Never Sleep

by Cady Vance

  Lucas leans in, his cheek only inches from mine. “Click it.”

  I do. A page containing even more gibberish fills the screen. Rows upon rows of numbers and complicated equations. I start to throw my hands in the air until Lucas sucks in a sharp breath.

  “This is brilliant.” He claps his hands together and grins.

  “You can read this?” I look at him in shock. “Are you some sort of science genius?”

  His eyes sparkle, and I have to ignore the throbbing of my heart from how gorgeous it makes him look. “My mum wanted me to go to MIT. I’m no genius, but I know a bit. And no, I don’t understand it all, but this is a start. A very, very good start.”

  “What’s it say?” Florence asks.

  “Well, right here,” Lucas says, pointing to a graph on the screen. “This is important.”

  I read aloud. “Current voltaic statistics.”

  “Right. That column lists some readings for that machine over there.” I don’t need to look to know which one he’s talking about. It’s the monstrosity in the corner. “It’s the voltage they currently use on insomniacs who are brought in for treatment.”

  “How do you know that?” I ask.

  “I’ve seen it before. The Cafe has managed to learn that much.” He points to another column in the table. “Now, this part here. This is new.” The column he’s eying is labeled ‘Study 1’. “It must be a study of theirs on the voltage. They’ve included more readings for that machine. Much different than the original.”

  “So, what do you think the study is?” Florence asks.

  “It’s rather hard to say. There’s a lot of data in this document, and I’d need some time to pour over it, wouldn’t I? Does anyone see a bloody printer?”

  I glance around, but there’s nothing in here other than scary looking machines and surgical tools.

  “I have an idea.” I point at Florence’s iPod. “That model takes pictures, doesn’t it?”

  “Will that even work?” Florence asks. “I thought you couldn’t photograph computer screens.”

  “You can with newer cameras,” I say while Florence makes a few clicks on her device. “Scroll the screen, and we’ll snap photos of everything we can.”

  “You’re brilliant, you know?” Lucas smiles at me.

  Florence aims her iPod at the screen as steady as she can while Lucas scrolls through the data. After a few moments, he reaches the end of the document, and we have everything snapped for later use.

  “We should go,” Florence says, staring up at a digital clock mounted on the wall. “You got some info. Now it’s time to get Aiden.”

  Lucas looks wistfully at the machine but follows us to the door.

  “We can come back later,” I say before we exit the room. “Try some more documents then.”

  He gives me a sad smile. “There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to get back inside, and if we do, that any of this will still be here. Looks like someone’s been clearing this place out. I’ve learned not to take anything for granted in the insomniac world.”

  His eyes go distant, like he’s looking at something far away, something only he can see. I slip my hand into his and squeeze. His eyes focus and shine when they meet mine.

  I say, “Well, we can sure as hell try.”

  Twenty-Five

  Due to the primary surgery we completed on your child’s brain, your child has thirty-three minutes, rather than the standard six, to be delivered to a Clinic for Galvanism treatment.

  - The Galvanism Handbook for Parents

  The next thumbtack we need to investigate is in the East Thirties, a long-ass cab ride from all the way downtown, but none of us are willing to traverse the subway tunnels after our last encounter with the Sleepers. Luckily, Lucas has a little money left, so we hail a cab and sail uptown on FDR Drive. Lights blur past, and a gray tint begins to lighten the sky overhead. Dawn is creeping up on us, and we’ve wasted so much time already. I can only hope this next place is the Clinic where Aiden has been taken, although we still don’t have a plan for breaching the front doors and breaking him out. I’m hoping Florence has at least one more trick up her fishnet sleeves, but I know even she can’t make us invisible.

  The taxi drops us off a few blocks away from the location, just as before, and we approach the address with caution. These streets are much more alive than the ones downtown. A group of drunken twenty-somethings stumbles past us, barely giving us a second glance before laughing hysterically at some unintelligible words uttered by a guy who looks straight off a Calvin Klein billboard.

