by Holly Hook
Right now, it's all ours.
"Any more clues?" I don't want to ruin the moment but I might not get another chance to ask for a while. “Is this one of them?” Hope grows inside me like a bubble afraid of getting popped.
Simon wrinkles his face in thought as he presses on, taking us down the length of the floor and through a whirling kaleidoscope of blue and red. We turn just before we smack into the wall where the rift is supposed to be. “Not this. Sorry.”
The air whips against my face, but it's nothing like what happened when I fell. 2:20 is death. This is life. We round the next curve, missing the padded wall by a foot. I scream as I squeeze my eyes shut. This is the most fun I'll ever have at the Branch. I blink the wind from my eyes as we speed through another patch of lights on the floor.
The song changes to something about being sober and calling on the phone. Simon slows a bit as if it's weighing him down.
The slowdown makes me practically crash into him, but we both stay upright.
"Can we stop?" I ask.
Simon's face is all concerned as we slow and practically ram into the barrier that separates the skating floor from the arcade. "What's wrong?"
I stare at Monica and Trey again. Now they're glued to one of those rip-off Stacker games where you can never get that last square in place no matter how easy it looks. Monica hates that game, but she's sticking it out for me. That's the only reason she's watching as Trey gets to the last square, hits the button, and misses by one slot. He about collapses with a huge, frustrated sigh.
Simon runs his hand down my back. It whispers against the fabric as the song dies. I lean over the barrier, trying to hold my emotions at bay. At last, I crash from the high I shared with him doing top speed around the floor. “Something's got you worried. I can tell by the look you have on your face."
“I don't know what it is.” I don't see any sign of Frank or Isabel. Wendy and Heather aren't even paying attention to me. They're over on the other side of the dining room, immersed in their phones.
Monica walks up, a sullen Trey on her heels. "Julia, you look like you're not feeling very--"
"I'm a little motion sick," I say.
She nods.
"Well, I wanted to warn you." Monica nods and lets her gaze float over to our left. "Just FYI. They've been watching you. I think they're calling you-know-who.”
I follow her gaze. Now Wendy has her bubblegum-colored cell phone glued to her ear. That's weird. I've never seen her actually talk on her phone. Heather's shrinking against the wall.
"I mean, you need to come check this out." Wendy talks loud enough for all of us to hear. It's all for our benefit. "She's skating with some freak guy who won't even show his face? What is he? Some kind of terrorist?" Then she lowers her voice, making me strain my ears to hear what she's saying. "Where are you at? Okay. Great. See you in a minute."
Oh.
Wendy must be talking to Isabel.
The thought hits me like a punch to the stomach.
I stiffen. Simon nods at me and drums his fingers on my back. "Don't worry about that girl. She's not a threat."
His words barely register, like we're underwater. My gaze is already bouncing around the inside of the Branch, hunting for an exit. I push myself away from the barrier, almost going down on my butt in the process. "Um, yes she is. She's friends with Isabel."
Simon's eyes bulge. He locks his arm around mine again, and we're skating away from Monica so fast she might as well be a bystander watching us leave on the world's fastest train. She yells something after us, but it's lost in the air rushing past my ears and whipping my hair back.
"What--" This isn't the way to the exit. The one door in the corner of the skating floor's always locked and just goes back to some electrical room. "Simon, we have to leave. Isabel's going to see you with me!" His hood won't hide him for very long.
"We are."
He shoots me a glance, pulls his hood down over his face, and stares straight ahead as he guides me over to the middle of the skating floor, where no one ever seems to go. It's empty as the lights put on a show for only us. Right now, we’re the only ones out here. Isabel’s going to find us soon enough.
We make another pass around the floor. It's enough to show me Monica turning around and heading back to Trey. Wendy's also turned away. She heads for the front entrance. It's hard to see, but the outside door is opening and two figures are coming through to the admissions booth. It's a girl with a long mane of blond hair and a pointy face like a rat's…and a dark-haired guy with angelic features that are really anything but.
