Finally, they reached a set of traffic lights and Phoenix skidded to a halt, looking around. He nodded. “This is it. In a few moments, a guy will go through a red light and run straight into dad’s car coming this way.” He pointed. Closing his eyes, he scrubbed a hand through his hair and turned to Jade in anguish. “He’ll die of internal injuries and bloodloss from a severed artery in his leg, before the paramedics can even get him out of the car. They get here too late because another accident on the freeway causes a traffic jam and because the car is so damaged they can’t can’t get him out fast enough.”
He looked out at the flowing traffic for a moment then shook his head. “It’s not right. It’s not fair, Jade. I have to stop this from happening. I have to save him if I can.”
She grabbed his arm. “You can’t, Phoenix, don’t you see? There’s no way of knowing what causes the accident. If you try and stop the driver, you may end up actually being the thing that makes him run the light. You can’t interfere. No matter what you do, the accident will still happen. It has to, because it has. But if you end up making it happen, you’ll never forgive yourself.”
Phoenix hesitated, trying, through the turmoil in his heart, to understand what she was saying. It had a kind of twisted, paradoxical logic but a huge part of him still wanted to do something; anything to save his father.
It was too late, he realised, hearing a gasp of shock from Jade as she looked over his shoulder at the intersection behind him. A squeal of tyres and the godawful rending crash of metal and glass shattered the peaceful morning. Someone nearby screamed. There was a brief silence, followed by the sound of metal twisting and breaking as Alex Carter’s car spun out of control and slammed into a light pole.
“Oh god,” Phoenix murmured, turning to see the devastation for himself. His knees weakened at the sight of the so-familiar white sedan, bent around the pole. He couldn’t move.
Jade pulled on his arm. “Come on, Phoenix. We have to go. Oh shut up, woman!”
Startled out of his shock, Phoenix looked at her. Jade had snatched a cell phone out of a hysterical bystander’s hands and was dialling the emergency number even as she raced toward the wrecked vehicle. Speaking rapidly, she gave clear, concise instructions to the emergency response team.
Next, as Phoenix stood frozen, afraid to look inside, she stood beside the car and peered in. The window had shattered but the door wouldn’t open, crumpled as it was. She tore a wide strip off the bottom of her long silk shirt, knocked out the rest of the little squares of window glass with her elbow and leaned inside for a few moments. Then she stood up and gestured for him to replace her. She was pale, her hands spattered with blood. As he passed her, she opened one hand. There, glittering in the palm, was his father’s amulet; twin of the one she wore around her neck.
Shaking, Phoenix managed a nod and bent down. He had to see his father alive, just one last time. At least he could say goodbye, even if Alex Carter didn’t know who was saying it.
“Da…Alex?” He looked down at his father’s bruised, bloodied face and almost broke. It was all so much more horrifyingly real than in the digital world. More so because it was someone he loved so much; missed so much.
“Help..me,” Alex Carter’s head lolled to one side. Phoenix reached in and supported it. “I’m here,” was all he could think of to say. “I’m here. It’ll be ok.”
A blood-streaked hand grabbed weakly at his wrist. Alex’s blue eyes opened for a moment and stared intently at his son without recognition. Phoenix swallowed hard against the lump of pain and tears in his throat.
“Tell my wife..” his father said faintly. “Tell her I love her…and my son, Phoenix. Tell him, too. I’m so proud of him…so proud…” his words trailed off, his eyes rolling back in his head. His mouth fell open, the hand clutching at his son’s wrist dropped limply to his lap.
“No!” Phoenix yelled. “Don’t you dare die on me. Not again.” He yanked futilely at the door, tore at it with all his impossible avatar strength; but it wouldn’t open. He leaned in, trying to unclip the damaged seatbelt; trying to haul his father out - without success. There was just no way to get him out of the damaged car without help. Help that would come too late. Finally, defeated, Phoenix dropped his head onto his arm and cried the tears he had never let himself cry in three long years. Eventually, the pain in his chest eased and he looked up again. There was only silence from inside the car.
