“Do you remember the dinner party at your house?” Dr. Saeed asked in a monotone voice, hypnotically soothing.
Aaron mumbled to himself, his eyes still closed.
“Ah, yes. I was telling everyone about our latest findings. About time travel.”
He chuckled quietly, grasping the top of the sheet tightly.
“Go on…” Dr. Saeed prompted him.
“I don’t remember the rest of the dinner. I must have fallen asleep. I woke up and found myself in a lab, just like this. Yes, yes…I remember now. There were people around me wearing hospital masks. I tried to say something, but I couldn’t.”
“Do you remember what they were saying?” Dr. Saeed asked.
“Nothing. No one was talking. I thought that was strange. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t move a muscle. Then they all left the room, leaving me alone on the gurney. That’s when I felt the room shaking. My body started convulsing violently. I felt the air being squeezed from my lungs. I wasn’t scared though,” he said, half whispering.
“Why weren’t you scared?”
“It almost felt like the first time when we almost succeeded. I felt myself slipping out of reality. The atoms in my body were pulling apart; the room was spinning around me. And then there was a flash of white light. Then blackness, like I was falling into a deep endless pit.”
Dr. Saeed frowned, nodding his head as if he was picturing what Aaron was saying in his mind.
“It seemed like I would fall forever, horrified and worried that it would never stop. After what seemed an eternity, I felt all my atoms rush together like a magnetic wave pulling all my cells towards the core of my body.”
Harry was puzzled by Aaron’s words. What was he talking about?
“And then I felt as if a bus had hit me. I thought I was going to die. Then I was stumbling in here,” Aaron said, his eyes opening.
He looked around.
“Looks like you have upgraded a lot of things, since I’ve been here.”
He’s been here before? What the --?
“Like I said, it has been five years. Harry and I were trying to continue the work that you started. But this lab, I’ve kept secret. I don’t want GN sticking their noses into our work. I also wanted to protect Harry.”
“Ahhh, Harry. How is my boy?” Aaron asked, smiling.
“He’s not a boy, anymore. He’s a man now with a doctorate. A true genius. Just like you said he’d be,” Dr. Saeed replied.
“Yes, we succeeded in proving my theory. Inducing the chemical changes in the cells of a genius—one whose soul is pure of mortal sin. That was the secret to it all.”
I can’t believe you both used me.
Dr. Saeed stood up and leaned over the bed.
“But that doesn’t explain how you time travelled here.”
Aaron’s voice melted into a nostalgic lilt.
“You’re right. We did try altering the general chemical composition of my nucleic acids. Nothing seemed to come of it, except for my sudden hair loss.”
Dr. Saeed chuckled.
“That wasn’t sudden, Aaron. It’s just that you hadn’t seen the top of your head in a really long time.”
Aaron scowled and turned away.
Dr. Saeed seemed to ignore him.
“In order to time travel, you had to be near the vicinity of a black hole, and there had to be enough power or energy to enable you to transport to here—the future.”
Aaron rolled his eyes, saying, “I told you, the energy was coming from inside that room. It seemed that those masked persons turned on the energy when they left the room.”
“Similar to an X-ray technician going into a booth before powering up the machine on a patient,” Dr. Saeed said.
Despite marveling at the idea that such a machine capable of time travel existed, Harry was seething with anger. He and his mother had trusted Dr. Saeed. But he was just using them both like lab rats. Suddenly, he could hear Cristal’s voice in his head saying those same words to him not too long ago.
His mother’s journal had mentioned how much she trusted Dr. Saeed, because he had helped prescribe the medication she needed to cope with the loss of her husband. He had driven her to the GN psychiatric visits. But now, Harry doubted Dr. Saeed’s intentions. Harry didn’t know what his mother, Bina, had said to her psychiatrist, but he was certain that she never told anyone about her secret journal.
“And Bina? Is she safe? Did you manage to test our theory on her?”
“Bina is fine. She finally got over your death,” he started to say, but he paused and corrected himself. “She finally got over her loss of you. The tests I conducted on her were a success, just as we had hoped for.”
Tests? On my mother? Did he kidnap her?
The phone in his pocket began vibrating, followed by the text notification alert. Crap. He fumbled to turn it off.
He glanced up to see Dr. Saeed frown and tilt his head. He stood up and started walking towards the closet. His face had a deathly calm expression, as if he was about to capture his prey.
I’ve never seen him look like this before.
What was more odd was the fact that his eyes seemed to be glowing a fluorescent shade of yellow. Harry wasn’t sure if the shadows in the closet were playing tricks with his mind, but he wasn’t going to wait to find out.
“Harry? Is that you?”
Harry shook his head in confusion. He acknowledged in his brain that it was the voice of Dr. Saeed, and yet it wasn’t. The tone was much deeper with a reverberation that sounded like nails scratching across a blackboard.
Now, I know I’m not imagining things.
He stumbled backwards, bumping into the boxes of supplies behind him. Quickly regaining his balance, he turned and ran out of the closet and back into the lab. He had to get the hell out of there.
He ran to the doors, flinging them open. Behind him, he swore he could hear a weird “wooshing” sound.
