Time Thief

by Jill Cooper

  Mike wipes his face with a white towel and gives me a look just over the terrycloth. The look in his eye is anything but confused. It’s manipulative.

  “What you’re doing is dangerous.” I take a breath as what Mike has done hits me with a ton of bricks. Slowly his actions, his intent form in my mind. “You met him? You conspired with him? The adult version of you.”

  “You’re talking crazy. Go to sleep, Molly.” He shoulder-checks me as he walks by to his room and I follow him. He opens his door and steps inside.

  “We need to talk about this. If Rex convinced you of anything—”

  “Just let it go for one night. We’re home. We have Mom right where we need her and soon we’ll have Dad. Soon this crap situation we’ve been living, it’ll be gone.”

  “I that what he told you? Mike—”

  He slams the door in my face. Angry now, I puff my cheeks out and twist the locked door knob. “Mike!” I bang my fist repeatedly on his door but he doesn’t answer.

  This is bad. Real bad. If I can’t reach him, I’m not just dealing with a temper tantrum. I’m dealing with his undoing.

  “Not tonight, Molly.” Mom comes up the stairs and she looks so tired and withdrawn that I back off the door. “It’s been a very long…well, I don’t even know how long it’s been.”

  “I’m sorry, Mom.” I keep all my anxiety inside as she takes my cheek in her hands and kisses it.

  “I don’t know what I’d do without my babies.” She sincerely smiles at me before going into her bedroom and my heart sinks in despair.

  Lara isn’t here. This is all on me, but I can’t do it alone. I can’t save this family by myself.

  I need Cassidy.

  Chapter Thirty-Five: Cassidy Winters

  The bridge is functional again and things appears as they should. As I talk with Gavin and a few of the others, I issue orders. “Tell the TTPA we are going to need more men. Round the clock. We don’t stop until we find wherever Rex and this adult Mike are hiding. We need this done like yesterday.”

  A time joke—I cringe. I hate time jokes. It’s Lara who loves to make them. Thinking about her again causes my stomach to tighten. She had been so cold and angry with me just a short while ago. I worry about what that will mean to our future, and it nauseates me. I need her in ways I can’t put into words.

  I dismiss Gavin and a short while later I return to the timeline I call home. I open the bridge’s portal into my small studio apartment. It isn’t much but it’s cozy. The main living space pairs a white sofa—by the window overlooking the city of Boston—and a white rug. I change into sweat pants, a t-shirt, and fuzzy purple socks.

  The kitchen space isn’t much more than a mini fridge and a simple row of cabinets. It’s big enough to keep what’s most important nearby.

  Wine. Lots of it.

  I pour a glass and sit down onto the sofa. Sipping it, I lean my head back and enjoy the cold acidic liquid sliding down my throat. Doing so, I block out the memories of what’s led me here. It was a win, or so we had behaves, but with what future Mike had done—was going to do—the ripples of all our actions are going to be felt everywhere.

  Tomorrow’s problem. Today I celebrate that things have been fixed. Donovan and Lara have their happy ending, even if a few short hours ago I had thought that happy ending would be mine. Tricks and foolery.

  I think about ordering dinner and pick my phone off the table, and the screen flashes with a notice that I have a missed call. I scroll through and Donovan’s name pops up, I groan audibly. It’s his wedding night—he shouldn’t be calling me.

  Maybe, instead of dinner, I should go straight to bed. Sleep might be the only thing that makes me feel better. I stand and drain my glass then return it to the kitchen. A knock at the door distracts me and I consider ignoring it.

  “You’re going to decide to let me in, so just open the door already,” Molly shouts and bangs on it a little harder.

  Molly. Well, at least it isn’t Donovan.

  When I pull the door open, Molly bursts in. She’s wearing blue paisley pajamas and a jean jacket. I raise my eyebrows. “You forgot the bunny slippers.”

  “Funny.” Molly tosses her hair back and crosses her arms. “I barely got out of the house so if we could skip how stupid I look and get to the crux of the matter?”

  “Which is about how you’re robbing me of my beauty sleep?”

