The Next Chance

by Shannon Reber

  I squeezed his hand. “It’s really me. I swear,” I whispered, drinking in the sight of him drinking in the sight of me.

  His lips quivered and the moisture in his eyes condensed. “I was so afraid I’d lost you,” he breathed, leaning down to press his lips to my brow.

  “Not a chance,” I replied, a little annoyed to see that someone else was in the room as well.

  I turned to give them a ‘go away’ look but the words froze on my lips. It was a little boy, one who looked so familiar. He was almost identical to how Ian had looked as a kid other than the fact the kid had brown eyes.

  I blinked, trying to figure out if Ian had a cousin who might be in town. I knew all of Ian’s family, though. I knew his cousins. That kid was no one I’d ever met.

  Ian held out his hand to beckon the little guy forward, clearing his throat before he spoke. “Madison Meyer, this is Noah,” he said in a cautious tone, making me sure he’d left something out.

  I turned my lips up in a small smile, a feeling of affection filling my chest. “You look just like Ian did when he was little,” I told him, concerned by how hard the kid watched me.

  He stared at me in fascination for a bit before he smiled. “Maybe I’ll be super tall when I grow up too,” he said cheerfully, motioning to the headset. “Does that respond to eye movements?”

  “Yeah, it does,” I said, impressed by his guess after such a short glimpse of the thing. “My sister made it for me because the doctors told me not to move much.”

  Ian looked at the headset as well, his head tipped to the side. “What is it?” he asked, obviously not having even noticed it.

  “A holographic ocular apparatus.”

  “Okaaay. So what does a holographic ocular . . . thing do?”

  I did my best not to laugh. “It lets me surf without moving,” I told him, my eyes again moving to Noah.

  There was something so familiar about him. He was downright adorable, skinny as a rail, and haunted in a way I understood very well. I knew that he had been through something traumatic.

  He stared at me too, though not in the same way. I appeared to be a complex math problem he tried to figure out. It was a little hilarious, since he and Ian had the same expressions right then.

  Ian cleared his throat again and motioned to the headset. “So how many places have you hacked into since Quinn gave that thing to you?” he asked, his thumb moving over the back of my hand in a soothing way.

  I stuck out my tongue slightly. “One or two,” I admitted, wishing I could sit up and hug him. “You need to call her something other than the thing,” I said, smiling widely. “She needs a shorter name anyway, so we’ll call her Hottie. Holographic Ocular Thing.”

  Ian and Noah snorted out laughs at the same time. And again that feeling struck me. It was the same laugh Ian had when he’d been a kid.

  I remembered it clearly. He had been very fond of teasing me, so his laugh was something I heard on a daily basis as he won some small victory over me. Noah just WAS Ian.

  Noah pulled something out of his pocket and smiled as he presented it to me. “I made this while I was waiting for Ian to clean his house. He had a lot of bugs in his kitchen, so I made a bug zapper first, then I got bored again. I made it into a demon zapper,” he said excitedly, edging it closer to me like he wanted my approval.

  I stared at him, my mouth hanging open. He didn’t ONLY look like Ian. He looked similar to me as well. His eyes were the same shade of brown mine were and he acted the same way I had around his age.

  I looked at Ian, the question written in my eyes.

  Ian blew out a slow breath. “So Noah showed up at the house today and loaded an app he’d invented onto my laptop. His app let me talk to Quinn . . . twelve years from now.”

  I blinked, trying to take in what he was saying. “A time travel app?” I asked skeptically, sure it was the stupidest question that had ever come out of my mouth.

  Time travel wasn’t possible. That was all there was to it. It had to be a con or something. It had to be.

  Noah shook his head. “No. That’s not it at all. See, me and Quinn made the device that let me come back here with a portal generator. I just took another portal generator and kind of added the parts to this.” He took a thumb drive out of his pocket. “So it lets me talk to Quinn when I need to, so long as there’s a computer.”

