11:39

by Holly Hook

  He's doing a mind trick on her. Now.

  “Simon!” I can't help but feel angry. Monica isn't here to be manipulated by us all the time. It's bad enough that we had to do mind tricks on her to make her remember me. Monica's not some nuisance that we have to work around. She's family. And if I have to face this myself, I will.

  Monica blinks, snapping out of it. “Oh, what was I saying?” she asks.

  “I think we should go.” I point down the hall. “From what Isabel said, someone from my old school who I don't really want to see is coming.” That part's true. At least I'm not lying this time.

  Monica gives me another suspicious look, turns away, and pulls out her phone. Footfalls approach. It's Frank, running towards us down the empty hall as fast as he can. He's late to the party.

  Simon nods at him and points to the girls' bathroom. Frank balks for a second, then quietly slips in. Monica's raising the phone to her ear and facing the lockers. She's missed him. That's good, because we really have no way to explain why Frank and Isabel are in the girls' bathroom together.

  But I know what's going on. Frank and Isabel are sending Arnelia back, the way that they sent me. I'm disappointed that I'm not going to see how they're doing it since when they come out, Arnelia will be gone. I hope they wait until we get Monica out of here.

  “Nancy,” Monica says into the phone. “Julia's not feeling well. She passed out in the bathroom. Can you come get us?”

  “Let's go to the front entrance. I need air,” I say. Monica needs to follow us there and I think I can walk on my own now. My knees quake, but whatever Arnelia zapped me with seems to be almost worn off now.

  Simon and I make our way away from that bathroom and towards the front of the school. Monica follows us, silent with phone in hand. Guilt bubbles up deep in my gut. I lied to my best friend, my sister, and I'm keeping her out of my new life. Maybe Monica is right that I'm drifting away from her.

  “Thanks,” I tell her, leaning against the doorway of the school once we get there. We've left Frank and Isabel well behind us, to where they're sending Arnelia back to her safe, secure future. A time unlike mine. A time where she didn't have to watch her little brother die.

  Julia...help us...

  I can't get those words out of my head or those zombies, begging for me to save them.

  Arnelia said she was here to make sure of something. Of what, I don't know. Does she want to help me and Simon rescue my family? Or does she want to stop us?

  Simon's thought of nothing yet in that department. I glance at him. He waits there for Nancy's car, staring off into the horizon like he's lost. Does he have any ideas yet about saving my family?

  I see none in his eyes. And I can't ask him now, not with Monica standing here. Nancy will put me to bed as soon as I'm home so I won't be able to see Simon again until late tonight, when he crawls through my window.

  When that happens, we'll have to find Arnelia again.

  Chapter Five

  I'm right that Nancy makes me go right to bed as soon as we're home, even though I feel fine once I make it through the door.

  “Lie down,” she says, pointing to my bed from the hall. “I'll make you some tea. Are you are you don't still feel dizzy?”

  “I'm sure.” I can't hold in my relief that she's not running me to Urgent Care. They would do an exam on me. Once, Monica had to go to the doctor because she’d passed out in school last year and they drew her blood. They would do the same to me. I remember the gold stuff oozing out of Frank's nose from the first time Simon punched him back in 1912 and my stomach turns over. If I see that…“Well, maybe I do feel a little sick still, but not dizzy. I'll be fine.”

  I head to bed and flop down on it, trying to clear that thought away. I turn my thoughts to school instead.

  Arnelia knew who I was. A nobody. Someone who shouldn't even be alive.

  Someone who cheated death.

  And I pretty much failed my first assignment. If Simon and Isabel hadn’t come in right after me, I might have been punished by Time and sent to live in those awful quarters.

  And how did Arnelia keep her memories when she crossed through the rift? No mortal can. It's part of the safeguard that keeps time flowing the way it should. But if Arnelia's smart, then Frank and Isabel have no idea what happened.

  I roll over. This isn’t making me feel any better.