  “You know I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t important.” Her nose scrunches up and her lips disappear somewhere between angst and pout.

  “Is it about what I did with Donovan…”

  “It’s not about Donovan and it isn’t about Mike either. It’s bigger than both of them. It’s about Lara.” Molly’s eyes widen into panic

  My stomach tightens as if I’m being accused of something even though that’s not Molly’s style. “She was cold, but she’s been through a lot.” How much do I tell her and how much does she know? “If we can just—.”

  Molly shakes her head emphatically. “That’s not it. She’s not Lara. The woman we saw at the reception a few short hours again, isn’t our Lara.”

  Her phrasing sends alarm bells raging in my head. “Of course, she is. She looked different but she helped us stop Rex. She reset things back to how they are supposed to be. She—”

  Molly shakes her hands to interrupt me. Her wide eyes are frantic and it’s clear she believes what she says but she’s never doubted Lara before. This new development scares me. “She’s not our Lara and if you’d stop for a second and let me explain, I would.”

  If she’s not our Lara then who the hell is she? Why would another Lara pretend to be our Lara? Every Lara I had ever met would stop at nothing to restore the timeline and protect her family. “How can you be so sure?” I shake my head. “Molly, a lot has happened—”

  Molly grabs my wrist. “I know it’s not her, just like I know what happened between you and Donovan when we were in VR, just like I know what happened between you two when you worked for Patricia James. I see every decision and where it leads. This is a Lara from a timeline where she never changed time and never unlocked her powers.”

  “Well, see then? She did go back in time at the wedding reception. She put us all back there.”

  Molly shakes her head with impatience. “No, she didn’t. Our Lara put us there and then she disappeared. Someone is playing us and I think we know who.”

  So, Molly still thinks Rex and Future Mike are a problem? “Molly.” I resist rolling my eyes. “Rex and Future Mike aren’t a problem anymore. Lara helped get you away from Mike and Rex. She traveled to the right moment and pushed you away. We changed time.”

  “No, you traveled to the right moment. Lara just happened to be standing there when you did it, but that’s what she wanted. She wanted to fool all of us because she’s working with Rex.”

  I take a breath and think back. Molly’s right, I don’t know why I haven’t seen it before. I think the guilt of what had happened between me and Donovan had made me think Lara was acting a certain way because of me. “Why? Why would she work with him?”

  Molly stares at me blankly. “This timeline has what she wants most of all. A family. A home. She wants what our Lara wanted. Her parents. If she thinks we’re onto her, it goes badly. We can’t confront her. Not yet.”

  Not confront her? “Molly—”

  “Cass, I know what you’re going to say,” she implores me. “But if we push her at the wrong time, it ends bad. She’s the only link we have to find what’s happened to our Lara.”

  How can that be true? “The bridge. You…you can read the timelines and find her.”

  Molly shakes her head and fear lines her face, and it bubbles up in her eyes. “She’s lost in the stream. A piece here and there, but I can’t get a bead on her. I don’t know how to get her back.” Her teeth chatter at the idea of Lara being lost and I wrap my arms around her, willing myself not to spiral into the same fear chasm that’s swallowing her.

  “We’
ll get her back.”

  “I can’t see it. I don’t see that. Cassidy, please…” She grips my arms and peers up at me. I want to protect her, I need to fix this and get Lara back. “She’s lost. She’s gone. I can’t find her anywhere.”

  I swallow hard, unsure of what to say or do. “We need to question her.”

  Molly pulls away. “First, we give her some rope to hang herself. Some breathing room. I know it’ll be hard to pretend, but she has to let her guard down. Tomorrow she’ll visit Mom. That’s all she wants. We just have to be waiting. Ready, but from a distance.”

  That makes sense even though I hate it. That’s when it hits me. “Donovan called.”

  Her eyes widen. “You better find out what he wanted. If he suspects something…” Molly pauses and runs her hands through her hair. Blood trickles from her nose and I grab a tissue off of my coffee table and hand it to her.

  “What did you see?” I grab my cell phone off the table as Molly squeezes her nose shut.

