Mr. Hartley (Alternate Places Book 1)

by P. S. Power

  “First, you're as important as anyone else here. Probably more important than me really, so you don't have to defer to me or ask my permission to do anything. Just do it. Ask if you really aren't certain, or want my opinion, but don't let anyone boss you around. You aren't a servant here, so don't act like one. Some of the people that have been around here have strong personalities and can be overwhelming, so stand up for yourself. I'll stand up for you too, of course, so don't worry about that. Hilda will too, I bet. Now, go to the kitchen, or stay here, or do something else entirely if you like. As it pleases you.” He squeezed her hand very gently, and let go so she could get up.

  Her eye's teared slightly, and she ran quickly to the kitchen. In hushed tones she told Hilda what he'd just said. Her glowing Shadow self beamed so brightly he could make it out clearly through the wall. He heard Hilda, who was putting cans in cupboards, agree with what had been said calmly. To her that just made sense, after all.

  Valerie returned a little over an hour later with Master Wu-Li in tow. He checked Zack's eyes, pulse, and back. He pulled out some more paper packets and handed them to Hilda when she came in. They each had written instructions on the paper. Merri stayed out of sight, Zack noticed.

  The Master pronounced that Zack should sleep that night and pointed to one of the packets, which held a sleeping herb mix.

  “It smells bad, and tastes worse, but will let you sleep even if you're discomfited. It's a western herb. Valerian. It works well, though.” He went over the instructions with Hilda carefully, as she currently seemed in charge of such things.

  Then the Master asked Zack if he felt up to trying something, which would hurt, but might help him heal faster, if he could do it correctly. Standing in front of him the Master moved his hands, describing as he did, the circulation of qi.

  “There are large and small circulations, that run into, through, and out of the body, as well as small circles within the field, like this.” As the master spoke, he moved his Shadow self in time with his words, circulating it through his physical body, out and into the ground, then in through his head as this energy circled around.

  He did this in time with his breathing. It didn't look too hard, it was just manipulating his Shadow really, so Zack gave it a try, awkwardly and while seated. Pain stabbed into his chest and back, but he managed to copy the older man well enough he thought.

  Wu-Li appraised his efforts and offered gentle, but specific suggestions, having him draw in his Shadow in some places, speeding flow in others.

  “Widen the flow as it moves into the Earth... good! Now as you inhale, let the flow come back around, not too fast. Into the top of your head again... Don't forget the micro circulation in the mouth...” They kept this up for an hour, then two.

  Valerie moved into the kitchen, where Zack heard soft talking. The Master gently chided him, saying he needed to pay attention to what he tried to do, not the ladies in the other room. His tone held a very serious edge.

  After four hours, Claire returned and watched for a few minutes, then joined the ladies in the kitchen. They were obviously going to be more interesting, so Zack didn't blame her at all on that one. Valerie, Claire and, to his surprise Merri, all left. The Master snapped at him lightly. “Attention!”

  At six hours he relented.

  “If you can do this often, and keep the level of focus as high as possible, you'll heal much, much faster. Try moving a bit now.”

  Zack stretch out his right arm first. His back felt tight, but there didn't seem to be any real pain. The same for the left. He stood carefully and found he could walk. When he tried to bend forward, his chest hurt sharply, but all in all he seemed much better.

  Wu-Li explained that by doing the exercise, qi-gong, which just meant energy work, he'd increased his vitality, his life energy, itself. By doing this as often as possible, he'd increase in power and strength. With enough practice he'd eventually learn to do it all the time without really thinking about it.

  “That, of course, takes time to learn, but it's fundamental to what our agreement requires Dan and I to try and teach you. I have to say, you're surprisingly good at it so far. Most impressive.”

  Zack examined the Master's Shadow and saw that, indeed, softly and lightly, the man still continued to do this, even as he moved and spoke. He decided that he would try to do the same and restarted the exercise.

