CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

::Tobias::

‹Rachel, I hope you can hear me.›

She had to be around. If there was anybody David hated the most... it made me cringe to think that way, but I could only hope she was okay.

‹...whatever it is, don't let him get to you. You hear me? You're Rachel, fearless warrior princess.›

I winced as I slumped down to the floor. David's physical blow had taken its toll on my weak human body.

‹Rachel. Fight.›

He wouldn't hit a girl, would he?

But then, he was David. Capable of anything.

My mind was imploding from all the thoughts (including those I had to project to Rachel) and I felt so vulnerable, helpless and useless in this scrawny self. Poor sight, poor hearing and no wings. This was just unbelievably...

I blinked.

Then I stared hard. And blinked.

I stared hard again, this time longer. The tears came to my eyes and I blinked once more.

The doorknob. The colour. The rust on the edge of the knob.

The rust at the edge of the keyhole.

I could see it.

Not immediately. But when I stared hard and long enough, I could see it. And I was in the middle of the room. What...?

My sight! That wasn't poor human sight. That was hawk sight. That was sharp and clear hawk sight!

I let my eyes rove around the room. The cracks in the wall. The cracks on the ceiling. I blinked again.

A flash of reflection.

A camera! In the walls!

David was using it to spy on me. I had to get rid of it. I refused to let him watch me suffer here.

I tried to scramble up, but a sharp pain shot up through my middle and I gasped and curled against the wall.

‹Tobias!›

My head shot up.

‹TOBIAS! It's JAKE!›

JAKE?

‹Can you hear me?›

‹JAKE!› I mustered all my strength to yell through thoughtspeak. ‹JAKE, oh my GOD! WHERE ARE YOU?›

There was a pause, before: ‹TOBIAS! Thank God! Okay, I don't know, I'm in some corridor which is going in all directions. I have no idea where the hell you are.›

‹If you can hear my thoughtspeech, you can't be far!› I couldn't contain my excitement. Take that, you son of a bitch David! ‹Rachel's somewhere around too, I know it! Umm...›

I pulled myself towards the door and jiggled with the knob. ‹Can you hear this?›

‹Hear what? No, I can't hear anything and I'm an owl, which really says a lot.›

‹An owl?› Even at a time of life and death, I couldn't help feeling jealous that Jake – someone who had no recollection of our real timeline – got to be a bird (as much as I hated owls).

‹There should only be two rooms underground. But why can't I seem to find any rooms?› demanded Jake.

‹Underground?› I looked around the room. ‹I'm underground?›

‹You're in The Sharing's basement!›

‹Say what?›

‹Okay, that's not the problem now, the problem is... oh wow, we do have a problem.›

‹What?›

‹This part of the corridor is super well-lit. My owl eyes aren't taking too well to it and there's very little whatever-you-call-the-stuff-that-keeps-birds-flying...›

‹A draft?›

‹Yeah, something like that. Look, I need to demorph, which means I can't thoughtspeak to you anymore... I'm just going to run around. Keep talking to me so I can guess where you are!›

‹Jake, wait...›

There was no reply. Frustrated, I summoned all my strength and banged against the door. ‹Can you hear me? I'm trying to whack down this door!›

Then I groaned as the echo of the banging reverberated in my ear. "Ow..."

Wait a minute. What?

I jiggled a bit with the doorknob. The sound that I processed was so much more than just the knob. It was the creaking of each turn, the squeak of my finger against the metal knob...

My hearing!

I put my ear to the door. Suddenly I realised that I could hear something in the distance.

‹Jake? Jake, I think I can hear you! Keep going in that direction!›

I strained to listen for those footsteps again, but it began to fade.

‹No, wrong way!›

The footsteps came back again and I started to get way too excited.

‹Come on, Jake! I hear you! That's right! No, the other way, other way – yes! That's it!›

Eventually, the footsteps were so loud that I knew immediately he was right outside. I banged the door and there was a bang in response.

‹YES!› I screamed in my head.

Then suddenly: ‹Okay, Tobias. I'm just in some random morph so I can talk to you. Do I have a morph that will take down this door?›

‹Umm.› I tried to think as fast as I could. ‹Yeah. You do a pretty mean rhino.›

‹Oh cool. I've always wanted to be a rhino.›

‹Uhh, Jake? How big is that corridor?›

‹Mm. Not very big.›

‹You're gonna suffocate yourself if you pull a rhino.›

‹Oh. Shit.›

‹But...›

‹But what?›

‹You can try growing the horn.›

‹I can – what? Grow the horn? Dude, I can't control the stupid morph!›

‹You actually can.› I sighed. ‹Great. Now I get to play the Cassie role.›

‹Casserole? Are you hungry to the point of delusional?›

I rolled my eyes and pushed myself backwards onto the floor, away from the door. ‹Okay, listen. When you morph the rhino, think of yourself as transforming into someone with a horn right in the middle of your face. Don't think about the rest of the body yet, just think of your head becoming a rhino's and just keep thinking about that horn.›

‹I could really make a horny joke out of this, but the thought of my head becoming a rhino's just grosses the hell out of me.›

‹Yup, no jokes please.›

Less than a minute later, there was a terrific BANG-CRASH! And a figure with a rather unusually large head topped with a horn barged in.

‹Hah-HAH!›

I coughed violently amidst the swirling dust.

Jake reversed the morph and lunged forward to pull me up.

"AHHH!" I gasped as the pain wracked my body.

"Oh my God, what did that jerk do to you?" demanded Jake, as he scrutinised me. "He tortured you?"

I winced in response.

"Also, wait a minute, I wanted to ask – how the heck did you manage to guide me to where you were? The Sharing may look decently-sized on ground level, but whatever's underground is like a maze!"

That was a very good question. How was I able to have sight and hearing just like a hawk, and only starting from a few minutes ago?

But I couldn't waste time thinking about it.

"Now's not the time for that," I wheezed. "We need to find Rachel before David finds out you're here and I'm gone. NOW!"

Jake snapped back into action mode. "Right then. Come on!" And Jake swung my arm over his neck as we hobbled out of the room. "Any idea where to start?"

"Wait, how did you know I was here?" I asked.

"I saw you in this room through a screen. There was some control room of sorts."

The camera in the wall.

I stared at Jake.

"What is it?" he asked.

"The screen... you said there were two rooms underground," I whispered. "Didn't you see Rachel then?"

Jake stopped short and frowned. "No. I didn't."