Immortal City

squished in the wet grass as Maddy led Jacks around the classrooms to the side of the school. They came to the unmarked maintenance door, and Maddy slid Ethan’s key in the lock. Holding her breath, she turned it. She heard the click as the dead bolt retreated.

The hallway was dark and quiet. Homecoming posters hung sleepily from the walls. The only light came from a vending machine down the corridor, a soft red and blue fluorescent glow. She looked around and got her bearings.

“It’s this way,” she said.

Maddy ran her hand along the banks of lockers as they walked. She had strolled down this hallway a thousand times before, but now it was different, and it wasn’t just the dark. Everything had changed. She came to her locker and paused. She thought about herself at that locker just days ago. That simple, comfortable life she’d known for so long.

One day you return to your normal surroundings and everything just feels different, she thought. Except the surroundings aren’t different. You are.

“What is it?” Jacks asked.

“It’s nothing,” Maddy said. In truth, it was everything, because she had just realized nothing would ever be the same again. The lockers and the scuffed linoleum and Gwen gossiping about the Angels, it all seemed irretrievably gone now. Even if things did somehow go back to normal, there’d be no forgetting the truth of her parents’ identities or their horrible deaths. There was no escaping it. Whether she was ready for it or not, her childhood was, officially, over.

“It’s not much farther,” Maddy said, and started to walk again.

Then she froze.

She could hear a voice. It was coming from down the hall, from inside one of the rooms. Her eyes darted to Jacks.

He was already listening intently.

“We should go,” Jacks said, his voice low.

“Wait,” Maddy said, and listened again. She recognized the voice. It was a girl, a girl she knew. The voice gave her a strange, sinking feeling she couldn’t place. Who could possibly be there with them? And at this time of night? She gave Jacks a look, then crept forward, staying close to the wall. Up ahead a faint light filtered out through the frosted window of the teachers’ lounge. With her heart galloping in her chest, she noiselessly turned the handle and cracked open the door.

The room was empty. There were a few half-drunk mugs of coffee still sitting on the table. And a glowing TV

left on in the corner. Someone must have forgotten to turn it off. Maddy registered the face on the screen.

It was Vivian Holycross. She was radiant in a silver sheer Alexander McQueen dress as she sat on a couch across from the irrepressible Tara Reeves. It was an ANN exclusive interview. Even though a tear streamed down her cheek, it was a perfect tear. Hair and makeup had done a great job making her look sufficiently distraught.

“It’s a big misunderstanding,” Vivian said, taking a tissue she was offered from Tara and wiping her eye. The scrawl on the bottom of the screen stated “ANGELHUNT on for suspected serial murderer Jackson Godspeed. ”

“Would you like to say something to Jacks, if he happens to be watching?” Tara asked. Vivian sniffed.

“Come home, Jacks, and we’ll get this all worked out.”

Even crying, she looked amazing. Maddy watched the screen, and jealousy twisted through her. She had almost gotten used to the tempting idea of Jacks’s affection. Vivian’s perfect image was an icy reality check. How could she ever compete? She, an abomination. How could she have ever let herself think Jacks would truly have feelings for her when he had Vivian to come home to?

Jacks gazed at Maddy, seeming to guess what she was thinking.

“Come on,” he said, walking to the television and punching a button. It turned off with a slight buzz. “I’m sure Vivian made a great appearance fee to do that.”

Maddy looked at him uncertainly.

“Before I collapse right here in the hall, why don’t you show me where we’re going?” Jacks said, leading her out of the room.

The faded mural painted on the side of the gymnasium depicted a muscled, red-and-white cartoon Angel dribbling a basketball under its wing. The banner read This Is WINGS Territory!

Maddy tugged on the handle. The door opened with a metallic clang. The gym was dark and cool and smelled of hardwood and cleaning solvent. Their footsteps echoed in the dark as they entered. Jacks walked forward and sat heavily on the floor. Maddy groped along the wall until she found a metal control panel and a row of switches. She threw the switches on one at a time, and slowly the gym lights started to glow. Jacks sat there in the half-light, his arms resting on his knees and his head bowed. Even for an Immortal he looked utterly exhausted. Maddy knew well enough the school was only a temporary solution, that on Monday teachers and students would be streaming into the halls again. But for now it would do — it simply had to. Jacks needed to rest. Even Maddy herself was too exhausted to think straight anymore. They could plan their next steps in the morning.

She found a stack of gymnastics mats in the corner and pulled the top one down. Awkwardly unfolding it, she dragged it to half-court.

“Come lie down,” she said.

He walked over and fell hard on the mat.

“Are you really going to be okay?” she asked.

“I will be, I just need some time,” he said wearily.

Maddy sat beside him and pulled her knees up to her chest. She listened to Jacks’s deep breathing. Vivian’s crying face still played in her mind.

“Can I ask you a question,” Maddy said finally, “if I promise not to be stubborn about it?”

“Sure,” he said.

“What you said on the rooftop,” she said, her voice small. “About being. . meant to be together. Was that really the truth? I mean, do you really believe that?”

Jacks looked at her. Maddy was very still, her eyes at her feet. “I just don’t understand. Why would you go through all this trouble when you have someone like her?”

She huffed in defeat. “I’m not blind, Jacks. She’s. .incredible.”

“Vivian?” Jacks asked. Maddy nodded.

Jacks studied her for a moment in that way he did, scrutinizing her, then lay down slowly on the mat and looked up at the lights.

“When I got home that night after you and I met, things were chaotic in my house. The police were there, my mom was crying, Mark was yelling, but my mind, Maddy, my mind kept returning to you. I couldn’t understand why. I went and sat on the deck outside my room and searched the city lights until I found your uncle’s diner. I watched the sign until it went off.”

Maddy’s expression had turned incredulous.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I don’t believe your room has its own deck.” She groaned.

Jacks laughed a little.

“I was thinking about our conversation. I didn’t even understand why. My mind just kept returning to that flash in your eyes, and what I had felt when we touched. I’d never felt anything like it before in my life. I had to see you again.

So. .” He paused, suddenly embarrassed. “The next day I did a little research and found out where you went to school.”

“I was wondering how you found me.” Maddy laughed.

“Angels have their ways,” he said, grinning. “I went, expecting you to be thrilled to see me, but you pushed me away. No one had ever done that to me before. It made me crazy — and only more determined. I went to your window that night, not knowing what I was doing there, almost unconscious. I just had to. Then you woke up, and we started talking. I told myself I was there because I just wanted to win, you know, I just wanted you to say you forgave me.