I both could use a little bit of fun…a little bit of relaxation.”
I stared at him like he was insane. “How are we supposed to relax, when we’ve got so many non-relaxing things to deal with?”
“We take a break,” he said as if it were that uncomplicated.
“You say it as if it’s that simple, but it’s not. I mean, we can’t go anywhere, since we have Stephan, the Death Walkers, Demetrius, and a lot of vampires after us,” I told him, counting out the list on my fingers. “Besides, do you know how to have fun, because I don’t?”
He got a look on his face that could only be described as a look someone got when they were about to do something they weren’t supposed to. “I think I have an idea.”
“This is what you think will make me have fun and be happy,” I asked Laylen, staring up at the enormous rollercoaster, the tracks twisting and turning and flipping in loops, like a giant death trap. And the busy sidewalk we were standing on made me even more uneasy. All it would take was for one wrong person to walk by us and we’d be screwed. But Laylen had sworn that we would be fine, because almost everything that was after at us, more than likely wouldn’t come out during the daytime; and that the bundles and bundles of people roaming around would keep us inconspicuous.
However, I wasn’t as optimistic. Being around people had never really been my thing. And when I had a crazy man with a scar, and his yellow-eyed, Chill of Death assailants after me, being around a huge group of people was definitely not my thing.
“This is what you think will make me feel happy?” I asked again just to make sure I understood him right. “A rollercoaster?”
Laylen nodded, looking absolutely sure.
So we headed up.
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. Riding a rollercoaster—never in a million years would I have ever thought I would be doing such a thing; and doing such a thing when we were being hunted.
But Laylen was persistent, guiding me along as we weaved up the aisle, until we reached the ticket area, where he purchased two tickets, and then the cashier sent us on our way to the loading area.
It was there that I realized that my jittery nerves weren’t just because I was worried we might run into someone. I was also jittery about the idea of getting on a rollercoaster. So by the time I slid onto the leather seat in the far back cart, I was trembling.
“You’ll be fine,” Laylen assured me, pulling down the bars that would—hopefully—hold him in the cart when it whipped upside down.
I pulled down my bars and secured them tightly against my shoulders. I heard someone from the front let out a scream as the cart started to creak forward. I held as still as a statue, my hands gripping the bars tightly. The wheels clanked as the cart rose up the tracks; the brightness of the sun glared in my eyes. There was a pause, where the cart just hovered at the top, and for a split second I thought we were stuck, but then it lurched forward and dropped. Then we were flying, wind blowing through my hair as the car went up and down, flipping loops and taking sharp turns. In the beginning I was terrified, but by the end I was laughing. And I mean really laughing. I wanted to hold onto this moment with every ounce of strength I had in me and never let it go.
By the time we stepped off of the cart and back onto the ground, I had tears rolling down my cheeks.
“Was I right or what?” Laylen asked, grinning from ear to ear.
I nodded, wiping my tears from my cheeks. It was the first time I’d ever had to wipe tears of happiness away. Who would have thought riding a rollercoaster would have brought them out.
“So you’re happy?” Laylen asked, looking at me with hopeful eyes.
“Yeah…I think I am.” I felt the back of my neck where the prickle was poking and then I felt myself starting to fall. “I think I…I …” I was slipping away and before I crashed onto the floor, I grabbed a hold of Laylen’s arm. But instead of catching me, I ended up yanking him down with me.
Yanking us down, down, down as the City of Crystal flashed through my mind.
Chapter 19
My face smacked hard