by Simon Rose
“He was very good looking, with pale piercing blue eyes,” her mother replied. “I’ll never forget those eyes. His hair was blonde and he wore it longer than mine. He was very intense and often seemed to be preoccupied with something or other. He’d also sometimes disappear for days at a time. I never did find out where he went, and then one day he just never came back.”
“How did he die?” asked Julia.
“It was a car accident. He was only twenty. A couple of teenagers appeared as if from nowhere and he swerved to avoid them and hit a tree. He was killed instantly. I only heard about it later from some friends of mine. We hadn’t been together for a while and I’d lost touch with him. I never even had the chance to let him know that I was pregnant.”
She wiped away a tear.
“It’s okay, Mom,” said Julia, as she reached out and touched her mother’s hand. “I understand, I really do.”
Her mother smiled.
“Thanks, Julia. I felt that I should tell you everything, once you were old enough to understand. Your dad knows all about Andreas, of course. As you know, I was a single parent for a while before I met him when you were three. Don’t tell him that I told you, at least not yet. Let me do that, when the time’s right, okay?”
Julia smiled.
“Don’t worry. It’ll be our little secret, Mom.”
Her mother wiped away another tear and they embraced.
“Anyway,” said her mother. “That’s enough of all that. What are you up to tonight?”
“Nothing much,” Julia replied, with a shrug.
“We can go out for dinner if you like? We could try that new Vietnamese place or maybe catch a movie?”
Suddenly, Julia’s mind was bombarded with hundreds of images, flashing by at breakneck speed. In the final image she saw a boy around her age lying on a bed in a windowless room, a handcuff around his wrist, attached to the wall by a chain.
“Julia? Julia, are you okay?”
Julia was extremely confused for a few seconds before she remembered where she was.
“What?”
Beside her on the couch, her mother appeared to be very puzzled.
“Yeah, sorry,” said Julia, thinking quickly. “I was just going over what you told me just now, about my real father. Yes, that’s it.”
“Are you sure you’re okay?” her mother asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Julia replied, standing up. “I’ll just go and get ready, maybe have a shower.”
“Okay,” said her mother, smiling. “Take your time, we don’t need to go just yet.”
JULIA HURRIED UPSTAIRS to her room and closed the door. She felt dizzy and reached out for the dresser to steady herself. The sudden burst of memories inside her head had almost been overwhelming. She’d forgotten all about what she considered to be her real self and had become completely accustomed to her current reality. She shuddered at the thought of how easy it was to lose control. And now the barriers between the realities seemed to be growing increasingly weaker. Why else would her mother suddenly have begun thinking about Kane? Was he also active in another universe and reaching out with his thoughts, whether intentionally or not? Her mother hadn’t mentioned anything about Kane having powers, just that he was sometimes very intense or that he would disappear for days. If he’d died as a young man, he probably never got the chance to explore his abilities fully but it was impossible to know that. Kovac clearly hadn’t conducted his experiments in this reality otherwise her mother wouldn’t be alive. Get a grip, Julia, she told herself. You’re supposed to be able to keep all this together. She gave her head a shake and sat down on the bed.
And of course, she knew Deanna Hastings, or had at least heard of her. As far as Julia knew from what Max had said, Deanna worked from her home as a psychic medium. He’d never mentioned her working as a card reader in a shopping area. Clearly this reality was slightly different to the one that she knew as home. Max had explained that Deanna was able to recall different timelines each time that things had changed and she obviously had significant psychic abilities. However, her confused reaction to Julia in the tent was further evidence that the barriers between all the different universes were in jeopardy.
Based on the final mental image that she’d experienced when she’d been chatting with her mother, Max was clearly in trouble. He’d possibly been captured by Hammond but Julia had no idea which universe Max currently occupied. And yet some of the barely intelligible images that she’d just experienced had been from Max’s life, not just her own, hinting at the distinct possibility that their minds were still linked.
