27

12:00 A.M..-

Long Midnight

IN THE RIP

Silence…

Midnight fell, extinguishing the mind noise of Jenks, turning the world blue and still and… red.

Here in the center of the rip everything began to glimmer purple—red and blue mixing together, time arrested, yet… not. The rain pattered down for a few more seconds, then petered out; the rip hadn’t expanded enough to include the heavy clouds above their heads. Melissa wondered if when it reached them, the rain would start again.

Weather in the secret hour. Just when I thought I’d seen everything.

“Where is she?” Jessica asked.

Melissa closed her eyes, trying to ignore the flame-bringer’s coppery, panicked taste. She sent her mind across the rip, feeling it growing, stretching in the opposite directions toward downtown and the mountains. It was moving slowly now, but she could already feel its speed increasing.

No little sisters in it, though.

“Sorry, Jess. I can’t feel her.”

“Why not?”

“Your sister’s not inside the rip. Not yet, anyway. She must still be frozen, so I can’t taste her mind.”

“But Cassie’s house is right there!” Jessica pointed down at the double-wide at the edge of the tracks. The red-tinged boundary had already swallowed it.

“Yep. And I can taste her grandma in there, still sleeping,” Melissa said. “But nobody else is home.”

Jessica’s face twisted into an expression of fury, her mind all fiery peppers and burned toast.

“That little creep snuck out!” she cried.

Melissa raised an eyebrow, suddenly relieved she didn’t have an older sister of her own. Madeleine’s interfering had included making sure that none of her pet midnighters in Bixby had siblings—and this was why.

“Calm down, Jess,” Jonathan said. “She can’t be too far away. Once the rip reaches her, we’ll deal with it.”

Jessica looked at Melissa. “And you’re sure you’ll recognize her mind?”

“I know Cassie’s taste. They’ll be together, won’t they?”

“What if they aren’t?”

Melissa sighed. “I have an idea what your sister tastes like, okay? I’ve been to your house at midnight.”

Jessica stared back, her fury twisting into new shapes as she realized what Melissa was admitting. “Damn you!” she said, and turned and stalked away.

“I never touched the shrimp,” Melissa said to Flyboy. “Just the parents.”

He offered a shrug, then went to calm the flame-bringer down.

Melissa let out another sigh, feeling weighed down by her long, rain-soaked dress. She and Rex should have admitted what they’d done to Jessica’s parents a long time ago. They always figured that it would come up eventually and at a time like this, when everyone needed to stay calm.

They had the fireworks already in place, rockets stuck into the gravel, flares and sparklers divided into separate boxes, all of it covered with a tarp from Jonathan’s trunk. Melissa decided to make herself useful while the other two were stressing. She flicked the tarp to knock the rainwater off, then pulled it from the fireworks.

The arsenal looked formidable: candles and hurricane lamps so that Jessica didn’t have to light every fuse herself, Roman candles and rockets to bombard the main force of darklings when they arrived, and highway flares that would last for hours, giving the residents of Jenks a fighting chance after the three of them had retreated downtown.

How long now?

Melissa closed her eyes again and swept through the expanding space of the rip. More humans were inside it now, startled by the sudden silence of their TVs and the strange shimmery light that had come over everything.

It was really happening; the blue time was swallowing everyone.

Then she felt a far-off twinge, a familiar mind cutting through the confused babble of normal humans and the mutterings of awakening slithers.

Cowgirl…

Rex was calling.

She smiled at first, but as she focused on the distant beacon of thought, Melissa tasted the emotions animating his cry. He was anxious, begging for her to respond, needing something….

“Oh, crap,” she said.

“What?” Jessica called. “Is she okay?”

Melissa shook her head. “Still no Beth. It’s Rex. He needs us to get downtown.”

Jonathan frowned. “Sure, but not until we—”

“It feels like he needs us now. Something’s gone wrong!”

“Forget it,” Jessica hissed.

“Listen, just because your sister—”

“No way, Melissa,” Flyboy said. “We can’t leave Jenks undefended just because you’ve got a feeling. They’re right in the path of the invasion here. We have to light these things before we head into Bixby.”

“So let’s light them,” she said. “He needs us!”

“Not until I find Beth.” Jessica grasped Jonathan’s arm with a white-knuckled grip.

Melissa realized that arguing wouldn’t get her anywhere. The taste of the flame-bringer’s mind was set. “Okay,” she said. “You and I can stay here until I taste your little sister. Then I’ll go get her while you light up the fireworks.”

Jessica crossed her arms. “We’ll both go get her.”

“Whatever. But Flyboy, you have to head downtown now. You can get there in five minutes if you go alone.”

“But why?” Jonathan asked.

“Because Rex needs us!” Melissa shook her head. “I don’t know exactly why; he’s too far away for me to taste his mind that clearly. Just go and see what he needs.”

Jonathan looked at Jessica, and Melissa tasted the sickly sweet coupleness passing between them. “I’m not leaving you,” he said.

Jessica frowned, and Melissa tasted a twinge of her guilt that their plans were revolving around her as usual. “But maybe Rex—”

“We said we’d stick together tonight!” he cried.

Melissa groaned inwardly, wondering how long this discussion was going to last.

Jessica took his hand. “Listen, Jonathan. You promised me you’d do what Rex said, remember?”

“Yeah, but not—”

“Just go. I’ll be fine. I’m the flame-bringer.”

For a moment Melissa felt the alternatives evenly balanced within Jonathan, like a coin on its edge. But then Jessica squeezed his hand, her expression set and unblinking, and he nodded.

“Okay. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”

He kissed her, and the electric taste of their contact swept through Melissa’s mind. And then he was gone, leaping out of the rip and over the trees, zooming toward downtown.

Jessica turned to her and said coldly, “Is Beth inside yet?”

“Listen, Jess, about your parents…”

“I don’t care. Just look for my sister, please!”

Melissa nodded, tipping back her head to taste the growing area within the rip. She tried to ignore the stirrings deep in the desert, the salty taste of anticipation, of ancient hungers ready to be sated at last.

So far, the oldest minds were still hiding in their mountain lairs. They had waited for thousands of years for this night; they could delay another few minutes until they were sure everything was working. Then they would charge toward Bixby, consuming every human in their way, a linear feast.

Melissa tasted something familiar at the edge of the rip—the quiet, self-assured thoughts of Cassie Flinders. She was surprised at how the world had suddenly changed but unafraid. She’d been inside the rip once before, after all.

A moment later Melissa tasted the other mind beside Cassie, a frightened, mewling, panic-stricken ball of little sister.

“Got her.”

“Where?”

Melissa turned her head, sensing the direction. “Of course. The cave where Rex found Cassie. They snuck out to go back there, figuring it was a magic spot or something.” Melissa shook her head. “Funny. I really thought we’d fixed her memories.”

“She must have drawn a picture of it,” Jessica said.