by Jill Cooper
“Here I thought the idea of winning was exciting you.”
He grins. “Same thing. Let’s go find Rick and I’ll take you both home. If you’re hungry, we can grab some takeout on the way home.” When he leaves, I’m surprised he doesn’t skip or start to whistle.
“I forgot my sweatshirt. I’ll be right back.” In the interrogation room, I grab my sweatshirt off the back of the chair. I turn back and am startled to see Donovan blocking the doorway. His hands stuff inside his pockets and he stares me down with evil, angry eyes.
I can’t stand that look in his eye and I gaze away, holding my sweatshirt close. I don’t know what to say but I’m afraid of him. It’s a feeling I hate and it brings tears rushing to the surface, but I hold onto them.
“I’m supposed to stay away from you. Trash like you and you’re going to be protected by this police force that my family gives thousands to? Does that seem fair to you?”
There’s so much bile in his voice that I can’t find the will to speak. I miss the kind eyes, the soft voice, the one I love so much.
Donovan starts as someone slaps him on the shoulder. “Mr. James, your car is waiting to take you to Rewind. It’s best if we move now, Sir.”
He glares at me one more time and heads off with his entorague of four men. They keep him safe, as if they are protecting him, but protecting him for what? I haven’t a clue and part of me doesn’t care.
I just want to get out of here. I want to leave.
I crave to be home.
****
Things are quiet that night between me and Rick. We eat our burgers in relative silence and I feed Sparky French fries while I slurp my milkshake. Sitting on the floor of the living room, I pet him and he licks my face. It might be the only good thing about this timeline.
“How can you be so calm about this? What you told me last night, what happened at the police station, and you’re sitting there playing with your dog?” Ricks shakes his head and storms off to the kitchen. He’s not wrong to feel the way he does, but I can’t help the rise of tears in my eyes as he yells at me.
I follow him into the kitchen and Sparky patters after me with slow steps. “You’re right, okay?” I wipe my hands off on my jeans and go for his hands but he pulls them back with anger. “But what choice do I have? I can’t fix this, I can’t change this.”
“Maybe you should’ve thought about what would happen if you went after Patricia!” Rick screams, grabbing onto the back of his head and giving me the death stare. He sighs and seems to remember where we are, how thin the walls are. “And now that you’re taking this all-in stride, I’m worried about you, Lara. I’m worried about what’s happening to you. The girl I knew—.”
“They took away my mother. My father.”
“But you have me. My family. If you had just leaned on us instead of taking matters into your own hands—.”
“So it’s okay that Patricia killed my mother and then my father?” This timeline might not be mine but I recoil in disgust. “How can you even think that’s okay? And people call me selfish?”
“No one calls you that.”
Maybe not here but it definitely is something I’ve heard before.
“Look,” Rick dials his anger back, “I knew our future would be complicated. You’ve always been that way but I’ve loved you anyway. We were a team and we’ve always stuck together. With your job with Delilah and the night school I’m going to, I really thought we could make something of myself.”
He shakes his head. “Nothing’s going to be left when this is through. You made sure of that.”
I didn’t know he was taking night classes too, but I never thought to ask. Maybe I was selfish but it wasn’t like I was from this timeline, not that he’d believe me. Still, my anger comes tumbling out. “I didn’t ask or this. I didn’t ask to be stuck here.”
Rick’s eyes narrow and he looks like he’s been slapped. “Stuck here?”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yeah, sure. Least I know how you feel, right?” He takes his keys off the kitchen counter and picks up his bookbag off the sofa.
“Where are you going? Rick, stay. Let’s talk about this.”
“Class. Seems if I want a better future, I’m going to have to earn it myself with no help from you.” He slams the door on the way out and I regret everything I’ve said, ever choice I’ve made. I’m acting like a spoiled brat, a baby, and it’s not Rick’s fault.
It’s Rex. For trapping me in a timeline I can’t jump out of.
