A New Reality

by Clare Solomon

  “I believe that would just make him become more emotional and self-absorbed. I wish I could help him but that is less important than the growing threat of the ghosts. Has anything more been learnt of them here?”

  “No. Different attempts to communicate or read their minds have all resulted in our people being driven insane, yet that seems more like a defence-mechanism than an attack. Why have they not told us or shown us what they want?”

  Dervyl shook her head, at a loss to make sense of them. The ghosts were still a mystery that she had no idea how to solve.

  Chapter Sixteen

  FARLDEN SHOOK hands with Lila, who had just gone through an interview with Dervyl and been accepted as the newest member of the team. She didn’t possess magic but neither did Callie nor Barve and his instincts told him that she would fit in well.

  “I never expected to get a job like this,” she said, standing in front of him in the staff canteen. “I was at Uni when Dervyl contacted me for an interview.”

  Her words gave Farlden a sense of déjà vu. “You didn’t apply to do this?”

  “No, I didn’t even know the department existed. I’ve never met anyone with magic before but I really want to see it and get stuck in.”

  “You don’t need to worry about that. Part of your time at first will be training but you’ll be in the thick of the action almost at once.”

  “Great.”

  He watched her as she went to introduce herself to Abbrin. Dervyl had never invited anyone into the team before, or no one that he knew of – they usually approached her for interviews – and he was surprised that she had done so now, particularly when Lila didn’t have any magical gift. Dervyl had obviously known something that would make Lila an important asset to the group that he didn’t yet understand.

  He saw Elliot come into the canteen and greet Lila enthusiastically, initiating a conversation with her, seemingly pleased to have her on the team. Farlden couldn’t see what they might have in common: Elliot with his polite upper-class manners and elegant clothes and Lila with her nose stud, bleached hair and blunt attitude. Farlden frowned as he continued to watch him. Elliot had been spending as little time as possible with him since the failed attempt to kiss Fal and it bothered him how much he minded that. He didn’t know whether he was angrier at Elliot for trying to kiss him or himself for having grown so interested in the young Sapiens in such a ridiculously short amount of time. Fal loved Callie and the only person who could even vouch that the crazy other reality story Elliot told was true was Tchaffi, whom Fal had only met three times. But Fal couldn’t deny the way his and Elliot’s magics had reacted to each other – as if they had already known each other – and he had felt some pull towards Elliot since the day they met.

  Elliot collected two mugs of coffee from a drinks machine and sat down with Lila and there was something familiar about the sight. He was certain he had seen the two of them together before, in a canteen like this one but not quite the same, with teenagers all around.

  Unsettled, he returned to the room where he had left Callie reading about Izient research into Time. She smiled at him but then looked at his empty hands. “I thought you were going to bring lunch for us both.”

  “Spirits, I’m sorry. I got distracted.”

  She stood up. She was the same height as him, due to his Nean genes which made him shorter than most Izient and Sapiens men, and she had a presence to her, an authority. She also had a no-nonsense attitude that he liked and could relate to. He felt a surge of affection for her, this beautiful woman who had enriched his life.

  “Is something wrong?” she asked him.

  “No. It was just something odd that happened. Someone new joined our team and when I saw Elliot with her I was positive I had seen them talking before.”

  “You’ve seen him meet her somewhere?”

  “No, not... Not in this reality.” He realised the implications of what he was saying. “I think I must have remembered it from Elliot’s timeline.” From the old life they had shared that he had never expected to remember, that he hadn’t even been positive existed until now.

  “I see.” Callie didn’t ask him for more details, didn’t seem to want to talk about it anymore and he could understand how she felt, particularly after Elliot had kissed him, not that he had told Callie about that, not wanting to upset her. If the situation had been the other way around he wouldn’t have wanted her to remember a boyfriend she had been dating until a few days ago in a different timeline.

  Farlden wasn’t sure himself how to feel about this change in his life. He had no idea what would happen if he began to get back his memories of being in love with Elliot.

  Chapter Seventeen

  FARLDEN WAS still half asleep as he walked out of his family’s house the next morning and found something in his path, a person who was insubstantial and wavering. He stared at the translucent figure, his heartbeat speeding up as he took in the ramifications of it being here with him.

  “Bye, Dad,” Barve called out, following him and, reacting instinctively to the danger to his brother, Farlden turned and shoved Barve back into the building. “You can’t go out there.”

  Barve tried to look past him, frowning. “What are you talking about?”

  “There’s a ghost.”

  “Here?”

  Barve’s reaction made Farlden see the threat this posed to all his family. If the ghost was interested in him that was something he could fight but he couldn’t cope with the thought that the creature might want to hurt the people he loved.

  His father walked out of the kitchen and his brow ridge rose at the sight of them. “I thought you’d already left.”

  “A ghost is outside,” he said shortly, trying to come up with a plan of what to do.

  His dad crossed the room to the window and looked through it. “I can’t see anything.”

