Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 140940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 705(@200wpm)___ 564(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
It was hard to watch him suffer over this impossible love.
If anything, Felicity was probably a good twenty to thirty years older than him and had probably remembered M as a very troubled young student that she could never help.
Pavel went over to me and whispered, “It is time to go, Kazimir.”
“Okay.” I looked at the white board of the building, hoping to memorize it for my mouse.
I had to admit that it was a pretty clear sketch. For a few seconds, I focused on the little blocks representing the stairs.
Wait a minute.
A crucial detail caught my attention, a part of the building’s anatomy I had encountered firsthand. My gaze drifted to the blank space beyond, to where I expected the other staircase I saw earlier.
“Something is missing on your map.” I turned to M with confusion laced in my voice. “There’s a staircase, leading up from the hallway. It goes to another level. Why isn’t that on your drawing?”
“The staircase from the basement?”
“No.” I went over to the board and let my finger hover over the area. “There are a set of stairs right here that goes up to the next level.”
M glanced at the spot. “There are no stairs.”
“I saw them.”
His voice held an unsettling conviction. “I have searched every place in this building for many years. There is no other level.”
His denial sent a shiver down my spine.
“But, I saw the stairs.”
M’s bottom lip quivered. “You did?”
“Yes.”
“But. . .” M rubbed his head. “Is it possible that the brain, in its attempt to protect or conceal, has hidden entire sections of itself from our conscious recognition?”
I wasn’t entirely sure what he was asking, but I responded, “I saw stairs that led to another level.”
“Part of me wants you to show me this, Kazimir. . .and yet the other part. . .it rejects this. But. . .dare I ponder silently, the implications stretching before me like the unseen levels of this metaphorical building.”
Again, I had no idea what he was saying, but what I was sure of was the fact that I would go to those stairs and see where they led.
M looked at the ceiling. “A floor above this one? What realities lay buried, deemed too perilous or painful for the conscious mind to confront?”
Pavel touched my arm. “We should not go there. It will be enough to just tell Emily that there is another set of stairs—”
“If her alters cannot see it, then I doubt she can see it either.”
“All you need to do is give her the information—”
“I can do more than that.” I headed off.
Pavel called after me. “Kazimir!”
Chapter forty-four
The Hidden Staircase
Kazimir
I burst out of M’s apartment with a storm of emotions churning within my body.
The next level is the answer. That is where the original is.
I had already spent a long enough time in my mouse’s mind, so much time that my head filled with this dizzying fog of uncertainty.
I had to go soon.
Just check upstairs. . .and then leave.
I moved so fast my feet barely touched the ground.
My heart pounded in my chest with this urgency—this desperate need to climb and discover whatever awaited me above.
Behind me, Pavel’s footsteps sounded. “We must go after this.”
“We will.”
M’s voice rose. “Kazimir, wait! We must take our time and theorize the possibilities, not just go there.”
“I am sorry, M.” I shook my head and did not break my stride. “I do not have the time for that.”
Lunita’s voice cut through the tension. “There are no stairs, nasty lion!”
“I will show you.” I glanced over my shoulder and spotted the little girl.
She was in the far back, moving those little legs and clutching her stuffed lion close to her small body.
She believes me. I know it.
Solitary conviction anchored me.
Forward was the only direction I could move.
Once I approached the stairs, I stopped in front of them. “Here we go.”
Pavel huffed and stopped next to me.
Soon M, Lunita, and the little girl arrived.
I pointed at the steps. “What do you all see?”
M squinted his eyes. “I see a wall.”
The little girl nodded.
Lunita leaned her head down to her shoulder and truly peered. “There are no steps.”
I turned to Pavel. “What do you see, cousin?”
He frowned. “A staircase.”
“My God.” M stepped forward with his gaze fixed on the stairs—or the wall, as he perceived it. “This could be a psychological barrier.”
M turned our way. “Our brain might be shielding us from these stairs, from what lies above, because we’re not ready to confront it.”
Pavel’s expression turned grim. “If that is the case, then maybe you should not push this.”
“I am going up there.”
“Cousin, if the stairs are hidden from their sight, maybe there is a reason. It could mean they are not meant to deal with whatever is up there—yet.”
The hallway was thick with unsaid thoughts. I felt their caution, their fear, even, but it clashed so fiercely with the fire inside me.