Exit Plans for Teenage Freaks

by Nathan Burgoine

  I waited a few moments longer, but nothing happened, so I reached out and touched the door again.

  Nothing. In fact, I couldn’t feel even the slightest draw from the door. I pushed, and there was some give, and the sense that everywhere might be behind the block if I pushed hard enough but…nope. Besides, I didn’t want to undo whatever I just did.

  Locking the door for them locked me out, too. Huh. I wondered how long it would take to wear off. It was just a gut feeling, but I was pretty sure this wasn’t a permanent thing.

  Either way, given that I’d attracted attention, maybe it was time to go home and call it a morning for teleportation practice before someone saw me skulking in front of my old house. I had six hours until I could meet up with Lexa again. Maybe I should go over my biology notes.

  “My life is weird,” I said.

  I started walking.

  * * *

  Again.

  I replayed the conversation.

  “We need to relock your gift again.”

  Beardy had said again. And then he’d twitched like he’d made a mistake.

  I crossed the street and shoved my hands in my pockets. They’d said they were going to bury my memories. That false memory of burning alive in the museum, that would definitely have been traumatic, and Beardy seemed to think my brain would just repress it. And with it, my so-called “gift” and my memory of teleporting to the museum. I wondered what kind of fallout would have happened had he given me traumatic memories of my locker and Malik’s room and every other accidental trip across town I’d taken. I’d have holes in my memory, but would I still have the rest of it? Or would everything from the last two weeks to now just be gone? I’d already lived through that kind of thing once, and I—

  “Oh my God.”

  I stopped walking.

  Mrs. Easton. Colenap.

  “We need to relock your gift again.”

  Again.

  My heart was hammering in my chest. But…it made sense. I’d been a kid, and I’d been found at Mrs. Easton’s house. Everyone had assumed she’d kidnapped me, even when she swore she hadn’t. She’d sworn she hadn’t even known I’d been in her backyard. She’d sworn the door was locked.

  How else could I have gotten there? I was too small to climb a fence. I couldn’t have gotten that far from the last time I’d been seen without someone grabbing me in a car. My feet were clean.

  Except.

  Except I could. Cole Tozer very much could get across town in a blink of an eye.

  I’d been found asleep in her backyard beside a locked door, and she’d all but broken down trying to get people to believe that she hadn’t snatched me. The only reason she didn’t get jail time was that I was unharmed.

  That and the fact I couldn’t remember anything other than waking up with some cats.

  Did Beardy—or whoever was the Beardy back then—pop in to give me a mind-wipe?

  There was no way to know, but it felt right.

  Like, for the first time ever I felt like maybe I had it right about what had happened to me. It was more than just an instinct.

  It also pissed me off.

  I started walking again, angry enough I was almost stomping my way down the sidewalk. I’d been branded an outcast for years because of that one afternoon, and if the teleporting freaks thought I was up for a second round, they were way off.

  There would be no melting of Cole Tozer’s brain. Not now. Not ever.

  By the time I made it to the park, I’d stopped swearing under my breath and I wasn’t clenching my fists anymore. I got to the public bathroom door and grabbed it with purpose.

  The maze of everywhere beyond my fingertips snapped to attention, like it had been waiting all along for me to get mad. It burned into my head, and I knew I wasn’t just being loud. I was deafening. The longer I held the door, the angrier I got. At even the briefest thought of a place, the memory of it flew through the connections and told me: Here. This one. This was the museum. This was Malik’s bedroom. This is your room. This is your old house.

  This is Mrs. Easton’s backyard.

  They did this to me once already. They wanted to do it again.

  To hell with them.

  Home, I told the door. Not my old one. The real one. Now.

  Poof.

  * * *

  I was five hours into the six-hour countdown to seeing Lexa-with-the-blue-hair again, and I was still pretty pissed. I’d dragged my biology notes out and taken over half the couch. My mom was sitting in her chair reading. She asked me to either stop sighing or to go to my room, so I let it go and tried not to stare at my phone, waiting for the last hour to go by without being impatient. It wasn’t working, but at least my mother wasn’t annoyed at me making noise anymore.

  My phone pinged.

  It was Malik. I’m done work. You free?

  I glanced up. My mom had been rereading one of her Dita Wallace books for the last few hours. My dad was doing something on his computer in his office.

  “If I wanted to go hang out with a friend for a while, would that be okay?” I said. “I’ll be home for dinner.”

  “Malik?” My mother lowered her book, and the smile she aimed at me was so over-the-top I wanted to crawl into the sofa cushions.

  “Yes,” I said, my face burning. “Malik.”

  “Sure,” my mother said with another big smile. “Keep in touch. And have fun.”

  Gah. Parents.

  Yep, I sent. Where are you?

  Still at work. Just finished.

  I got up and grabbed my jacket. I eyed my front door warily, considering, and then remembered how angry I was at the teleporting brain-melters, and with a deeply felt to hell with them, I poofed my way to the grocery store. Effortless. Some switch had definitely been flipped. Outside the grocery store, Malik had his back to me, still looking at his phone.

  “Hey,” I said.

