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"Hey!" I called again, louder this time "I’m still here!"

"That’s the probleht flickered behind ht, but a small bare bulb in the custodial closet

"What?" I spun, looking for who’d spoken

He was illuminated fro a flashlight under your chin only flipped the other way "You’re still here, and that’s a problem"

"What?" I squinted to see better "Is that you, Yasuo? What are you talking about?"

"You’re here She’s not And now it’s ti ers curled and tightened until I felt the delicate bones of rabbed his wrists and struggled backward He squeezed tighter, andfor air I opened et a breath in or out

The rubber soles of my boots skittered on the wet tile of the pool deck and my feet slid fro ot my feet back underca fish

I stared into his eyes, trying to co hied look I wanted to connect Tried to telegraph so expression Maybe he’d remember hoasn’t so bad Hoe used to be But he wasn’t there I stared into those eyes, and he wasn’t ho different Whoever this creature was, it wasn’t my friend Yasuo anymore

His fingers curled tighter, and I feltBlack spots popped into rief…My emotions were so haywire, I expected Carden to appear any minute But he didn’t

Had Yas chained the door? Either way, it looked like I was onStrength, I told

I uncurled the fingers ofup rasped toward the stars in ers dug into ether Beca disturbing little croaking noises But I sensed it as though fro out

This was it

I senseddoor, a rush of fresh air and light But Yasuo didn’t take his eyes from me, so surely it was onlyinto the light

But suddenly Yasuo’s fingers were gone His spine shot straight and his arht flap away His back arched, and he bucked, then bucked again, eyes shut like he was having a seizure

It was the last thing I saw beforetoen, theas it passed my throat

Finally,to find Carden But my savior hadn’t been a va

Yasuo was on his belly, and Kenzie sat straddled over hied her sai knives hilt-deep in his back

She callanced from me to Yas "Just in tia pool party"

"Oh ed, barely a rasp "You killed hiave me an impatient look "I’m better than that"

"You did" I pointed at the twin hilts, sticking out of him like an X "His heart You staked him"

"Anatomy 101, Acari Drew I’ aler down to a point just below his left shoulder, between her knives "His heart is exactly between these two blades The kid will be fine"

She pulled out those blades, and Yasuo’s body shivered So he was really alive?

Oh crap He was really alive

And he’d be really pissed when he caet out of here"

"He’s out for a while" Seeing irlie"

She was cleaning her blades on the hem of his uniform sweater, her posture so cool, it ratcheted her several notches up in my estimation