The Worlds We Make Read Free Page A

backward, his arm jarring against the corner of the desk. The blanket tangled around his legs. He thrashed at it while he groped for the bookcase behind him.
    I eased upright, my heart thumping. “Gav…” I said, but I didn’t know how to continue.
    Gav snatched a book off the shelves and hurled it at the opposite wall. I edged to the side, holding out my hands. “There’s nothing here, Gav,” I said in the most soothing voice I could call up. Only a faint, quivering light was seeping under the door from the living room. I fumbled for the flashlight and switched it on. “It’s me. Kaelyn. You’re safe.”
    I’m not sure if he heard me. He slammed himself back against the bookcase, fixated on whatever horror his virus-addled brain had conjured up. I wavered on my feet.
    When Meredith had gotten this bad, back on the island, I’d taken her to the hospital and helped the doctor inject her with sedatives and tie restraints around her. All I could do for Gav was watch.
    I stepped toward him, and his gaze darted to me, his pupils so dilated they consumed almost all the color in his eyes. He hefted another book.
    “Stay back!” he said. “Get away from me!”
    The floor creaked on the other side of the door. “What’s going on?” Justin said.
    Gav’s head snapped toward the door. He flung himself at it, falling to his knees as the blanket tripped him.
    “I want out of here!” he yelled, pawing at the doorknob. “Let me out!”
    I reached for him, and he slapped my hand away. With a heave, he rammed the door open while propelling himself to his feet. Leo, Tobias, and Justin had gathered outside the doorway, Anika poised behind them. They stared at Gav, and he at them. Then he lunged.
    I threw myself after him, grabbing his elbow. He spun with a sound I could only describe as a snarl, and slammed me into the door frame. I gasped as pain radiated up my back and though my skull. His elbow slipped from my hand.
    “Whoa!” Tobias said firmly, catching Gav by the shoulder. Leo grasped his other wrist.
    “He’s just sick,” I said through the throbbing of my head. “He’s just…”
    “Let go of me, let me go, let me go!” Gav cried, struggling, but he must have burned through whatever strength he’d had left in his starved body. As he sagged toward the floor, Leo and Tobias hauled him back into the office. Justin shifted, eyeing me.
    “You all right?”
    “Yeah,” I said, but I staggered when I tried to straighten up. A fresh jab of pain shot up the back of my head. My eyes watered, and my gut clenched.
    Gav had done that. Gav had wanted to hurt me.
    Not him, I reminded myself. The virus. Only the virus.
    “No!” Gav was shouting. “No, no, no, no!” Tobias and Leo stumbled out of the room, Leo clutching the cold box. Tobias shoved the door shut, and an instant later fists pounded against it. The knob rattled.
    “Don’t let him out,” Anika said, backing away. Her face had gone sallow in the firelight. Leo braced himself against the door.
    “Put something in front of it,” Justin said, and Tobias pointed to the dining room armoire. They dashed over and pushed it along the wall to the office door. The knob thumped against it. Gav’s frantic voice carried through the wood.
    “You can’t! Don’t leave me here! It’s going to—Please, let me go!”
    I covered my ears, tears welling behind my closed eyelids. Someone touched my shoulder—lightly, but I flinched.
    “Kae?” Leo said. “How badly did he hurt you?”
    “It wasn’t him!” I snapped. It wasn’t him we’d trapped in that room, alone with the images that were tormenting him. It wasn’t.
    Because in every way that mattered, the Gav I knew was already completely gone.
    Through the night, I sat in the corner while Gav raved and raged on the other side of the wall. Despite the warmth wafting from the fireplace, the others retreated to the second floor. I didn’t blame them. How could anyone sleep there in the living room, hearing