The Forbidden Lock

by Liesl Shurtliff

  “We have to get out of here,” Mrs. Hudson said as she watched the birds disappear. “Let’s go. Everyone to Blossom. Chuck, help me with Matthew, please.” They both hoisted him up, fumbling a little with his fading arms and legs.

  Everyone started running. Except Matt. Just like in his nightmare, he couldn’t seem to move. Everything around him seemed to be moving, but he couldn’t. He felt like he was standing in the midst, observing everything like theater in the round.

  “Mateo! Run!” his mom called. She was reaching for him while holding on to his dad, who was still fading. Matt could hardly see his features at all.

  Something snapped.

  Matt felt it more than heard it. It was like a rubber band had been pulled too tight and finally it broke. There was a brief moment of stillness and silence. That was all the warning he had.

  “Belamie,” Mr. Hudson said, reaching for her, but his faded hand went right through her face. Mr. Hudson began to disappear or, more accurately, unravel. That shimmering fabric, the time tapestry Matt had seen Captain Vincent pull out of his dad’s throat, was spilling out of Mr. Hudson now. The tapestry unraveled, and the threads flew away on the wind. Mrs. Hudson screamed as she tried to hold on to him, hold on to those unraveling threads, but they slipped through her fingers as easily as water.

  “Dad!” Matt shouted.

  The last of the time tapestry unraveled, and Mr. Hudson was gone.

  Mrs. Hudson fell to the ground, clutching her head.

  Ruby started screaming.

  Matt whipped around. Ruby was looking down at her hands, her mouth open in horror. They were blurry. Corey’s too. Matt took a step toward them when the pavement beneath his feet cracked. The earth began to split open. He almost fell between the cracks but was saved by someone who grabbed him from behind and pulled him back, Haha, he thought, and then they ran to go help someone else.

  A building in front of Matt completely collapsed, swallowed up by the earth, and then the earth pushed up, forming a sheer cliff. People were screaming and running in all directions. Some of them disappeared just like the birds, as though invisible hands were snatching them between folds in the sky, and others appeared out of nowhere. Matt saw a few cowboys on horseback pop into being, then a group of people who looked like they were from the Stone Age, and a herd of giraffes.

  The earth continued to widen. A deep, bottomless chasm opened. Ruby screamed as her legs began to blur and she fell. Corey followed after her. Matt suddenly seemed to unlock. He dove after Corey and Ruby. He grabbed Corey by the arm. “I got you!” he said. He tried to reach for Ruby, but someone else had her. Matt glanced over and was shocked to be looking at himself. He was dirty and bruised and covered in scrapes and cuts.

  “You!” Corey shouted, looking back and forth between the two Matts. “What are you doing?!”

  “I’m trying to save you!” they both said at the same time.

  “No you’re not!” Corey shouted. “You’re killing us!”

  Both Corey and Ruby were fading, their limbs dissolving in their grasp. Matt couldn’t hold on. The other Matt couldn’t either.

  “This is your fault!” Corey shouted at both Matts. “You did this to us!” His face started to blur.

  “I’ll fix it!” Matt pleaded.

  “I promise I’ll fix it!” pleaded the other Matt, and then another Matt appeared and reached for Corey and Ruby.

  “Matt, don’t let go!” Ruby cried. Her voice sounded distant, almost like a whisper even though she was shouting.

  “I won’t! I promise!” all three Matts said at nearly the same time so it sounded like an echo. He wouldn’t let go. He would go with Corey and Ruby, wherever they were being taken. The three of them were supposed to stay together. They had always stayed together.

  But his promise was in vain. He was no match for whatever forces were at work. Corey’s arm dissolved in Matt’s grasp. It slipped through his fingers. He tried to hold on, tried with all his might to pull them toward him, but it was like trying to hold on to air.

  Both Corey and Ruby screamed as they unraveled and faded away.

  15

  Nightmare Come True

  “No!” Matt shouted. He tried to jump in after them, but the earth crashed back together, closing the chasm and rising up in a rocky wave. Matt went up and then slid down like a giant playground slide, only it ripped at his legs and bottom and was far from fun. He couldn’t tell what happened to the other Matts. They’d disappeared or something, but they weren’t his concern.

