Take Me Tomorrow

by Shannon A. Thompson

  “The crest,” I squeaked, ashamed of my consistent oblivion.

  “The top of the clock tower,” she translated as she raised her arm. “The crest refers to the top of a wave,” she explained, gesturing with her hand. “They named it that when Broden complained about the waves on the river, even though there weren’t any,” she laughed. “The boys couldn’t stop making fun of him for it.”

  I blinked. “I don’t understand,” I said. “What does that have to do with the clock tower?”

  Lily stared at me like I hadn’t been listening at all. “The clock tower is next to it.”

  “I remember,” I grumbled, feeling as if I was plunging into the river all over again. Noah said I was supposed to die. Lily and Miles still didn’t know. I shivered.

  “The crest is at the top of the wave, so the crest is the roof of the clock tower,” she finished the translation, and the code clicked.

  “How exactly are we supposed to get up there?”

  “The fire escape,” Lily answered, hitting my arm as if I had told a joke. “Really. It doesn’t even have a gate. If you ask me, that’s dangerous.” She was complaining of the dangers of an exposed ladder, but she wasn’t fazed by our illegal actions. Her perception of reality was beginning to get worse than mine.

  “So—” she paused, reaching up to straighten her hood. “We should leave soon.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but a knocking echoed through her bedroom. “Lilianne, dear,” her mother’s stern voice was high-pitched. “It’s time for you girls to turn the lights out.” It was eight-thirty.

  Lily smiled to control her tone, “Of course, mother.” She reached over and flicked off her desk lamp. Shadows clouded my vision. All I could see was Lily’s outline, only bulky from the clothes. “Goodnight.”

  “Goodnight, sweetheart,” her mother chirped, unaware that we were dressed for an escape. “Goodnight, Sophia, dear.”

  “Night, Ms. Beckett.”

  Lily and I stood in the darkness, silent enough to hear her mother’s feet shuffle down the hall. A door opened, only to shut, and the hallway light flickered off. The only light we had left was the thin moon, streaming in through the half-closed window. Her blinds fluttered in the wind.

  When my eyes adjusted, I watched Lily’s black cat jump onto the bed before stretching across it comfortably. It purred as loud as a car engine.

  “Please, tell me it won’t give us away,” I whispered, knowing her cat could easily start whining when we left.

  “It has a name, you know,” Lily defended, reaching over to stroke the animal. It raised its butt in the air. “I’ve had Saga for three years.”

  I knew it was named Saga. We had gone through this exact conversation a dozen times. I just couldn’t bring myself to like the cat after it attacked my braid and nearly slit my throat with its back claws. I still had the scars.

  “She’ll be fine,” Lily said, leaning over to grab a bag of cat food.

  Saga leapt off the bed, and Lily dumped a pile of food as big as the cat on the floor. When the cat dug her face into the food, even I had to confess it was kind of cute, but I didn’t admit it out loud.

  “Can we go now?” I asked instead.

  Lily walked over to her bedroom window and opened it. The widened angle caused the wind to whistle through the small room.

  “Follow me,” she said, latching her nails onto the windowsill. Her long limbs extended to the vine decorations on the side of the house. She held onto them as if they were a real ladder and scaled down effortlessly. She had done this before. More than once.

  She waved her arm after she landed on the ground. I leaned out, curled my fingers around the vines, and began climbing down. My heart wasn’t even pumping. The adrenaline had yet to begin, but I knew it would come. This escape was the beginning. In truth, Noah’s escape would be the difficult one, and we would be there to help, whether the boys accepted that or not.

  There was no turning back now.

  His Surrender

  My ankle ached as I climbed the rusted ladder. The metal steps swung against the intense wind, and my hood blew off. Still, I kept climbing. One step before the other. I never took my eyes off of Lily as she climbed above me. She scaled the golden tower, clearing the steps with a nimbleness only cats had. Unlike her, I was a dog. I wasn’t meant to climb. My feet were supposed to be on the ground, but I had to climb to get to Noah and Miles. I would get there if it meant saving Broden − if it meant Noah living past tomorrow.

