by Holly Hook
That means I can never see them again.
“No,” I say, leaning into the old tree. "What if Frank goes after Nancy and Monica?"
Simon's there, wrapping his arm around me and pulling me close. I don't have to tell him why I'm upset. “Monica and Nancy will stay safe if we never go Timeless,” he says. “Their time will be rewritten. We'll never be in it. That means Frank will never be in it, either.”
“A lot of things could be rewritten. Simon, what if it's bad?”
“It can't be much worse than it already is. Saving a bunch of little kids and your family can't cause much harm, can it?”
He sounds so sure...or does he? Is that doubt plaguing him? What if we're making the wrong choice after all? But then I think of Arnelia and the future she lives in, the world where Simon and I go through with this and succeed in changing history. Arnelia's world wasn't bad. At least, not what I saw of it.
"Okay," I say. We separate. I have to do what's best for Nancy and Monica. I can't be greedy. "We go ahead with this."
“That was strange. I can't wait for the next treatment. I wonder how it's going to feel when I'm human again.” Isabel walks up to us. She hands me the hair clip. It settles in my hands, heavy. Inside the butterfly's metal body is Isabel's entire life. "Just promise me you will not spy."
"I won't. That would be like reading someone's diary," I say. Gosh, I can't do that. It would be awful. Isabel's trusting me with all her secrets. “We'll find the past you in 1945. It might be awkward, but we'll make sure you wear this."
“Without your father shooting me,” Simon tells her. Then he bites his lip. Blushes.
Darkness creeps over her face, but Isabel says nothing. She's not looking forward to discovering that her father's a murdering piece of crap all over again. When she remembers, he might be right there.
This is something we'll have to work out.
We're through the rift and running back to the Main Chamber a minute later. There's still no sign of Frank in the hall. We pass the two guys in caveman garb again, but they don't give us a second glance. I can remember the way to the Gustloff rift now that I've used it. Through the Main Chamber, almost directly across the room, down the hall a little bit on the left about half a mile.
Isabel stays with us the entire trip. I'm not sure if we run for an hour or two. I'm super grateful for the ability since it's such a long trip from 5052 to 1945. I wonder if the Timeless can run so long without getting tired just to deal with the whole running miles through the Hub thing.
“Here,” Isabel breathes when we reach the rift. I know she can't be out of breath from running. She's out of breath from terror.
And I don't blame her. Anything could happen to her if we change history.
Or us, too, if Frank's right. A growing sense of dread rises, screaming. Frank is terrified of whatever he thinks is going to happen. He'd even tried to warn us, but Time wouldn't let him.
The last secret Time kept from me was the fact that I was supposed to die on the Titanic. This can't be good.
I clutch the butterfly harder. “We'll find you,” I say. “I'm sure you'll like your present. Or maybe not.” I force a smile and Isabel gives me one in return.
After we do this, there's no going back for any of us.
Ever.
Isabel nods. “See you,” she says.
“See you.” I mean it.
Footfalls echo down the hall. Someone's running towards us and I have a feeling I know who it is.
“Isabel!” It's Frank, yelling from around the curve. He sounds far away, but not far enough. “I need your help. Are you down here?”
She curses. “Frank knows I stand at this rift a lot,” she says. “Go!”
The rift swishes, golden and inviting. It's a mask for the terror on the other side.
Simon grabs my hand and we jump at the same time. Gold explodes around us and we leave the Timeless Isabel behind, to where she'll have to confront Frank and pretend she knows nothing about us. Will he be able to tell her what terror waits? Even if he can, there's no way she'll get that info to us. Isabel didn't download those memories onto the butterfly—just the ones up until we left the rain forest.
That's all I think about as we fall together, keeping our fingers tight and interlocked. “We need to stop the Gustloff from sinking by making sure its outside lights stay off,” Simon yells over the roar. “The Russian submarine won't see the ship then. We'll use a mind trick to tell the crew to turn them off.”
