by Holly Hook
And possibly, the last.
I shake Isabel and she groans. “Breakfast,” I say. “Then, we need to go.”
She mutters something and gets up. “I need a bath,” she says.
“We have one washroom for all of us third class passengers,” I say. “Sorry.”
She groans again and tucks her head under the pillow.
I lend Isabel one of my dresses, the gray one that's a bit too long on me. She thanks me. “I hope that helps,” I say. I'm not sure when any of us will get a chance to bathe again.
Simon's at breakfast, next to Father and Melvin already. He spins a coin on the table. Is it the same one he spun on the table at Trenton High School in a future that's now not going to include us? He waves us over and we sit.
Breakfast is too short. I keep thinking about whether or not we're going to succeed in stopping Frank permanently. Even without Frank on our trail, the thought of heading into the Civil War is enough to turn my insides cold. We could still die. The cannon that's supposed to doom Frank and his brother could end up hitting us instead if we don't come through the rift soon enough to rescue them. Or we could die in a hail of gunfire. There are too many what ifs.
But if we succeed in stopping Frank and his brother from going into the battle, Frank will never become Timeless. He'll never menace us and my family will finally be safe to go on with our lives.
And something else gnaws at me as I eat, and I'm not sure what it is.
No one says much. Isabel shifts on her stool next to me. Simon's hand leaves sweat marks on the table when he lifts them. He keeps his other linked with mine. Father doesn't even disapprove. He's been very lax since last night. We're all glad that we're not dead and that must have a lot to do with it.
At last, we finish eating. Father suggests that we go out and get some fresh air on the deck.
I glance at Simon. It's time.
We all go and get our coats. Isabel doesn't have one and I don't have a spare that I can give her.
"You keep your coat," she says. "We don't want your father asking why you don't have it. It's best not to attract that attention."
“Do you remember exactly where the rift is?” I ask, feeling bad about her going out into the cold. At least the dress I gave her is long sleeved.
She nods. “It's behind the very back funnel. We'll have to climb up a ladder to get to it. At least we won't have the issue of going into the first class section. And we can't let your father see us disappearing.”
“Like your father saw with us,” I say, thinking of that bathroom back in her time. “I imagine he's still wondering what happened.”
Isabel looks away. “He must be,” she says.
“Is something wrong?” I ask, pulling my coat on.
“No. Of course not. We got away from him.”
Even though I can't shake the feeling that something is, we have more pressing things to worry us right now. My heart aches at the thought of leaving Melvin and Father all over again. Should I go and say goodbye?
I know that if I do, I'll never want to leave.
“Why haven't any other Timeless come for you yet?" I ask, changing the subject.
Isabel seems happy that I have. "I don't know. Frank must have been assigned to me when I came here. Now that he's gone, Time is sure to send some other members of the Timeless soon. We have to watch out."
"I agree."
"And how are we going to find this rift if we can't see it?" I ask. "We don't have that ability anymore."
“We should be able to feel when we're near it.”
I remember the electric feeling I used to get—or would have used to get—when going through the rifts. And the falling. I'm not looking forward to that.
Simon ducks his head into the berth. “We need to go, ladies. Your father's already taken Melvin up to the deck. There aren't many people up there yet, and we don't want to wait until there are.”
The three of us make our way to the exit, up the staircase and past the same smoking lounge we did last night. We emerge into the new day. The sun is out and the water sparkles around us. There's the faint sound of waves and a young couple walk past us. Isabel wraps her arms around herself to protect from the biting cold. “This way,” she says, walking towards the railing that divides us from the first and second classes.
An officer patrols past us. Thankfully, it's not one of the ones that we met last night. The ones we did meet are probably busy trying to explain the golden substance on the floor to the captain. Most of the crew is still likely distracted by the hole in the front of the ship or working out how we're going to get towed to our destination. I crane my neck to see if there are any other ships in the area. I spot a small one near the bow, so they must be getting things together. I don't think we've moved since last night.
