Page 21 (1/2)

22

6:29 AM

FIREWORKS

"If Rex doesn&039;t show up on time, I&039;ll kill him"

Jonathan looked tiredly at Dess, then at his watch "He&039;s got another minute"

"One minute to live, you ets here in one minute, in which case he&039;s on time and you don&039;t kill him Or he&039;s late, which means he won&039;t be here, so you can&039;t kill him Either way he has lance at Flyboy He was ical sense, which was totally unfair at this ti

"Jess," she said "Tell Jonathan to stopsleepily on Flyboy&039;s shoulder, started to answer, but a yawn consu her hand noncommittally

"Wait a second," Jonathan said "Is that the?"

Dess felt her jaw dropping "No way!"

A pink Cadillac was ru across the furrows

"Rex said he had a new ride," Dess said with quiet awe "But I didn&039;t think he meant his mo hi hi Mary Kay cosnition of her millionth facial or whatever, she had received a pink Cadillac But Dess had never actually seen the fabled machine before; Rex refused to ride to school in it, and she&039;d never i through Jenks at daybreak like he owned the whole town

It rolled to a stop next to Jonathan&039;s car, and Flyboy barked out a short laugh as the frontca!"

"That&039;s Avon, actually," Melissa said as she stepped out of the Cadillac&039;s passenger side "You&039;re not even trying"

"Oh, right," Jonathan said "Well, it&039;s not like I have to try that hard I mean" He spread his arms to indicate the car "It&039;s so pink"

Flyboy&039;s voice trailed off as Rex stepped out, looked down at the car, and said, "Hey, yeah, it is I hadn&039;t noticed"

Then he turned back to theh of relief; that was the first joke he&039;dhair made him look more hu the darklings in his brain had worn off a little

"How did you get your mom to lend it to you?" she asked Since his father&039;s accident, Rex&039;s mother hardly ever showed her face in Bixby Dess couldn&039;t i joyride

"She dropped by for a visit night before last," Rex said "And I got the idea of pulling her starter cable out"

Dess&039;s eyes widened "Excuse me?"

"It was easy I snuck out while she was in the bathrooave his new evil set somewhere else, like always, so I called her a cab She&039;s already rented another Caddy, so this one&039;s mine until I tell her it&039;s fixed"

Dess and Jonathan exchanged a glance, and she saw that even Jessica had woken up enough to be impressed

"Rex," Dess said "That is so cold-blooded"

"True" He nodded "But I needed a car We have i us all out of bed at six-thirty on a Saturday ?" Flyboy asked

"Exactly" Rex looked at his watch "Come with me"

He led thelad that she&039;d worn a skirt that didn&039;t fall below her knees At this tirass was heavy with dew, and her sneakers got soaked as fast as if she&039;d been strolling through a car wash

As they an to crest over the distant tree line, its glaring eye finally putting a dent in the fierce pre-dawn chill

"This better be good, Rex"

"Don&039;t worry, Dess," he said "I think you&039;ll find it interesting"

"At six-thirty in the ,&039; Rex"

"I&039;m sure Jessica won&039;t disappoint us"

Dess looked at Jessica, who just shrugged back at her

Suddenly Dess noticed that Melissa hadn&039;t walked with theoddess? She&039;s not back at your Caddy sleeping, is she?"

Rex shook his head "She&039;ll be along in two hed "Hope this goes better than your last little scheuys," Jessica said nervously "Cassie Flinders lives right over there What if she sees us?"

"She won&039;t remember us"

"Are you sure about that?"

Rex raised an eyebrow "Why would she?"

Jessica looked over at the Flinders&039; double-ith an unhappy expression on her face "Well, I wasn&039;t going toout I was afraid to tell you guys in case" She didn&039;t finish

In case the bitch goddess decided to rip your little sister&039;s brain in half, Dess thought

She looked at Rex, wondering if he was about to do one of his psycho transfored "Everyone will know about the blue tih, Jessica It doesn&039;tstunned "That&039;s actually kind of a relief"

Flyboy put his ar about secrecy sent a h Dess As she turned away to study the rip, the realness of how Sa sank in yet another notch

The rip wasn&039;t glowing red here in normal tirass, as if the contortion were a giant piece of lawn furniture Maybe the darkShe noted the rip&039;s geo almost due east and west

She took out Geostationary and noted the coordinates of its center Al up at six-thirty in the hters around," Rex said

"That&039;s because they&039;re all in bed," Dess pointed out

Rex ignored her "I want to do a few experiments here today, and I want all of you to see the to be sed by this contortion And as we&039;ve noticed, the rip isn&039;t exactly the same size as the blue tiht?"

"Yeah," Dess said "But what&039;s the point? It&039;s not ht now"

"Not yet," Rex said

"No" Dess looked down at Geostationary "And it won&039;t be for another 62,615 seconds So why are we here so - ?"

"Whoa!" Jonathan interrupted "What&039;s up with Melissa?"

Dess turned to see the Cadillac galloping across the field It climbed up the railway eravel and dust as it bore down on the on

"Has she gone crazy?" Dess shouted

"Nope," Rex said, glancing at his watch "She&039;s right on tiet out of the way"

The four of them skidded down the slope of the embank forith a burst of acceleration, the spinning tires churning up a giant cloud of dust

Dess felt a tingling in her fingertips, stronger than she had in the lunchroom, and suddenly kneas about to happen

"It&039;s back," she said softly

"You got it," Rex answered

Dess looked up at the charging Cadillac with alarm "But won&039;t she?"

The inky blue of an eclipse swept in fro the icy wind and blanketing the world in silence The darkjust out of reach

Yet the Cadillac kept rolling across the red-tinged oval of the rip

Its engine died, the headlights going dark, but it didn&039;t freeze like it should have The car continued to coast until it finally skidded to a halt in a shower of dust and gravel

Dess blinked as she took in the sight: instead of throwing Melissa through the windshield, the pink Cadillac had maintained its momentum

"Is she okay in there?" Flyboy asked

Rex nodded "She&039;s fine As I suspected, the rip brings everything into the blue tiured if dead leaves could still fall, then dead metal would cross over too"

"It&039;s awfully lucky you figured right" Dess didn&039;t much care for Melissa anymore, but it wasn&039;t like she wanted her back in the hospital Her current scars were creepy enough

"She earing a seat belt," Rex said calmly

"Wait ato be an eclipse?"

He was silent for a"There&039;s a pattern I can see when they&039;re co, all of them between now and Saer"

"You can see a pattern?" Dess cried "Then write it down for me"

He shook his head "I can&039;t express it in nuive it to you" He pointed toward the Cadillac

The driver&039;s side door opened, and Melissa got out shakily, grinning from ear to ear "That was cool!"

Dess shook her head No as Melissa touching her again

"I thought you were afraid of driving fast," Jessica said

The bitch goddess shrugged "You have to face your fears to conquer the me lately"

"You two are both nuts," Dess said softly

Rex raised an eyebrow "This experiment wasn&039;t just for kicks, Dess We had to ht falls on Samhain, it won&039;t kill everyone who happens to be in a car Which is one less thing to worry about"

Everyone was quiet for a second, and Dess realized she hadn&039;t even thought about that If the rip really did expand to consu atthrough their windshields all at once

She sed This thing just got bigger and bigger the ht about it

"So cars are okay," Flyboy said, pushing hiht for a s But the big airliners will be a problem"