Holy crap. Don’t look back.
He sprinted down the hallway, rushing past the security guards. They both called out for him to stop. No f’ing way!
He made it into the stairwell, picking up the pace as he sped like a bullet down two flights of stairs to the bottom floor where he reached the emergency exit doors. Power reading a sign written in Hebrew that was pasted on one door, “Alarmed. In case of fire, push to open,” he slammed his body against the handles, shoving the doors open.
The clanging of the alarms rang into the air.
He bolted towards the parking lot. What the hell am I running from?
The rational side of his brain told him he was being paranoid. But his natural instincts told him to run even faster.
He reached the parking lot and saw that his car was one of only three left in the lot. He ran towards it, ripped open the driver-side door, and jumped in, slamming the door behind him. He jabbed the button to lock the doors while he shoved his foot on the brakes and pushed the button to start the engine.
Why I am so frigging terrified? It’s just Dr. Saeed, for crying out loud.
Out of desperation he called out, “Mom, if you can hear me, please help.”
He couldn’t believe that he would resort to calling out for his missing mother. He must be losing it.
Check your phone. The answer is there.
“Mom?”
He whipped his head around. He was certain that the sound of her voice was coming from the back seat of the car. But his anticipation was replaced with a sad disappointment. No one was there.
“Freak, I must be hallucinating.”
Hurry, Harry, there isn’t much time.
He spun around again. No one else was in the car. I must be going nuts. Why is my mind playing tricks on me?
Something inside him made him pause and reach for his phone. When he swiped the screen to unlock his phone, he saw that he had a text message waiting for him.
He wondered if his mother was trying to communicate with him.
Text message received.
Graphix: Update: We picked up Lioness from airport. Mist and Shadow are here in Akko. Sending you video of Shadow talking to Raffe. Looks intense but u need to translate. Awaiting your orders.
There was no time to psychoanalyze the situation. He shoved the gear stick into the Drive position and pressed the gas pedal to the floor.
In the distance, the sound of the sirens from the fire trucks was approaching fast. He breathed a sigh of relief. Whatever was after him, if there was anything, was gone.
Hearing a “wooshing” noise again behind his head, he glanced into his rearview mirror to see what it was. His heart started pounding fast and hard; fear surged through his veins.
Something was staring back at him in the mirror—it resembled Dr. Saeed’s face, but from the yellow glow in its eyes, Harry was definitely sure it wasn’t human.
Chapter 23
Akko
THE SALTY KISS OF THE balmy sea breeze caressed Cristal’s cheeks while the evening sun was setting on the horizon, producing a fiery orange emblem against an angry red sky.
Will we ever see blue skies again? She wondered to herself. Since the earthquake, the sky remained a shade of red. Some countries reported a blood-red color, while others described the sky as being red with pockets of blue peeking through the orange and white clouds.
Experts claimed it was simply due to the refraction of light related to the sun’s position and the scattering of electromagnetic radiation through the atmosphere. Basically, it was mankind’s fault for using the Earth as its toilet.
Global Nation, founders of the group, “A Sustainable Planet,” blamed the red color on global warming caused by environmental pollution destroying the Earth’s ozone layer.
Scientists countered this theory proving global warming could not be the cause, due to the fact that the planet was becoming colder, not warmer. If the scientists were correct, then what was really causing the sky to turn red? Deep down inside, she feared that she was the cause of it.
Kerim and Cristal sat on a four-foot high wall of sandstone blocks, which stretched for miles along the shoreline. Over the wall was a steep drop to the crashing waves of the Mediterranean Sea below.
Her senses were captivated by everything around her. The breeze from the water tickled her skin while the vibrant smells filled her nose with a combination of scents—salt from the sea, seaweed, kelp entwining their leaves across the seabed, and families of fish inhabiting the warm water.
When they had first arrived in Akko, Kerim had seemed edgier than usual.
“Can’t believe I forgot my smokes,” he had mumbled over and over as they walked down the streets of the ancient town looking for a shop that sold Lucky Strike, the only brand of cigarettes he smoked.
Despite being an anti-smoker herself, the fact that Kerim was a smoker never bothered her. It seemed to be a natural part of his makeup.
She glanced over at Kerim, and it looked as if he was deep in thought. The scene reminded her of Apollo, the Greek god—handsome, confident, and strong.
“Are you feeling better?” he asked quietly, taking one last drag from his cigarette before tossing it on the ground.
“What’s taking Gabriel so long?” she asked.
“He probably stopped to get something to eat. I heard Rinaldo saying he wanted to grab a baguette.”
“I see…” she said, and looked off into the distance.
How do I tell him about what happened at the hotel?
“I know what you’re thinking,” Kerim said softly.
“You do?” Are you reading my thoughts again?
He gave her a smug grin.
“Yeah, actually, I could hear you the whole time. I didn’t realize that I resembled a Greek god.”
Cristal felt her cheeks grow hot with embarrassment.
She took a breath to regain her composure, and said, “The lady from the plane, the one you switched seats with, she’s a National Security Agent.”
