by Jerry Hart
When they reached the top floor, they came to a large golden door at the end of the hall. Alyssa knocked twice, producing a musical sound that echoed behind her and Daniel. Then they waited. A moment later, the grand doors opened.
Inside was a very large room. Daniel couldn’t believe a room that big could fit inside of a building. Of course, he had to remember this place wasn’t quite real, and that anything was possible. The room was empty, however. There were large, rectangular windows lining the walls, with dim white light shining in through them. There was no furniture, and the floors were shiny and beautiful.
“Where is she?” Alyssa asked.
“Maybe we have to call her?” Daniel asked.
Alyssa nodded. “Seneda, we need to talk to you,” she said into the open room.
A moment of silence, but no response.
“Please, Seneda,” said Daniel. “You said that if we ever needed to talk to you, to come to this room and call for you. Something’s wrong and we need your help.”
Seconds later, a shape began appearing in front of them. It was composed of cyan-colored light, and it quickly formed into a woman in a white dress. She had long brown hair and blue eyes, and though she usually had a smile on her face, she was now frowning. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
Alyssa shoved Daniel forward. “Something is wrong on...Earth, I think,” he told Seneda nervously. “I feel weird here, and I was thinking that maybe something was happening to my body.”
Seneda looked thoughtful. “That’s possible.”
“Is there anything we can do?” Alyssa asked.
Seneda looked at her. “Once you’ve left your body, there really is no way to keep an eye on it anymore. You can’t return to it.”
“What if the body wasn’t completely dead?” Daniel asked. “Could someone return to it if that was the case?”
“Yes,” said Seneda, “but that’s not the case, is it?”
“So there’s nothing we can do?” Alyssa sounded angry.
Seneda sighed. “I will see what I can do, but I make no promises. Okay?”
Daniel and Alyssa left the room a moment later, not feeling any better. Daniel trusted Owen’s mother, but she’d seemed distracted during the whole conversation. He and Alyssa headed back outside, to the snow-white landscape and blue waterfall.
“What are you thinking about?” Alyssa suddenly asked him as he stared at his reflection in the water.
“You heard what she said about returning to your body if you’re not completely dead.”
“So? We’re completely dead.”
“I know, but our friends aren’t. I’m going to keep an eye on Chris and Owen. If they get in trouble, I want to help them. So...so they don’t end up here, like us.”
“This place isn’t so bad,” Alyssa said quietly.
“It’s not,” he agreed. “But we’re not supposed to be here. I don’t want them coming here until it’s their time. Okay?”
Daniel heard the seriousness in his voice and tried to smile, but Alyssa wasn’t fooled. “Mind if I help?” she asked.
“Not at all.” They leaned closer to the water and began watching after their friends. All they had to do was clear their minds....
* * *
After the kids left, Seneda returned to the world between worlds. At once, she was surrounded by black and gold light that shimmered like reflections on warped glass. She had just come from here a moment ago, when Daniel and Alyssa had called her. Though she did not like this place, there was someone here she’d been talking to, someone she loved very much.
She couldn’t find him now, though.
“Russell?” she called into the shimmering world. There was no reply.
She took a few steps forward, the ground responding oddly to her feet. It was like walking on water, and Seneda still wasn’t used to it. She couldn’t imagine how Russell could stand to spend his time here. But it wasn’t like he could help it; he was trapped here.
“Seneda!” she heard from nearby. There was a large golden hill in front of her, and someone appeared at the top of it. He was dressed in a red-and-black plaid shirt and jeans. He looked so much like an older version of their son....
“Sorry I had to leave you,” she said as she hiked up her dress and ran to her husband. “Someone needed me.”
“That’s you, always helping people.” He touched her cheek. “That’s why I fell in love with you.”
“I thought you fell in love with me because of my dirty jokes,” she said with a grin.
“That too.”
Seneda’s grin vanished. “I wish you could join us...over there.”
“This place isn’t so bad.”
“It’s horrible!”
Russell hugged his wife tightly. “I can’t join you. I made a terrible choice and now I have to pay for it.”
“It wasn’t your fault!” she said into his chest. “You were fooled into helping him. You’ve paid for it enough. This isn’t fair!”
“I know, honey.”
“There has to be something we can do.” Seneda suddenly realized that she sounded like Daniel and Alyssa and wished she’d been more sympathetic to their plight. She felt so helpless, not knowing how to help her husband get away from this limbo. When they died on Earth, they had found each other in this place, where every one ended up before crossing over. When they had tried to enter the Other Place, Russell had been left behind. Seneda had returned to him and stayed for as long as he was willing to let her. Eventually, he made her return to the Other Place. She visited him whenever she could.
At first, neither of them knew what was wrong. Then Russell ventured a guess. It had to have something to do with Norrack, the beast that took it upon itself to create life of its own. This was the place where all of its creations ended up once they died. Russell should have been able to enter the Other Place, but there was something wrong inside him, something that kept him from being recognized for what he was.
