by Dale Mayer
You don’t need to do anything. Except remain calm.
Calm. That so wasn’t easy. “Okay. I’m calm. Go ahead.”
We need you to empty your mind. Just relax.
Empty my mind? How is that possible? she replied mentally, not wanting to worry Eric.
It will be easier for you if you are not trying to follow the process consciously.
Easier how?
There won’t be a headache.
As soon as he mentioned the word, pain struck her on the back of the neck. She collapsed to her knees and held her head in her hands. “Ohhh,” she moaned. “My head. It feels like it’s going to explode.”
Eric dropped beside her. He held her close. “Is this from the transfer?”
She writhed in place as the headache built higher, pounded louder, heavier.
She buried her face against Eric’s shoulder shuddering in pain. “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I think so.”
“Jesus.” He leaned his cheek on the top of her head. “How long will this take?”
“No idea.” Then she couldn’t speak at all. A small cry escaped her lips. The pressure built and built until she couldn’t stand to be touched. She fell back, away from Eric. “Don’t…”
“Storey,” he came closer, his hands out in front of him. “Please, tell me. What can I do to help?”
“Don’t touch. My nerves. Sensitized.” She gasped loudly. “So much pain.”
“How long? Stylus? How much longer?” Eric shouted. “It’s too much. She can’t take this.”
She groaned and swayed back and forth still on her knees. “Oh my God. It’s getting worse.”
She collapsed to the ground and curled into a tight fetal position.
***
Eric had never felt so helpless. He reached out to touch Storey, then let his hands drop away. If he couldn’t help her and couldn’t talk to the stylus through her, he still had Paxton. He lifted his codex and sent a message to Paxton, first checking to see about Dillon, then checking to see if he could get answers on Storey.
The wait for a response seemed interminable. When it came, he jumped to read the message. No idea on Dillon. According to the coordinates, he has arrived. There is mass there. I can see it on the monitor.
“Well, thank heavens for something.”
His codex flashed again. The transfer is in progress.
“It’s killing Storey,” he responded to the empty air. “She’s in terrible pain.” There was no point in telling Paxton that. Neither of them could do anything to help. But he might know how long this was going to take. At least it was worth asking. But Paxton’s response was no help. He had no idea.
“Damn.”
Right about now, it would help to communicate with a stylus himself. He asked Paxton to check with his stylus.
Paxton wrote back: I can’t communicate with my stylus at this moment. They need everyone right now for this transfer. I don’t understand it, but there is a horrific hum to the air.
So it was a group effort.
According to Storey’s stylus, they were trying to save a revered leader. Eric had no idea how they could have a leader amongst them. The thought that they could gather together, have a hierarchy, a society of styluses, really blew his mind.
He knew Storey would tell him off for denying them a community. And there was no doubt that’s what they’d built.
Who’d have thought?
Just then Storey gave a high pitched squeal. Her head was thrown back on her neck into a rigid, backward arch. Her mouth opened and she screamed again. A long, painful wailing.
And then she fell silent. And still.
Storey slowly came awake. She lifted her lids ever so slightly and realized that much hadn’t changed. She was still in In-between, caught in the never ending mist. She slammed her eyes shut again. So what was different? She considered it slowly. Inside was different. Her breath still went in and out in a relaxed rhythm. Her temperature appeared normal. She couldn’t feel pain anymore, so that was good. Whatever had been tearing her skull in two was gone. She rolled her head to one side experimentally. That worked well. Hesitantly, she lifted her head to look around.
Eric was crouched in front of her, worry lines marring his face.
“How do you feel now?”
She opened her mouth. No words came out. She tried again. Nothing. She frowned. Why did she have no voice? She coughed and heard the hoarse sounds coming from a long ways off. So her vocal cords worked. She tried again. “Aggh.” She waggled her tongue inside her mouth. It felt larger, thicker than normal. Filling her mouth unnaturally full. Odd.
“Storey? You’re scaring me.” Such concern, caring, poured from his gaze. As if by his emotion alone he could fix whatever was wrong.
She managed a weak smile. “I’m…here.” That sounded better. Maybe she just needed a little more recovery time. She tried to sit up, managing to get her arm under her to prop herself up. Her arm gave way and she collapsed.
“Here, let me help.” Eric grasped her under the arms and helped her to a sitting position. “Is that better?”
She nodded.
“You’re having trouble talking?” Eric stared down into her eyes. She brightened and nodded.