  It made sense but it couldn’t be real. Noah was a little boy. If there was some kind of time travel device, why would anyone send him through? What was the purpose?

  Ian squeezed my hand. “Maddie, Noah is our son,” he said, no doubt in his voice at all.

  My stomach flipped and my heart pounded. My son? How could that be? As I looked at him, I knew it was true.

  He was the perfect mix of me and Ian. Seeing that handsome little face, hearing him talk about things far too complex for his age group, even the feeling in my heart . . . it was all the proof I really needed.

  “How . . . old are you?” I squeaked, trying to wrap my mind around what was happening.

  “I’m eight,” he said, stepping over to stand directly next to the bed. “I’ve seen your picture a lot but it’s cool to meet you. Quinn always tells me I’m like you,” he said with a toothy grin.

  Pictures? Why didn’t he know me? Where was I in his future?

  My heart pounded even harder than it did before. I had always been wary of the idea of having children, too afraid of turning into my mom to want to take that kind of chance. Would I abandon my son in the future . . . or was I dead?

  I knew better than to ask those questions. What I did know of time travel told me that messing with the timeline was a very bad idea. There was an order to the world. Making changes in the past would cause a ripple that might turn into a tsunami.

  Even the fact that Noah had traveled back in time might have already set changes into motion. What had been changed? What would change more? Did we have the right to even contemplate accepting those changes or should we send our son back to his proper place?

  The idea of that made a tearing feeling fill my belly. There was no way I would have left my beautiful boy, so I must have died. And by the wary way Noah stood, poised to bolt at any moment, he had not lived a pain-free life.

  He had suffered. And by the look on Ian’s face, it was probably far worse than I guessed.

  Noah was one person. It was the world that needed to be contemplated. The future was supposed to be unknown. Altering it in any way made things even more unknown.

  Then again, I always believed time travel was nothing more than a myth, a story told to entertain the masses. I had no real information on it other than what I’d read in fiction or seen in movies.

  Maybe time was far more fluid than I had ever thought possible. Maybe making changes in the past wasn’t as big a deal as I believed it would be. I needed to do some serious research.

  I looked at Noah again, both surprised and impressed by his obvious level of intelligence. The idea of using a portal generator to, in essence, rip a hole in time was ingenious. And having a thumb drive that could talk to the future . . . I was blown away.

  Ian squeezed my hand, making me realize I’d been laying there staring at them. “I need to do some research,” I said, blinking twice to get the Hottie to turn on. “You two want to help?” I asked and blinked several times in quick succession to get the holographic display to spread out in front of us so we could all see it.

  Noah whooped, clearly pleased by the idea. He prattled for a minute, giving suggestions and throwing out technical jargon like the mini-techno-geek he was.

  Ian smirked at me. “Looking at our future tells me I need to start cramming on all things computer,” he told me, no doubt at all on his face.

  And the idea cemented itself in my mind. Our son had come back in time. I needed to know why. And I needed to change whatever needed changing to give him a good life.

  SIXTEEN

  “Look at this!” Noah shouted, running to my bed with Quinn�
�s tablet in his hand.

  My eyes fluttered open, a little startled to find a pair of brown eyes inches from my own. Oh. Right. Noah. I must have dozed off or something.

  I blinked, trying to clear my mind. That was when I noticed the dark blonde head rested on the rail as Ian continued to hold my hand even in sleep.

  It was such a sweet thing. I didn’t like the idea that he would be uncomfortable, probably with a kink in his neck when he woke up. There would also be a red mark on his face from resting it against the rail.

  I sighed inwardly and turned to look at Noah. “What is it?” I whispered, pressing my finger to my lips to hopefully keep him quiet.

  Noah grinned hugely at me. “It’s Quinn,” he said, handing me the tablet.

  I took it, my mouth falling open at the sight of my sister. She was in her mid-thirties with lined skin, her hair streaked by gray. It was her eyes that really worried me. They were hard eyes, ones that had seen far, far too much darkness.

