by Holly Hook
“We need to dive into another one of these things,” Monica says.
“No!” Isabel shouts. “This is where all times meet. All times are here. That void will destroy wherever we go.”
"But what do we do?"
I want to scream. Cry. I think I am screaming as I drag Simon further into the corridor. The hole's taking up half the Main Chamber now, and moving fast. The universe is collapsing.
What do we do?
What do we do?
I can't even unsink the Titanic now. The rift to the ship is across the pit. Death is better than some things, like Frank said.
Much better.
“Drag him faster!” I urge Arnelia. “Keep going.” Even if we dive into Trenton and stay there, will it do us any good? Are the rifts even still working? And even if we can go there, everything will spiral into this void eventually.
My sides burn. My breath comes in ragged gasps. Arnelia screams something at me in her own language as she drags Simon. This could be the end. Mulavi and the other men won't survive. They can keep going down these never-ending hallways, but they'll never make it anywhere safe. No matter how far they go, the void will reach them eventually.
"Isabel!"
It's her father, calling from down the corridor. We've run back into him.
I glance back. He stands there, gun at his side. His eyes are huge and he knows that something's wrong. I don't even care that he's there. If we're lucky he'll shoot us all before that void reaches us. I pull Simon faster, towards him. Arnelia huffs next to me and Monica grabs Simon's feet and lifts them.
Isabel lets out a sob and runs away from us.
And into the arms of her father.
They embrace. The universe is ending, after all. There's no point in them trying to kill each other anymore. I pull Simon past them.
The cracking grows louder. The shaking, worse. It's gaining on us. We're getting closer and closer to Trenton. Maybe that will be the place where we should end. Somewhere familiar. Somewhere where I can kiss Simon for the last time and tell him that I'm sorry. Where I can tell the world that I'm sorry.
“Go,” I huff. The cracking's like thunder now. I'm terrified the floor is going to go out from under me. The corridor curves, so I can't see how close the void is to us. It's too late. I can't undo any of this. But I can't leave Simon. I won't. We're in this together.
And then I see it in the distance.
Blackness. Darkness. Nothingness. The floor falls into it and the first rifts crack and vaporize. It's coming. It's going to eat through every time and space after all.
It's the most terrifying thing I could imagine.
"Isabel--run!" I yell. She still stands there in her father's arms.
“Oh,” Simon groans. We're dragging him so fast he doesn't have time to bleed on the floor.
“Hold on,” I say. “I won't let it get you. I won't.”
“It is gaining!” Arnelia shouts. “Run with all we have.”
I huff and run backwards. Isabel's not moving. She's given up. We leave her behind. At least she's found a little bit of peace and I don't want to break it.
The first black pulses race through my being, anticipating their meal. There is no hope here. No point. No love. We should give up because it all meant nothing.
The void advances. Two more rifts vaporize, and then two more. It's only a hundred feet away and it races towards Isabel and her father. They're waiting.
“Go,” I manage. I'm in tears. The floor falls away ever faster behind them and the pulses of the void grow so strong in me that I want to collapse. Everything is in vain. Maybe the void is where I belong and what I deserve after what I've done. I should throw myself in and never have to feel a thing again.
Then I spot something out of the corner of my eye.
A spot on the edge of a rift with shattered crystal, as if a bullet struck it.
Where Isabel's father shot it, trying to aim at us.
It's the rift that goes back to right after Simon and I met.
I know what I have to do.
I stop. Let go of Simon. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. He flops to the floor as everyone else loses their grip on him. “I love you,” I shout. “I have to go. Wait here.”
"No!" Simon yells.
"What are you doing?" Monica's eyes are huge as she eyes the approaching void.
My heart pounds. The void draws closer, gaining speed. Isabel and her father waver. Turn to dust and fly into nothingness. The end is only fifty feet away. I have to act fast. I grab the hair clip from my pocket and strap it to my head. Rub my hand across it. My scalp tingles one final time as it grabs my newest memories.
"Julia!" Simon struggles to stand.
I leap into the rift, leaving everyone behind.
The familiar electric feeling envelops me. I fall through gray and lifeless darkness, leaving Simon, Monica, Isabel and Arnelia behind.
Chapter Nineteen
“Pea. Wake up. I have wonderful news!”
