1500

by Holly Hook

  Simon stands and I let him lean on me again. He's walking a little better now--isn't he? We start walking quickly, back towards the Main Chamber. Mulavi keeps asking Arnelia questions. The soldier keeps out his weapon and I notice that she doesn't tell him to put it away. We're all sticking together. What will Arnelia do? She will have to find another time to live in or something if we don't fix the course of history. There's no way she can go back to 5052, not with that dictator making such attempts on her life. The thought of her returning there sends a chill down my spine.

  “Girl,” Simon mutters. “I think I'm going to die.” He staggers.

  His words make my heart explode. “No. You're not. We did not do all of this just to have you die on us.”

  “Simon?” Isabel asks.

  “No, really.” He leans on me. “I think I am.”

  And then he tumbles out of my grasp and onto the floor.

  Everyone turns to face us. Simon lands face-first on the red, inflamed crystal.

  “Simon!” I lean down and shake him. He groans and I wrap my hands around his wrist, taking his pulse. His heart beats fast and weak, like it's struggling to get enough blood to all of him. I look up at everyone else. “Does anyone know what to do?” I ask. “Does anyone know how to transfuse blood right here and now?”

  Arnelia shakes her head. “The technology for that is back in the Science Wing,” she asks. “Which is gone. We need to get him somewhere where he can heal.”

  Arnelia seizes his arm. I get the other. We're going to have to drag him. Simon's losing consciousness. His feet scrape against the dull, red crystal.

  “Keep going,” I breathe. Isabel's crying. Monica follows, mouth falling open. Even Mulavi looks excited, talking quickly. Simon's going to die if we don't hurry. He might not even make it if we get him to 1912. I don't know what to do. I just don't know what to do. We can get him back to Monica's time and summon the ambulance, but it might be too late to do even that. His blood pressure's dropping.

  “We're close to the Main Chamber,” Arnelia says, looking behind us. I know that if Simon dies, she's going to disappear. I can't bear that. “Do you know where the rift is to a hospital we can take him? My memory does not serve me much here. I can only remember visiting the time with Trenton High School.”

  “There's a hospital there," I say. My mind spins. Taking him back to the Titanic, even if it's not sinking, will be death for him now. “We have to go back there."

  I remember where the Trenton rift is. At least we won't have to go across the entire Main Chamber this time where those crazy Chronophages still are.

  The Hub opens up into redness and pain and sickness. My back still screams out and I don't want to know how injured I am.

  “Julia?” Monica's voice is high.

  Her voice makes me stop. "What?" I ask to no one in particular.

  Then there's a horrible cracking sound. The crystal trembles under my feet and my heart stops.

  We're not far from a wall. Next to us, a large sphere continues to bang into the wall over and over. It opens and closes its mouth. The air whistles around the Chronophage as it sucks in some of the fog. The crystal wall flares red again all around us as if screaming in pain. Simon groans again. He's still awake just a little. The sphere makes another attack.

  The crystal makes one final, angry red flare, and fades.

  I watch as all the red around us dulls and vanishes, leaving no color in its place. The crystal remains, but the imaginary lights behind it that reminded me of Christmas are gone. Dead. There's still a gray ambience around us and I can see, but all that's around us is dull crystal that's no longer beautiful.

  The Chronophage turns and faces the middle of the room with a squishing sound. Its mouth slowly comes open as it pushes past us. The rotten egg smell grows even stronger, threatening to suffocate us. Isabel holds her hand over her nose. I gag.

  “What is this?” Monica asks again.

  I feel like I'm going to throw up.

  “What?” Simon manages. I've never heart him so weak.

  “Time,” Isabel says. “I think Time is dead or dying. Dying, I think.”

  “Time can't die!” I yell. This was what Simon said he wanted. If Time were a man, I'd kill him. “It can't. It's like a law in our universe.”

  “Then maybe Time is ending.”

  “But what does that mean for us? For everyone?” I ask.