But when I glance down at my cupped hand, I see something I don’t expect between my fingers. Time is parting and there’s a small hole that’s void of color, void of space. Just like the whole that opens the bridge.
I focus on it and can’t get it much bigger than a golf ball, but there it is, nonetheless. If I can work on getting it to open just a little bit further, maybe I can get onto the bridge.
And maybe then I can find a way home.
I concentrate, try to keep it building bigger, but then it disappears like it was never there at all. Exhausted from trying to open it, I sit down on the floor of the kitchen without meaning to. Sparky whines at me, wags his tail, and sits beside me like he waits for me to do something new.
Maybe he’s right. Maybe it’s time to stop trying to fit into this timeline and do what I do best.
Break all the rules.
Chapter Sixteen: Molly Montgomery
I awake groggy and peer around my hospital room with slitted eyes. There isn’t much in the room except for an end table with a lamp and a machine that monitors vitals. The window curtain is drawn closed and I’m not aware of what time it is—or even what day. I remember very little about what happened the last time I was awake except for a needle. I have flashes of memories not mine, not anyone’s, at least not in this timeline, and I’m desperate to find a friend. They come at me hard and fast, one turning into another:
A search for her but no one remembers even her name except for me, but she’s there. Right in the back of my own Mother’s mind. That’s when her name comes to me.
Lara.
My eyes open all the way and I stare up at the light bulb hanging above me. Pushing up, I roll out of the bed onto unsure feet and stumble along the bed, hanging out the railing as I go.
This timeline has taken many paths not taken. Choices not walked before. Lara’s dead, Mom mourned a daughter who never got to grow up. I shouldn’t even exist so how am I here in the first place?
Something more dangerous and sinister is at work here than a little time travel fun. When I try to reach forward and discover what it might be, something blocks my way. It’s like ramming my head against the wall. It’s not the mechanics of time travel that have run a mok, but someone. He or she is actively blocking my abilities.
I can even make out their silhouette in the dark, though I can’t see their face. It’s the shape of a man, tall with broad shoulders. He’s different than Rex and the same, all the same. From how it moves and tilts its head to the side.
If he’s coming for me, I need to move. I have to find Lara and get her back. I haven’t moved through the timelines like she has, but someone has to bring her back. She’s the one who always has the answers and I need her now, more than ever.
I open the door and check the hallway and it’s nondescript except for the doors leading to other patients’ rooms. When the coast is clear of nurses, I run down the hall. There are so many doors on all sides that I’m not sure where to turn or where to go. Voices come from the other end of the hall toward me. I’ll be caught and can’t risk such a thing so I open the door to the janitor’s closet and slip inside.
Inside smells like bleach and peroxide, a combination that makes my mind swirl. I peer out as a nurse and doctor walk by. I gently close the door so they won’t see me. I gasp as the wall in front of me disappears and I’m staring at the stars, drifting through time and space.
“She barely holds on now,” it’s Rex and he’
s talking to Patricia as if I’m not even in the room. That’s when I realize I’m not. I’m adrift, floating from timeline to timeline, but which one is real?
Which one is mine?
“Her mind fractures and it’ll give us everything we need to cement these changes and make them permanent.”
“Good,” Patricia says. “Because being dead or in jail aren’t acceptable situations for me. How long do we have to nail this down?”
They gaze down at my unconscious body strapped down to a hospital bed.
“A matter of days. Soon the timeline will stop trying to fix itself. It’ll stop with the reminders of Lara and she’ll be trapped where we sent her. We just have to give our new friend a little more time. If Molly wakes up and begins to talk, this could all be over.”
“She won’t.” Patricia turns and stares right at me. “Will she?”
I scream and fling myself backward against the storage bins of cleaning chemicals, mops, and rags. My heart pounds, races along and whatever images I had just seen fade from me. I’m staring at a simple janitor’s closet again. There’s a tile floor and a wall. There’s no space or stars. There’s no black abyss.
