“Back together? You feel as if you were with him before?”
This was like an interrogation, with no trace of warmth in her tone, only anger. “No. I just mean that that’s what he believes. Why are you trying to twist this around? Do you want a reason to break up with me?”
“That’s the last thing I want. I love you and no one else, but ever since Elliot arrived it feels as if you’ve been caught between the two of us. If you weren’t involved with me, would you want to be with him?”
“Maybe.”
“Then take some time and figure it out,” Callie said. “I need to be positive that it’s really me you love.”
She walked out of the room, leaving him stunned by what had happened, his life changed for the worse in one short conversation. Until now he had never had any doubts about his relationship with Callie, even though Elliot’s arrival and the things he had said had been a shock. If she refused to believe that he loved her, what more could he do?
Chapter Twenty
“WE HAVEN’T made any progress in working out why the ghosts are arriving here or where they come from. Without being able to communicate safely with them, I do not see how we can,” Mosrra said to Dervyl as the team sat around the large table in her office. “Have our people in the other dimension discovered anything more?”
“Not yet.”
Elliot listened worriedly to this. There had to be some way to get more information or to fight the creatures. So far, using magic had got them nowhere so perhaps a different idea was needed.
“People are dying because of them,” Amy said. “We have to do something.”
“Has anyone tried to kill a ghost?” Elliot asked.
“We have been reluctant to use violence and risk starting a war with them, but someone in the US fired a gun at one yesterday. However, the bullet went through its body and caused no damage,” Dervyl said. “The same would be true of any weapon we have.”
“What if a robot was used to communicate with them?” Al suggested, which sounded to Elliot like a good idea. The ghosts drove humans mad but they couldn’t harm a robot.
“We tried that several days ago,” Dervyl said. “After listening to the ghost, the robot said what it had learnt to its operator, who went crazy. The same thing even happened to those using microphones or watching such conversations through street cameras.”
Then it wasn’t anything the ghosts were doing that affected people’s sanity, Elliot thought, it was the words themselves. He had never before heard of such a thing happening. It made him think that the ghosts might not be trying to hurt anyone – they might simply be evolved so far beyond the human races that communication with them was too much for people to cope with.
“I believe it is possible for us to use magic to reverse what was done to change the timeline,” Abbrin said in a calm tone that made Elliot glare across the table at him.
“You want to give us back a world where my entire species was about to be wiped out?” Farlden demanded.
“There’s no guarantee that that would have been the outcome,” Abbrin said.
“Do you really think that Izients would have voted to change reality if we and the Nean race did not feel it essential to their survival?” Dervyl asked quietly.
“This is the only solution I can come up with to get rid of the ghosts that your actions brought to plague us all,” Abbrin responded, anger in his eyes. Ever since the ghosts first appeared he had been determined to blame Dervyl for their presence just because she had been one of the people who had performed the magic, even though the decision had been made by two human races.
“It’s not an acceptable answer,” Elliot said tightly, wondering if Abbrin had some kind of personal grudge. “As terrible as it is to know a few people have died, you can’t think that killing an entire race would be a fair way to deal with it.”
“Then what do you propose?” Abbrin asked him.
“I don’t know.”
“Wonderful!” Abbrin threw his arms in the air and Mosrra, who was sitting next to him, looked uncomfortable, although whether at his words or his un-Izient-like display of anger wasn’t clear. “So we should just sit about doing nothing while more people die?”
“Doing the wrong thing could be just as dangerous as doing nothing,” Dervyl said. “It’s almost certain at this point that the use of magic brought ghosts to our worlds and that they are particularly attracted to people who possess magic. I have discussed the matter with the Izients in the other earth dimension and I want to suggest to them that we all stop using magic, except where it is absolutely essential, for the next few days. Hopefully that will prevent any more deaths while we are searching for a permanent solution.”
“That sounds like a reasonable response,” Mosrra said, ignoring the frowning figure beside her, and Elliot agreed.
No one had any more ideas to suggest so the meeting came to an end. As Elliot got to his feet he caught Callie watching him, frowning, but she refused to meet his eyes. She had been silent throughout the meeting which was unlike her – or, at least, the Callie he remembered – and he glanced automatically at Farlden in time to see him hurry out of the room alone, instead of waiting for her as he usually did.
Elliot found Barve at his side as he walked out into the corridor. “Has something happened between Fal and Callie?” he asked quietly, not wanting other people to overhear him.
Barve glanced back at Callie, who was standing up, ready to follow them. “They kind of broke up,” he whispered. “Fal hasn’t said as much but I think it was about you.”
“Oh.” It might not have been fair in light of Callie’s obvious unhappiness but Elliot’s worry over the ghosts changed to happiness at the news. He had no idea what could have caused Farlden’s change of heart after the certainty in his tone when he told Elliot he loved Callie, but Elliot just wanted a chance to prove that he loved Farlden more than anyone else could. He had been ready to give up on the relationship if Farlden really was happy with Callie but this altered everything. None of the other changes in his life would matter if Farlden could grow to love him again. He squeezed Barve’s arm in silent thanks and went after Farlden, following him into a different office than the usual one he used.