  Nancy returns with the tea. I take it and realize that she expects me to at least take a sip in front of her. I sit up in bed. My stomach’s better now, but she’s standing there, worry creasing her eyes and frown lines forming on her cheeks. If I don’t drink, it’s doctor time for certain.

  I raise the mug to my mouth and let the hot tea pour in. “Thanks,” I say when I’m done. “That made my stomach settle down. I think I’ll be good if I just lie here since I missed a lot of sleep last night.”

  “Are you having nightmares again?” Nancy asks.

  I sit up taller. I’ve never told her about those. Monica must have—

  “No. Just bad sleep,” I say.

  Monica’s got to be really worried about me if she’s telling Nancy that I’m having nightmares. I'll have to talk to her more tomorrow about all of this. This will give me time to think of what to say.

  “I suppose I should let you rest,” Nancy says, going for my door. “Let me know if you don’t feel better by morning.”

  “Nancy, thanks.”

  She smiles at me and closes the door.

  I lie in bed for a long time, watching the shadows grow longer across my room and watching the light go from yellow to orange. Dark will come soon, and Simon will knock on my window at around eleven. It’s our agreed-on time. Nancy goes to bed at nine, and starts snoring by nine forty-five every night. It’s like clockwork.

  I close my eyes. There’s nothing I can do until he gets here. He might know something about people from the future and their stun-prisms. Then I'm going to plan a way to talk to Arnelia again.

  I also want to grill him for trying to do another mind trick on Monica.

  I drift.

  Grays and blacks swirl around me and I fall deeper into sleep.

  I’m running.

  Stars wink overhead and I bolt across the open deck of the Titanic, arms pumping, skirts swishing around me. My heart races. I’m almost out of time. Water moves peacefully below, whispering in the night, but my breath comes ragged in the freezing air.

  I have to warn them. To stop us from hitting the iceberg. To save my brother and my father.

  “Hey!” I shout, looking up into the night sky, to where the crows’ nest towers above the deck, a black shape in the night. “There’s going to be an—“

  Someone crashes into me and I go down onto the ice cold deck.

  I gasp as my back hits. Spots dance in my vision, red and yellow and every shade in between. I blink and they clear enough for me to tell who’s leaning over me.

  Frank.

  And he’s got a knife pointing down at my chest, the very same one he tried to murder me with before.

  “Sorry, Julia,” he says, solemn and sad. “But some things have to be sacrificed.”

  He plunges the knife into my chest.

  A pressure explodes in my heart and I lurch. He retracts the knife, and in the starlight I can see that it’s dripping with blood. Red blood.

  I cough. It’s wet. Slimy. The world’s growing dark and I’m trembling. Mist explodes in front of my face as I breathe the life right out of me.

  I'm not supposed to die. I'm supposed to be immortal.

  But I'm still slipping away.

  The warning bell tolls above me three times. There's shouting from the crows' nest. They've spotted the iceberg. I didn't warn them in time.

  I cough. Frank stands back and looks away, like he can't stand to watch me die.

  I've failed.

  Failed to save my family.

  I gag and my gaze rolls to the stars--

  --and I blink the canopy away and my ceiling spr
eads out in front of me.

  I'm back in my bedroom.

  I sit up, clutching my chest. There's an ache there, like Frank's knife is still lodged inside, twisting around my heart.

  I breathe in. There's no rattle. My gaze falls on my clock.

  11:39 p.m.

  My stomach lurches, joining the ache in my own inner storm.

  It's the minute before the Titanic hit the iceberg.

  And I died in my nightmare. I actually died when I shouldn't.

  There's a knock at the window.

  I turn. Simon. He's arrived late tonight.

  I rush to the window. The ache in my chest fades away at the sight of him. He manages a smile on the other side of the screen. I'm not fooled. There's some stress lines in it.

  The window opens with a creak. We face each other through the screen and I listen. Yep. Nancy's snores are floating down the hall and I don't hear any noise coming from Monica's room. It's safe.

  “Get in here,” I say.

  Simon crawls in and lands on my bed, cross-legged. Even in the moonlight, I can see the concerned way he's looking at me.