A brush of relief whispered across his face. “Okay. What about the rest? Can you take a moment and check out the rest of you? Can you move? Think on your own? Is the Broken One in there with you?
“Yes.”
Storey’s eyes opened so wide they hurt. She stared at Eric.
That hadn’t been her voice.
That had been a man’s voice.
Oh no.
She swallowed heavily.
“Storey? Was that you?” Eric leaned back and stared. “Or was that the Broken One speaking?”
“Yes.”
Eric lifted a brow. “Yes, what?”
“The Broken One speaks.”
Storey shuddered. God what a feeling. Her vocal cords rippled, her mouth moved, only she wasn’t the one moving them. She wasn’t the one in control. The Broken One had control.
Stylus!
Yes.
What is going on? she asked. The Broken One is speaking using my body. You didn’t say he would be able to control my body while he was in me.
I did not know it would happen.
Well it did, she snapped. Now I need to move him from me to you. I can’t function like this.
There is some rest time required. This first move took much energy.
Then recharge. Fast.
It takes time. We are damaged.
She wanted to scream at that last phrase. I know you are damaged. That’s why we are doing this. But I am struggling here. How do I regain control?
You never lost it. He is a visitor only.
And she, like a good host, had stepped aside. So he hadn’t taken control – she’d handed it over. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, softly in a long, meditative, drawn out sigh, releasing the old, dead air from her lungs.
As the last of the air exhaled, she smiled, feeling tension she hadn’t been aware of drifting from her body. She felt…wonderful.
And peaceful.
Complete.
And that last thought scared the crap out of her.
Stylus…what is happening? I’m getting a little nervous here.
You have joined…us. Bonded to us all. Your soul knows it. Craves it, and now has that sense of belonging. You are one of us.
As the wonder and the shock of this revelation penetrated her confusion, she became aware of yet something else strange. A pain, running down the side of her neck and across her collarbone and back down her shoulder blade. She wanted to rub it, but at the same time it had a heat to it that made her pause. Even as her attention centered on the pain, it drifted away. As if her awareness of its existence was enough to remove it.
So not possible, but she wished it were.
It is.
She froze. That was the Broken One
speaking – she thought. Hard to tell, as his mental voice was different than when he’d spoken from his previous location from inside the stylus.
It is I.
She nodded her head slowly, gaining confidence that the pain really was gone. Are you saying I will be able to heal myself now? That’s not possible – is it?
None of this should be possible, but apparently she’d been wrong about that, too. She had the Broken One inside her physical body and if that didn’t top the weirdness factor then she didn’t want to know what did.
It is possible. To a point.
That’s good to know, she said. At least I’m going to have some benefits while you are visiting.
There are many.
That peaked her curiosity. Like what?
You have access to my knowledge. As I have access to yours.
Her eyebrows shot up at that. Really? She couldn’t resist peeking. She found his memories, like a vast room behind a door in her mind, and cast her thoughts back to the Broken One’s earliest memories as a young boy. She’d thought he was male, but hadn’t known for sure. She wondered if any female souls had been bonded to styluses.
The answer came immediately to her from…somewhere inside. No. Only males were allowed to bond.
That was hardly fair.
The Broken One said, It has been that way, always. The Torans don’t have females in power positions. They wouldn’t allow Louers to have them either.
Right. That made sense. She didn’t like it, but it was logical. Women had some power in her world, but—
Not in all areas. I see much of your dimension is split on that issue.
She sighed. Yes that is true. In many parts of the world, women are considered property and nothing more.
There are many problems in your dimension.
She knew it couldn’t be physical, but she felt a spidery, crawling sensation as the Broken One accessed her memories. She couldn’t blame him. He was big on knowledge and she’d opened that door herself. There was such a duality to the moment. She had access to great knowledge, but there was also a hesitation to share her own. It was…private.
She almost laughed. Nothing would be private any more. The Broken One could see and experience everything in her life. As she could his. It wasn’t intrusive, or jarring, just…odd? Maybe. She didn’t know how to express it.
While she floundered to name her cascading feelings, a familiar face loomed close to her. Eric. She smiled. “Hey. I’m okay.”
“You don’t look it.”
If his expression was anything to go by, she must look awful. His brows had pulled together into a dark vee and the angles of his face had hardened with worry. Even his lips were pressed firmly together. And the color, she didn’t know if it was the foggy atmosphere, but his skin had taken on a gray pallor. Had she scared him that badly?
