With one last shot of adrenaline, I raced to the nearest door, a big, blue metal one marked deliveries only. I yanked at it and it opened with a wail. The warmth of the indoors rushed over me. From scalp to toe I felt nothing but relief, and I gave myself a moment to relish it. My eyes took a moment to adjust to the dark. When they finally did, I found myself in a long, stark hallway. I walked along quietly, unsure of which way to go, unsure of who might be waiting for me when I got there. Finally I came to a set of doors. To my left was a storage room; to my right, a lab; straight ahead, the observatory dome, which housed the massive telescope.
Well, these kidnappers certainly had a flair for the dramatic, and I had a feeling the dome would be a more dramatic setting than either of my other two choices. I took a deep breath and pulled open the door in front of me.
A rush of cool air hit me in the face. Beneath my feet, thin, dark blue carpeting covered a shallow, circular staircase leading up. Quietly, carefully, I started up the stairs, holding on to the wooden railing along the wa
ll. The place was deathly still, but I knew that I wasn’t alone. And for the first time in all of this, I started to feel real and total fear for my own life.
What was I doing here by myself? What was I going to find when I came around this bend? What if some sadistic serial killer with a fetish for brunette, teenaged soccer players had grabbed Noelle and murdered her and I was next? What did I think I was going to do if I was faced down by the kidnappers? What if I actually had to fight to save Noelle’s life, not to mention my own? Nobody knew where I was right then. Not a soul. The kidnappers had made me keep all of this a secret, so that no one would even be suspicious if I didn’t show up for breakfast. Except, maybe, for Josh. But thanks to task number four, it wasn’t like he was going to be looking for me anyway.
All of these horrifying, unanswerable things flooded my brain as I moved forward, as I continued to climb. But I had come this far. I couldn’t turn back now. Even if I could, where would I go? How would I get there? I was injured and starving and exhausted with no phone and no idea where the hell I was. It was move forward, or just stop. And stopping was not an option.
Then, finally, breathlessly, I came to the top of the stairs. Looming high above was the most tremendous telescope I had ever seen, its tip pointing out through the massive hole in the dome ceiling high above. And sitting in a chair directly beneath the scope, her hands tied behind her back, her body drooping forward so that her hair hid her face entirely from view, was Noelle.
“Noelle!” I whisper-shouted, my voice hoarse. She didn’t look up. I ran across the cavernous dome and dropped down on my knees in front of her. “Noelle! Are you all right?”
My heart flooded with relief as she lifted her head. She was alive. Thank God!
“Come on! We have to get you out of—”
My words died in my throat. Wait. Noelle looked perfectly fine. She looked gorgeous, in fact. There was no cut on her cheek as there had been in the video I’d been sent. Her dark hair was glossy and freshly blown out. Her makeup had been carefully applied. She wore a dark pink silk top beneath a black cashmere cardigan, and when she removed her hands from behind her back and laid them in her lap, I saw that her fingernails were even manicured.
“Hi, Reed,” she said with a smile.
My empty, panicked stomach contracted so fast I thought I might implode. I stood up, my still frozen kneecaps creaking, and took a step back. As I did, I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. There were entry doors all around the circular room, and a dozen women stepped into view, each wearing a flowing black robe, and carrying a dark purple candle. Instantly, memories of Billings House rituals past flitted through my mind. The sisters in black, the neophytes in white. The candles, the circle, the vows. Bile rose up into the back of my throat. I felt so faint, I had to reach out and touch the protective railing around the telescope. It was ice cold beneath my already chilled fingers.
“This was a setup,” I heard myself say as my eyes fluttered closed. “You did this.” I opened my eyes again and focused on Noelle. On my friend. The girl I had been terrified for—had ruined my life for. The girl who was slowly, gracefully, healthfully rising from her chair. “You did this to me,” I said, ignoring the women who had closed into a tight circle around us. They didn’t matter. Whatever they were doing there, I couldn’t have cared less. This was between me and Noelle. Me and my best friend. Me and the one friend other than Josh whom I trusted more than anyone else on the planet.
Strike that. The friend I used to trust more than anyone else on the planet. Noelle had completely screwed with my mind and my heart. Not to mention my boyfriend, my schoolwork, my criminal record, and my entire life. She was responsible for all of it.
“You set me up just like you did sophomore year,” I said, feeling exactly like I had in the moment I’d heard that stealing that test for Ariana was a joke, that all the crap I’d found in Kiran and Taylor’s room, in Noelle and Ariana’s, had been planted there for me. This is the way I felt upon learning that everything my friendships were based on had been a test.
I felt like an idiot all over again. A naive, dupable dunce. Like Noelle and everyone else in the world was laughing at me.
“You don’t understand, Reed,” Noelle said, taking a step toward me. Her eyes shone with some kind of emotion, though whether it was amusement or pride I couldn’t tell. “We had to do this to be sure. We had to know that you could handle it. We needed you to prove you are who we thought you were.”
“Oh yeah? And who do you think I am?” I spat.
Noelle smiled. “My sister.”
There was a mushy lump of disgust growing exponentially in my throat. I wanted to throw it up on her Gucci boots. Wanted to reach over and tear her hair out. Wanted to somehow make her feel like a giant pile of fetid dog crap—exactly how she was making me feel.
“Your sister? Are you insane?” I shouted. “I am so sick of this shit! This is how you treat people you supposedly love?”
I spotted a red leather bag behind Noelle’s chair, which I recognized as one of hers, and stormed past her. Dropping to my knees, I dug through her stuff and yanked out her phone.
“Reed, what’re you doing?” she asked.
“I’m getting the hell out of here.”
I scrolled through her contacts until I found Sawyer’s number, then hit dial. The phone started ringing in my ear as I stood up and walked toward the circle of middle-aged and elderly women who had surrounded me—sisters. The two ladies in front of me didn’t budge, one older, white-haired, and straight-backed, the other forty-ish, slightly pudgy, and soft-looking. They both stared at me with amused and almost wondrous expressions. So I took one of their candles and threw it on the ground in the center of the circle. Noelle jumped back. The flame hit the carpet mere inches from her feet.
Everyone gasped and the crowd parted, just as Sawyer picked up the phone. I shoved through to the other side, heading for the stairs and the door beyond.
“Hello?” He sounded groggy, like I’d woken him up. “Noelle? Is that you? Is everything okay?”
“It’s not Noelle, Sawyer, it’s Reed,” I said. “I’m so sorry for waking you up.”
“Reed?” He was fully awake now. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”