“You should go back,” he said to Seneda. “I’ll be fine. I’ll find my way to you eventually, even if I have to bust my way in.”
Seneda laughed. “Okay, I’ll go back. But not now. I want to stay with you a while.”
“Okay.”
They lay down together on the shimmering ground and slept.
Chapter 26. Questionable Memories
The spiral staircase rose in front of Owen Walters into the dark sky, and he noticed the steps were actually hardcover books. They rose up so far he couldn’t see where they ended.
Cautiously, he stepped on the first book-step. It gave a little under his weight, but held. He slowly made his way up the spiral staircase. The first few steps felt awkward; his balance was shaky and he had nothing to grab on to.
As he made his way higher and higher, he tried to see if the book-steps had titles. They did not, but they all had the same brown leather covers.
After what felt like a significant amount of time, Owen looked up to see how far he’d traveled. The sky was dark and featureless. There was no telling, so he looked down. The ground was just as dark. He stood in place, refusing to take another step. He was starting to regret having made the climb in the first place.
He looked to his wrist only to remember he didn’t have a watch in which to tell the time. All he had on was his black blood-covered hoodie and jeans. The blood belonged to his dear friend Alyssa Turner. He looked up again hoping to see something, anything, but only saw darkness. A horrible loneliness gripped him. He had no idea where he was. He saw nothing but the books on which he stood, spiraling upward. He grabbed his blond, sweaty hair and tried to pull it out in frustration.
They have to go somewhere, he thought.
With that in mind, he continued to climb, determined to discover where these steps led. After what felt like ten minutes, Owen stopped and looked up again. Now he saw something. Whatever it was, it was dark, but not as dark as its surroundings. He decided to climb some more. He climbed more energetically now that he saw his destinat
ion.
After a few more minutes, he could practically feel the object above him taking up the space around it. He was close enough to see what it was.
It was an orb.
It was the orb.
But it was much larger than Owen remembered. The one he had, the one he’d taken from Michael and his brother Jason, was the size of a bowling ball and appeared to be made of polished red marble.
This orb, though appearing to be made of the same polished marble, was the size of a car. The steps actually widened around it.
Owen stared at the object that seemed to be floating in midair. This didn’t surprise him because there was nothing supporting the book-steps, either.
There was a low-level hum coming from the massive orb. Owen was tempted to touch it but was afraid of what might happen if he did. He thought back to what happened the last time it had been activated: A weird pulse had shot out of it and spread in all directions. His friend, Chris Weaver, had managed to deactivate it, but there was no telling what kind of damage it had already done.
No, Owen didn’t know much about this orb, but he knew one thing: He’d had a hand in creating it.
But for what? What did the orb do? Owen had no clue. Whatever it did, it was apparently worth killing for. And now it was in his possession.
He looked at his surroundings once again; it was still too dark to tell where he was, but it didn’t matter anymore. All that mattered was the orb floating before him. He placed his hands upon its shiny surface. It felt warm and slimy. The humming instantly grew more intense. Owen tried to pull his hands away, but couldn’t. He was stuck to it.
And now the massive orb began to glow. A bright light ignited from the center and expanding outward. Owen looked in the center; it was as if he was looking down into the bottom of a pool, with his head just above the surface of the water. He was mesmerized.
* * *
He woke up to find he was holding the orb now, but it was no longer the size of a car; it was back to the bowling-ball size he was accustomed to.
Much like its dream counterpart, this orb was also glowing. He dropped it. The moment it hit the ground, the light faded away. He watched it for a moment to make sure it didn’t do anything else, then he looked around. He was in a candle-lit room. There were windows placed high on the walls. Very little moonlight shone into the room due to the thick cloud cover.
“What are you doing?” a voice asked, making Owen jump. In one corner of the room stood a young woman, wearing a purple shirt and jeans. She studied him, a curious grin on her face.
“Nothing, Nikki. I mean I don’t know what happened. Bad dream.”
Nikki stepped closer, glancing down at the orb. She combed her strawberry-blond hair behind her ears. “Were you messing with that thing? I saw light coming from this room.”
“I wasn’t messing with it. I had a dream I was touching the orb. Then I woke up and I was holding it. I didn’t mean to,” he added defensively.
“You dreamt of it before finally obtaining it,” Nikki mused, “and continue to do so now that you have it? How weird.”
It was true, but the dreams Owen had before were different. Back then, he dreamt he was tinkering with and testing it on animals. Now that he had the orb in his possession, he was dreaming about turning it on.
Then it hit him. What had he just done with it? He knew he activated something, but it wasn’t the same thing Michael and Jason had done. At least, Owen hoped it wasn’t.
Nikki picked up the orb and studied it, rolling it around in her hands. Owen had brought it to her hoping she could tell him what it was, but so far she’d been unable to. Nor was she able to tell him how he was connected to it. And to Michael.