  A fruit and vegetable stand is open, bright lights beaming down the entire block, apples gleaming under the glare. My stomach rumbles. God, I’m hungry. It’s been hours since I ate, and it’s been such a whirlwind of a night, I haven’t noticed until now. But with Aiden at risk of getting experimented on within mere hours, we don’t have time to stop.

  We turn onto the block, a residential tree-lined street full of walk-ups and dotted with the occasional closed restaurant. Florence streams ahead of us with a sudden burst of energy, staring hard at the numbers tacked to the doors. I reach out to slow her down, but she’s out of my grasp.

  “I feel a bit odd about this,” Lucas whispers and stops in the middle of the sidewalk.

  “Florence,” I hiss, torn between catching up with her and staying with Lucas. We need to approach this slowly, not go barreling in like she’s apparently trying to do. She may be an eerily exceptional thief, but I’m worried her judgement is clouded right now.

  “Think about it.” Lucas grabs my hand before I’m out of reach and pulls me back to his side. “The other place was out of the way on a rather deserted street. No apartments. Nothing. This seems too public and residential.”

  “That place was closed,” I point out. “Maybe they didn’t like having a Clinic on a seedy street.”

  “But they aren’t going to want their neighbors to see people carrying in Collapsed insomniacs,” he says.

  “I mean, you have a good point…” I trail off. Florence is more than half a block ahead of us, standing frozen before a building that must be the place from the map.

  The doors of a white van slide open, and several dark figures spill out behind Florence. My heart explodes inside my chest, and Lucas lets out a strangled yell. My feet can’t move. Everything inside me is yelling at my body to get to Florence before the Sleepers do. They’re only steps from her side. One of the figures darts to Florence and hauls her up into his arms like she’s a rag doll. Her blood-curdling scream pierces the quiet, night air. Tears sting my eyes, and finally my feet react. I stumble forward. That’s when I notice the other Sleepers from the van are running down the sidewalk straight at me. I recognize them both from The Strand.

  “Thora, no!” Lucas yells and wraps strong arms around my waist, pulling me back down the block, away from the Sleepers. Away from Florence. My feet dig into the concrete ground. I push and pull against him, tears streaming down my face.

  “Let me go!” I squirm, but his grip around me doesn’t loosen at all. The Sleepers have now spanned half the distance between us. The one holding Florence tosses her inside the van. My damaged heart throbs at the loud thump and the moan that follows.

  “Florence!” I scream the word.

  “Stop fighting me, Thora! Run!”

  The fear in Lucas’s voice snaps some clarity into my fuzzy mind. I spin around and throw my feet forward in a run. It feels as if my heart is being split apart, a tiny piece of me staying with Florence in that van. I cannot believe I’m leaving her. I cannot believe I’m leaving my friend.

  Lucas holds tight to my arm, throwing his feet against the ground in rhythm with mine. I don’t dare look over my shoulder. I focus on the movements. My body is one shuddering mass of resistance, but I push the exhaustion into a tiny part of my brain and box it up, hoping it stays there as long as I need it to.

  “Keep going, you can do it,” Lucas puffs out, and that simple statement keeps me going a l
ittle longer.

  My eyes dart across the streets, looking for any shop open, anywhere we can hide. Dread boils in my already writhing stomach when I think back to The Strand. All those people in such a public place didn’t stop the Sleepers from getting us any way they could.

  “Taxi!” Lucas shouts. At the corner, a taxi idles by the curb. The Off Duty light glares at me. We stumble to a halt at the cab. Lucas yanks open the door. I slide across the leather seat, and Lucas falls in behind me. The cabbie turns around with a frown.

  “No fare.” His black mustache wiggles, emphasizing his displeasure.

  “We’ll pay you extra, mate,” Lucas says. “Just take us a few blocks away.”

  The cabbie stares Lucas down. Every second feels like an hour, and I’m sure the Sleepers will be pounding on the taxi door at any moment. Finally, the cabbie cracks a smile.

  “Ah, I’m a sucker for the accent.” He taps his nose, faces forward and shifts the cab into gear. I sink into the uncomfortable leather seat, every inch of my body melting from pure and utter relief. The taxi angles away from the curb as the Sleepers reach the corner. I hear their shouts, but I don’t even care. Our safety means we’ve left Florence behind.

