I curl up tighter. I've been lying here for ages. For minutes. I'm not sure. Vague memories of flying buildings and Dorian calling my name float around me. Now I’m lying on the ground. I can’t remember how I wound up here.
“Allie. You can get up now. It's over.” It's Jeff, speaking from another world.
Jeff.
I squeeze my eyelids shut, keeping out all light. I’m too tired to move.
Evansburg.
Dorian and I just annihilated it. There’s no way I’m not going to turn evil after that if Dorian’s right.
I open my eyes. Grass blades point fingers at me. The sun shines through film, getting hot on the black of my T-shirt.
Jeff leans down. He’s pale and sick in my vision. Red lines cry blood in the whites of his eyes. They shine with misery, with guilt.
“Get up. We'll take you to see Tommy. I promise that we won't go through town. The police are going to get Dorian right now.” He kneels down. Looks at me.
Tommy. I’ve got to see him. Hug him.
I stand and face Jeff. We’re standing in a grassy field. I’m shaking. “Why didn’t you tell me what this could do to us? That Dorian and I could go bad?”
Jeff stands there, screwing up his face. “You’re probably okay, Allie. Dorian, too. You just saved people. I don’t think the two of you will go bad.”
“You don’t think?” I ask. “You mean you’re not sure?”
Jeff sighs. “Okay. I’m not certain. It was a lot of destruction. But chances are good that you’ll be fine. It was definitely enough to stop Madeline’s plan.”
I’m too exhausted to feel rage. At least one thing’s gone right. I breathe a sigh of relief for the people of Evansburg. The Deathwind won’t turn them.
“Allie. We have to go.” Jeff’s looking back across the field, to where his black SUV waits parked by a road. “They’re going to wonder where you are. You traveled about twenty miles. I had to follow you the whole way. Ten more, and you would have reached the town of Centerville.” Grass rustles as he turns away. “Centerville’s going to send out its police to look at the damage out here. We’re close to a road. We need to move. Or the police will take you to Evansburg.”
I walk, following Jeff. He takes my arm, keeping me steady. We walk past a couple of snapped trees. Another that’s had all its bark shredded off.
The ride in Jeff’s SUV stretches into infinity. We roll away from devastation and living trees take its place. Surviving fields roll past. Green and brown blurs together. Minutes pass.
Madeline won’t turn the people of Evansburg. I’m probably going to be okay.
Probably.
“I’ll make a detour around town,” Jeff says. “It’ll take longer, but that’s okay. You’re going back to Dorian’s house.”
Time passes. Green and brown roll past. I rest my head on the glass, watching the scenery. This world is intact. Alive.
I’ll be fine. So will Dorian. We have to be.
“What are the chances?” I ask.
“Of what?” Jeff looks back at me.
“Of an Outbreaker going bad after something like this.”
Jeff hits his brakes. We’re at Dorian’s house and turning into the driveway. The police cruiser’s already here. Of course. They left Dorian’s body in that pit. They knew right where to get him when it was all over, so of course they beat us back here. Me, they had to track down. Jeff had to follow the trail of devastation to find where I landed.
Jeff clears his throat. “About fifty percent. You’ll probably be different, though. This is a new circumstance.”
He puts the SUV in park.
I punch the back of Jeff’s seat. “Fifty percent?”
Jeff jumps. I breathe out and wait for the torrent of yells to come. He can dish it out all he wants. I’m ready to give it back.
But he sighs and rubs his back. “I deserved that.”
He pushes open his door and jumps down. Jeff drags his way towards the house and doesn’t look back. He’s pulling an invisible anvil behind him. A sunken cruise ship full of bodies.
I open my door and walk after him. Jeff’s trying to carry my weight for me. Dorian’s, too. I feel like a jerk for punching the back of his seat.
Because it’s Madeline’s weight. She’s the one responsible for all of this.
But he should have told me about possibly going bad before I agreed to this.
He should have.
