by Jill Cooper
The voice comes from behind me and I spin around, alarmed. It’s Donovan and I can smell his aftershave before I’m able to focus on his face in the dark.
“Hey,” my voice isn’t natural. It strains.
“Thanks for meeting me. I know what you must be thinking.”
“It’s about Lara. Molly visited me tonight. She’s freaking out.” Donovan and I walk further into the alley until we’re under a spotlight and finally we can see each other again.
“Does she know? Am I right? Is this Lara…”
“An imposter.”
There’s shock in his eyes as they widen and contract. “Here I hoped I was wrong. Here I wanted her to be nothing but just her being….disturbed, freaked out. But the way she…” Donovan’s eyes tick back and forth and then he clears his throat. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. All that matters is what we do about it.”
I nod and I sink against the wall beside him. The heat from his body rises up onto mine and I ignore the ever-present urge to touch him, as if we meant something to each other once. We never did. Lara connects us, nothing more.
But it kills me inside.
“Molly say for now we have to play along. If we don’t, we might lose our Lara forever.”
“She can’t…she can’t just find her?”
I shake my head, afraid to repeat what Molly said word for word. Molly said pieces of Lara were missing and that’s how I felt when she was resetting the timeline. I grabbed Lara, desperate to keep her tettered to our timeline, but what if I failed? What if in that moment, Lara really did fail to exist and simply became the essence of time?
I can’t say any of that. I’m too afraid to go on in life without her.
“Not this time. This Lara is our only hope of finding her.”
Donovan sighs. “So I’m supposed to….act like she’s Lara. Pretend she’s my wife.”
“For all intents and purposes, she is Don.” I shake my head. “Donovan. Sorry.”
“It’s all right. No one blames you for whatever it is you’re feeling.” He puts his hand on my shoulder and I want to shrug it off, but I don’t because I like how it feels. I want him to touch me.
I just hate myself for it.
I stare up at him and for a moment, I feel like he’s thinking of kissing me. Then we pull apart and he shoves his hands in his pockets. “What’s the next move?”
“Molly is going to get with us tomorrow. You just do what you have to. Keep Lara happy.”
“She wants to visit her folks.”
Molly said that would happen. It scares me sometimes at how accurate she is. “Makes sense. Molly said she wants her family. It’s what she’s craving. So we give it to her. When Molly gives the signal, tomorrow we’ll move to grab her.”
“I don’t know how long I can keep this charade up, Cass. She might look like Lara, but she’s not in there. She’s lacking her spirit, her humanity. That’s not my girl anymore than…” Donovan’s face falls and he turns ghastly white. He was thinking of me, wasn’t he?
I hold up my hand. “Let’s just forget it and get back with each other tomorrow. Just be careful. Don’t let her see that you’re onto her.”
“Until tomorrow.” Donovan starts out of the alley and I watch him go. I’m too cold inside to do anything else.
Chapter Thirty-Six: Molly Montgomery
In the morning, I eat breakfast and get ready for the day. I pack my backpack like I’m going to school and stow my headphones inside with my homework. The text message I get from Cassidy says that Donovan is arriving soon with Lara. I glance out the window to see if Donovan and Lara have arrived, they haven’t. Nerves tingle up from my toes and I feel the vibration of the bridge portal opening behind me.
Cassidy’s steps into my room and she’s in one of her ‘I’m a police woman and on a mission outfits’. She looks formidable as ever and I swallow a rushed breath. She might be my granddaughter one day, but she scares me sometimes.
She glances up from the phone in her hand. “Anything yet?” She seems almost disinterested and I don’t think she gets how intimidating she can be with just how she glowers or changes her stance.
“Not yet. I need to get Mike out of here before Lara gets here. He can’t know what we’re up to. Just incase…I’ll be right back.”
Cassidy stows her phone in her back pocket. “How’s he doing?”
