by Imogen Rose
Lunch was a somber affair. Harry and Kellan arrived back from their ride, immediately wondering where David had gone.
“He’s supposed to hang out with us until Larry gets back,” Harry said. “What did you say to him, Arizona? Where would he have gone?”
“Nothing,” I said defensively, and remained silent for the rest of the meal. We were all quiet, apart from Ella. She kept it going, chattering endlessly about how she had decided upon her costume.
“So what are you guys wearing?” she finally asked.
“That’s a secret, munchkin,” Harry replied. “Speaking of costumes, I need to head over to Maria’s to get ready. I’ll see you guys over at your place later, Kellan.”
“We should do the same, Shrimp. Head over to my place and get ready,” Kellan said, winking at me.
“I have to get Ella ready first,” I shrugged, not feeling the least bit like celebrating Halloween or anything else, not until we knew what was going on. However, I guess we had to keep up appearances for Ella’s sake and also for the feds, or they’d know something was up.
“Oh, I’ll do that. I can do your makeup, can’t I, Ella?” Grandma interrupted. “Off you two go. Relax and have fun. I’ll meet you over there at five with Ella, Sally and Jonas.”
I looked up at Kellan somberly. Much as I was worried about Kevin and David, I decided that I owed it to Kellan to be there for him tonight. Mom had said that she would meet us over at Kellan’s later, so until then, I was going to give Kellan my undivided attention. We walked out to his bike and made our way to his house. I pressed myself close to him as we rode down the street, the wind blowing in our faces.
His house was empty, apart from Anna who was busy in the kitchen. The outside of the house had been completely transformed into a graveyard. It looked spooky and put our house to shame. I had never been up to Kellan’s room before, but it seemed perfectly natural to head up there now. It looked like Harry and Kellan had coordinated their decorating, or perhaps they’d used the same designer. Their rooms were pretty much identical: Hockey posters, pucks, sticks, helmets everywhere. I sat down on Kellan’s bed, comfortable in the familiarity. I noticed a picture of myself in the frame on his bedside table.
“So, horrify me,” I teased, as Kellan opened the door to his walk-in closet.
He turned around and smiled, slowly bringing out two costumes, one in each hand.
I collapsed in laughter.
By five o’clock it was already starting to get dark. Kellan and I were helping Anna put out the various assortments of delicious Halloween treats. The doorbell had already rung a few times and we’d handed out treats to several cute trick-or-treaters. First, it was the little kids, they started early. Anna told us that the first ones had come around as early as noon.
Grandma arrived with Ella, Jonas and Sally–the three Goth cheerleaders. I wondered how Jonas had been talked into that! Ella stopped short when she saw me. Her nose started twitching. And then she snorted, exploding onto the floor in a hysterical laughing fit.
“Too much candy?” I asked Grandma, rolling my eyes.
“Well, you do look amusing, dear, to say the least,” she said, her eyes smiling.
The bell rang again and I let Ariele and Ingrid through. Ariele looked beyond hysterical.
“Don’t say a word, mouse,” she warned me as she pushed through to the lounge. “You look mighty ridiculous yourself.”
It was soon half past five and time to go trick-or-treating, but there were still no signs of Harry, Maria, Ali, Robert, Mom, Rupert or Larry. Well, we could wait no longer. We got ready to head outside when two bikes and a car drove up the driveway. They had all arrived.
“Kellan, give me a moment. I need to have a quick word with your dad before we go. Can you find out from Mom what’s going on?”
He gave me a strange look but nodded.
“Dr. Fox, can I talk to you for a sec?” I asked, before Kellan could ask me why. We went back into the house and spoke in the hallway.
“Arizona, what’s up?”
“David’s gone. He left to go and be with his dad, I think,” I said cautiously.
“I know. Don’t worry about it, Arizona. It’s going to be okay. Let’s head off and get started with the trick-or-treating before Ella throws a tantrum.”