“But they won't understand us.”
“They don't have to understand words. Just gestures.”
So we're going to convince a whole crew to control a ship the way we want them to. In World War Two. Fantastic. And not to mention, we'll be letting her murdering piece of crap father live, a father who's probably done things straight out of mankind's worst nightmares.
I'm not crazy about either one of those ideas.
But it's better than trying to pull Isabel's mother and sister through a rift that doesn't exist at the right time.
Better than giving up on my family.
Better than leaving me in Nancy and Monica's time where Frank can hurt them.
We land. I blink and bodies shift in the dull light. Children sit on the floor of the same cramped hallway I emerged in before. Simon presses up next to me, squashed between me and the wall. The air's hot and stifling.
We're on the ship.
I look at Simon. He's now in overalls and a plain white shirt. I'm in the gray dress again. I nod. We don't have a lot of time to find the captain of the ship and make him do our bidding. Isabel can come later. If we stop the sinking, we'll have time to locate her.
I'm still holding the butterfly. I hold it close and stuff it into my dress pocket. If someone steals it, this whole plan is screwed. And we're so crowded in here...
Simon grabs my arm. “I hope this works,” he mutters.
We push through the crowd. I can't help but let that horrible cramped feeling wash over me again. Wash...water...freezing cold water...I look back at the rift we just came through. It's fading into nothing now, leaving us stranded here. If we don't stop the sinking, we're going to experience it again. There will be no one to pull us out of here if we fail this time. The Timeless Isabel can't get in here. And Frank will be more than happy to let us suffer here until we find another rift. The two of us could thrash in the sea for hours. Days, even, before someone picks us up. Worse, we could go under with the ship. We might sink to the bottom of the Baltic Sea with it, thrashing in that frigid water. The Timeless can't die. We'd stay entombed in this ship for a very long time, freezing and suffering and unable to breathe.
I'm falling into panic. I nearly trip over a little kid beating his life jacket into the floor like it's some kind of grinding stone. I remember something from my last time here. “Simon—we have to go up a couple of decks to where the sailors are. The captain must be up there. We have to hurry!” I pull on his arm.
I'm not alone in my fear. It's there in his chocolate eyes, wide and vulnerable. He's having the same thoughts I am. “I trust you, Julia. We didn't have time to study the deck layout here.”
“You couldn't find it anywhere, anyway.” I keep talking to keep myself under control. We weave up the stairs to the next deck. The soldier in brown doesn't look up at me this time. Simon's with me. There's no flirting now.
The happy music plays over the radio. Soon, it'll change to the horrible Hitler speech. After that, the torpedoes will hit.
And then we'll go down with over nine thousand others. My brother and my father will be lost right along with them. And so will Arnelia.
The air cools and sends its chill right under my skin. I wave Simon past the door that leads to the enclosed deck. Outside, flakes fly past the window. This is just like last time I was here, before I found Isabel's family and her secret.
There's a sailor standing nearby, smoking. Simon and I push through the blue tendril. We can't stop and ask for directions. The capt
ain must be near the front of the ship.
The music cuts out. Rats.
We run past two more soldiers. A uniformed man who must be one of the ship's officers. He says something after us that I can't understand. We're in an area we're not supposed to be in. There's no time for rules.
The speech gets louder overhead as we pass under another speaker and into a hallway that's bare except for a couple of sailors. We're close to the bridge. This is going to be harder than that mind trick on Mr. Iris. I've never done one on more than one person at a time.
We duck through a doorway. Footfalls come after us. Will they shoot? Maybe. Some of them are Nazis. I'm sure they wouldn't have a problem with that.
"Halt!"
I glance back. One of the sailors walks after us. He pushes his way past the other two. I stare at the guy, holding up a hand and wave to order him back. The man stops, blinks like he's confused, and turns away. I'm doing it! Maybe this isn't hopeless after all.
