Chronomancer

by Mackenzie Morris

  Jack rolled over to see Ellie unconscious on the bed next to him, her curled locks jarred loose from the butterfly pins and her eyeliner lightly smudged from her tears. For a few moments, he studied her. She was more peaceful there than he had seen her in months. However, the more he looked, the more he noticed. The heavy foundation and powder hid the cuts on her cheekbones. The lipstick masked the scars from numerous beatings. Even the eye shadow camouflaged a large bruise around her left eye. She was a porcelain doll that had been painted over to hide the cracks.

  He traced her lips with his fingertips then nuzzled her jawline with his nose, taking in her jasmine scent. "Ellie, wake up for me. Come on, we have to get up now. We're safe here. I don't think they followed us."

  With a tiny whimper, Ellie kissed the tip of his nose then opened her eyes to smile at him. "Jack."

  "There's my bride-to-be. Are you okay?"

  "Much better, now that I'm with you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for saying those vows and letting him kiss me."

  "You didn't have a choice. I'll make this right. That's my vow to you, future Mrs. Carter."

  She took his hand, lacing their fingers together. "It's quiet here. I haven't had quiet in a long time. The lab they kept me in was filled with crying babies and barking dogs twenty-four hours a day. I couldn't see anything through the blanket they kept over my cage, but I heard so many things, too many things."

  "Let me get you some water." Jack sat up to rub away the fog that clung to his eyes. He was woozy with warp sicknesses, but the effects were manageable, at least. He pulled himself to his feet by the bedpost, groaning with the ache in his body. After removing his coat and rolling up the sleeves of his mint green shirt, Jack poured some water from the pitcher into a glittering crystal glass.

  Ellie smiled from where she was siting on the edge of the bed with her gown spread out around her. She took the delicate stem and swirled the water inside it. "A glass. They're already losing, Jack."

  He sat next to her with a stack of strawberry cookies that he munched on noisily, scattering pink crumbs onto the floor. "What do you mean?"

  "I had a bowl in my cage. They said I would never drink from anything else again and that if I was going to behave like a rabid dog, they would treat me like one. They kept me in there, in the darkness, except for two hours a day when they let me outside into a courtyard where I was expected to exercise. There was a woman there, a guard, I think, who said I needed to learn to defend myself. She would spar with me. She would talk to me. I don't know if she was trying to comfort me because she cared or because it was another way for them to screw with my head. She left, though, and I kept training without her. I think her name was Dunley or something."

  Jack smiled. "Marjorie Dunley?"

  "Do you know her?"

  "Trust me, Ellie, she helped you because she actually cared. She's a good person who got caught up with bad people. She's my birth mother."

  Ellie sipped her water and patted Jack's leg. "I knew she somehow looked familiar. Can I have one of those cookies?"

  "Oh, sure. I mean, of course. You don't have to ask."

  She took a cookie and crunched into it, her eyes lighting up. "They took raw eggs, canned meat stuff, potatoes, and whole sticks of butter and put them in a blender thing until it was this disgusting, slimy milkshake from every kid's secret nightmares. They force-fed it to me. My father told me I needed to gain weight. He wanted me to gain a hundred pounds, but I just couldn't. He said I was worthless if I was too skinny and that I needed to be bigger so I could be a better . . . breeder. Who says that to their daughter?"

  "A madman who doesn't deserve a beautiful woman like you in his life. Eat up and recover for a bit while I try to find out where and when we are. Ellie, I mean what I said. I'll make this right. You and Niki and Dean and everyone else has suffered . . . and it's all my fault. I'm the one Xander wants. They came after me that night. They took you as a side project. I was Xander's target all along."

  "Don't do this again, Jack. Don't twist it all around until you find a way to blame yourself. Not again. We've all suffered, but we can be strong because of it. I fought back, Jack. I fought the scientists and the guards every chance I got. They beat me for it. But it took two of them to hold me down and another to throw the punches. I wouldn't let them see me break. You can't break, either." Ellie wiped the crumbs from the front of her dress as her demeanor became somber. "I saw what they did to Niki. My father made me watch the video. He showed it off like it was a trophy to be proud of."