I lift my head from the sink, from the enormous pile of dishes that have been left for me since yesterday's meal. I look towards the door of our small house. It's beautiful and sunny outside. Father stands in the doorway, grinning and full of energy. Simon stands just behind him, unable to get into the doorway. Our fireplace crackles, doing its best to keep out the chill of the day.
And there's also something on my head that wasn't there before.
Why on earth did I fall asleep in the middle of my chores? Father and Melvin are counting on me. They have ever since Mother left us. But Father walks in, smiling as if everything is going to be all right. His overalls are covered in coal dust from the mines and his boots are dirty, but he doesn't seem to care. Melvin hugs his leg and asks him what the good news is. We haven't heard any in a very long time.
Simon walks into the house behind him. He's dressed in his nice overalls today as if there's some kind of special occasion. Then Father looks at whatever's on my head.
“Where did you get that?” he asks.
Simon joins him in staring. Something's clipped into my hair. I reach up to feel what it could be.
“I don't know,” I say. “Maybe Melvin stuck something in my hair while I was asleep. Sorry. I don't know how that could have happened. Once second, I was right here, doing my chores, and the next...” I don't know what to think. I feel like there's something big I should remember and it's just not there. It's like I've woken from a long and terrible dream.
Or a nightmare.
For some reason, I feel as if black pulses are racing through my body, like there's a huge monster of dread coming from a long way away. I don't understand it.
“What's that, Julia?” my brother asks. “It's pretty!”
Father comes closer. He holds four pieces of paper in his hands. Are they tickets to something? Maybe he's bought us tickets to the circus and we're all going to go out and have fun this weekend or take a holiday. Anything to escape from our pointless life of survival.
I feel whatever's on my head again, alarmed by the sharp points. Has someone stuck knives in my hair? I'm going to kill Melvin for touching things that he shouldn't. But no. This feels like glass.
The dark pulses through me grow stronger and Father grimaces as if he's feeling it, too. I shake my head to clear the feeling.
“It's a butterfly,” Simon says. “It's beautiful. But I do have to ask where you found it?”
I go to take it off, but Father pushes in front of Simon. He's got a wide smile on his face and he doesn't seem to care that I have a glass butterfly in my hair. I want to see it so bad. I want to reach up and examine it. It's almost like there's something that I need to do. A small, frightened voice in the back of my mind screams at me that it's important, and I have no idea where it's coming from.
“Julia, listen, and listen close,” Father says. “Our lives are about to change. I've been saving for this for a long, long time. The four of us are getting out of here. We're going to the States to start
a new life. Do you know what these are?” He holds out the tickets so that I can read.
The voice in my mind tries to scream louder and the black pulses through my body grow worse, but it's drowned out by the huge words on the four tickets.
TITANIC.
THIRD CLASS TICKET.
WELCOME ABOARD!
“Father,” I about gasp. “You couldn't have...on the biggest ship ever built...”
“I did,” Father says, clapping me on the back. “We depart in April. You and Melvin will be able to go to school in the States. I can get a better job and we can hire a maid for our home so that you aren't stuck doing all these chores. You need to have your own life...with Simon.”
Something about his words makes me reach up to feel the clip in my hair. I don't know why, but it feels right to do.
My fingers brush the metal body of the butterfly.
And my head aches terribly like someone's hit me over the head with our washboard.
“Julia? What's wrong?” Simon asks, running for me.
I grab my head. My scalp tingles. Simon grabs my arms and stares me in the eyes. I meet his gaze. His own eyes are chocolate and perfect and so...human.
The tingling stops.
I face Father. “Pea, are you feeling unwell?” He still holds the tickets in his hands, the tickets that he's slaved for in the mines for years and years.
I want to scream.
But instead, I remove the hair clip for the final time and throw it onto the table. It strikes our candle and they both slide across the faded wood until they butt up against the chair, the one with the broken leg.
The mess I left back in the Hub—it's still got to be there. Time collapsing. The universe ending. The void must be advancing through the corridors and annihilating everyone in every time it touches. I can feel it approaching us. The pulses. The nothing. Melvin turns around like he's searching for something that's going to jump out at him. Even Simon winces like he can sense it.
But I know how to stop it.
I snatch the tickets out of Father's hand.
“Julia?” he asks.
I run over to our fireplace, knowing that I'm going to land myself in huge trouble...until the bad news arrives in April.