  Lily reached the top, and the ladder shook as she hurdled over the roof’s edge. She yelped as soon as she disappeared, yelling, “It’s me.”

  I peeked over the edge. Lily was on the ground, and Miles had her arm twisted behind her back. His hand was still pressed into her shoulder when he spoke, “Lily?”

  “Hi, Miles,” I squeaked.

  He glanced over his shoulder, and it dropped. “Fantastic.” He didn’t sound fantastic at all.

  He let Lily go as I climbed over the rocky strip of the ceiling. When he stood, he pulled his sister up with him. They were the same height, and they were both dressed in black. Their sweaters clung to their thin torsos as if they had dressed from the same closet. They had never looked so alike.

  “What—” He was completed speechless.

  Noah’s blond hair flashed from the shadows. “What are you two doing here?” he asked, stepping away from the wall. Unlike the rest of us, he wore his military uniform, and his green eyes illuminated with the sage color of his clothes. Even then, there was nothing about his expression that hinted relief. He was angry − really angry. “I told you two to stay away.” He turned to Lily. “Why did you bring her?”

  “We’re already here,” Lily spat, ready to fight Noah herself. She was the only one unfazed by his sudden rage. “And we’re not leaving.”

  Noah’s lips pressed together in a thin, white line before they parted with a hiss, “Yes,” he answered, gesturing to the ladder, “you are.”

  I stepped between them and the wall. “No, we aren’t.”

  Noah looked at me. His eyes softened, and for a moment, I saw the boy who stood in his family’s living room, the one who wore a floppy, white hat and laughed, not the one who took drugs.

  When he looked away, his jaw clenched. It was his surrender. He wouldn’t fight me. He had other things happening. He didn’t have time for extra drama. We didn’t have time at all. And Noah and I were the only ones who knew it. He was leaving today whether he had Rinley or not.

  “What’s the plan?” Lily asked, but the boys didn’t answer.

  “I—uh—” I looked from Noah to Miles. I only knew he had to leave tonight – by a train – and Miles was supposed to set it up. The train station had closed over an hour ago. I wasn’t sure how they were going to pull it off. I still didn’t know where Rinley was.

  “We’re staking out,” Noah responded as he walked around the corner.

  I bounded after him. Around the wall was a cliff, a hanging edge that plummeted to the cement below. Wind bellowed up, shooting my curls in all directions. Lily handed me a hair tie without the question being asked. I tied up my hair as Noah watched me, binoculars in hand.

  Lily sat down, dangling her feet off of the edge. “See anything yet?”

  “Nothing but buildings,” Miles answered, “and get your legs up here. Someone is going to see you.”

  Lily pouted, but her thin legs swung up. I stayed back, looking over the city. I had never been up so high before. From the roof of the clock tower I could see everything − the lumberyard, the schools, the jail, the hospital, and even Phelps’ mansion. I half-expected to see an ocean or the giant bridge that was tattooed across Lyn’s chest, but Miles was right. I only saw buildings. Even then, I wanted to see Albany, to know what kind of reality this world was in, but Topeka blocked out the rest of the world. I couldn’t fathom how far away everyone was, how far away Noah would be in a couple of hours.

  Lights blinked throughout the city, coati
ng the streets with golden auras, and trees danced on the roadsides. An echo of car engines sang to us as the patrolmen searched for criminals − looking for us − and my arm wrapped around my torso in a tight hug. Lily’s borrowed sweater scratched across my skin, and I wished I had worn my own clothes. The only thing I had of my own was my favorite knife, and my tennis shoes bent as my feet tensed. I already wanted to run.

  Lily peered over the city as if she had been on top of the tower with them before. “What exactly are we looking for?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Noah admitted, his eyebrows furrowing together. “I don’t see any houses that Rinley would expect me to know.” He ran his fingers through his hair again. The longer strands stood up as if he had been electrocuted. I remembered how messy his hair had looked when he was singing after first waking up, and warmth rushed over my skin.