Julia stood up from the bed and walked over to the bedroom door. As she approached it she saw the same shimmering in the air that she’d noticed when she’d been with Max at Castlegate Park. Were things changing again? And if so, where would she end up next? There was then a flash of light and Julia was no longer in the bedroom. She was on the driveway, standing beside her mother’s car. This was the moment when she’d arrived home less than an hour earlier. Why was she back here? Was the breakdown of barriers between the different realities now causing some kind of time loop?
She cautiously approached the house, wondering what would be the same and what might be different. This time when she walked up to the front door, she was expecting the cat to appear, which it did right on cue, springing up from the shrubs and racing away across the lawn. She opened the door and stepped inside, where her mother was sitting on the couch drinking a cup of coffee, just like before.
“Hi, Julia,” she said, placing the cup on a coaster on the table. “I wasn’t sure what time you’d be home. Come and sit down. I’d like to talk to you.”
Julia figured that her mother was about to repeat their earlier conversation. Julia walked over to the couch and sat down.
“What about?” she asked.
“It’s about your real father,” her mother replied. “I know it was a bit of a surprise to say the least when I told you last weekend. I don’t know why, but I was thinking about him, the first time in years.”
Julia nodded. So far everything that her mother was saying seemed to be more or less identical to the last time they’d sat together like this.
“He called me this morning and he’s going to be in town tomorrow,” said her mother. “As you know, he wasn’t in touch with me for years until last weekend when he called me out of the blue. I know this is quite sudden but he’d like to meet you.”
“Meet me?” said Julia, in astonishment. “I don’t understand. He’s dead. The car accident.”
“Car accident? What are you talking about?”
“The car accident,” Julia repeated. “When he was twenty. You told me about it, remember?”
“Are you okay, Julia?”
“I . . . I don’t know,” she said.
She’d clearly slipped into yet another reality, but what was in store for her this time?
“I know this is upsetting,” her mother continued. “You don’t have to meet him if you don’t want to. I already told him that and he understood but also said that he doesn’t know when he’ll be in this part of the country again. It could be a while before you two have the chance to meet. I said I’d call him back once you got home.”
Julia began to panic.
“I . . . I can’t do this, I’m sorry,” she said.
She stood up from the couch, hurried up to her room, and firmly closed the door.
JULIA SAT DOWN on the bed, her heart pounding. Kane was obviously still alive in this reality, which could be littered with all kinds of other highly uncomfortable surprises. Presumably Kane and her mother simply split up before she was born and now he was back. But what had prompted him to call? It had to have something to do with the barriers between realities breaking down again, and it was all her fault. Julia acknowledged that this could be a radically different reality and Kane could even be a nice guy, but what had prompted him to call and ask about her? Could the reality shifts be triggering Kane’s own knowled
ge of different universes? Or was her presence somehow doing that? She couldn’t risk meeting him. If he had the same powers as before, he could easily recognize her. She also couldn’t even stay in this world any longer, in case Kane realized who she was, just like he’d done when he’d transcended timelines before he went after Max.
But could she even leave this reality? Her movements between the different worlds had mostly been accidental, except the one to rescue Max. Yet after her failure to escape with him from Castlegate Park, Julia feared that she would no longer be able to control her journeys and that she’d be trapped in this universe forever. Either that or she could continue to experience random shifts every time the shimmering effect appeared, and she was terrified that eventually she’d never remember Max at all.
Julia was well aware of the dangers of disrupting the timelines again since she was convinced that she’d caused much of the problem. She knew that she couldn’t wait any longer. Julia lay back down on the bed and concentrated, trying to recall the image that she’d seen of Max in the bare room, where the handcuff and chain secured him to the adjacent wall. Her thoughts kept drifting to her friends at school and to her parents, but she struggled to stay on track, forcing herself to focus on Max, before it was too late.