I turn to Melvin and Father and Simon, who watch me, unaware of what I'm about to do.
“You'll thank me later,” I say, and toss the four tickets into the flames.
The black pulses stop.
“Julia!” Father's voice is a roar and he lets his hands slap down to his knees. Father's jaw falls open into an O of horror. Simon's eyes get big and Melvin continues to stare, unaware of what's just happened. I love them. I love them enough to disappoint them and make then angry and possibly even make them hate me for the next couple of months. I love them enough to say goodbye to Nancy and Monica and Arnelia and even the brave, human Frank forever.
I love them and the world enough to sacrifice fifteen hundred lives.
The Titanic will still sink.
They will still change the lifeboat regulations once that happens.
Nancy's great-grandfather will survive the first world war, and with him, her. She will be a great mother to Monica.
Frank will never try to kill us. He will go Timeless all over again without us there to stop him, but I've done the best I could. I wish him luck in saving his brother.
The Civil War will end—or has already ended—the way it should.
The dictator Chalmers will never be born and Arnelia will never be eaten by nanobots. I can't help but wonder if she somehow remembers all of this, and how relieved she must be that her existence is preserved after all.
Time will never get so sick again. Or die.
The universe will continue to go on.
“What did you do that for?” Simon asks. He can't believe it. “Your father worked so hard to surprise you!”
This was the real solution we needed all along. This was all I had to do.
“Like I said,” I say, putting my hands up to shield me from their glares. I spot the crystal of the butterfly on the table. Melvin's going to grab it, like he always does with my things. “You'll thank me on the fifteenth of April. And after that, you'll marry me. We'll find another way to the States. Trust me. We're smart. This is not the hardest thing I've ever done. And after the two of you are furious with me, I have a lot to explain.” I pry the hair clip from Melvin's hands, which I'm shocked still even exists. I send a silent thanks to Arnelia. I have all the proof I need to make Simon and Father understand. “Sit down. It's a very long story.”
Epilogue
Isabel's heart flutters and she surveys the growing panic in the crowd around her. Her younger sister Agnes clutches her hand, afraid of being swept away in the sea of people. Her mother keeps her arm interlocked with her father's, still dressed in his black uniform. They're running. If they can't board the Gustloff in time, they'll be left here at the mercy of the advancing Red Army.
And the Red Army has none. They bombed people like them as they fled across the winter. Murdered them. Raped them. Everyone in this crowd knows. There are so many children here, so many mothers trying to get them to safety. It makes Isabel's stomach upset. People stampede up the gangplanks to the ship. It would be filled past capacity for the journey, but no one cared. Would they even get on? Her father searches around for an officer. He'll have to pull some strings. They have money. That always works.
Then he tells his mother to stay still as he vanishes into the crowd.
Isabel's sister starts to cry. Isabel tells her to stay calm and quiet, that they will be able to get on the ship after all. They might even get their own cabin. Their father will make sure of that.
"Excuse me."
A man speaks to them in bad German. Isabel turns to find a couple there, a middle-aged man with dark hair and a woman with red hair that's just beginning to grow out some gray. She's never seen them before. But the woman holds something tight in one hand, a beautiful hair ornament shaped like a glass butterfly. It's the first pretty thing Isabel has seen since fleeing home over a week ago. She can't help but look at it. A glance at her sister confirms that she is, too.
Then the woman approaches with the piece and hands it to her. The crowd thins just enough here so that Isabel can reach out and take it. Is this some kind of gift?
"Put this on," the woman says, also in bad German. But Isabel understands. She clips it on as her sister watches and feels it to make sure it's in place. What is she doing, anyway? These people could be the enemy for all she knows.
Or maybe they're just trying to get on the ship like everyone else and they know her father has some power. This is a bribe, nothing more.
She reaches up to make sure the clip is in place.
A monstrous headache races through her skull and she keels over as images, sounds, and sensations race through her being. Her sister calls her name and the pant legs of the man fill her vision.
Isabel understands.
The ache fades. She straightens up and catches her breath. Isabel seizes her sister's arm and faces the two people who aren't strangers after all. Her parents won't board the ship without them. She reaches up and takes off the hair clip that has just saved her family's lives.
"Come with us," Julia says. "We will take the two of you and your mother away from here."
THE END
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