Part 16 (1/2)

”Anyway, I swam for a while, but then I figured you must have headed back and I'd missed you.”

”Okay, good,” I said, feeling a wave of relief wash over me. ”I'm glad you saw it, too. I was starting to think the whole thing was in my head.”

”Yeah, well, I'm not saying it's not not in your, or, our heads. I mean, I saw it, but you acted like you knew it. You asked me if I in your, or, our heads. I mean, I saw it, but you acted like you knew it. You asked me if I heard heard it. And I didn't hear anything. What did you hear?” it. And I didn't hear anything. What did you hear?”

”It says stuff to me.” I explained mainly what the siren's messages had been.

Lilly frowned and didn't respond.

”What?” I asked.

”Well...” Lilly started picking at her fingers. ”A lot of things. I mean, that's weird, don't you think? Seeing this siren thing, when the others haven't?”

”They haven't ever seen it?” I asked.

”No, n.o.body's ever talked about anything like that. What do you think she means by all that stuff she said to you?”

”No idea.”

Lilly shook her head. ”Also, your siren doesn't really sound like it has anything to do with Eden. I mean, spiking the bug juice is one thing, but I don't think Paul is making some ghostly chick appear in the water to lure you away.”

”Yeah. I know,” I said. I thought about the vision, the pyramid, the skull. Maybe I'd save that part-I looked over and found Lilly staring at me, one eyebrow raised. ”What?”

She kind of half laughed, a little hitched noise. ”You have a look like either you have to pee, or there's something you're not telling me.”

”Well, okay, yeah, there's one other thing.” I told her about the vision, about how it felt like my throat was being slit. When I was done, she just looked at me. ”It felt real,” I added.

”Whoa, okay, that's... I don't know what that is.” Lilly seemed to make up her mind then. ”We should check out that area again, over by the Aquinara. Maybe we can find the siren, or this temple thing, whatever that means. It's got got to be part of what's going on here, somehow.” to be part of what's going on here, somehow.”

”Yeah?” I said. ”Should we go now?”

Lilly thought for a moment. ”Nah. Tomorrow night. I've gotta be in the Preserve early in the morning to set up for predator-prey, and we have to keep up appearances, you know? We can't let Paul get an idea that this is going on.”

I glanced around into the darkness. ”He might be watching us right now, with bats, or even cameras in the trees. Who knows?”

Lilly just shrugged. ”Maybe. Still, even though most things here are completely lame, predator-prey is actually fun. We CITs get to be the top predators.” She smiled at me. ”You guys are so so dead.” dead.”

I didn't really know what she was talking about. ”No chance,” I said anyway, ”you'll never catch me.”

”Will too.” She nudged me with her shoulder. Our eyes met-stayed meeting.... I felt myself freezing in place.

Then Lilly twisted around. ”Ooh, I have something.”

She rummaged around behind us. ”Here,” she said. She had a soaking-wet plastic bag. Inside were two brownies. ”Felix in the kitchen gives me anything I want.”

”Of course he does,” I joked.

Lilly narrowed her eyes at me. ”Hey, watch it. You want one or not? I don't usually share when it comes to chocolate.”

She gave me a brownie and then lay back on the gra.s.s. Her movement pulled the blanket down, and me with it, so that we were shoulder-to-shoulder, staring up at the SimStars.

”They're so much brighter here than they were in Las Vegas,” said Lilly. ”There was a ton of city light there, until the end.”

”That's funny,” I said. ”Out at Yellowstone, the stars are way brighter than this. You can barely make out constellations, there are so many.”

Just as I said it, a cloud pa.s.sed over. Then more...

Something cold hit my eye. ”Ah!” I grabbed my face. Another hit my foot. Tiny cold splashes. ”What-?”

”Are you serious?” I glanced over and Lilly was staring at me. ”Owen, it's rain.”

”I've never seen rain,” I admitted. ”Or felt it.”

”Never? Really? I mean, we didn't get it much in Vegas either, but...”

I thought back to Hub. ”Every now and then you hear rumors that it's rained on the surface, overnight. One time I sneaked up top with some friends to look for puddles, 'cause people said that cougars or wild dogs would come to them, but we didn't find anything.”

”They turn on the rain once a week here in the summer. EdenWest,” Lilly said mockingly, ”fulfilling wet dreams since 2056.”

We laughed. The rain got heavier. I was blinking nonstop. ”It's cold,” I said, but then hated how wimpy it sounded 'cause I didn't mean it that way.

”Oh yeah?” Lilly suddenly pulled the blanket away. More icy fingers p.r.i.c.ked me, all over: face, chest, thighs.

”Agh!” I cringed as each one set off s.h.i.+vering tremors, and yet, they felt like little jolts of energy, too, and I had a grin so wide it almost hurt.

”We should celebrate,” said Lilly. ”Owen's first rainstorm.”

I felt her moving. Wait... Her leg brushed against mine, the side of her body moving against me. She appeared above me, her hair creating an umbrella, her body half on top of mine. Her smile had shortened, her mouth slightly parted, her lips right... there.... And I thought oh yes oh no oh G.o.d, could this possibly be the moment? Was this really going to happen?

I'd only kissed once before, a one-second thing with a girl named Sierra that had started our one week of dating. We only really went out because our mutual friends were, and the kiss had tasted like the canned salsa we'd just had at lunch, and our teeth had collided and it was so... not... this.

There were electric tremors running through me. I had no idea what to do, and yet I did, I could.... I started to crane my neck upward, toward Lilly, her giant eyes sharklike and black in the shadows and flickering candlelight- She shoved her brownie into my mouth. ”Double brownies for the rain virgin!” She rolled away, her warm body leaving me to the freezing water once more.

I fell back, awash in the drops, glad right then for how cold that water was. ”Ganks,” I said around the mouthful of mushy chocolate.

Lilly didn't reply, but she curled herself into a half moon, her head on my shoulder, and pulled the blanket over us both.

The rain picked up in intensity. My gills fluttered at the rivulets dripping down my neck.

”Why do you like me?” I asked quietly, beneath the hissing of water through leaves.

”Because you're Owen,” said Lilly.

”Yeah, but really...”

Lilly didn't answer.