Chapter Nineteen
Circles in Spirals
MAX WOKE UP periodically during the few hours after Hammond had left the room, drifting in and out of consciousness. The drugs that he’d been given were powerful, and as he sat up on the bed, Max could barely open his eyes. He vaguely recalled a man coming to check on him and then later a woman leaving some food. The untouched sandwich, some vegetables, and a bottle of water remained on a wooden tray on the floor. He reached for the bottle and was instantly reminded of the handcuff and its accompanying chain. Grabbing the bottle, he twisted the cap and quickly drank half the contents.
His entire body felt numb and there was a dull throbbing in his head. After he’d spoken to Julia on the deck at his house, Max’s memories of different timelines had been erased, or at least suppressed. Yet Max was very aware of the fact that in this reality he’d been declared insane and was going to be confined to an institution for the rest of his life. He tried to stand but immediately felt dizzy and was unsteady on his feet, almost collapsing. He lay down on the bed and closed his eyes, hoping that the dizzy feeling would soon pass but then the medication starting taking effect again. Max fought against it but it was a losing battle, and he began to fall asleep again. Suddenly, in his mind he saw a pair of green eyes surrounded by a thick white mist.
“Max, wake up.”
He opened his eyes and was shocked to see Julia’s semi-transparent form standing beside the bed in front of him. He sat up and scrambled backward on the bed, up against the wall.
“Julia?” he said, haltingly. “Julia? Are you dead? Are you a ghost?”
“No,” she replied. “Well, not exactly. Listen, I don’t have much time to sustain the link.”
“Link? What are you talking about?”
“I’m in another reality but I’m gradually starting to forget all the other timelines, and I might soon forget you too.”
“What happened to you?” Max asked. “Your hair’s shorter, and a different colour. And your clothes too. You look so different.”
“My life’s different here, that’s all,” she said. “Look, there’s no time to explain everything. This might be my last chance to reach you.”
Julia’s image began to flicker, then disappeared completely before it returned.
“Can you take me to where you are?” asked Max.
Julia shook her head.
“No, I’m not really there. I’m only projecting myself to you.”
Max tentatively reached out his hand and shivered as it passed straight through Julia’s arm.
“You have to focus, Max,” said Julia. “Remember with Kovac? You can go . . .”
Then she was gone, and Max was alone in the windowless room at the clinic.
WHAT HAD SHE meant about Kovac? What did she need him to remember? Something that Kovac had done? Or something that Max had done? Then he had it. Of course. He’d travelled into Kovac’s memories and had also entered Kane’s memories later. Could he do that again with someone else? Max desperately struggled to remember what had happened to him. He’d been in the interview room. Then they’d sedated him, and he’d woken up in his current location. A man had checked in on him and then a woman had later brought the food tray.
There had to be somebody at the clinic with keys or security passes. He’d have to be close to them for this to work. He needed to get someone into the room, and then he could access their minds. He could then attempt to go into their memories, but not as far back as he’d done with Kovac and Kane. If he could make them forget to lock the handcuff and the door, he could escape. The clinic had security doors and cameras everywhere. Even with a pass, he’d probably never get outside, but he had to take the chance.
Max knew from his previous experience in Kovac’s memories, then again with Kane at the playground, that if he changed things in the past he’d be safe in what he considered to be the present. He wouldn’t have to go that deep into someone’s memory this time, just to when they’d last been in the room. But first he had to get someone’s attention. He had no idea how long ago the man had checked on him or when the food had been delivered. It could be hours before anyone visited the room again. He could call for help to attract attention but he didn’t want to risk being given more medication. He was only just recovering from the previous heavy doses that he’d had and was still slightly groggy.
With Kovac he’d been able to enter the deceased doctor’s stored memories using the machine that Evans had devised. With Kane, Max had been in close proximity to him during the desperate struggle after Julia had been killed. Max realized that he could wait until someone came to the room but then thought he’d try something else. He’d surprised himself when he’d been able to enter Kane’s memories and wasn’t even sure at the time how he’d managed to do it. He thought that it must be similar to what he’d been able to achieve with Deanna’s help to enter David Dexter’s memories and travel into his past. Perhaps if he concentrated hard enough he could reach out to someone else’s mind, like Julia seemed to be able to do?