  Lightning cracked. The sky seemed to shatter like a fallen snow globe, only the snow was pouring in, and not just snow, but rain and hail the size of quarters. Matt covered his head with his arms. The ground tilted. The whole world was fragmenting, crumbling, folding in on itself. The earth fell and rose like waves in the ocean, creating new levels and dimensions.

  Matt tumbled and rolled as rocks and hail and lightning shot down all around him. He curled up in a ball, shivering, as the hail beat down, but it was Corey’s words that hit and stung him the hardest.

  This is your fault!

  You did this to us!

  This is your fault!

  Your fault!

  Your fault!

  Matt took his compass and with trembling icy fingers turned the time dial back. He knew it wasn’t logical, and at the same time it was the only thing he could think of to do. He had to do something. He needed to save his family. Somehow he knew he could. There had to be a way. He turned the dial back two minutes. That was all he needed. Two minutes to rescue them.

  It felt like someone picked him up and threw him twenty feet. He landed on the edge of that chasm where Corey and Ruby were now sliding down. His past self dived for Corey. “I got you!” Matt reached for Ruby and grabbed her by the upper arm.

  “You!” Corey shouted. “What are you doing?!”

  “I’m rescuing you!” Matt said at the same time as his past self. His past voice echoed in his head.

  “No you’re not! You’re killing us!”

  They were fading again. Matt couldn’t hold on.

  “This is your fault! You did this to us!”

  “I’ll fix it!” the other Matt pleaded.

  “I promise I’ll fix it!” Matt pleaded again, and then another Matt appeared.

  “Matt, don’t let go!” Ruby cried. “Please!”

  “I won’t! I promise!” all three Matts said, even as Ruby’s arm dissolved in his grasp and Corey slipped through past-Matt’s fingers.

  Both Corey and Ruby screamed as they unraveled and faded away.

  No.

  No, no, no, no, no!

  Matt turned the dial back again, three minutes this time. He knew it was madness. He knew the rules and the consequences of time travel, that his actions were only causing chaos and solving nothing, but he also couldn’t accept what was happening. He would break the rules, bend them to his will. He had to.

  He was thrown back again, like time was spitting him across the universe. He landed just behind the past-Matt, right as the earth split apart and he was about to fall into the chasm. Without a thought, Matt reached forward, grabbed himself by the collar, and yanked himself back.

  The sky boomed and crackled with lightning.

  Matt sprinted toward Corey and Ruby, but the cowboys appeared right in his path, and then the cavemen, and the giraffes. By the time he got around them he could see he was already too late. Corey and Ruby were unraveling, fading. Why did he stop to rescue himself? It was a stupid thing to do and at the same time the only thing to do. Just like what he was doing right now. All three of his selves.

  “I promise I’ll fix it!” pleaded the first Matt.

  Matt knelt down next to the second Matt and reached for Corey and Ruby, trying to grasp on to those unraveling threads.

  “Matt, don’t let go!” Ruby cried. “Please!”

  “I won’t! I promise!” he said with his two past selves.

  He reached and grasped for those unrav
eling threads with more desperation than he’d ever felt in his life. He started to shake. Stars were popping in the corners of his eyes and a great rushing sounded in his ears, like the crashing of waves. He knew he was having a seizure and that he was about to black out, but he held on to those threads.

  Some invisible force pulled at him, sucked him in. Into where, he didn’t know. It was like the threads he’d been so desperately trying to hold on to were a current and he got caught in it.

  He was weightless now, adrift. He tumbled along the current, twisting and spinning. He saw flashes of people and places, Corey, and Ruby, and himself. He saw the remnants of their lives together. The current split off into other currents that connected to other currents. He was swimming in a web of some kind. A web of memories spun over lifetimes and generations. He saw people and places both familiar and foreign. He saw his mom, his dad, Corey, and Ruby. He saw himself. One thread led to another—flashes of baseball games, school, when they’d first boarded the Vermillion. He even saw the moment their parents met, just before it unraveled and disintegrated. He tried to reach for these things, hold on to them, but he was powerless to move or act. He could only be carried away on this current.