  Farlden hurried over to join him and peered out into the London street. It was full of the morning commuters rushing past and, beyond that, cars going up and down the road, but he could see no sign of the creature that had been here. “It’s gone. Dad, would you call Mum and let her know about this? If the ghost reappears, neither of you should go near it and you definitely mustn’t speak to it, okay?”

  “I’ll phone her now,” his father said, heading to the house landline.

  “We’d better get to work but I’ll speak to you later,” he promised and his dad threw him an amused look.

  “We’ll be fine without you here to protect us from a person with no weapons, who can’t even touch us.”

  “People have gone mad from talking to those things.”

  “I know, Fal, and I promise we’ll be careful. It almost certainly won’t even come back.”

  “Okay then.” He glanced at Barve and got in front of his brother before opening the door and checking both sides of the yard.

  He almost expected a figure to jump out at them, like one of those horror film killers, as he and Barve walked to their car. He gave a sigh of relief when they were both safely inside, with the doors locked, but he couldn’t relax completely for the rest of the journey across London, still afraid for his parents.

  “Maybe Elliot was right and it was drawn to your magic,” Barve suggested.

  “Could be.” His parents didn’t possess magic so perhaps they would be safe without Farlden there.

  He parked the car and the entered the government building, taking the lift to the second floor as Barve said, “Should we tell Dervyl what happened?”

  “Yeah, definitely.” She might have come up with a way to stop the ghost coming back, so his family would be protected.

  Barve knocked on her door and they went inside, to find her standing talking to Mosrra. They quickly explained about the ghost and the two women exchanged glances in a way that increased his unease.

  “This is the second time in two days a ghost has appeared to someone in our team,” Dervyl said. “Yesterday one tried to approach Elliot.”

  “Is
he all right?” Farlden asked urgently, remembering the person he had seen who had been driven out of his mind by the ghosts. Terror gripped him at the thought that this could have happened to Elliot.

  “He wasn’t harmed,” Dervyl reassured him and Farlden was able to breathe again. “I’ve been looking into whether the creatures are attracted to magic but there’s no definite proof one way or the other. We’ll come up with an answer, though.”

  He hoped she was right. The ghosts had been a worry before but with the added danger to his family and Elliot, he wanted them gone now.

  He and Barve left the Izients to their conversation, closing Dervyl’s office door behind them.

  “You care about Elliot, don’t you?” Barve said.

  It was impossible to deny it given the strength of his reaction to the thought of Elliot being harmed but he refused to let himself dwell on it. “I just want us all to be safe.”

  It was a partial answer at best and he could see that his brother wasn’t fooled by it.

  Chapter Eighteen

  ELLIOT WAS still getting used to living at home again with his mum, dad and brother. In all honesty, it felt like a step backwards after living apart from them at Uni, where he had made his own decisions about his life. After the rift between them because of his relationship with Fal, though, it was good to have their love and just be able to talk easily to them. Not that they remembered any of that.

  They all ate dinner together after he and his mother got back from London, then he and his dad went into the living room to watch TV, while Jasper went out to meet friends and Mum vanished into her study to work on some papers for her job in parliament.

  He sat down on the sofa next to his father who picked up the remote and turned on the television.

  “... Killing at least twenty Neans,” a newsreader was saying. “The Sapiens Purity Society has claimed responsibility for the shootings...”

  Elliot jumped up, getting his mobile out of his pocket. He had contact phone numbers for all of Dervyl’s team and hesitated over Farlden’s name, desperately wanting to hear his voice, before scrolling past it to Barve. He hit the button the dial him and, when Barve answered, Elliot said, “Are you and your family all right? I just heard on the News about the Sapiens Purity Society murders.”

  “We’re fine. It was the Neans at a supermarket in Wimbledon who were shot and that’s nowhere near us. Those bastards are getting more aggressive.”

  “How can a terrorist group like that be allowed to exist?”

  “A lot of Sapiens politicians support them, although this violence might prove too much for some of them.”

  Elliot went cold as he thought of his mother’s previous anti-Nean feelings. He couldn’t stay under this roof if she was involved with the SPS. “I’m really glad you’re all okay.” Even though Barve was a slightly different person than the one Elliot had known in the other reality – more self-assured and relaxed but just as compassionate as before – he had fitted back into Elliot’s life as if their friendship had never been in question, making it possible to bear the loss of Farlden’s love.

  Barve’s tone, as he spoke again, was warm. “Thanks for checking on us. I know things aren’t easy for you at the moment but I’m glad that we’re friends. If you ever want to talk, just let me know.”

  “Thanks – I will.” They ended the call and Elliot was caught between gratitude at still having Barve in his life and horror at a world that still had too many similarities to the old one. He couldn’t watch things fall apart for the Nean race and see people he loved get hurt all over again. “Dad, is Mum a member of the Sapiens Purity Society?”

  The shock on his father’s face at the idea was a welcome sight. “No, of course not. She may have some private views about wanting Sapiens to have more positions of power but she’d never risk her career by endorsing something like the SPS.”

