Fallen 2. Torment(73)

In frustration, Luce screamed and swung her fists at the Announcer--first one,

then the other, raining blows upon the scene before her. She struck out at it again and

again, heaving and crying as she tried her best to stop what was going to transpire.

Then it happened: Her right fist broke through and her arm sank in up to her

elbow. Instantly, she felt the shock of a temperature change. The heat of a summer sunset

spreading across her palm. Gravity shifted. Luce couldn't tell which way was up or down.

She felt her stomach recoiling and feared she was going to throw up.

She could go through. She could save her old self. Tentatively, she stretched her

left arm forward. It, too, disappeared into the Announcer, like passing through a bright,

clammy sheet of Jell-O that rippled and widened as if it could just let her through.

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"It wants me to," she said aloud. "I can do this. I can save her. I can save my life."

She leaned back slightly and then thrust her body into the Announcer.

There was sunlight, so bright she had to close her eyes, and a warmth so tropical a

sheen of sweat immediately broke out on her skin. And a nauseating scene of gravity

tilting and upending, like at the height of a dive. In a moment she'd be falling-Except something had hold of her left ankle. And her right. That something was

pulling Luce very forcefully backward.

"No!" Luce cried out, because she could see now, could see, far below, a burst of

yellow in the water. Too bright to be the halter top of her bathing suit. Was long-ago

Luce already burning up?

Then it all vanished.

Luce was yanked roughly back into the cool, dim patch of redwood trees behind

the Shoreline dorm. Her skin felt cold and clammy and her balance was all screwed up

and she fell flat on her face in the dirt and redwood needles on the forest floor. She rolled

over and saw two figures in front of her, but her vision was spinning so much she

couldn't even tell who they were.

"I thought I'd find you here."

Shelby. Luce shook her head and blinked a few times. Not just Shelby, but Miles,

too. Both of them looked exhausted. Luce was exhausted. She glanced at her watch, not

surprised by now to see how long she'd spent glimpsing the Announcer. It was after one

in the morning. What were Miles and Shelby still doing up?

"Wh-What ... what were you trying to ...," Miles stammered, pointing at the place

where the Announcer had been. She looked over her shoulder. It had splintered into

hundreds of shadowy pine needles that rained down, brittle enough to turn to ash where

they landed.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Luce muttered, rolling to the side and aiming

behind a nearby tree. She heaved a few times, but nothing came up. She closed her eyes,

racked with guilt. She'd been too weak and too late to save herself.

A cool hand reached around and pulled her short blond waves back from her face.

Luce saw Shelby's frayed black yoga pants and flip-flopped feet and felt a wave of

gratitude.

"Thanks," she said. After a long moment, she wiped her mouth and unsteadily got

to her feet. "Are you mad at me?"

"What mad? I'm proud of you. You figured it out. Why do you even need

someone like me anymore?" Shelby gave Luce a one-shoulder shrug.

"Shelby--"

"No, I'll tell you why you need me," Shelby blurted. "To keep you out of

catastrophes like the one you almost just threw yourself into! Willy-nilly, might I add.

What were you trying to do? Do you know what happens to people who go inside

Announcers?"

Luce shook her head.

"Me neither, but I doubt it's pretty!"

"You just have to know what you're doing," Miles said suddenly from behind

them. His face looked paler than normal. Luce must really have shaken him up.

"Oh, and I presume you know what you're doing?" Shelby challenged.

"No," he mumbled. "But one summer my parents made me take a workshop with

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this old angel who knew how, okay?" He turned to Luce. "And the way you were doing

it? Wasn't even close. You really scared me, Luce."

"I'm sorry." Luce winced. Shelby and Miles were acting like she'd betrayed them

by coming out here alone. "I thought you guys were going to the campfire behind the

lodge."

"We thought you were going," Shelby shot back. "We were there for a while, but

then Jasmine started crying about how Dawn had disappeared, and the teachers got all

weird, especially when they realized you were missing too, so the party kinda broke up.

So then I mention casually to Miles that I kind of sort of have an idea what you might be

up to and that I'm off to find you and suddenly he's Mr. Superglue--"

"Wait a minute," Luce broke in. "Dawn disappeared? "