Isabel and Frank.
The other Timeless.
Simon's comrades who Time itself has sent after me.
"Hold on." Simon pulls me closer, so close that it's taking my breath right out of my lungs. "Try not to scream. It'll draw their attention over here."
I know what he means.
We're going through the rift. It's the only way out.
He turns us again…and plows straight towards the wall.
It looms bigger and bigger ahead of us as green and yellow circles whirl across it. Simon shows no signs of slowing or stopping. Is there really anything there?
I squeeze my eyes shut. Hold down the scream that's bubbling up my throat. I tense and wait for impact.
The floor falls away. I'm falling. It’s like we’ve skated right off a cliff.
Simon holds my arm tight. There's no ground under me. Nothing solid. Wind beats against us and it's like we're plunging to our death.
My skates hit the ground again. I stagger but Simon keeps me up. Our skates slow to a low rumble and we stop. My pulse hammers in my ears. I don't dare open my eyes.
The music’s gone. There’s nothing but cool air wrapping around my skin.
"We're safe," he says. "You can open your eyes now. Wait until you see where we are."
Chapter Eight
I open my eyes.
"Um, Simon?” The rest dies in my throat.
We're no longer in the Branch, or anything even close to normal. Simon stands there in front of me, waiting for my reaction.
“You're lucky,” Simon says. “That rift came to the Hub. If it had dumped us in another time, I'd be a stranger all over again."
“That rift came to the what?” I ask.
Behind Simon, a crystal hallway stretches away into infinity.
It's like we're standing in a tunnel to the heart of the universe. The walls around us give off every color at once, like there are Christmas lights behind all the crystal. I blink until my eyes water. I even wipe my eyes with my hand, but it doesn’t clear out the weirdness of it all. I've entered a dream where reality has fallen away, leaving some freaky piece of art in its place. And…are those stars I see somewhere outside our tunnel if I stare at the walls hard enough? I can see through the crystal but at the same time I can’t.
The whole thing makes my knees wobble. I'm dreaming. I have to be.
"Simon," I say, taking a deep breath to collect myself. I stamp my feet to make sure the floor is really solid. Check. "Where are we?"
He releases my arms and gives me a cocky smile that, even though it's meant to annoy just a little, helps to calm me down. "I told you. The Hub.”
The coolness of the air rushes over my skin as if the world's most powerful air conditioner is in control here, but it's still nothing like the cold from 2:20. I want Simon to hold onto my arm again, and I almost ask him to, but I don't want to seem too scared or desperate. I'm not on my own turf anymore. And yes, those are definitely stars I see out of the corner of my eye if I focus right, like we're standing in a hologram somewhere in deep space.
I'm not even on Earth--am I?
I snicker. I'm losing it.
Simon smacks himself on the forehead and turns away, stomping his feet for dramatic effect. "I forgot, Julia. I'm so sorry. You can’t remember this place, either."
“You mean I've been here before?” I punch him in the arm, trying not to freak out.
"You still could have warned me about this."
"Not with Frank and Isabel about to spot us, I couldn't. And I didn’t know where we would end up.”
“Okay. You win." I spin around, taking it all in. Then I notice. The endless passage has archways along the walls, spaced a few feet apart. They remind me of doorways, only they’re all just a couple of feet deep. Simon and I are standing right next to one. Like the others, it doesn't lead anywhere. There's just a flat wall of crystal at the end. “Um...what am I looking at?”
“The Hub is where all times meet,” Simon tells me. “We're standing in the body of Time. It's also where us Timeless live, and where Time gives us orders. Some rifts lead here. Others just go to other times. I'm glad, because your memory doesn't get blocked if you come here. That only happens if you go to another period. And these arches you see...well, they're all rifts, too. You can't spot what's in them because you’re mortal but you can go anywhere from here.”