  Malik turned around, doing a double take. “Did you just…?”

  I nodded. “I’m sort of practicing.”

  He stared at me.

  I stared back.

  “Uh, so,” I said, thinking maybe poofing in was sort of overeager and a little bit sad. “How was work?”

  He laughed. “Really? You do your…thing…and you want to know how work was?”

  “Hey, there’s no cool moment I can’t make awkward,” I said.

  He laughed. “You know what? You—”

  I didn’t get to find out what. Because with a triple burst of staccato pops I could feel behind my rib cage, we weren’t alone.

  I whirled on my heel. All three of the brain melters were standing outside the grocery store.

  I hadn’t locked the damn door. I was such an idiot.

  Twenty-Four

  “We need to go,” I said, grabbing Malik’s arm.

  “Cole?” he said. He eyed the three men.

  Beardy McBeardface scowled at me, then looked at Malik with way too much attention.

  “Keep the hell away from me,” I said.

  Freckle-Face took a step forward, but Beardy put his hand out, stopping him.

  I gave Malik’s arm a little tug. “Come on,” I said. I pulled him away, and he walked with me. I kept my head turned, watching the three men.

  They didn’t follow us, though they did take a couple of steps forward to keep us in their line of sight for the first little while. That wasn’t creepy in the slightest, oh no. Finally, they dropped out of view, which was great. I pointed ahead.

  “Let’s go around the corner,” I said, “and then we can—”

  But that plan needed to be scrapped right off. Once we’d hooked around the corner, we didn’t go three steps before I saw Beardy McBeardface coming out of the pharmacy, two doors down.

  “Cole?” Malik said again. He sounded freaked. I didn’t blame him.

  “These are the guys who grabbed me,” I said. I looked around. Where were the other two?

  Beardy got to the sidewalk and then stopped. He was definitel
y in the way.

  “What do we do?” Malik said.

  Good question. I was fingerspelling like mad. Door. Door. Door. We were right in the middle of a whole bunch of businesses. There wasn’t a block in any direction that didn’t have enough doorways for Beardy and the brain-melters to use. No matter which way I tried to go with Malik, they’d be able to skip ahead of us.

  Wait.

  What had Lexa said?

  Like skipping a rock.

  “Do you trust me?” I said. I glanced at the pharmacy door meaningfully.

  Malik looked at me. Nodded.

  I held out my hand, and he took it, squeezing a bit tighter than maybe necessary.

  Beardy didn’t take long to clue in. He opened his mouth as though he wanted to yell something at me, then closed it, starting for us. Malik and I all but ran. Beardy tried to get between us, but Malik gave him a rough shove and we were past him. We hit the pharmacy door.

  Poof.

  Malik tried to let go of my hand outside the public bathrooms by the locks, but I shook my head. I could already feel them. Just being close to the door, I had this sense of them. Pressure in my skull. I could lock it, maybe.

  No, no time.

  “We need to keep going. They can follow,” I said, then pushed on the door again, pulling Malik with me.

  Poof.

  Candice smiled at us, noticed we were holding hands, and then offered me a big grin for about half a second before the smile slipped off her face.

  “You okay, Cole?”

  I probably looked like a lunatic.

  “Just need to use your bathroom,” I said, dragging Malik through Meeples.

  “Thanks!” Malik called out behind us.

  We hit the bathroom door.

  Poof.

  The music room at school.

  Poof.

  The Inn.

  Poof.

  Poof.

  Poof.

  Poof.

  “Cole!”

  Malik’s voice made me stop. We were outside the town library. I’d lost track of how many doors we’d used.

  Malik shook his head, and I finally let go of his hand. He took a step back, leaning against the wall of the library and taking deep breaths. He looked like he was going to hurl.

  “One sec,” I said, turning to the library doors. Looking through the glass, it didn’t look like anyone was about to come through, so I pressed my hands against them.

  The whole of everywhere was beneath my fingertips. And so was the feeling of other people doing exactly what I was doing—touching everywhere, and looking, feeling for something, or someone.

  For me.

  I pushed with my mind, hard. Slamming and locking the library doors.

  Everywhere vanished.

  “Okay,” I said. Malik looked a bit better.

  “That was incredible,” he said. He blinked a few times.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Honestly? I kinda want to barf.”

  “Sorry,” I said.

  My phone pinged. I blinked and pulled it out.

  It was a text from my dad. Almost dinner time, it said. I looked at the clock. “Holy crap.”

  I was panting. Malik raised his eyebrow.

  “Sorry, I’m just…” I shook my head. “I’m not sure…” I waved a hand around.

  I felt another “pop” again and turned in time to see Freckle-Face step out from beside the library. Right. Staff entrance. Damnit.

  “You need to come with us,” Freckle-Face said. He sounded pissed. “Both of you.”

  Oh, hell no.

  I grabbed Malik’s hand, and we bolted again. He was in way better shape than I was, with longer legs, too. I was huffing by the time we pushed into the dentist’s office.

  My mom worked there, but we wouldn’t be staying long.

  Or, y’know, at all.

  Poof.

  * * *

  The moment he saw where we were, Malik frowned at me.

