Chapter Twelve - Water Fountain: The Drink That Changed Everything

CHAPTER TWELVE

Water Fountain: The Drink That Changed Everything

I’M PARCHED.

POST-SNACK, my mouth feels like a salted desert.
I wander the tiled plains until I see it—
The water fountain.

It’s in the weird hallway between Spencer’s Gifts and the place that used to be a Sears.
The carpet here changes textures.
The lights flicker once.

No one else is around.
Just me.
And the fountain.

I lean in.
The button hisses like it knows secrets.
The stream launches—just the right height.

Cold. Crisp.
And then—
Something shifts.

My vision zooms.
I hear the mall announcer whisper “That was not water.”

The lights above flicker in perfect Morse code.
I don’t know Morse code.
But I understand.

Suddenly, I feel every escalator in the building.
I can sense the Cinnabon worker thinking about quitting.
I know that the girl I saw earlier—the one near Hot Topic—she dropped something.
A bracelet.
She thinks it’s gone forever.
It isn’t.

I step back.
Wipe my mouth.
The tile glows underfoot like I’ve been marked.

A janitor walks by. Nods once.

“Yup. You drank the water.”

Then he vanishes around a corner that wasn’t there before.

I check my phone.
No signal.
But a new note app has appeared.
It's called "It Begins."

I open it.

It says:

“Return to the food court. Sit by the koi pond. Wait for the man in the red hoodie. He knows where the wallet is.”

I didn’t tell anyone I lost my wallet.