  “You just had a nightmare, didn't you?”

  I let my face fall to my hand. “It's that obvious.”

  “I'm sorry I wasn't here at eleven. I can't really chase those dreams away when I'm not here.”

  “This was different this time.”

  Simon's eyebrows rise. “Different?”

  I swallow, trying to tell myself it was just some anxiety dream and nothing else. But I can't. Just the fact that I woke up from it at 11:39 makes it sound way too similar to the 2:20 nightmare all over again.

  “Look at the time.”

  Simon does. “Eleven forty-one,” he reads.

  “Now subtract two minutes. What time did I wake up?”

  “Oh,” he says. “Oh. Tell me what happened in it.”

  I do. Simon sits there on the edge of the bed, feet fidgeting on the floor as I finish.

  He sits there and looks at the wall for a long time.

  “Well?” I ask. I'm shaking. “What do you think it means?”

  He sighs. “I don't know. Julia, maybe you should stay away from the Hub for a while until we figure this out. I wouldn't be surprised if Frank's still bent on...you know.”

  “Seeing me die?” I grab the edge of the bed with both hands. “What is his problem? What did I ever do to him?”

  “Nothing, of course. I don't understand why he is the way he is. He never talks about his past to anyone, not even the other Timeless."

  “Maybe he was a murderer where he came from.”

  “I don't think it's that simple. Isabel never told me much about him when I asked. Frank doesn't open up even to her.”

  “They're not even getting along now.”

  “Well, lure a five-year-old into a pond and see how much your girlfriend likes you after that. Isabel wasn't exactly pulling me off Frank during our fight."

  “Yeah.” I'm curious. I hate not knowing about the girl from the future. "What happened to Arnelia?"

  “Frank and Isabel sent her back. Beyond that, I don’t know. I was late tonight because I was busy trying to convince Frank that you do in fact belong with us. Time chose you. Maybe it was impressed with what you did to trick it. I am. Frank still doesn't believe that.” His voice takes an angry undertone and I imagine him socking Frank in the face again. "I'll never understand that guy."

  "Me, neither." There's a part of me that's relieved that Arnelia merely got sent home, even if she did hit me with some stun prism from the future. Am I ever going to get to talk to her again? Will she even still remember me if I go and find her?

  But what if she wanted to tell me that she's going to stop me from saving my family and changing history? The fact that she stunned me seems very suspicious, like she regards me as some kind of dangerous animal.

  Maybe I can't take the chance of going and finding her yet, at least not in her own time. What if in the future, there's a way for Arnelia to make me mortal again? Could that be her plan, to lure me there and turn me back? Frank could kill me if I return to normal. Perhaps that nightmare was some future memory screaming at me, warning me. I'm Timeless now. There's no reason my memory can't span multiple times.

  “Simon?”

  He hugs me from the side and pulls me close. He’s warm and safe. “Yes?”

  “Can we die? Become mortal again? Have any of the Travelers managed to do that to us? It's just that...I was mortal in my dream, and these future people seem pretty good at fighting back against us."

  “Of…of course not!” He looks at me, eyes huge. “No member of the Timeless has ever died. The worst that happens is that we get sent to stay trapped in our quarters for a while if we mess something up. That’s all. Thankfully, we were able to avoid that today.”

  "No thanks to me." Simon's answer isn't easing the doubt inside.

  “Julia, you’re only starting out. Things will get better.” Simon kisses me on the temple. The electric feel of his lips remain on my skin even when he pulls away. “We all make mistakes at first. There’s no way you could have known about the Para-X. Even if you did, it was a freak chance that Arnelia figured out how to use it on you when she shouldn't have remembered.”

  “The what?” Now it’s my turn to be confused. It sounds like some hang glider brand name or something.

  “The glass thing she was holding. It’s a common weapon from Arnelia’s time period. Basically, it shuts down part of your nervous system for a few minutes. That’s why you couldn’t move or speak. The police invented it in the late four thousands after people got tired of them using deadly force on unarmed people. I’m not sure how Arnelia could have gotten one or how she got access to the Rift Room. The place is heavily guarded. She must know one of the scientists who was working on the project. This is the first time I've seen her at all.”

