America's Next Star by Katie Dozier

Author:Katie Dozier [Dozier, Katie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty-Two

♪ Walking on Sunshine♪

* * *

A t first, the view from the limo was hundreds of uniform white apartment buildings. It felt like the same bland buildings were gliding past, while strapped to the loop of a conveyor belt. Hadn’t we seen that one twice already?

It was far from the magical world that I’d dreamed about ever since Katherine Egg introduced the new America’s Next Star Universe back when the show was something I watched rather than was on.

“I live in that one,” Kara said. She seemed to always speak in a whisper, even when I’d asked her name once E.T. finished yelling at her after the infamous dog stew incident.

“We can’t have her enter that way,” E.T. was screaming into his cell phone. “I don’t care if the clydesdales haven’t had their oats!”

Emboldened by her boss’s distraction, Kara spoke in a tone that was nearly audible without straining.

“Thanks for back there,” she said. “I would’ve gotten fired if it weren’t for you.”

I shrugged. “Anyone would have done it.”

“But no one else did,” she smiled at me.

Blondie’s head was nestled in my lap, and I tousled her hair. Meanwhile her owner was still screaming in to his cell. How could such a nasty man have such a sweet dog?

E.T. tapped at his watch and grunted in Kara’s general direction. I guess when it was too much effort to look at the number masquerading as her name tag, he resorted to calling her something akin to caveman times.

“Give it to her,” he said.

Wordlessly, Kara pulled a black messenger back to the front of her lap. She broke the silver seal on a box and popped it open. Inside was the same kind of watch that all the assistants had, but instead of being plain black, or shiny gold like E.T.’s, it was patent-leather red, aside from the screen of the face. A pattern was sewn into the leather with bold black strokes that looked like Frankenstein's stitches surrounded by miniature daggers.

“This is your Beam Bracelet,” Kara said, as she motioned for me to hold out my wrist. “Beam for short. It’ll keep you on time, and help you know where to go...and where not to go.”

“Like a kind of secret map?” I asked.

Kara nodded.

“There are no real maps of the Core, because it’s too much of a security problem. But with this, you don’t even need one. It’ll open the doors you’re supposed to go into.”

Unlike the two straps on Kara’s minimalist Beam, mine had four.

“Do you think it could be on a bit looser?” I asked. My pale skin was already turning red underneath the first tightened strap.

“Sorry,” she said. “But if I do it any looser than this, E.T. will make it even tighter when he double checks.”

Over the straps she secured zip ties that would’ve been the perfect size to handcuff a Barbie doll. The Beam gave the impression that I was carrying the weight of a purse strapped to my arm, and I felt a bit tilted by the sensation of so much of my forearm covered in thick leather.

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