Stepping into the Sky: Jump When Ready, Book 3 by David Pandolfe Page B

car?”
    Henry’s face grew warm even as he grinned. “Okay, good
point. But you saw everything I did, right? I mean, Rose and Joseph and the
cars and houses. All of it?” He had no way of knowing if Nikki had perceived
the same things and he had to be sure.
    “Yeah, I did. You’re not crazy.”
    “How did you know what to say? I mean, the part about us
buying a house?”
    Nikki shook her head and thought for a moment. “I’m not
sure. It just came to me somehow.”
    Henry wondered if that was another one of the things Martha
had mentioned being arranged for them. He suspected so, although he didn’t
understand how it was possible. Would he find himself saying things he hadn’t
anticipated moments before?
    “And now we’re here,” Henry said. “Wherever the hell that
is.”
    “Exactly,” Nikki said. “I’m only taking a guess but what
I’m thinking is that we’re only in Rose’s reality when she’s aware of us. I
mean, what she thinks of as being her reality. When she stops thinking of us…”
Nikki gestured at their surroundings. “For the record, I’m a little creeped
out. Do you think we should just leave?”
    Henry shook his head. “I don’t know. Can we? And if we
left, do you think we’d come back?”
    Nikki shivered. “I kind of doubt it.”
    “Me too,” Henry said. “They did say everything would be
different.”
    “This definitely fits that description.” Suddenly, Nikki
stopped and pointed through the trees. “Look, do you see it?”
    Henry tracked her gaze but at first didn’t see anything.
A gust of wind parted the mist and then he saw it now too, a light in the distance.
“Where do you think it’s coming from?”
    Nikki started walking again. “I think it’s a house. That
looks like a window.” She looked around. “Do you get the feeling we’re being
watched?”
    Henry hadn’t wanted to say anything but he’d been
fighting the urge to look over his shoulder the entire time. But if they were
being watched, who was watching them? He felt pretty sure already that it
couldn’t be Rose, that Nikki was right. If Rose thought of them, they’d somehow
enter her reality again.
    “I’m definitely reading thoughts too,” Nikki said. “Not
particularly nice thoughts, by the way. I don’t know who they belong to but
someone has to be nearby. Or something . I don’t know.”
    Henry saw the outline of the house through the fog now, a
big house like the others that had been on the street before everything
changed. They continued walking toward it for no reason other than it offered
that beacon of light. The phrase “moths to a flame” crossed his mind. “Do you
think they’re in there? I mean, whoever it is.”
    Nikki shook her head. “For some reason, I think we’re
supposed to go there. Of course, I could be wrong.”
    “That’s reassuring.” Still, Henry picked up his pace. “If
it makes you feel any better, I kind of have that feeling too. Then again, it
appears to be the only thing out here.”
    “Well, there’s that,” Nikki agreed. “Having fun so far?”
    “Good times,” Henry said.
    As they approached the house, the front door swung open,
emitting more light into a world otherwise comprised of mist and shadows. Henry
felt something brush past him and turned to see what it was. He saw nothing.
    Suddenly, Nikki turned too, jerking her shoulder as if
someone had just tried to grab hold of her. “Come on!” she said, breaking into
a run.
    Henry’s sole instinct now was to make it into the house,
to take refuge within that only source of light. He cleared the doorway just
after Nikki and slammed the door shut. They stood, breathing hard, both of them
looking around.
    “What do you see?” Henry said.
    Nikki’s eyes traveled up, then down again, then from side
to side. “We’re inside a house. A big house.”
    Again, Henry had to be sure. “Like maybe where rich
people might live? Something like that?”
    They stood in a foyer larger than any of the