  Simon lies down on his back, flopping down on my bed. I join him and lay my head on his outstretched arm. Rift Room. This must be the people Simon told me about once that achieved time travel in the future, but due to Time erasing their memories of even traveling in the first place, they never knew it even succeeded.

  But--

  “She knew me. Arnelia knew my name.”

  Simon blinks and looks at me. He’s so soft, his thick eyebrows so perfect in the moonlight. “That’s impossible.”

  “Well, she was talking to Monica about me.”

  “Maybe Monica told her about you."

  “Somehow, I don't think so." The thought hadn't crossed my mind, but that still doesn't explain why she sought out Monica in the first place. "I'll ask Monica about it tomorrow."

  “Let me know what she says.” Simon yawns and looks at the ceiling.

  I have to bring up the big thing again. “When are we going back after my father and my brother?”

  “Soon,” he says, closing his eyes. “I just need...just need to figure out a way.”

  And then he’s out, drifting away.

  I lay there, staring at the ceiling while the clock switches over to midnight. I try to make out patterns in the bumpy white of it, but nothing comes into focus. Not my father. Not my brother. Not even Frank or Isabel.

  Why won’t Simon just come up with a plan to go back and rescue my family already? The weeks are dragging out. He’s told me nothing else. Simon should at least be trying to come up with a plan by now. It can’t be too difficult to find the door that leads back to 1912, to that night.

  To 11:39.

  But Frank…

  He can’t kill me. I can’t die. There’s nothing I have to worry about so long as I stay immortal. I can't know if Arnelia is on my side or not.

  The ache creeps back into my chest. Can I be sure?

  I slowly get up from the bed. Simon keeps breathing deep. He murmurs something, shifts like he’s reaching for me, and settles down again. What’s he dreaming about? A way to get my family safely off the Titanic?

  It's unlike him to be so
mild, so complacent about this. I know we have to find a way to keep my father and brother safe from getting sent back to the Titanic after we rescue them, but we should be working up a plan for that now. Something. Anything.

  I'm not going to sit on this anymore, waiting on him.

  There’s no way I can leave my father. My little brother, who I swore to protect. I have to go and at least find the doorway to the Titanic again. I'm not sure how, since all the rifts in the Hub look the same, but I have to start somewhere. Then I can decide what I’m going to do next.

  Nothing can hurt me. I’m not mortal like I was in my nightmare.

  I’m going to find that rift by the football field again.

  Chapter Six

  It’s not that hard to slip out of the house. I’m shaking, but that’s because I know I have to hurry. Rifts last anywhere from a few minutes to a few days. The one by the football field could be dissipating for all I know. There must be more around, but I’m not going to have much time to find another one.

  I close the front door on Nancy’s snores and lock it. The street’s empty, with only yellow lights casting a glow. It’s a pretty warm night, at least, miles from the dark, rainy one where I arrived on Nancy’s doorstep.

  School’s only a mile away. I keep to the curb while I jog, grateful that I went to bed in my regular clothes earlier. Crickets chirp and a lone car crosses the intersection up ahead. I keep pace, breathing even. No ache creeps into my sides. I could jog like this all night. Maybe being Timeless has some cool benefits after all. I should try out for the track team after I get my brother and father safely away from the sinking.

  The school’s coming up. I hope there aren’t any police hanging around this time of night. I’ll have a hard time explaining to them what I’m doing out here.

  A cat runs across the street and disappears into the shrubs. Other than that, it’s all clear except for one light on in a house across the street, a white lamp in someone’s window. I jog down the main driveway of the school and towards the football field in the back.

  I stop and squint. My heart falls until I see a faint gold swishing motion out by the bleachers. The rift is still there, fainter and weaker. I can barely make it out now. It fades and I have to focus to find it again. It's almost gone. Simon was right to have us both hurry out of class this afternoon. They don’t last long after all.