OtherLife by Lynette DeVries

Author:Lynette DeVries [DeVries, Lynette]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Diamond Lil Press

20

When Lucy got to the choir room after school, she found the door locked and a note taped to the glass: PRACTICE CANCELED DUE TO FAMILY STUFF—KEEP THOSE VOCAL CORDS LIMBER UNTIL NEXT TIME!!

Bree, whose pink pixie cut had morphed into a deep purple since their last practice, came up beside her and read the sign aloud.

“Huh. Does singing in the shower count?” She flashed Lucy a peace sign, then left her alone with her thoughts.

Lucy wandered away, her eyes unfocused, until she realized she was standing in the auditorium doorway. Choir practice was canceled, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t get a few minutes of solo rehearsal in, right? Mr. Weston had practically assigned it.

The sound of the door clicking shut behind her echoed through the auditorium, and she stood still, listening. Then she took the metal stairs to the darkened catwalk two at a time.

She hadn’t really expected to find anyone else up there, but she was disappointed when she wasn’t greeted by the warm glow of Nate’s battery-powered lantern. She considered turning around and heading right back down those steps.

The sunlit park was more suitable for practicing—and besides, if Nate showed up and found her here in his secret spot, he might think it was deliberate.

Correction: he might know it was deliberate.

In her other life, Lucy would have avoided such a blatant show of vulnerability at all costs. But she’d been presented with a chance to step outside her comfort zone, to reinvent herself, and she wasn’t about to squander it.

Lucy folded herself into a seated position, then took her ukulele out. She plucked a chord, then smiled at the way the notes rang up here in the dark—rich and pure. She paused for a few beats, savoring it.

She began riffing, her fingers picking out an unfamiliar chord—D minor—until she was strumming effortlessly. The melody came from someplace inside her, a peculiar knowing, and she hummed it with her eyes closed.

After a few moments, she paused, her voice trailing off. A sudden waft of frosty air lifted her hair from around her neck and rustled the pages of her notebook.

She looked around, dazed. Already, the melody she’d been humming felt like a distant memory, and the last chord she’d strummed faded. She lowered her ukulele, flustered.

Her back pocket vibrated with a single buzz. She clapped a hand over her mouth and waited for the adrenaline riot in her chest to quiet.

Her phone showed a text notification from 1-11: Hush-a-bye, baby, and sleep for now.

Lucy read it again, then a third time, her eyes wide with wonder. Until now, the messages from 1-11 had felt like cryptic breadcrumbs. Was she supposed to know what this message meant, or was it an intercepted code intended for someone else?

What if all of it—this strange rebirth, the messages, the sleepwalking—was part of some metaphysical glitch?

She gathered her things and made her way down the catwalk stairs, the base of her spine tingling—the sensation she associated with peering down from the top floor of a skyscraper.

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