  Looking at her a dozen years in the future showed me how bad things had been. It was the tightness around her mouth and the grayish color of her skin that really struck me. My sister was dying.

  She turned her lips up in a small smile when she saw me although it wasn’t the smile I knew. “Madison,” she said prayerfully, tears rising in her eyes.

  “Hey,” I whispered, my eyes growing damp as well.

  She sniffled, wiping away a few of her tears with a shaky hand. “It’s so good to see you,” she said, making it clear again that I wasn’t alive in their future.

  I stared at the face on the screen and questions began to pour out of me. “How could you send an eight-year-old on a trip through time? If he’s here to change the past, isn’t that asking for trouble? The kinds of changes we’ll need to make might create an even larger problem. How can we be sure we’re not making another, even larger mistake?”

  “We don’t have a choice, Madison,” she said, her eyes heavy. “The world is about to end. After the last attack, there’s only three small communities across the globe that aren’t Apostles.” She closed her eyes, taking in a shaky breath. “I knew an attack was coming, so I sent Noah alone to your time.”

  I flicked my eyes toward Noah, pleased to see that he was again busy tinkering with something. I had a bad feeling about what Quinn might say. “What happened?” I murmured, finally seeing the pool of blood that spread out around her.

  She gave me a look that told me all I needed to know. Quinn was dying. That version of her may be from twelve years in the future but my heart broke nonetheless.

  She took in a short, shaky breath and spoke. “You’re going to have to go back again. I sent Noah to the wrong time. Go back, Madison. Go back and--” she broke off, her eyes closing, “--and . . . and--” and her voice petered out.

  I stared at her face for a moment before she dropped whatever she’d been holding to pass me that message. Quinn was dead and there was nothing I could do about it. My heart broke right then and there.

  I had thought nothing could be worse than finding Emma dead in her garage. It turned out, watching Quinn die was even more painful. I knew she was still alive in my time. To see the life drain out of the other her lit a fire inside me.

  Whatever I had to do, I would make sure that future never happened. Quinn would live. The world would be saved. There was no choice whatsoever.

  She told me she had sent Noah to the wrong time. So what was the right time? How could we make all this end?

  Even after we figured out the when, I could barely move. Traveling back in time didn’t seem like it was the best idea for me.

  SEVENTEEN

  Noah kept his eyes fixed on the device. He wasn’t sure precisely what he was making, he simply wanted something to do with his hands. He knew what had happened.

  He had seen the blood. Too many people he had known and loved had died. He was used to it. The loss of Quinn felt different, though.

  He could feel a tearing inside him and it scared him more than anything else had in a long time. A part of him seemed to have died along with Quinn . . . the only part of him that was good. He didn’t know what to make of the feeling.

  Noah rose in a dazed way and walked toward the door. He glanced back at Ian and Madison, unsure if he even had a place anymore. They WERE his parents but not yet. What was he supposed to do?

  He had always thought his mom was pretty when Quinn had shown him pictures of her. And even though she was pale and drawn from being hurt, she was still one of the prettiest people he’d ever seen. She was nice too. He had wondered if the temper Quinn had told him Madison possessed would make her mean.

  He didn’t see a single mean thing about her. He kind of wanted to hug her. That was an awkward thing for him, though. He could see the tears on her face, the same pain he felt written in her eyes . . . that were identical to his.

  There was something wrong with him, though. He knew it was true. If he stayed, he might taint them with whatever darkness was inside him.

  He slunk toward the door, jerking to a stop when a man stepped through it. He’d seen that man before. He wasn’t one of the apostles. He had been possessed early on in the demon uprising. That man’s black eyes told Noah it had already happened.

  The man reached out fast and gripped Noah’s arm hard enough to leave a mark. “Well, well, well,” the man said, smiling in a way that made Noah’s skin crawl.

  Madison looked at the guy, her mouth set in a hard line. “Lesley? Why are you here?” she asked, her voice hard as iron.

