Everneath. Part 22

"No."

His face seemed to relax a little, which made him look tired. "Then who is he?"

I hesitated. This was not the conversation to have while standing in the doorway of our high school.

Jack misread the pause. "Becks, it's okay if you're with someone else. I know we're not together anymore. But we can't be friends if you're going to keep secrets from me."

"I'll tell you. But not here."

A hint of a smile showed on his mouth. "Name the place."

"Somewhere no one can hear."

He grabbed my hand and started pulling me. "How about that place by that tree where we went that one time?"

I smiled because I knew exactly where he was talking about. A little shack of a coffee hut, hidden behind this giant oak tree that sat on the border of the city park. Somewhere only we knew. "Now? But school. Cla.s.ses."

"School will be here tomorrow. I'm not as sure about you."

I followed Jack to his car, and then he drove toward the coffee hut. Once in the car, I brought my feet up and hugged my knees, facing the window, aware of the pit in my stomach. I was going to tell Jack more of the story, but would he believe me?

He'd believed me the night of the dance. But it had taken a kiss.

Before we got there, Jack's phone vibrated with a text. He flipped it open and shut it with a sigh, then turned the car around.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Just a quick stop." Jack pulled up in front of Mulligan's and put the car in park. "Be right back." He went inside, and a few moments later he came through the door with a staggering Will. He shoved his older brother into the backseat. "And we're off," Jack said.

He turned the car around again and drove straight to the coffee shop-the Kona-and the three of us went inside, taking one of the four tiny booths. Will sat in the corner, facedown on the table, pa.s.sed out, or maybe just in a deep sleep. Jack sat next to him. I sat on the other side.

Except for two guys at the small bar by the ordering window, the place was empty. We didn't talk until the coffees came. Then Jack said, "So who was that guy?"

I glanced nervously at Will.

"It's okay," Jack said. "He won't hear a thing. Who was that guy?"

"Cole." I let out a deep breath.

"Cole?"

I nodded. "He can, um, change his appearance."

"What? How?"

"I don't know. I just know that he can alter his appearance. He can switch back and forth between what he looked like when he first came to town and this new disguise-Neal. Everlivings don't like to do it a lot because it takes up too much energy, and they don't like to waste it, considering they have to steal it. So they try not to use it. But Cole wanted to go to high school, and he can't do it as... Cole." I buried my face in my hands. "I knew this would sound crazy."

"Just talk. I'll listen."

"Okay."

I pushed my coffee aside, put my elbows on the table, and told him everything. How the Everlivings had found the secret to everlasting life by stealing human energy. How every hundred years on the Surface, they needed to go to the Everneath and Feed. Drain one human of energy almost completely. One Forfeit. How I followed him down and stayed for a hundred years, even though only a few months had pa.s.sed on the Surface. Jack winced at this, and he looked like he was about to say something, but he remained quiet.

I told him about how Cole wanted me to return with him.

I told him almost everything. I didn't talk about what had happened just before I left with Cole and I didn't tell him that the Tunnels of the Everneath were coming for me soon. Jack would freak out if he knew I was leaving again, and I didn't want to waste time trying to convince him it was hopeless.

I didn't tell him I'd thought of him every day. That even when every other memory had faded, he never left.

My chest relaxed, as if a band had snapped upon my telling the truth to someone. Eventually I had finished my coffee and my bizarre story, and someone else knew about the Everneath, yet the world didn't implode.

"You said Cole steals energy," Jack said.

I nodded. "He explained it to me once. All of us are alive because of what amounts to a series of electrical impulses inside our bodies. He steals the electricity. But to the people he steals from, it feels like he's draining them of emotions."

"Then why does it feel good?"

"It only feels good at first. Because the top layer of electricity is made up of our negative emotions. Pain. Heartache. Suffering." I looked down. "Those are the first to go."

"And then after-"

"It takes a long time, but after that, the positive ones go. Joy. Contentment. And then it just feels empty."

Jack stirred his untouched coffee. "What about the mark?"

"What?"

"The mark that Cole, or whatever his new name is, talked about that day he came to Mrs. Stone's cla.s.sroom."

Jack had remembered. Great little tattoo on her shoulder that tastes faintly of charcoal, Cole had said. I reached up to the collar of my s.h.i.+rt and pulled it aside, exposing part of the black mark on my shoulder.

"What does it mean?" he asked.

It means there's a Shade inside me. It means the clock is counting down. I shrugged. "I don't know. It was there when I Returned."

"You don't remember getting it?"

"I don't remember a lot of what happened in the Everneath. It feels like a dream, where you wake up and it all seems fuzzy. But bits and pieces come to me at different times. I was sort of semiconscious the whole time."

"Were there other people with you?"

I hadn't thought about it until then. "I don't remember anyone else specifically. Cole and I were in our own ... little coc.o.o.n, sort of. But there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of other coc.o.o.ns like ours. And they all Feed at the same time. It's an entire world under there. A world of the Everliving. Like an alternate universe, where they've found the secret to living forever, but they have to steal from our universe to make it happen. In fact, they have to make regular offerings to the other side."