Trick-or-treating was fun. I collected loads of candy, much more that I could ever hope to eat. Kellan and I started hanging back a bit once our sacks were full, leaving Ella and her friends to get on with it. I was pleased when Grandma announced that it was bedtime for Ella and that they had to head home. I was trick-or-treated out. It was time to head to the lake to hang out at the dance.
I had thought it was a weird location for the Halloween dance when I first heard about it from Kellan. However, when we arrived, I was totally awestruck. It had been completely transformed. Halloween lanterns lined the lake, the rays of light eerily playing off the shimmer of the moon’s reflection in the water. Smoke machines were pumping out white films of smoke from behind the trees. Spooky-looking gravestones protruded from the ground, some with a bloody body part peeking out. A stage made of coffins had been constructed and a band, made up of ghouls, witches, monsters, and other frightening looking creatures, were up dancing and singing. It was pretty awesome! I squeezed Kellan’s hand in delight.
“Cool, isn’t it,” he agreed. “Your dad and mine did most of the organizing this year, so I did get a bit of a say,” he winked at me. “I got to pick the band.”
“Good choice,” I whispered and kissed him.
“Mousies shouldn’t kiss,” Ariele laughed from behind me.
“At least we’re warm,” I said, patting my red Minnie Mouse costume and clicking the enormous shoes together with a grin. “Mickey is irresistible,” I said, pecking Kellan’s black tipped nose. “Where’s Ingrid?”
“She went to get us some drinks. I’m flipping freezing. I hope she comes back with some hot chocolate.”
“Yes, what’s up with that ridiculous look?” I asked, looking at Ariele’s barely-there Lady Gaga costume.
She rolled her eyes and shrugged. “I’m choosing our costumes next year,” she said before Ingrid came over to us. Somehow, Ingrid managed to look totally at home in her Lady Gaga costume.
“The Gaga Twins?” I asked, and laughed as I noticed the large pacifier-shaped mikes around their necks–they both said Gaga Twin on them.
“Hello, mice, and who the gaga are you?” Harry laughed, coming up to us with Maria in his arms.
“The Gaga Twins, obviously,” I smirked. “And you’re Prince Charming and Cinderella? Totally original–not,” I laughed. “But you do look amazing,” I added, hurriedly–looking at Maria–in response to the look from Harry. “Where are Ali and Robert?”
“Over there,” Maria pointed to the crowded makeshift, dance floor.
“Come on, Shrimp. Dance with me,” Kellan said, pulling me toward the floor. I felt a little shy, but decided that I couldn’t really look any more ridiculous than I already did. I would just go for it and make a total idiot of myself. I’d be the mouse disco queen. And that’s exactly what I did; I had so much fun. I let all my inhibitions down and let myself drown in the music and the spirit of the occasion. So did Kellan–we were the buckest dancing mice ever to be seen on a dance floor anywhere. We were jammin’!
There was a tap on my shoulder as I was doing the mouse version of the “Time Warp” from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. I knew who it was, even before I turned around, I could feel him.
“The diva mouse is all yours,” Kellan laughed at David, and pecked me on my nose before he disappeared.
“Come on, Poppet. I need to talk to you,” David said, and dragged me off the dance floor. We walked into the woods until we were far enough away from the music to be able to hear each other. I looked at him. He was wearing the same clothes that he’d been wearing earlier in the day. He’d obviously just gotten back, with no time to change into a costume. I wondered what he would have dress
ed up as if he had the opportunity.
“A vampire,” he chuckled. “Very original, I know!”
I missed a heartbeat. I couldn’t get used to him reading my thoughts. It was too unsettling.
“I’m sorry,” he said, letting go of my hands. “I’ll try not to.”
“Thanks, David. It freaks me out.”
“I can only do it if I’m touching you,” he said, putting his hands up in the air.
“Just with your hands or any touching?” I asked to be clear.
“Any touching,” he sighed.
“Did you see your dad?” I asked.
“Yes. I did see him, though I didn’t get to speak to him. He’s still unconscious after surgery. There was a lot of internal bleeding, but he’s going to be okay.”
“What happened, David? How did he get hurt?”
