Worlds Apart

by James Riley

  “There won’t be a fourth-dimension adapter made for, like, fifteen years,” she said, shaking her head. “But this should work. I’ve jolted other bracelets before, and it’s been fine.” She frowned. “At least, when they didn’t blow up.”

  Owen sighed, ready to go back to his nice, normal time line, where there weren’t soldiers burning books. Bethany had been right about Kara. All of this fictional nonsense just caused trouble. After all, what did it matter that the future was terrible to someone living in their proper time, back in the present? The future didn’t even really exist, not back then.

  “So this is the only way?” Owen asked. “Because I have no idea how we’ll even get into the hospital. If I tell them who I am, they’ll want to know why I’m out of my hospital bed.” He paused. “That, and five years younger.”

  Kara shrugged, still staring at the bracelet. “Oh, we’ll just make up a story. You can be your own little brother, maybe. We came to see your older brother who’s a patient here. I’ll be your friend from school or a cousin or something.”

  Owen cringed, hating the idea of not telling the truth. Making up a story to get them inside just seemed wrong. Surely explaining the situation to the hospital staff would result in everyone coming to an agreement and acting in an efficient and logical manner? But Kara was the one with the imagination, so maybe she saw problems with that plan that he couldn’t. “Okay, but then we go straight to the paddles. No stops.”

  “No stops,” Kara said, nodding. “Other than visiting your older self.” Before he could object, she stood up and grabbed his hand. At her touch, his concerns about jumping back to his own time vanished, replaced by worries for the future. Yes, he had to get home, but not just to get away from all of this. He had to keep this future from ever happening!

  Kara pulled him out of the bushes and led him toward the hospital doors, which parted as they drew close. They entered into a waiting area, where a woman in scrubs was working on a tablet at a large desk. There were a few people waiting in seats, but none seemed to be injured, which made sense, since this wasn’t the emergency room, just the lobby for the regular hospital.

  “Hello!” Kara said to the woman at the desk, dropping Owen’s hand as they reached her. “We’re here to see Owen Conners.”

  “Visiting hours are over in ten minutes,” the woman said without looking up. She pointed at a sign on the wall that listed visiting hours from eleven a.m. to eight p.m. “You should come back tomorrow.”

  Well, that was that. “Okay, thanks,” Owen said, and turned to go.

  “Oh, we won’t take long,” Kara said, pulling him back. “This is Owen’s brother. Don’t you let family in after visiting hours?”

  The woman looked up from her tablet. “Do you have identification?”

  Kara just stared at her. “What, like a driver’s license? We’re both twelve.”

  The woman’s eyes narrowed. “No, I mean your PFFIA identification cards. You’re telling me you got this far from your home without being stopped by the PFFIA?”

  With Kara’s hand holding him in place, Owen’s mind filled with questions. What was the PFFIA? Were those the black-helmeted soldiers? And what identification cards? Why was the future so paranoid? Was Kara right, that a lack of imagination really did make people more selfish?

  “Oh, of course they talked to us,” she said, waving her hand absently. “But they kept our IDs. Said we’d get them back when we left the hospital. You know how the PPTIZ is.”

  “The PFFIA,” the woman said, looking more suspicious.

  “That’s the one,” Kara said quickly. “So ten minutes?”

  The woman rolled her eyes, but nodded. “Without your identification, I should call the PFFIA right now. But that’d mean I’d get questioned too, and then I’d be late getting home. And I shouldn’t suffer just because you two can’t keep your IDs.” She glanced over at them as she tapped her tablet, and stickers printed out with VISITOR on them. She handed two of them to Kara and sighed. “Can’t imagine that two kids could get into much trouble anyway.”

  “Nope, we’re definitely rule abiders,” Kara told her as she slapped one of the stickers on Owen’s chest, then put the other on her shirt. “What room was Owen Conners in again?”

  “Four eighteen. Take the elevator up. Family or not, if I don’t see you back down here in ten minutes, I am calling the PFFIA.”

