The boom vibrates through the air, ricocheting a tremor through my core. The van lifts off the ground and instantly bursts into flames, exploding before my very eyes. Jake grabs me and throws me to the ground and then lands on top of me as burning heat consumes the air around us. My cheek smashes against the gravel pavement. Heat scorches my lungs and skin, singing my hair. Vaguely, I realize Jake's using his body to protect me. Wreckage clatters around us and he cries out as his arm cradles around my head.
Complete terror races through me, incapacitating my ability to move. My mouth opens and I feel the scream exit my throat, but all I hear is a thrumming ring vibrating around me, consuming all other sounds. Dust fills the air so I'm unable to see anything other than the pebbles on the ground.
"We have to get out of here," Jake says through the ringing in my ears and helps me stand back on my feet.
Somehow I'm able to move, one step after the next. Smoke and dust and unbearable heat swirls around Jake and me. My vision is teary and blurred, and all I can focus on is that Jake is alive. His face is blackened, and his shirt is shredded, but he's here. The fumes constrict my lungs and I cough, needing air. Jake presses me to him, his whole body shaking.
Screaming suddenly shocks the silence and though it feels as if my ears are full of cotton, I don't miss the wails and shouts. I move my legs faster until we reach the taxi we were supposed to get in earlier. Jake throws open the door and the driver starts talking frantically.
"Take us to the airport." Jake yanks out all his cash and tosses it into the front seat. "Hurry!"
Tears stream down my face, and I can't stop shaking. "Please."
The driver appears as frantic as we must look. But he turns around and somehow pulls into traffic, weaving through the people waving for him to stop.
"We're moving," Jake whispers.
I clutch Jake's shirt and bury my head against his chest. And start sobbing. It's ridiculous, but I don't care. I can't look up even though our driver is talking a million miles a second to us. Sirens break through the screams, but soon it all fades as we speed away, far from it all.
As the minutes tick away, the screams and sirens are replaced with honking cars and the drone of engines. I'm not sure how long I cling to Jake, but soon I'm able to pull myself upright.
A quick glance at Jake's shirt tells me it's completely soaked from my tears. And then my eyes trail up to stare at his face. Dust cakes his cheeks and a streak of blood runs from his ear down to his neck. His eyes are wild and bloodshot, shifting from the driver to glance at the traffic on either side of us.
We must be closer to the airport and on the highway because the taxi has increased its speed.
"Did you see the others?" My words come out choked and gritty.
With the pad of his thumb, Jake lightly touches my face. "You're bleeding."
"It doesn't hurt. I'm fine."
"Sorry."
"No." I shake my head vigorously, trying to force the panic at bay. "You saved my life. What's a little cut anyway? But your neck. It's bleeding pretty badly."
"We'll get cleaned up and changed at the airport. I feel bad about leaving, but it wasn't safe there. We had to get away. Whoever did that must have been close by."
"Someone wants us dead. I can't believe this actually happened."
He doesn't say anything, instead, he gives me a sad smile. My head pounds and my entire body feels numb.
"Wait," I say. "My suitcase. It's still at the curb."
"What about your passport?"
I touch the travel purse I tucked under my shirt. "No, my passport and money are still here, but everything else I brought with me is lost."
"We can replace clothes," Jake says. "That's not a big deal."
"Yeah, you're right."
I lean back against the seat, listening to the music from the taxi's stereo boom around me. Normally, I might be annoyed by such loud music, but in this moment, it's drowning out the horror I've just experienced. I pull out Dad's watch. The face has a jagged crack down the center where I must have fallen on it, but the stars are still swirling.
He's okay, I tell myself. You're okay. You can do this.
"How did you know?" I ask as we turn into the airport area. "To get out of that van."
Jake presses his lips together and runs his hands over his face. "Just had a bad feeling. Sun was right. We were being watched. And after they took all of my stuff, I knew they meant business."
"They're trying to stop us. We must be close to finding out something that they don't want us to discover."
"Too close."
The taxi pulls up to the curb and we crawl out. My legs nearly buckle beneath me, and I reach Jake to keep my balance. He pulls me close.
"Aria! Jake!" It's Sun, waving to us from just ahead. She's with the rest of the crew and they all rush to us.
"What happened to you two?" Javier asks.
Once we tell them the details, they stare at us in shock. Sun drags me into her arms.
"This is out of control." Tony joins in with a group hug. "Not cool. I'm so glad you're okay."
"Let's talk about all of this in a safer place," Javier says, smart-thinking as usual.
"What we need is to get out of this country," Danny mutters in a low voice, "before the authorities realize that bomb was meant for you. I don't know what you're all involved with but it's too dangerous for my liking and somebody—" He looks pointedly at Sun "—isn't telling me everything. Regardless, let's focus on getting through security before any of our names get red-flagged."
No one disagrees. We head directly to the bathrooms, and I open my purse to see what little belongings I have left. The rose Jake delivered to my hotel room is crushed and the petals have been ripped off the stem. For some reason, that's the last straw for me and I sag onto the first bench I can find. I hold the petals in my palm, and stare at them, wondering how we got to this moment.