"Great job," Simon whispers. "You're getting the hang of it. I'll need your help with the captains.”
We're free to talk now. Nobody's here to listen to us. “Captains?” My heart starts pounding.
“There's four of them here on the Gustloff. I found that out while you and Monica were at the Branch."
Now my heart's really on a runaway course. I've got to face four guys who I can't even talk to. Four guys who could have us arrested if we fail. Four guys we have to go through to save nine thousand lives.
We're coming up on another closed door now. The bridge must be right behind it. I can't hear the speech here. Of course the radio won't be going near the bridge.
There are raised voices on the other side of the door. An argument. I try the knob. Locked. I look at Simon and nod. We're going to have to kick it down with our Timeless strength. We have minutes left.
We kick at the same time. The door's steel. It buckles but doesn't budge. I kick again. Nothing. This isn't like Arnelia's flimsy wooden door which even some mortals could break down.
“Crap,” I say. The argument on the other side has stopped. They know we're coming in. “We've got to stop. We're in a war. They're going to think we're--”
The door bursts open. The barrel of a pistol stares me right in the face. Behind it, a captain in a black uniform trembles, all nerves. He reminds me too much of Frank. His ice blue eyes are wild, wary. The guy sighs when he sees us standing there, but he doesn't lower his weapon.
Now's the time we're supposed to explain ourselves. I open my mouth, then close it. Duh. That's not going to work here.
And then Simon does something stupid.
As in the stupidest thing he's ever done.
He charges the first captain, bowling into him and knocking him to the floor. The pistol goes off with a deafening crack, shooting sparks and filling the air with acrid smoke. The whole bridge inside explodes in noise and shouts. Simon and the captain go to the floor, wrestling. It's the same tactic he's used with Frank.
“Julia!” he shouts. There's no point in hiding our language now. “Control them. You have the chance!”
He's doing it so I can get in there and do the rest.
The face of my brother lights up behind my eyes. And those zombies, pleading with me to help them. They crawl closer and closer...
I run in. Three more men rush for the scuffle on the floor. I slip through. They're not too worried about a girl. I want to help Simon, to kick the captain that's wrestling him. But I can't. The plan has to come first. Simon can't die, but all these kids and families on this ship can. We'll all end up on the bottom of the sea if I don't do something.
The ship's controls and steering wheel wait in front of me. The window looks out into pitch darkness. Water flows past, lit by the ship's green running lights. They're the lights that the Russian submarine are tracking as I stand here, the ones we need to turn off.
Only I don't know how.
A shot rings out and Simon screams. I can't help it. I turn. Simon lies on the floor with an officer leaning over him, pointing another gun at his leg. Simon's face twists in pain. A golden, glittering stain spreads out on his pants. His blood. The men start shouting the sight of it. They don't know what to think.
Something snaps inside of me, even though I know Simon's safe. But he's in pain. Suffering, like so many others in my life.
“No!” I yell, lunging at the officer. Rage takes over. I'm tired of people hurting everyone I care about.
I shove the officer into one of the captains, but he barely notices. They're all transfixed by Simon's blood on the floor. It's pooling around his leg. I know he will heal, but that doesn't matter. I start wailing on the guy. He doesn't have the gun anymore. It's on the floor at my feet.
The captain—an older man—seizes my arm. I wring it out of his grasp. I'm stronger than them. They've underestimated me. I shove the captain back into his comrades. Three men struggle against each other for a second.
It's all I need. I grab the gun. Straighten up and point it at them. I've never handled one before, but right now, I don't care.
I don't need to say anything. Everyone knows what that means.
“Julia,” Simon manages on the floor. He's in pain, his voice tight. I know what it means. It's up to me until he heals. That'll take a few minutes. It's a few minutes that we might not have.
The speech has got to be getting close to finishing.
I look around. The four men stand there, holding up their hands. I don't know which controls are the lights. All I recognize is the spinning wheel thing to turn the ship. Why can't the Timeless Isabel be here? She could talk to these men. I could mess with the controls myself until the lights turn off, but that would mean turning my back on these guys.
