Echoes by Marissa Lete (best books for students to read txt) 📕

Normally when I hear echoes, they’re always from exactly one year ago, no matter where I am. They’re from the past. That’s how the echoes work. You can’t have an echo without a sound that happened before it. And yet, right there, I was hearing echoes of things a few seconds before they occurred in the present. Whatever Alice put into me made something strange happen:

I’m hearing echoes of the future.

Chapter 20

I sit there, listening. For the first few hours, every time I decide to move, I hear the movement a second before I do it. It’s like a strange deja vu where I can hear what’s going to happen a moment before it does.

As the hours tick by, however, the future echoes start to grow fainter until I no longer hear them. It’s as if they were just a temporary malfunction in my brain that finally wore off.

What was in that needle?

And who is this Alice lady, anyway? How does she tie into the echoes I’d been hearing of Maverick?

The hours tick by, one, then three, then six. Maybe more, maybe less. It’s hard to judge the passing of time in this room with no clock and no windows. No one comes into the room to bring me food or water, and my stomach begins to grumble, aching for sustenance. I begin to wonder if the real reason I’ve been brought here is for Alice to watch me starve to death.

Eventually, my eyelids grow heavy. I glance up at the security camera hanging in the corner, wondering if I’m being watched at this very moment. What if they’re waiting for me to fall asleep? What if I miss my chance of escape by nodding off?

The fears swirl inside of me, but as time continues to march forward, I finally give in. I climb onto the cot, pull one of the rough, itchy blankets over my torso, and lay down.

The second I close my eyes, an alarm screeches through the building, making me jolt back upright.

Above the door, a red light comes to life, spinning in circles as the alarm blares in bursts of three.

I leap to my feet and try pushing on the door, hoping that the alarm has triggered some kind of release mechanism, but it remains solid. If this is just a drill or a test of the alarm system, then it’s possible that nothing will happen and the alarms will stop after a few minutes. But if it isn’t, someone might end up coming to help me get out of the building.

I won’t hold my breath, but if someone does come, I have to be ready to make my escape attempt. So I grab one of the blankets and stand by the door, ready to spring into action at any moment. I listen, trying to hear the sounds of footsteps outside the door, but I’m not sure I can make out anything above the sound of the alarm. And anyway, I’m pretty sure this room is soundproof, considering I never heard Alice and Dave coming when they visited me last time.

The minutes tick by, the alarm continuing its siege through the building. Then, finally, the door swings open.

The second it does, I pounce on the person entering and throw the blanket over their head. I recognize the figure as Dave, and a glance through the door tells me he’s alone. I know there’s no way I’ll be able to hold him down, so this is my only chance. I use the extra few seconds I’ve bought myself to slide past him through the door and bolt down the hallway.

As I sprint, I go over the mental map I’d drawn of the place earlier. I’ll round a corner up ahead, then the staircase will be on the right at the end of the hallway. I’m not sure where all of the other doors lead—maybe to more rooms with more people being held captive—but I do know that the stairs are my best chance.

I round the corner, glancing behind me, and I see Dave in hot pursuit, already catching up. So I pump my limbs faster, building as much speed as my hungry, fatigued body can muster. I make it to the door, swing it open, and run straight into another person.

We hit each other, hard, and I fall, my head colliding with the bottom step of the staircase. I roll over in a rush, peering at the figure standing above me. His back is to me, a dark gray hoodie pulled over his head.

Dave comes barreling through the door and the other person side steps. Dave runs past him, then sees me on the ground and skids to a halt, turning to face the hooded figure.

I seize the moment, scrambling to my feet. I’ve made it up exactly seven stairs when a voice calls out, stopping me in my tracks.

“Wait! Don’t go that way!” it calls, and immediately I know who the hooded figure is. I whip around, facing him. Dave is laying on the ground facedown. Two amber eyes peer at me from under the hood.

“What?” I can barely say the word, my heart thudding in my chest.

“Come with me. I’m here to help you escape,” Maverick says.

I stand there, trembling. I can’t get myself to move. All I can manage to do is say three little words: “Who are you?”

“There’s no time to explain, I just need you to trust me,” he tells me. I remember that same voice from the echo on Halloween.

“Do you trust me?” he’d asked.

“Of course I do,” I’d replied.

But that was a playful, fun exchange, not a dire situation where my life was in danger. And I don’t even remember it. Obviously Maverick exists, meaning the echoes quite possibly could have happened, but I wonder how well I