“Well, he isn’t evil yet if that’s what you mean. But I have to stay close to him. I worry that Rex will make a play for him at any minute. I need to keep him from this Lara”
Cassidy sighs and gives me eyes like she understands what I’m going through. “We’ll keep him safe. No matter what we have to do.”
I appreciate her words even if they sound too pat. I step out into the hall and knock on Mike’s door before I enter. “Hey, Mike…” He’s standing at the window with a wide stance and his head moves as if he was just talking to someone. I narrow my eyes as I step into the room.
Mike spins and gives me that playful smile. “Ready for school already?”
“Who were you just talking to?” I narrow my eyes and approach him.
“Nobody,” Mike slings his arm around my shoulder. “Come on, that bus isn’t going to wait forever, you know.”
I glance back at the window and see golden dust on the ledge. I don’t know why it sets my nerves on edge, but it does. My mind reaches back and pulls at something outside of the timelines and I stare at Mike.
“What are you getting yourself into?”
“Nothing,” Mike laughs. “You know I can’t hide a thing from you, Moll. I’m going to go downstairs, grab some fruit. Then we’ll head to the bus stop together, all right?”
I stare after him as he heads downstairs, I listen to the quickening of his footsteps and I see the pathways lay before him and the ones before me. There’s the quickening darkness and the rain. The bloody battles that lay between us as we are desperate to stop the other, the fabric of time ripping the further we go.
The timelines of friendship, bond, loyalty, they are starting to fade. Soon, they might not even be possible.
Oh Mike, no. Please, don’t make me choose.
I head back into my room and grab my bookbag and my sweater. Cassidy eyes me. “Going somewhere?”
I sigh. “We have a big problem. It’s about Mike. I think…I think I might be losing him. I can’t…I can’t lose him. Do you understand?”
Cassidy nods. I’m surprised as she takes my hands. “Do what you have to to save him. Whatever it is. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Lara and Donovan.”
I thank her with a hug. “She’ll head into the kitchen. Her head is swirling about being with Mom again. Seeing everyone happy and so well to do. She feels things she’s never felt. Grab her then. She’ll be most vulnerable.”
My words are so cold and callous. It scares me in a way that I could talk that way about anyone let alone a Lara. I have to separate myself from what’s going on if I’m ever going to see my sister again because right now, I can’t sense where she is.
It terrifies me more than being a little callous with a stranger pretending to be my sister.
I run down the stairs after Mike. “Wait up!”
He grins back at me and takes my hand. “Slowpoke.”
Mom kisses both our cheeks and behind them, John lurks close enough to say good-bye. I don’t really blame him for what’s happening to Mike, even as the bad feelings between them fester. Rex’s an opportunist and he would’ve used anything he could to sink his claws in Mike.
Mike should’ve been stronger.
He barely says bye to Mom or John and when he leaves, I chase after him as he runs down the street toward the bus stop. When I catch up to him, I slap his arm. “You could be nicer. Mom deserves nice things. She deserves to be happy.”
“With him? What about Dad? Why don’t you care about him anymore?” Mike crosses his arms and leans against the stonewall of the neighboring house.
“I care for him. H
e’s our Dad but that doesn’t mean Mom has to forgive him of what he did. Mom loves John. You ought to give him a fair shot. He’s our sister’s Dad.”
“He said you’d say these things. He said you’d take their side over mine.”
“Rex isn’t your friend. He locked Lara in a cage. He hurt her. He’s duping you, Mike. I need you to see and stand with me—.”
“I see things just fine.” Mike uncrosses his arms and steps closer. “He showed me what Lara did. How she manipulated time to fit what she wanted to have happen.”
“She’s not perfect, but she’s our sister. If she hadn’t done any of that, we wouldn’t even have been born.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have. You ever think of that? Maybe it’s time someone fixes it.”
I feel like I’ve been slapped. “Is that what Rex says he’s doing? Because it isn’t. I saw him and the adult version of you. They want only one thing. Power. They aren’t going to reset the timeline to what it was like before. They want more time travel, more money, more power to control everything.”