I told him about the doorway I'd discovered at the Shop-n-Go. I didn't tell him about the hair Cole had given me.

"That night. In my room..." Jack began. My cheeks went red as I remembered. He took a breath and went on. "You could steal energy too. Does that mean you're...?"

"An Everliving? No. Every human takes a little and gives a little each day. Like how someone's smile feels contagious? It really can be just on microscopic levels. I happen to be ... more empty, I guess, than everyone else, so there's a stronger vacuum in me. When I recover all my emotions, it won't be so strong. It'll be like everyone else's, and I won't have to do it anymore."

"But part of you wants to?"

I smiled. Jack could always read me so well. "Right now, yes. I think that's why Cole is trying so hard to make me give up. Because I guess I'm still weak. But the longer I stay here, the stronger I get."

Jack nodded and leaned back. "How come I've never heard of anything like this before? I mean, how could they stay hidden? Without anyone knowing?"

"They haven't, exactly." When Jack tilted his head, I went on. "Half truths have been told for centuries. Myths about the Underworld."

"The Underworld. Like h.e.l.l? Like Hades?"

I nodded. "Only Cole calls him Osiris. And it has nothing to do with h.e.l.l, or the afterlife. The Everneath is for the Everliving."

I paused and ran my finger along the rim of my coffee cup. Will twitched a bit from his position of head-on-table. "I've been to h.e.l.l," he mumbled, releasing a little string of drool from the corner of his mouth to the table. "I totally know what you mean." He turned his head so he was facing the wall, sighed loudly, and seemed to be asleep again.

Jack shook his head. "I can't believe we're having this conversation." He ran his hand through his hair, and a part of it stuck straight up. I wanted to reach over and fix it. "I mean, I thought you were getting high."

"I know. Everyone did. They still do."

"But I should've known better." The owner dropped off two more full mugs of coffee, and this time Jack started sipping. After a moment, he said, "What do we do about Cole? Can't we ... expose him or something?" Immediately after he asked the question, he shook his head. "They'd never believe us."

"Jack, I've messed up enough of your life. There's nothing you can do about Cole. I'll handle him. You don't have to-"

"Enough, Becks. This is what friends do. Before we got together, we were friends, remember? The friends.h.i.+p is still there, isn't it?"

I didn't say anything for a moment. It was so much more than friends.h.i.+p on my side. Despite everything, I'd never stopped loving him.

"Isn't it, Becks? I mean, you didn't completely forget about me in the Everneath, did you?"

"No." Wasn't it obvious on my face? That he was the only thing I remembered? My memories of Jack should've been etched on my skin by now, for all the world to see.

"Okay. Friends talk. Friends help each other."

I nodded.

"Friends don't eat friends' souls."

I smiled. "Got it."

"Can I ask you something else?"

"Of course."

"Why did you finally decide to tell me the truth?"

I traced my finger along the lip of my coffee mug. "It's probably nothing, but Cole seems anxious to keep me away from you in particular. I wanted to see how he'd react, and maybe that would give me an idea as to why."

He grimaced. "I have an idea."

"What?"

"He's in love with you."

I wrinkled my forehead. "No he's not. He's not capable."

Jack leaned forward. "Trust me, Becks. I know exactly what loving you looks like on a person. And he loves you."

My face went warm and I looked away. If only Jack were talking about now, and not before. I shook my head. "There has to be something more to it."

Jack put his chin on the palm of his hand. "Well, let's find out."

"How?"

He raised his eyes to meet mine, a shy little smile on his face, so different from his usual confident grin. "We'll spend time together. And let Cole know it."

I lowered my eyes as b.u.t.terflies swirled all around in my stomach. He pulled out his wallet and put a five-dollar bill on the table. "C'mon. We can make it back for seventh if we leave now. I've got calculus."

TWENTY-ONE.

NOW.

School. One month, three weeks left.

The silence on the ride back to school felt like a warm blanket, now that so many secrets had been shared between the two of us. We got to school in time for last period. When I walked into the art studio, Cole-wearing his Neal disguise-was standing in front of the easel next to mine.

"Cole," I said, stopping a few feet away. Cole gave me a smile and raised his eyebrows. "It's Neal, actually. Nikki, right?"

I didn't answer, and turned to my canvas. Mr. Tanner told the cla.s.s to quiet down and start sketching. I put my pencil up to the canvas, but I couldn't concentrate on anything except the fact that Cole was suddenly in my art cla.s.s.

A couple of girls on the other side of Cole whispered back and forth, shooting him curious stares. He had a smirk on his face that told me he knew he was the center of attention.

"Boy, drawing is so hard," he muttered loudly.

One of the girls leaned toward him and said, "I could help you with that, Neal."

I rolled my eyes and watched the clock anxiously for the rest of the hour. My canvas remained empty. As soon as the bell rang, I shot out the door. Cole trailed after me, whistling one of the Dead Elvises' songs.

As we approached my locker, I could see Jack waiting, leaning against the locker next to mine, his thumbs hooked in his pockets. Cole put his arm around my shoulders. I let him.

"Afternoon, Caputo," Cole said.

Jack's face remained a cool mask. "h.e.l.lo, Cole. Becks."