Max focused on the door and the corridor beyond; then closed his eyes. At first, nothing happened. Then to his surprise he was able to visualize the lengthy hallway, which led to a door equipped with a security pad on the left and an open doorway to the right. It appeared that his was the only room in this section of the clinic. Max followed the corridor to the right, and as the doorway drew closer, he sensed the presence of another mind.
Focusing on the area ahead of him, Max saw a man seated at a desk, his attention focused on a computer screen. Max wasn’t entirely sure but he thought that it was the man who had checked in on him when he was semi-conscious. There was no sign of the woman that had brought him the food tray, and Max couldn’t sense any other thoughts in the immediate vicinity. He concentrated, and just as Julia had predicted, Max entered the mind of the man at the desk. At first, a jumble of disconnected images filled his head as Max tried to recall what he’d done when he’d been inside Kane’s thoughts and how he’d managed to reach the correct memory. Once the mass of thoughts had stabilized, Max found himself viewing the world through the man’s eyes, just as Max had done when he’d been driving the car in order to avoid Kovac’s fateful car accident in Belgrade.
The man had left the desk and was passing through the doorway, walking along the hallway toward the room where Max was held. Yet Max was in control of the man’s body and would be able to change what had happened earlier that day. When Max reached the door, he grabbed the collection of keys on a large metal ring hanging from his belt. He slid the appropriate key into the lock, eased the door open, and stepped into the room. It felt extremely weird to be looking at himself as he lay unconscious on the bed. From his own memories, Max recal
led seeing the man briefly when he’d been half asleep. Sure enough, as he approached the bed, the boy lying there briefly opened his eyes and then closed them again. The man wasn’t carrying any medical equipment so Max assumed that previously he’d probably simply checked that Max was breathing and was in no difficulties. This time Max was in control of the man’s actions. He quickly searched the man’s pockets and found the security pass. He took it out and placed it just out of sight on the floor under the bed. He then unlocked the handcuff that was attached to the chain, before quickly leaving the room and closing the door, although he didn’t lock it. He walked down the hallway and reached the desk just as the woman arrived with the food tray. She said something to the man in greeting but Max quickly vacated the man’s thoughts.
Back in the room, Max gasped and caught his breath. That had been a bizarre experience but it appeared to have worked. He looked down at his wrist and the handcuff wasn’t there. It was lying on the floor at the edge of the bed at the end of the chain. Max quickly looked under the bed, and sure enough, there was the man’s security card. Presumably it would access the pad on the door in the hallway and hopefully open any other doors, although Max remained dubious regarding whether he’d be able to get outside the building to safety. Even if he successfully passed through every security checkpoint there would surely be cameras just about everywhere. Unlike Julia, Max had no ability that could disable electronic equipment like she’d successfully done in the interview room. He wasn’t even sure where he was supposed to go, only that Julia had promised to help him. But would she be able to forge another link between their two realities so that she could do that?
Max took a deep breath and stood up from the bed. He went over to the door, which, as he’d hoped, had been left unlocked. He carefully eased the door open, peering out into the corridor. He hadn’t checked the ceiling when he’d been in the man’s memories but it didn’t look as if there were any cameras, unless they were very well concealed. Max was about to step out into the hallway when the corridor around him began to shimmer. It was the same effect that he and Julia had witnessed at Castlegate Park when they’d seen another version of Max, indicating that something was very wrong. The phenomena rapidly became more pronounced, and Max’s entire surroundings began to dissolve. He stepped back into the room as everything started to melt together. He heard the sounds of thousands of voices, and countless images began swirling all around him, as they’d done before he’d found himself with Julia in the bizarre place where all the different realities intersected. Was she trying to break through and take him to safety? Then there was a brilliant burst of light and Max was somewhere else entirely.
