by Holly Hook
None of us hesitates. Monica leaps through first, following Simon's hand gestures. She stands in the desert for a second and her form wavers, but it could just be the heat. And then she merges with the ripples and vanishes.
"Now you." He points to Isabel.
Isabel goes next. “Best to send the two least likely people Isabel's father is going to kill first,” Simon tells me as she vanishes. “He was aiming at the two of us most of all."
I step up to Simon. There's no telling what's waiting on the other side of the rift. “I guess we head to the Civil War now,” I say. “If we can even make it there.”
“We will.”
And we kiss right there under the blazing sun. Simon's lips are hot and burning. Mine are, too. My heart pounds harder and for a magical second, all the heat goes away and there's just me and him, embracing each other.
“At the same time,” I breathe, pulling him towards where the rift must be.
We fall, holding each other like our lives are about to end. Which, now that I think about it, they probably are. Whether it's in a few seconds or a few hours doesn't matter.
Chapter Twelve
We land.
“Guess what?” Monica asks before I can even get my bearings. “I'm still very freaked out about standing in the place where all times meet, but we're still alive, at least. Mr. Nazi is gone. He must have run somewhere else, looking for us.”
“Good,” I say. I search up and down the corridor to be sure. There's no sign of Isabel's father. I don't know where he's gone, but he's gone for now that means we're going to live a little longer.
“But Time...” Isabel says.
The corridor is a little more red since we left. The sickness that's set in since we saved the Titanic is only growing worse. Time hasn't been able to rid itself from its infection yet, from the thing that's making it ill. The corridor is almost blood red, as if all the lights behind the crystal have turned angry and inflamed. The fog's even thicker, so thick that I can't see too far down the corridor at all, only about fifty feet at the most.
“My father could be anywhere,” Isabel says, keeping her voice down.
“Anywhere,” I repeat. “That's going to make our walk to the Civil War even more fun.” He could be waiting a hundred feet away and I won't know.
“We had better move,” Simon says.
“I'm sure the Chronophages are still out,” Isabel whispers. She seizes my arm as if she's scared I'm going to disappear. “We don't want to see them, even though I'm not sure what they're going to want to eat.”
“Us. Only, they can't since we're mortal now,” I suggest. A shudder races through my whole body, despite the fact that the desert heat still clings to me. “What do they look like?”
“They're like giant white blood cells,” Isabel says. “They're Time's immune system. Be glad that you don't remember seeing them. It's a blessing, really. I think I'm going to have nightmares about them for the rest of my life.”
“You won't once we go back and fix this mess,” Simon tells her.
We walk. I have to trust Isabel as she leads us through the fog. It's so thick, I can't believe she even remembers where the Civil War rift is. Perhaps her own memories are a lot clearer to her than they are to Simon, Monica and I. I try to sift through Isabel's memories of the Hub, but they're blurry and out of focus like they're not meant for me. My own memories, however, are still clear. That would make sense.
“I feel like I'm walking through some kind of blood vapor or something,” Monica says. She hugs herself as her shoes make light slapping noises on the crystal. She sticks close to me. She's shaking. “This is not my turf. Where are we going again? I got something about Frank's memories when I put that thing on. Some rift that goes to the Civil War.”
“You're right,” I say. “If you don't want to go, I understand. You can always wait out here in the Hub for us to get back. I don't want to go, either.” I hate the thought of her being dragged into this.
“I'll go,” she says. “I can be the one to wait by the rift so you guys don't get lost. Provided it's not in the middle of the battle or something.”
“That's what I'm hoping.” What will we come out on? Which side of the battle? Either way, it's going to be dangerous.
Isabel stops by a random rift. “You remember this one, Simon?” she asks.
He shakes his head. “I don't have most of that now.”
“This is another one where you used to stand a lot,” she says, pointing to the archway. “It was your life right after that carnival where you met Julia. I think. At least, that's what you said a long time ago.”