“Anywhere?” I ask. “How do you know where to go? All these arches look the same. It's not very exciting architecture.” I face Simon. "Is this where Time shows you those films of people who end up in the wrong places?"
"Yes. Those meetings take place in the Main Chamber. And only the Timeless can tell where the arches lead. Sometimes, mortals come in here by mistake and get lost. We’re here to help them find their way home...and to erase their memories of the Hub afterwards."
“Okay. I've had enough.” I hold my hands up and try to back away. I forget I'm wearing the skates and double back, during which I take the inevitable trip down to the floor. I couldn't have done anything less graceful in front of Simon. His grin proves that. I manage to get up, staggering a couple more times as Simon steadies me and gives me an airbrush kiss on the cheek. "So you're saying that we're standing in a hallway that can take us to all sorts of different times?"
He pulls me close and I lean into him for support. The pulse in his hand is slow and calm, encircling my wrist. "Exactly. By the way, you fell on your butt like that the first time you were here."
I resist the urge to say something sarcastic to him. Instead, I rack my brains for any memory of this Alice In Wonderland strangeness. Nothing. "The first time I was here?"
He pulls me up so that we're standing face-to-face. Thankfully, his eyes remain dark chocolate. That's a relief, because if they turn gold right now, I'm not sure I can take it. I need something normal to keep myself grounded here. "When I took you to Nancy's time, your memory got blocked of this, too. And don't worry. When you go back to Nancy's time, you'll remember this. Your memory only gets blocked when you go time to time.”
I check up and down the hall again. “Can't Frank and Isabel figure out that we went through the rift at the Branch? They must be able to see it, too.”
“They'll see the rift, all right. They won't come through with people watching. It makes things messy if we’re caught disappearing into thin air. Frank likes to be careful about things like that. We got lucky that Monica was looking away when we escaped."
I think of her back at the Branch, wondering where we went. “We should still move,” I say. “Frank and Isabel might have figured it out. You'll be able to find our way back, right?”
Simon pops off his skates and straightens up. “Right. Come on.”
“But what if the rift at the Branch dries up before we come back?”
“Then we’ll come back out in some other rift in Trenton. There’s always one or two in any area.”
I take off my skates so I don't go sliding into one of the rifts by mistake. The floor's freezing with only socks to protect my feet. I peer through the floor and make out stars way below us as we walk. “Are we literally in space?”
“I'm not sure,” Simon tells me. He locks his fingers with mine. Squeezes. He's the only warmth in this place. “I think we're in a dimension next to it, or something. Come on. I'll show you where I stay.”
“You stay here?” I ask. “Where? Do you sleep in this hall? That's just abominable.” I don't have to mask my normal speech with Simon.
“No. All Timeless have quarters. I think you'll want to see mine. It’s more normal than this, I promise.”
My heart races at the thought of going somewhere completely private with Simon. I want him to kiss me again. I want to be warm.
I want this to make sense.
We walk faster and the hallway shows no signs of ending. We pass archway after archway. I stare hard inside all of them, trying to make out something. Nothing. My hair stands up a little as I pass each one, but that’s all.
I feel very small. Insignificant.
The hallway curves, blocking whatever's ahead out of view. A breeze blows against my face like we’re coming up on something big and open.
I'm in the place where all times meet. The body of Time. I can't comprehend that.
All I can manage is, “Where does this rift go?” I point to a random one.
Simon looks up at all the archways like he's reading something. “That one leads to Ethiopia sixty thousand years ago. And the one down there goes to Mongolia at about the time Genghis Khan was growing up. If you want the Civil War, you've got to go down to the Main Chamber and take the fourth hallway on the right. Then you need to walk about half a mile and take one of the gateways on the left."
I laugh. He’s talking like he’s giving directions to a store or something.
I've officially lost my sanity.
He takes my arms again, pressing his thumbs into my skin just enough for me to feel the pressure. “It's a lot. I know. Try not to think about it too much.”
