Read Online Taken by Erin Bowman - Free Book Online Page B

I explain. “Claysoot. I’m leaving.”
    “Don’t be rash. You know there is nothing beyond the Wall.”
    “I’m not being rash. I don’t trust you. I don’t trust this place. So much about it is wrong and if I can’t find answers to my questions here, I’ll find them elsewhere.” I back away from her, feeling my way toward the door, but she grabs my arm. Her grasp is surprisingly strong for such frail hands.
    “Don’t be stupid, Gray,” she says slowly. “You won’t find any answers beyond the Wall because you’ll be dead.”
    “But I’m eighteen! It might be different.”
    Maude’s fingers tighten around my wrist. “Eighteen? What are you talking about? Have you lost your mind?”
    “We were twins . . . are twins,” I say, twisting my arm free. “I can’t stay here anymore. I just can’t.”
    I find the doorway and stumble into the rain.
    “Wait!” she cries, but I don’t. As I tear through the waterlogged streets, she calls after me. I can’t quite make it out, but it sounds like “stay.” And “please.”
    I run straight to Emma’s house and pound on the door. I promised to let her know if I came up with any stupid ideas, and while this doesn’t exactly feel stupid, I know it is risky. But I have no other options. My only hope for truth now lies beyond Claysoot.
    “Gray,” Emma remarks when she opens the door. “It’s the middle of the night. Are you okay?”
    “I need to talk to you.”
    “Okay,” she says, yawning. “Come in.”
    “No, I need to talk to you.” I draw the words out, but she looks at me blankly. “Come here,” I grunt, grabbing Emma’s arm and pulling her outside so that our conversation will not wake Carter.
    “Ow, Gray. What’s the matter with you?” she says, rubbing her wrist.
    “I have to leave.”
    She looks at me, bewildered. “Leave? Why do you have to leave? Where are you going?”
    I tell her about Maude, the voice, the blue light coming from her room. I tell her how Maude has become another mystery, like the Heist and Wall, that is too unnatural to trust.
    “Please go home and sleep on it. We can talk in the morning,” Emma says. “You’re not thinking clearly.”
    “I’ll feel the same way tomorrow. I can’t stay here any longer, Emma. It’s all wrong and I need answers. If they come in the form of death beyond the Wall, at least I’ll know for sure that nothing exists outside this place.”
    “I don’t understand why you’re doing this.” She’s close to tears now.
    I analyze every aspect of her. The way those large eyes pinch together in the corners, the exact angle of her eyebrows, the placement of that mark on her cheek. I want to remember these things. It’s the last time I’ll see them. More lasts.
    “You don’t have to understand,” I say. “I’m doing it for me, because that’s what I do. We talked about this on our very first trip to the lake. I think about myself, my needs, and I act on them. I need the truth, all of it, and I’m going to get it. I can’t spend my entire life not knowing.”
    “Gray, please. Please don’t be that selfish.” She grabs my hand in desperation.
    “I have to do this,” I say. I’m not sure if this is really true. It feels it, though. Every ounce of my body screams that this is the only way, and that’s all I need. Those feelings have always been enough to justify action.
    “Gray?” she whispers.
    “If I survived the Heist, what’s to say I can’t survive the Wall? I’ll come back. After I get some answers. I promise.” And then I grab her face and kiss her before she can argue. She kisses me back, her hands gripping the base of my neck. This figures, that when I finally manage to connect with Emma, I am running in the other direction. Before her lips can change my mind, I break away. She stands alone, her nightgown blowing about her shins as I sprint home.
    I pack my bag with food and water. Gather my bow and arrows. It is mindless work, like my body’s been