‘What happened to that thing?’ he asked, pointing to the pile of clothes on the ground. ‘Where did it go?’
The girl stared at him in silence, her lips parted slightly, and he wondered if she had heard him right. ‘It vanished,’ he added for clarity’s sake. ‘I saw it disappear right in front of my eyes. What was it? Where did it go?’
The girl swallowed nervously. ‘I think you need to get in the car,’ was all she said.
He glanced up the street. What if it was a trap? What if he wasn’t friends with these people at all? They were strangers. And a voice in his head was urging him not to trust strangers. Though, he reasoned, he wasn’t a stranger to them. They had seemed genuinely happy to see him. And there was something familiar about the way they had said his name and had thrown their arms around him. As familiar to him as the sword had felt when he took it in his hand and used it to kill that monster.
The girl was waiting. And the other girl just behind him was hopping from foot to foot. She felt her tug on his elbow. ‘Cyrus,’ she said in a soft voice, ‘come with us. We’ll explain everything on the way.’
‘The way to where?’ he asked, letting her pull him backwards towards the car, which the guy was revving.
‘To your apartment,’ she said, unable to keep the incredulous tone out of her voice.
His apartment? He had an apartment. And a name. And he knew how to wield a sword. And this girl was still looking at him as if he was a ghost but that’s because they’d thought he was dead. Which explained why no one had come looking for him or reported him missing. He was finally getting answers to some of the questions he’d had running around in his head the last few weeks. And, most importantly, he knew now he really wasn’t crazy. The doctors could stick that in their pipe and smoke it.
He gazed around the interior of the car. It felt familiar too. The girl with blue eyes was wedged into the corner of the back seat, beside him. She hadn’t stopped staring at him since they’d got in, though it felt like an invisible force field lay between them, a divide he couldn’t cross. He looked at her, feeling nervous all of a sudden. She was nursing her wounded arm, holding it against her chest as if she was a bird with a broken wing, though she hadn’t complained or said a word about it.
He felt an overwhelming urge to make it better somehow, but there was that barrier between them and a general wariness in her gaze, so he kept his distance. Were they just friends? Or were they something more? And what about the girl up front? The one with the spiky hair and the piercings? Was she with the guy?
The guy was driving in silence. There was a weird tension in the car as if they were all holding a collective breath. He stared between them, wondering if he should say something to break the ice.
‘Do you know who I am?’ the girl next to him asked before he could figure out what to say.
He frowned at her. He did know who she was. In some part of his brain he knew – he just couldn’t locate the information right now.
He shook his head. ‘I know I know you. I just don’t know who you are or why I know you. But I’ve seen you … in my dreams.’ He stopped abruptly, noting the look on her face. ‘I mean,’ he went on in a hurry, ‘I kept seeing you and some monsters, like the ones we just killed. But everything’s messed up – nothing’s clear.’
‘Do you know my name?’ she asked.
He noticed the very tip of her left ear was missing.
‘No,’ he admitted.
Up front the guy shifted gear noisily.
‘What is your name?’ he asked.
‘Evie,’ she answered.
Evie, he repeated silently. That made sense. It slotted into place, felt comfortable on the tip of his tongue as if he’d used it a lot. It felt as if another layer, gossamer thin, had floated off the top of the fog in his head.
‘And that’s Vero and Ash,’ she said, pointing to the two up front.
He nodded in greeting and tried to smile.
‘Do you know your name?’ Evie asked.
He noticed that her tone was overly genial, forced almost, like the voices