Free New Sight by Jo Schneider Page B

screaming from far away.”
    Brady. He had plenty to scream about: being addicted to a drug, running from ghosts, or suffering from the Need.
    Lys’s mind halted on that subject. The Need. It was gone. She explored it, not wanting to wake the Need, but wanting to see if it was still around. Lys poked at it like she would a canker sore. It stirred, but only a little. Like it had been buried under a mound of heavy blankets. Buried? The tonic sort of repressed the Need; it never felt like this.
    Lys risked meeting Kamau’s eyes and found them glaring at her.
    “What?” she asked. What was his problem?
    “Why were you out of your bed?”
    “Uh.” Seriously? Weren’t there more important things to discuss? Like where they were.
    “What were you doing in the basement?”
    Lys shook her head. “I, uh, the toilet in my room clogged, so I buzzed the counselor. No one answered, and the door was open, so I went looking for someone to help.” She didn’t think he’d believe the truth! Visions and dreams? Now that she really thought about it, the whole fiasco was probably a hallucination brought on by Pop. Or the tonic.
    “How did you get into the basement?”
    “I took the elevator down, trying to find someone, and it took me to the basement. The elevator wouldn’t go back up, so I stepped out. Then it closed and wouldn’t open again.”
    “Why were you wandering the halls?” His eyes bore in to hers.
    “Why were you wandering the halls?” she asked, returning the glare. “Down there in the dark? And why did you have a flashlight with you? You just usually carry one around in your pocket?”
    She hadn’t meant it to come out so forcefully. Too late now.
    “I told you, I was searching for Brady,” Kamau said.
    “Why didn’t you just tell the counselor that he was missing?”
    Kamau rubbed the bridge of his nose with a hand. “There was no counselor when I called.”
    Lys opened her mouth to reply, then stopped.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    “There was no counselor when I called either,” she said.
    Kamau’s scowl turned into a thoughtful frown. “Are you sure?”
    Hadn’t she just gone over this? “I went to the desk and didn’t find anyone. Why do you think I got on the elevator?”
    The two of them regarded one another. Lys broke the silence. “Why was Brady out of his room?” Finally the most important question hit her, floating up from the dredges of her mind. “What happened with him, anyway?”
    “I do not know,” Kamau said. It looked like he wanted to say more.
    “What was with the door? How did he do that?” Lys asked, leaning forward and pressing her face between the bars.
    “The door?” Kamau asked, shifting his eyes to a spot above her head.
    “You saw it,” she said. “He hit it and the whole thing crumpled like a piece of paper. How did he do that?”
    “It was an old door.”
    That was his explanation? “Oh, come on,” Lys said, “You saw it, too.”
    “I only saw him open the door.”
    “You’re totally lying.” Again, not what she meant to say out loud.
    His scowl deepened. “I do not know what you saw, but I saw Brady push the door.”
    Lys opened her mouth to rebuttal, but stopped. Her mind jumped again. Maybe she could get him with this one. “What did you see coming down the hall after us?”
    “I do not know what you mean.” Kamau looked away.
    “The glowing ball of, whatever? What did it look like to you?” He didn’t answer. Lys went on. “I know you saw it.”
    Kamau hesitated before answering. “The figure of my grandfather in his ceremonial robes.”
    So they all saw different things. Lys saw a wolf head, Kamau saw his grandfather and Brady saw a woman in a flowing dress. Or at least she thought that’s what he saw. “Maybe it was all a hallucination,” she said aloud. Only she hadn’t seen anything when Kenny freaked out and the others had.
    “Perhaps.” He frowned.
    “Do you think Brady is okay?” Lys asked. “He seemed pretty messed