by P. T. Hylton
He made his way to the boarding house and settled in, allowing himself to relax for the night before starting the job the next day. It only took him three days to find the man, though they were three days of his least favorite type of work: the kind that included human contact. Over the last eight years, he’d been able to skate by with only talking to people once or twice a week, not counting the service people he had minor interactions with on a daily basis. And that was the way he preferred it. He liked to be alone with the watch.
Still, he did what the job called for.
So, picture in hand, he canvased the streets of Santa Cruz. He started with the bars. Knowing that some people, likely the type of people who frequented bars, might assume he was a lawman and be reluctant to help him, he concocted a story about having been hired to find Henry Rankin about a confidential matter involving an inheritance. If he saw anything in anyone’s eyes that said they might know something about Henry, Zed was quick to slip them a dollar or two. Once, he even passed a five dollar bill to a man who hemmed and hawed just the right amount. But they all turned out to be dead ends. It was happenstance—or was it?—that finally gave him the man’s location.
The woman who ran the boarding house saw the picture and asked him if he was a friend of old Hank. A few carefully phrased questions later, he had his quarry’s place of employment, which was less than a block from the boarding house. Zed was beginning to realize Wilm wasn’t really trying to locate Mr. Rankin. This was a test, and one Zed was determined to pass.
Zed watched Rankin for two days, taking particular note of his route to and from work, which passed right by the boarding house.
On the third day, he stepped in front of Rankin as the man was passing the house. Just before he got to Rankin he noticed Nancy, the woman who ran the boarding house, striding toward him with purpose. No matter. She’d be right there when he was done with Rankin. He pushed the broken clock symbol on the pocket watch and time stopped.
One of the more frustrating aspects of the watch’s ability was that it didn’t allow you to move people while time was stopped. Objects, yes. Anything not alive. But people and animals became immovable statues.
However, Zed had a theory. One he’d been too afraid to test until now. He believed that the watch released the power to stop time, but that he himself could shape it. Expand it.
He concentrated on expanding the bubble that allowed him to move while everyone else around him was frozen. He pushed the circle until it reached Rankin. In a moment, Rankin was blinking. Zed felt a smile creep across his face.
Rankin continued walking and almost bumped into Zed.
“You mind?” he asked.
Zed’s smile widened. He couldn’t help it. This was just too much fun.
“I do,” he said.
The man looked confused so Zed gestured toward the street, indicating the frozen people around him.
The man’s eyes widened. “What the hell?”
“I need to ask you a question, Mr. Rankin. Where have you been the past three years?”
Rankin shook his head, his breath coming in quicker gasps now. He took a step backward. “No. I already told them I’m not going to talk about that.”
Zed stepped forward, closing the distance between them once more. “I’d suggest you revise your position.”
Now Rankin drew his chest up like he was making an effort to look tough. “I don’t care what you do. You and all your tricks. I won’t talk.”
“Very well,” Zed said. He imagined the bubble in his mind contracting ever so slightly.
Rankin’s face grew pale. “Wh-what are you doing? I can’t feel my feet.”
Zed continued to contract the bubble.
The man looked around in panic. “Help! Someone help me!”
“Believe it or not, Mr. Rankin, you and I are the only living creatures in the world at this moment. There’s no one who can help you. By the way, have you tried wiggling your fingers?”
Rankin looked down at his hands and the horrified look on his face answered Zed’s question.
“Okay,” Rankin said, his voice choked with emotion. “I was in Rook Mountain. Rook Mountain, Tennessee.”
Zed couldn’t help but be the tiniest bit disappointed the man hadn’t held out longer. He would have liked to have frozen all but Rankin’s head. He thought for a moment, trying to think of something else to ask, but he came up blank. He had the information he’d been asked to get.
He touched the broken clock symbol on the watch, and time resumed. Rankin gasped and crumpled to the ground in a shivering heap.
“Take a moment to compose yourself,” Zed said, “then go.” He was surprised to realize he was still smiling. He rarely smiled, a habit that he’d carried with him since childhood.
Zed felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Nancy standing behind him. He’d forgotten she’d been walking toward him when he stopped time.
She said, “This came for you. Delivery man said it was urgent.” She held out a white envelope. She noticed Henry Rankin on the ground. “My Lord, is that Hank? Is he hurt?”
“Just a little excited to see me,” Zed said. “It’s been a long time.”
He could see the elegant W in the upper-left corner of the envelope she held. He nodded, took the envelope, and walked away without a word. He tore it open, standing in the middle of the lawn, and was surprised to find there was no money inside. Just a letter. He took out the piece of paper and unfolded it with a shaky hand.
We are pleased with your progress. Our man will pick you up in the morning to bring you to see me. Then your education will be begin.
Regards,
Wilm
It was the first time she’d signed a letter with anything other than her first initial.
He returned to his room and lay awake until morning.
CHAPTER FIVE: FRANK’S DILEMMA
1.
They sat in silence for a long moment after Matt finished telling his story about how the world had ended.
“You ask me, only one thing’s changed since that last time,” Sophie said. “Alice. Alice is the key to all this. She has to be.”