The front door flies open and Dorian’s father storms out. He’s scarlet. Gritting his teeth. Unstoppable. Betsy reaches for him. So does his wife. Even Dorian hangs in the doorway, pale and greenish.
Jeff stops. I do, too. The whole world freezes except for Dorian’s father.
He growls and throws himself on Jeff.
They go down. His father batters Jeff. Spews obscenities. Thuds ring through the air. Jeff lies there, wincing, not fighting back. Blood spurts from his nose.
I’m going to be sick.
“Ethan!” Betsy rushes out. “Stop! He’s had enough.”
Dorian’s father stops.
Silence falls. Ethan sits back on his shins, breathing heavy. Jeff blinks on the ground. Officer Burton and Dorian’s mom crowd around him, saying words that make no sense.
A pair of fire trucks rush by with their sirens wailing. They’re followed by a police car. They’re headed to Evansburg. Or what used to be Evansburg.
We leveled it. Wiped it off the face of the Earth.
Stopped Madeline and saved everyone there.
But now me and Dorian could be murdering psychopaths in a couple of years.
“Allie. You should go in the house. I left your phone inside for you. Tommy’s there, too.”
It’s officer Burton. She puts a hand on my shoulder. Squeezes.
I close my eyes. “Thank you.”
Burton clears her throat. “You just saved over a hundred people from a horrible fate, Allie. Madeline’s force won’t get to them now.”
“I’m just worried.”
“We all are. It’s an awful situation. Go on inside and rest.”
I do.
“Allie.”
Tommy springs up from the couch, rushes over, and envelops me in a hug.
I hug back. Tommy's my old life. He still wants to be around me. I can't let go.
“Allie...I'm sorry.”
“You don't have to be. It had to be done.”
“I’m just glad you’re okay.”
He speaks it with so much conviction that for a second, I believe it.
I have to believe it.
The front door opens and closes in another universe. We separate.
Dorian and his parents stand near the fireplace, crowned by the row of books. There are no smiles until his mother forces one. Dorian looks away, training his gaze on the fireplace door. He's avoiding me now. Trying to keep a wall up.
“Allie, Burton left you your phone,” Betsy says, glancing at the kitchen. “If you want to call anyone, you might want to go outside. The police and Jeff are gone. They had to go into town. I will be, too.”
Her words fall off a cliff.
Jeff and the police are going to go look at the damage.
That's something they probably can't stomach any more than I can.
“You want me to come outside with you?” Tommy asks me.
I head for the kitchen. “Yes. Please.”
Dorian shrinks away as I pass. Looks at the wall.
The driveway outside is empty except for the blue car. It's no longer blocked in. The work is done. The other Outbreakers have no reason to keep Dorian's parents stuck inside the house now. I grip my phone like I'm never going to see it again. “I'm calling Uncle Cassius. I hope there’s some battery left.”
Tommy’s
eyes widen. “But he's--”
“I know. But I need to see if Madeline’s plan really did get stopped. They won’t do anything to me. And I need to know what she’s planning next. I’ve got to find out if this was worth doing.”
And worth turning evil over, I think.
No. I’ll be fine. I did this for good.
“Understandable.” If he has any fear, he's not showing it. “I was wondering that too.”
I dial his number. My heart’s pounding. This will be my first time speaking to him since his betrayal. I don’t want to talk to him, but at the same time, I need to.
“Allie!” Uncle Cassius is all emotions on the other end of the phone. “I’ve been trying to call you for the past two days. Where are you? You aren’t in Evansburg, are you? We heard—“
“Just get here,” I say. “Now.” I give him the address, trying to tell myself that I’m doing this just so I can make sure Madeline can’t send the Deathwind after the people of Evansburg. But I can’t deny it. A big part of me still wants him here and wants answers, ones only he can give me. There’s only one way to make sure I get him here. “Uncle Cassius, I’ve…I’ve done something bad.”
On the other end, Uncle Cassius is silent for a long time.
Then he speaks like he’s been punched in the stomach.