Read The Girl Who Never Was for Free Online Page B

walk to the door, and I realize that Ben is standing very tensely, as if he expects me to throw the door open and that somehow we will be pulled out into some place called Nowhere and that will be very bad. I don't pull the door open. I put my face to the window. Outside is nothing but darkness. It is not just that the lights have gone out in Boston. It's that there are no lights to go out. There is nothing.
    I step back in alarm. 'I don't understand. Where did it go?'
    'You broke my enchantment,'says Ben simply, as if that makes sense.
    I stare at him. 'I what?'
    'You broke my enchantment. You said my name, and you made it rain, and you broke it. And really I'm never going to hear the end of it, I must say.'
    'What are you talking about?'I demand, bewildered. 'I didn't make it rain. I can't make it rain.'
    'Of course you can,'Ben says, as if I am the crazy one.
    'You're not making any sense.'I am losing patience now. 'Nobody has made any sense''
    'Ever in your life. You're just noticing it now.'
    'Ben,'I say firmly, ignoring his flinch. 'Tell me what's happening.'
    'What's happening right now? What we'd been waiting for, I suppose, although I didn't think it would happen quite this way. But you told me your birthday'that was the first break in the chain.'Ben starts pacing, shaking rainwater out of his thick, dark hair with his hands, the droplets flying everywhere. 'Then you got into the Salem Which Museum, and Will gave you the books, and you started asking the right questions finally, and it was only a matter of time until you knew the right words, but I thought we'd be able to tell you everything very calmly. I think your aunts were planning an old-fashioned tea or something. I didn't think you'd be able to dissolve my enchantment. That's usually so much harder to do than you made it look just now.'
    'What are you talking about? Your enchantment?'
    'Yes. You know. Your whole life and the way you were just normal enough to stay hidden and safe.'
    I stare at him, thinking he's lost his mind. 'You're telling me that my whole life is nothing but an enchantment?'
    Ben stops pacing and looks at me, quicksilver eyes serious. 'Yes,'he answers simply. 'And you just broke it.'
    I continue to stare at him, silent, trying to comprehend this.
    'I told you the world would end if you kept saying my name,'says Ben.

Chapter 4
    Let's go,'says Ben, as if it's a typical evening out in Boston. He starts jogging down the stairs at Park Street, toward the subway.
    'Wait. I don't understand,'I say. I am tired of saying this, and I don't even think Ben hears me saying it anymore, if he ever did. I decide to avoid the doors with their terrifying black emptiness beyond and follow him. He leaps over the barrier. I halt, pull my T pass out of my pocket, and swipe the card. It beeps its approval, and the gates swing open.
    Ben, who had been leaning over and frowning down the Green Line track to our left, turns at the noise, and he looks absolutely astonished. 'Did you just pay to get in here?'
    'Well, it's an unlimited pass,'I say, 'so, technically, I paid at the beginning of the month. What happened to everyone in my life? My father, my aunts, Kelsey?'
    Ben looks blank. 'What do you mean?'
    'Were they all just figments of my imagination?'
    'Of course not. They all exist. Everything you knew exists. It was just the perceived normalcy of you that was enchanted. I mean, who has the energy to enchant people
    into existence? Just getting you a timeline was very impressive work, let me tell you, not just anyone could have pulled that off. You should see the effort it takes just to keep that sweatshirt of yours intact.'He nods toward my sweatshirt and starts walking away from me, toward the stairs leading down to the Red Line.
    I don't follow him. I look down at my sweatshirt, my simple maroon-with-white-Boston hooded sweatshirt he gave me on my birthday. 'This is an enchantment?'I say.
    Ben stops walking, turns back toward me. 'Yes. A protection. One I've