  “He’s afraid. He suspects. Just tell him he can’t confront her. He has to play along, as much as he doesn’t want to. If he scares her off, it’s all lost. We’ll never…”

  Her voice trails off and I follow. I understand what she’s getting at.

  “I’ll do what I can and get back to you soon as possible. Head home before your mom realizes you’re missing. She doesn’t need any more surprises.”

  Molly nods. “Mike too. We….we can’t trust him.”

  My heart wrenches. “You be careful.”

  “There’s no room for mistakes, Cassidy.” Molly looks far older than fifteen as she sucks her bottom lip to quell her quivering chin. “If we mess this up, all the time travel in the world won’t bring Lara back.”

  Oh God, my heart wrenches and I send a quick text message to Donovan. I’m here. What’s wrong.

  After a slight delay, I get a message back. Everything.

  I can’t breathe as I sit down on the edge of the sofa, perched close to the coffee table as Donovan sends another message. He sends the address of where he wants to meet. It’s the address of where we had lived in the altered timeline.

  My heart skips and it leaves a lump in my throat. Done.

  *****

  Not many people could link this address to where Donovan and I had lived in a timeline that no longer exists. I hope that’s why he’d picked it as a place to meet, but it leaves me feeling sick inside. I’m sleazy, the worst kind of person, and I can’t scrub that feeling as I step into the alley.

  I lean against the wall and check my watch. It’s nearly two in the morning and there’s no sign of Donovan yet. Part of me is glad he’s not there yet. Maybe he changed his mind, maybe I won’t see him again. Then I hear a metallic bang behind the dumpster. Alarmed, I peer around it, looking for whoever is there.

  “Cass?”

  The voice comes from behind me and I spin around, shocked. It’s Donovan and I can smell his aftershave even before I’m able to focus on his face in the dark.

  “Hey.” My voice isn’t natural. It strains.

  “Thanks for meeting me. I know what you must be thinking.”

  “It’s about Lara. Molly visited me tonight. She’s freaking out.” Donovan and I walk further into the alley until we’re under a spotlight and we can finally each other again.

  “Does she know? Am I right? Is this Lara…”

  “An imposter.”

  There’s shock in his eyes as they widen and contract. “Here I hoped I was wrong. Here I wanted her to be nothing but just…disturbed, freaked out. But the way she…” Donovan’s eyes tick back and forth and then he clears his throat. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. All that matters is what we do about it.”

  I nod and I sink against the wall beside him. The heat from his body rises up onto mine and I ignore the ever-present urge to touch him, as if we meant something to each other once. We never did. Lara connects us, nothing more.

  But it kills me inside.

  “Molly say for now we have to play along. If we don’t, we might lose our Lara forever.”

  “She can’t…she can’t just find her?”

  I shake my head, afraid to repeat what Molly had said word for word. Molly had said pieces of Lara were missing and that’s how I’d felt when she’d been resetting the timeline. I grabbed Lara, desperate to keep her tethered to our timeline, but what if I failed? What if in that moment, Lara really does fail to exist and simply becomes the essence of time?

  I can’t say any of that. I’m too afraid to go on in life without her.

  “Not this time. This Lara is our only hope of finding her.”

  Donovan sighs. “So I’m supposed to…act like she’s Lara. Pretend she’s my wife.”

  “For all intents and purposes, she is, Don.” I shake my head. “Donovan. Sorry.”

  “It’s all right. No one blames you for whatever it is you’re feeling.” He puts his hand on my shoulder and I want to shrug it off, but I don’t because I like how it feels. I want him to touch me.

  I just hate myself for it.

  I stare up at him and for a moment, I feel like he’s thinking of kissing me. Then we pull apart and he shoves his hands in his pockets. “What’s the next move?”

  “Molly is going to get with us tomorrow. You just do what you have to. Keep Lara happy.”

  “She wants to visit her folks.”

  Molly had said that would happen. It scares me sometimes how accurate she is. “Makes sense. Molly said Lara wants her family. It’s what she’s craving. So we give it to her. When Molly gives the signal tomorrow, we’ll move to grab her.”