  “Thanks, you’re really sweet,” Kara said, then threw Owen a what was that? look as she walked them past the desk to a bank of elevators. One of the elevators was open and waiting, so they stepped inside, and Kara pushed the button for the fourth floor. The doors closed, and she let out a huge breath. “What was her problem? Your older brother is sick!”

  Owen just stared at her. “He’s not actually my older brother.”

  “But she didn’t know that. What is it with people in this time line? It’s like they don’t care at all about anyone. Where’s the sympathy? Do they not have working hearts?” As soon as the words left her mouth, she seemed to realize what she said and turned bright red. “Oh, wow, I’m sorry. That’s not how I meant it.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Owen said. “But don’t forget, we’re here to recharge the time bracelet. Nothing else matters.”

  “Right,” Kara said. “Nothing else except talking to your older self.”

  The elevator door opened, and Kara again grabbed Owen’s hand, filling his mind with questions he had for his older self as she walked him toward room 418. A clock on the hallway wall said it was 7:55, meaning they only had five minutes now, but that should be enough time to get some information and charge the bracelet, hopefully.

  Room 418’s door was closed, so Kara gently knocked. “Owen?” she whispered, pushing it open and walking inside, leaving Owen in the hallway. The room was dim, lit only by multicolored lights on various monitoring machines, all attached to a body on the bed. Owen couldn’t really see his future self very well, but that didn’t really matter to him anyway. The practical thing to do was find the shock paddles before visiting hours were over.

  “Owen, can you hear me?” Kara said, approaching the bed. She touched a button next to it, and a small reading lamp turned on, aimed right at Owen’s older self. Owen turned away as the light illuminated the other version of him.

  “I think he might be sedated,” Kara said, sniffing like she was sad or something as she reached out and took his older self’s hand. “See these stitches on his chest? They must have done at least a couple of operations on him. I don’t know why they didn’t do a transplant.”

  “Uh-huh,” Owen said, looking over the machinery. They’d probably keep the—what was it called . . . crash cart?—somewhere near the bed, in case his older self’s heart stopped. And there it was, just across the bed from Kara.

  He quickly circled around and grabbed the paddles, then looked up at the clock. Still two minutes to go. They’d done it, all without getting involved in too many broken rules.

  He pushed the power button on the crash cart, and the machine began to warm up.

  “Hand me the bracelet,” Owen said, reaching out to Kara over his older self.

  “Owen, look at him,” Kara said, wiping something off her face. Was she crying? “This is you. Your body, yourself. You’re dying, Owen. We need to save you, both of you!”

  “That’s what the doctors are for,” he said, shaking his head. “We don’t have time to worry about that now. Give me the bracelet, and I’ll power it up.”

  She stared at him sadly. “Look at yourself. This is why your future is the way it is. Everyone here is like you right now. All they care about is themselves, and none can imagine themselves as anyone else. You’ve lost all your sympathy, Owen! You weren’t like this when your older self fought the Countess’s daughter, remember?”

  He frowned, again only half remembering that. “I was different then.”

  “Yes, you were,” she said, sounding angry now.

  Owen groaned in frustration. They
were running out of time! “If I look at him, will you give me the bracelet?” he shouted finally. She took a step back in surprise at his irritation, but nodded. “Okay then! I’ll look.”

  He quickly glanced down at his older self.

  Future Owen looked barely alive. His skin was pale and sweaty, and his cheekbones jutted out like he hadn’t eaten in days. Wires ran over his body, attached by little white pads every few inches on his chest.

  A strange cold feeling filled Owen’s stomach, and he shut his eyes for a moment, letting the image of his older self disappear in his mind. Such unpleasantness didn’t really matter, after all. He was going to go back to his own time, and none of this would matter anymore. Finally, he looked back up to Kara. “There. Happy? Bracelet please.”

  He grabbed it out of her hand before she could object. “Owen, look at what Nobody has done to you!” Kara said. “We need to—”

  Not waiting for her to finish, Owen dropped the bracelet on the ground, then grabbed the now-charged paddles and stuck them against the bracelet.

