Chapter Nineteen
Nineteen
That evening, Amira and I huddled together on the sofa and watched one dire report after another on the local news.
Every route out of the city was now inaccessible thanks to the tens of thousands of people trying to escape.
When asked if the disappearances were an act of terrorism, a spokesperson for City Hall started laughing hysterically on live TV before lying down and curling into the fetal position.
News feeds then cut to the mayor announcing a dusk-to-dawn curfew that would be enforced by the National Guard as well as whatever was left of the NYPD.
Minutes later, cameras caught the mayor and her family fleeing the city in a helicopter that took off from behind Gracie Mansion.
In response, New Yorkers did what any frightened, panicked populace of eight million would do: they took to the streets and started fucking things up.
Sometime around two-thirty in the morning, people smashed the windows of the bodega on the corner.
Old Mrs. Saputra started firing the shotgun she kept behind the counter, waking me and probably everyone else in our building, and then things got real hairy when the National Guard showed up in riot gear.
It wasn’t conducive to a restful night’s sleep.
When I left the apartment the next morning, my shoes crunched through broken glass littering the sidewalk while shouts and sirens drifted the two blocks from Broadway.
Through some miracle, the MTA was still functioning, though there was only a small handful of us on the entire train.
When I surfaced at Seventh Avenue, I was confronted by more smashed windows and scattered detritus dropped by enterprising looters.
A police car sat in the middle of the street two blocks away, lights strobing, while sounds of yelling and breaking glass reached me from the direction of Times Square.
Maybe the tourists had risen up at last.
As I walked toward Dark Enterprises, my phone dinged and a text from Eric popped up. I’m in Midtown. Can we talk?
A week ago, I would have been thrilled to read that. Now all I felt was ambivalence. Pausing in the middle of the sidewalk, I debated whether to respond at all before finally typing back, Okay. I’ll be in Paley Park.
Eric and I reached the park at the same time, coming from opposite directions.
He had dark circles under his eyes and his Henley was wrinkled, as if he’d slept in it.
Rather than moving closer, he paused next to an empty table and waited for me to join him before sitting down. We were the only people there.
“At least there are plenty of places to sit,” I said as I sank into a chair of my own, striving for a light tone but not quite getting there.
He didn’t smile. “The whole city is like this now. People are staying home. Or trying to escape.”
I nodded and turned to watch the waterfall cascading endlessly at the far end of the park. Something between us felt broken, and I didn’t know why.
We didn’t talk for a while. Instead of the usual background noise of traffic and construction, we heard the ivy covering the walls around us rustling softly in the wind while birds chirped and sang. It was unnatural. Finally, I gathered my courage and turned to face him. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
He didn’t move. No, that wasn’t entirely true—his shoulders tightened, and one of his hands closed into a fist. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“Bullcrap. You’ve been distant and weird with me since we were attacked by those two people, and I want to know why. Did I do something wrong?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s not you. It’s—” He stopped, then sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“Then let’s break it down. Why does it feel like you’re avoiding me?”
“I haven’t been avoiding you. I think about you a lot. All the time, in fact.”
Channeling Ms. Crenshaw at her most inscrutable, I stared at him and waited.
Eric seemed to struggle with himself for a moment. “I’m scared,” he said at last.
“We’re all scared,” I said, voice softening a little. “Things are really bad right now.”
“No. I’m scared for you, Colin.” He gestured at our surroundings. “This city is dying, but you’re still going to work as if everything is fine. And it’s not fine!”
I blinked at the vehemence in his voice.
“Why are we sitting in Midtown like it’s just any other day? Don’t you know how dangerous it is out there?” He leaned forward in his chair, gaze burning with something like desperation. “Thousands of people are dead! Millions more are going to die!”
“You don’t know that,” I started to say before he cut me off.
“And what about those people who attacked us? What if they come back?”
That made me pause. My suspicions were right. He really was shaken up about our supposed mugging. “I haven’t forgotten about them, Eric. Believe me. I’m watching my back.”
“I might not be there the next time someone tries to hurt you,” he said roughly.
“I can handle myself.”