  Hilda brought food then and ordered him to eat. She smiled but it was still slightly gruff in tone, telling him that there was no other choice on the menu. He didn't feel hungry, a side effect of the of the energy work, Wu-Li told him. Food, and the energy contained within it could only speed healing, if he could make himself eat, the Master added. Hilda beamed at the older man and offered him dinner as well.

  After he ate enough to satisfy both of his keepers, trying to keep his Shadow self, also his qi, he guessed they were at least partly the same thing, circulating as shown he was given two cups to drink. The first was the same grass tasting beverage he'd grown used to. The second was the sleep draft, which did indeed taste horrible, a bit like how unwashed feet smelled. Nasty unwashed feet. He didn't complain, making a point to just drink it. If it was that bad to him, he figured, it must be a lot worse for Hilda to be around with her hyper keen sense of smell. If she didn't complain, how could he?

  About that time everyone came in at once. Including Lisa.

  "Hey... How do you feel?"

  Zack closed his eyes for a second then tilted his head from side to side for a bit. "Better actually. I should be back at work soon. I'll try to hurry things up, healing wise. It wouldn't pay for me to get lazy."

  She waved that away like he was being silly, and shook her head.

  "Nonsense. Take as long as you want. I can handle things myself."

  He redoubled his effort to increase the circulation of energy, hoping that really would speed healing enough so that he wouldn't stay a burden to everyone else for too long. After a single day, being a quasi invalid had already grown stale and old.

  He moved to stand, sleepy and reeling a little, but smoothly enough no one dove to catch him. Claire looked slightly amazed, and said something he didn't catch to Wu-Li who answered her in a few sentences. Valerie walked up to him and gave him a hug, which, though he feared it might, didn't hurt.

  She let go suddenly and stepped back, sex flaring from within her. She excused herself, seeming embarrassed, almost running from the living room into the kitchen.

  Claire hugged him as well. “Oh, yes, I can see how that might do it. You're filled with life right now, more than three would have normally, I think.” She kept holding him, until the others started making small noises. “Oh! Sorry.”

  She grinned and let go.

  Her Shadow self looked at him hungrily. Making little noises that seemed to indicate something delicious might be in the offing.

  Hilda moved in next, a quick hug. She just shrugged and said goodnight. There were no funny reactions from her.

  Merri looked like she wanted a hug too, so he put his arms out, his mind growing tired and too fuzzy to think about the fact he had only known her for a few hours.

  Lisa just smiled, kindly enough, and told him goodnight.

  He tried to keep the energy flowing properly, even as he drifted to sleep. Regardless once the head hit the pillow he drifted off almost immediately.

  Sleep that night held a strange quality. He simply laid there, keeping his qi flowing, or at least trying to, knowing he slept, but unable to move very much. Dreams came eventually, and the large beings, mainly men he knew, though some other things too, came to make him do things. Or do things to him. He felt fear, but he knew that he dreamed this time, so he turned on them and fought. Or tried to fight. They overpowered him, and started to rape him, when a shining light suddenly cast through the darkness of the dream.

  A small woman with glowing armor made of light with a sword nearly as big as she was, entered the fight. She said nothing, just hacked and slashed her way through
the men. Moments later a giant hairy being joined her in battle. A club the size of a sapling in her hand.

  He got to his feet and started fighting again himself. Punching and kicking without great effect, but with a lot of vigor. They did this until the others were all gone.

  The women smiled and left him.

  In the darkness between dreams he kept making an effort to circulate energy. In this part of sleep his time in the void became sparkling clear to him. Awake, but knowing he slept, in the dark endless void of his own thoughts. He'd lose track of it, the circulation pattern, every now and then, but could always pick it back up again.

  Dreams came repeating what had happened before. This time, taking a clue from the last set, when the giant men came for him, he summoned a sword. A tiny thing, about as long as his arm. It was dull metallic silver, not shining at all, but sharp enough for the job. After the first attacker fell, the others ran away. Being cowards that had to prey on children, they couldn't stand an adult fighting back, it seemed.

  This pattern happened over and over again.

  Until, finally, he woke.

