by Simon Rose
He grabbed the jar of peanut butter from the nearby cabinet, and when he closed the door, he thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye through the living room window. He was sure that he’d seen someone standing on the opposite sidewalk, but the street was empty. He couldn’t explain it but he almost had the feeling that he was being watched. He glanced cautiously over each shoulder in turn, not really sure what he was looking for, then was startled when the bread popped up in the toaster. He exhaled and put it down to him still being unsettled by what had happened at the mall. He quickly spread some peanut butter on the toast. Then he thought he’d watch some TV. He went over to the couch, placing the plate on the edge of the coffee table, but couldn’t immediately find the remote. He had a quick look around and then spotted it on the shelf above the fireplace, almost hidden among the collection of framed family photographs that were displayed there. Max reached for the remote and took a step back toward the couch and blacked out.
A man was standing over Max as he lay on his back on the rug in front of the fireplace. Max’s head pounded with intense pain.
“I know everything,” said the man, running his fingers along the deep scar on his right cheek and neck. “This is an ever-present reminder of another reality, when I was something else. But you changed all that, didn’t you, you and that damned psychic.”
The man grinned, staring directly into Max’s eyes, as the pain in his head became unbearable.
THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED and Max was on the couch, although he didn’t remember sitting down. The remote was on the couch beside him but the plate was on the carpet, along with his toast. Why had he been thinking about the same man that he’d seen in his mind at the mall, the one with the scar that seemed to be fighting with the police and security guards? The pain in Max’s head had been intense but was now completely gone.
“Max?”
“What?”
He turned to see his mother standing at the bottom of the staircase.
“Are you all right?” said his mother.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m good,” Max replied, recovering his composure as he scooped up the plate and the toast. “Just clumsy, sorry.”
“I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I only just got back,” said Max, as he got to his feet, placing the plate on the coffee table. “We had to go to that mall on the other side of town to get Jeff’s new game.”
“Didn’t they have it at the mall near here?” his mother asked.
“Yeah, but not until tomorrow, and he couldn’t wait.”
“Sounds just like Jeff,” said his mother, smiling. “Your dad just texted me and he’s on his way home, then we can go.”
“Go?” said Max. “Where?”
“To the hospital to see Grandma,” his mother replied, frowning a little. “You didn’t forget, did you?”
“Oh, right,” said Max. “No, I remembered.”
“Good, I’ll just get changed and I’ll be right back.”
She smiled. Then she turned and went up the stairs.
DESPITE WHAT HE’D told his mother, Max had indeed forgotten all about the visit to the hospital. His grandmother had only been in there for a couple of days for routine surgery but a visit was still in order. How could he have forgotten? He took out his phone and quickly sent Jeff a text.
Can’t make it tonight. Visiting grandma.
Jeff replied right away.
Forgot? Doesn’t surprise me ☺
Sorry see you tomorrow?
Sure. Might you see you online later.
Max’s hand was shaking as he put his phone back in his pocket. He shook his head. What was going on? Why had he seen that terrifying vision of the man in his other vision at the mall? And how had he somehow ended up on the couch? Had he fallen backward when he grabbed the remote? Max had a total blank in his memory. Was he starting to experience what his mother had done when she was a teenager? She’d only told Max about the incidents recently, since both his parents wanted him to inform them if he had any strange dreams or other experiences that he couldn’t easily explain. Yet this was the first time that anything unusual had happened, and Max wasn’t sure what to make of it all.
He went back into the kitchen, putting the toast in the garbage and placing the empty plate in the sink. He opened the fridge and reached for the open juice carton, quickly draining half of it to quench his thirst. For a fleeting second in his mind he saw a pair of green eyes, gazing at him with an intense stare. He put the juice carton back in the fridge and closed the door. As he turned, he gasped and froze in astonishment. Leaning against the kitchen counter was a girl, wearing a worn black leather jacket and torn jeans. Her head was lowered and thick black hair, which had a red streak at the front, completely obscured her face. She looked as if she was about to lift her head but then was gone as quickly as she’d appeared. Max’s heart was pounding and he struggled to breathe.
“Hello?” called his dad, as he opened the front door. “Are you both ready?”
Max was still recovering from the shock as his dad stepped into the kitchen.
“Hey, Max. You okay? You look like you’ve just seen a ghost.”
“Hi, Dad,” said Max, as calmly as he could. “Yeah, I’m ready. Mom’s just getting changed.”
“I’m ready too,” said his mom, as she came down the stairs, looking at her watch. “We’d better get going.”
Max did his best to hide his discomfort as he left with his parents but he had been extremely unnerved by what he’d experienced since he’d got home. As he sat in the back seat of his mother’s car, he kept going over everything, trying to make sense of it. His mind didn’t stop racing until they arrived at the parking lot at Mountain View Hospital.