  “Why did you bring us here?” Malik said. We were outside his house, at his front door.

  “Because I don’t want them to hurt you.”

  That, apparently, wasn’t the right answer. Malik scowled.

  “They can do stuff,” I said. “Brain-melty stuff. I told you. Go inside, and I’ll get the hell out of here.”

  “So, what? You’re gonna just keep running forever?”

  “No,” I said. “I’m…I’m going to try and find that woman again.”

  “What woman?”

  “There was a woman. Lexa. I met her over waffles. Look, it doesn’t matter. She said she would talk to me again. And…” I trailed off. “And maybe she can…”

  “She can what?”

  “I don’t know!” I threw my hands up in the air. “But I don’t want them to do anything to you.”

  Malik crossed his arms and took a step toward me. I didn’t back away. We were standing very, very close to each other.

  “Cole,” he said.

  I cut him off. “I just need to make a plan. I need you to go inside and be safe.” I tried to hold up one hand in what little space was between us, which didn’t work because instead I had my hand pressed against his forearm. Oh man. “Please, please just let me figure out something, and then I swear I will tell you what it is and we can figure it out from there. Okay?”

  He exhaled, and I lowered my hand. “Do you even know where she is? That woman?”

  I winced. “Lexa? She said she worked at a gallery. We were gonna meet up, but I kind of missed it with all the running away we were doing just now.”

  He blew out a breath. “Oh. Well, then. No problem.”

  I groaned. “I know. This is insane. But I don’t know what else to do.”

  Malik took a deep breath and let it go, like maybe he was counting to ten in his head. “It’s getting late. I don’t think any galleries will be open right now. Where are you going to go?”

  “Home,” I said. “I can keep them out overnight, for sure.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay with you?”

  I looked at him. He was still scowling at me. His arms were still crossed, and he was really, really close. It was so unfair he looked that good while he was glaring at me, because it meant any time he glared at me I was totally going to cave. I could already feel it. I wanted him to stay with me. I was scared out of my freaking mind, I had no plan, and Malik was bigger and stronger than me. Duh. Of course I wanted him to stay.

  But. If he was with me and Beardy and the Brain-Melters came back?

  I shook my head. “In all the ways I may have imagined a moment like this, me turning you down was not among them. But here we are. I need to find Lexa, and I need to know you’re okay while I find her. Every time I teleport, she said they can hear me. So, I want you here. Away from me. Safe.”

  Malik’s scowl softened and faded. Then he chuckled. “You imagine me?”

  I swallowed. My face burned. “Don’t let it go to your head.”

  “Oh, it’s there,” he said.

  “Well, there was less running for our lives, and more—” I bit off the word.

  “More?” His smile grew.

  I shook my head. “I’m done talking. Talking leads to death by embarrassment.” I looked over his shoulder. “Please. Just stay here. I’ll be okay, and I’ll text you as soon as I get home. We can figure out a new plan in the morning.”

  “You telling me what to do?”

  “Yes.”

  He stared at me long enough that I thought he was going to argue again, but then he nodded and turned. I couldn’t decide whether to be let down or to celebrate. I wanted to do both. Malik was stubborn as hell. I walked with him to his front door, and he turned to face me again.

  “Go right home,” he said.

  “You telling me what to do?” I said.

  “Yes,” he said, and then we were looking right at each other and his brown eyes were sort of everything that ever mattered. Ever.

  He looked away.
“Cole,” he said.

  Oh crap. “It’s okay,” I said.

  “No,” he said. “It’s not.”

  I held up my hand. I so didn’t want to have this conversation. Not after the night we’d just had. “I get it.”

  “Oh my God, shut up,” he said.

  I shut up.

  “I like you. A lot,” he said. “And that’s…big. So, that more you were imagining? I’ve been imagining it, too. I’m just not sure I’m ready for…” He struggled for a second. “More.”

  I nodded. I didn’t trust myself to say anything.

  “Not yet,” he said. “But. Yeah.”

  He reached behind him and opened the door to his house.

  “As soon as you get home—” he said, but that’s all he had time to say before I felt the tug, and two hands grabbed at Malik and pulled him backward through the doorway.

  Between blinks, he was gone.

  Poof.

  Twenty-Five

  I jumped forward, but I was too late. I reached out for the feeling of the door, grabbing at the handle just before it closed. Instead of feeling the usual sensation of endless choices and the flowing tugs, it was more like running headlong into a brick wall at full tilt. I bounced bodily back out onto the front stoop, where I nearly fell over and had to spend a few seconds just breathing to clear my head. The door closed in front of me.

  They’d locked it. So that’s what that felt like. Ow.

  Malik.

  They have Malik.

  “No. No no no no no.” My hands were shaking. I glanced over my shoulder, convinced I’d find Beardy or Freckle-Face or Mr. Stiff waiting for me, but I was alone on the street in front of Malik’s house, and Malik was gone.

  Malik was gone.

  I needed to…

  What? What was the plan? They had him and…And…?

  “Find him,” I said. My voice cracked on the words. Okay, but how? They’d just locked the door in front of me.