  “I thought you two had a plan.”

  “We did,” Noah said, “We do,” he corrected, lifting the binoculars to his eyes. “But I don’t even recognize those buildings.” The Topeka Region had changed since he fled.

  In the past few years, dozens of residential buildings had been built. The tall, black structures almost blended into the darkness, but the lights from the inside gave them away. They were close enough together that someone could jump from rooftop to rooftop, but they blocked our view from what laid beyond them.

  Lily pointed at them. “Those are correctional institutes for troubled teens,” she explained. “That’s where I do my volunteer work.”

  Noah lowered his binoculars to gape at her.

  “What?” she asked, “It looks good on a resume.”

  “Of course it does,” I responded, hearing the aggravation leave my lips, but Noah didn’t respond.

  “It is a lot of fun,” Lily added, “Phelps built them after the massacre. His way of apologizing to the orphaned families, I guess—” Lily choked on her words.

  Noah’s face hadn’t budged. Miles cleared his throat.

  “Sorry,” she muttered, realizing her mistake. Noah’s family had indirectly killed people with tomo. He knew it. We all knew it. But we hadn’t mentioned that fact. We had ignored it.

  “There are all types of kids there,” she tried to add, continuing to explain her abrupt information. “Kids who commit small crimes. Misdemeanors, really. Anything that doesn’t involve tomo and isn’t a big enough crime to put the kids to work in the lumberyard − or if they were too young. They are kept there. They even get free therapeutic treatment and rehabilitation. Sometimes kids even get adopted—”

  Noah’s blank expression split into a grin. “That’s it,” he said, turning his face to stare at the darkness. “She’s there. She has to be.”

  “Wha—What?” Miles stuttered. “You have to be institutionalized to be in there.”

  “She’d get in.” Noah dropped the binoculars on the ground like he didn’t care if they broke or not. “We have to go in, find her, get her out, and—”

  “You can’t,” Lily stopped him.

  Noah glared at her as if she had snatched his sister from him. “Why not?”

  “Because,” she pointed again, “that building is strictly for girls. Even the workers have to be female,” she explained. “There’s no way they would let you in.”

  He continued to grin. “Good thing you came, then.”

  “I can’t just go in there,” Lily responded. “I’m not on duty tonight. They’d stop me, too.”

  Noah’s forehead wrinkled, and he placed his hand in front of his mouth as if he wanted to bite down on his flesh to relieve his anger. He glared at the building until I stood up and demanded his attention.

  “We can get in,” I said, turning to Lily. “All we’d have to do is turn ourselves in for something.”

  Lily scrambled to her feet. “I don’t know about that—”

  “You work there, right?” I repeated. “That means you can bring girls there. Take me. Tell them I’m a troubled friend.” In a way, it wouldn’t even be a lie.

  “But—” Lily didn’t even have to argue.

  Noah shook his head. “You two are not going in there alone.”

  “You have done enough on your own,” I said, refusing to drop eye contact with him. “Stop telling me to stay out of it when I’m already in it. Let me help.” When he didn’t respond, I spoke again, “I’m going to help whether you approve of it or not.”

  The wind whistled between us, but his silence was louder. His bangs brushed across his forehead, but his lip twitched, urging him to speak. Even then, he wouldn’t.

  “I think it’s a good idea,” Miles concurred, standing by my side.

  Noah’s green eyes lit up, ablaze. “You’d risk your own sister like that?”

  “You’re risking all of us,” Miles spat back. “What’s the difference?” He only looked at Lily once. “Besides, I think we all know how capable they are.”

  Noah’s hands clenched as if he were going to punch Miles across the jaw, but I reached out. I grabbed Noah’s arm, and his muscles relaxed. I could feel his heartbeat in my palm.

  “Miles is right, Noah,” I spoke softly, teetering on the ledge. “We’re already in trouble. We can’t stop now.”

  “Broden didn’t get arrested for us to give up,” Lily added.

  “I told you,” Noah said, “I’ll get him out.”