Kerim’s eyebrow rose up slightly. “You mean Ms. Full-Bodied Mama? You’re joking.”
She shook her head, and answered, “No, she’s for real. She showed us some photos she had taken while you were sleeping on the plane.”
Kerim clenched his hand, and then said, “And?”
“There was this weird glow around your head in all the photos,” she said quietly. “And she also had a video clip to prove to Harry that it wasn’t a Photoshop job.”
“Wow, and you both believed that crap?” he asked.
“It looked very real.”
Kerim wrapped his arms around her and pulled her towards him. She enjoyed the embrace.
Why did she feel so safe in his arms?
“Let’s say that this is true,” he began. “What do you think this light around my head could be?”
She stared deeply into his eyes. “Yaffa called it a halo.”
“Ah, Yaffa,” he mumbled. “She called it a halo.”
He repeated the words as if trying to understand the full meaning behind them.
“It did look like a halo, Kerim. But I also took a photo of you. Remember? You were doing the peace sign and there was no halo around you.”
“Victory sign,” he interrupted.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes, victory sign. My point is, when I took the photo of you, there was no light around your head. I don’t know how to explain why there was a light in Yaffa’s photos.”
“It’s the music,” he murmured to himself.
“What did you say?” Cristal asked.
“When you and I were listening to the music, we were connected to each other in our minds. I could read your thoughts and you could read mine. It’s possible maybe that with the human eye, the light is not visible. But on digital photos, this light is visible.”
Cristal shook her head, trying to process what Kerim had just said. “I don’t know. That sounds pretty far-fetched.”
Kerim looked at her then, his eyes probing into hers.
“Isn’t everything that happened after the earthquake, as you say, ‘far-fetched?’ Like the fact we can communicate without words, and how about you seeing Harry’s mother’s image in the sky on the day of the earthquake? Isn’t that far-fetched? Something is happening with us. With the world.”
She was about to say something, ready to argue his points, but instead, she fell silent. He was right. Right about everything.
He continued talking to her while his fingers gently stroked her arms, waking the hidden passion inside her.
“I’ve been having strange dreams and visions lately. And my headaches seem to be getting worse. I feel like my brain is trying to tell me that there is something I’m supposed to do. But I can’t remember what it is.”
She still didn’t know what to think or what to say.
“Do you know that being here could be dangerous?” he asked her quietly.
His expression of concern was unnerving, but his caresses were numbing the anxiety in her mind.
“Because of what happened in New York?” she asked.
“We’re going to enter one of the black holes,” he said, very matter-of-factly as he stared straight into her eyes. “We don’t know what will happen. You do know that Harry didn’t want us to bring you, don’t you?”
“If that’s the case, why did you?”
Kerim reached into his leather jacket and took out his smart phone. “I want you to see something.”
He swiped the phone’s surface, tapped a few buttons, and handed the phone to her.
On the screen, there was a photo of what looked like an open journal with handwritten notes.
She glanced over at him, and asked, “What is this?”
He tipped his chin up slightly. It was his way of telling her to go check it out. She had hung around him long enough by now to understand the subtle meaning behind his mannerisms and gestures.
She swiped the screen to zoom in on the photo until the words were legible.
The dreams are coming all the time now. They used t
o scare me but now I welcome them. I am able to remember in detail the last one. The numbers keep repeating in my brain. 11132013, 56609, 14350109, 57740910, 17300304.
I’m writing this before sleep steals me back into the darkness of my nightmares.
The darkness enclosed around me, like it always did in my dreams. I was wandering the streets of an old city surrounded by walls that towered high above. Everything seemed familiar to me…the sights, the sounds the smells. The air was filled with a salty mugginess. Behind the walls, must be the sea, I thought as I stumbled down the street. I wanted to go towards the water but I could hear voices ahead of me. For some unexplainable reason, I felt drawn towards the sound.
By the wall, there was a young couple. The woman was remarkably pretty; the man, dark and mysterious. Their voices sounded concerned but I couldn’t make out the words. I inched closer, wondering why I was here and why I was seeing this.
Suddenly, someone grabbed me. I turned to see who it was but saw nothing. I tried to break free, to scream for help but I was paralyzed. I watched as a dark cloud descended onto the woman. It had tentacle-like arms wrapping around her, strangling and choking her. The man was trying to pull her free but he was no match for this thing. I could see the woman’s eyes wide with fright. The tentacles were literally squeezing the life out of her right before my eyes. It was then that the man lifted his arms and looked up to the heavens crying out in a language that sounded like Latin. A brilliant white light exploded across the sky. The earth began upheaving beneath my feet. I struggled to move and realized that I had been freed. I turned to run, to save my cowardly self.
But I could see the woman was also freed from the arms of the dark cloud. She was screaming, or seemed to be. I could not hear over the thunderous roar. I could see why she was overwrought. The man was being torn apart by the rays of the white light that had snaked its way down from the sky. I saw him explode into a white light, a transparent being. It was then that he rose up, as if a force were pulling him. He reached out to the woman, she reaching out to him. But their hands never touched. He was pulled away, almost violently, like a rag doll, up into the sky.
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