“Look!” said Levi, pointing to something small and spiny scurrying away from the collapsed shelves. “Willow?”
Footsteps approached. “What was that?” said a voice.
“It’s the warehouse crew!” hissed Kat.
They jumped up and started back through the crate maze.
“Willow, wait for us!” called Levi.
They rounded a corner just in time to see the spiny thing slip through the gap in the warehouse door.
“Hurry!” said Kat. “Before she gets away . . .”
“Ma. Ma, it’s me.”
“Rebecca!” called one of the workers. “You’d better get over here! The forklift crashed into a whole shelf—it fell on someone!”
“I think it’s the truck driver!” said another. “He’s hurt bad! Rebecca, call an ambulance!”
“Come on, Levi,” said Kat, gently taking his arm and leading him out the door.
“She remembered me!” said Levi as they raced along the side of the main building. “Some part of her did!”
“Levi, get a grip! She’s probably telling security right now!” panted Kat. “We’ve got to catch up to Willow! She’s keeping something from us! There’s got to be more to this factory than the warehou—!” Her train of thought was cut short when she slipped and skidded down the muddy slope.
She landed next to an immense drainage pipe, rusty and slimy and coated in lichen, its mouth yawning out from the slope like a monster leech.
Kat chewed her lip. “You don’t think—”
“No,” said Levi. He’d been building a tolerance for the uncanny over the last few days, but seeing his mother in the warehouse had been an emotional gut punch.
A skittering noise echoed from somewhere deep in the pipe.
“Willow?” called Kat. She turned to Levi. “I think this is what we’ve been looking for. The secret part of the factory.” She started forward.
“No!” moaned Levi. “This . . . it’s too much!”
“What about Twila?” said Kat. “Do it for Twila. Right?”
He paused. Took a deep, ragged breath.
“Right. Okay. For Twila.”
She took his hand.
And together they stepped into the pipe.