Page 61 of Tapeworld Induction

She thought of rejecting it, the instinct to show she was more than capable of looking after herself. Then the image of him pausing on the stairs up to Sacha’s made her think again. She shouldn’t be worried about taking a little help, especially if he was the one offering it.

She grabbed his forearm, feeling his warm skin and tightened muscles, leaning into him for help.

“It’s okay,” Dylan said. “I think she found another way out. Maybe we can just summon her again? Kitty!” She dusted off her arms and looked around. “Help me look for her.”

Worry warped Isaak’s face. “I don’t know that she’s coming back, Dee.”

“I… Let’s just keep an eye out for her!” The prospect of losing Kitty wasn’t something she wanted to think about. Not now.

“I’m sorry about Kitty.” Isaak placed his hand on her shoulder, and it made her world shake. The gesture comforted her just enough before wounding her an equal amount, when a hint of nervousness got in his way and he removed his hand again.

“I’m hoping she’s still around somewhere,” she said. “Where are we anyway?”

Taking the first real look at their surroundings since landing on her knees on the concrete, she realised the place resembled the area near Bank station, where city boys and city girls did their extremely well-paid finance jobs in extremely high-rise glass-panelled buildings. Bunch of fools.

“Is this somewhere you’ve been before?”

“Yes,” he said. “Sort of. In the real world, I mean. Not in the Tapeworld. I have no idea what this place is.”

The street was deserted. There was no one else here.

“How’d we end up here then? You made the portal…”

“Usually I imagine where I want to go, draw a circle in the air and that’s it. But this time…” He paused.

“This time, what?”

“This time I just thought, ‘Get us the fuck out of here.’”

She couldn’t blame him for that. “And it picked this place… Well, I don’t see that black hole anywhere.” It really had scared her, but she didn’t want to say that to Isaak. Didn’t want him to think she was an easily frightened damsel.

“I never saw anything like that before.” He went quiet and moved closer, reaching for her hand. Dylan could smell his scent again, something like sweet, burnt oranges. It blew her mind a little bit, as she hadn’t considered smell inside the Tapeworld before getting so close to him.

“What are you doing?” Her voice trembled – she wasn’t sure if from fear or excitement.

He positioned himself in front of her, holding both of her hands and looking into her eyes, his chest lightly moving up and down. Dylan felt seen, the way he looked at her. She wasn’t just another nameless drone, and not a spoiled daughter, nor a badly performing worker. His eyes glinted in the darkness of that place, that impossible tape-space with streets lined with the tallest skyscrapers.

He leaned into her, and he was so close his sharp cheekbones brushed hers, and Dylan parted her lips for his kiss. As she closed her eyes, she felt his breath on her cheek, then her ear, and he whispered, “The black spot is over there. Don’t look.”

She let out a little frustrated breath before she could stop herself.

Dylan’s friends had accused her of being unjustly angry at the world, at society, for having robbed her of an opportunity to do something truly groundbreaking. But she doubted anyone would censure her for being bloody upset at Isaak’s will-he-won’t-he behaviour. But right now her fear of the black spot drowned out her anger.

She tightened her grip on his hands and opened her eyes, finding the resolve to push forward, his actions be damned. “What do we do?”

“Think of somewhere nice you’d rather be…”

“Why me?” Why put the responsibility on her? She could count the number of times she’d been in the Tapeworld on one hand, and its unwritten rules were getting to be too much.

“Just do it!” he hissed in her ear.

Dylan closed her eyes again and thought about what made her happy.

In the blink of an eye, before she was even conscious of thinking of a specific place, it happened. The concrete corporate building they stood in front of slightly wavered, and suddenly a familiar blue swirl appeared on the wall. They looked at each other, still standing so close together. Her heart was racing.

She stole a glance at the black spot behind her. Three larger black shapes appeared beside it as she was looking.

Fuck.