Epoch

by Timothy Carter

  Vincent looked around and saw his dream with a more objective eye. Now that the elf had drawn attention to it, the whole thing did seem a bit silly. Symbolic, yes, but silly. And why cows? What was that all about?

  “Okay, so it’s a dream,” Vincent said. “Should I wake up now?”

  “No, don’t do that,” Grimbowl said. “Just take my hand and come with me.”

  He held up his hand, and Vincent reached for it.

  “You’re not going to stick anything up my nose, are you?” Vincent asked.

  “No,” Grimbowl replied, and he pulled Vincent off the raft and out of his dream.

  Vincent and Grimbowl floated in the air in a dark room. There was something very familiar about it, and when he looked around Vincent saw why.

  “This is my hospital room,” he said. He could see the door on one side, the window on the other. He saw Max standing beside his bed, holding Grimbowl in his arms. A needle-thin cord stretched from the elf’s head all the way to the Grimbowl who floated in the air beside Vincent.

  “What the … ?” Vincent said, looking from one Grimbowl to the other. “How can you be in two places at once?”

  “I’m not the only one,” Grimbowl said, pointing down.

  Vincent looked. Below was his bed, and lying in that bed …

  “Woah!” Vincent said, recoiling at the sight of his own face.

  “Don’t get scared, calm down,” Grimbowl said. “Strong emotions will snap you right back to your body.”

  “What? I don’t … ” Vincent said, but then he understood. “I’m having an astral projection, aren’t I?”

  “What was your first clue?” said Grimbowl.

  “I thought it would be really hard to do,” Vincent said, looking down at his sleeping form. Like Grimbowl, he had a thin silver cord stretching out of his forehead into the back of his astral skull. Vincent reached back and felt it; it was like having a tail in the base of his neck.

  “It usually is hard,” Grimbowl said. “A lot of concentration and focus. But everyone leaves their bodies when they dream, kid. They hover above their bodies and surround themselves in their own personal dreamworlds. If you know the trick, you can pull someone out of their dream.

  “But enough about that. Your brother said you needed me to help you do this. What I want to know is, why?”

  “My brother?” Vincent looked back at Max, now sitting on the bed with Grimbowl’s body still in his arms. “He actually found you?”

  “Wasn’t hard,” Grimbowl said. “I was here anyway. I wanted to ask you what you’re up to, hanging around with pixies and fighting demons.”

  “I shouldn’t tell you,” Vincent said, turning away from him. “You made me beat up my best friend. And you hurt me. A lot.”

  “I did what I had to,” Grimbowl said. “We needed a human to go where we couldn’t.”

  “You should have just asked,” Vincent said. “That’s what Nod did.”

  “Good for him,” Grimbowl said. “He’s one terrific pixie, that’s for sure.”

  “I thought you elves hated pixies,” Vincent asked.

  “We do, yeah,” Grimbowl said. “My people, Vincent, we’re not exactly big on trust for other species. Goes all the way back to our epoch, when the Centaurs ... ”

  “I know,” Vincent said. “Nod told me about them.”

  “Did he?” Grimbowl said. “What else do you know?”

  “I know we have less than two days until the end of the epoch,” Vincent said.

  “What?” Grimbowl replied.

  “So we don’t really have time for your trust issues,” Vincent pointed out. “We need to get on with this before we lose any more time.”

  “You know what, kid?” Grimbowl said. “You’re right. And I was wrong about you. You’re not just some dolt.”

  “Wow, thanks,” Vincent said dryly.

  “I can do better,” the elf said. “We shouldn’t have stuck that obyon in you. You’re a good kid. And we might just owe all our lives to you.”

  Vincent smiled at that. “Thank you,” he said.

  “Okay, enough mushy stuff. If we’ve only got two days, then we’ve got to move.”