A siren wailed in the distance, coming closer. Slowly, Phoenix eased his father’s head back onto the headrest and stroked his dark hair once. “Goodbye, Dad. I love you too.” Finally, with love and regret, he let his father go. The anger was gone now, too; at last he could accept what had happened.
Jade reappeared at his side, the phone now back in the hands of the hysterical woman, who gaped at her in bewildered anger.
“We have to go, Phoenix. The police are coming.” Gently, she towed him away.
Again in silence, they jogged down the street toward her house. Phoenix couldn’t yet think beyond what had just happened.
They reached her soon-to-be house and knocked. No one answered. With a swift look around, Jade ran to the back and jemmied open a small window to the master bedroom ensuite.
“Mum and Dad never got this fixed,” she explained as they slipped inside. Phoenix just followed along, numbly observing as she riffled through a pink-flowered jewellery box on the dressing table. With a small cry of triumph, she produced a green velvet jewellery bag and emptied its contents back into the box. Dropping his father’s amulet into it, she pulled the ties shut and hurried toward the front of the house. Phoenix trailed behind.
By the time he reached her, she had already opened the hidden cupboard and was carefully stuffing the bag into its hiding place. That done, she cocked her head as though listening.
“I hear a car. Let’s go.”
Seconds later they were back outside, strolling along the sidewalk as though they hadn’t just committed a break and entry offence. Jade swiped futilely at the bloodstains on her shirt. Phoenix looked blankly at his hands, still covered with his fathers’ blood. Jade took one of them in her own. He stared at her.
“I’m sorry, Phoenix,” she said, her green eyes worried for him. “I tried to Heal him but…” she spread her hands, “I don’t have any magic here. I’m sorry.”
He shook his head, a strange calm washing through him. “It’s ok. Really.” He smiled wearily. “Let’s get back to the Portal and go home.”
EPILOGUE
Phoenix opened his eyes and stared blankly at a white ceiling. He drew a slow breath, tasting the chemical tang to the air; hearing the soft beeps of machines close by. His body felt strangely limp. Experimentally, he lifted a hand. Long-unused muscles protested. Gazing in wonder at his own strangely unfamiliar fingers, Phoenix took in the IV drip attached to his hand and finally understood.
He was back in his own body; in a hospital. That explained the noises and smells and the weird feeling that his body was, somehow, too small and too weak. It didn’t explain, however, what had happened. Had the whole trip back to 80AD just been some vivid dream? Had he just been feverish? Had he imagined the entire thing? It must have been some sort of hallucination. He must have been in a coma or something. It was the only logical explanation. How else could he have stepped through the portal in the park and ended up back in his own body?
“Phoenix, honey?” His mothers’ voice drew his attention. Gwen Carter’s beloved face, careworn by worry, hovered over him.
“Hi Mum,” his voice came out rusty with disuse but she understood and burst into tears. Gathering him gently into her arms, she rocked him as she had when he was small and hurt. He let his head rest on her shoulder, breathing in the familiar, secure smell of her skin.
Eventually, she let him go but kept hold of his hand. Nurses and doctors came and fussed over him for awhile. Finally they left the pair alone and Phoenix was deeply grateful. Their forced joviality got on his nerves.
“What
happened?” he managed to ask, annoyed that he felt so weak.
Gwen dried her eyes and sniffed. “Nobody really knows. You were playing that computer game I bought for you. When you didn’t come down after dinner, I came up to find out how you were. I found you… unconscious.. on the floor.” She wiped away more tears and cleared her throat. “You’ve been in some sort of coma for days. The doctors couldn’t find out why. We had no idea if you would ever wake up!”
“Sorry mum,” Phoenix found himself apologising.
She laughed tearfully. “It’s hardly your fault. Just don’t do it again! You frightened the life out of me. Oh!” she jumped from her chair. “I must go and tell Allison you’re awake. It will give her hope. Will you be alright for a little while?”
