Fuck, what’s her family name? Did I ever ask her?
I grip the edge of the counter, my heart doing that trip and gallop thing again. “I just… need to know.”
“Are you talking about Brylee Steele? Pretty girl, freckles, ginger hair?”
“Yes,” I croak. “Is she okay?”
“Yeah.” Nurse Ellen gives me a critical look. “She is, but you look like you should sit down. Do you have your pills?”
I wave her concern away. I need to know how Brylee is. “Where is she?”
She points down a corridor, and I start that way, the blood rushing in my ears, drowning out whatever else she might have said.
Brylee Steele. Today of all days I had to find out her family name. Did I ever ask to know anything about her? What do I know about her, apart from the fact that she works in the same office as me and can’t bake to save her life?
She’s funny. She’s nice.
A sweet girl, Riddick said about her. Clever, pretty, sexy. Kind. He’s not egotistical like me. He can see beyond himself. Someone who’s battling the world to save his brother, who’s trying to protect Brylee.
From me.
Belatedly, I realize I’m heading toward the Children’s Ward.
This can’t be right. I should have asked where exactly to find her. Was I supposed to take a turn somewhere?
I don’t stop when I think my heart will give out, bursting through double doors, and more double doors, searching frantically for someone to ask.
And I enter Disneyland.
Disney-something, anyway. I vaguely recognize the theme of the posters on the walls, and I notice that the girls wear little crowns and the boys have plastic swords. Some of them are sitting on the two beds in the room, and others on chairs, legs dangling, while in their middle stand a crowned princess in a pink gown and Spiderman.
What the hell?
The music also sounds vaguely familiar, probably from some movie, and the children are trying to sing along, with some disturbing results.
I glance around, looking for an adult to help me out, my vision going kind of funky and lopsided. I stop, try to draw some oxygen from the air. It’s not working all that well.
There’s a door to my right, and I start toward it, needing to find Brylee, find out what happened to her.
The room seems to tilt sideways. I slam my hand into the wall to stop the slide, and it crashes into something. Pain stings my hand and I hiss, disoriented.
Quiet falls around me.
Then a kid screams.
I turn as if in a dream. The princess and Spiderman are running toward me, and for some strange reason I see Brylee and Riddick instead of them.
How fucking weird.
“Ryan!” The princess even has Brylee’s voice, and her eyes, although her mouth is painted in a scary neon pink. “Oh my God.”
What?
Spiderman grabs my wrist and lifts it. His mask has been pulled up, and he has Riddick’s gray eyes and soft mouth.
Frowning, I look down at my hand. Blood is dripping from a jagged cut.
“He smashed a picture frame.” She starts away from me. “I’m getting a nurse.”