  He would have preferred to hear that his mother hated the bigotry of the SPS as much as he did but, even if her reasons for not being part of the group were mercenary ones, at least he didn’t have to face a division between his mother and Neans. Not again.

  “Is this something to do with your memories of that other timeline?” Dad asked.

  Although he had told his family of the change to the timeline, he didn’t think they were able to comprehend just how utterly his life had been thrown into turmoil. To them, this was the only world they had ever known. “There were some difficulties between me and Mum over her view of Neans in that reality but she got over them.” She had rescued him and Fal and that was what he needed to remember when he doubted her. Underneath it all, she loved him and would do what was right. “Don’t worry about it, Dad.”

  “It’s difficult to believe that my own son changed the nature of the world I live in but you were always an extraordinary boy. This isn’t how it was supposed to be, though, is it? You wanted something better.”

  The truth in his father’s words hit him hard. He thought about the ghosts and the SPS threat and about losing Farlden. Had anyone actually been helped by the change to reality?

  The idea that this new world might be becoming just as messed up as the old one made him want to lash out in fury because he had sacrificed so much for this. Was humanity so flawed that there was no way to bring permanent peace between the races?

  Chapter Nineteen

  “DO YOU think I’m worrying unnecessarily?” Callie asked, putting on her coat.

  “Perhaps, but I don’t think you’ll know the answer to that until you speak to Farlden,” her sister answered, sitting nearby, perched on the arm of the sofa.

  “It just feels as if his behaviour towards me has been distracted since Elliot’s arrival. I mean, I know recent events with the ghosts have changed things but it feels like more than that. They share this magical ability.”

  “Callie, if you’re going to worry about your lack of magic, you’ll never make your relationship with Farlden work.”

  “It’s not that. At least, I don’t think so. Fal speaks of there being a connection between them when they share magic and I think they were dating in the past reality.”

  “You know I can’t get my head round this whole idea of the world not being what we all remember,” Lucy said with a grimace.

  “Nor can I, but Fal remembered something of that old life recently and I’m scared that’s just the beginning, that he’ll learn more and pull away from me.”

  Lucy glanced at her watch and stood up. “I have to get moving and so do you. Just talk to him. Be honest about how you feel and I’m sure you can work it out.”

  Callie nodded. She would speak to him as soon as she could get him alone, before she lost her nerve, although she had no idea how to put her fears into words.

  * * *

  After the attack against Neans yesterday, which had worried his entire family, the last thing Farlden needed was to get to work and face an argument with Callie, although he should have guessed that she would want answers. She was too smart not to have worked out what his relationship with Elliot had been like in that other timeline but he had tried to make it clear that she was the one who mattered to him.

  They were standing in the office they used for meditation and research, their laptops sitting on the small table pushed against the wall, cushions still on the wooden floor from where he had been sitting practising magic with Nariss the previous day when she said, “Do you want to be involved with Elliot instead of me?”

  “Why, by the Spirits, would you ask me that?” he said, thrown by her questioning their relationship out of the blue. He hadn’t had any kind of conversation with Elliot in two days, although he knew that Elliot, unlike Callie, had called his brother to check on their family last night.

  “It’s hardly unexpected,” she countered, hands on hips, “and if you didn’t feel so defensive you would have been able to answer the question.”

  It felt as if she was attacking him and he found himself responding in a similar tone. “I can’t believe that y
ou seriously need me to answer it. I’m dating you. I thought we were happy together.”

  “Have you remembered any more of your life with Elliot?”

  “No. All I saw was a memory of Elliot with Lila. That’s hardly a reason for you to assume I have feelings for him.”

  “What if you remember more?”

  “What if I don’t?” He took a step closer to her, trying to calm down the situation before it led in a direction he hoped neither of them wanted. “I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future but I love you.”

  It was the first time he had said these words to her and it should have been a romantic moment. He wanted Callie to respond by saying she felt the same but, instead, she looked ready to start crying. She had clearly been worrying about this for days, making him wish they had talked it over earlier. She clearly couldn’t accept his words, though, asking, “And what do you feel for Elliot?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “But you do care about him?”

  “Yes,” he said without thinking about it, the answer startling him. It didn’t change the strength of his feelings for Callie, though, and he needed to get her to see that. “What does that matter? I have other friends I care about. I love my family.”

  “That’s different and you know it. Elliot’s the one you’re always talking about and reacting to as if he’s important to you.”

  Had he? He remembered Callie watching as he wiped away the blood from Elliot’s nosebleed, seeing his concern at how the magic had affected Elliot. He told himself that he would have worried about anyone he was working with being in pain but all his recent confusion about Elliot’s arrival came back to him.

  “I chose to date you,” he insisted.

  “You didn’t even know Elliot then so there wasn’t a choice.”

  “But there was when...” When Elliot kissed him and Farlden refused to let it go any further, but he hadn’t told Callie about that and he knew it was the last thing that would make Callie feel better now. “Elliot wanted to get back together with me and I told him there could be nothing like that between us, that I loved you.”