by Hodden, TE
Tilda’s heart broke, behind her eyes. “Of course he would be. Thank you. I will find him, and when you are ready, when you are both ready, I shall meet you there.”
She rose to her feet, and walked away, melting into the shadows.
10111
“So…” Catherine said, pouring the wine. “You are really going?”
They were in the lounge of the HQ. The fire was roaring. The TV was tuned to the music channel for background noise. Angel was laying across the sofa, curled in Matthew’s arms.
Summers was sat in the armchair, staring into the flames. She had done that a lot, of late, as she held herself constantly to account for what had needed to be done, to stop the Broadsword attack, to save the world.
Immediately after Paris, she had thrown herself into another emergency. Most of America’s schools had been running civil defence drills on the day of the attack, and Zero Vector had hacked the bunker systems, trapping the kids down there. Maybe for their own safety, or as hostages, or… more likely to be the chosen survivors. Most they had managed to free by hacking the computers, but some had needed to be broken out by brute force.
Then she had thrown herself into preparations for Christmas, and getting the HQ back into shape, and repairing the Manta fleet, and…
Now, as late Christmas Eve became early Christmas Day, she had run out of ways to avoid it.
Catherine could see it in her eyes, the wrestling match with her doubts.
She perched herself on the arm of the chair, and let Summers slither into a hug. The world felt a little more comfortable, and safe, when they did that.
“Yes,” Angel said. “Padmaja is helping us with a ship, and I believe we I know a safe enough Fold-Space route, to find my people.”
Matthew smiled. “And… there will be some cool stuff to see along the way.”
Summers sipped her wine. “Will you be back?”
Angel and Matthew shared a look.
“You haven’t decided,” Catherine said.
“It depends,” Summers guessed, “on what you find?”
Angel nodded. “It does.”
“You will be missed,” Catherine admitted.
Matthew nodded. “Just in case I don’t…” He cleared his throat. “I think I would be happier if the farm was in some capable hands. Maybe a nice couple, who might… appreciate somewhere to escape to, when the communal living of the HQ gets too much?”
Summers giggled. “Oh? Thank you. That is very kind.”
Angel toyed with her hood. “We will miss you all, too, you know?”
Catherine laughed. “I would hope so. We’re amazing.”
The front door opened and closed.
“Mel?” Summers asked.
“Yeah?” Melisa called, from the hall.
Catherine grinned. “We’re in here! Come join us!”
Melisa poked her head around the door. “Actually… Cathy… I need to ask you something. Can we talk in private?”
Summers was instantly her old self again. She gave Catherine a playful frown. “That sounds serious.”
Catherine hopped to her feet, and waved towards the kitchen. “Okay then. What’s wrong?”
Melisa closed the door behind them, her cheeks flushed. “Okay, this is going to sound weird, but… Charlie’s grandma asked me to…”
Catherine blinked. “You found one of Charlie’s relatives, or the… dead one?”
Melisa gave her a meaningful look.
“Oh,” Catherine mumbled. “Okay. And this ghost…”
Melisa held out a copper metal stud, just like the one Charlie had in his wrist. “She wants me to go drag Charlie out of Hell, and deliver him to a more peaceful afterlife. She says I need the help of a new Yeoman, and… she kind of thought you might want the job.”
Catherine picked up the stud, and held it to the light. “Oh.”
“So…” Melisa said. “What do you say?”
11000
The Orphan stood at the edge of the pool in the walled gardens of the Millponds, and stared down into the depths. He wore Professor Warner’s appearance, dressed smartly in black, under a long coat, with dark glasses covering his eyes, the only feature that betrayed his other-worldly nature.
He knelt by the pool, and touched the waters.
The restless sleeper within suffered an endless, incoherent babble of nightmares, of his mind dissolving into machine noise and binary code. Of an elemental realm, of endless sun-fire.
“So,” the Orphan mused, “this is death, is it? No wonder mortals fear it.”
A monk stepped into the garden. “You do not belong here.”
“I’m just passing through,” the Orphan said, with a smile.
The monk stepped forwards, producing a sword, from nowhere. “You are leaving, or¬”
The Orphan silenced the monk with a punch to the neck, then grabbed him, and sunk his teeth into the monk’s flesh, absorbing the being’s soul energy and being in an instant. His hunger sated, he dropped the monk, its body crumbling to dust.
The Orphan smiled. He brushed the dust from his shoulder and walked briskly through the gardens, and out into the woodland.
He found her chained to one of the trees. Depending on your perceptions, she was either a hulking tentacled monstrosity living in many dimensions, or a petite young woman with an expensive taste in clothes. Whichever you saw, she was growling in discomfort and struggling at her chains.
She called herself the Echo.
She stared at him with dark, malevolent eyes.
“Ah…” The Orphan stepped closer, to the very limit of her chains. “Now, you look like a woman after my own heart. I understand you might be the one to speak to, about a little world called Earth?”
Echo’s nostrils flared. “What do you want?”
“Me?” The Orphan smiled. “I want to know all about San Francisco, and Schism Ways, and… what it looks like when a universe burns.”
Echo stopped struggling. She stared at him, her lips curling to a smile.
Also Available, by the same author…
Flight of the Nightingale: Schism.
Yesterday Adelle was your average alien kid, growing up in Arcadia City, daydreaming in High School, and longing to take to the stars.Then the evils Schism invaded, and the sky fell on the city.Now she's on the run, with a family of Nomad humans, travelling between the stars, finding trouble on a hundred different worlds. Suddenly her life is full of shipwrecked robots, gladiatorial duels, and strange conspiracies.Schism collects three exciting stories of science fiction and adventure for young adults.
Threadbare Hearts Presents: Anthology
Vol.1
Threadbare Hearts Presents... a collection of romantic tales of good guys, lost love, and last chances.
In this volume:
All The Things I Should Have Told You. On a winter night, in a hospital, a woman lays dying, and her best friend has a confession to make.
Autumn Leaves: A born loser comes home early, and finds his girlfriend with another man. His life is falling apart, but before he has a chance to feel sorry for himself, he is swept into the world of somebody having an even worse day than him.
Ghosts Of Lost Summers: Bunny has never been alone, since his wife died. She has been forever haunting him, lurking in the quiet moments, watching over his beach house. When he starts to fall in love again, the dead reaches out with a warning, because the past has not let him go.
HeadSpace: One man's life is flashing before his eyes, and he has one chance to fight for life, but only if he can face his mistakes, his nightmares, and find something, or somebody, worth living for. Dying is easy. Are you ready to fight?
A Symphony Of Heartstrings: Bob is the unseen force behind every love story. He engineers the cute meetings, the lucky breaks, and the lightning bolt coincidences, unseen and unknown. Or, at least, that was always the plan. Now he's been seen, and it's by a girl with more than bad luck messing with her love life.
Fallowgrave: The Collected Tales.
Fallowgrave: A sleepy town fifty miles from nowhere, where nothing ever seems to happen. But there is a darkness at the heart of the town. A darkness felt around the world. This book collects the four Fallowgrave tales in one omnibus edition. Four tales of supernatural horror, haunted dreams, and tainted love.
