Touching Darkness Read Free

stalker!”
    Jonathan’s voice grew soft. “Who just happens to be here at midnight? Watching your house?”
    “He can’t possibly know anything. He’s a stiff.”
    “I guess.” He took a tentative step closer to the man, snapping his fingers in front of his face. No response.
    “What do we do, Jonathan?”
    He bit his lip. “I guess we go see Rex tomorrow and ask him what this means.” He turned back to her. “For right now, you have to go back in.”
    “What?” She looked at her window. She’d left it open, protected only by a gauzy curtain. “I don’t want to go back in there with him… watching.”
    “You have to, Jess. Midnight’s over soon. You don’t want to get caught out here. You’d be grounded forever.”
    “I know, but…” She looked at the man. There were worse things than being grounded.
    “I’ll stay right here,” Jonathan said. “I’ll hide and wait until midnight ends and make sure he doesn’t do anything.”
    Jessica’s feet were rooted to the spot, normal gravity heavy on her.
    “Go on, Jess. I’ll be watching him.”
    There was no use arguing. The midnight moon was setting, and she didn’t want to sneak back in the window during normal time. Once the man unfroze, she was probably safer inside than out. She touched Jonathan’s arm. “Okay. But be careful.”
    “Everything’s going to be fine, I promise. I’ll call you tomorrow morning.” He kissed her hard and long this time, giving her one last taste of featherlightness. Then Jessica crossed the street and crawled in through her window.
     
    The obsessively neat room seemed cold now, unwelcoming in the blue light. Jess ran her fingers along the bottom of the windowsill, feeling the thirteen thumbtacks. In a few minutes they would be useless. Number magic couldn’t protect her from the man outside. Soon even Demonstration would be just a flashlight.
    She shut the sash and locked it, then moved around the room, securing the other windows.
    A glance at her watch confirmed that she didn’t have time to check the locks in the whole house, not without waking up her parents or Beth. But she had to do something. She went to the neatly organized drawer of scissors, tape, and computer disks, found a rubber stop, and wedged it beneath her bedroom door. At least if anyone tried to come into her room, they’d make a lot of noise.
    Still, Jessica knew she wasn’t going to get much sleep tonight.
    Sitting on the floor, her back against the door, she waited, clutching Demonstration in her hands. It might not do its flamethrower thing in normal time, but with its heavy steel shaft, it was better than nothing.
    Jessica closed her eyes, waiting for the safety of the blue time to end.
    The jolt came again—softer, as always when the suspended moment of midnight finished. The floor trembled beneath her, the world shuddering as it started up again.
    A noise reached her ears and her eyes jerked open, her knuckles white against the flashlight. Color had flooded back into the room. There were hard shadows and bright, sharp details everywhere. Jessica squinted through the suddenly harsh light, eyes darting from window to window.
    Then she saw what had made the noise and let out a sigh of relief. The quarter sat on her floor where it had finally fallen, bright against the dark wood.
    Jessica crawled over and peered down at it.
    “Tails,” she muttered.

12:01 a.m.
FLATLAND
 
    Normal time came down on Jonathan like a lead blanket.
    He lay flat on the roof, just above the man with the camera. Jonathan’s arms and legs were spread to gather more of the shingles’ friction, but as gravity returned, he slid for a dizzying second down the tilt of the roof. A scraping noise escaped from under him, and he cursed silently.
    Then Jonathan heard the whir of the camera below, a string of insistent whispers that jumped to life as normal time began. The man had been taking multiple exposures, across the exact moment of midnight. That was bad news.