  “Where you want to go?” the cabbie asks.

  “Just take us to Times Square,” Lucas says, massaging his calves.

  My own calves scream at me, but I’m too tired to do anything but become one with this taxi seat. I wipe the tears from my cheeks and catch my breath before I say anything to Lucas. I’m not even sure I should say anything when the cab driver can overhear.

  “Are you okay?” Lucas asks quietly.

  I blink back fresh tears and look out at the early morning city streets. “No. I can’t believe we left her. Especially after what they did to Odin. What they’ve probably done to Aiden.”

  “I’m sorry.” Lucas takes one of my hands into both of his. “You’ve been through so much. I should have done something to stop what they did in The Strand. Instead, I bloody stood there and let it happen.”

  “It’s not your fault,” I say, and I mean the next words I say even after everything. Maybe even because of everything. “I mean, I’m glad I came to New York, and I’m glad you were there.”

  “Really?” He shifts closer to me so his legs are resting against mine. I swallow again, but this time it’s not from sadness.

  “Really.”

  When the taxi pulls over to a curb outside Times Square, Lucas pays while I push myself onto the sidewalk. The multi-colored, swirling, blinking lights assault me with their beauty, but I cannot appreciate it. The life of New York is muted to me now. Still, the two of us stand in silence looking up at the lights. I’ve never seen anything else like it.

  “What are we going to do, Lucas?” I finally ask. “Should we try the other thumbtack?”

  “Where we just went was a trap,” he says. “I’m rather certain the other thumbtack will be a trap, too.”

  “Oh,” I say. “That wasn’t where the Clinic really is. I didn’t even realize with them grabbing Florence…”

  “I’ve gathered whoever broke into that flat moved those two clear tacks. If those thumbtacks were even on the original map to begin with.”

  “Traps,” I say slowly. “But what I don’t understand is if they were going to do all that, why not wait at the apartment for someone to show up?”

  “Bloody hell if I know. Shits and giggles?” He shakes his head.

  “Wait, I remember seeing a police station on that block. I bet they didn’t want the cops to see them, I don’t know, throwing people into a van.” I sigh and look to the blue-gray sky. “It will be dawn soon.” I have nothing else to say. Aiden is gone. Florence is gone. We have no more leads. No way to find them.

  “If the search for new members was still on, you’d be right well on your way to watch the sky turn pink at the Brooklyn Bridge. Then, you’d get your last clue. The one meant to point you home.” He looks at me, eyes full of sadness. “To the Cafe.”

  “Wait, the Brooklyn Bridge is next?” I ask, heart stirring in my chest.

  “Right.” He glances at his watch. “You’d probably be heading there now.”

  Before I can overthink the kernel of an idea budding in my brain, I barrel forward. “How long would it take to get from here to the Brooklyn Bridge?”

  “This early? About half an hour.” He furrows his eyebrows, and I can tell by the confusion plastered across his face, he hasn’t caught on yet.

  “Okay, let’s go.”

  Twenty-Six

  Some patients may experience hypersomnia—the increased need to sleep—due to the sleeping disorder.

  - The Galvanism Handbook for Parents

  Thora, you know the search is over. You can’t go to the bridge and find the last clue. I’ll get you into the Cafe somehow, but it won’t be this way. No one will be there. You’re the only one left.”

  I feel a surge of adrenaline winding its way through my veins as my plan falls together in my head. “But do they know that?”

  He raises his eyebrows in sudden understanding. “You mean the Sleepers.”

  “Yep. They’re not starting the experiments until the start of the work day because why?”

  “Well, I’m rather certain it’s because they’re all still sleeping.”

  “Well yes, but I don’t think that’s the total reason.” I bounce up onto the balls of my feet in excitement. “I bet it’s because they want to get as many of us as they can. And they don’t know the search was canceled, do they? So, won’t they still be looking for more of us? At every stop they saw on the map? And I bet they even hope this last location will give them the info that will finally lead them to the Cafe.”

