Terror Read Free Page B

was as if the only people allowed outside were guys, all of whom were staring at her. Not that a sprinting woman wasn’t a spectacle, but they all seemed more annoyed than concerned. A man on his stoop sneered, then looked away. She bumped into a younger guy who gave her a sideways look of pure hatred. When she turned around to apologize, she found that he’d turned around, too. He looked like he wanted to eat her.
    Walking up the wide staircase to the mahogany front door of the boardinghouse, Gaia searched her pockets for keys. Where were they? She jammed her hands into all four pockets. Nothing. She wouldn’t feel safe until she was inside her bedroom and the door was locked. She slid off her backpack and rummaged through the pockets. A man carrying a brown paper sack stumbled toward her from the right. Gaia dug deeper into her backpack.
    â€œOh, yeah, baby!” the man said. “That’s my girl, right there.”
    Gaia knew better than to respond. She’d never felt panic like this over such a trifling little encounter. Groping through the backpack, her hand was like a blunt, useless object, unattached to her brain. It was as if she’d lost all hand-eye coordination.
    Where the hell are my keys?
    â€œBaby, how about you give it up for an old friend?All I need is eighty cents to catch the bus back to Jersey.”
    Gaia handed the man a dollar.
    â€œTold you that’s my girl!” the man said. “Bless you, baby.”
    â€œNo problem,” Gaia deadpanned, still fishing through her backpack.
He’s just a homeless guy. It’s no big deal Chill out.
    â€œYou ever been out to Jersey?” the man asked. “’Cause we could take the 126 bus out there and have us a nice dinner, you know….”
    Gaia heard a jingling sound. Keys!
Thank God.
She located the right one and shoved it into the keyhole. “No, thanks,” she said hurriedly. “Good luck. Good night.” She ran through the lobby to the staircase. After lunging upward two stairs at a time, she found her jittery, uncoordinated fingers fumbling to get the key in the lock.
    She finally made it inside. She propped her forehead against the door, sweating and heaving like she’d just completed the New York City Marathon.
    I’m safe,
she thought,
home safe.
Gaia had heard about New Yorkers who barely left their apartments and had always felt contempt for them. The whole point of paying New York’s cover charge of jacked-up rent and obscene prices for just about everything was to get out there and participate in the whole ensemble-cast drama of the city. But forthe moment, she was perfectly content with this guaranteed alone time. All she needed was her bed and a book. And the remote control. Nothing ventured, nothing lost.
    Gaia tore off her clothes and threw on pajamas. She put in a Sade CD that Sam had given her and pressed play, then switched the TV to the Cartoon Network on mute. She should be enjoying her normal girl status right now. There was no reason to go out there. It was okay to be alone in this boxy room, opting out of the world’s dangers.
    But the problem with avoidance was that the mind did whatever it wanted. And right now her mind couldn’t stop thinking about that run-in with Oliver. That deranged look in his eyes toward the end of the conversation. Had that been Loki? Was he back? Or even worse, potentially, what if that actually
had been
Oliver and his warning had been totally legit? In that case she wouldn’t have to fear
him
so much as every other Joe Random on the street.
    And what about Ed? The thought of him, blue with bruises and eyes closed, lying on one of those metal-sided hospital beds, made her almost nauseous. She should be with him right now. How many times had Ed supported her when she’d been teetering on the precipice? And now, when she should be reciprocating for all those years of support, she’d bugged out just a block away from