I looked back as we finally stepped off the grass of the park and onto the sidewalk. Only those sprinklers that had been directly behind us as we ran had been switched on. None of the other sprinklers in the park had been activated.
I had no idea if the ravens and the sprinklers were signs that we were on the right path, but they would have to do.
A couple of blocks before we made it back to where we’d parked, Chloe pulled me aside and reminded me that she had to use the bathroom. She pointed to a Starbucks across the street.
* * *
—
The coffee shop was pretty busy. Dozens of people were going about their day, looking at their computers, communicating with loved ones and reading articles, books, or magazines on their tiny screens.
They couldn’t feel the darkness that was coming.
But I could.
I rubbed my arms nervously as I waited for Chloe. She was taking forever in the bathroom and I wanted to keep moving.
“Harold,” the barista called out—the name of the person who had ordered the most recent drink. “Harold.”
Six men slowly made their way up to the counter.
“Harold?” the barista said again, clearly freaked out.
All six men held up their hands and looked around.
They were all named Harold, and they were all kind of confused.
“Nonfat latte?” the barista called out, hopefully.
“Is that for Harold?” A man stepped out of the men’s bathroom and made his way to the counter.
Harold number seven.
Kellan Meechum believed this type of significant coincidence was an indicator that you were following one of his Radiants, and Hazel had said something similar about the game as it related to these types of occurrences.
Did this mean that we were on the right path?
Or was this maybe a sign of something else? Something terrible? I felt my stomach drop. I looked over at a tower of chocolate espresso beans and artisanal popcorn that was flanked by baskets of bottled water on either side. There was no way the world could possibly end among things like these, was there? I thought back to Crow’s weird lecture about being locked in the trunk of a car. At least in that scenario you knew where you stood. There was something about considering an apocalyptic event while standing in the middle of a Starbucks staring at a banana nut muffin that felt sadly unreal.
I knocked on the door to the bathroom. “Everything okay in there?” I asked.
No answer.
I knocked again, and this time I noticed that the little green indicator above the door handle said “vacant.” The door was unlocked.
I pulled the door handle down. “I’m coming in,” I said, and opened the door.
The bathroom was empty. Chloe was gone.
I checked the other bathroom. Empty as well.
There were only two doors, and I’d been standing in front of them the entire time. There was no way Chloe could be anywhere but inside one of those two bathrooms, and there were no windows in either room.
She was gone.
I ran through the coffee shop, past the Harolds, and out into the street. I could feel the presence of the shadow things out there, like some kind of weird barometric pressure building up behind the fabric of the world.
I looked down at my phone. The point of the pyramid was about twelve miles away. I wondered if I’d blacked out and Chloe had somehow slipped past me, but I definitely hadn’t experienced any lost time, and Chloe would have no reason to leave me there alone.
I called her. There was no answer.
I summoned an Uber. Five minutes later, I was on my way to Chloe’s place.
I thought about heading directly to the top of the pyramid to complete Xana’s quest, but there was no way I was going to leave without making sure Chloe was okay.
I half-expected my driver’s name would be Harold, but it was a middle-aged woman named Geneva.
I asked her to wait for me while I ran up to check Chloe’s loft.
But I couldn’t find it.
Chloe’s name wasn’t listed anywhere in the directory, and when I buzzed the number of her suite, a man answered. He told me he’d been living in that unit since the building had been converted into a residential property, and nobody named Chloe had ever lived on that floor.
I got back into the car and instructed Geneva to take me to the tip of the pyramid. I had no idea what was happening, but the last time Chloe and I were together, that was where we were headed.
It was up to me to try to finish what we’d started.
* * *
—
The tip of the triangle or pyramid pointed to a strip mall in Northeast Seattle.
I stepped out of Geneva’s Prius and looked over the names of the stores in the strip mall. Nothing stood out.