Chapter Five
Close Encounter
JULIA SLOWLY OPENED her eyes as she regained consciousness, accompanied by the sound of the steady pulses of the monitors beside her bed. She was very groggy as she looked around, and it took her a couple of minutes to realize where she was. She was clearly in a hospital room, where wires and tubes connected her to an array of equipment attached to a steel pole. She struggled to sit up in bed, almost detaching the needle that was taped to her hand. She felt dizzy and decided to lie back down until she’d recovered a little more, trying to remember what had happened to her.
She remembered the bespectacled old man with his gray goatee, blue baseball cap, and his little black dog. Apparently, he’d found her unconscious in the woods at Castlegate Park and was still there when she woke up as the police and paramedics arrived. She’d been confused and remembered ranting uncontrollably, about being in the wrong world. Her ramblings would no doubt have made little sense to those around her. One of the paramedics had sedated her as he and the others ushered Julia into the back of the ambulance. She only vaguely recalled waking up again, around the time they carried her out of the ambulance at the hospital. The needle was plunged into her arm quickly, and she only remembered shouting wildly, telling all the people surrounding her that they didn’t understand.
Once she was in the hospital room, she also remembered people talking when she was drifting in and out of consciousness. The man called Eastwood had been in to check on her, accompanied by a nurse, then someone called Hammond had arrived. Julia had seen a doctor called Hammond when she was a child, as had Max, although that was in another reality, before the timeline changes. Could it be the same man? It was all so maddeningly confusing. She’d briefly opened her eyes when the man and a woman had their backs to her while they studied something in a binder. Julia had then struggled to fight against the effects of the medication and could only recall disjointed portions of the conversation. The man called Hammond had talked about killing patients and had a theory about some people being from parallel universes. He seemed to suspect that Julia was from another reality after viewing some kind of test results. It also appeared as if she was going to be subjected to dangerous experiments at Hammond’s clinic that could even lead to her death. It
sounded very similar to the experiments that Max had told her about, the ones that Aleksander Kovac had conducted on his many victims.
Julia was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn’t hear anyone approaching in the hallway outside and was startled when a nurse entered the room
“Oh, good, you’re already awake,” said the nurse. “And just in time for moving.”
“Moving?” Julia asked. “Where to?”
“Just to a more private area,” the nurse replied. “You’ll be able to sleep better once you’re over there. We wanted to wake you before you left here, just so that you wouldn’t be confused if you woke up in a different place.”
“Where am I?” said Julia. “What hospital is this?”
The nurse smiled.
“This is Mountain View. You’ve been here for a few days.”
This was the hospital where she and Max had accessed the Records office, but which timeline was she in? Julia gasped as the nurse took out a syringe with an attached needle.
“What’s that?” asked Julia, in alarm.
“It’s just something to help you sleep.”
Julia knew that she’d better remain calm if she wanted to avoid being sedated again. She needed to figure out what was going on. She knew that she’d have a better chance if she played ball with this kindly-looking nurse for now.
“Okay,” said Julia, faking a lengthy yawn. “I think I’ll be fine without any more of that.”
The nurse nodded.
“Well, we can just add it to the drip, if you like? Dr. Eastwood recommended that we help you to sleep in case you start getting confused again. I’ll just make sure that you’re signed out of this room. I’ll be right back.”
She smiled again and left the room.
AS SOON AS the nurse had gone, Julia sat up in bed, desperately trying to make sense of her situation. Her presence in this world, this reality, was impossible. If Kane had never grown into an adult and had children, she shouldn’t even exist in this timeline. If this was in fact the same universe where she’d last seen Max. As a result of the changes that she and Max had made, Kovac had never embarked on his experiments and April Taylor should still be alive. Of course, she wasn’t Julia’s birth mother in this timeline. Julia’s adopted parents wouldn’t know her either. It was very difficult to keep track of everything. She’d also experienced many different realities in swift succession before she’d found herself in a wooded area, became disoriented and fell, presumably banging her head somehow and falling into unconsciousness.
And yet she strongly suspected that this was the universe where she’d last encountered Max, despite the impossibility of the situation. She’d drifted in and out of consciousness when she was alone in her room just after her arrival and at one point had seemingly connected to Max’s mind. She’d seen him at his house, as he was drinking from a carton of juice beside the open fridge door. When he’d closed the door, she thought that he must have seen her but she couldn’t maintain the link and had drifted off to sleep again. If she’d succeeded in making any connection whatsoever with Max, it was very doubtful it would have made any sense to him. And even if she were in the same timeline as the one when she’d last seen Max, he wouldn’t even remember knowing her.
The nurse hadn’t mentioned anything about Julia being moved to Hammond’s private clinic. She might simply be unaware of that plan, but Julia couldn’t take the risk. She had to get out of the hospital, connect with Max in person, and somehow restore his memories. The barriers between different realities appeared to have been disrupted somehow, either as a result of her and Max changing the timelines or by this mysterious Dr. Hammond and his experiments. It was the only explanation for Julia’s existence in this timeline, but she had no idea how it was even possible.