“Raj Sen got to him and stabbed him with a knife–right through the chest. He just narrowly missed Dad’s heart and lungs.”
“Oh my gosh, David! Why? How?” I asked, putting my arm around him, acutely aware that he could feel my thoughts now, but I didn’t care.
“Dad decided that he wanted to head back home. So, Morena transported him back. Not to his own house, but to her house. It turns out that Raj Sen was waiting for him over at his place with a hostage. I don’t know who. Anyway, the brief story, the one that I got, was that Dad went home to his house and they released the hostage. When Dad eventually told Raj that you guys were back home with your parents, he totally lost it. He started attacking Dad–to the point that Mom could feel his pain. She transported herself across with Erica, who insisted on going. There was a fight and Dad got hurt. That’s not all though,” he said, staring at the ground.
“David?” I prompted.
“Erica is dead,” he whispered.
“Dead?” I repeated, my hands falling from him as I sat down on the ground. I didn’t know Erica Sen at all, really. I just knew that she was Simla’s mother. This would be devastating for her. “How?”
“Raj Sen stuck a knife in her while they were fighting. Erica was trying to get him away from Dad.”
Simla’s dad had killed her mother? This was beyond awful. “Does she know?”
“No, not yet. I’ve been tasked to tell her. I have to take her to Morgana’s house where she is to be kept safe until Grayson gets back.”
“Why you, David?” I asked, feeling that it was unfair to have asked him to do this while his dad in critical condition. He should be with his dad at this time.
“Because all the Elders are busy with Dad, because I know you, because you have been Simla’s friend,” he reeled off his reasons. “The Elders thought that she could use your support.”
I nodded. “David, there is nothing I would like better than to be able to comfort her in any way I can. But, she’s not going to want me to. She’ll totally blame me for this. She’s going to hate me more than ever.”
“Do you know where she is?” David asked.
“Yes, she was on the dance floor with Justin. Does he know yet?”
David shook his head.
“What are you going to do, David? I want to be there to support you, but I don’t think it will help if I’m there when you talk to Simla.”
He nodded. “Go back to Kellan,” he said and kissed me gently. I left him pondering in the woods.
“What was that all about, Shrimp?” Kellan asked, as I walked into his outstretched arms.
“Kellan, can we go home? I’m wiped,” I said, gazing into his eyes tiredly.
“Sure, let’s go,” he said, as I saw David walk up to the dance floor and tap Simla on her shoulder.
“Kellan, I love you,” I said, not exactly sure why.
“Love you too, Shrimp,” he said as he pulled off my mouse ears and secured the pink helmet to my head. The two mousies, as Ariele would say, were riding home on the bike. It had been a crazy week, to say the least but, we were back home and safe. Not so for Simla, I thought sadly. She would be totally distraught. I wanted to be able to reach out to her, but it was too late for that. I hoped that Justin would be able to step up. I knew David would be a rock for her, as would all the Wanderers.
I wondered if, once all this was over, I would be able to go back and visit Dad. Perhaps David could transport me if the portal didn’t function again. Nah, I couldn’t use him as my personal taxi service. Mom would get the portal working again and I would visit Dad in October. Maybe even take Ella. Maybe I would be visiting myself.
EPILOGUE
Olivia sat down on her leather-bound chair and switched on her computer. It seemed like forever since she had last been here, in her office at Ames. It had only been a week, though a roller coaster week.
As she waited for the computer to start up and go through all the security filters, she reached for the pile of mail that had been building up on her desk. She pulled at a padded envelope stuck in the middle of the pile and looked at the return label. Finally! She tore it open and carefully extracted the silver necklace from the bubble wrap inside it. She had missed her necklace, annoyed that it had taken so long to fix the clasp. She ran her fingers across the letters, Q-U-A-N-T-U-M, and then secured it safely around her neck where it belonged.
