This is what I’ve written so far as part of my new novel.

* * *

Dianthe’s heart drummed in her chest. The sudden burst of blood flow woke her lungs, and she gasped. Then her stomach clenched and pushed, and she heaved forward, landed on all fours, and threw up. A foamy, silvery mixture splashed on the sanded cement between her hands and sloshed over her neon green fingernails. The sight and touch of it—it didn’t smell like anything—made her retch again. When she was done, she pushed herself on her butt against some sort of giant pill-shaped tube.

Looking around, she saw very little that she recognized. Dianthe was in a large, circular room about the size of the common area in her dorms at Sorbonne—big enough to fit the long, stained, vinyl couches facing a flat screen TV and a pool table so close to the wall that you had to hold the cues at awkward angles to keep them from sending the balls flying. Stefan had become an expert at it. He would guide the cue across his broad shoulders, placed one leg against the wall and bent the other against the table, and he struck the cue ball with magnificent accuracy. He would flourish each shot with an arrogant grin and a wink that made Dianthe have to lean against the back of the couch to keep herself from swooning.

That was as far as the familiarity went. This room was cold, surrounded by gray metal walls. Behind her there were two metal tubes, one leaning and partly crushed by heavy, steel shelves. And there were boxes, so many boxes, with spilled bars laminated with unmarked bluish silver plastic. It seemed like the set of some ‘60s science fiction show, where the props and actors were covered in aluminum foil and called futuristic. Dianthe struggled to her feet, feeling stiff but oddly strong. She wiped the argent vomit on her black skirt and grimaced at the stripes her fingers had left across her sides.

Dianthe stepped over her mess and suddenly felt her stomach throb. Persistent and unshruggable, she practically leapt to where the bars were and ripped off the wrapper and shoved the brown, grainy mass into her mouth. She chewed and she swallowed with the delicious bliss that follows a chocolaty indulgence post-diet. Then she remembered that the bars were tasteless, vitaminic food substitutes and thanked her lucky stars that her body hadn’t pushed her into pushing something less edible down her gullet. She wiped her hands against her skirt again, and the grains dulled the light stripes with peppery dark brown stains.

Door. There was a door. She remembered coming down here, but not from which way. Her uncle Chance had been in a hurry, his gray hair disheveled and his pink shirt skewedly buttoned. He hadn’t shaved in several days, which was tremendously out of character. Switzerland. Lucerne. She’d gone to visit him in his house in the mountains at his urgent behest. It had thunderstormed the whole train ride there.

Dianthe pressed her hands against the metal, looking for a crack or some other indication. The singular dimmed, and she realized suddenly both that this room was artificially lit and that she didn’t have much time left before it wasn’t.

No. The door wasn’t metallic. It was wooden—a locked mahogany door hidden behind a bookcase. She had asked Uncle Chance if his bat cave was back there. He had said, “Something like that,” in his heavy French accent. The tubes were familiar, but the floor had been tiled with some kind of white plastic. And, Dianthe realized, it was above her. Hundreds of feet up. Dianthe pushed up against the bent and leaning tube and looked up through a small cylindrical hole. The darkness kept her from seeing how far up it went.

“How the hell was I supposed to get out of here, Uncle?” she asked him, herself, or whoever could hear her—which she was fearfully beginning to realize was nobody. “Okay. You had a plan. What was your plan?” Dianthe began to look around desperately for any indication of Uncle Chance’s escape strategy.

Uncle Chance had pushed a thick needle into her neck and pushed some mercury-colored chemical into her body. She hadn’t enjoyed that. She’d remembered screaming and cursing at him in French.

“You will be unconscious when you arrive at the sanctum. When you wake up, you will press this button to get out. I will join you soon.” She’d kissed him as she had been starting to feel delirious.

“Button,” Dianthe said to herself. The tube that she’d been in was cushioned with some white, inflatable foam. She didn’t fully remember pushing it open and falling out, but she realized now that she hadn’t pushed it very far. Just enough for her to squeeze her thin body through the gap and fall upon the floor to hurl. She squeezed back inside and looked around. No buttons on the outside of the foam. She pushed her hand in, and the foam sloughed over her hand like some kind of dry molasses. The palm of her hand pressed against metal, and she searched with her fingers until she found what felt like buttons. Pushing one incidentally caused the hatch to snap shut the whole way, enclosing her inside the tube.

Dianthe dug through the foam, pushing it aside and keeping it from gumming back into its seamless form, so that she could see the control panel. It was a small and simple panel. Close, open, down, up, eject, all written in French.