  “I don't know,” she says. “But it can't be good.”

  The Chronophage moves past us like we're bugs on the wall and approaches the center of the Main Chamber, where the Timeless used to get their assignments to find Rogues and lead us back home. It wasn't evil like I used to imagine. Time was just trying to preserve itself, just like Simon and I want to do. Time was only trying to save everyone from this, and now we've screwed it up forever.

  "What do we do?” I ask. “If Time's ending, why are we still here? Shouldn't everything end or freeze or something?”

  “I don't know," Isabel says.

  Behind us, the medic and the soldiers gather, watching the scene. Arnelia remains silent with her hands by her side.

  “What are you talking about?” Simon asks, lifting his head and letting it flop back down again. I keep my grip on his arms. He can't even walk anymore. His condition is getting worse by the minute.

  Not, of course, that it's going to matter if Isabel is right.

  The fog is thinning, revealing the entire Main Chamber and the huge space it takes up.

  And the Chronophages.

  They gather at the center like it's some kind of macabre meeting. There are hundreds of them. They leave the middle space open, forming a ring around it like they're waiting for some kind of king to arrive.

  And then there's a loud, thunderous splitting sound.

  This isn't like the other cracking I heard earlier. This is like the earth opening up. The Main Chamber shakes and I struggle to stand. Mulavi and the medic stagger and fall into the wall, grabbing onto the entrance to the corridor for support. The soldiers shout and Monica screams.

  We've done something very, very bad.

  One of the Chronophages falls forward as if the middle of the Main Chamber is sinking. It dips down and slides. The others join it as if they're all people topping down the bleachers of an overzealous soccer game. The cracking grows louder. I can see between the Chronophages a little.

  There's a hole opening up.

  I've never seen anything like it before.

  "What's that?” Monica shouts.

  Mulavi and the soldiers back away. One raises his gun. It won't do any good. The Chronophages are heading away from us, anyway, drawn towards the opening in the floor.

  Then I see. The first of the spheres fall away.

  Beyond the floor, there's nothing at all.

  It's the same darkness I saw inside the Chronophage's mouth. The same nothingness. The same absolute ending without any hope. The ugly spheres topple into it, vanishing into puffs of smoke and disintegrating. I'm frozen in terror.

  I'm almost glad to see them gone—but the hole continues to expand. The crystal itself topples down into the void as it grows larger and larger. The black pulses race through me again, threatening to devour me and threatening to erase me forever. Simon groans as if he senses it. The hole's edge is still far away—maybe a mile, even—but we can't stay here. I grab onto Simon's hand and pull at him. Even death is better than what waits at the bottom of that void.

  There is no hope there.

  No redemption.

  “Go!” I shout at everyone. “Run!”

  Mulavi and the soldiers run back into the corridor they came from, leaving us alone. Behind me, there's more cracking as the hole grows ever larger.

  Time is ending.

  And with it, the entire universe.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Isabel grabs Simon's other arm and we pull him up. He groans yet again, this time with terror. “Don't let that get me,” he manages. “Don't. I'd rather die.�
��

  Monica slaps me on the back. "What is this?"

  I stagger towards the corridor that I know has the Trenton rift, keeping my grip on Simon's arm. It's the closest to us, and the only one we can reach without going into the growing pit. I can't think of anything else. The hole's even larger now and the last of the spheres have fallen away into it. We're the only living things left in the Hub. The place is falling apart. Time has died. We killed it. We killed everyone.

  The hole's halfway to us and the crystal floor continues to crack and fall into it like ice being pulled into the black mouth of a giant monster. Will it expand to eat all the rifts? What about the times inside the rifts? Are they even still there, functioning like they should? Or will all times and places plunge into this hole as well?

  Arnelia seizes my free arm. “We must leave,” she says. She's lost all composure. “I don not like the way this feels. We must leave now!”