“Up here,” Isabel says, grabbing the rail of a ladder.
I check to make sure the officer isn't facing us. He's speaking with a man in a brown coat and they're both glancing out at the water. I scramble up the rungs and Simon's right behind me. The three of us climb over a closed railing, run up another set of metal steps, and we're up near the funnel.
“That wasn't too bad.” Simon stuffs his hands in his pockets and looks around the funnel. It's huge, as big around as two of my houses put together. The first one was supposed to fall during the sinking and crush hapless people in the water.
There's no one up here with us. We're certain to get reprimanded if we don't find the rift in time. I take my coat off and hand it to Isabel. “Let me feel for the rift,” I say. “Meanwhile, you put that on.”
She obliges. “Thank you. Frank came out somewhere up here,” she says. “It was night in his memory, so I'm not sure on which side of the funnel he emerged on.”
I place one hand on the funnel, bracing myself. I must be feet from the rift. I walk around the circumference of it, feeling for any tingling along my skin or any electric sensations. My heart pounds. It's worse, not being able to see where the rift is. "Still looking," I call once I'm on the other side. I check once again to make sure the butterfly is still in my dress pocket.
And then I hit a wall of electricity. Invisible static races across my skin and I back away in shock. “I've found it!” I shout. “I--”
I'm falling.
The world blurs and screams around me. I hold my breath to keep in my shrieks. There's no gold glitter this time. I can't see that anymore, but I know what's happening. The rift is so strong that it's pulled me in instantly. Colors swirl. Air blasts against my skin and I close my eyes. I think Simon back on the ship, running around the funnel and finding me gone. He'll be able to follow me. I hold onto that thought.
I land and the world snaps back into place.
My hands meet cold crystal. I know the feeling well. I'm in one of the passageways in the Hub.
I breathe out and tumble along the floor. The rift has spit me out like I taste terrible. At last I skid to a stop.
I open my eyes, expecting the familiar multicolored lights and the corridor stretching away into infinity.
I push myself to my knees and I take in the long hallway, curving out of my view miles away on either side of me. Cool air envelops me, but compared to the freezing air on the Titanic, it's almost warm and inviting. Archways a couple of feet deep line up on either side of the tunnel, all clones of each other. If I didn't know better, I'd guess that they were just empty spaces put there for decoration. But I know that in each one, there's a rift that I can't see, a set of golden curtains that leads somewhere random in space and time.
But one thing is very wrong.
Everything's red. And it's foggy.
Instead of the healthy rainbow lights, the crystal has an angry scarlet glow behind it as if Time itself is angry. I've seen this before, right after we stopped Isabel's ship, the Wilhelm Gustloff, from sinking in the second world war.
Time is sick.
I've seen this before. This was the final Timeless memory of mine that I loaded onto the
hair clip that's now in my dress pocket. Even if Time managed to heal itself after we saved Isabel's ship, we made it sick all over again by un-sinking the Titanic.
I don't like this. I want out of here. At the very least, I don't want to be alone here.
I face the archway that contains the rift that I must have come through. I reach out towards it and my skin tingles. The rift's still there, swishing in silence and giving off no light. Simon has got to know that I'm on the other side by now and I back up, ready for he and Isabel to fall through. I don't have to wait long. I hear a fizzling noise and the tingling sensation grows stronger. Simon appears, seemingly out of thin air, and right behind him Isabel falls, screaming, onto the floor.
“There you are,” I breathe. “I was wondering when you'd show up."
“We did,” Simon says, standing. “I know I've technically never been here, but man. It almost seems like home.” Then he stands, brushes off his overalls, and looks around. His mouth falls open. "Oh."
"Oh," Isabel repeats, looking down the foggy, red corridor. "This isn't good."
Simon rubs his hand through his hair. "Well, Time kind of had this coming. It deserves to feel bad for a little while."