This was it. Dianthe pressed the open button and rummaged through the supplies scattered underneath the warped shelves. A bag. An LED flashlight. Batteries. Two guns and a rifle. Both had larger magazines and barrels than she had ever seen—they seemed remarkably clunky. She didn’t see much of a use for so much weaponry, but she separated one gun out just in case of…bears…or something. She found a packed duffel bag, which she filled with all of the supplies she was looking for. There was a rubber-ish body suit of some sort. It looked like something out of a kink magazine, so she threw it aside. An all-weather jacket—that could be useful. She’d draped her wool, neon green hoodie over one of the tall chairs in her uncle’s kitchen, and they’d left in such a hurry that she’d forgotten it. And the tasteless food bars. She packed the bag with a big armful of them.

A box of water bottles had rolled behind the tube. There had to be more back there, but she managed to pull six to her, packed them, and decided that they’d be enough. She threw the duffel bag on the bottom of her tube. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small, black square lying at the bottom of the empty tube. A smartphone. The tube hatch had been pushed ajar by its impact with the shelves—not enough to fit through, but she could probably reach for the phone with her arm. She knelt, hugging the tube with one arm and pushing her other arm as deeply into the tube as she could, all while avoiding touching the vomit with her black sneakers. She cursed her want to look cute for her uncle on the same day that he’d decided to go crazy and stick her in some kind of Cold War bunker. She pushed her fingers onto the phone’s screen and slowly crawled it towards her. Then she grabbed it and pulled her arm out, catching her elbow on a piece of sharp metal.

She cursed and dropped the phone to press her hand against her elbow. The cut hadn’t been too serious, but it made her consider something she was missing in her survival bag: a first aid kit. The phone went into the bag, then she searched for a first aid kit and found instead a black, hard plastic case. Inside, all the basic components of a first aid kit plus a flare gun, an assortment of knives, and a lighter with replacement fluid. She packed it into her bag, which was starting to become worrisomely heavy. It was something she’d worry about later.

She stepped into the tube, placed one foot on the bag to keep it below her, and pushed the close button. The hatch shut with a hiss. She pushed the up button, and she was met with a dull buzz. “Okay, that sounds like ‘no,’” she said to herself. Then she pushed the down button. Again, the buzz.

Dianthe did not want to push the eject button. But, it being the only button she hadn’t just pushed, she touched it with her index finger, took a deep breath, and pressed down.

The tube instantly began to fill with foam. Dianthe’s breath caught in her throat, and she pulled her arms around her, protectively. When she was sixteen, she’d taken her father’s car and driven it down Wattleton Road in London. She’d been fine until she’d turned right onto Station Road and hit oncoming traffic. She’d hit a red Mercedes head-on. As soon as their bumpers had touched, airbags had inflated all around her with a loud pop and hiss that made her feel as if she was being suffocated. She’d felt impossibly stupid explaining to the constable that, “In America, everyone drives on the right side.”

Then the tube flew up, into the blackness she’d seen. She heard a whir and felt her direction change slightly. When she was going to UNIS in New York, Dianthe and some upperclassmen had skipped out of school and gone to Six Flags in New Jersey. This was just like that. She felt terrified and twelve and stuck in a small space and like she was about to crash and be crushed inside of a metal box. Finally, her roller coaster stopped cold. Dianthe tried to push her hand through the foam and hit the close button. The buzz told her “no.”

Then she felt a rumble and her ears popped. And the tube started moving again faster and faster and faster until it hit something, shook, and pushed ahead. Dianthe screamed apologies to anybody she had ever wronged. To Sandoval Menendez (age six), whose flower she had crushed under a cruel lace shoe, just before telling him that she would never date him because he was short and brown. To Fred Middleton (age 11), who she had broken up with after their first kiss and later spread rumors about his breath smelling like boogers. To Vala Straum (age 13), whose confidence she had betrayed when she’d posted on Facebook, “Vala likes vaginas.” To Jean-Michel Leroy (age 17), for breaking up with him on the day before the prom after getting cold feet.

The tube landed with splash and began to push forward, undulating and occasionally turning sharply after hitting a series of hard things. Dianthe took a deep breath before she realized what she was doing, but the foam was remarkably easy to breathe through. She tried to make her breaths regular and deep, to calm herself down like Mom—metaphysicist, yoga instructor, life coach, owner and distributor of the herbal supplement Heaven’s Root—had taught her. Then the tube turned again—she was falling head first. Dianthe held her breath again to keep from screaming, and the tube splashed, pushed down, then pulled back up. It settled over the surface and floated for a bit before it finally hit something and stopped moving altogether.

