and bits of bacon sprinkled on top. All of Mary’s favorites.
He went upstairs. He knocked on the bedroom door. He waited ten seconds, and then he knocked again.
No answer.
“Mary,” he called out softly, then, a little louder, “Mary? Are you awake in there?”
He pushed the door open. The outline of his wife’s body could be seen beneath the white sheets on the bed. Her head was turned away from him, and for a single, peaceful moment he stood in the doorway of their bedroom, watching her sleep.
The moment was over before it had begun, really.
The last peaceful moment for Jacob Tertium.
Chapter Fifty-Four
In another world, another life, Jacob Tertium did not have to watch his wife die.
Though, of course, the alternative was much worse, in its own way.
In every other version of this story, Jacob Tertium woke up one morning and, instead of finding his wife’s body still and cold beside him, he found no one at all. No note, no last word, no explanation.
This was the Jacob Tertium who was first angry and then fearful and then nothing at all. This was the Jacob Tertium who forgot he had a daughter, as if she had vanished right along with his wife—until, of course, those terrible moments when he suddenly did remember her. And then he became a man who didn’t resemble in the least the Jacob Tertium whom Mary Dubose had fallen in love with.
That version of Jacob lost the ability to speak with words when he lost his wife—and chose instead to speak with fists.
This was the Jacob Tertium who didn’t notice when his daughter did disappear one night, off to the same distant land of mysteries and secrets as his wife, though of course he would never know this. All he would know was that he was alone.
It was in the house of this Jacob Tertium that Everly always felt trapped. Suffocated. Worse than all that, she felt powerless. She was always searching for an escape, for a reason to leave.
This Everly never remembered her mother, who had found the building and stayed when she was too young to hold any real memories of the time before. All this Everly knew was that her home was cold, and silent (except when it was far, far too loud), and it was not a place for staying.
Then one day, as she was walking nowhere and anywhere, her feet carried her to a building where she met a man with a beeping machine and a wild dream. Again and again her feet brought her back there, until the day they decided to stay.
And then they could never leave again.
Everly never regretted finding the building when the alternative was a father with harsh words and harsher fists. She sought it early, and found it early, and found a home, of sorts, where she had never truly had one. Found a reason for living, where her father had refused to offer her one. And found a place where finally she had a voice.
Finally, she had control.
And she would do anything to keep it that way.
Chapter Fifty-Five
“Where are we going?”
Luca was walking quickly to keep up with Dr. Dubose’s increasingly brisk pace as he headed away from the room Luca had woken up in—which, surprisingly, had been a testing room right down the hall from where he usually slept. They were still on the first basement level, but something told Luca that Everly was far, far away from there. So where were they going?
“Down,” was Dr. Dubose’s only response.
Luca glanced over his shoulder at Michael, who was also plodding along after them, though he looked less put out about it than Luca felt. Michael shrugged when he caught Luca’s expression. He thought the kid might have even been grinning, and he wondered what Michael could possibly find to grin about at a time like this.
There was something about that kid . . .
It was picking at the insides of Luca’s brain, and he couldn’t snag what it was.
They reached the elevator, where Dr. Dubose took out a ring that was full to the brim with different size keys, where he selected a small silver one that he inserted into the panel, right next to the button labeled B2.
Luca had never used the elevator; he’d never had a key before. And, as yesterday had been the proof, it never would have allowed him inside, anyway.
And B2. Even Luca, who knew more about the building than most of the runners and certainly all the residents, still had little idea as to what was on the lowest level of the Eschatorologic, save the rooms he and Everly had searched together looking for Caleb and the few rooms of files he had been sent to in the past.
Is this where they’d find Everly?
Dr. Dubose continued to walk, making turns at breakneck speed as he maneuvered his way across the floor. It was clear he knew where he was going, and Luca had to wonder at that. It was no small secret that Dr. Dubose knew more about what happened in this building than anyone else, except perhaps the Warden. But how much did he know about what was happening right now, after he’d been gone for so long? How much did he know about Everly?
Eventually they reached a door that Dr. Dubose paused in front of. He rummaged through his ring of keys again until he found a gold one with a long stem and a round head.
Inside was nothing but a blank wall.
No, Luca realized a moment later. No, that was wrong. Stepping farther into the room, he saw that what he had initially assumed to be a wall was a divider, set up in front of the door in such a way that it blocked the rest of the room from sight. With a huff, Dr. Dubose pushed one side of the divider away, making an opening that he walked through, to the other side of the room. Luca and Michael exchanged a bewildered look before following him.