  Matt started to lose the sense of things, the sense of space or time, and of himself. Where was he, exactly? How long had he been here? Seconds? Years? Somehow he had the feeling that he had been here both seconds and years, if that were possible. Forever and no time at all. Was there a difference?

  He saw a light ahead. He thought maybe that was death and he was heading right toward it. A hand reached down to him. He saw a blurred image of someone, like the person was underwater, only Matt was fairly certain it was he who was underwater. Or whatever he was under or inside. He was inside a time tapestry, he thought. But not just any time tapestry. It was Corey’s and Ruby’s. He didn’t want to leave it. He didn’t want to let go, but he had the feeling that if he stayed here much longer, he would unravel too, and that would be the end. His consciousness was already fading.

  He grasped on to that hand.

  It was like a plug had been pulled from a bathtub. Matt spun as he was sucked in a downward spiral. The images he’d seen before reversed themselves, flickering so fast he could barely discern them. Corey and Ruby flashed before him. He made one final reach, wrapped his fingers around those shimmering threads and willed them to stay with him.

  With a gurgling, slurping sound he came spewing out of the current and back into the world. He landed on the hard, broken earth. He rolled a few times, then crashed into a wagon wheel. He remained curled up on the ground as the rain and hail continued to descend, but a few seconds later it stopped as quickly as it had started. The wind died down. The clouds in the sky dispersed.

  Someone shook him a little, patted his cheek.

  “Matt! Matt!” someone cried. “Wake up!”

  Matt gasped and sat up. He looked around, hoping that what he had just seen was only one of his nightmares and his family would be standing all around him, making sure he was okay. But they weren’t there. Only Jia stood before him. He saw no sign of his family. He had to go back again. He had to save them. He moved for his compass again, but Jia grabbed his arm.

  “Matt, stop,” she said. “It’s no use.”

  Matt jerked his hand away. “I have to save them!”

  “Matt . . .” Jia’s eyes filled with tears. She trembled as the tears spilled over her cheeks. “Oh, Matt, I’m so sorry.”

  And it was her tears that broke Matt, that finally made him realize that he couldn’t save them. There was nothing he could do except make it all worse. He’d failed.

  Jia wiped her tears and sniffled. She had welts on her face and arms from the hail, a few scrapes on her face. Her vest was torn and dirty. One of the pockets had been ripped off completely. It was a weird reaction, but he looked on the ground for whatever tools of hers she might have lost. He should like to recover something. But as he searched he finally became aware of the destruction and chaos all around him. It looked like another world, a different planet. This surely couldn’t be Earth, let alone Manhattan. He didn’t see any sign of his home, not any of the buildings with which he was so familiar, not the dry cleaner’s, or the drugstore, or the bakery. He couldn’t see the Met, not even Central Park. There were sudden cliffs and mountains jutting up between unfamiliar and very random buildings. In one place there were little grass huts jumbled together, and next to those what looked like half of an Egyptian pyramid. A more modern building stood behind Matt, and it took him a moment to realize that it was his own apartment building, miraculously still standing, though half the front had been ripped away so it looked like a doll’s house. He counted up the levels and could see where his apartment was. This was the scene he’d been viewing when he’d traveled to the future. And now he knew it was his fault.

  Your fault.

  Your fault.

  Your fault.

  He closed his eyes and saw Corey and Ruby, the looks on their faces just before they’d unraveled and disappeared.

  “Oh, Matt, look!” Jia said. Matt opened his eyes. His chest flared with the smallest hope that Jia had seen someone in his family, but she was pointing down at his hand. He was holding something and hadn’t even noticed, probably because it was weightless and felt like little more than air. It was a couple scraps of those shimmery, translucent threads he’d been so desperately grasping for.

  “What is it?” Jia asked.

  “I think it’s a bit of Corey and Ruby, or their time tapestries, anyway,” Matt said. Somehow he’d been able to hold on to them.

