Dead Connections

Chapter 16 - Oh darn, I'm dying...

“Sssh,” I hissed at Blake, who had just sneezed. “We can’t get caught.”

“Sorry,” he replied. “I can’t help sneezing.”

I took his arm and led him along the dark empty hotel corridor until we came to an elevator. Too noisy. At this time of the day even an elevator would perk curiosity to those who paid a lot of attention to small details.

“We’ll have to take the stairs,” I decided, squinting into the darkness. I could just about see the top few stairs right at the end of the corridor. I led Blake over there and then started to make my way down them, flinched each time the stairs creaked of groaned.

When we made it out of the hotel we ran, rapid and hasty. We didn’t stop until we were a good half a mile away from the hotel. No one would have followed us that far. We both stopped. Blake collapsed on a bench, his hands on his knees, breathing in deeply. I stood leant against a wall to a shop. I was fine. I hadn’t lost my breath at all, whereas Blake seemed to be struggling just to get enough.

“Are you alright?” I asked gently. He looked up, his face read and sweaty.

“I’m f………fine,” Blake said, gulping in breaths in between. “So where…….. do we……… go now?”

“I don’t really know?” I lied with a simple convincing shrug. Of course I knew where I needed to go but I couldn’t actually let him come with me. I had to go back to Ember’s tree house. I had to find out exactly who Unseen was and what all of the stuff on the files meant. There had defiantly been a few more files that I could look through so I needed to do that soon, before Unseen advanced any further. I wandered where he was at that moment. I wandered if he was killing Drew, or hurting him, or if he was hunting me down. I glanced over my shoulder, a sudden chill surging down my back. He could be watching me right now, positioning a gun at my head. As a response to this thought I sharply turned away, leading Blake away from the streets a lot quicker.

Blake smelt of spray. He’d obviously tried to drown himself in it earlier whilst he was getting dressed. I ignored it, although it seemed to burn my lungs with a familiar stench.

“Are you…. Alright?” Blake, general concern on his features.

“I’m fine,” I replied quickly, sharply. Blake stared at me, shocked by my rapid response. The swarming streets were lit up with lights. It was surprising that there were so many people out and it wasn’t yet even 6am. The roads were still packed and the lights flashed oranges, whites, blues and reds in an enchanting way.

Out of Helen’s backpack, I retrieved James’s map. It was pretty large and old, with a coffee mug strain on the cover and torn sides. I held it up in front of me, scanning all the paths, roads and streets.

There were three possible ways to get back to Ember from here. The first was through the whole of London, through the crowded streets and paths. The second was to go around London, traveling to the east and arriving later than expected. The third was to snake along the more deserted streets. I knew I’d have to choose the third option.

Blake looked at me innocently, his head cocked to the side.

“Do you know where we’re going?” he asked me and I nodded.

“Of course I do,” I muttered in return. “I thought I said you weren’t meant to ask any questions.”

“I wasn’t being serious when I agreed to that Sky,” he told me with a cheeky grin. “Anyway, I’m just curious.”

“Ok,” I muttered, sighing. Blake blankly stared at me. He could see right through me.

We walked for a fair few hours, following the maps directions, but as we got more and more tired, we eventually caught a bus that led us through London at a much more efficient speed. The taxi driver didn’t talk much which gave me and Blake a chance to talk through what we were going to do next. I lied, telling him I had to find a certain person who was able to rescue Drew.