  Grimbowl grabbed Vincent’s hand, and the world around them blurred. Before Vincent could ask what was going on, they appeared in the middle of a street. A truck came right at them, and roared through their astral bodies before Vincent had a chance to scream.

  “Relax, kid,” Grimbowl said. “We’re in the astral. Physical stuff can’t hurt us.”

  “You could have warned me,” Vincent said.

  “Yeah,” Grimbowl replied, “but this way was funnier.”

  Vincent shot him a dirty look, then turned and took in their surroundings.

  They were in the suburbs, right in front of an expensive-looking two-level house. All the houses on the street looked expensive—this must be the rich part of town, Vincent thought. And there’s only one person he knew who lived in this area.

  “We’re outside Barnaby Wilkins’s house,” Grimbowl said. “You’re going in there.”

  “Why?”

  “So you can look through his stuff,” Grimbowl said. “Maybe he left his science fair project out where you can read it.”

  “No,” Vincent said. “I don’t need to look at his stuff. Nod and I found a better place to look for Portal Sites.”

  “Where?” Grimbowl asked.

  “Alphega Corporate Headquarters,” Vincent replied.

  “Then why are we still here?” Grimbowl said, grabbing Vincent’s astral hand again. “Lead the way!”

  “Okay,” Vincent said. “How, exactly?”

  “Oh yeah, you’re new at this,” Grimbowl said. “We could fly there, but thought travel is even faster. That’s how we got here, kid. Easy to learn, too. If you know where you want to go, think hard about being there and it’ll happen.”

  “Okay,” Vincent said, closing his eyes and thinking. It was hard at first, because his mind kept drifting to other things. For example, if he wasn’t in his body, how could he close his eyes? Did he even have eyes? Or hands? How was he holding Grimbowl’s hand if he wasn’t in a physical body?

  “Focus more,” Grimbowl said, kicking Vincent in the astral shins.

  Vincent focused, and a moment later they were at the edge of Alphega Corp.’s parking lot. The towering headquarters stood before them, and to Vincent’s astral eyes there was something different about it. Translucent spheres surrounded the structure, giving it a slight fishbowl appearance. It reminded Vincent of the shields that protected spaceships in science fiction shows like Infinite Destiny, and when he mentioned this to Grimbowl he found he was not wrong.

  “Looks like magical wards,” the elf said. “Could be to shield them from magical attacks. Or it could be to detect astral travelers, but I don’t think that’s possible. Either way, it’s one heck of a security system.”

  “Yeah,” Vincent said. “And they’ve got demons, too.”

  “What?” Grimbowl said. “Demons? Here?”

  “Yeah,” Vincent said. “I think they’re patrolling the area. That’s why … ”

  “You didn’t tell me there were demons!” Grimbowl said, starting to panic. His silver cord, which had been trailing loosely behind him, started to tighten. “Kid, they can taste everything, even souls! If they detect my spirit, they’ll trace me back to my … ”

  He never finished, because his silver cord pulled taut and yanked his soul away.

  At first Vincent worried that a demon had somehow caught him. Then he remembered what the elf had said about strong emotions. Grimbowl had been pulled back to his body.

  “I guess I’m on my own,” Vincent said, turning back to the building. It would be risky; if the wards could detect astral travelers, they wo
uld know he was there before he got to the front door. If they found him, could they do anything to him? Was it possible to hurt a soul? The idea alone was just plain scary.

  But if the Portal Site was here, the world needed to know. Max, Chanteuse, and her mother had all been hurt trying to help him, and Nod had given his life. Could he do any less?

  Vincent walked forward until he was right in front of the ward. This was it, the moment of truth.

  “Oh boy,” he said, and stepped through it.

  Sirens, claxons, and alarms did not go off, and an army of demons did not materialize and start chasing him. Vincent waited a minute, then two. Nothing. He seemed to be in the clear.

  “I seem to be in the clear,” he said, then covered his astral mouth. The last thing he needed was to jinx himself.

