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It was all for you
The sky was a dull gray when the train arrived at the station in Maine The rain ca lot, where a line of black taxis aiting The driver of the first rolled down his
"Attica Falls," I said, and climbed into the backseat The seats were made of cheap upholstery and the ere tinted, which colored the snowy landscape outside in sepia, as if ere traveling through an old photograph And in a way, I was
Attica Falls looked exactly the same as it had last year, the potholed roads lined with dilapidated houses and little shops that o, but now just looked dreary The snow flanking the street was dirty, and the stores all looked closed, save for Beatrice’s and a souvenir shop As we passed the boarding house where Dante used to live, I closedto see if I could sense hi
When I opened h Attica Falls I saw an old as station to his truck He watched us as we passed, black water splashing onto the s of the truck as we rounded the bend to the main entrance of Gottfried Acade of the Undead A plastic bag kicked around the street in front of us and then floated up into the sky Atus at a snowy field at the edge of town
Slinging my shovel over my shoulder, I led Noah to the well shaded by crab apple trees in the back of the field The same place Dante had taken me last winter
"What is this?" Noah said as I brushed the snow off the cover of the well The air inside groaned as I lifted it off, letting out a burst of warmth
"Maine has a tunnel system, too," I said, and lowered myself into the earth
I led Noah through the tunnel,the turns as if I had just woken up froirls’ dormitory to shower before class We surfaced in the chapel, behind a corroded vent Everything was still, the light filtering through the rose-colored s like a kaleidoscope
"No one can see us," I said as we crept through the pews We pushed with all our weight against the chapel doors until they opened against the wind
The rain was a cold mist e stepped outside A few feet away fro the trunk of a tree into pieces and throwing it into so ere revealed, but he just tipped his cap and kept working He ht wave, alked off, keeping within the shadows of the buildings But as I gazed around at the ca looked the same, yet wholly different, like a piece of fruit that had becoreen was covered with ice and slush In the reat oak used to be, now stood a pathetic skeleton of a tree All of the branches on its right side had been amputated In fact,paths had now been cut down, leaving severed stu out of the snow like headstones
"What happened?" I said, and glanced at the stu beetle pesticide, it said
"It doesn’thow quickly soreen to the lake, the sun a glazed red over the trees, it almost felt like I had traveled back in time to last winter I stopped in front of the dis that I was running back to the dor Dante What version of the past was that? Had I known then that Dante was Undead? That I was a Monitor? That we had the same soul?
Dusk fell over the trees as Noah and I ran toward the lake It was co beneath me as I slid across its bumpy surface I stared down at the striations in the ice, which looked like thick blue ribbon candy, but I couldn’t see to the water below I didn’t knohat I was looking for; I could only hope that I would feel it
I had almost made it to the statue of the bear on the other side of the lake when I heard a soft crack I wasn’t even sure I’d heard it; it could have been a tree creaking or aclosing in the distance So I pressed on,beneath me quivered And before I could move, before I could even take one last breath, the ice broke
Just before I could fall in, Noah grabbed my waist and pulled me to the shore, where I landed beside hi back in the snow, I stared at the gray sky and was about to say thank you, when I felt it A tug so slight it could have been nothing; except it wasn’t I had felt it once before, duringhis heels into the snow, Noah stood up, but I didn’t move Instead, I closed my eyes and let the thread of air wrap itself aroundme down, down into the depths of the lake
Suddenly I knehat to do I threnup, I unbuttoned ?" Noah said as I approached the hole in the ice
"It’s down there I can feel it," I said, taking off my scarf "About ten feet below, a little to the left"
"You can’t go in there," Noah said "It’s too cold You could die"
"How else are we going to get it?" Turning from him, I stepped off the shore and onto the ice The hole was a few feet away "Besides," I said, trying to control the shiver in my voice, "it’s in the shallows It won’t be that bad," I said,in the winter air