Page 36 of Death

“I, uh...” I look down, swallowing hard. “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t have slammed the door on you like that. I was just...”

“I don’t mean that.”

I lean back. “Then... wh-what do you mean?”

“You know what I mean,” he says. “One moment, I was minding my own business at home. The next, you were in my bed.”

“Whoa, wait.” I step back. “What?”

“You thought it was a dream,” he says with a smile.

“It was a dream.”

“No, it wasn’t.”

“I was sleeping!”

“No, you weren’t.”

“Then what did you do to me?”

“I told you, I didn’t do anything.” He shakes his head. “I don’t think it was you or me, Tannis. There are forces in this world that even I don’t understand.”

I wrinkle my forehead, confused. “How is that possible?”

“Anything is,” he simply says.

My pulse quickens and that warm ribbon curls through my chest again.

Ari smiles and looks over my shoulder toward the hangar. “Have you ever flown before?” he asks.

I tilt my head. “You know I haven’t.”

“I do. I also just like hearing you talk to me, so…”

He bobs his head, urging me to answer.

“No,” I say. “No, I’ve never flown before.”

He releases my hand and I instantly miss it. “Let’s go.”

We walk toward the hangar. I glance around for signs of life but there’s no one else here. The place looks old and abandoned but feels brand-new, if that makes any sense at all.

Not sure why I even try to make sense of any of this, to be honest.

Ari grabs the door and slides it wide open, revealing a small plane sitting in the middle of the hangar. Well… small might be too kind of a word.

I linger in the doorway, feeling increasingly more against this — whatever the hell this is.

Ari lets out another chuckle and reaches back to snatch my hand again. “Come on…”

I dig my feet in. “Is that a real plane? Or a half-scale model of a real plane?”

“It’s perfectly safe.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.” I glance around. “Where’s the pilot?”

“You’re looking at him,” he says.