by Julie Sykes
Magnetic energy. The wormhole was surrounded by it. At once everything fell into place. It was why I felt so bad, why Johnny had blamed me for messing with his head. We were both suffering from the effects of magnetic energy. The verbole had to be very close. I stopped and stared around, searching for… for what? I didn’t know what I was looking for. A hole, I guess. A big one if people could travel through it. But there my imagination stopped. Through the fog in my brain a voice struggled to make itself heard. Johnny didn’t know about Pietra. He mustn’t find out about it.
‘Move it.’
The cool metal of the gun soothed the ache in my head, but I hated the way Johnny was leaning on me. He was also very heavy.
‘Careful,’ I said as I felt my knees buckle.
‘Move,’ Johnny slurred. He grabbed my hair and dragged me along by it. My scalp was on fire but the pain sharpened my senses. I had to get a memory patch on him. I had an applicator. Nardo had given me one. I slid my hand into my pocket and located it with my fingers. It didn’t repulse me like it had earlier. With a gun to my head it felt like I was holding the hand of a trusted friend.
‘Now what are you up to?’ Johnny let go of my hair and snatched savagely at my arm. As he pulled my hand out of my pocket I only just managed to let go of the applicator. It dropped back into my pocket. Johnny pinned both arms to my sides and held me in a bear hug. I could barely move, so I brought my head back and smashed it against his chin. At the same time I stamped on his foot.
‘You bitch! You nearly broke my nose.’ He squeezed me until I couldn’t breathe. ‘Do that again and I’ll shoot,’ he snarled.
I laughed. ‘Go on, then. I’ll be really useful to you dead.’
Johnny snorted with anger, then yanked my arm up my back. His grip was solid. I whimpered in pain.
‘Shut up.’ He lurched and dragged me forward with him. I lashed out with my foot and kicked his kneecap.
‘Stop it, bitch.’ His fingers bit into my arms. He stumbled on, pulling me with him. The ground grew steeper, but it didn’t slow him down. In my confused state it took me a while to realise that Johnny couldn’t have stopped even if he’d wanted to. An unseen force had taken hold of both of us. It was like being caught up in a tornado. My hair whirled over my face and blinded me in a haze of chestnut. Another step and the ground suddenly disappeared. As Johnny and I fell, dropping like stones in a well, the temperature plummeted. The light was instantly devoured by a darkness even deeper than black. Stupid thoughts crossed my mind. I was glad I’d fallen feet first. If I’d eaten I’d be throwing up by now. Why couldn’t it be Dan’s arms around me instead of Johnny’s?
Dan. I could see him clearly. Those blue eyes that crinkled when he laughed. The cute way he’d raise an eyebrow. His hair, tousled even when he’d just combed it. I saw his long fingers dancing on the sax keys, while his body swayed in time with the music. I felt his tanned arm pressing against me when we sailed together. His soft lips as they’d brushed mine when he’d tried to kiss me. Heat flooded my face. For all the things I could have regretted, there was only one I was truly sorry for.
I’d turned away when he’d kissed me.
Twenty-one
We had to be travelling through the wormhole. I must have done it before but I was terrified. My thoughts tumbled with me, black and empty as the void I was spinning through. I didn’t want to go back to Pietra yet. I definitely didn’t want to arrive there with Johnny’s arms wrapped around me, like we were an item. I tried to shake him off but it was impossible. A force was squeezing the life out of me. It rendered me immobile and I couldn’t even blink. My eyes were fixed in a wide-open state, like a doll with a scary painted face. I completely lost all sense of direction. Up, down, who cared? It was too black to see anyway. Time passed, seconds, minutes, hours, I really didn’t know. The journey seemed endless.