  Still nothing happened. Vincent waited a few more moments, just to be safe, then he ventured forward once more. He thought about the front doors, and a split second later he was there. He waved his astral hands in front of the security guards, but they didn’t notice.

  “So far, so good,” Vincent said, watching the guards for a reaction. There was none; they could neither see nor hear him.

  “Right,” said Vincent. “This is it.”

  Vincent walked past the guards, and entered Alphega Corporate Headquarters.

  The building was bustling with activity, which Vincent found surprising. It was still late at night, after all, and a normal company would have been closed.

  He stood in a small lobby, with several corridors branching off in all directions. Employees moved this way and that, carrying important-looking documents, all looking stressed out of their minds.

  One corridor led to the elevators. Beside it, Vincent found the building’s directory. He looked it over, hoping for some clue, like a sign saying, “this way to the portal,” but nothing sprang out at him.

  Vincent followed one of the other corridors, and found himself in an office. It was long but not wide, L-shaped, and filled to capacity with row upon row of cubicles. Employees sat in those cubicles, typing feverishly at their computer terminals. Each terminal had an extra monitor attached, exactly like the ones on the superstore cash registers.

  Other employees rushed this way and that with their documents. One person rushed straight through Vincent, and she let off a yelp of surprise. She looked around, trying to determine what had happened, but she couldn’t see Vincent. Puzzled, she walked on.

  Vincent also had a bit of a shock, having just been walked through. He recovered just in time to see another employee walking straight at him, but not in time to get out of the way.

  “Yaah!” the man said, having an involuntary shiver.

  “Interesting,” Vincent said, watching the man walk away. It seemed people could feel his presence when they passed through him.

  He would have liked to explore this new knowledge more fully, but something turned the corner up ahead and grabbed Vincent’s attention. It was a demon, lazily floating a meter above the heads of the employees. The people didn’t react to its presence, but the demon watched them very closely. It carried a small device in its hand, but it was too far away for Vincent to see what it was.

  Vincent rushed into an empty cubicle and ducked down. He didn’t think the demon would be able to see him, but he couldn’t afford to take the chance. He stayed as low as he could while still high enough to keep an eye on the creature.

  The demon paused in the air over an employee who had stopped working to yawn. The demon tapped something into its handheld device, and suddenly that employee’s second monitor sprang to life.

  “Milton Judge,” said the digitized face of Mr. Wilkins, “you have been found engaging in activities not associated with company policy. A one-hour pay cut will be applied to your account.”

  Oh man, Vincent thought. Whoever runs Alphega really hates their employees.

  The demon drifted off again, moving closer. Vincent ducked down farther, and leaned on the desk for support …

  … and fell through it. He didn’t hit the floor, but he stopped falling just above it. The desk was all around and above him, and when he stood back up his head emerged from the desktop like a ghost. Which, he supposed, he was.

  Vincent crouched down, and the desk enveloped him again. This, he thought, was cool. He was a ghost! He could walk through stuff! Except, it seemed, the floor. Why was that? It was no more solid than the desk. How had he been walking on it?

  Vincent reached down, and his hand went through the floor. Now what? He was still crouching on the floor, and yet he could put his hand through it. Maybe …

  Maybe it was in his mind. Maybe the floor was solid beneath him so long as he wanted it that way …

  This was fascinating, absolutely, but he still had a job to do. Vincent stood back up, and that’s when he remembered why he’d ducked down in the first place. He looked around and saw the demon, now much closer. It hadn’t noticed him, much to Vincent’s relief. He stayed still as the demon passed by, then he backed away slowly…

  … into the next cubicle, where a man was working hard at his computer. Vincent walked backward through that computer, and it sparked and shut down with a bang.

  “Woah!” the man cried, falling backward off his chair.

  The demon stopped and turned, and stared intently at the smoking computer. Vincent backed away once more, only to run afoul of the man’s printer.