“It would be amazing if this could help with Independent Study.”
“Hey, I can help you with that now. Just do lots of history projects.”
“So is our real time here somewhere?”
“It is. But if you take a peek, you'll just pick up your old life where you left off. You’ll also forget you were ever in Nancy's time. And you'll forget that your life's in danger."
The hallway curves more ahead. The air gets cooler and the breeze, stronger.
Voices echo. They're faint, but getting louder.
Simon grabs my arm. “There's more members of the Timeless here. Appear scared and confused. They'll think I'm just taking you back to your actual time. We walk mortals through here quite often, so it won't look strange. And that doesn't sound like Frank and Isabel ahead.”
I nod. “Okay. That's not hard.”
We keep walking and I stay quiet. A couple of women round the corner ahead of us, both wearing bright African-style dresses. They're talking in a language I don't recognize. Neither of them gives us a second glance as they pass. I do catch a glint of gold in one of their eyes and look away. Their footsteps fade behind us.
“See? That wasn't bad,” Simon says. “Just pretend you don't know me while you're here, and you'll be fine.”
“Where did those women come from?” I ask. “You're all from tragedies, right?”
“I've never talked to them,” Simon says. “But I heard one of them is from a genocide somewhere. Horrible stuff. Time rescued the other one from a flood that washed her village away.”
I can't help but feel sad. Those two women must have been forced to leave their families behind in those events. To leave them to die. To go on forever, knowing that.
I'm crying. I can't help it. My vision blurs and turns everything to watercolor.
“Are you okay?” Simon asks. “Are you remembering?"
“I don't know.” I suck it all down. Here, sadness is in the air, grasping for me and threatening to drown me. Did I leave a family behind, too?
A younger sibling, maybe?
Simon looks away like he's not sure he wants me to know. “Do you want to go home? To Nancy's, I mean?” he asks. “I understand if you do.”
A big part of me wants to go back through to the Branch, where Monica and Trey are no doubt hunting for me. But the other Timeless are there, too. We can't, and another, even bigger part of me w
ants to see more of this Hub. It wants to stay here with Simon for a while longer. There's no denying it. Timeless or not, I want him here with me. It feels right, like it's meant to be.
What kind of future do we have together? Simon's immortal. I'm not. Time doesn't want me. According to it, I'm fated to die.
But I'm not going to believe in fate. At least, not right now.
“This is where all of time meets. How could I not want to look around?” I ask. “Okay. Show me where you stay.”
We walk side by side, never more than a foot or so apart. Simon wraps his hoodie around me. He's close enough for me to feel his body heat, which chases away some of the cold of this endless hallway. Minutes pass, and I catch myself looking back and trying to remember which archway is mine. It's hopeless. They're all exactly the same, empty spaces where there are rifts that I can't see. And besides, we must have left ours miles behind us by now. How long have we been walking? Twenty minutes? An hour? It's hard to tell here.
"Simon, were you assigned to track me?" I ask. “By Time or whatever? Is that how you figured out I was in danger?”
He draws a little closer, enough to make my skin tingle a bit.
"No. I wasn't. The last person I tracked was a man from the 2050's who got stuck in Victorian England. I heard about Frank and Isabel's new assignment from Hector, a Timeless buddy of mine who otherwise would have died in the Galveston hurricane in the early twentieth century. We do talk to each other. Unfortunately, word didn't get around until after they'd been tracking you for a few months. Isabel never wanted to talk about it."
"They've been after me for that long?" I slap his arm. "And you took that whole time to come and warn me?" I want to be mad at Simon. Furious. But I can't.
He comes up with his defense as he rubs his arm. "I only heard about it this week when they failed to put you through a rift at the dance. Frank told Hector about that. That's why I have to stay out of sight. Frank knows something went wrong with his plan at the daycare, but he doesn't know why." Simon brushes his hand through his hair. "I'm going to keep it that way, as much as I want to pulverize Frank."