Retrospect

Twenty-eight

"It only shows up at night," I said, letting everyone crowd around me to see what I held. I looked to Miles, then to Ana, then to Reeves. "A lot of workers wear this stuff, so it shouldn't be a problem blending in."

"Yeah," Miles agreed, a grin spreading on his face, "and it'll be dark so it'll be harder to see our faces anyway."

I nodded and Reeves thought over our plan before he and Ana both accepted it. There really wasn't any other option at the moment. Murl grumbled again and Reeves shook his head, looking back at the injured man. "Someone's going to have to stay with him," he said, striding over to Murl before crouching down in front of him.

"No," Murl spoke through gritted teeth, "I'm going. It's tonight, I'll be fine by then."

The two of them argued about Murl's safety for a while, so Ana, Miles, and I stood a couple feet back and tried to focus on other things.

I turned to look at Miles who was facing Murl and Reeves and all I could think about was last night. How hurt he'd seemed. Maybe if there was some way to get his memories back, we could figure it out and I could help him. I could-

"Okay," Reeves said, his voice bringing me back to the present. He got to his feet and spun around to face us. "We should probably try to find our way back to the aquarium soon. There's no telling how long it'll take with one of us injured."

I dipped my head, putting the makeup back in my bag. Afterwards, Reeves walked up to Murl and helped him to his feet while Ana already started on leaving the corridor. "So have you guys been here the whole time?" I asked, my eyes trained on the gray-eyed man.

Reeves replied with a shake of his head. "We relocated every few hours, just to be safe." Murl grumbled then and almost stumbled to the ground, so Reeves made sure to stay by his side at all times.

I gave a nod and left the two alone. Murl obviously needed Reeves' attention. Miles was still standing near his cousin, watching him with concern, yet he didn't make any move to try and help him out. His mind wasn't quite there, I could tell that much. "Hey," I said, placing my hand on Miles' arm, "do you want to go on ahead? I'll stay behind for them."

Miles' head turned and he looked at me before his eyes went to my hand on him. I removed it fast, as if I'd been burned, and my cheeks suddenly felt hot, the blush growing across my nose. He didn't react at all, just said, "Sure," and went after Ana.

Murl hobbled over to me with Reeves by his side and gave me a strained smile. Pushing Miles from my mind, I smiled sadly back at Murl. Hopefully he would make it.

"Don't worry," he started, like he could see my worried thoughts, "I'll be fine," he promised, though I wasn't sure I could believe him. My parents had also said they'd always be fine, but look where they were now.

• • •

Later in the day, once the sun was directly above the city and all of the skyscrapers were reflecting its blinding light, we finally made it to the aquarium. Murl had been holding onto Reeves' arm, failing at keeping his balance and stumbling every once in a while. I'd offered to take Reeves' place somewhere along the journey, but the gray-eyed man had insisted it wasn't necessary and that he could handle it.

We all stood in front of the long, rectangular building, taking the sight of it in. Advertisements for the party tonight played continuously up on a big screen, stretching across the entire outside of the aquarium. They made it seem like nothing else in the world could top the event we were sneaking into tonight.

The hood I'd put up over my head shielded the sun from my eyes, allowing me to watch the energetic, colorful ads repeat over and over again. A shark swam across the screen, its blank stare haunting. Another clip showed a sea turtle gliding through the bubbly water. If only my mom were here. She should've been the one I was going with to the aquarium for the first time. I tried not to dwell on that thought too much though.