He snatched her up and hugged her tight.
She burrowed deeper into his arms. “Sorry,” she murmured. “This is all so strange.”
“Is that what you call it?” His attempt at humor fell flat. “Honestly, this is painful for me. I can’t do anything, but watch.” He squeezed her, then settled back a bit and stroked her back. He sighed, a deep welling release that she felt in her own body.
“I’m so sorry. This isn’t how I’d planned to escape In-between.”
He gave a gurgling laugh. She reared back to look at him. Was he crying? No. More of a choking laugh.
“I’m glad you had a plan. It would have helped to be filled in on it.” He smiled. “Only you could call this mess a plan.”
She moaned. “I know. I so have to work on that.”
He smiled down at her. “You are one crazy girl. Now…do you have any idea what’s next? I know I keep pushing the idea of leaving here, but I really want to go home.”
“The styluses said that they need to recuperate from transferring the Broken One to me.”
He peered down at her. “How long?”
She frowned. “I have no idea.”
He closed his eyes and dropped his head. “Right. More waiting. And in this case, it could be a long time.”
The Broken One spoke through Storey. “We can move now. The bond between you and your stylus is strong. We still need to wait for our power to regenerate for the next step, but we can do that in another dimension.”
Storey brightened. Really?
“Yes.”
Eric hopped to his feet, and carefully tugged Storey upwards. “Good. Let’s go. I vote to go back to my dimension.”
The Broken One spoke again, “That is not possible.”
Eric froze. “And why is that?”
“In order to leave this dimension, Storey has to feel a strong bond to somewhere. Her bond to your dimension is tainted by your father. It would be hard to use that energy to successfully port home. However, she has a strong bond to her dimension that we could, possibly, build on.”
That made sense and for all that she was sorry, the Broken One’s assessment of Eric’s dimension was true. She did have a negative feeling about that place and all because of the Councilman. Not a fair attitude and one she’d get over, but since her current predicament was because of him…
“Why can’t we just port out?” Eric asked. “Now that you are here and functioning, and we have the coordinates of this place – point of origin – so to speak, why can’t we just leave? Dillon did.”
Storey wanted to hear that answer herself.
“Dillon didn’t port out. Dillon’s soul ported out.”
Oh shit.
***
Eric’s stomach heaved. Would this never be over? Whatever happened to an honest battle? He could handle that. Death, under those circumstances, was also understandable. He’d always known that every time he left his dimension in his capacity as a Ranger, he might never return.
This half world where neither life nor death existed was painful. He wanted to hit out at something and he couldn’t even get into a decent argument with the stylus as it was ultimately Storey he’d be arguing with and that wouldn’t work. He wanted to protect her – not hurt her.
And what he really wanted was to get them both out of this hell hole. This stylus deal had become so much bigger. What they’d just done with the Broken One…well, he couldn’t begin to explain. But he’d kept the broken stylus just in case they’d need it down the road. As he’d come to realize, nothing was ever finished.
“What do we need to get out of here once and for all? Intact. As in our bodies leaving with us.”
Storey rolled her eyes at him. A quirky grin spread across her face. A lightness that only happened when she was around swelled inside. She could do that to him. Only her. Make a dark day lighter, sweeter. Just by being there. There was a special connection he always felt around her. A sense that it was just the two of them. That they were aligned against the rest of the world.
He relaxed. “I’m not trying to be pushy here. But I want a solution that keeps us alive and well, thank you.”
At that Storey laughed. “Me too.”
“Broken One?” he asked. “Have you a way out of this dimension?”
“We think so.”
Storey lifted a brow as her mouth moved, but a different voice spoke.
Eric shook his head. It was so weird for him to see her, but hear the Broken One. That the stylus’s voice was rougher, raspier, helped him to identify the speaker, but he couldn’t imagine how Storey felt to have another soul inside using her vocal cords, her body.
“And what is that?”
Eric waited, hoping that the answer would be easy. He’d had enough of these puzzles that only seemed to embroil them all further.
“We need to have a strong energy connection that would allow us to build a portal to the other side. Storey’s ability to draw would be instrumental in this. But she needs to feel very strongly about something in order for that energy, that caring, to be powerful enough for us to utilize the energy to power the process.”
“Li
ke my mother!” Storey laughed. “I so want to see her again. To be home again.”
“Yes, that was our impression.”
Eric waited, there was a ‘but’…in there somewhere.
An uncomfortable silence filled the fog.