We face the random rift. It looks like every other archway. I can imagine Simon standing there, wondering if I'm on the other side. Sure, it would be a slightly younger me, but me all the same. I let go of Monica's hand and hold his. “More memories,” I say.
This is just a little after the time we met. The day I lost Melvin at the carnival, and the day he came out of the crowd and helped me go and find him.
“Now's not the time to take a trip down memory lane,” Monica says. She breaks into our mental break. “I'm sorry to be a whiner, but this happens to me when my life and sense of reality explodes like this. We have to get going. I don't want to see what these Chronophages look like.”
“You don't,” Isabel agrees.
“We have to live that long," I say.
“Let's go,” Monica says. I can hear the fear in her voice.
Then we hear it.
Footsteps.
Someone's running down the corridor from behind us.
There's a gunshot, exploding through the silence. Sparks fly off the edge of the archway we've been facing, leaving a smoking, shattered wound in the red crystal. Shards rain to the floor.
It's him.
He didn't go far after all.
“Go.” Isabel's running up the corridor already.
The four of us burst into a run. He won't shoot if he can't see us, right?
“Halt!”
“Faster,” Monica breathes.
The fog refuses to thin ahead. It's a blessing that these corridors curve, that he doesn't have a straight shot at us. That fact might save our lives. We can run fast enough to lose him in the fog, if only we can get to the Main Chamber in time. It's too late to jump into a rift now. He'll just wait out here for us to return. But what if we run into a Chronophage?
Another gunshot rings out. He's on a rampage even worse than Frank. Isabel's attempt to murder him has driven him over the edge. Brought out the full monster that he kept hidden from his family. What if he wants to torture us? Drag us back to his time and send us to some death camp? He can find a reason to damn us to one.
The corridor opens up and we run out into a ballroom of fog and nothingness. The crystal floor echoes under us we as run. I keep my gaze trained on Isabel, who looks back and waves us along faster. I have to trust that she knows where to go.
“Run ahead of me.” Simon slaps his hand on my back. I'm getting tired. Struggling to catch my breath. Our footfalls echo through the whole chamber. We sound like a stampeding crowd. I hope it throws Isabel's father off.
I slow my run and follow her. A sharp set of footsteps—boot steps, actually, sound behind us and I know Isabel's father has run out into the Main Chamber. Another shot rings out, and then nothing. The wind zips past my ear and I know I've just had a near miss. He knows which direction we've run.
Isabel slows ahead and I nearly crash into her. I wonder if she's slowing down to make less noise, but I'm wrong.
There's a huge shape in the fog.
It's round, like an eight-foot-tall, dirty soap bubble. There's a line across it like a jagged mouth that's not fully formed, and two pits where I think eyes should be.
My stomach turns.
It's a Chronophage.
One of things that supposedly ate the Timeless versions of Simon and I. This could even be the same one for all I know.
Simon grabs my hand. “Is t
hat one?” he breathes.
It stays there, completely still, as if we're not even there. Isabel walks closer to it. Footsteps draw closer behind us. We can't stay here long. I glance back. Her father's not close enough to see through the fog, but he might be headed this way.
“What are you doing?” I whisper.
“We're safe,” she whispers. “We can even touch these. We need to scoot through before my father comes this way.”
“Scoot through?” Monica hisses.
Then I see.
There's more than one.
A lot more than one.
In fact, the entire center of the Main Chamber is full of them. The soapy balls huddle together like they're trying to stay warm or like they're having some secret meeting. They make no sound. None are moving.
And they're blocking our way forward.
There must be hundreds of them. If not, thousands. Time has pumped out its entire army, not knowing that it's useless against us. It's the most disgusting thing I've seen.
“Quickly,” Isabel says.
Horror explodes through me.
We have to go through them. The other option is to wait for that Nazi to find us and kill us.