Frank looked at Sophie. It was one of the things he liked best about her, the ability to cut through to the heart of the matter. Frank felt like he always had to think his way around things a dozen different ways before he gained any perspective. Not Sophie. She bulldozed right through any emotional baggage or strange implications. Some of the time, the things she blurted out were wrong. But more often than not, she was right. And Frank had an idea this was the latter.
Alice was the key. She had to be. He didn’t know how he felt about using a nine-year-old girl in a fight against ancient evils, but he had a feeling she’d be important by the end of this.
No matter what happened, they had to keep Alice safe.
“Now hold up,” Helen said.
“No, it’s gotta be,” Sophie said. “Look, Mason was born outside time in Sanctuary, right? He could read that book and use it. He had a huge connection to that place. What if Alice is the same way with this place and this book?”
“She wasn’t born outside time,” Matt said.
“No,” Frank said, “but she was born in a—what did you call it—redo. In a strange way, she never should have been born at all.”
He hoped Matt wouldn’t be offended by the way he’d said it, but there was a certain truth to it.
After a moment, Matt said, “You’re right. God, I hate it so much, but you’re right.”
“No,” Mason said. “Trust me, I have some experience with this. It’s not that she shouldn’t have been born, it’s that nobody was expecting her to be. It gives us an advantage. The bad guys, Zed and these mysterious Exiles, they’ll underestimate her. If they even notice she exists at all.”
“You really think so?”
“Look,” Mason continued, “I spent upwards of fifty years in Sanctuary with Zed. Never once did he say anything about these great enemies of his
. He didn’t care enough about me. I was just a tool. No different than that compass he carries.”
Anger flared in Matt’s eyes. He looked from Mason to Frank to Sophie. “And now you’re talking about using Alice in the same way. It’s like you think she’s some kind of weapon.”
Frank didn’t deny it. Neither did the others. The fact was, that was exactly how Frank was thinking of her. And the worst part was, that didn’t bother him. He’d seen his hometown torn apart by the Unfeathered. It had nearly killed him. He didn’t want to imagine what it would be like to watch the whole world burn. If turning one little girl into a weapon was the price that had to be paid, then so be it.
Frank wasn’t crazy enough to say any of that out loud, even though Matt seemed to think they were best buddies from previous lives. For once, Sophie was smart enough to keep quiet, too.
Matt must have seen something in Frank’s eyes though, because he said, “She’s a nine-year-old girl!”
Helen put a calming hand on his knee. “Honey, it’s okay. We’re just talking is all. If we want to keep Alice safe, we have to understand.”
Frank could have kissed her.
Helen continued. “How do we know what she can do? If you’re right about her being the key to this thing?”
Matt shot her a look that was half surprised, half hurt, but he didn’t interrupt.
“Well,” Frank said, “it could be she’s using the book already and we don’t know it.”
“I highly doubt that,” Matt said. “She hates the thing. Did you see her face when I asked her to get it? There’s no way she’s flipping through it without us knowing.”
Frank frowned.
“There is one thing,” Helen said. “It doesn’t have to do with the book, at least I don’t think so, but she does have a certain…strange knack.”
Matt’s face went pale. “Should we really be talking about this? In front of strangers?”
Helen pursed her lips. “These aren’t strangers, and you know it. You said yourselves they’re our friends. We’ve died beside them how many times? Besides, I’m sick of not talking about what Alice can do. It’s like this dark cloud hanging over our lives and we never acknowledge it.”
Matt’s eyes narrowed. “You think I don’t want to talk about it? Of course I do. But what’s there to say? I’m scared, okay? Scared for her. Scared of what will happen to her if we don’t find a way to win.”
“I am, too,” Helen said. “But it’s time to talk about it, to figure out a way to handle this thing. But we’re a team, so if you don’t want me to tell them about it, I won’t.”
Matt looked at the floor for a moment. “No. You’re right. God, I hate it when that happens.” A sad smile curled his lips. “Tell them.”
Helen nodded, her eyes filled with love for the man. Then she turned to her guests. “Alice has this knack for…knowing what’s going to happen before it does.”
“Sounds like what Joe at the library said about you guys with the tattoos,” Sophie said. “She can tell the future?”
“Not exactly,” Matt said. “I mean, yes, but only in specific circumstances. It’s like she knows when there’s gonna be trouble and manages to avoid it. She’s never once scraped her knee or broken anything. And sometimes she warns us before something happens.”
“What do you mean?” Frank asked.
“Like last night. She told us Willis was going to knock on the door at three in the morning, and he did.”
“She used to talk about it,” Helen said. “She called it Pulling Back. I think she meant fixing things that have already happened. Or making it so they never happened. I don’t know. But once she realized not everyone could do it, she stopped talking about it. And, cowards that we are, we didn’t bring it up again. I think we were relieved she stopped mentioning it.”
Matt sighed. “It scared us. It’s too much like what Zed can do.”
Frank ran his hand through his hair. “Could we bring her down here?”
Matt and Helen exchanged a look.
“We won’t mention that Pulling Back thing,” he continued before they could voice their objection. “I want to talk to her about the book. I want to know if she can see the words. And, if so, whether she can figure out how to use it.”