  “This does make sense.”

  “So, we go down to the bridge, and then wait and see if they show up. Whenever they finally leave, we follow them. Hopefully, they’ll lead us straight to the Clinic where Aiden and Florence are.”

  Lucas nods, but he still doesn’t look completely convinced. “And then what?”

  “I don’t know.” I admit, pacing the sidewalk. “We never knew that part. Try to get into the Clinic, find our friends and get them out without getting caught. I know we won’t have Florence and her awesome skills, but I think the two of us together can come up with a decent plan when we see exactly what we’re dealing with.”

  “It sounds iffy and dangerous,” Lucas says. “A million things could go wrong.”

  “Sounds like this entire night so far, but this time, we have knowledge they don’t.” I stop my pacing. Florence and Aiden would probably bang down the Clinic doors to get us out if they were in our place. “I’m willing to take the risk to get my friends away from those assholes.”

  “Okay,” Lucas says, and I feel a full smile spread across my face. He holds up a hand to stop me. “On one condition.”

  “Name it.”

  “You stick by my side, and if I say to run, we run. Okay?”

  I hesitate. I know I should agree, but this might be the only chance we have to find Florence and Aiden, especially before the doctors do whatever they plan on doing to them. What if they alter the fabrics of their being that make them who they are? I imagine Florence crying without her iPod, scratching her ears in the need for sound.

  But I know Lucas is right, and if the Sleepers catch me, he’ll probably only get himself caught, too. Then, we’ll all be stuck inside. Or worse if he fights back. Definitely not the solution.

  “Deal.”

  We grab another taxi, and as we climb in, my thoughts turn to the Clinic in Connecticut. And my parents. I cannot help but wonder what they’re doing, wonder if they’re asleep in their beds or if they’re up pacing the floor, freaking out about Odin and me. No matter what they’ve done, I can’t help but miss that home a little bit and wonder if I’ll have anywhere to really call home ever again.

  “Lucas, what’s the Cafe like?” I ask in a low voice, hoping the cabbie won’t hear me. “I mean, who takes care of t
he rooms and the food and that kind of thing?”

  He shifts sideways to face me, his left hand now resting lightly on mine like it’s nothing but it feels like everything to me. “You won’t have to worry about a thing. Everyone helps out.”

  “But I mean,” I say, lowering my voice even more, “who pays for it?”

  He grins. “Trust fund kids. We’ve had quite a few come through. The thing is pretty costly, isn’t it? Usually takes a wealthy family to get it.” He takes a quick glance at the cabbie. “Anyway, some of us brought money to the Cafe. I don’t know how much we have, really, but I know the place is in rather good shape.”

  I relax and loosen my grip on the edges of my sleeves. “Good because…I don’t have any.”

  He drops his head closer to mine, and my face becomes a conductor of heat. The tip of his nose touches the tip of mine, and I can’t tell if I’m breathing anymore. I’m afraid to move, afraid to look away.

  “You have nothing to worry about,” he says so softly I barely feel his breath against my lips.

  “Neither do you,” I say, heart leaping at the smile in his eyes.

  The cabbie glances at us in his rearview mirror, and I fall silent, hoping what we’ve said hasn’t set seed to any suspicions in his head. What seems like only moments later, he drops us off downtown. Lucas and I step out of the cab. We have five blocks ahead of us this time, but we got down here at record speed so we have time to catch our breaths. Even at this distance, I can see the bridge stretching up into the sky.

  We walk to the waterfront and pause. I think we both need a few moments to stop and think before we go closer to the bridge and do what we came here to do. Like Lucas said, a million things could go wrong, and this could be the last few moments of peace we have for a long time.

  Our shoulders brush as we stand looking out across the rippling water, sparkling city lights reflecting on the dark blue surface. I itch to turn and look up at his face but force my gaze forward instead, focusing on the way the dark brown beams of the bridge reach up into the early morning sky.

  “Tell me about England,” I say, blowing warm air on my hands. “What’s it like there?”