  Chapter eighteen

  When he woke, he found movement had almost fully returned. Other than the tiniest bit of tenderness, even his back felt fine. Full, deep breaths came without trouble, too. It felt really nice to be able to breathe again. Apparently the energy work had really paid off. He decided to try and keep it up. Maybe he could learn to do it all the time like Wu-Li did.

  Zack did the morning things like always. Showered, cleaned and shaved. In the mirror his image smiled at him and waved, pointing out the new energy flows around him. The image seemed happy about it, so Zack smiled back and waved.

  The image had been pretty cooperative lately. Maybe, now that he knew he wasn't crazy, or at least not only crazy, his own inner self had begun to relax a bit. Then again, he didn't know if the image had anything to do with that kind of thing.

  Walking out into the living room, he found it missing.

  Well, the walls and ceiling were indeed still there, but everything else had changed. The floor, which had been ratty, rather ugly wall to wall carpet had been replaced with hard wood, that fairly gleamed where it hadn't been covered with a large throw rug that took up the center of the room. The old sofa didn't sit in its spot, a new one had taken its place. Actually, the room was now ringed in sofas that wrapped around the whole far end. The wrap around kind that looked like one giant sofa, even though this one had three – no, four – parts. Two large, comfy looking chairs sat in the open area, turning the room into a box of sitting. Off to one side a television sat in a hutch, which meant you could only see it from half the sofa and neither of the chairs, unless they could be turned to face it. It wasn't even the old set they'd been using, gotten from the Goodwill a long time before, but something new. Larger, with a flat screen. Really large. Not that he cared that much about television. Since he had to focus on ignoring it so hard in order to watch it, he generally just did other things.

  Art hung on the walls. It seemed a little eclectic, but it all spoke of quality. There was a mask on the wall, away from the front door, that had a decidedly non-Human feel about it. A coffee table sat in the center of the throw rug with some kind of sculpture on it. A bear about the size of a large food can that seemed to be made out of some kind of melted metal. It stood on a metal base that had been arranged to look like wood, even showing the grain pattern that should have been there.

  He couldn't tell for sure, but it seemed like the walls might have been painted as well. No smell of fresh paint came though, so maybe not.

  Merri came out of the kitchen. “Do you like it? We all worked all night on it. I thought we'd wake you for certain! The workmen tramped in like cows – mainly Claire's kind of person, so they quieted once she asked them to. Did you know that past that door,” she pointed to the basement door, “there's a stairway to a whole extra level to the house? We're doing that next. I heard you getting up, so I put on some oats for breakfast. I... hope that's fine?”

  He carefully didn't thank her, though he did express his amazement. Everyone had done incredible things while he had slept. It made him feel a little lazy.

  Zack looked at the clock and found, to his pleasure that he had time to eat and get to work without being late. Though he didn't think Lisa would expect him to open that day. It would be good to take some time and plan out the new window display and maybe come up with something to do about the shelves. They still looked a little too much like racks of candles to him. They were, of course, but that could be presented better.

  Hilda came up from the basement followed by Valerie, Claire, and Betty. All wore work clothes of one kind or another. Claire and Betty in painter's jump suits, Val in blue jeans and an old looking t-shirt. He realized that he'd never seen Claire or Valerie in anything except skirts or dresses before. Betty had worn jeans the other day when cleaning the kitchen, he remembered. He'd often seen Hilda in sweats of course, given her job.

  “We sent Troy for donuts. Hilda and Val can eat them and, Merri, you can too, right?” Claire asked, looking at the small woman who stirred a pot on the stove.

  She turned, brandishing her spoon mockingly like a weapon.

  “I could, but that's not a proper breakfast, and while I understood the need to get rid of young Troy for a while, we won't be doing this regularly.” She grinned and turned back to the stove quickly.

  “Zack, we need to know what you intend to do with Troy,” the Vampire said baldly. “If he's staying, he needs to know at least part of what's going on. If he's going, we do him no kindness keeping him while we change everything.”

  He thought for a few moments. Then shrugged.