She kicked off her Louboutins and made herself comfortable. The nauseous feeling in the pit of her soul wouldn’t lift. Erica was gone–dead. Though they hadn’t been close, Olivia had known Erica for a very long time. She’d worked tirelessly on her projects alongside Grayson. Grayson was naturally devastated, inconsolable. Olivia couldn’t even imagine how Simla was coping, if she had coped at all. To lose her mother at such a delicate age; it was incomprehensible. She thought back to when she had lost her own mother, the dark dismay that she had felt. She had not been able to come to terms with it. She doubted that Simla would be able to.
Simla had also lost her father in a sense. A father who had killed her mother, but she didn’t know that. Hopefully she never would. He was gone, no one had seen or heard from him. He seemed to have vanished into thin air after he fled from Kevin’s house. The police had launched a search for him after Kevin had unintentionally mentioned his name while he was still delirious from the anesthetics. So far, there had been no signs of Raj anywhere. Olivia expected that he would hide out for quite some time. She wondered if he knew that he’d killed his wife or if he was under the impression that she was just hurt. Was he going to come back for Simla? Olivia felt conflicted. She wanted Raj to come back for Simla. Simla needed him more than ever now. However, Olivia had to keep him away from her own kids.
Olivia scanned through hundreds of unread emails. She clicked open a few, but couldn’t concentrate. There was only one issue that needed her undivided attention right now: The Darley-Stevens phenomenon. She was utterly stumped, but not defeated. There had to be an explanation, there always was.
Her desktop phone rang and interrupted her thoughts.
“Dr. Darley, you have a visitor–Simla Sen. Shall I send her up to your office.
“Yes, please do,” Olivia replied surprised. Simla? She certainly had not expected to see her, not here at Ames anyway. What could she want? Olivia, as far as she could recall, had never spoken to Simla directly, not once.
Simla was an anomaly. Arizona had mentioned a Simla in Princeton. They had been friends. She had assumed there were two different Simlas. Could they be one and the same? Had Raj Sen somehow used the portal before? Had he brought Simla and Erica through? Olivia had no recollection of either Raj or Erica from Princeton. Surely it must be a different Simla. It was certainly too late to ask Erica, Olivia thought sadly as she buzzed the door to let Simla in.
“Simla,” Olivia said warmly, pointing her over to the couch.
Simla stared at her defiantly, with the same stance she’d exhibited the last time Olivia had seen her, at Morgana’s house. What was it Simla had said then? She threatened them. She had expected Simla to be sad and vulnerable, but the girl who stood in front of her was far from that. She almost seemed
intimidating.
“Sit down, Olivia,” Simla seethed.
“I know that you’ve had a very rough time, but temper your tone,” Olivia warned. “I’m extremely sorry for your loss. I’ll try to help you in any way I can.”
“Oh, shut up, you stupid woman,” Simla spat out. “Sit down and shut up.”
Olivia moved to her desk, her eyes on the panic button. She sat down with her finger hovering just under it, ready to press it, if need be.
“Where are the blueprints?” Simla hissed.
“I don’t have them here, Simla. Why do you need to know?” Olivia asked, taken aback.
“I am asking the questions, not you,” Simla replied venomously. “I want them, the blueprints, go and get them. Now.”
Olivia shook her head, almost amused. “Oh, Simla. That’s really not going to happen. There is nothing you can do. I can have security up here in seconds. I don’t want to do that, though. You’ve been through so much.”
“Olivia, give me the blueprints,” Simla growled.
“Or what?” Olivia asked.
“Call down to reception. There’s something down there for you,” she said.
“Okay,” Olivia said puzzled. She dialed down and spoke to the same voice as earlier.
“Hi, Helen. Is there something down there for me?”
“No, Dr. Darley.”
“Ask her about the man who came with me,” Simla said.
“Helen, did someone come in with my visitor, Simla Sen?”
“The man who came in with your visitor is waiting in the lobby.”
“What man?”
“Oh, I didn’t get a name. Do you want me to ask?”
“Just do a routine check of his ID. I’ll wait,” Olivia said.
Helen was back in minutes. “Dr. Darley. Shall I send him up as well?”
“Who is it?”