Isabel steps closer to me like she's frightened of the walls. "You two are lucky," she says. "You don't remember the Chronophages. That's not in the memories you put on that chip--but they're in mine." Her chin wobbles. "They could be out. They're big enough to take up the entire corridor, so if there's one coming, we will need to duck into a rift and let it go around. They make these horrible, wet squishing sounds as they move."
"I don't want to see these things," I say. These are the creatures that ate the Timeless versions of Simon and myself. Did it hurt? How terrifying was it? I can't even imagine what they look like. I want to get moving and find Frank's rift as soon as I can.
But there's one problem. We have mortal memories now. We've lost our sense of navigation in here--or have we? Once we walk away, will we remember which rift is ours?
I face the archway that leads back to the Titanic, the one that hasn't sunk. The one that isn't supposed to be right. The one that's supposed to be my grave, and now, Simon's. A thought hits me. “How are we going to know which archway to come back to when we leave this area? We need to mark it."
"You're right," Simon says. He fishes through his pockets. "That's a very good idea. I'm not sure I'd remember which one is it. Your memories and Isabel's memories are kind of fuzzy to me. I think that's because they're not mine."
"I don't think we need to do that," Isabel says. "I have Frank's Timeless memories right here in my head. I know exactly where we need to go to find his rift. And I know exactly how to get back here. My own memories are pretty strong. And if the two of you focus, you should be able to remember, too."
"I still think it's a good idea to mark it," I say, eyeing the endless hallway.
Simon takes off his shoes. "I'll leave one of these here, just inside our archway," he says. "And when we get out into the Main Chamber, I'll leave my other shoe next to this corridor."
"What if someone moves them?" I ask.
"If any Timeless are here," Isabel says, "They will be more concerned with Time being sick than with us. I don't see anyone. If someone does move the shoes, I think I can still remember where to go."
I look again. It is eerily silent here. I don't like that.
"It's this way to the Main Chamber," Isabel says, waving us into the fog.
“The Civil War, then,” Simon says. “Off we go.”
We walk. Simon wiggles his toes in his stockings, trying to keep them warm.
The Hub goes on forever, consisting of a central dome with hundreds of tunnels all leading off in different directions. Each hallway has an infinite number of these archways. When I was Timeless, I had a super sense of direction in here, and I remembered the location of a rift forever after I used it. That instinct is gone. We're right to mark our way. I just hope that Isabel is right about knowing where to go. Her Timeless memories are far more extensive than mine.
We walk for minutes. Those minutes seem to drag out into an hour. We find no one. Maybe all the Timeless are busy going off and trying to fix history. That's why we're seeing no one. That could be bad. What if they're at the Gustloff right now, trying to re-sink Isabel's ship? She might vanish, leaving us with no one to guide us. But I can't think about that now. We have work to do.
“Come on,” Isabel says. "I think we're almost to the Main Chamber."
"You think?" I ask. My gut nags at me again. I just can't put my finger on what's been bothering me since last night. We've saved the Titanic. Nancy back in Trenton would love this story.
Nancy.
“Guys,” I say.
Simon faces me with his chocolate eyes. “Did you think of something?” he asks.
“I might have.”
He takes my arms. His skin is warm on mine. “Bad? Good?”
“Might be bad. I don't know.”
“Does it have to do with us un-sinking the Titanic? I've been wondering what we've done, too. What effects we've caused."
"We need to hurry," Isabel says.
I ignore her. “It might. I'm worried. What if we, like, messed up the future or something?”
Simon looks down at the butterfly that's bulging out of my pocket. “Arnelia must still exist in the future, or you wouldn't have that.”
“True. I'm worried about times closer to 1912. What if we messed up the present? Nancy's time, or something? I just want to make sure that we, you know, didn't screw anyone else up to save ourselves.” As I speak, the nagging feeling in my gut gets even more intense.
Check, a voice in my head screams.
Go and check. Now!