  “I don’t know how long I can keep this charade up, Cass. She might look like Lara, but she’s not in there. She’s lacking her spirit, her humanity. That’s not my girl anymore than…” Donovan’s face falls and he turns ghastly white. He’d been thinking of me, hadn’t he?

  I hold up my hand. “Let’s just forget it and get back to each other tomorrow. Just be careful. Don’t let her see that you’re onto her.”

  “Until tomorrow.” Donovan starts out of the alley and I watch him go. I’m too cold inside to do anything else.

  Chapter Thirty-Six: Molly Montgomery

  In the morning, I eat breakfast and get ready for the day. I pack my backpack as though I’m going to school, and I stow my headphones inside with my homework. The text message I get from Cassidy says Donovan is arriving with Lara soon. I glance out the window to see if Donovan and Lara have arrived, they haven’t. Nerves tingle up from my toes and I feel the vibration of the bridge portal opening behind me.

  Cassidy steps into my room and she’s in one of her ‘I’m a police woman and on a mission outfits’. She looks formidable as ever and I swallow a rushed breath. She might be my granddaughter one day in the future, but sometimes she scares me.

  She glances up from the phone in her hand. “Anything yet?” She seems almost disinterested and I don’t think she gets how intimidating she can be with just how she glowers or changes her stance.

  “Not yet. I need to get Mike out of here before Lara gets here. He can’t know what we’re up to. Just in case…I’ll be right back.”

  Cassidy stows her phone in her back pocket. “How’s he doing?”

  “Well, he isn’t evil yet if that’s what you mean. But I have to stay close to him. I worry that Rex will make a play for him at any minute. I need to keep him from this Lara”

  Cassidy sighs and her eyes convey she understands what I’m going through. “We’ll keep him safe. No matter what we have to do.”

  I appreciate her words even if they sound too pat. I step out into the hall and knock on Mike’s door before I enter. “Hey, Mike…” He’s standing at the window, his stance wide and his head moves as if he had just been talking to someone. I scowl as I step into the room.

  Mike spins and gives me that playful smile. “Ready for school already?”

  “Who were you just talking to?” Crossing my arms, I close the distance betw
een us.

  “Nobody.” Mike slings his arm around my shoulder. “Come on, that bus isn’t going to wait forever, you know.”

  I glance back at the window and see golden dust on the ledge. I don’t know why it sets my nerves on edge, but it does. My mind reaches back and pulls at something outside of the timelines and I stare at Mike.

  “What are you getting yourself into?”

  “Nothing.” Mike laughs. “You know I can’t hide a thing from you, Moll. I’m going to go downstairs, grab some fruit. Then we’ll head to the bus stop together, all right?”

  I stare after him and as he heads downstairs, I listen to the quickening of his footsteps and I see the pathways lying before him, and the ones before me. There’s the quickening darkness and the rain. The bloody battles that lie between us as we each grow desperate to stop the other, the fabric of time ripping the further we go.

  The timelines of friendship, bond, loyalty…they are starting to fade. Soon, they might not even be possible.

  Oh Mike, no. Please, don’t make me choose.

  I head back into my room and grab my bookbag and my sweater. Cassidy eyes me. “Going somewhere?”

  I sigh. “We have a big problem. It’s about Mike. I think…I think I might be losing him. I can’t…I can’t lose him. Do you understand?”

  Cassidy nods. I’m surprised as she takes my hands. “Do what you have to to save him. Whatever it is. I’ll stay here and keep an eye on Lara and Donovan.”

  I thank her with a hug. “She’ll head into the kitchen. Her head is swirling about being with Mom again. Seeing everyone happy and so well to do. She feels things she’s never felt. Grab her then. She’ll be most vulnerable.”

  My words are so cold and callous. It scares me in a way that I could talk that way about anyone, let alone about Lara. I have to separate myself from what’s going on if I’m ever going to see my sister again because right now, I can’t sense where she is.

  Lara’s absence and unknown whereabouts terrifies me more than being a little callous with a stranger pretending to be my sister.