Angel stops turning and blinks at me. “Far. We just need to get far away. Somewhere they can’t get us. Come on.”
At the last word, he breaks into a run, sprinting through the rows of parked cars. Crap. “Wait,” I say. “Where’s the exit? Where are we going?”
“It’s … there’s gotta be one. Help me. We’ve got to find one. Now. Ruben, hurry. They’re going to find us, and they’ll lock us away. We need to get away.”
“It’s just a temporary restriction, Angel. It’s not forever.”
“It is forever. They’ll never let us go, Ruben.”
“Come on. You know that’s not true.”
Angel slows to catch his breath and swings around. “You’re not dumb. You know. You … you know, and you don’t say it. But I know you see it. You can see what they’re doing to us.”
Zach tugs on my coat sleeve as he reaches me. “They’re in the fire escape,” he says below his breath. I nod with as much subtlety as I can muster.
“What are they doing to us?” I ask gently. I know the answer, but keeping him talking nonsense is the only way to stall.
Angel’s laugh is high pitched and frantic. It bursts out like a howl. “We are their prisoners! And they won’t stop, so we have to run. Help me find the exit. Quick!”
Zach lowers his phone and steps forward. “We’ve only got to get through the rest of the tour. Then it’ll be back to normal.”
“Normal?” Angel spits. “When’s it ever been normal?”
“Before. It wasn’t so bad.”
“Before.” Angel runs a hand through his sweaty hair, and glances around us to check for spies. He looks afraid. Terrified, really. “Three years ago I was called Reece.”
“Angel—” I say.
“I was called Reece,” he shouts, his face contorting. “They took my name from me! And you think they’re going to let you come out on your own fucking terms? You’re both fucking deluded!”
A door slams with a heavy clang of metal behind us. The three of us snap our heads up. Beyond the rows and rows of cars are Erin, Jon, and four guards.
“No,” Angel says, turning on his heel.
Zach, who was still catching his breath, lets out a frustrated sigh as we give chase again. “I’m gonna kill him in the morning,” he pants to me. “Making me … jump off a fucking balcony … run laps around a freaking garage…”
We round a corner, and suddenly an exit sign comes into view. Erin’s yells echo through the garage as she pleads with Angel to slow down. Angel stumbles through the door, and Zach and I follow him. Erin’s voice is abruptly cut off as the door swings closed.
The night air has a fierce bite to it. Not cold enough for snow, but the wind still stings my cheeks, and I can feel my breath as it travels down my chest, the frigid air scraping against my lungs. I button my coat with prickling fingers and brace myself against the chill. Zach hugs his arms to his chest and stands behind me to take shelter from a gust of wind.
Angel’s not wearing a coat. I doubt he feels the cold at all. His eyes dart around rapidly, then he rushes toward the street. Toward light.
I don’t like where this is going.
“Angel,” I say urgently. “Not this way. That’s the main street.”
He ignores me.
“There are people camped out here.”
“We can hide in the crowd. Yeah. We’ll … they won’t be able to find us in the crowd.”
“No, we’ll get mobbed by the crowd.”
Angel’s voice is shaky, desperate. “Shut up.”
“He’s right, Angel,” Zach says.
“SHUT UP!” He starts to run again, and takes a right onto the street.
The others are outside, too, now, and they’re running. They’ll catch up to us before anything too bad happens. We just have to make sure we don’t lose Angel.
Zach groans as I pick up speed. As I predicted, an ocean of fans are surging and swarming toward Angel. When they see Zach and me round the corner, their screams of excitement and surprise turn into a roar. Angel runs toward them, and they run toward Angel, and they collide. And he’s engulfed.
It’s like they’ve consumed him.
Zach and I exchange glances, wary. I want to take his hand so I don’t lose him. He needs to be tethered to me for safety, in case something happens.
But I don’t. I don’t, because there are cameras, and witnesses, and because Geoff and Chorus said not to. And even in this moment of sheer panic, with this mounting fear, and the crowd about to hit us, I don’t disobey Chorus.