I intently watch out the window of my and Lola's bedroom into the foggy darkness, waiting for the perfect moment.
It's time.
I quietly stand up from my bunk to peek at Lola sleeping on her stomach in a mess of blankets, a gentle snore assuring me of her state. I'm in the clear. I tiptoe across the dark room to grab my pocket knife from it's concealed spot behind a bookshelf and stuff it into my back pocket, momentarily freezing with each stir of my sleeping sister.
Each step out of our room is amplified by the night, the floor creaking more often, my breathing like an elephant's, and my guilt of going on my mission without Lola, raging.
It's been a week since I formally brought up the red light to Lola, I've been brushing past the topic as often as I can and I'm sure she's gotten the hint by now. She hasn't acknowledged it even once, but a few times she's given me a strange look then subtly adjusted the topic. Now that I'm finally here, I can't bring her into this knowing how easily she'd be able to talk me out of it.
Once I get to the living room I stumble through the darkness until I find the metal candlestick on the table and a match to light it with. I Swipe the match across the outside of the worn box and light the burned tip, a soft orange glow filling the room a blink later. I tuck a prewritten note into the biology report, just on the dark chance anything goes south, pick up the candlestick, and when I leave I try to keep the squeaking of the doors rusted hinge as quiet as possible.
I bring myself back to the location of the house with the roof above the fog and the red light's location from there, trying to map out a rough idea of where I'm going, but truthfully, I could just as easily get.
I rarely go outside at night, and never like this, the darkness combined with the toxic fog lets me see only a few yards ahead by candlelight, which Is a huge problem when your plan might involve sneaking into somewhere. My nerves begin to grow with each step down the cracked street, the deathly quiet making my fears impossible to be distracted from.
After just a few blocks I seriously begin to consider turning around, ripping up the note, and going off to bed as if nothing happened, but I find myself somewhere familiar. I extend the candle to illuminate the building next to me, a glare casting across the windows dirty enough to be frosted. The Coffee House.
I consider my options, going back for Lola is a horrible idea, but would Nayan help me? I glance nervously into the dark unknown, unsure If I could go on after my rethinking of the possibilities that could be waiting for me. Nayan wouldn't turn me away, and while he is a bit of a wuss, Maybe he would come with.
I force out my mind's rebuttal, and before I know it I'm at the top of the thin staircase slamming my fist against the wooden door.
After just a few seconds a distant groan erupts, "Who's there?"
"It's me," I shout from outside of the door.
There is silence for a moment, then footsteps growing closer, a faint mumble of Hindi trailing along with the footsteps. The lock clicks and the door slowly opens, showing my disheveled and barely awake best friend. His black hair is matted with sleep and his sweatpants are short enough to show the dark skin of his ankles.
He sleepily presses the palms of his hands over his eyes to shield himself from the orange glow of my candle, "What are you doing here, don't you realize it's the middle of the night?"
I quickly realize that thinking over this moment may have been a good idea, now I'm left here unsure of how to ask him to go with me on this possibly dangerous or aimless search.
"I saw this red light a couple days ago," he nods along with half-shut eyes, "I'm going to go look for it, want to come with?"
He leans back on the counter and gestured for me to come inside, "And you couldn't have asked me this any other time?"
I stuff my hands into the pocket of my sweatshirt, "Deciding to go was more of an impulse thing, I didn't decide to go until a few hours ago."
"So it was a red light?"
"An artificial light, meaning technology."
He lets out a tired sigh, just like Lola's and my mind is already starting to feel my defeat, "You did consider- well, things, right? There could be nothing, or it could be dangerous, or-"
"Considered it all," I say without hesitation, did I really though?
Thinking of it now most of my real consideration came from the last ten minutes, I don't change my answer.
He yawns, "I was having a good dream."
"Which was?"
He begins walking out of the kitchen without a second glance back to me, "I don't remember, but I know it was good."
I follow him, scared that he'll ditch me, "What are you doing?"He opens up his bedroom door and I can feel the words coming from his mouth, all the things that Lola said, and instruct me to abandon my mission, "I'll be back out in a minute."
The door carelessly closes and I'm left relieved, pumping my fists in the air. I take a seat on the couch and watch the wooden door with as if it could jump out at me.
After a minute or so the door opens up again, Nayan wearing jeans and a sporty hoodie instead of his pajamas.
"You sure you want to do this?" I ask.
He laughs, "You came over here at some ungodly hour to convince me to join you in finding a light, and then when I accept, you are really going to test your luck?"
I sneer at him, "It's called being polite."
We make our way outside while still joking about my stupidly polite question, the barely lit street feels lighter now that Nayan is here. But this still doesn't change the fact that I still don't entirely know where we're going, We walk several more blocks where the friendly conversation slowly but surely starts to dwindle, Nayan stops walking.
I do the same and turn to face him, "Why'd you stop?"
"Do you even know where we're going?"
"Kind of, I know the general area," I say sheepishly.
