#rex greene

the clocks are black - rex/melissa, jessica/dess, jonathan/constanza - pg-13

Dess meets his eyes. "You know you've barely even been trying to get Jessica out of the blue time. If it was Melissa, she'd be out already. You'd be doing everything you could to save her."

Rex is stung by her accusations — even moreso the possibility that they're true. He knows — he does — that he thinks about Melissa every day. Jessica…Jessica doesn't cross his mind as often.

Something ugly and mean moves in him, fueled by his guilt — and by a fear that he senses in Dess. "Well, you're not exactly trying your hardest, either," he snaps. "At least I'm not willing to let Jessica stay in the blue time forever because I'm afraid."

Currently re-reading one of my favourite series of all time. Feeling very lonely in a fandom that seems so scattered and faded. If you've never read it, and young adult fantasy/sci-fi is your jam, then I'd highly recommend!

These aren't my copies, by the way, as the books are apparently out of print (?) and I can only read them on iBooks. Found this picture of the covers online 😊

"Rex pulled his long black coat around himself and clung to the row of lockers along the wall, waiting for the crowd to clear, wondering exactly when he had become invisible. And why. Maybe it was because the daylight world meant so little to him now."

Scott Westerfeld, 'The Secret Hour', Midnighters, p.9

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As someone who daydreams for hours every day, I understand this quote a lot. The "daylight" world, better known as the "real" world, ceases to exist for most of the day. You do what you need to do to get by in it, but in the end it doesn't hold your heart like your world does.

Thinking about it, a lot of Rex's thoughts, feelings, and behaviours throughout the series are similar to those of an immersive or maladaptive daydreamer (I am the former, not the latter - precariously). It's what's on his mind most of the time, he's always doing research and reconstructing the language and history of the midnight world, it makes him feel confident and capable, and it's where he knows he fits. He has had a rough life, and it makes sense he'd dive headfirst into a mysterious, potentially dangerous world for safety and solace.

the clocks are black - rex/melissa, jessica/dess, jonathan/constanza - pg-13

That's nice, Melissa guesses, but she has no idea what this girl wants with them. She tries to reach out, find the girl's thoughts — there's hardly any mind noise on this highway, but maybe this girl is just good at hiding herself —

And encounters nothing.

There isn't a single flavor or sound coming from Megan's mind. It's like dead air. She frowns, concentrates harder — nothing. Not a single thought reaches her, not one emotion. They might as well be in the car with a robot.

"What?" Megan asks, and Melissa realizes that she must be staring.

"Nothing," Melissa says defensively. This girl is weird. More than weird. Weirder than Jessica when she first arrived in town. Who doesn't have thoughts?

"You have this look on your face."

"This look is how I always look. Like you know anything about us," Melissa mutters.

Megan crosses her arms. "I've seen you before."

the clocks are black - rex/melissa, jessica/dess, jonathan/constanza - pg-13

Why is she so afraid of calling Rex? All she has to do is dial his number, which she knows by heart. She'll tell him about Megan and Rex will know the name for her power and he'll be so excited to have found a new midnighter that he'll forget to ask about anything else.

It's not like he's here, she reasons with herself. It's not like her face could even give her away.

Yes. She'll call him. She can do this.

The other problem: there isn't a single pay phone that she can see. All around her are overly tanned people wearing shorts in November, chattering away on tiny silver cell phones, apparently too rich for pay phones.

Melissa sighs and starts to walk.

the clocks are black - rex/melissa, jessica/dess, jonathan/constanza - pg-13

There's a girl standing on the library steps, huddled against the chill. She's wrapped in a thick blue sweater, wind whipping strands of red hair around her face.

Jess, Rex thinks, feeling bad about keeping her waiting. Jessica is never late to anything — except world-ending emergencies, of course. She sets her watch a whole ten minutes early.

Then he remembers, and the shock freezes him for a moment. Something stabs deep in his chest, and the strength of the feeling surprises him.

"I thought it was her, too," Dess says quietly.

"Hey, Beth," Rex calls.

the clocks are black - rex/melissa, jessica/dess, jonathan/constanza - pg-13

The Bixby Register doesn't have a website, but the newspaper up in Tulsa does. They've posted an update on the incident, one month later: two more bodies have been identified. Several people, including three minors, are still missing. They don't give names, but Dess knows one of those minors is Jessica.

The comments are all the same — people insisting that there are drugs in the county water supply, that someone outside of town has been raising wild animals that got loose. People claim to have been in Bixby that night — some of them get it right, saying that they saw the world turn blue and saw nightmarish creatures in the air. Others are clearly making shit up.

Most of the comments are old, from when the article was originally posted. But there's one new one. Dess scrolls down to look at it, leaning closer to the screen like that will help her understand the words better.

the clocks are black - rex/melissa, jessica/dess, jonathan/constanza - pg-13

"I can't wait for midnight," Melissa says. Jonathan doesn't know if she was reading his thoughts, or if she just happened to be thinking the same thing.

Jonathan laughs. "You always say that."

"So do you," she shoots back. "But I mean it. There's something weird about this town. I want to find it."

"I thought you said it was diet Bixby," Jonathan says.

"Yeah," she says. Melissa tilts her head, frowning. "There's something else, though. It's clearer now that it's late. Something…"