Farlden had been standing with his back to the door, opening a laptop, and turned when Elliot came in. “Why are you here?”
“Barve just told me about you and Callie,” Elliot said. “I know you must have a lot to consider and I don’t expect you to suddenly love me again right away but I still love you more than anything. I hope you’ll decide to give us a chance to get to know each other better in this reality.” Farlden’s frown wasn’t exactly welcoming but Elliot had fought against the other man’s doubts in the previous timeline too and, now that Fal was free to love who he liked, Elliot would gladly do whatever it took to prove himself worthy of him.
“I don’t know...” Farlden began
“... I know,” Elliot interrupted. “I’m not asking anything from you now, but just think about it, okay?”
“All right.”
The grudging agreement made Elliot light up inside, believing that against all odds everything might work out for the two of them after all. He left the room, more determined than ever to find a way to stop the ghosts harming anyone else so that people could get on with their lives without fear and he could stop feeling partly responsible for bringing them to this reality and give all his focus to developing his relationship with Fal.
Chapter Twenty-One
“ELIOTT, COULD I speak to you?”
After his conversation with Farlden, Elliot was happy to do anything anyone asked and he followed Dervyl back to her office, where they sat down together, Dervyl in her own small Izient chair and Elliot in a regular-sized Sapiens one. “There is something I did not mention at the meeting as I need to check that you are sure about what you told me,” she said, the expression in her eyes partly hidden by the shadow of her heavy double brow ridge but some unknown emotion visible. �
�Is there any way that you could have been mistaken about the ghost you saw being that of Jim Barnes?”
“No. It was definitely him.” His elation over Farlden faded away at the reminder that a friend of his had somehow died in this new timeline.
“This person?” She showed him an image on her laptop, the mousy brown hair and round face unmistakeable. He was smiling in the picture, which looked recent.
“Yes.” Elliot swallowed, guilt-stricken at the loss of someone so kind through the change to reality he had helped achieve. Jim had helped him and Farlden and now he was gone. “How did he die?”
“He didn’t,” she said and he stared at her, confused. “The Jim Barnes in that photograph is perfectly well and currently attending university.”
He laughed aloud as relief flooded through him. He ignored the impulse to go and find Jim right now but he would make contact with him when he could and make sure Jim was okay; that his father wasn’t still hurting him in this world. Perhaps they could become friends again.
He glanced down at the picture on the screen, his smile fading away as he tried to make sense of the news. “If he’s alive, how could I have seen his ghost?”
“Exactly.” She put her laptop down on the coffee table beside them and closed it.
“It was him.” There was no question of that. “He doesn’t have a twin, just a much younger brother that I couldn’t have confused with Jim.”
“This reality could have different people alive in it but I checked and you’re right that there’s no twin.”
“So how is this possible?” A person couldn’t be alive and dead at the same time.
“I believe that the answer to that question could tell us a great deal about the nature of the ghosts.”
If the ghost he had seen hadn’t been Jim then why had it taken his appearance? He could think of no possible reason for it. “We have to find a way to communicate with them,” he said, thinking aloud.
“Other agencies have had the same idea but whether they are nearby or talking through a megaphone from a good distance away or even, as we just discussed, through the use of robots, any people who speak to the ghosts or have indirect contact with them go crazy.”
“Why should the ghosts or their words have that effect?”
“My people initially assumed that it was the result of the dead and the living coming in contact, that this was something that the universe did not want to happen, but if you saw Jim Barnes then the term ‘ghosts’ must be an inaccurate one and, if they are not ghosts, what are they?”
“Could they be aliens of some kind? Perhaps appearing in the form of people is a way to put us at our ease so as to make contact with us or attack us.” Maybe the ghosts were all projections of living humans.
“To duplicate actual people seems an unnecessarily elaborate way to try to deceive us, but it is possible. The fact that you saw someone you knew might also be relevant, although I am not certain how.”
“If it was not the Jim from this reality, could it somehow be a ghost from the previous timeline?” It was the only idea that made any sense to him although, if everyone on this planet was altered by the change in reality, there should be millions of ghosts appearing if they represented the past versions of people.
“There are not two separate timelines, although I understand why you see it that way. The people you knew before have turned into the people who have different memories. There should be no one left from the old timeline to appear in the new one.”
“Then I’m out of ideas,” he was forced to admit, knowing only what a relief it was to discover that his friend, Jim, was alive after all, even if he had no clue how that was possible. “I’m afraid I can’t make any sense of it.”
“Nor can I at the moment but it is a new fact to help lead us to an understanding of the situation and, from there, a solution.”
He smiled at how simple she made it seem and hoped she was right.