“Sure. But who’s Allison?” Phoenix struggled upright. “Why would me waking up give anyone hope?”
“Oh,” Gwen appeared surprised that he didn’t know. “Another girl was brought in the same day as you, with exactly the same symptoms. I’ve become quite close to her mother. She’s been such a wonderful support. She’s hardly left Jade’s bedside, even with six other daughters to look after. She’s just in the room next door. I’ll only be a moment.”
With that breezy comment, Gwen flitted from the room, leaving Phoenix bereft of speech and stunned. He flopped back onto the bed, shaking.
Had it all been a dream or not? He had to find out.
Determinedly, he slid out of bed, leaning heavily on his drip stand for support. Step by shaky step, he made his way out of the room, trying to ignore the breeze that crept in through the back of his hospital gown.
Pausing outside his room, he listened for his mothers’ voice. There it was. Slowly, he inched his way down the corridor, using the wall to hold himself up. It took awhile but his muscles slowly got used to being worked again. He just felt like they were the wrong muscles – so pathetic compared to his avatar’s body.
At last, he made it to the next room and turned the corner. A moment of amazed silence fell as everyone stared at him. Phoenix was acutely conscious that at least four beautiful blonde girls were looking at him curiously, along with an older woman he took to be their mother. Gwen, who had been standing next to a curtained off bed, rushed over.
“What are you doing Phoenix? Let me get a nurse. You need to get back into bed. You’re not strong enough yet.” She scolded lovingly.
The curtain around the bed twitched back. “Phoenix?” An unfamiliar voice called his name with familiar inflexions. There, sitting up in the starched white surroundings, was a girl about his own age. Small boned and dark haired, the only recognizable thing about her was her green eyes.
“Jade?” he whispered, incredulous. “Is that you?”
Her thin face split into a huge grin. She nodded, her short wavy hair bouncing.
Their mothers exchanged bemused looks over their heads.
Phoenix turned to his. “Mum, I know this will sound odd but can you guys give us a moment?”
Gwen looked back and forth between her son and Jade and shrugged. “I guess so. Come on Allison. Let’s go find Hector and get some coffee. Come on girls. Tell me how your school dance went.”
Jade’s mother kissed her daughter on the forehead, brushed back her hair and nodded reluctantly. With inquisitive looks, the gaggle of girls and women traipsed out.
Phoenix sat on the edge of Jade’s bed, sighing in relief. He peered closely at her. “Is it really you?”
She nodded again, drawing a thin silver chain out from under her hospital gown. Dangling at the end of it was her half of the yin-yang amulet.
“Mum said every time the nurses took off our necklaces, we went into cardiac arrest. We died, Phoenix. Several times each. They had to keep putting them back on to bring us back.”
“So it was real then?” He couldn’t get his head around it.
She shrugged. “What’s reality? I know I felt it, tasted it and remember it as clearly as I do this life. That makes it real to me. Marcus once laughed at the idea that his world could be make-believe and I realised then that there was no way I could prove it wasn’t real.”
“But all the things we did; all the stuff we destroyed – Stonehenge, the temple in Egypt,” Phoenix protested. “We can’t have made it happen in this world, too.”
“Why not?” Jade said intently. “Who’s to say how it happened? Remember that we came back to this world in our avatar bodies, somehow. Maybe what we did in the other world did affect ours. Who knows?”
Phoenix suddenly laughed. She raised an eyebrow.
He grinned “I’m just wondering if, one day, when they dig up Emperor Qinshihuan’s tomb, they’ll find Brynn’s name where he scratched it into the wall when he was bored.”
Her eyes crinkled in amusement. “Or maybe they’ll find the rest of that treasure under the step-pyramid in Egypt.”
Phoenix’s head hurt. He scrubbed a hand through his greasy hair and sighed. Jade’s eyes lit up. She laughed. “Now I’m certain it’s you. You do that all the time, you know.”
He grinned weakly. “Yeah, well you have some notable habits, too.”