  “Wait!” Kara shouted, running around to his side of the bed. But he didn’t. This had gone on long enough, and it was way past time he went home and forgot all about this future.

  If he didn’t have an imagination, then at least he wouldn’t have to constantly remember terrible things.

  “Clear!” Owen shouted, just in case that was necessary, then hit the button on the paddles. A huge jolt of electricity pulsed through the bracelet, sending sparks exploding in every direction. The bracelet immediately began to smoke, and Owen pulled the paddles off in surprise, jumping to his feet.

  “No!” Kara said, reaching for it, then yanking her hand away as it sparked again. “Why did you do that?”

  “We have to get home!” Owen shouted at her. “I don’t care what happens to me in the future. We can’t stay here any longer!”

  “We needed a way to not overload the bracelet first!” Kara said, looking furious. “You can’t just pump that much electricity into it all at once. The circuitry is probably fried now!”

  “What?!” Owen shouted. “Why didn’t you say so? Now we really are stuck here!”

  “I said I had to rig something up!” she shouted, then bit her lip and shook her head. “Doesn’t matter, it’s done,” she said, picking up the bracelet with some gauze. “It’s my fault. I should have explained it better, since you don’t have . . . forget it. I’m going to go find a way to fix this. Just . . . just stay here, Owen. Maybe try to remember who you used to be while I’m gone.”

  Owen winced at that. “I’ll stay. But don’t get caught out there, or we’ll never get home.”

  She looked at him sadly, then quietly slipped out the door without another word, closing it behind her.

  “Is she gone?” said a gravelly voice from behind him. Owen’s eyes widened, and he turned to find his older self staring at him with dark, sunken eyes. “Sorry, I had to wait until we were alone. If she knew what I was about to say, her antiparadox thing would probably mess it all up. We’ve got a lot to talk about, and it won’t be long before the PFFIA catches you both.” He slowly cracked a smile. “Anyway, how are you enjoying the future?”

  CHAPTER 8

  Nobody’s body grew to double Bethany’s size, towering over her as he reached out to grab her. Her heart began racing, and in spite of it all, she couldn’t help but grin. Nobody. Here.

  This was the man who had taken her father from her. This was the man who’d kidnapped Owen, who’d imprisoned them in Jupiter City, not letting her see Gwen or Kiel or anyone. This was the man who’d ripped her in half and separated her from her mother and her best friend.

  And now, here he was, right when she really, really wanted to punch someone.

  “Rules are for nonfictionals!” she shouted, and morphed into a cannon. She shot a cannonball straight into his chest, which seemed to stretch like a rubber band, then flung the cannonball right back at her. She dodged it by shrinking into a toy car, then turned back into herself, flinging Twilight throwing stars at him as she moved.

  “This rule is the only one that mattered,” Nobody said, his giant arms following her as she went. “I warned your father not to let you leave Jupiter City, or I would be less merciful with the freedom I allowed you.”

  “Freedom?” Bethany yelled as his arm stretched toward her. “To stay locked in one world? That’s not freedom, that’s a prison!” She morphed into a rocket and started to take off, only for him to yank her back down to the ground, crashing her hard against the already broken ground. The hit sent her reeling, and she transformed back into her human shape unconsciously.

  “You have no idea what a true prison is like,” Nobody told her, his fingers stretching around her now, then closing around each other. Everything went dark for a moment as his hands merged into each other, then light spilled in once more as his skin turned translucent, and she found herself in a sort of glass cylinder. “Why did you leave your world, fictional Bethany?”

  She struck the sides of her prison, but the glass didn’t even crack. “Someone brought some sort of ray guns to Jupiter City, and I chased him here. But you must know that, considering it had to be you!” She morphed herself into a ray of light, then passed through the glass prison, being careful to instantly turn back as soon as she had. The last thing she needed was to lose herself in a light beam again.