All she could tell him was that he and Michael were two halves of a whole, something Michael himself confirmed during Owen’s last encounter with him.
None of it made any sense to Owen and it was maddening. Up until a few days ago, everything was going great for him and his friends. He, Chris, Daniel and Alyssa had been fighting monsters and having fun. Now everything was wrong.
“I wish I could tell you more about this thing,” Nikki said as she set the orb down on a table, “but when I look at it, I see nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean literally nothing. My mind goes blank whenever I even try to look deeper into it.”
“What should we do?” he asked.
“I may not be able to see into it, but perhaps I’ll have a better chance by looking into the one who made it.”
Owen looked directly into her eyes.
“You mean me?” he asked.
“Well, you did say you had dreams of building it, right?”
“I already told you I don’t know anything.”
“You said you built it.”
“I said I had a dream I was building it, but how could I have actually done it? I’m only sixteen and I can remember everything I’ve done for the past ten years. I think I’d remember this.”
He pointed to the orb. Nikki sighed.
“You came to me for help. I’m trying to help,” she said irritably.
“I know. I’m sorry. I just....”
Owen paused. A metallic figure with a clear, white shell stepped into the room to join him and Nikki.
“I just don’t understand why this is happening. Daniel and Alyssa are dead, Chris is missing—all I have left is D,” Owen said, indicating the robot in the doorway.
In a single night, Michael had destroyed Owen’s life, taking away everything he held dear. Owen couldn’t go home since the police had discovered Daniel’s body there.
“I’m sorry about your friends,” Nikki said kindly. “Although I don’t know where Chris is, I know he’s not dead.”
“How do you know that?” Owen asked as he wiped away a single tear that managed to roll down his cheek.
“I just do.”
Owen stared at D. The robot stared back with its piercing blue eyes.
“We shouldn’t focus on Chris now,” he said. “I think we need to talk about Michael and his brother.”
Nikki smiled. “I agree.”
* * *
It was pretty clear to Owen that Nikki enjoyed, to a certain extent, talking about Michael. Owen figured it was because Michael was a mystery, and Nikki, who was used to reading regular people’s boring fortunes, enjoyed trying to unravel it.
She and Owen were in a different room now, one that looked like a small warehouse. It was the very same room where they first met. The only difference now was that Chris wasn’t there with them. The two of them sat across from each other at a round table covered with a purple tablecloth. Owen knew that Nikki could see the truth in things if presented with a little information about a given situation. And that she liked purple.
She had known that Owen and Michael were connected somehow, that they both possessed the same superhuman strength, from as little information as Michael’s name and physical description. But when it came to Michael and Jason, all she could tell was that the two of them were blood-related, nothing more. She claimed she could tell Owen everything if she could meet them, but chances of that being arranged were slim to none.
“What can you tell me?” Owen asked, looking Nikki straight in the eyes.
“Depends on what you can tell me.”
“I’ve already told you everything I know.”
She sat back in her chair, looking like she was thinking deeply. “You know, something struck me when you mentioned knowing everything you’ve done in the past ten years.”
“What?”
“I don’t know,” she said bitterly, as if on the cusp of something she couldn’t quite grasp. “Tell me about your past.”
“Like what, exactly?”
“Did anything significant happen?”
“My dad died two years ago.”
“How?” Nikki was anxious now.
“You can’t see?” he asked nervously.
Nikki chewed on her lip as she s
hook her head. “I should be able to, but I can’t, and that worries me.”
“He was killed in a meteor shower.” Owen had told this story a few times to his closest friends; the event was how he wound up meeting Chris and the others in the first place. Though he couldn’t remember most of what had happened directly after his father died, he did remember walking all the way from his hometown to San Sebastian. That was over thirty miles.
Nikki narrowed her eyes at Owen and said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s true.”
His eyes widened. Out of all things he was expecting Nikki to say, that wasn’t one of them. “What do you mean?” he asked. “That is what happened. I saw it.”
“I’m just not seeing it. If it were true, I would be able to see it.”
Owen sat in silence for a moment, not sure how to react or what to say.
“Have you ever been wrong before?” he finally asked.
“No,” Nikki whispered instantly, still squinting, as if she was trying to see something far away.
“Stop looking at me like that,” he said. “It’s freaking me out.”
“I’m sorry,” Nikki said as she opened her eyes. “Your past is horribly blurry.”
“Why would that be?”
“I guess one really good reason would be because you don’t have one.”
“A past? That’s impossible. I remember a lot of things from when I was a kid.”
“Give me an example,” she said, narrowing her eyes slightly, but not as much as before.
“I remember my best friend Cullen Matthews. I remember always beating him in foot races.”
Nikki’s eyes shot open suddenly. “I see that!” she screamed excitedly. “Except, I see it as the other way around—him beating you.”
“Whatever,” Owen said with a smile. “I also remember my dad being a great cook; he made the best steaks in the world.”