At some point I sensed we were slowing. A while later tendrils of light snaked towards us. They grew slowly stronger until suddenly we burst from absolute black into a dazzling bright light. We flew into the light, then slammed into the ground. Johnny’s arms went limp, setting me free. I rolled away from him, gasping for breath. The air had gone and my lungs were stuck together. There was a gurgling sound, my chest burned, and the air rushed in again. I lay on my back and looked up at the sky. Too bright! Wincing, I shielded my eyes with a hand. It felt like I’d been wearing sunglasses and they’d suddenly been ripped away. I wanted to stay here until the world stopped spinning, but instinct screamed at me to move. I sat up carefully and looked about. I was on the side of a mountain. At first glance it was almost identical to the one I’d come from. But when I looked at it more closely I could see it wasn’t the same. If Pietra was a photo then Earth was a smudged copy. Everything here was sharper and brighter. There was something else too. A fantastic feeling that welled up inside me. I couldn’t explain it so I stayed where I was and just enjoyed it. There was a building in the distance. It hugged the lower slopes of the mountain as if it was a part of the very landscape. A picture dropped into my head. I saw a wide, tree-lined street with houses on either side. The houses were unlike the tall, rectangular buildings I’d grown used to seeing on Earth. They were lower, with curvaceous designs that complemented the environment. Halfway along the road a house with a limonge tree growing in the front garden caught my eye. The tree’s branches tapped gracefully against one window. In my vision I saw a girl, about twelve years old, with chestnut hair down to her waist, climb up the tree. As she disappeared into the upper branches the picture faded. Little Monkey! I bet she would make it to the top. A smile curved my lips until the ball dropped! I was that girl! I remembered that day as clearly as if it had been last week. I’d wanted to go swimming with my friends only Mariel had insisted I stayed home to meet her ancient aunt. I’d hung around until the aunt arrived. After the introductions, I’d asked if I could play in the garden. I’d hidden at the top of the tree until I was sure I’d been forgotten about. Then I’d run off to the lake to swim with my friends. There’d been hell to pay afterwards, but it had been worth it.
The feeling inside me intensified until suddenly I got what it was about. Happiness surged through me. I’d found my home.
Johnny lay a short distance away. His crumpled shape was an ugly blot on the immaculate landscape. In my mind I saw Carinna, the dark-haired, elfin-faced woman of my flashbacks. Her words rang out clearly in my ears.
‘Never forget, our world is in your hands.’
Our world! Johnny wasn’t welcome here. As I ran towards his prostrate body I stubbed my toe on his gun. I flinched, waiting for it to go off. Please don’t let it blow me to pieces, especially not now! The gun spun harmlessly down the mountain, clattering loudly on the stones. Johnny opened his eyes.
‘What happened? Where are we?’ His bald head glistened with sweat.
I wasn’t the only one bombing towards Johnny. The mountainside was alive with people, men and women. They poured out of the building, clapping their hands together as they ran. The sound, along with their pounding feet, made the hairs on my neck rise. A plethora of thoughts crashed into my mind.
No two people dressed alike in Pietra. We acted as a collective but were treated as individuals. We worked together for the greater good. Clapping warned of a danger.
Of course! Clapping was our way to warn of a danger. Now I knew why the applause at the music concert had freaked me out. Here, in Pietra, applause was given by standing in total silence.
It took a couple more seconds before I realised that Johnny was the cause of the clapping. Away to my left a man with a shock of red hair gunned towards me. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted, ‘Amara!’
He sounded friendly, but there wasn’t time to find out. It was my fault Johnny was here in Pietra. He was my responsibility. I dived and yanked him to his feet.
‘Steady,’ he moaned.
He was disorientate
d and unable to support himself. He slumped on me for support and I almost fell over. My eyes scoured the mountainside for the verbole. There was nothing – except for a small fissure in the ground a couple of metres above us. It was little more than a large pothole. At first I dismissed it and continued to search for something more spectacular. But there was nothing else. Unconvinced, I dragged Johnny towards the fissure. I’d almost reached it before I felt something, a weak, magnetic force that radiated from the hole and drew me closer.
‘Halto!’
It was extremely scary to see a bunch of people race towards you, especially when they were all clapping and yelling for you to stop. Red Head was in the lead and he waved at me.
‘They’re on your side!’ I reminded myself. But Johnny was growing more alert. I had to get him back to Earth before he realised that we’d left his universe. We were a metre from the verbole when he suddenly dug his heels in the ground and refused to budge.
‘Wait,’ he shouted. ‘What is that stuff?’