“And only Lara gets to decide and choose?”
It’s not working. He’s slipping even further away. “Mike…” my voice breaks off as the bus approaches. It comes to a rolling stop beside us and the door opens.
“This is how it happens. This is how we win or lives back. All this time travel back and forth has to stop and it stops with Lara gone.”
I feel as if my emotions drain right out of me. “What do you know about her? What did Rex do with our Lara?”
“What should’ve been done a long time ago, Moll. With her gone, Mom and John will fall apart. Dad will come back and all this time travel nonsense will end once Rex gets what he wants.”
I shake my head. “I can’t let him win. I have to save Lara.” The fact he would do this to our family, to our sister who has given up so much for us, makes me sick. Inside I rage. I want to hurt him, I want to claw at him, make him explain why. How could he feel this way?
“You won’t. You can’t.”
I press my lips together. “We can’t let Rex have what he wants because he wants Lara. She’s a person, not a thing.”
Mike shrugs. “Maybe she’s not anymore. Maybe she stopped being a person a long time ago.”
My mouth falls open and before I realize it, I slam both my palms into his chest, pushing Mike backwards. “You take that back!”
His face mirrors my own shock and surprise. “She means more to you than your own twin?”
“We grew up with her. She means as much to me as you do but she’s not the one changing before my eyes.”
“You can’t have us both. Not anymore, Moll.” There’s heartbreak in his eyes but I don’t understand it. He’s the one making me choose. He’s the one that won’t stand down.
“Just help me get her back. If you’ve been talking to Rex, you know where she is. Don’t make me do it on my own.”
He gives a short burst of laughter. “You won’t win. You’re not strong enough anymore. Not against me.” Mike raises his hands toward the approaching bus and the door closes, it slowly inches backward as he rewinds time and then he freezes it.
I glance between him and the bus. When did he get the power to do that?
“That’s not all I can do. I can do more and like you, puberty seemed to trigger it, but Rex helped me master it. Control it. Just like the girls did for you,” Mike says.
Rex has been training him? “How long?” I back up as Mike approaches me. I glance down and see that my foot balances on the edge of a pebble.
Mike shrugs. “Just about as long as they’ve been training you. My advantage is that no one notices me. You used to, but even that I stopped. You had too many important things to do. Well, you’re not the only one who’s important.”
“You know what Rex is. You know what he’s done. I need you to stand with me, Mike. Please.”
“That’s why you keep backing away? Because you need me?”
“You’re scaring me.”
My words finally seem to reach him. “You’re my sister. I don’t mean to scare you. I am fixing the future so the two of us can be happy. We don’t need to live in fear!”
“And you’re my brother. I need you on my side. I need you to help us. If we go to Lara and Cassidy, if we tell them what you can do, they’ll help you. They’ll protect you, too.”
“Because that’s going so well for them?” Mike shakes his head. “Lara couldn’t even protect herself.”
The way he talks about Lara breaks my heart. “You used to love her. You used to love me.”
“It’s not that simple,” Mike says sadly. “I wish it was.”
“It can be. We can show you. We can show—Mike!”
“Sorry, Moll. You can’t change my mind, but I wish I had been able to change yours.” He fixes his hand over my mouth and forces me backward toward the bus. I try to scream as he snaps his fingers and we disappear.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Donovan James
It’s like living a nightmare I can’t wake up from. I eat breakfast with Lara, I drive her to Boston to see her parents. She’s dressed in Lara’s clothes and she’s every bit the woman I married except she isn’t.
We go inside her mom’s townhouse. This is where I picked her up on her first date, where we stood outside and had our first kiss, all those moments that led to everlasting love. Except this isn’t her. This is another Lara, hugging her mother and nearly crying as she embraced her parents.
Miranda and John are clearly surprised by Lara’s outburst of emotion. “She’s just tired,” I explain away.