Dianthe reached for the open button. Buzz. Buzz. “Fuck you.” Buzz. Then the computer panel seemed to give up. The foam withdrew as if it’d been frightened away, and the hatch burst open, pushing against a fallen log and sending her floating downstream again.

Careful, to avoid tipping over, Dianthe sat up and peeked over the edge. She was in a turbulent river, the freshwater spray making it hard for her to keep her eyes open. She had obviously come from a large waterfall, which was now behind her. She turned forward and saw another waterfall, towards which she was now helplessly floating.

“Shit!” Dianthe said. She gripped the duffel bag, her thought process being: “Keep my shit dry.” She twisted her hip and hurled the duffel bag towards shore. It landed with a thud and settled on some on the riverbank. But the force of her throw flipped the tube, and she hit the water face first. She struggled to get out from underneath the tube, which she was sure would become her coffin if she didn’t escape it.

Dianthe had hated Tibet because it was so cold, but Mom had forced the entire family to go there twice in her life to discover their higher spirit form. Daddy spent most of the time on his laptop, leaving Mom to focus all of her attentions on Dianthe. “If a woman falls in a river, and he struggles against it,” Mom had said, “then he will inevitably be dragged under by the stream. But, if the woman goes with the stream, lets the river take her where it will, then she will discover truths beyond her imagination.” Dianthe remembered hearing a similar story while watching Pocahontas.

She shut her eyes, pressed both her feet against the interior of the tube, and she pushed as hard as she could. Her back hit the riverbed. She felt little rocks push their jagged edges against her green shirt and black undershirt. She flipped her body around and pushed with her legs against the floor. She gasped as her head splashed out of the water.

Keenan opened his guitar case and began to tune it. Oliver strummed a few notes before Chaz came over to help him tune his bass. Theo swung his fingers over the string. a beautiful sound emerged that made him smile. Music filled Theo with a sublime tranquility unlike anything he experienced with drugs or by any other influence.

“Okay,” said Theo once he saw Chaz settle behind his drum set. “Everybody ready?” He received affirmations from both Chaz and Keenan. “Ollie, just try to follow along with the rhythm. If you can’t figure it out or if you don’t know the chords, just sit back and we’ll help you out after, okay?”

Oliver nodded with some trepidation. Theo looked at Chaz and nodded for him to begin. Chaz counted down and began to play. The rest of the group followed in more specific ways than I am capable of describing at this time.

Oliver held back for a while, nodding his head to Chaz’s beat while tilting his head to listen to the  notes the others were doing. He watched carefully the way that Theo and Keenan’s fingers moved over the neck of the guitar and silently mimicked their movements. Then, after about a minute, he began to hit the four strings with his thumb.

Theo only heard Oliver play for a short while before stopping the song cold, putting down his guitar, and lunging at Oliver. He embraced Oliver tightly, to which Oliver reacted by freezing and tensing his muscles. Slowly, he relaxed and asked, “What did I do?”

“You did amazingness.”

Chaz tapped his drumsticks together. “You really were. Have you ever played the bass before?”

Oliver shook his head over Theo’s shoulder. “I listened, and I watched.”

Theo pulled away and looked into Oliver’s deep, black eyes. “You just learned how to play right now after watching us for a minute?”

Oliver nodded again. He seemed to prefer to not say words if he could avoid them.

“That’s fucking amazing.” Theo looked over at Keenan, trying to gauge his approval. “That was fucking amazing, right?”

Keenan smirked. “It was a lot better than I thought. I think we’ve got our band. Assuming Ollie wants to play.”

Oliver looked at Theo for a long while. He was less interested in whether he wanted to play and more in whether Theo wanted him to play. Theo, he could see, was convinced–a complete conviction he had rarely seen in people’s eyes. “Yes. I will play if you do,” he said to Theo.

“Well, I definitely plan to play,” Theo confirmed.

Oliver nodded. “Then I definitely will play.”

“Now the only question left is: what do we call ourselves?” asked Chaz.

“Not ‘Theo and the Rockets,’” said Keenan, a silly grin on his face.

Theo laughed. “Shut up!”

“I thought of a few,” said Chaz, “back in the day. But I used most of them already. I’ve been in a lot of bands that wound up not working out.”

“Pigeonhole. Because nobody can pigeonhole us.”

Keenan shook his head. “I’m thinking of a pigeon’s butthole.”

Theo frowned. “Massive Attack.”

“Already in use,” said Chaz. “And awesome group, by the way.”

“Us or them?”

“Both?” Chaz smiled and shrugged. “How about Six Minutes to Six?”

“I kinda like that!” said Theo.

“Why six?” asked Oliver.

