Chapter 40
Okay, don’t panic!”
“Betsy.”
“We just need to calm
the hell down!”
“All
right.”
I had my sister by
the shoulders and shook her briskly. “Just don’t go all hysterical
on me, Laura! Stay calm! Stay focused.”
“It’s hard for me to
see when you do that,” the Antichrist pointed out politely, and I
could see what she meant. What with all the shaking, her hair was
flying around like blonde cotton candy.
“Sorry! I’m a little
freaked out!” I let go of her and tottered around the room,
fighting the urge to rend my clothes or tear my hair out. “Okay,
let’s see. Let’s just calm down and see.”
Except there wasn’t
much to see. It was the same old
waiting room. But there was no way to leave the room. So it was the
nasty carpet and the flickering fluorescents and the beat-up
receptionist’s desk. And doors, of course. Lots of closed doors.
Lots of locked doors.
“I think,” Laura
said, studying the room, “our celebration was a little
premature.”
“No
shit.”
“And I think we’re
supposed to pick another door.”
“My! We’re really
clever today, aren’t we?”
“Better clever than
bitchy.”
“Hey!” She looked at
me and waited, eyebrows arched, but I shrugged. “Yeah, I got
nothin’. I was being bitchy. It’s my
superpower.”
Laura seemed to
lighten up a little. “So we can run around this stinking little
room and yell and have hysterics. Or, we can get back to
work.”
“I s’pose doing both
isn’t an option.”
“It is, but it seemed
so dumb and bitchy, it was hardly worth mentioning.”
“You’re enjoying
yourself.”
She shrugged and
smiled. “Not ... entirely.”
“Ugh. Fine, fine. You
know what? My own stupid fault for being dumb enough to think we
could go to hell and travel through time and things wouldn’t suck.” I threw up my hands again. “Pick a
random door, which will throw us into a random corner of hell. Or
earth. Or earth’s past. Good thing we’ve got a guarantee that
nothing will go wrong. Oh, wait! We don’t.”
Laura grasped a
handle. Shook it briskly—no joy, locked firm. Then her eyes widened
and she pointed. “What happened to your shoe?”
Terror the likes of
which I rarely felt unless someone was on fire rose in me, and even
before I looked I had a shriek ready. But it was weird, because I
couldn’t see my shoe at all.
All I could see was
...
... was
...
How come I could only see Laura’s fist and why was it
coming at me in slow motion and wow my head hurts a lot but at
least I’m a fast fast fast fast
A fast healer! That
was it! That’s what I was.
Yup.
Definitely.
Right?