Chapter 15 · Heartbeat on the Tracks

Every light in the station snapped on at once.

Not warm light. Not normal light.

The dead white bulbs over the platform buzzed so hard my teeth hurt. Red emergency strips lit under the benches. The old ad screens across the tracks came alive with static, then showed nothing but a black door standing open in a room I couldn’t place.

My blood was still dripping from my finger.

One drop hit the rail.

The whole station answered.

“Finally,” Micah’s voice said through the dark tunnel. “You came.”

I froze with the lock pick still pinched between my fingers.

“No.” Elias caught my wrist before I could move. His hand was ice cold. “Don’t answer it.”

“That’s my brother.”

“That is not your brother.”

The voice came again, softer this time. Scared.

“Nora?”

My stomach folded in on itself.

That was Micah. That was the exact crack in his voice he got when he was trying not to sound scared. He’d had it when he was eight and got locked in the apartment bathroom. He’d had it when Mom disappeared for three days and came back with bruises under both eyes.

“Nora, please.”

I yanked my wrist free.