“We don't have time,” Isabel says. “We really should get to the Civil War before Frank finds a way to come after us again.”
“I agree,” I say. “But Frank's still floating in the ocean. Maybe he's even at the bottom of it and no one will fish him out for the next few thousand years." Hasn't she been listening?
Isabel shakes her head. “Really. It doesn't matter when Frank gets fished out. Even if it's thousands of years from now, he can still go back to before you even wake up on that night and kill you.”
“He hasn't yet.” Why is Isabel so against us going back to Nancy's time for a bit? Also, before we finish this, I really want to make sure that Nancy and Monica are all right. And Nancy has all those books about ships. If we changed history at all in a bad way, I'll easily be able to check them even if I have to break into her house.
A pang explodes in my chest. Nancy won't know me. Monica won't know me. That's okay, as much as that will hurt. I just want to see them one last time. Make sure the world isn't in flames in their time.
“We really shouldn't,” Isabel says. “It's a waste of time.”
My heart pounds and my pulse roars in my ears. "They're my family. It is not a waste of time."
“Girls.” Simon holds up his hands. “I agree with Julia. We really should check things out before we go too far with this. It might give us peace of mind. We don't know how sick Time is, anyway.”
"I thought you were happy that Time is sick," Isabel says.
"I am. But I don't want it to be forever. We inhabit the universe it spreads across. If you can remember where Frank's rift is and where the Titanic rift is, you can remember the Trenton rift."
Isabel sighs. She shifts leg to leg, uncomfortable. “Okay. I can take you there. But we only take a quick peek. We need to finish this as soon as we can.”
“Agreed,” I say.
I think for a minute. The cold's starting to get to me and I almost ask Isabel for my coat back, but stop myself. She needs it more than I do.
Now there are no restrictions. I can go through any rift I want, provided we move before the Timeless find us.
As if on cue, I hear footsteps echoing up the corridor. Someone's running in our direction, also heading for the Main Chamber. “Let's go," I sa
y.
The three of us walk briskly. I take off my shoes so my feet stop making such horrible slapping noises on the floor. My stockings do little to block out the cold of the crystal. Simon cradles his remaining shoe like it's some kind of baby. Isabel hugs my coat close to her like she's scared something's going to attack her.
There are still some Timeless here, then. If they find us, they'll try to take us back home.
“This way.” Isabel runs ahead of us. A woman screams far behind us. The footfalls stop.
I turn. “What was that?”
Isabel catches her breath. “I don't know. That didn't sound good.” She cranes her neck to look at something ahead. “We're at the Main Chamber. Simon, set your shoe down at the mouth of this corridor so we know which one to come back to.”
We stop at the mouth of the corridor. I stand before the vastness of the Hub's center for a moment. It's nothing but fog. I feel as if I'm standing at the edge of a red void and I grab onto the side of the corridor's mouth, nearly tripping on the shoe that Simon has left there. I know that, beyond the fog, the giant dome spreads maybe miles over my head. Hundreds of corridors line the edges of this city-sized room. Which corridor leads to Nancy's rift? I strain to remember. It was one over on the left a little bit, wasn't it? I think. I hope that Isabel's memory is more intact than mine. She's traveled there far more than I have.
Voices float from somewhere distant and meet my ears. There are Timeless here, all right. And then I hear another noise, one from the corridor behind us.
It's a wet, squishing sound like someone has taken an enormous bag of water and slapped it against the floor.
Isabel grabs my arm. “We need to leave. The Chronophages can't hurt mortals, but they're very unpleasant, believe me. They're probably coming up all the corridors right now. If we hurry, we might not have to run into one.”
“I'll take your word on it,” I tell her.
We face a long run across the corridor. Isabel jogs into the fog, my coat flapping at her sides. How can she tell where we're even going? I reach out and link hands with Simon. If we lose each other here, it's all over. I'm not even sure we can find the corridor with the shoe again.