Simon grabs my hand and Isabel's. I take Monica's. She grimaces at me. We're going through. We're actually going to have to touch these things if we have any hope of survival.
Footfalls come closer. We're almost out of time.
“Now,” I breathe.
Isabel pushes forward. The first Chronophage indents a little from her body as she pushes between it and the next one. It lists a little to the side, but doesn't react.
We follow. I keep a tight grip on Monica's hand and Simon's. We can't lose anyone. I feel as if I'm about to get swallowed by filthy foam.
“Where are you?” Isabel's father roars. He repeats what I think is the same phrase in German. He's not far.
The two Chronophages rub against my skin and press against me. Against my chest. They squish. They feel disgusting. They have a revolting texture, like filmy soap mixed with mud and silk. I hold down a gag. They smell like a dirty sink full of old, damp food. I keep my hands linked with Simon's and Monica's. Squeeze as hard as I can. All I see is grayish-white, pushing against my face and trying to suffocate me. I have to keep my chin tucked down in order to breathe.
But that's not the worst part.
Black pulses race through my mind. I get the sense that I'm standing on the edge of some void, some deep pit of nothingness that's pulsing around me. There is no hope here. No love. No meaning and no point. Life is all in vain. We should give up. It won't matter what we do, anyway. I want to cry with it. Scream.
No, I tell myself. Keep going. The Chronophages are making us feel this way. There's something terrible inside of them, just on the other side of those rank membranes.
Monica whimpers. I pull her past the walls of gel. It presses against us and I struggle to suck air into my lungs. None of the stuff is sticking to us, thank God. Isabel says something else and Simon tugs at me. “Don't stop,” he says. He's muffled. “This feeling should end once we're out of here.” I don't miss the strain in his voice. He's struggling against it, too.
The four of us move in a line. We're still linked. Somewhere behind us, Isabel's father curses in German. At least, I think it's cursing. I hear more horrible squishing noises. He's actually coming through these things after us.
Isabel stops ahead, then abruptly changes direction. We need to be silent now. Any speech will give us away, any sound.
Deeper. I can't breathe in here. The blackness pulses through me like the void's trying to eat me, trying to snuff me out of existence. The feeling is maddening. What if there is some kind of horrible void out there, one where nothing can exist? Some kind of chaos, like they speak of in the Greek myths? I bite in my screams. There's no chance of us fixing anything. What's the point of loving my family? What if life is just an illusion and this is all there is?
I can't let it make me think like this. I focus on that day Simon and I met, on the sun and the waves on the beach. On the happy sounds of the carnival, so far from here.
“We're almost out,” Simon breathes in my ear.
At last, we pull out of the masses of spheres and gel and goo and emerge back into the Main Chamber of the Hub. There's air. I breathe precious oxygen, convinced I'm going to add claustrophobia to my list of fears. We're once again surrounded by the red fog, by the inflammation. Isabel waves us forward. “This corridor,” she whispers so low I can barely hear her.
Someone grunts behind us. It's muffled. Distressed. Isabel's father is still trapped in the mass of Chronophages. I hope he stays lost in there for a long time.
I run into the red. At least I feel like I'm not going to snap out of existence anymore. The black pulses vanish like a horrible dream. Was that what the Timeless versions of ourselves felt right before those things ate us? I fear yes.
We enter another corridor, keeping our footsteps as quiet as we can. Another grunt sounds from far behind us. Isabel's father isn't making much progress getting through those things. I hope they keep him stalled for a while. It'll give us time to find the Civil War and go through. By then, he might be lost. I hope he suffocates in there, even though that nothing feeling is something I shouldn't wish on anyone.
“You know what?” Simon asks. “We forgot to mark the Trenton corridor with a shoe.”
My heart leaps. “Isabel, I hope you can remember where that is.”
“I should.”
“So you're saying we're lost?” Monica asks. She's hugging herself again. “I never want to feel like that again.”
“That makes two of us,” I tell her. “I don't think we're lost. Isabel can still remember this place quite well.”