He dived to the ground and almost pulled me with him. ‘Look, will you!’ Johnny snatched up a handful of stones and stuffed them under my nose. ‘Have you seen this?’
I recognised the stones immediately. The larger lumps, veined with thick bands of gold, were white quartz. The smaller ones were solid gold pebbles. They covered the mountainside as thickly as moss grows on damp walls. Johnny was almost foaming at the mouth. ‘You knew about this, didn’t you? Greedy, when there’s so much to go round.’ He began to cram lumps of the quartz and gold pebbles into his pocket.
With a sense of shock, I realised that Nardo, Tor and Carinna hadn’t exaggerated. Given the chance, the Johnnys of Earth would ruin Pietra. I had an alarming vision of how our planet might end up, if humans found out about it. They’d swarm here through the verbole, bringing machines to thump away at the landscape. They’d take our gold and leave the landscape barren and ugly.
‘No!’ I shouted. I flew at Johnny and beat him with my fists as I shoved him towards the wormhole.
‘Get lost!’ Johnny shoved me back. I fell and landed sprawled, face down on the ground. My hands stung and there was grit in my mouth. I spat it out and scrambled up again. My stomach was heavy with guilt. Johnny was the worst kind of a trespasser and I was to blame for his presence here. He’d never have found Pietra without me. I had to get him back to Earth, before he ruined everything.
Johnny darted around, muttering in delight, as he stuffed more rocks into his pockets. I grabbed at him. He fought me savagely but I ducked away from the blows aimed at my head and shoulders. I jabbed my elbow in his stomach, kicking him hard in the back of his knees as he doubled up. He cursed me, using words that made me shudder in disgust. I had the advantage, though, and I used it to push him towards the verbole. We were half a metre away when the mountain seemed to unzip, exposing a cave. A small, roofless buggy hurtled from its depths. It was half the length of Dan’s car and had wheels like enormous balls. The buggy rose up until it was a metre above the ground. It flew towards me. I charged at Johnny and rammed my shoulder into his side. He staggered forward and, lashing out with his hand, he whacked me on the head. I unsuccessfully shielded myself with my arms. Pain seared my skull, but I gritted my teeth and kneed him in the stomach. He yelped but continued to pick up rocks and stuff them in his already bulging pockets.
His greed made me sick. I grabbed his arm and dragged him the last few paces to the edge of the verbole. The magnetic force was much weaker than the one on Earth, but it was better than nothing. Johnny planted his feet in the ground and leaned back to resist it. I kept on shoving him until at last he lost his balance. He stepped forward, swearing violently as he wavered on the edge of the fissure. With one massive push I shoved him over. The magnetic force sucked him in. The last thing I saw was Johnny’s foot, spinning like water down a plughole. I laughed out loud with relief.
The flying buggy came closer. The blonde-haired boy, riding inside, didn’t appear to be controlling it. He was using both of his hands to pull up the hood of a blue boiler suit. He shouted something and I wasn’t sure if he was shouting at me, or the Guards. I didn’t wait to find out. My immediate priority was to return to Earth and make sure Johnny stayed there. With a running jump, I launched myself into the verbole.
Blackness engulfed me. The lethal cold gnawed its way to the very core of my bones. I was shivering uncontrollably, so I went to wrap my arms round my body. But I couldn’t move! To my horror I realised I was stuck in the position I’d assumed when I’d jumped into the verbole. Panic ballooned inside me. I concentrated on taking deep breaths, but I couldn’t breathe either. I was stuck somewhere between life and death – not breathing but not suffocating. On and on I spun, with nothing around me but the impenetrable blackness.
It seemed ages before the air grew warmer. Flecks of light speckled the darkness. I began to fly upwards. Relief flooded through me; then suddenly I felt myself plummet. I hit the ground with a sickening crunch and rolled several metres before I stopped. My head was on fire; every bone in my body ached. I stared up. Dawn had arrived. The pale sky was streaked with pink. It was pretty but, after the splendour of the Pietran sky, the colours seemed washed out. I blinked a few times, but it didn’t make any difference. This was as good as it got. I struggled to my feet and saw Johnny just a short distance away. His face was ashen and he lay in a pool of blood. I went over and examined him dispassionately. He was still breathing. He had a gash on his forehead. Luckily the amount of blood was disproportionate to the size of the wound.