“It’s just a name.”

“No. Ollie’s right. It’s too random. Why six? You could say it’s because of six-six-six, but it’s not even that. We’re missing a six.”

“So Six Minutes to Sixty-six.”

Keenan laughed. “You’re stretching it.”

“Fine, you come up with something!” said Theo, frustrated with Keenan’s tendency to naysay.

Keenan sighed. “I’m in hell right now.”

Theo threw a couch pillow at Keenan, which he easily caught. “It’s not that bad. More like Purgatory.”

Keenan put the pillow down next to him. “Fuck. That’s it! I like that one!”

“That one what?”

Chaz hit the cymbal. “I like it too!”

“Like what?!” Theo asked more loudly.

“Purgatory,” said Keenan. “It’s a good name. And it kinda fits both our styles–leaning towards the dark side.”

Theo smiled. “Okay. I like it too. ‘Cuz I came up with it.”

“By accident.” Keenan threw the pillow back at Theo. It hit him in the face. Theo yelped.

* * *

Theo didn’t like being in Chaz’s house alone. He didn’t like being anywhere alone.

Theo can’t live without attention. Look at me! Look at me! That’s why he has so many friends everywhere, and they’re all the kinds of people who love Theo. I’m not angry–I’m just saying. It’s not really fair to people like me, who don’t really need that much attention.

Okay, maybe I’m an attention whore too, but I only really want Ash’s attention anyway. And still Ash is spending tons of time writing this book. This is my passive-aggressive way of saying, “Ash! Let’s go out and do stuff! This book doesn’t have to get done by tonight!” So you almost have 50,000 words. Finish that, then we go get pastries. If not, I’m gonna be really sad, and you’ll get no sex for weeks. Well, hours. I’m not gonna punish myself.

Maybe I should figure out something else.

Oliver left the house at sunset and didn’t return until morning, so Theo went to the French Quarter and hung out with West’s group. It wasn’t only loneliness that brought him there. It was Gabe. Theo wanted to run his hands through Gabe’s dirty hair and kiss his dry lips. That’s why, in the morning, when Gabe woke Theo and asked him if he was hungry, Theo quickly agreed.

Then he realized that he hadn’t brought enough money to buy breakfast for one, let alone two. He had brought only enough for the bus ride to and from the house. He thought about confessing to Gabe, but he was too ashamed. He had no money, but he couldn’t expect Gabe to pay for him–Gabe who had duct taped shoes and ripped pants and a dirty tee-shirt. Theo still had the clothes he had taken from home. They weren’t many, but Chaz washed them with his laundry, and they were still in good condition.

“I don’t have any money,” Theo said finally, expecting his words to end this engagement–Theo wanted to call it a date, but that might be overstating Gabe’s intentions.

Gabe smiled. “I don’t pay for food.”

“Oh,” Theo hadn’t entirely realized that he might be paying for two. He would’ve been willing to, if he had the cash to do it with. He cursed himself for not bringing more out with him, but he was terrified of being mugged. “So we can go back, if you want.”

Gabe laughed. “You didn’t get what I said right. I said I don’t pay for food because I know where there’s free food.”

“Okay, cool.” Theo thought about Gabe digging through dumpsters and trash bins until they found enough spaghetti to pile into a plate. Then they would each take a noodle and put it in their mouths and suck on it until they discovered, to their surprise, that they had both taken opposite ends of the same noodle. Their sucking would bring their lips together, then they would both pull away and blush and have sex.

Theo didn’t share the thoughts he was having.

Gabe led him to a church. It was a modest building that looked more like a two-story apartment building attached to a second building with an arched roof. There were a number of people gathered along the side of the flat-roofed building. A set of double doors were opened, and a small table was set out in front with brochures about God and salvation and the afterlife. A sign next to the table said, “All brothers and sisters in Christ are welcome!”

As they approached, the girl at the door said, “Hi! Welcome to Christ United Methodist Church. Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?”

Gabe smiled and said, “Yes, I have! Can I have one of those?” He pointed at the brochures. “I want to bring my friend here to the glory of the Lord.”

“Amen!” the girl said. She was so excited. “You’re gonna love it here. We’re very welcoming.” She took one of each brochure and gave them to Gabe, who instantly handed them to Theo.

Theo looked at them and grimaced. “Thanks?”

“Go right inside. Breakfast is just starting to be served.”

“Thank you very much,” Gabe said, a disturbingly fake, wide smile panted on his face. He led Theo inside while Theo leafed through the brochures. Gabe looked at Theo and said, “Don’t actually convert. I was just joking around.”

Theo smiled. “I was worried for a second there.”