  The edge topples closer. There aren't any stars in this void. There's no life. There's nothing at all. Was this what things were like before the universe began?

  We drag Simon towards the Trenton corridor and enter. In only a few minutes, the hole will reach this spot. It'll start eating through the rifts. Through every time and thing that has ever existed.

  “We need to dive into another one of these things,” Monica says.

  “No!” Isabel shouts. “This is where all times meet. All times are here. That void will destroy wherever we go.”

  "But what do we do?"

  I want to scream. Cry. I think I am screaming as I drag Simon further into the corridor. The hole's taking up half the Main Chamber now, and moving fast. The universe is collapsing.

  What do we do?

  What do we do?

  I can't even unsink the Titanic now. The rift to the ship is across the pit. Death is better than some things, like Frank said.

  Much better.

  “Drag him faster!” I urge Arnelia. “Keep going.” Even if we dive into Trenton and stay there, will it do us any good? Are the rifts even still working? And even if we can go there, everything will spiral into this void eventually.

  My sides burn. My breath comes in ragged gasps. Arnelia screams something at me in her own language as she drags Simon. This could be the end. Mulavi and the other men won't survive. They can keep going down these never-ending hallways, but they'll never make it anywhere safe. No matter how far they go, the void will reach them eventually.

  "Isabel!"

  It's her father, calling from down the corridor. We've run back into him.

  I glance back. He stands there, gun at his side. His eyes are huge and he knows that something's wrong. I don't even care that he's there. If we're lucky he'll shoot us all before that void reaches us. I pull Simon faster, towards him. Arnelia huffs next to me and Monica grabs Simon's feet and lifts them.

  Isabel lets out a sob and runs away from us.

  And into the arms of her father.

  They embrace. The universe is ending, after all. There's no point in them trying to kill each other anymore. I pull Simon past them.

  The cracking grows louder. The shaking, worse. It's gaining on us. We're getting closer and closer to Trenton. Maybe that will be the place where we should end. Somewhere familiar. Somewhere where I can kiss Simon for the last time and tell him that I'm sorry. Where I can tell the world that I'm sorry.

  “Go,” I huff. The cracking's like thunder now. I'm terrified the floor is going to go out from under me. The corridor curves, so I can't see how close the void is to us. It's too late. I can't undo any of this. But I can't leave Simon. I won't. We're in this together.

  And then I see it in the distance.

  Blackness. Darkness. Nothingness. The floor falls into it and the first rifts crack and vaporize. It's coming. It's going to eat through every time and space after all.

  It's the most terrifying thing I could imagine.

  "Isabel--run!" I yell. She still stands there in her father's arms.

  “Oh,” Simon groans. We're dragging him so fast he doesn't have time to bleed on the floor.

  “Hold on,” I say. “I won't let it get you. I won't.”

  “It is gaining!” Arnelia shouts. “Run with all we have.”

  I huff and run backwards. Isabel's not moving. She's given up. We leave her behind. At least she's found a little bit of peace and I don't want to break it.

  The first black pulses race through my being, anticipating their meal. There is no hope here. No point. No love. We should give up because it all meant nothing.

  The void advances. Two more rifts vaporize, and then two more. It's only a hundred feet away and it races towards Isabel and her father. They're waiting.

  “Go,” I manage. I'm in tears. The floor falls away ever faster behind them and the pulses of the void grow so strong in me that I want to collapse. Everything is in vain. Maybe the void is where I belong and what I deserve after what I've done. I should throw myself in and never have to feel a thing again.

  Then I spot something out of the corner of my eye.

  A spot on the edge of a rift with shattered crystal, as if a bullet struck it.

  Where Isabel's father shot it, trying to aim at us.

  It's the rift that goes back to right after Simon and I met.

  I know what I have to do.

  I stop. Let go of Simon. It's the hardest thing I've ever done. He flops to the floor as everyone else loses their grip on him. “I love you,” I shout. “I have to go. Wait here.”