  “And how do you plan on doing that when you leave Topeka?” I retorted. “We’re all stuck here. You’re the one who’s going to be free after all of this. None of us will be.”

  Noah pulled away from me, and the blood drained out of his face. “Sophie—”

  “We. Are. Going,” I said, taking the knife from my sweater. I handed it to him. The last thing I needed was to be caught with a weapon when Lily turned me in.

  His hand shook as he raised it to take the knife. His fingers grazed mine as the weapon fell into his grasp. He was cold.

  “Meet us at the sun in an hour,” I said, using their code for the train tracks.

  A gasp escaped Miles, shocked that Lily had taught me the code, and I ignored him. I took off for the ladder with Lily following me.

  As Lily began to scale down, Noah called out to me, “Wait.”

  “What?” My voice vibrated with adrenaline. Noah, despite everything before, couldn’t frustrate me more than now – standing on the crest of a wave that was Topeka’s clock tower.

  Noah stopped himself from coming closer. The only other time I had been angry with him, I had held a knife to his throat. Something told me he didn’t know if I would find a way to do it again.

  “Rinley,” he started, looking as if he wanted to say something else entirely. “She won’t respond to that name. She’ll deny who she is,” he explained. “She won’t come with you voluntarily.”

  I sighed, “Of course not.” That would be too easy.

  “She has a scar on her left wrist,” he stated blankly. “She hides it.”

  “A scar?”

  “She—” His lips curved into a grimace. “She was little when the drug was released, but she knew enough that she thought ending it would be better than facing it.”

  His words sank into my heart in the same way that Liam’s portrait had. Rinley, Noah’s little sister, had tried to kill herself. I wasn’t sure I could handle any more of his reality.

  Neither of us moved, but the wind pushed his messy hair to the side, revealing the entirety of his face. His own scars were visible, including the one he got saving me from the river.

  He only spoke when he reached into his military jacket, “Take it with you, Sophie.” He held out my favorite knife, the one I trusted him with.

  I shook my head. “They might search us, Noah.”

  “You’ll figure something out,” he responded. The glint in his eyes reflected my ability to fight. He knew I was capable. He always knew.

  I reached out to take the metal in my hand, but the weight was heavier now. It felt like Noah was going with me.

  “See you
in an hour,” I squeaked, kicking my feet over to the ladder.

  “See you in an hour, Sophie.” His voice hovered above my head as I began to descend.

  We would be at the railroad tracks – the sun – and the code suited the situation perfectly. Tomo had a sun etched into its little, blue pill. It only seemed fitting that the battle would end where it started. In fact, it was a vision.

  Who She Really Is

  A heavy-set woman with black hair acknowledged our presence as soon as we walked in. She stood up from her desk to talk to us, and I tensed, hoping she would think my nervous state was suitable for my role. I was a troubled girl who needed all of the help she could get. In a way, I didn’t have to pretend at all.

  Lily’s bright smile was as professional as it got. “Evening, Judice,” she spoke calmly, acting as if her darkened wardrobe was her norm. “How are the kids?”

  “Great.” Judice beamed. “My daughter’s wedding is next week. Can you believe it? Did I tell you that Phelps is attending? We’re so excited.”

  “You didn’t tell me that,” Lily exclaimed as she reached out to embrace the woman. “That is fantastic,” she congratulated her as she pulled away.

  “It is,” Judice continued, but her stare had moved to me.

  “I’m just showing her around,” Lily murmured loud enough for me to hear.

  “We don’t do tours at night—”

  “I know,” she nodded like she expected to hear the rules, “but her father worked at the Traveler’s Bureau, and her mother isn’t handling it well.”

  The reference shuddered over the woman’s face. Lily didn’t have to create a story. A few people had died in the fire, and this woman was assuming one of them had been my dad. In reality, I didn’t have a clue as to where my father was.

  “I thought we could – you know – make an exception,” Lily continued, dropping into a whisper. “I’ll even take your next night shift as you, so you can still get paid.”