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“Yeah, she was touching it. She’s still touching it.”
“She’s—okay. So, it’s not hurting her?”
“No. Is there something wrong with it?” August leans past the edge of the platform, trying to see better. “Should I—”
“Don’t touch it, August, Jesus! There’s nothing wrong with the third rail. She’s just—she’s still in between.”
“Okay,” August says. Jane looks up at her, paler somehow. Drawn. “What do I do?”
“Make sure she keeps touching it,” Myla says. “If I blacked out the line and she’s still there, it means residual electrification on the rail is what’s keeping her here for now.”
“For now? What—why didn’t it work?”
“I don’t know,” Myla says. She’s grunting and out of breath, like she’s working on something. “We were never going to be able to produce a surge as powerful as the one that got her stuck—I mean, fuck, this station’s part solar-powered now, which is a whole other factor. The hope was that something close would be enough.”
“So—so that’s it?” August says, flat. “It’s not going to work?”
“There’s one more chance. The second surge, remember? When I undo what I did and restore power, there’ll be another surge. We can—we can hope this one will put it over. She might have some charge left over from the first one. That could help.”
“Okay,” August says. “Okay, when’s the next surge?”
“Give me a couple of minutes. I’m passing the phone to Niko. Just—just talk to her.”
August shoves her phone back into her front pocket and looks down at Jane. Without power coursing through the line, she—well, she doesn’t look good. All the color has drained from her face. No more summer glow. Even her eyes seem flat. It’s the first time August has looked at her and actually seen a ghost.
“Hey,” August calls down to her. “You’re okay.”
Jane holds a hand in front of her face, examining her own fingers. “I don’t know about that.”
“You heard Myla, right?” August demands. “We have another chance.”
“Yeah,” Jane says vaguely. “It… it doesn’t feel good. I feel weird.”
“Hey. Hey, look at me. You’re getting out of here tonight, one way or another. I don’t care what it takes, okay?”
“August—” she says. And August can see it in her eyes, a dullness that has nothing to do with electricity. She’s losing hope.
“Jane,” August shouts, pulling herself to her feet. “Don’t you dare fucking give up, do you hear me? You know how your emotions affect the line, right? What you feel, right now, it’s holding onto that charge. It’s what’s keeping you alive. Don’t let that go. You remember when we got in that fight, and you blew out a light? You remember when you stopped the whole train just because—because you wanted to get laid—” Despite herself, Jane’s face splits into a smile, she laughs weakly. “Come on. Jane, that was all you. You have power here too.”
“Okay,” she says. She closes her eyes, and when she speaks again, it’s to herself. “Okay. I’m gonna live. I want to live.”
“Almost ready,” says Niko’s voice from August’s pocket.
And August—August thinks about what she just said.
The nerves in Jane’s body, electrical impulses, feedback loops, a scarf, an orange, hands brushing into sparks. What Jane feels. What August makes her feel. The love of my life.
She pushes herself off the platform.
Jane’s eyes snap open at the sound of August’s feet landing on the tracks.
“Whoa, whoa, what are you doing?”
“What’s the one thing that’s worked?” August says. She crosses the first two rails, balancing on the tracks. One wrong step, and she’ll be crashing down to the street. “This whole time, Jane. What’s the one thing that made this all happen?”
She sees the moment when Jane realizes what she means—her eyes go wide, frightened, furious.
“No,” she says.