What’s happening? Is it from what Rex injected me with or is it something more sinister? Maybe they’re right and my mind is fracturing. I keep the timeline pure. I sense when things are wrong and when they aren’t. Except right now I’m not sure which event belongs where. I’m useless.
There’s no answers to my questions so I press on. I run down the hall and slip inside the elevator and push the button for the lobby. Clearing the building is a long shot, but if I can get clear, I can find somewhere to hide. I can make Cassidy believe me. I can get through to her, if only I can find her.
In the lobby, I make a quick getaway for the front door. I duck my head as I walk by the reception desk and tuck my hair behind my ears. The women at the desk leaps to her feet and points at me. “Stop her! She’s not supposed to get out of here.”
Great.
I charge for the door, pumping my arms, and run for it. I take a play out of my big sister’s playbook and slide beneath the legs of several guards. Slamming into the revolving doors, I’m on the other side and hailing a Taxi before anyone can reach me.
“Taxi!” I scream and when I reach for the door I slam into a wall. I’m suddenly back inside the hospital even though I was just outside.
My noses crunches against the wall and I splay onto my back. My head spins and I stare up at the hallway as people approach me. I had been clear of this place, I know I was. So, what happened? Who brought me back here?
“Sorry, everyone. New medicine isn’t working but we’ll find the right combination for her soon.” Rex struggles to get me up to my feet because I won’t help him. I push against his arm, desperate to get away. His grip tightens on me until he pinches my skin.
“If you insist on playing it this way, Molly, I can make your life very uncomfortable.”
“Get her back into her bed before everything we’ve worked for goes up in smoke.” Patricia races down the hall toward us. “I have my own problems to deal with, this one is yours.”
“Yes, Patricia.” Rex strains to keep his voice calm as she hurries past. He gazes at me with malice. “Come to your room quietly and I’ll see you get some extra Jell-o with dinner tonight.”
“No!” I scream and scamper away. When I get to the elevator door, I’m free and in the clear. It’s almost like he’s let me go. I don’t have time to think why I’m back in the hospital when I was almost in a taxi a few short minutes ago.
I slam my finger on the down button. Behind me, Rex inches closer, a dastardly smirk upon his face.
“Molly, be careful of your health.” Rex’s voice comes from the intersecting hallway and I realize there’s another version of Rex coming…and another…
No wonder the timeline has been so screwy. Rex is borrowing other versions of himself to manipulate time. I struggle to breathe as all these new Rex memories flood into my mind. I’m running through my house, I’m only a year younger than I am now, and I’m searching for something.
“Mike! Mike!”
I can’t find him anywhere but as I burst outside, he’s there. He’s sitting across the street and staring down at his shadow. His face is drawn, despondent, as Rex sits beside him, whispering into his ear.
No! Is that why Mike has changed and grown so sullen? Is this the new friend he’s always talking about?
I scream as the elevator door opens and I scamper forward only to be met with a pair of men’s loafers. Slowly I gaze up into a man’s face, older than me by five years, but I recognize his brown hair—it has a slight wave to it—and his soft brown eyes.
It’s Mike. A version of Mike who is older than me but I recognize him and see familiarity in his face. The soft way he holds his lips in a smirk, only ever meant for me.
He bends down and cups my chin as I sob. The memories he has and the intense emotions of hatred and rage coming from him, can’t be his. He can’t hate me, can he?
“Oh, my sweet Molly. How I’ve loved you. How I’ve missed you.” Mike smiles at me but then it twists and turns to malice. “I’ve been so looking forward to this day, I can’t even begin to tell you.”
His words just make me sob harder. His voice has changed and almost sounds like Rex. He’s cruel and twisted and not like my beloved twin at all. He doesn’t just want to hurt me, he wants to destroy me. “What did Rex do to you?”
“He freed me.” Mike smiles. “Just like I am not going to free you.”
