Heartless Read Free Page A

on.
    I leaped over an icy stream, sliding my bare feet across its frozen, pebbled edges. I felt nothing.
    Maybe I really am dead.
    I tripped over a rock and tumbled head-over-heels down a hill.
    That didn’t hurt. I must be dead.
    I pulled myself to my feet and pulled the parka tighter around my body, more out of habit than need.
    Am I crazy? Drugged?
    I’d heard of drugs that stopped pain or caused hallucinations; I’d seen friends strung out on some of them. But I’d never heard of a drug that allowed you to live without breathing. And though I ran, and ran fast, in the dry, icy air, never once did a pant or even a shallow, panicked breath escape my frantic lips.
    Time passed while I ran, but I wasn’t aware of how much until the sun began to set behind the mountains. When it was so dark that the only light came from a bright, waxing moon, I found a spot under some overhanging rock. It was mostly free of snow, a reasonable shelter in which to pass the night, so I sat down and pulled my knees to my chest. At least I won’t be cold, I thought, and I came close to smiling. Whatever was going on, it had at least one benefit. I’d always hated being cold.
    The night passed slowly. I tried to sleep, but whenever I closed my eyes, my brain swirled and twirled in a dance of terror. The more I tried to shut it down, the harder it worked. By sunrise, all I had were more questions.
    Like, why wasn’t I cold? And why wasn’t I even the least bit tired? And what was that green gunk on the snow beside me? It looked just like the goo from the morgue, and it made me want to hurl.
    With the first crystal glimmers of sunrise came more bits of rational thought. I needed to find help. I needed to walk instead of run so that I wouldn’t break my neck on top of everything else. And I needed to figure out where I was and what to do next.
    In a flash, I knew. I needed Lucy. My roommate. Lucy had a way of solving everything. She was just that kind of a girl.
    And thus a second choice was made, small though it seemed at the time. I pulled Lucy into the dangerous web surrounding me, and changed her life forever.
     
     
    O nce I realized what I needed, it was easy enough to accomplish. Initial waves of panic finally abated, I took a deep, unnecessary breath and crossed my fingers, hoping for a little bit of luck in the soft dawn light. I eased my way out of the rocky overhang, and turned to look up. The rock under which I’d passed the night was at the base of Mount Schnoz, aptly named by Smytheville students because of its resemblance to a giant nose, sniffing the hills around it. There were two caves on the southeastern side of the mountain that looked like nostrils and doubled as make-out spots for students in the warmer months.
    I’d been sitting, cowering, in the left nostril.
    My first break of the day. Mount Schnoz was less than five miles from campus. I started to jog.
    I reached campus quickly, making use of my newfound ability to run flat-out without ever getting out of breath, or, you know, needing any breath. The gates of campus were welcoming, if snow-covered, offering a promise of security beyond their awe-inspiring arches.
    I crossed the threshold onto campus and immediately relaxed. Comparatively speaking, of course, since I still couldn’t feel my heartbeat. But at least I was home. I pulled the parka’s hood over my head, shielding myself from the lone runner heading toward the track for his morning workout. It was early, based on what little I knew of the sun’s path through the New England winter sky, but it felt strange for my typically bustling campus to be so stark and empty. Especially on what I thought was a Thursday morning (because hadn’t I left Eli’s on a Wednesday night? Wasn’t it a Thursday? Suddenly I wasn’t sure), when classes started early and winter sports started even before that.
    Is it a snow day? I wondered. Did they finally close campus? I looked down to my feet, buried in the snow, and