“Julia,” Simon says from the floor. “Hold them there. Just do that. Don't shoot them.”
The gun feels cold in my grasp. Icy. I swing it between the four men, who hold their hands up in surrender. I turn my face into what I hope is a tough mask, but I'm shaking. Now I know how Frank felt those times he wielded his knife.
“Stay there,” I demand. I know they probably can't understand me, but I'm sure they get what I mean. “Simon...the lights.”
He pushes himself from the floor, leaving the gold puddle. But I don't let myself relax. I stare at the captains, two older men and two younger. I hold up my free hand. I focus on them staying there, staying still. One of the younger guy's eyes glaze over like he's in a daze, but one of the older men says something low and threatening to me. I can only control one of them at a time.
Simon's at the controls, flipping levers. He's had more time than me to study the ship. How much more time? I hope he's had quite a bit.
Switches flip. Simon's trying, anything, everything. I try not to focus on him. I keep my stare on those guys that could retake control of the ship if they wanted. How long can we keep them here? They'll turn the lights back on even after Simon manages to dim them.
And there are footfalls approaching. Reinforcements.
“Simon...hurry!”
“I...” He's running around behind me now. There's another click. “There! I got it! Lights are off.”
There's no time to sigh in relief. The door bursts open and brown-uniformed soldiers and sailors burst in.
There's no way we're getting out of this one.
Guns point at me. Click. At both of us. One of the captains points at Simon and yells something. I can guess what it means. He's a freak! He bleeds gold!
“Drop the gun,” Simon says behind me.
I do. It clatters to the floor. I hold up both hands. There's no way Simon and I can do mind tricks on this many people. They've captured us.
And I still don't know if we've--
Boom.
The ship lurches and bodies scatter. The sailors and officers topple around, shouting.
Panic rises in me. One of the torpedoes has hit.
Simon swears next to me and grabs my arm. The sailors run around, cursing, I think. One of
the captains shouts an order and points to a lever on the far wall.
“They're distracted,” I yell at Simon. “Door!”
This is our only chance to escape, to avoid capture. We bolt for the exit, past a couple more black-uniformed sailors and through the hallway. There's more shouting from inside and an alarm sounds from within the bridge. We run and I wait for the next torpedo to hit.
It never comes.
Simon and I make it to where the enclosed promenade deck starts.
Still nothing.
“It looks like we stopped some of the torpedoes from hitting.” Simon grins at me as we run, but I don't miss the tension in his voice or all the screaming below us. “The submarine couldn't see where to aim. If only the one hits, that won't be enough to sink this ship. They must be closing the watertight doors under the decks. You know, like they tried to do with the Titanic.”
I think of that alarm and I agree. We rush past the enclosed deck and around a woman with some screaming children. I'm not very comforted yet. “We've got to hide,” I say. I'm glad that the running isn't wearing me out. “Once they got everything straightened out, they're going to look for us.”
I don't want to get captured by Nazis. Period. They'll probably try to torture us and kill us for having golden blood or something. And even if we didn't, we're the enemy. Our original country's at war with them. It won't be pretty.
“You're right,” Simon says. “I know where they won't come after us. Trust me.”
He leads me down some stairs. And then another set, and another. We push around countless frightened people staring at each other and asking questions. The panic this time is not as severe, the crowd not as frenzied.
Simon leads me down yet another flight.
The sound of rushing water meets my ears and I freeze.
“Julia...come on!”
“You're taking us down to where the water's rushing in?”
“Yes. They won't look for us there. The ship's not going to sink. It'll all stay contained down here. We won't die from it. Then when the ship docks, we climb out." Simon stops near a hatch in the floor. “Help me.”
Water. No.
Just no.
"I can't. I...I have a water phobia!" It's the first time I've admitted it to myself.