  "I will end this, Ellie. Now that you're here with me, I will die before I let them take you away. Now, I need to know something. Please tell me the truth. Are you pregnant? What did that pregnancy test say?"

  "How did you know about that?"

  "I spoke with some echoes. They're Chronomancers who-"

  She finished his sentence. "Who died during warp. I know. Xander wants me to have some kind of super-powered babies."

  He had to know. "Ellie, please. Are you pregnant with his child?"

  "No. I was a couple days late. That's it."

  "The government will have their way with him, if I don't get to him first. You're a minor. You're a child in the eyes of the law, we both are."

  "That's if the government hadn't changed, Jack. Things aren't the same way they were before all this started. Some of the people who caught me when I ran away and took me back to Xander were police officers. I told them what he had done, but they didn't care."

  Jack took her in his arms. "I'll make sure he can never touch you again."

  Her painted nails found the shoelace ring and twirled it around his finger. "You're still wearing this ring."

  "You're going to be my wife, after all this is over."

  "How? I'm married to that sadistic bastard."

  "We'll find a way to annul it." He tucked the strands of hair that had fallen out of the pins behind her ears. "Better yet, I'll kill him so he can't hurt anyone else."

  "You're not a killer, Jack."

  "I will kill to protect my family. You, Niki, and Thyme are my family. You matter more than anything else to me."

  Ellie tilted her head to the side. "Thyme?"

  "He's a sage boy. I saved him from Alvezenden. He's eight and adjusting to a life not full of daily abuse. It breaks my heart. I love him, though. And I'm the closest thing to a dad he has."

  "That's sweet of you to take care of him. Unlike Xander, I know you'll be a good father."

  "We need to get out of here and find Niki." He stood and stretched his arms above his head. "So, this time to talk has been nice, but we need to find out where and we are. Do you feel that slight rocking? I think we're on a ship."

  "A fancy ship."

  "Very fancy." Jack held up his hand, signaling to her to be quiet. He listened to the man's voice in the hallway outside the room. The man knocked on a couple of doors close to them, asking the people inside if they had seen someone. Something told him they were asking for him. When the door to the room next to them crashed from being kicked open, he picked up the poker from the fireplace, ready to defend the woman he loved. "Ellie, it's them."

  "Unlace my corset, please."

  Jack gawked at her. What was she suggesting? "Um, what? I . . . uh . . . oh my goodness."

  She ran to him and turned around. "Unlace me, Jack!"

  Jack tossed the poker onto the bed before taking the blue laces in his fingers. Her warmth radiated from her back and her skin glowed warmly, but he had to pay attention and not get distracted by her beauty. He fumbled with the bindings until he pulled the ribbon free and the corset fell to the floor. "Here."

  Ellie snatched the lace from him then went to the wall beside the door. "Stay back and let me handle this one. He sounds like he's alone."

  "Are you crazy?"

  "Maybe. Sometimes crazy is good. Stay back, I mean it."

  He nodded his head, not wanting to tango with a woman on a mission.

  Ellie wound the ends of the blue ribbon ar
ound her fists then stood next to the door, ready and waiting for the footsteps to arrive. The latch jingled before a key turned in the lock. There was a pause before a man in a plum purple suit barged into the room with a revolver in his hand.

  Before a shot could be fired, Ellie jumped at the agent, wrapping the ribbon around his scruffy neck. She threw her back against the wall and held the blue silk tightly as the man clawed and gasped for air. "Get the gun."

  Jack lunged forward and pried it from the enemy's hand. He watched in a strange mixture of awe, fear, and attraction as the love of his life held onto that ribbon, even when the agent dropped to his knees and her fingers turned dark purple. For a long few minutes, the agent gurgled and twitched until his body went limp and he collapsed to the carpet, lifeless.

  Ellie released her grip then rubbed the blood back into her fingers. She looked stunned, but relieved. "I didn't want you to see me like that. Marjorie told me many ways to hurt and to kill people in self-defense. I'm not a bad person, Jack. If we hadn't stopped him, he would have killed you and dragged me back to Xander."