"Are you okay?" Sun hunches down in front of me.
"I'm fine." Total lie. "I didn't get to eat breakfast. Maybe if I eat something, I'll feel better." I pull out the smooshed muffin from my purse as if to prove my point.
"Why do you have a rose?" Sun asks. When I shrug, she narrows her eyes. "Where did you get it?"
"I think Jake got me it. It was outside of my room this morning along with this muffin and tea."
I'm about to take a bite of the muffin when Sun rips it out of my hand.
"What is your problem?" I snap.
"Jake?" Sun calls him over. "Did you give Aria this flower and muffin?"
I gape at her. Why is she embarrassing me? Doesn't she see how upset I am?
His forehead crinkles. "No."
The others have gathered around now, staring down at me and my rose.
"Did anyone here give this to Aria?" Sun presses. When they all shake their heads, my heart sinks into the deepest pit of my stomach. She takes the rose and holds it up in the other hand, saying, "You were specifically targeted. I bet the muffin is poisoned and they knew exactly which room you were in."
She marches to the trash can and throws them both away, brushing her hands off once finished.
"Wow," Jake says. "These people are covering all of their bases."
"I can't deal with this," Tony adds. "Man, oh, man."
I grit my teeth, feeling numb. I had just been about to take a bite of that muffin. If Sun hadn't taken it from me, it is a very good chance I'd be dead.
"Too many close calls," Javier says while Danny starts swearing over and over, pacing back and forth as the realization of the kind of trouble we are in hits him.
"You should freshen up." Sun is back to acting like my big sister. "Here, you can borrow my clothes and apply this antiseptic to your wounds. They don't look so good."
I stand on wooden legs and take the clothes, pushing past the others to the bathroom. Once in the stall, I sag to the ground, choking back sobs. I don't care that the floor is grungy. It's probably cleaner than I am. My chest constricts and I'm finding it hard to breathe.
Stay strong, I tell myself and dig out Dad's watch from my pocket to stare at the swirling Eye of God. One step at a time.
I'm pulled back to June 11^th^, a day I'll never forget. It was our big breakthrough with the Dreamscape. I wasn't a part of the crew at that time, instead, I'd just hung out at the lab to help Dad out over the summer months when I wasn't in school. I loved being there, in the heat of groundbreaking science and watching my dad work. Many people thought of my dad as eccentric, odd even. He has a way of mumbling to himself when thinking through hard problems.
More often than not, he'd even mumble at the grocery store as new ideas hit him. People would side-glance at us, but I didn't care. Because I knew what they didn't. Those mumblings were the workings of a genius.
The Dream Walker crew had just finished another entry into the Dreamscape, but the dreamer kept rejecting the crew's presence in the dream and would wake up. This had been their twentieth attempt and tenth dreamer.
"We are so close," Dad told me as the crew began waking up once again. "If only I could figure out how to convince the dreamer that the crew is a part of their dream. Or become so obscure that they become one with the wallpaper."
I'd been sitting cross-legged on the counter, nibbling on a bagel, studying the footage of the Dreamscape they had just exited.
"I think it's the way the crew enters the dream." I paused the footage. "See where Javier is standing and how he is staring at the dreamer. It's not natural. Javier needs to act like he's a part of the dream, not entering the dream."
Dad straightened from where he was sagged over in his chair. "You might be right."
"Let me try it," I begged Dad. "I think I can do it."
This was like the hundredth time I'd begged Dad to let me into the Dreamscape so the last thing I expected him to say was yes. But on June 11^th^, he did. And when I entered that dream with the team, I was hooked. It was the longest a crew ever had lasted in a dream. When I woke up from the Dreamscape, it was as if MaxLife had finally come to life. The room was full of shouting and high-fiving. We celebrated by going out for fresh doughnuts. My favorite.
"You're our good luck charm," Dad had told me.
I licked off the chocolate glaze from the corner of my mouth, not able to hold back a wide grin. I was hooked. I was their lucky charm! Ever since that day, I've been a part of the MaxLife team and I've never looked back.
Now, as I sit here on the floor, I feel anything but lucky.
My hands shake so hard that it's tricky to slip on Sun's clothes. Once I've changed, I splash water on my face.
The girl I see in the mirror is one I can hardly recognize. Slowly, I apply the antiseptic cream to the scrapes and cuts on my face and arms. My cheeks look a lot like Javier's with that hollow quality from not eating enough. Dark circles ring my eyes and my hair is tangled, red curls out of control. I clutch my brush firmly so as to get a grip on my treacherous nerves and begin to comb out the knots.
What am I even doing here? The bomb had been more than a warning. It had meant to kill us.
If I'm going through all of this, what must my dad be dealing with? Much worse, I'm guessing. The chances of him being alive—No, I won't go there. I won't entertain the possibility. Tears well up again, but I shove them back and swallow the lump in my throat.
"I can't stay away," I whisper to my reflection in the mirror. "I will hunt them down until I get my dad back. Nothing is going to stop me."
I straighten my shoulders, pull out a tube of lipstick, and slather it on. These people want to mess with my life, fine. But that means I'm coming for them.