"And you really think a general area will get us very far in a place like this?" He says it pitifully, just like Lola and I nearly cringe, "What if we walk until sunrise and there really is nothing to find?"
I can feel it, we're so close, but in a world like this, a gut feeling means nothing when it comes to people's hope of escape.
"We're close! I just know it!" I wave the sweaty candlestick around hysterically looking for another red light in the abandoned streets of Avex.
"Maybe we could come back another time in daylight to look for it, then at least we could see more clearly," He doesn't mean the maybe, if we leave now he and Lola can come together to stop me from coming back here.
I keep on looking frantically around, trying to ignore his sorry look knowing sooner or later he will sway me if I don't find it.
Minutes pass where I look around the area, ignoring everything he says in hopes of finding the building with the red light. I study each house and building in hopes one will stand out but none of them do, His words begin to break my wall when I see something, a driveway dipping below the surface of the road.
I run up to it and see the concrete connecting to a garage where a faint fluorescent light seeps under the crack of the door. A tall building directly behind it where the red light may be.
I hurridly skip back to Nayan who has taken to just sitting on the crumbling curb in the dark, "I found it!" I sound like a five-year-old but I couldn't care less, I found the source of the red light!
He jerks up and I skip to the top of the driveway, Nayan following closely behind. When we approach his face goes from a variant of happy I can't quite place to an unsettling still, and for a moment I worry he may vomit.
"What's wrong?"
He doesn't speak for a moment, staring at the eerie garage door, "I-" He pauses to take a sharp breath, "I haven't seen people other than you and Lola in so long, I don't think this is a good idea."
I bite my lip, maybe in another scenario I'd go back, his answer for whatever reason feels off and I'd love to press the matter more, but now just isn't the time.
"Don't be silly, If we're careful we won't get hurt," I reassure, "It's not like we'll be talking to people anyways."
"I don't think it's worth the risk," He is completely still other than his mouth, "If these are the maniacs who kidnapped us in the first place, I can imagine them going to some crazy lengths to keep us here."
I turn to face him, "Nayan, I know that even if the portal isn't here, somehow this will lead us home," I say with a confidence stronger than my sister's, "Please, just trust me on this one."
"What if they see us and..." Now he really looks like he's about to vomit, I didn't realize how scared he would be, I begin to feel guilty for bringing him into this, "They could... This is a bad idea, Cassie, we should go back."
I grab his shoulders a few inches above mine to center his eyes on mine, "Listen to me, If we go in there I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that we will," I emphasize the "will", "Make it out. I swear on my life, on the lives of everyone in my family, Hell! I swear on your life, that we will get out of there."
He laughs quietly at the end of my speech and pushes my hands off his shoulders, creating a distance between us, "Ok, as long as you are swearing on my life."
I smile, not at the joke, but at my best friend's change of mood, even if it still does feel dully forced, he diffidently looks more confident after my pep talk, "Is that a yes?" I ask eagerly.
He nods, "It is."
Even though it's well past midnight, two or three to guess, I don't think I've ever felt more awake. Nayan stares at the crack of light beneath the garage door as if a mountain he was about to trek to the top of.
I set down the intricate candlestick next to a bench that looks like nothing less than a strong gust of wind could turn it into a heap of metal on the pavement.
We offer each other a silent yet reassuring nod before making our way down the driveway. Regardless of my positive outlook, each step we tread down the ramp creates a fearful unease, similar to when I and Lola first woke up here.
Lying on the cold pavement in a fog just as dark as the one now, all I wanted to do was sleep, but Lola just kept on shaking me. Lola was pleading for me to wake up, I remember how in my hazy dreamlike state I thought it was the weirdest thing, I was supposed to be waking her up for school, why would she be waking me up?
Eventually, her pleads broke through my wall of sleep, looking back at it now, probably a drug induced one.
"Cassie! C'mon! I don't know where we are!" She sounded hysterical, "I need your help! Those dirtbags kidnapped us or something!"
She picked me up by my armpits and dragged me to the foliage covered wall of an old structure, leaning me upright, "God, Cassie! How did you put up with me doing this every morning?" She grumbled, then quietly laughed at herself.
She began tapping my cheeks, at this point my eyes were open but everything felt lopsided, "Hey! Get up, Cassie!"
The weariness began to fade and the dreamlike calm was gone, I was left with the final memories of me and Lola in our bedroom, Lola looked almost as scared now as she did then. But nothing could match the fear of watching your sister bleed to what should of my death.
Once I finally grew alert she calmed down and gave me a recap on the last half hour. I was desperate for information at the time so I inhaled all her words and theories. While I was alert and the adrenaline kept me at bay, A part of me couldn't shake the lost feeling, the feeling of walking into somewhere so foreign and unknown that it doesn't feel fully real.
With each step that takes us closer and closer to the garage door, the parallel feeling grows.
Nayan grips the handle of the door, just inches from the crack of bright light spreading on the concrete below, "Are you ready?"