After a moment, Helen and Matt both nodded.
“I’ll get her,” Helen said.
As she headed up the stairs, a cell phone buzzed. Matt pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the screen. “It’s Zed.”
“I wonder what kind of cellphone Zed rocks,” Sophie said. “I’ll bet it’s a flip phone.”
Frank watched Matt’s face closely as he spoke with Zed. In the distance, he heard Helen calling for Alice.
Matt said, “Okay. Yeah, I understand.” He ended the call.
Helen’s voice drifted down to them, more frantic now.
“There’s something wrong at the shed,” Matt said. “Some kind of problem. Zed said it could ruin everything.” His eyes were wide. “I’m scared, guys. Whatever’s happening has him spooked. He’s on the verge of pulling the plug and starting over. We need to get down there.”
Before Frank could answer, Helen stuck her head over the railing, a look of terror on her face.
“Alice,” she said, her voice a husky whisper. “Alice is gone.”
2.
Alice stared at the woman standing in front of her. The world felt like it was spinning. She had to remind herself to breathe.
She reminded herself to focus on what was real. On the things she could see.
The woman who’d introduced herself as Wilm was tall and thin. She looked strong in a reedy way. And hard.
Not wanting to meet the woman’s gaze, Alice looked around. This was definitely not King’s Crossing. The street seemed a bit wider. The shops were different. Even the color of the pavement under her feet seemed off a few shades.
But that wasn’t all that was different. There were strange, white, featherless birds walking the streets. And dark, shadowy shapes circling in the sky.
The not knowing got her panicking again. She wanted to get out of here, and she wanted to do it now.
She imagined the rope in her mind and imagined grabbing it. Normally she was careful when she Pulled Back, exerting just the right amount of effort to go back to some exact moment. But not now. She was too scared. She just wanted out of here. If that meant going back a month or two, so be it. She gripped the rope and yanked it hard.
A spike of pain shot through her brain, but the rope didn’t move. For the first time in her life, it didn’t move.
The woman took a step toward her. “None of that, now.”
Alice pulled again. Another spike of pain, sharper than before, but again the rope didn’t move.
She pulled a third time, and she cried out as the pain rocked her like it never had before. She fell to her knees.
And then Alice felt true fear. She’d thought she’d been afraid before, but what she felt now was a whole different level. She couldn’t leave. She couldn’t go home. She couldn’t Pull Back.
“Now you’re just being silly,” Wilm said. She held out a hand, then said in a softer voice, “Come on. I’ll explain.”
Alice looked at the hand for a long moment. Finally, not knowing what else to do, she took it and let the woman help her to her feet.
“You’re trying to pull on time, yes?” Wilm asked.
Alice paused a long moment. She’d never had it put to her so plainly. She nodded.
Wilm said, “Well, that’s your problem, then. Time doesn’t exist here.”
Alice was starting to feel sick now. She tried unsuccessfully to keep the quiver out of her voice when she spoke. “I don’t understand. If time doesn’t exist, how am I breathing? How are we talking?”
Wilm waved a dismissive hand at her. “You people. You have it all wrong. You think time is some sort of protector. Or a necessary thing for your survival. Time is the chains you don’t even know you’re wearing.”
Alice tried to understand. She thought maybe this woman was crazy. But this place seemed all too real. Maybe it was Alice who was crazy.
“Where are we?” Alice asked.
Wilm put her hands on her hips and looked around, as if for the first time. “A place called Ferman Creek, Montana. I live in a little cabin outside town.”
A tiny part of Alice’s mind was thrilled at that. She’d never been out of the Midwest.
“I’ve been here for what you would consider a long time,” Wilm said. “A very long time. Tell me, do you know a man named Zed?”
Alice shook her head. “I’ve heard of him, but I’ve never met him.”
“Zed trapped me here.” She frowned and a shadow fell across her face. “He doesn’t even fully understand what this place is, but he still managed to trap me.”
After a moment, Alice asked, “How’d I get here?”
“I brought you, of course.”
“But how?” Alice asked in a shaking voice. “If you’re trapped, how’d you bring me here?”
“Zed has it all wrong. He thinks that by putting me outside time he’s cut me off from my power. In fact, he’s put me in my natural habitat. I was born outside of time, and here I can see time as if it were a parchment laid out before me. Possible pasts, presents, and futures are all there for me to read. Understand?”
Alice didn’t, but she wasn’t about to say so.
Wilm continued without waiting for a reply. “But I can’t leave. I can’t get back into time. And, though I can see time, it’s murky. Difficult to make anything out. All I can see clearly are the occasional bright spots.” She looked at Alice pointedly. “Like you.”
Alice knew her hands were shaking, but she was powerless to stop them. Wilm was talking about her power, her ability to Pull Back. Alice had always known deep down that the power would get her into trouble one day. But she’d never imagined it would be something like this.
“I saw your life stretched across time like a beam of light. But I couldn’t be sure you were important. Until I noticed something strange. I noticed a friend of mine, a man named Rayd, was in King’s Crossing in 2015. I recognized his light immediately. It was strange because he was supposed to be locked out of time. Like me. And then I saw your light next to his. And that’s when I knew you must be important.”