  Noah saw Ian’s head rise, his eyes taking a moment to clear. As they did, Noah could see anger rise inside him. He had seen his dad angry on many occasions but that had been when he was possessed.

  Seeing Ian angry as a human made Noah feel safe for a reason he couldn’t identify. He remembered his dad a little and the guy who sat there next to Madison’s bed was the dad he remembered.

  The man named Lesley gripped Noah’s arm even tighter. “What I’m doing here, is claiming what is mine,” he said and the voice inside his head agreed. Yes, my son. You ARE mine.

  Ian rose slowly to his feet, his eyes fixed on the possessed man. “Claiming?” he asked, his hand moving in an infinitesimal way on the rail.

  Lesley let out a loud laugh. “When a child is conceived of a possessed man, that child is both human and demon.” He patted Noah’s shoulder. “This boy is both my son and yours.”

  Madison looked at Ian, her mouth hanging open. “You told me your spirit group would protect you. How could you be possessed?” she asked in a shaky voice.

  Lesley let out an even louder laugh. “You see, my dear, there are two timelines in play right now. In one, you never found what poison was used on you and you were at the door of death. To save you, Ian Gregory made a deal with me. I told him I would save you and all he would owe me was one favor. He agreed out of desperation to save you. The moment he made that deal, his spirit group abandoned him. I popped in on the boy a few times, long enough to make sure you were carrying my child, then I killed you after Noah’s birth. Now that the timeline has already been changed, there is no need for Ian to make the deal to save you. I wonder if he will make it to save the boy who is only half his.”

  Noah’s heart skittered in his chest. He was part demon. That was why he had black eyes sometimes, especially when he was mad.

  The darkness inside him now had a name. Its name was evil. Noah had to find a way to get that evil out of him.

  He blinked, turning his eyes again to look at his parents. Madison was the biggest surprise. She looked at him the same way she had before, not like he was a monster but as if she wanted to hug him.

  He glanced at Ian, wondering if he would be angry. That was when he noticed the pattern in the rhythm Ian tapped his fingers on the rail of the bed. Morse code.

  Dot, dash, dot, dot. Dot, dash, dot, dot, dot. Dot. Dot, dash, dot. And Noah’s eyes went as wide as Madison’s had been. Ian’s message was ‘laser’.

 
He had the demon-laser in his pocket. The problem was, it was in his right pocket and Lesley/Lanac held his right arm.

  “So you’re Lanac?” Noah asked, sure he recognized something in the way the demon spoke.

  He released Noah’s arm and patted his shoulder. “Yes, my son. That is my name. Know me, do you?”

  Noah took a single step forward before he turned to face the man, looking up to meet his eyes. “I know your name because the demon king put a sign over your head when he hung you. It said ‘Lanac, the fool who believed the demon king might share his throne’.”

  The demon narrowed the man’s eyes. Madison cut in before he could say anything. “I thought for a second you might be so powerful that you were able to project a part of yourself out of Quinn’s ghost-box but that’s not it at all. You told me there was a mole in the FBI and now that I know about the apostles, I can put it all together. Vox is the one who released you.”

  Lesley smirked at Madison and put his hands together in a mocking clap. “You figured that out all by yourself?” he asked, then raised a finger. “No. You weren’t clever enough. If I hadn’t told you about the mole, you wouldn’t have even suspected.”

  Madison raised her brows. “You’re right. I wouldn’t. So why did you tell me?” she asked, her eyes fixed on the demon.

  Noah adjusted the setting on the laser as surreptitiously as he could, his eyes fixed on the demon as well. He knew that Madison was trying to distract the demon, to keep his eyes off Noah. He didn’t know how Madison knew. That didn’t matter. He could ask her later.

  Once the laser was on the highest setting, all he needed to do was find the right place to hit him with it. It would cut a hole the demon wouldn’t be able to heal from, right through the man. He hated the idea of hurting the man who was possessed, though.

  That guy was human and human lives were precious. He had learned that early in his life. Loss was part of life, it was true. Being the one to cause that loss was not something he was okay with.