A new set of footfalls come towards us. These slap against the crystal ahead, coming from the direction we're heading. It's not Isabel's father. It has to be someone else.
A man screams. He's running from something.
And then there's a squishing noise.
A figure appears in the mist, bolting towards us. He shouts at us in a language that I can't even guess. As he draws closer, I see who he is: a man in furs who must have come from the Stone Age. I've seen him in the Hub before, leading another man back to his time. He's one of the Timeless--and the only one I've seen since we got here. Something's wrong. When Time was sick before, all the Timeless gathered in Main Chamber, waiting for something to happen. The rifts closed off to all of them. Only mortals could get in and out unharmed. But now there's no one here except for this man. And most of the Chronophages are in the Main Chamber, gathered like they've just finished some feast. A horrible picture is adding up, one that makes me want to scream.
The caveman grabs my arms and pleads with me. There's no way I can make out his words, but the meaning is unmistakable: Don't let them eat me. I'm the only one left. He's trembling. Terrified.
Behind him, a huge shape lumbers out of the fog, taking up the entire corridor.
I don't know what to say to him. If I try to shove him into a rift, it won't let him through. If I pull him into the Main Chamber, there are thousands of other Chronophages waiting for him. It makes Isabel whimper. Behind us, her father shouts something else in German. It's my hope that he doesn't know which hallway we've gone down. If he figures it out, we're dead.
But no shot ever comes. We all remain silent and I stare into the caveman's eyes. A streak of gold races through the brown as if terrified and fleeing. Behind him, the huge shape slides closer. Its jagged mouth looks even more sinister now.
What can we do?
I don't want to see the Timeless get eaten, even if they've done nothing but try to stop me. Not all of them are Frank. Not all of them are crazy and evil. Why can't he be here, getting munched instead?
The Chronophage slides closer, enough so that I can make out the line that's supposed to be its mouth. The man buries his head in my chest. I know what it is. He needs comfort. His last comfort.
>
I tremble and hug him back. Simon backs away, pulling Monica away from us. This man has nowhere to run.
The man lets go as if he can't bear to face me anymore.
Faces the Chronophage.
“No!” I yell, lunging for him, but it's too late.
The thing's mouth opens and I meet the worst sight I can imagine.
It's nothing inside.
Nothing at all. The mouth is an opening into that void I sensed earlier, one where nothing can exist. It's the enemy of everything that is or ever was.
It sucks, pulling in all the air in the corridor. I back away, but the man kneels before it, hands over his face. He can't bear to look. Is he the only Timeless left? Maybe his friends and loved ones are all gone, the same way Frank's were when they messed with history.
A high whine fills the air. The mist all soars towards the open maw, vanishing inside.
And with it goes the caveman.
He disintegrates, breaking into mere dust before soaring into the void and snapping out of existence. He leaves only darkness and chaos in his place. Another soul is gone. Monica screams. Isabel turns away and puts her face in her hands.
The Chronophage closes its mouth as if the man was just a hiccup, squishes again, and slides forward towards the Main Chamber.
Simon pulls me into one of the archways. “We have to let it pass,” he says next to me. He's shaking. “Try not to go through the rift.”
I catch my breath. My heart's pounding. The rift makes my skin tingle. We balance between it and the Chronophage. The air seems less alive here, less vibrant now with another soul gone. What did the caveman have to do with Time being sick? Is Time so ill that its immune system is going crazy and targeting all the Timeless?
Isabel and Monica flatten themselves on either side of the corridor as the Chronophage, mouth closed and finished with its meal, slides forward.
I close my eyes and scream. I'll never get that image out of my head. The caveman, losing his very existence for a crime that's not even his. Maybe he even tried to put Time back together and fix our mistake. Maybe he even begged the others to help find me. But Time, like Frank, seems to have gone completely insane. It doesn't even know what it's doing anymore.