  “That’s good, then, isn’t it?” Jia said. “It might be able to help somehow.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Matt held up the bits of tapestry to catch the light. He saw no images within them, only faint shadows. One of the threads fell away and disintegrated before it hit the ground. Matt almost felt like something had shriveled and died inside of himself. He wasn’t sure what, a feeling, an essence of something, and then that faded too, and he was left with a blank space. He carefully folded the pieces of fabric and tucked them inside his pocket.

  A movement caught the corner of Matt’s eye. He looked up to see Albert approaching them, walking from their dilapidated apartment building. He was completely unharmed. He must have stayed inside the building the whole time. He must have known there was nothing they could do to get away or stop what had happened. The sight of Albert filled Matt with a sudden rage. All reason and sense left him. He growled and charged at Albert. Albert squealed and tried to run away, but Matt tackled him and took him down.

  “Where did they go?” Matt shouted as he pinned Albert to the ground. “Where did Vincent take them? What did he do?”

  “I don’t know!” Albert said. “I don’t know anything!”

  “Liar!” Matt shouted. “You are nothing but a dirty, rotten, pigheaded liar!” He punched and slapped Albert.

  “Matt, stop!” Jia cried. “It isn’t his fault!”

  Matt could barely hear Jia. He kept punching and clawing at Albert until someone pulled him off, someone a lot bigger and stronger than Jia.

  “Whoa there, Matty.” It was Haha. He spoke to Matt like he was some wild animal that needed to be contained. Maybe he was. He was growling and spitting like one. Haha held on to him until he finally stopped thrashing and he slumped in his grandfather’s arms. Haha wrapped him tightly in a hug.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay. It’ll be okay.”

  But it wasn’t okay. Matt buried himself in Haha’s chest. When Matt finally pulled himself away, Haha still held on to him, just in case he flew off the handle again. Albert scooted away from him on the ground. His lip was bleeding, and his glasses were twisted and cracked. Matt felt a small amount of satisfaction, but it faded quickly, swallowed up by despair.

  There was a coughing sound. Uncle Chuck emerged from behind a fallen pillar. He was dusty and had a few scratches on his face but otherwis
e looked okay. “Geez Louise, I thought this place had gone to pieces before, but it’s really in shambles now, isn’t it?”

  Shambles wasn’t a strong enough word, Matt didn’t think. The city was unrecognizable. It was a smorgasbord of time and space. Where there had been buildings and streets there were now hills and small mountains with water trickling down in little streams and waterfalls. There were cars and bikes and wagons pulled by oxen and horse-drawn carriages trying to make their way through the rubble and chaos. The cars honked their horns and the horses neighed and reared back, and people shouted at one another in different languages. In less than a minute Matt recognized Mandarin, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, and more that he couldn’t place. There were fashions from every era imaginable. Modern jeans and T-shirts, women in 1950s-style poodle skirts, long dresses and hooped skirts, men in knee-length knickers with stockings and shoes with big buckles and powdered wigs. There were the Stone Age people Matt had seen appear, dressed in leathers and furs, speaking in a language Matt had never heard before. One of them was approaching a giraffe with a spear until another woman stood in front of it with her arms outstretched. She shouted until the man backed away. Everyone looked frightened and confused. One man in a toga carrying a scroll knocked into a man in an African tunic. They both yelled at each other in their own languages and then moved on.

  “Where’s Gloria?” Haha said. “Have you seen her?”

  Matt shook his head. Maybe she had disappeared too. He didn’t want to say it though.

  “She was in Blossom, wasn’t she?” Jia said.

  “Yes,” Uncle Chuck said. “Where’s Blossom?”

  They looked all around. Matt wasn’t sure he could even say which direction the car had been parked. Maybe it had been carried away in the storm, disappeared like so many people and things. Then Matt noticed the Alice in Wonderland statue from Central Park. It was lopsided and half-buried in the side of a hill, but Matt remembered they had parked Blossom somewhere near that statue. He looked all around until he spotted it. At the top of one of the newly formed hills, about fifty feet high, was Blossom, her front wheels dangling precariously over the edge.