“Yeah, I’m sorry.” Lara gazes back at me grateful for the save. “I just feel like I haven’t seen you guys in so long.”
“We’re glad you came to check on us,” Miranda smiles. “Everything that happened, well I still can’t wrap my mind around it.”
“It’ll get easier,” Lara hugs her again. “I promise, Mom. No more time travel for me, ever.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” John says.
I watch Lara as she jumps at how stern he is. “I am serious, Dad.”
“Your mom is strong enough to handle the truth.”
“Am I?” Miranda asks. “I’m beginning to worry that I’m not strong enough to handle any of this. What I remember and what I saw…I know you’ve been through so much worse.” Miranda pinches Lara’s chin. “I don’t know how you manage to hold it together, pumpkin.”
Lara smiles at her and it’s pure. The most pure expression she’s worn since I’ve met this version of Lara.
John and Lara set the table for a quick breakfast. When I’m grabbing silverware from the baker’s rack, I see Cassidy lurking in the kitchen. She puts her finger to her lips so I’ll keep quiet.
I glance over at Lara. She’s cozying up to her mom and looks happy, content. The smile on her face stretches ear to ear. “Hey, Lar, want to help me in the kitchen? Give your poor mom a chance to relax.”
She glances at me from her place at the table. “Can’t you grab whatever it is, honey?” It sounds so fake coming out of her mouth. It’s not something that Lara would ever say.
“Nah, my hands are full. I’m going to need help.” I smirk as I put the forks on the table.
Lara sighs and heads over. “Excuse me for a minute, Mom. Dad.” Lara follows me into the kitchen smiling through a clenched jaw and throw angry darts with her eyes.. “What is so urgent that you need me to help you, honey?”
She pushes through the swinging door into the kitchen. Cassidy steps out from her hiding place and places a chlorafoam drenched rag over Lara’s mouth. She fits back, clawing at Cassidy, her eyes wide. It hurts too much to see any version of Lara scared and struggling. I look away and only look back when the sounds of the struggle fade.
Lara’s arms are limp by her side and her head is back like a rag doll. Cassidy hoists her up easily and open the portal to the bridge. “You coming?”
I glance back at the kitchen door. On
the other side, Miranda and John expect us to be back any moment. If we disappear, things will be hard for them. They’ll both panic. I should stay, be the good son-in-law and explain.
But this is Lara’s life and if that means disappearing for a little while to find my wife, that’s exactly what I need to do.
I step through the portal without another word.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Molly Montgomery
We disappeared into black nothing. I’m mere consciousness as light rushes toward us. A moment later, setting snaps into place. I slam hard into black tile floor and we skid along until I bang into a plexi-glass cage. With a gasp of breath, I glance back. I assume Lara, my Lara, will be in that cage, but it’s empty. It holds nothing but a chair with restraints fastened to it.
It’s waiting for someone and I fear that person is me.
Mike slams into me a moment later. “Well, I guess that landing could’ve been better.”
I don’t know how he can joke. I push myself up to my knees and step back, away from him and into the center of the room. Taking it all in, I take a mental inventory of where I am. It’s a giant control room with black walls and center consoles. Behind it, is a viewing screen. There’s no earth, no space, but gold dust whizzing by at a frantic speed.
It’s just like the bridge that Lara accidentally created when she destroyed Xaiver Daniels time corridor in the future. A duplicate except it’s dark, but where did it come from?
Future Mike manifests before my eyes in mid-stride. “I’ll explain it all to you, dear Molly.”
I look between him and Mike. My twin looks proud and puffs out his chest as he takes a breath and holds it. In that moment, I can’t stand either of them and I want nothing more than to get away and escape. Find Lara and Cassidy and end this.
“Cat got your tongue?” Future Mike says with a sly smile. “I made this place. I know you’re wondering.” He taps his temple. “Just by thinking about it. Manifesting it in the time stream. Lara and Cassidy may be able to change it, you may be able to detect it, but I control it and everything inside of it.”
