only a moment earlier had hovered just above their heads now pressed low against their shoulders.
Even ducking below it, they were choking. And they couldn't see as much as a few feet in front of them. Making sure to keep a hold on Todd, Luce spun around in a circle, suddenly unsure which direction they'd come from. She reached out and felt the hot metal shelf of one of the stacks. She couldn't even make out the letters on the spines. Were they in the D section or the 0's?
There were no clues to guide them toward Penn and Miss Sophia, and no clues to guide them to the exit, either. Luce felt a surge of panic course through her, making it even more difficult to breathe,
"They must have already gone out the front doors!" Todd shouted, sounding only half convinced.
"We have to turn back!"
Luce bit her lip. If anything happened to Penn
She could barely see Todd, who was standing right in front of her. He was right, but which way was back? Luce nodded mutely, and felt his hand tugging hers.
For a long time, she moved without knowing where they were going, but as they ran, the smoke lifted, little by little, until, eventually, she saw the red glow of an emergency exit sign. Luce breathed a sigh of relief as Todd fumbled for the door handle and finally pushed it open.
They were in a hallway Luce had never seen before. Todd slammed the door shut behind them.
They gasped and filled their lungs with clean air. It tasted so good, Luce wanted to sink her teeth into it, to drink a gallon of it, bathe herself in it. She and Todd both coughed the smoke out of their lungs until they started laughing, an uneasy, only half- relieved laugh. They laughed until she was crying. But even when Luce finished crying and coughing, her eyes continued to tear.
How could she breathe in this air when she didn't even know what had happened to Penn? If Penn hadn't made it out - if she was collapsed somewhere inside - then Luce had failed someone she cared about again. Only this time it would be so much worse.
She wiped her eyes and watched a puff of smoke curl out from underneath the crack at the base of the door. They weren't safe yet. There was another door at the end of the hallway. Through the glass panel in the door, Luce could see the wobble of a tree branch in the night. She exhaled.
In a few moments, they'd be outside, away from these choking fumes.
If they were fast enough, they could go around to the front entrance and make sure Penn and Miss Sophia had made it out okay.
"Come on," Luce told Todd, who was folded over himself, wheezing. "We have to keep going."
He straightened up, but Luce could see he was really overcome. His face was red, his eyes were wild and wet. She practically had to drag him toward the door.
She was so focused on getting out that it took her too long to process the heavy, swishing noise that had fallen over them, drowning out the alarms.
She looked up into a maelstrom of shadows. A spectrum of shades of gray and deepest black. She should only be able to see as far as the ceiling overhead, but the shadows seemed somehow to extend beyond its limits. Into a strange and hidden sky. They were all tangled up in each other, and yet they were distinct.
Amid them was the lighter, grayish one she'd seen earlier. It was no longer shaped like a needle, but now looked almost like the flame of a match. It bobbed over them in the hallway. Had she really fended off that amorphous darkness when it threatened to graze Penn's head? The memory made her palms itch and her toes curl.
Todd started banging on the walls, as if the hallway were closing in on them. Luce knew they were nowhere near the door. She grabbed for his hand, but their sweaty palms slid off each other. She wrapped her fingers tight around his wrist. He was white as a ghost, crouched down near the floor, almost cowering. A terrified moan escaped his lips.
Because the smoke was now filling up the hallway?
Or because he could sense the shadows, too?
Impossible.
And yet his face was pinched and horrified. Much more so now that the shadows were overhead.
"Luce?" His voice shook.
Another horde of shadows rose up directly in their