Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Kyle throws an arm around his brother, hugging him again. “Evening,” he greets Raya. “You’re obviously here for the beer.”
“This wretchedly charming place offers little else,” she states, then stops. “By the way, could you please convince your brother that I don’t just love him for his music? And remind him that I’ve not heard him play in months because, of all things for this dismal town to lack, it’s a single fucking violin? Not even the pawn shop. Not even in someone’s closet. Nowhere.” She sweeps by Kyle on her way into the bar, door slapping shut behind her.
Kyle leans into his brother. “If you wanted a violin that badly, I’ll find a way to get you one. I’ll beg Cade and Layna to conjure one up. Magically turn some twigs and hair into one, I dunno. This town could use a musician. Other than Herb, whose out-of-tune guitar-strumming no one even pretends to enjoy anymore.”
Kaleb chuckles at that. “No, no, it’s okay.”
“Are you sure?” asks Kyle—then picks up a sudden twinge of discomfort inside his brother. It feels cold and gloomy, laden with troubled thoughts. “Oh …” He frowns. “You don’t want a violin.”
Kaleb’s face twists—a particular expression of his that hasn’t changed in nearly thirty years, making him for an instant look just like his teenage self. “It’s just … I guess I … There’re just a lot of different connotations with the violin now. Associations. Feelings. I can’t even think about playing a note without …”
The cage. The lion. Markadian. “You don’t have to explain,” Kyle reassures him, patting his back. “I understand.”
“I do want to play again someday. Just …” Kaleb looks at his brother. “… not yet.”
Kyle gives his brother a sympathetic smile, decides not to say anything further, and nods with understanding.
“By the way …” Kaleb frowns in thought. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately. About the past. I know this is kind of random, but, um, do you … remember that fortune teller lady …?”
“Who?” asks Kyle at once. Then a second’s thought retrieves the memory. “Oh. You mean that one Halloween …?”
“Yeah. Me, you, and your friend Brock. We saw that one old lady. You and Brock thought she was weird. I just thought she was nice. She gave me candy.”
“I can’t believe you remember that,” laughs Kyle. “You were so little when we saw her.”
“She read our futures,” says Kaleb, gazing off, as if picturing her. “She told me I’d love music, but that at first I would hate it. I remember that part. Maybe she said something else, too, but I … I guess it’s that part I keep thinking about.”
“Why are you bringing her up?”
Kaleb peers at Kyle. “It’s just that lately, I’ve been dreaming about that night, that one Halloween. A lot. Almost every night.”
That surprises Kyle. “Every night …?”
“Do you think she’s real? About reading the future? Like …” Kaleb’s voice lowers. “Like Cade is?”
“Nah, fuck this,” blurts Nico, surprising both Kyle and Kaleb, then he turns around abruptly and starts walking back, shaking his head and muttering to himself.
Kaleb slips from his brother’s arm. “Nico? What’s wrong?”
“Can’t. Can’t do it. Can’t do this lovey-dovey fake shit.” He keeps marching the other way back home.
Kaleb goes after him. “Hey, c’mon, stop. We’re just here to relax with friends, have a drink. It’s not fake.”
“Not fake?” Nico stops, turns back around so suddenly, Kaleb has to take a step back. “Everyone in that bar is fake. Everyone in this town. You’re all pretending to be happy, lying to yourselves all day long. What’s there to be so fucking happy about?”
“That we’re alive,” says Kaleb. “That we’ve all survived some of the most unthinkable things.”
“Yeah, except that isn’t true.” Nico comes right up to Kaleb’s face, jabs a finger at his own chest. “I didn’t survive.”
“You know what I meant. C’mon.”
“You want a glimpse of the future? Is that why you’re talking about fortune teller ladies? Want to know what’s coming? I’ll tell you what’s coming, I’ll tell you right now, plain as day. Another month from now, maybe even sooner than that, every human in this place is gonna starve. Then everyone is gonna be dead, one by one. Including you.”
“Nico …”
“And then who’ll be left? Your brother. Raya. That asshole motherfucker Drake. And me. The four of us, trapped inside this hellhole for the rest of eternity, until even we starve, lose our minds, and eat each other up. That’s our future. What a fairytale. I can’t wait.” Nico turns and heads off again.
Kaleb sighs. “This is actually about your brother and our big bakery dream, isn’t it.”
That stops Nico.
Kaleb takes a step, rethinks it, stays in place. “I don’t know how, I don’t know when … but you’ll still get to San Diego. You and Matteo will reunite. Maybe I could come with you, meet your brother, take in the scent of that delicious bakery. I dream of it every night. Cade and Layna … they will find a way past the wall, I promise you. You’ll get to see your brother again.”