Johnny’s eyes flickered open. ‘Help me up,’ he groaned.
Hatred welled inside me. Why should I? He was nothing but a danger. My chest tightened as I struggled to work out what to do next. As a Pietran – a Watcher no less – it was my duty to protect our world. As a girl who’d lost her memory and lived on Earth as a human being, I strongly believed that memory reassembly was wrong. The seconds ticked by as I wrestled with my dilemma. It was the truth, cold and hard, that won out. Johnny knew too much. He had to be dealt with. I cringed as I slid the memory device out of my pocket. I really didn’t want to do this. My hand was clammy and I couldn’t get a proper grip on the applicator. With exaggerated care I passed the applicator to my left hand while I wiped my right on my jeans. My eyes swept over Johnny’s torso in search of a patch of bare skin. Nardo had said it was best to use the neck. Johnny’s neck was thick, squat and totally hairless. I held the memory device like a pen and, with trembling fingers, pressed it halfway between his ear and throat. I hated myself as I held it down.
‘What’s that?’ Johnny’s voice quivered with fear. His eyes rolled back in his head and then he passed out.
I almost fainted. Johnny’s crumpled body seemed too still. Had I killed him? My breath came in ragged gasps as I bent to examine him.
Twenty-two
To my relief Johnny was still breathing. I stuffed the memory device back in my pocket, sick with shame at what I’d done. There was a dull thud behind me. I spun round. Blue Suit had abandoned his flying buggy and followed me back through the wormhole.
‘Amara, what happened? Are you okay?’ He spoke in Pietran and his deep, lyrical voice stirred a memory.
‘Yes, thanks. It’s all under control.’ I hoped he wouldn’t notice how badly I was shaking.
‘Who’s he?’ The Guard’s eyes skimmed past Johnny.
More to the point, who are you? I knew his voice, but I just couldn’t remember his name.
‘Him, up there, who is he?’ the Guard asked again.
I had a sudden sense of foreboding as I turned to look. I was still trying to place the Guard, but I wasn’t prepared for the shock of seeing Dan. He stood a short distance away, beside an outcrop of rock. His face was tight and his feet rooted to the ground. He must have seen me administer the memory patch to Johnny. Worse still, it was clear that Dan thought that I’d killed him.
‘I-it’s not what you think,’ I stuttered. I stepped towards him.
Dan drew back, shielding himself behind the rocks.
‘Dan, I can explain.’
I stepped closer, but he took off, sprinting up the mountain, his body taut with purpose.
‘Halto!’ Blue Suit went after him.
I came to my senses then and chased after them both. Blue Suit was fit and clearly used to the mountainous terrain. With every stride the gap between him and Dan closed. Rocks slithered under my feet. My heart pounded and I felt sick with fear. I had to stop Blue Suit from catching Dan.
‘Halto!’ I shouted in Pietran.
Blue Suit didn’t falter. I sought for his name, convinced that I knew it, but the name stayed hidden in my black cavernous mind. Blue Suit caught Dan up and smoothly hooked an arm around his neck. Dan threw back his head and banged him in the face. Blood spurted from Blue Suit’s nose; he punched Dan in the stomach. They wrestled together until they fell to the floor, where they continued to fight, grunting like trolls. I ran on, desperate to stop them, but my head was thumping and my legs felt weaker than clouds. Blue Suit reached into his pocket.
‘No!’ I screamed.
My legs wouldn’t work. It felt like I was wading through waist-high mud. It couldn’t end like this. Dan was my friend. He didn’t deserve to have his memories wiped. He was owed an explanation. Most of all I wanted say a proper goodbye. I wanted to tell him that I’d miss him and remember him always as my best friend here on Earth.
Blue Suit stood astride Dan, poised to administer a memory patch. Dan fought bravely back. Blue Suit was so much stronger, though. The muscles in his arm strained against his clothes as he brought the memory device down on Dan’s neck.
