Cut Off by Adrianne Finlay

Author:Adrianne Finlay
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780358237358
Publisher: HMH Books
Published: 2020-08-11T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

It was impossible to say how much time had passed. He was stiff and sore, the rough, industrial carpet prickling his face.

“River?”

Trip was saying his name. There was a question mark after, as if he wasn’t quite sure River was exactly with it, which, honestly, he wasn’t. Even given the state he was in, he could tell that much. He was in as many pieces as his shattered Skym.

A hand brushed sweaty hair from his brow.

“It’s Trip and Liza. Come on, get up, buddy.”

Someone pulled his arm, hoisted him upright. He leaned on his hand and hissed at the pressure. It was swollen and bruised. From what? Oh yeah. Trying to punch himself in the face and hitting a glass door instead. The sharp pain cut through the muddiness long enough for him to find Trip and Liza hunkered next to him.

“Hey,” he said.

“Here.” Trip held a glass of water. “I wanted to get you a shot of whiskey, but Liza the house mother said no.”

River pushed the glass away and flexed his fist, stretching out the stiffness. He concentrated on the pain, letting it clear away the fog in his head.

“Where were you guys? You left. I looked everywhere, for hours. Couldn’t find you.”

“We weren’t anywhere. But we lost a bunch of time,” Trip said.

“Huh?”

“You were in the bathroom and the three of us were together,” Liza said. “First Cam disappeared, and then Trip. They were there one second and then they were gone. And the next thing I knew it was six hours later, which I guess means I disappeared too.”

None of this helped clear his mind.

“Disappeared? I don’t get it. Where’s Cam?”

The two of them glanced at each other over his head.

“Come on. Come back to the room. We’re out of pills and we don’t particularly want to lose time again, you know?”

River squeezed his eyes shut and struggled to think straight. So they thought that he’d done it, that he’d made them disappear. Cam started earthquakes, Trip made spiders and pissed-off dads, and River caused people to vanish into thin air. That made as much sense as anything.

“Where’s Cam?” he asked again.

“She’s not, um . . .” Trip looked to Liza again, unsure what to say. “She’s not back yet.”

For a few seconds River found himself staring at the lines of the carpet. The scabs on his knuckles were almost the same color as the paisley leaves weaving away from the swirling branches.

He shook himself out of it.

The three of them had disappeared, and Cam wasn’t back yet. Only two of them had come back from . . . where? Nowhere. From nothing, from lack of existence. Cam didn’t exist anymore.

Oh.

Trip pressed the glass into River’s hand, and this time he took it. The liquid jumped as he held it, and the edge of the glass tapped his teeth so badly that Trip had to hold his wrist steady.

He really needed to eat something.

“Come on,” Liza said. “Let’s get back to the room. That’s where she’ll show up.

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