  “Yikes!” the man cried as his printer sparked and shorted out. Heads popped up from cubicles, and a crowd began to gather. The demon eyed the area suspiciously, then it stuck out its tongue and tasted the air.

  Time to go, Vincent thought, and he turned and ran. Right through another computer. Then he went through a photocopier and a fax machine. All three machines shorted out with a shower of sparks, and the paper trap in the copier caught fire. The fire alarm sounded a few seconds later.

  Souls and electronics don’t mix, Vincent realized as he ran. He ducked around the L-shaped corner, and came upon another office full of cubicles. All around him, people left their desks and headed for the exits. A few went through Vincent, and yelped as they did so. Vincent tried to get out of their way, only to run into more electronic machines.

  “Not good,” he said as he shorted another computer. The demon drifted toward him, its tongue swishing from side to side. Vincent envied the demon, being able to fly above the throng of employees unnoticed.

  Then he remembered something Grimbowl had said. When Vincent had asked how they would get to Alphega Corp., the elf had told him they could fly. That would mean that Vincent, in his astral body, could fly!

  But how? Vincent thought about it, and wondered if it would work the same way as the thought-travel. He pictured himself lifting off and hovering over the cubicles …

  … and it happened. Vincent floated into the air, and before he could stop himself he went through the ceiling and into the second floor. He came up in the middle of another computer, shorting it out and giving the nearby evacuating employees a start. Vincent continued his ascent, and made it up to the seventh floor before he thought about stopping. When he did so, his upward travel ceased.

  “Neat,” Vincent said, his mind awash with the possibilities. However, he still had a portal to find. He imagined himself flying around the office, and off he went.

  Five minutes later, he’d done a complete orbit of the seventh floor. He’d seen and hid from another demon, but otherwise there was nothing out of the ordinary. He dropped down to the sixth floor and checked it out, then he tried the fifth. Each floor had a demon patroling it, but otherwise there was nothing strange or supernatural.

  However, something nagged at Vincent, and it came to him as he flew around the fourth floor. The offices were very long but not wide. It was as if a huge chunk of the building was missing. And it was missing from the buildi
ng’s center.

  Vincent turned and faced the wall. Something was hidden beyond it, and he meant to find out what it was.

  He was about to fly toward and through the wall when he was distracted by a demon’s tongue. It slashed right through his astral form, then slashed back and stopped in the middle of Vincent’s torso.

  Vincent spun around and looked at the demon that hovered just behind him. There was something familiar about this demon; Vincent had seen him once before. It wasn’t one of the three that had chased and killed Nod. Rather, it was Rennik, the one who had tasted him in the parking lot.

  “Ah ha!” Rennik said, grinning an evil grin. “There you are.”

  Vincent felt a ball of fear growing in his astral guts, and he backed off. His silver cord started to tighten, and he forced himself to calm down. He’d come too far to be whisked back to his body now. And so what if the demon knew he was there? He couldn’t touch him or hurt him in any way.

  And, the demon couldn’t go through walls.

  “Bye, bye,” Vincent said and he turned and leapt through the wall. For a second he could hear Rennik’s angry scream, then there was silence. The wall was thick; Vincent flew for a full second before emerging on the other side.

  He found himself in another office. It was twice as large as his bedroom, and lushly furnished. A shiny hand-carved oak desk sat upon a brilliant green carpet, facing a large picture window. Paintings hung on the walls, some depicting fantasy creatures and others showing wild horses. The picture window’s shades were drawn, but Vincent could see a brilliant illumination around them. There was a very bright light on the other side, and Vincent wondered what it was. It couldn’t have been the sun; the office was in the middle of a building, and anyway, it was still nighttime.

  A man sat at the desk in a chair that was also hand-crafted from the finest wood. The man sat up straight, wore an expensive-looking brown suit, and appeared absorbed in a video conference call. He hadn’t noticed Vincent, and Vincent hoped it would stay that way.