  “You’re sadly misinformed,” Nobody told her. “But I quickly tire of this. I have important things to do right now, and you’re interfering with them. Will you return to Jupiter City, and assure me that you will stay there until I say otherwise? Or will I be forced to deal with you even sooner than I originally intended?”

  “Just try it!” she shouted, morphing her hands into spinning drills. “My dad’s in danger, and there’s no way I’m leaving here without finding a way to cure him!”

  Nobody paused at this. “I was not aware of this. What has happened to Christian?”

  She snorted and dove forward, driving her drills toward his legs. Nobody just opened holes in his limbs right around her attacks, then closed himself around her arms, trapping her. “You’re lying,” Bethany growled. “You did this on purpose with your possibility ray guns!”

  “Ah,” Nobody said, and released her. She started to morph again, but his finger touched her head, and abruptly she froze in place, unable to move. “I see now. Don’t worry, I have only temporarily rewritten you. You’ll regain control of yourself once I return you to Jupiter City.”

  She just stared at him, paralyzed, while internally she screamed in frustration. How could he have defeated her so easily? He’d rewritten her? What did that even mean?

  Nobody shrank back to his normal size and picked her up with one hand, while the other ripped a page open in midair. On the other side, she could see the Twilight cave beneath Jupiter Hill Observatory, her father’s secret headquarters. She tried to struggle, but nothing worked, like her mind had completely lost all connection to her body.

  “I never intended for Christian to be affected by this,” Nobody told her, moving her around to face his eyeless eyes. “I wanted you to have as much time with him as possible, as a sort of gift to you. We are not enemies, Bethany Sanderson. And I would give you all the happiness in my power—that didn’t interfere with my plans. So for your father, I apologize, and forgive this transgression of my rule. You did only what you had to do to save him.”

  He passed her through the ripped page and set her down on the floor of the Twilight cave. As she touched it, she began to feel tingling erupting through her body, like every arm and leg had fallen asleep and was waking up at the same time.

  “I need . . . to save him,” she said, her mouth barely working.

  Nobody just looked at her for a moment, then shook his head. “I’m afraid that’s impossible, Bethany. His fate will be the same as all fictionals. I do apologize that you haven’t had more time with him now. But rest assured that what is happening to him will ultimately lead to mo
re freedom than you could ever imagine: the freedom of pure possibility.”

  She groaned as her body slowly started listening to her brain, and she pushed her hands beneath her to try to rise to her feet. “I . . . I will save him,” she said. “And I’ll . . . I’ll stop you. Count on it.”

  Nobody just shook his head sadly. “No, you won’t. Even if you learned to rewrite yourself, you’d never be able to hold yourself together. Enjoy what time you have left, fictional Bethany. And take a lesson from your nonfictional self and obey my rules. Otherwise, you’ll join your father in his fate sooner rather than later.”

  He reached up to close the page, and Bethany roared in anger, trying to move quickly enough to stop him.

  “Shh,” a voice whispered in her ear, and something fluttered over her, like a cloth. A shimmering field filled her vision, and someone helped her up. “Don’t say anything. I’ve got this.”

  Bethany’s eyes widened as someone practically pushed them both through the gap in Nobody’s page, just before it disappeared completely, and she found herself standing once more in front of the featureless man. She tried to bring her hands up to defend herself, knowing he wouldn’t tolerate her breaking the rules a second time . . .

  But Nobody didn’t even notice her. Instead, he turned around and opened a page leading to what looked like a castle made out of storybooks. He stepped through, and the page closed behind him, leaving Bethany and whoever had just carried her through alone in Quanterium.

  She pushed whoever it was away from her, and the shimmering cloth fell off of her. She readied herself for another fight, even if she could barely stand on her own. But no one was there, and she looked around anxiously. “Who’s there?” she shouted. “What do you want?”

  “A hug hello wouldn’t be out of the question,” a familiar voice said, and the air in front of her wavered as a cloth dropped to the ground between them, revealing a boy wearing black clothes and a black cape.

  Kiel Gnomenfoot winked at her, then seemed to pause for a moment before his eyes rolled back into his head, and he collapsed to the ground.