“Ha!” she folded her arms, pretending annoyance. Then, with a shy grin, she touched his fingers. “We four made a pretty good team, didn’t we?”
“Yeah,” he replied. The sadness of losing Brynn, Marcus and his father had not yet eased. He saw it reflected in her eyes and forced a smile. “Don’t think I’ll be playing any computer games for awhile, though.”
Jade shook her head vigorously in agreement. There was a noise in the doorway. She looked up, her face lighting up with recognition. “Dad! Come and meet my friend, Phoenix. You know his mother already - Mrs Carter.”
A cultured voice sounded behind him and a tall, thin, dark-haired man appeared at the bedside, smiling indulgently down at his daughter. “Of course I do. Phoenix,” he stuck out his hand and Phoenix shook it. “Nice to finally meet you awake. Ah, here’s someone else who’s glad to see you again.”
A gentle hand fell on Phoenix’s shoulder. Twisting his head, he turned…. and looked into the haunted, grateful blue eyes of Alex Carter.
“D..Dad?” Phoenix managed to stutter the word, “but..but..how? I don’t...?” He turned back to gape at Jade.
She reached out and pulled his face close to her mouth, her soft words meant for his ears only: “Evidently someone told the paramedics about that accident on the freeway and put a tourniquet on his leg to stop the bleeding. So the ambulance got there in time, this time.”
Phoenix looked at her, then back at his father, still unable to believe it. His heart pounded so hard he could barely breathe. Tentatively, he put out a hand and laid it on his father’s broad chest, feeling a matching heartbeat there. Alex smiled and wrapped strong arms around his son, holding him tightly. Hesitantly, Phoenix did the same, wondering if this were just still a dream and he would vanish. How was it possible? How could his real father be here? Where was Jacob in this world? Had the last three years just never happened or would he wake again and find this wasn’t real, either? Leaning back, he stared up at his father’s beloved face in disbelief.
Alex smiled down at his son and smoothed his unruly hair back. “I’m glad you’re awake at last. You had us worried.” He cleared his throat and looked around, a sheen of tears in his eyes.
Jade’s father stood next to her, his arm protectively around her shoulders. She smiled up at the Carters, one hand still fiddling with the yin-yang amulet around her neck.
Alex Carter spotted it and nodded. “Oh yes, Hector has just been telling me that you said you found my necklace in an old cupboard where you hide from your sisters.”
She hesitated then reached up to unclasp the hook. Regretfully, she slipped it off the chain and dropped it into his palm. “Sorry. I should have given it to my parents straight away.”
He fingered it and smiled a little. “From what I understand, you were home alone, so you couldn’t have – and I believe it has saved your life sever
al times in the last few days – although the doctors still scratching their heads over exactly how.”
He glanced at Phoenix then at Jade. With a decisive nod, he handed the little charm back to her. “Keep it. I’m just glad you’re both back, safe and sound. I have a feeling its time with me was over and it was meant for you next, anyway.”
Jade stammered a thankyou and slid it back onto the chain with a faint sigh of relief.
Alex smiled down at his son and squeezed his shoulder. “I understand the doctors also have no idea why playing the same computer game should have caused you both to fall into a coma, either. Any ideas?”
Phoenix could only shake his head, still speechless at the sight of his father, alive and well.
Alex Carter looked swiftly at Jade then met Phoenix’s disbelieving gaze with one of unexpected depth and understanding. “As an old buddhist monk once said to me: isn’t it funny, how often we meet our destiny in the very place we try to hide from it?”
THE END
Hope you enjoyed Book Five. That’s the end of the series.
You can find out more about the 80AD series, the history of Roman Britain, Sweden, Egypt, India and China and the website for Aiki Flinthart at: http://aikiflinthart.weebly.com/
Discover 80AD Book One - The Jewel of Asgard - at Amazon.
And
80AD Book Two - The Hammer of Thor at Amazon
And
80AD Book Three - The Tekhen of Anuket at Amazon
And
80AD Book Four - The Sudasharna at Amazon
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