Chapter Seventeen: Cassidy Winters
Don and I enjoy strong coffee that would make espresso jealous in the morning with some toasted bagels, but I’m distracted. He spoke Lara’s name several times through the night and with my meeting with Miranda coming up in a few short hours, I can’t think straight.
In the executive style kitchen, the small of coffee lingers. I rinse my white mug and stash it into the stainless-steel dishwasher. The rolled-up newspaper on the marble counter catches my attention and I unfold it. My breath is taken away from the headline as I read it:
Senator O’Reily’ car crashed into a ditch and he’s missing. While no foul play is suspected, my mouth tastes metallic and foul. My heart speeds up as Don enters the kitchen. “You ready to go?”
I pick up the paper and struggle to speak. I point at the headline. “Is this what you meant by he wouldn’t be bothering Rewind anymore?”
Donovan’s eyes tick back and forth. He scowls as he takes the paper from me and reads it a few seconds longer than he needs to. “Of course not.” He places the paper back down on the counter. “I came to an agreement with Marcus. I wouldn’t resort to hurting him, Cass.”
“Not even if you’re mother asked?”
He crosses his arms and stares me down. “She was a little terse with you yesterday…”
“That’s not what this is about.” I take a deep breath and try to remember not everything is a conspiracy. Not everything is as bad as I think it is, but a coincidence that big?
“How could you think that of me?” Don’s voice softens as he rubs my arms. “I want things to be simple, easy, sure, but I wouldn’t hurt a senator or anyone else.”
I’m not sure but a moment later, Don strokes my chin and leans his face down to mine. He smells of a combination of cologne and mint toothpaste. “C’mon, whose my girl, Cass?”
“I am,” I whisper and kiss him as if he’s placed a trance over me. Maybe love is just like that but inside, parts of me scream.
“And I’ll take care of you. I promise.”
****
I smile and say all the right things. We walk up the sidewalk toward the old Prudential Tower and a gust of wind swirls some fallen leaves around our feet. Donovan keeps me close. “Something wrong? You seem worried about something?”
Shaking my head, I scrunch up my nose, he thinks it’s cute when I do that. “Just anxious to get the day started. The wedding in a few weeks is we
ighing on my mind. DJs, flowers, you know.”
The revolving door has the emblem of Rewind etched onto it. We step through and we are dumped into a small hallway with a set of escalator’s that lead up to the second floor. As we step on, I ready my badge to be scanned by security. Donovan’s tense beside me as he grips the railing tight. “I told you we could hire a wedding planner for all that.” His voice teeters on the brink of a sharp edge. Annoyed that I haven’t gone along with his plan?
Or is it coming from something else?
“And I like to do things myself,” quietly I answer.
Donovan sighs as he scans his badge through security. “Fair enough,” his answer sounds more like a sigh than not.
“Trust me, it’ll be fine.”
“I just hate for that little blond head of yours to be stressed out.” Donovan flits the top of my hair, something that always annoys me but I let it slide. Sometimes he treats me like a child, something to be managed more than an equal. We come to a fork in the hall where he’ll turn and I’ll continue straight. “Lunch?”
I start to nod then shake my head. “Right, I would but I’m meeting an old friend for lunch across town for a few minutes. Catchup from college.”
“College, eh?” Donovan runs his tongue along his teeth and puts his hands in his pockets. “If you’re sure there’s nothing wrong, I guess that’s okay.”
“Of course. I’ll see you tonight.” I lean in and kiss his cheek.
Donovan heads down the hall, but he gives me a glance over his shoulder one more time. I sigh with nerves, more anxious about the exchange than I should be. When I turn I nearly bump into Thomas.
“Thomas,” my eyes widen with surprise. “I didn’t know you’re be at headquarters this morning.”
“Ms. James wanted to speak with me.” He shakes his head as if he’s trying to clear the experience from his mind.
“About?” I pry when I probably shouldn’t.