“We have to get out of here,” Barnabas said, and he darted off across the grass.

I took a breath and pushed myself into motion. If not for the wind against my face, I wouldn’t have been able to tell I was even moving. It was like a dream where you run and run, and you never go anywhere.

“Madison!” Barnabas called from the sidewalk, and I stopped. Blinking, I looked down. I was still beside the tree. Wait a moment. I knew I had run…somewhere.

“Madison, let’s go!” Barnabas repeated, and I wavered. “He’s going to come out!”

“I don’t feel so good,” I said, squinting at him.

And then the light from the street suddenly went entirely blue. Like ink falling into a glass of water, it poured from the middle, hitting the ground and rebounding against the sides of the beam of light, white and blue swirling until it was all one color.

Oh, this can’t be good.

“Ummm,” I breathed as Barnabas jogged back and took my arm. “I think I’m in trouble,” I said. Then my knees gave way, and I collapsed.

“Madison!”

Head lolling, I felt Barnabas catch me. “Gabriel’s pearly toes,” he muttered, and I opened my eyes. His face was glowing like you see in the movies, with a white smudginess. And I could see his wings. Reaching out, I tried to touch them, finding they were only in my vision, not real. He looked like the angel he was, fallen from grace. He was the only real thing left. Everything else was blue, sliding together into one monotone color of existence.

“Barnabas,” I whispered, needing a huge breath to do it. “Something is wrong.”

“You think?” he said, sounding panicked as he lifted me up into his arms. “What’s the matter? Are you hurt?”

My gaze fell on my amulet, and I stared in wonder. It was absolutely black. No, it was a violet so deep that it only looked black. With a sudden understanding, I realized it had gone ultraviolet, the color falling off the visible spectrum.

My head lolled up, and I gasped as I saw the stars. They were rainbows of noncolors. I could see all the wavelengths blaring from them, and I started to cry. It was too much. I was only human. I wasn’t supposed to see all of this, to even know such colors existed.

“Madison!”

Barnabas turned my face from the heavens, and, sobbing, I gripped him as if he were the only thing real. “Something is…wrong,” I stammered. I wanted to look again, but couldn’t bear it.

“I’ll find Ron,” Barnabas said. His voice was grim, and though a wave of dizziness hit me, I focused on him.

“No,” I breathed, then louder, “No! Just don’t let me look at the stars.” I was crying, and I could see waves of blue coming from me, bouncing into him like waves on a beach. “Don’t let me look at the stars…” I whispered. And as Barnabas panicked, I felt my mind expand.

Like blowing out a flame, he dissolved into a blue puff of smoke and vanished. That fast, I was alone, and all that held me sane was the glow of his aura beside mine as I found myself entirely within the fabric of time.

Eight

Where the devil am I? I thought, watching my fingers move as if through a blue haze as I grabbed the back of a rolling chair and swung it to face the computer before me. Holy cow, I’m in Shoe’s room! And those don’t actually look like my fingers….

“See how you like it,” I felt my lips say; then I heard it an instant later, masculine and ticked.

Crap! I’m in Shoe? I thought, but I had sat down, or Shoe had, rather, and I turned my head without wanting to in order to make sure the door was shut. Leaning back in the chair, I looked at the closed curtains. A faint musing intruded in my thoughts that I’d seen someone out there, running away.

Barnabas and me, I thought as I looked at hands that weren’t mine, but clearly Shoe couldn’t sense me as I could sense him. It was freaky, and I didn’t like the blue tint everything had. I could hear his heartbeat and feel his breath in him, sensing it go stale an instant before he exhaled. His foot itched in his shoe, and it was driving me nuts that he didn’t scratch it. I was hot and irritable, and for the first time in months, I remembered what it was to be hungry.

I’m flashing forward, I thought, the memory of adrenaline washing through me to mix with Shoe’s anger. An instant before it happens.

“This is going to be good,” I heard Shoe mutter as he leaned forward and tapped his fingers on the desk in a fast rhythm. “No one will be able to prove it was me. I’m smarter than all you lamebrains think.”

My fingers were stiff as the tapping turned into a smack on the desk. “God, this computer is slow,” I heard myself mutter, feeing an emotion of irritation that wasn’t mine.

Shoe, no! You’re going to kill people! I thought, trying to get him to hear me, but without any indication that he’d sensed me, he stood and put his ear to the door, listening for Ace.

Damn it, I knew it wouldn’t be that easy, but I could feel the desperation growing in both of us as I watched everything happen, unable to stop it, unable to make myself be heard in his head.

Agitated, Shoe chewed on a fingernail as the drive hummed. Clean, clean, everything has to be so friggin’ clean, I heard him think as he scraped the ink out from under his nail, then flicked it to the middle of the room. I’ve got to get out of here, came echoing into our shared mind.

Shoe, stop! I thought, screaming into his brain, but he stood before the computer and shoved the chair back and fidgeted, waiting. God! Could the piece of crap be any slower?

Finally the disc finished and the drawer slid open. I reached for it, and though I couldn’t see it, I knew he was smiling at the image of the dripping black bird. He jammed it into a back pocket, and a flood of emotion slipped into me.

He was so out of here. He’d known him his entire life, and this was how he was treated? They’d all know tomorrow at school. He’d be sure everyone knew who was responsible for everything. And his so-called friend could curl up and die, for all he cared.

Shoe! I exclaimed, but a heavier wash of tinted blue obscured my vision.

The world seemed to turn inside out, and I floundered. Again I was lost in the black fabric of time, lit from the bright line of a million conscious thoughts. A flash of blue intruded, and with a pinpoint of explosion, I was back. Sort of.

I don’t feel so good, I thought, and then a wave of satisfaction I didn’t know the source of swallowed everything else. I couldn’t see anything. A blue so deep it was almost black hazed my vision until that was all there was, but I knew I was in someone’s mind. They were comfortable, and I could feel a heartbeat…smell food. My fingers were greasy, and I felt a pang of hunger when I realized I was eating something salty.

As if coming through a blanket, I could hear a TV sitcom, the only thing clear being the laugh track. Behind it was a woman’s voice, the sound of the pauses and hesitations making me think she was on the phone.

“No,” she said. “They won’t let anyone in, especially the volunteers. They’re the top suspects, but the entire hospital is under investigation.”

I felt my chest move as I chuckled, a flush of satisfaction making me both happy and angry. Shoe was pleased, but I was mad. Not that he could tell.

But this hasn’t happened yet, I thought, thinking I must be farther out into the future, because the only thing that was clear were voices. That and my hunger. Man, I’d missed that, and my mouth watered as I felt myself crunch down on a chip.

“No!” the woman said, sounding appalled. “Three people died. It took them an unreal four hours to even know they had a problem. They could have lost twice that many. They think maybe it’s a disgruntled employee. The firewall didn’t catch it because someone put it there. It wasn’t through the internet.”