SHE HEARD THE nurse approaching and lay down again in the bed. Julia yawned again as the nurse entered, still holding the syringe and needle.
“I’m still very sleepy,” said Julia. “Maybe you can give me something when we get to the other room?”
“Sure, we can do that. Are you hungry?”
“No, I’m fine, thanks. What time is it, anyway?”
“Just after eight,” the nurse replied.
“Okay,” said Julia. “I’ll probably wait ’til morning, when I’m feeling better. Where are my clothes?”
“The ones you were wearing when they found you?” the nurse asked. “They’re here in the closet. We washed them for you since we weren’t sure how long you’d be with us. We’ll bring them along to the new room, don’t worry.”
The nurse smiled and then began to lift up the sides of Julia’s bed in preparation for wheeling it out of the room.
MAX AND HIS parents only paid a short visit to the hospital. Max’s grandmother wasn’t in any danger, and although she complained about her situation, the surgery had been a complete success and she was expected to go home in a couple of days. After saying his goodbyes, Max accompanied his parents to the elevators. As the doors slid open when they reached the main floor, Max had another odd sensation, similar to the one that he’d had at the mall. Something seemed familiar, but he couldn’t work out what it was. The feeling continued as he walked along the hallway with his parents. He’d been to the emergency department at Mountain View Hospital once before when he’d almost broken his arm falling out of a tree when he was around five years old but had never been in this particular section of the building. He hadn’t even been in many hospitals at all and wondered if his surroundings simply reminded him of places he’d seen on TV or in movies. He and his parents walked past a set of directional signs displaying the names of various departments and offices, including the Records department. He knew that Jeff’s mother worked there but Max had no idea where the office was located within the hospital complex.
As Max and his parents turned the corner into the corridor that led to the main exit, a nurse passed by pushing a patient in a bed and almost collided with Max’s mother.
“Sorry,” said the nurse, before continuing on her way.
“Not a problem,” said Marina.
The area was busy with medical personnel, patients, and visitors, so Max didn’t get a good look at the person in the bed. Yet for a fleeting second, he saw the green eyes again in his mind, peering at him with such an intense gaze, but he couldn’t quite make out the person’s face.
“Max.”
“Huh?”
“Max.”
His dad was standing beside the coffee shop, beneath a wall map of the hospital’s interior. He stared at Max with a puzzled expression.
“Are you coming?” asked his dad.
“Yeah, sorry,” Max replied.
“Are you feeling okay?” his mother added.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Max replied. “Just tired, that’s all. Had a busy week at school.”
“Maybe we should stop for something to eat on the way home?” his dad suggested.
“Good idea,” Marina agreed. “How about some pizza?”
Max and his dad nodded in agreement before they all headed outside to the parking lot.
Chapter Six
Checking Out
JULIA PRETENDED TO be asleep on her journey through the hospital corridors and when she eventually arrived at the private room. She’d sneaked occasional glances at her surroundings as the nurse wheeled her along, and she also tried to reach out with her mind to see if she could find Max again. She’d had a very brief sensation of something that she couldn’t quite explain at one point during the trip along the hallways but the feeling had quickly disappeared.
The private area of the hospital seemed to be very quiet, and Julia hoped that might make it a little easier for her to escape. The nurse made Julia comfortable and ensured that all the medical equipment was operational and that all the various cables and wires were securely in place. She then adjusted the controls that fed the medication to the needle taped to Julia’s hand. She heard the nurse open the closet door, presumably to store Julia’s cloth
es.
“Are you okay?” the nurse asked, softly.
“Yes,” Julia murmured. “So sleepy.”
“You’ll feel better in the morning,” said the nurse. “I might still be on shift, depending on what time you wake up.”
Julia briefly opened her eyes and saw the nurse smile sweetly before she turned and left the room, gently closing the door behind her. Julia heard her chatting quietly to someone else in the hallway outside before the voices became more distant as the people walked away.
When she was certain that the hallway was empty, Julia carefully tore the tape from her arm, wincing as she removed the needle, then pulled back the covers on the bed. Swinging her legs over the side, she immediately felt light-headed. She knew that there were still plenty of sedatives in her body but the medical staff didn’t know about her peculiar abilities. Julia was hopeful that she’d be able to use her powers of concentration to keep her drowsiness at bay. Taking care not to disturb the monitors and everything else that was attached to the pole, she inched over to the closet. Her clothes and shoes were inside, all nice and clean, but a quick check of her jacket pockets revealed that her keys and wallet were missing. Julia cursed under her breath. Hopefully it wouldn’t be crucial, if she could find Max quickly and make him remember who she was. Since she’d heard that the police had been unable to identify her, Julia had to assume that her wallet and keys had been lost during her turbulent journey through the different realities before she ended up in this one.