Chapter Twenty-Two
FARLDEN HAD been working with Mosrra all morning, using magic to try to see the alteration in the timeline or, specifically, to see where the first ghosts had appeared and work out what had caused them to manifest. The attempt had been spectacularly unsuccessful with nothing to show for their time except his headache and the memory of the initial ghosts arriving, with no hint of the why or even the how.
He went downstairs to the canteen to, perhaps unwisely, drown his headache in coffee, finding a seat that overlooked the city. With the double-glazing blocking out the noise and the sun shining down on the nearby buildings from out of a blue sky, it was almost impossible to believe that this threat to the world existed.
He took another sip from his mug, enjoying the rich taste, and then paused as Callie walked in with Al. She didn’t seem to notice him, busy talking to the Nean as they both fetched drinks and sat down. She and Farlden had been broken up for a couple of days and he had thought about her constantly, knowing how much happier his life had been while they were involved. He felt a pang of grief at the sight of her.
He had tried to do what she asked him, thinking about what or who he wanted in his life, but he barely knew Elliot. If he had been single when they met he might well have wanted to spend more time with Elliot, but Callie was the one he loved and it hurt that she hadn’t believed that. He had found himself wondering, more than once, if the mention of Elliot had been an excuse and perhaps she didn’t want to be involved with Fal any longer. Had she got bored of him or decided her feelings for him weren’t as strong as she had once thought?
He finished his drink and got up, throwing his paper mug into a recycling bin on his way out. As he turned towards the door, he nearly walked into Callie, who had also got to her feet. She was wearing the burnt orange skirt-suit that looked particularly good on her, highlighting her curves, and her thick black hair was a mass of curls around her face. His mouth went dry and he didn’t know what to say. All he could do was look at her, waiting to see whether or not she wanted to talk and hoping that she did.
Al glanced from one to the other of them, with something in his gaze that might have been amusement. “I’ll be upstairs,” he said and left them.
“How are you?” he asked her, for something to say, when they were alone.
“Not great.” She put her hands in the pockets of her suit jacket, something he knew she did when she was nervous, to stop herself fidgeting.
“Can we sit down and talk?” His stomach was a knot of tension as he waited for her response, unsure whether she still wanted anything to do with him.
“Okay.”
He breathed in deeply, his breath coming more easily now he knew she was willing to give him a chance to say how he felt. They went back to the table he had just left and sat down. She put down her mug and silence fell between them.
He racked his brain for something to say to make his feelings clear, but he had already said that he loved her and she hadn’t believed him.
She spoke first: “I really miss you.”
He reached out to touch her hand, still unsure of how she would react and what she wanted. When she curled her fingers around his he was flooded with relief. “Me too,” he said, wishing he knew how to speak with a bit more eloquence. “Look, I understand why you believed I needed to think about who I wanted to be with, but it’s always been you.”
She brightened, the sight of her smile warming him. She asked tentatively, “What about Elliot?”
He thought of the conversation he had had with Elliot after the break-up and the other man’s obvious hope that they would get together. “I like him a lot but nothing more. The truth is that he’s a stranger and you and I have nearly a year’s worth of history and good times together. You ground me and I can’t bear to lose you.”
“I love you, Fal,” she said, smiling through eyes glittering with tears. She never cried.
“I love you too.” He leaned forward and kissed her and for a moment it felt wrong, as if he were cheating on someone he loved. The reaction,
coming now of all times, unnerved him but he ignored it – this had been an insane week and he was just mixed up by all the recent doubts. He kissed her again, more deeply and told himself that it was just as good as it had always been. They needed to spend some time together away from work; that was all. This was hardly a romantic setting. They had gone through too much together to see it fall apart for no reason.
* * *
Elliot walked into the canteen with Barve and Lila and, now that she had joined their team, it felt like old times. He had told Lila about the previous timeline and how they had all been friends and she had said that she had had the weirdest sense of knowing him when they met, which gave him hope that Farlden might still remember something of their shared past. He was beginning to feel at home in this reality for the first time.
They collected food, which was of a far higher standard than what he remembered them eating at Uni, and sat down together. He raised his mug of tea only to notice Farlden sitting with Callie at the other end of the room. Just because they were talking again didn’t mean anything, he told himself, fighting a sense of unease. They might have agreed to stay friends or be currently working together.
“I know that shooting a ghost didn’t work but there must be some other kind of weapon that would kill them,” Lila said and Elliot tried to concentrate on the conversation, although he could not help glancing over at Farlden and Callie, wishing he knew what they were saying.
“That seems a bit extreme,” Barve said. “I mean, we’re not even sure they’re trying to harm us.”
“They’re driving people crazy. That’s not exactly a good thing to do.”
“But it could be unintentional,” Elliot said, making himself begin eating although he had no appetite. He deliberately turned his seat slightly more towards his friends, so he couldn’t see Farlden and Callie and worry for what was probably no reason. “That could be a result of them coming to this reality – like a clash of a negative and positive force – and they may actually want to make friends with us. Or they might not even want to come here and something is dragging them into this world, maybe something that we’ve done.”
A New Reality Page 8