  "I know. If you want to fight, then you fight. We'll do whatever we have to do to survive."

  She nodded her head. "We need to get out of here. Please, Jack. You go first. I need a minute to think."

  "Take this." He handed her the iron poker. "Use it if you need it."

  "I will."

  Jack took the lead, stepping into the elaborate hallway of dark wood and golden candelabras tipped with dim bulbs. Doors identical to theirs stretched from side to side, with an opening into the main area a few doors down to the right. Soft violin music came from the main area, but the rest of the ship was eerily silent. He started toward the right, being drawn by the music and the possibility of figuring out their time and location. When Jack led Ellie to the brightly-lit central room, he knew exactly where they were.

  They stayed at the top of a grand staircase with a domed ceiling of frosted glass and iron lattice work. It opened up into a ballroom with chairs on the sides of the white floor with black diamond designs and a clock ticking on the wall. A man and a woman sat in the back corner, whispering privately. Their clothing, the details of the ship, the clock at the top of the staircase, they were all things Jack had seen somewhere before. In a textbook or a movie. The woman was in a beaded soft pink evening gown and long white gloves and the man's apparel was similar to what Jack had worn to the wedding. A long-tailed coat, bow tie, and vest. It all began to fall into place. When two men in grey uniforms ran across the room with water dripping from their trousers, it was undeniable.

  "Jack?"

  "We're in trouble. This isn't just any fancy ship. This is the Titanic on the night it sinks. And it's already sinking. The ship has already collided with an iceberg. Right now, the lower sections are filling with freezing water and lower-class passenger are trapped and dying. Not only that, but we're being chased by crazed Syndicate agents."

  Ellie spun around just in time to see an agent rushing at her with a knife. She swung the poker, catching the man's head with it and dropping him like a sinking stone to the floor. "Why are they shooting at us?"

  "If Xander can't have you, no one can. That's his way of thinking."

  "He just made me marry him. This doesn't make sense."

  "It doesn't have to make sense to anyone other than Xander. He's not right in the head."

  Splinters flew from the bullet holes in the railing, turned into dangerous shrapnel. The couple of passengers on the floor below screamed then took off running into the hallways when another shot rang out. Glass from the shattered dome light fixture rained down on their heads as Jack shoved Ellie down the grand staircase. Agents in purple suits rushed across the ballroom floor.

  Ellie tripped, but held onto the engraved railing. She grunted when her knees banged on the dark wooden steps, but she ripped off her heeled shoes and tossed them out of the way. "Help me up. Let's go."

  Jack took aim at the agent on the second floor and fired, sending the agent to the floor with a hole in his chest. He had no time to think about what had happened. Like he told Ellie, he would kill to keep her safe. That was all that mattered. He ducked when the agents fired at him, the bullets barely missing him.

  "We have to go!"

  Jack caught her arm as she took off. "Where are you going?"

  "Away from them. We can hide down those stairs."

  "Ellie, wait!" Jack fired, hitting one agent in the leg and the other in the throat. Dark blood spurted from the wounds. "We can't go lower. Those levels are flooding right now. They'll be closing off the gates to keep the common passengers from rushing the lifeboats. The lowest floors are already underwater. If we get trapped down there, we'll both drown."

  "We'll be there for only a few minutes, just long enough to hide. They know we wouldn't be dumb enough to go into a part of the ship that's already flooding. Once they leave, we'll go to a lifeboat and get away from here. You should be strong enough to warp again by then."

  Jack followed her into a side hallway, away from the injured agents. "Ellie, this could be suicide."

  "Then at least Xander loses me. We'll go out on our own terms. I don't want to give him the satisfaction of getting everything he wants. I can't go back to him. He was the one helping my father conduct tests on me. He raped me, Jack. I can't go back there. Everything you tried to protect me from in middle school with those bullies . . . he did to me. I felt pieces of my soul dying away as I looked up into those eyes of his. I can't go back. I won't. If you can't save me from that a second time, then I'd rather face my chances down in that water and die while I hold your hand. Only your hand."