  “Why don't we just ask what he wants? He's my friend and carried me for months through hard times, I don't know if anyone realizes how much he did for me. I literally would have been living on the streets if not for him. I don't think he should have to go. He deserves anything good I can give him.” As far as he could see, that's all that would be needed, though Claire remained unconvinced.

  Troy came in a bit later with two dozen donuts. Hilda descended upon him. He laughed as she took the boxes from him and called out, “Save me a jelly filled!” as she disappeared into the kitchen with them.

  Zack turned to Troy and looked at him frankly.

  “Um, Troy...”

  The other man looked back, a bemused grin on his face. “Am I being kicked out?” He asked with good humor. “I mean, I get it, you suddenly have all these hot women in your life and while I don't know where they all came from, I wouldn't want me around getting in the way either...”

  Zack shook his head. “Nah, that's not it. Everyone likes you here. Plus, you know, your name's on the lease, so I couldn't kick you out anyway. No, it's just that I wanted to tell you some stuff. We'll prove it later, if you want, but it's the truth. Do you want to hear it?”

  On the Shadow level Zack explained what would be coming as carefully as possible, making sure he sounded happy and friendly the whole time, reminding Troy that he should stay relaxed and accepting if he could. Especially since everyone here felt him to be a friend, after all. Merri looked at this and nodded approval. The Shadows of the others went on alert, ready for a negative reaction from the man.

  Zack covered a thumbnail of everything, starting with his famous shortcuts. Troy knew that those were odd, and that Zack did things that didn't always make sense, at least not to him. Then Zack covered the rest of the story in about twenty minutes. Everyone else adding bits and pieces as he went.

  “Hm. Well... That explains the girl with blood on her mouth last week at the club in the alley when I took the trash out. It makes sense, I guess.” Troy accepted it all easily, mainly due to the Shadow prompting, Zack supposed. Then again, Troy had always accepted science fiction and fantasy stuff easily on the deeper level, maybe that had conditioned him to accept this as well?

  Claire quizzed him on who this girl with the blood had been. What sh
e looked like, if he'd recognized her from anywhere before, and finally decided it had been Nikki.

  “Well, it looks like someone's going to be in trouble. I'll have a chat with her about this. Thank you, Troy.”

  Just before nine, Zack suggested they'd better get going.

  Everyone looked at him, baffled.

  Valerie gave him a baffled look, “You're injured, should you be going to work?”

  Zack did some twists and turns, showing he had returned movement and didn't hurt any more. He explained about the energy exercises Wu-Li had taught him and how he'd done them in his sleep most of the night, or tried to.

  “Apparently it works.” He shrugged.

  Claire watched Troy carefully and asked if this would last on the Shadow level. Zack honestly didn't know. Probably though, since they'd told the truth and none of it should hurt or scare him. They needed to keep an eye out though, to make certain he adjusted well.

  Betty apparently would be staying there all day, to let some delivery people in and keep working.

  As they started out the door, Merri stopped him, a hand on his arm.

  “Please, if it's all right... could I... keep working at the restaurant? At least for a time? It makes it harder on my brother if he must run both the front and the back alone...” Her body language became demure, almost frightened.

  “Sure! Why wouldn't you? As long as you want to work there I mean?” Her look seemed like sunshine coming through clouds after a brief moment of hesitation. As if 'letting' her work felt like a gift or treat.

  He took Claire and Valerie through one at a time, but Hilda and Merri just held hands letting themselves both be pulled through at once.

  “My, that is faster than driving, isn't it?” Claire looked around, a bit amazed, even though she'd done it before. Merri oddly seemed to simply accept that this kind of thing happened around her new husband and began walking briskly to work.

  He and Claire had the first stops from that entrance. Merri touched his arm in parting, Hilda gave him a light one arm around the shoulder squeeze, her inner self telling him that she didn't want to accidentally hurt him, in case he hid the extent of his injuries from them. That was what the strong sometimes did, after all. Valerie reached out a little longingly, but didn't touch him. Claire just raised her eyebrows at him slightly and grinned.