  "No!" Simon yells.

  "What are you doing?" Monica's eyes are huge as she eyes the approaching void.

  My heart pounds. The void draws closer, gaining speed. Isabel and her father waver. Turn to dust and fly into nothingness. The end is only fifty feet away. I have to act fast. I grab the hair clip from my pocket and strap it to my head. Rub my hand across it. My scalp tingles one final time as it grabs my newest memories.

  "Julia!" Simon struggles to stand.

  I leap into the rift, leaving everyone behind.

  The familiar electric feeling envelops me. I fall through gray and lifeless darkness, leaving Simon, Monica, Isabel and Arnelia behind.

  Chapter Nineteen

  “Pea. Wake up. I have wonderful news!”

  I lift my head from the sink, from the enormous pile of dishes that have been left for me since yesterday's meal. I look towards the door of our small house. It's beautiful and sunny outside. Father stands in the doorway, grinning and full of energy. Simon stands just behind him, unable to get into the doorway. Our fireplace crackles, doing its best to keep out the chill of the day.

  And there's also something on my head that wasn't there before.

  Why on earth did I fall asleep in the middle of my chores? Father and Melvin are counting on me. They have ever since Mother left us. But Father walks in, smiling as if everything is going to be all right. His overalls are covered in coal dust from the mines and his boots are dirty, but he doesn't seem to care. Melvin hugs his leg and asks him what the good news is. We haven't heard any in a very long time.

  Simon walks into the house behind him. He's dressed in his nice overalls today as if there's some kind of special occasion. Then Father looks at whatever's on my head.

  “Where did you get that?” he asks.

  Simon joins him in staring. Something's clipped into my hair. I reach up to feel what it could be.

  “I don't know,” I say. “Maybe Melvin stuck something in my hair while I was asleep. Sorry. I don't know how that could have happened. Once second, I was right here, doing my chores, and the next...” I don't know what to think. I feel like there's something big I should remember and it's just not there. It's like I've woken from a long and terrible dream.

  Or a nightmare.

  For some reason, I feel as if black pulses are racing through my body, like there's a huge monster of dread coming from a long way away. I don't understand it.

  “What's that, Julia?” my brother asks. “It's pre
tty!”

  Father comes closer. He holds four pieces of paper in his hands. Are they tickets to something? Maybe he's bought us tickets to the circus and we're all going to go out and have fun this weekend or take a holiday. Anything to escape from our pointless life of survival.

  I feel whatever's on my head again, alarmed by the sharp points. Has someone stuck knives in my hair? I'm going to kill Melvin for touching things that he shouldn't. But no. This feels like glass.

  The dark pulses through me grow stronger and Father grimaces as if he's feeling it, too. I shake my head to clear the feeling.

  “It's a butterfly,” Simon says. “It's beautiful. But I do have to ask where you found it?”

  I go to take it off, but Father pushes in front of Simon. He's got a wide smile on his face and he doesn't seem to care that I have a glass butterfly in my hair. I want to see it so bad. I want to reach up and examine it. It's almost like there's something that I need to do. A small, frightened voice in the back of my mind screams at me that it's important, and I have no idea where it's coming from.

  “Julia, listen, and listen close,” Father says. “Our lives are about to change. I've been saving for this for a long, long time. The four of us are getting out of here. We're going to the States to start a new life. Do you know what these are?” He holds out the tickets so that I can read.

  The voice in my mind tries to scream louder and the black pulses through my body grow worse, but it's drowned out by the huge words on the four tickets.

  TITANIC.

  THIRD CLASS TICKET.

  WELCOME ABOARD!

  “Father,” I about gasp. “You couldn't have...on the biggest ship ever built...”

  “I did,” Father says, clapping me on the back. “We depart in April. You and Melvin will be able to go to school in the States. I can get a better job and we can hire a maid for our home so that you aren't stuck doing all these chores. You need to have your own life...with Simon.”