  Jack nodded his head. There was no need for words. Everything had already been said. His feelings had already been known. Instead of professing that love to a heart he already won, he took her hand and led her down the stairs. Each metal step took them farther down the plain brown stairwell, past two flights where open gates separated them from the next floor. When they reached the eerily empty hall of rooms near the bottom, the water splashed up to their knees.

  Ellie pulled him over to a small alcove behind the stairs where they could hide. The lights flickered and a low rumbling echoed from deeper in the ship as it shuddered around them. Screams and shouting came from rooms nearby and a baby's crying was cut short with a gunshot. Ellie held onto Jack as she started to shiver.

  "How long should we stay here?" Jack asked, glancing around the corner for any incoming agents.

  "I don't know. A few minutes. I can't feel my feet. They're going numb."

  "We can't stay in this water for very long. Come here. I won't let you get frostbite." Jack lifted her up in his arms so she could hold onto him with her arms around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist. He held her against the wall to keep her steady. "There. That's better."

  Ellie kissed him gently and sighed. "Never thought I'd be on the Titanic. I have to admit, this isn't as romantic as it was in the movie."

  Jack laughed, despite the growing fear. "Just don't start singing."

  She rested her face on his chest. "What about you? You're cold, too."

  "I'll be fine. You just hold onto me. That's all you have to do."

  A commotion came from the floor above them as someone was shouting orders to get back. Jack carried Ellie up the steps and peered around the corner to see the metal gate being slid shut, scraping across the floor with a screech. The man in the grey uniform chained it closed then locked it secure with a padlock. A crowd of upper-class passengers, still wearing their finery from dinner, had gathered to gawk at them.

  Jack rushed up the steps then set Ellie down in front of the gate. "Hey, open the gate. We need out of here."

  "I'm sorry, sir, but orders are orders. The upper levels are now closed off. I suggest you go to a room and wait until an all-clear is given. We are simply experiencing a minor incident."

  "No. No! Let us out of here. You can't lock us in here to die." He caught the flash of a bronze
hourglass ring on the man's finger. "You're one of them. You're Syndicate. Forget it."

  Ellie took his hand and ran down the steps, but she was stopped by the rapidly rising water that had already swallowed the area they had been standing in below the stairs. "Oh, shit. Jack, what we do? Where do we go?"

  Jack hoisted her up again and carried her to the gate. "Listen, you bastards. Let us out. All you have to do is unlock this. You're Syndicate, right? What is your leader, Director Sutcliff, going to do when he finds out you let his new wife drown here? Think about that."

  Ellie whimpered. "Jack, it's rising."

  The water lapped at Jack's waist, causing Ellie to cry out from the shock of the iciness that soaked through her dress. The audience they had gathered gasped and mumbled to each other with wide eyes. The agent gave a crooked smirk, taking pleasure in watching their fear.

  When the ship listed to the side, the water surged higher, spilling in from the ceiling above them as well. It crashed into them, knocking Ellie out of Jack's arms and carrying her under. Jack snatched her arm and brought her back to him.

  Ellie gasped for air when Jack pulled her above the surface. Spiting out water and shivering violently, she wrapped her fingers around the metal bars of the gate. "Help us. P-Please."

  Jack held her up to keep her from drowning in the rising water. He glared at the faces of the onlookers, the Syndicate agent and wealthy passengers who simply watched them with gloved hands over their mouths as if the two of them fighting for their lives was entertainment, some kind of show. With numb fingers that had turned as hard as ice, Jack scratched at his skin above his Chronomancer mark, trying desperately to warp. He shut his eyes and clenched his muscles, but nothing happened. Jack howled in frustration as Ellie slipped out of his grasp again. "No. Ellie!"

  The spectators moved away, ushered to the lifeboats, leaving Jack and Ellie alone in the stairwell. Jack plunged into the water, just as the electricity went out. In a lightless watery tomb, he splashed around, feeling for her in the chin-high water. He called for her, but the crackling of the sinking ship drowned his words. He found the gate again and thrashed with frantic fury for survival. Over and over, he slammed his fists into the gate. Despite his need to survive, his underwater efforts proved futile.