“Not against—” He stopped and shook his head with a low growl. “That’s not the point. I want you to explain to me why you’re still here. Why you’re not trying to escape.”
“My job is—”
“Screw your job!” he shouted. “It isn’t worth dying for!”
The echoes of his voice rebounded from the walls to either side of us, startling the birds into silence. I stared at him and he stared back, fists clenched in his lap.
“Where is this coming from?” I finally asked, bewildered. “You sound like you’re taking my choices personally.”
Visibly agitated, he ran a hand through his hair. “I’m frustrated. You’re traipsing along without a care in the world while terrible things happen all around you.”
My bewilderment gave way to a spark of outrage, but I kept my voice level. “I don’t need you to tell me what’s happening out there.”
“Colin—”
“No,” I interrupted sharply. “I love that you care, Eric, but I’m not going to explain myself to you.
” He tried to speak again and I lifted a hand to stop him.
“If you want to leave the city, then go. Take Amira with you. Her parents live in Connecticut. You can both stay there until things here return to normal.”
He watched me for a long time, jaw set. Then he shook his head. “I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Exhausted, I closed my eyes. “Just go. Save yourself.”
His chair scraped against the ground as he stood. “Don’t ask me to do that. I’m staying.”
“You’re being stupid,” I snapped, opening my eyes again.
“I’m not the one making stupid choices here, Colin.”
We stared at each other in tense silence. Finally, I rose to my feet as well. “I’m late for work.”
His shoulders slumped in defeat. “I’ll walk you there.”
“No,” I said, more harshly than I’d intended. I couldn’t let him get anywhere close to Dark Enterprises. “No,” I repeated, softer. “I’ll be fine.”
I left him standing there and hurried to the office, my emotions veering all over the place.
Eric was still hiding something from me, I was sure of it, but he’d been right about one thing: New York was dying.
I still had a chance to save it, though.
Before leaving the apartment, I’d made sure to slip the second pamphlet I’d taken from Ms. Crenshaw’s office into my pocket.
Now, as I pushed through the revolving doors and into DE’s lobby, I noticed for the first time how tense the mood in the building had become.
There were no bulls being sacrificed today, no acolytes begging ancient deities for their protection, just low-level employees standing around scrolling through their phones or whispering to one another. They were scared.
Don’t worry, I wanted to say as I strode confidently toward the elevators. I’ll save you. And then I’m going to fix things with my boyfriend.
Almost immediately, my plan to rescue New York hit something of a snag.
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“C’mon.”
“No.”
I was trailing behind Lex in a far-flung corner of the Repository while they pushed a rickety metal cart piled with books. It had taken me a long time to track them down, and once I did, they weren’t exactly thrilled to see me. “This is important,” I insisted now.
“Look,” Lex snapped, rounding on me, “if I don’t finish reshelving these goddamned books in the next fifteen minutes, Gertrude is going to send me on the next corporate retreat where I’ll have to spend two weeks doing fucking trust falls while the company brainwashes me back into compliance. Can you imagine me doing trust falls?”
Looking down at the books on the cart, I rearranged one or two of them as I let out a disappointed sigh. “Fine. I get it. You probably wouldn’t be able to help anyhow.”
Silence. I peeked over and saw Lex staring at me.
“I should ask someone more senior. You know, someone who might actually have the knowledge I need.”
“Really?” Lex demanded. “You’re trying reverse psychology?”
I glanced up from the cart with an innocent widening of my eyes.
“Oh no. I’m saying this needs someone, like, super smart.
” Pulling the pamphlet out of my pocket, I unfolded it slowly.
“I mean, it’s possible that the fate of the entire world might hang in the balance here.
But I guess that’s less important than reshelving books.
” Tilting my head as if a thought had just occurred to me, I added, “Hey, I bet Gertrude could help with this. She’s middle management, isn’t she?
I’m sure she knows all kinds of things. Any idea where I can find her? ”
“Give me that,” Lex growled as they snatched the pamphlet from my hand. “You know, sometimes you’re a real asshole.”
I tried to look both shocked and hurt.
“What is all this?” they asked as they opened the brochure and scanned the instructions printed inside.