—and punched the ESC button.
FABLER ○ August 27, 2017 ○ 4:00+pm to August 26, 2017 ○ 9:15am
The threshold glowed to life, and Fabler ushered the frightened prisoners through.
Jake and Holly and Lori
Behind them, wolves howled, getting closer.
Fabler’s strides became longer, his legs stretching out, his arm linked to Lori’s spaghetti arm, and he stared at her and she was miles away even though he still held her hand. Then they became flat, like paper, the blackness becoming so black it stung, a hum vibrating through Fabler’s body, coupled with the smell of ozone.
He closed his eyes.
“Let there be light.”
He opened his eyes.
There was no light.
He closed his eyes.
“Let there be light.”
He opened his eyes.
There was no light.
He closed his eyes.
“Let there be light.
“Let there be light.
“Let there be light.”
He opened his eyes.
The light was blinding.
Fabler stepped into it, putting on his welding goggles, telling Lori to order everyone to join hands.
They walked single file through the light, hand-in-hand, like Kindergarten children at the museum, stumbling because they were disoriented, because forward was backward and left was right, but managing to slowly advance, afraid and excited and awed, and Fabler led them, knowing where he had to go, taking them through the light and seeing his cabin, his and Lori’s cabin, in the distance, growing bigger and bigger, until the spongy ether under his feet became his backyard and he faced his front door and stared at—
Fabler recalled Mu’s words.
“I can get you back home ten minutes after Mr. Pilgrim arrived here. Any sooner and you may run into yourselves, which would be awkward.”
“Presley!”
It didn’t seem like Presley could hear him.
Fabler pulled Lori out of the light, then released her, running right at Presley, waving his hands and yelling.
“PRESLEY! DON’T JUMP! PRESLEY!”
“PRESLEY!!!”
Presley jumped.
She fell past him, sideways, and Fabler reached out and just missed her as she floated past him, past the long line of the saved, fading away into the light.
Fabler fell to his knees.
The light began to flicker, and Fabler stared, waiting for the wolves to leap out, or Bub to leap out, or some other horrible creature to leap out at the last second because at this point why the hell not?
And something did leap out.
Something huge and hairy, landing on Fabler’s lawn just as the wormhole closed.
A Viking. A ragged, bearded Viking, riding a bear, holding a spear in one hand and—
“YEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!”
“Grim!”
Lori ran to her brother, jumping on the giant sloth, hugging it as Grim laughed, and then Fabler was there too, hugging them both, staring into Grim’s hairy face, his cheeks marked with healed scars and Presley pulled free looking completely freaked out.
“Can someone tell me what the fuck is going on?”
PRESLEY ○ August 26, 2017 ○ 9:37am ○ Epoch Timestamp 1503740244
She sat with Fabler and Grim in the kitchen. Lori, and someone named Jake, were in the living room with everyone who had been rescued, concocting a story everyone could stick to that wouldn’t involve anyone getting put into a mental institution.
“So I saved the earth, then died.”
“You saved billions of people, Presley. You were amazing.”
“And you’ve been living in the future for the last five months?”
Grim nodded. “That’s how long it took the batteries to recharge to open the portal again.”
“With dinosaurs and dragons.”
“The dragon was bad. Burned me and Sinatra pretty good. We barely escaped. But the worst were the man-eating bananas.”
Presley shook her head. “I’m feeling like this is all utter bullshit, and I’m on some prank TV show.”
“No bullshit. Even if you don’t believe anything else, tug on my beard. You just saw me float into the light an hour ago. How’d I grow a full beard? How’d I get all these burn scars?” He lifted his arms. “Or this gland on my forearm? And explain the giant prehistoric sloth outside.”
Fabler touched Presley’s shoulder. “It’s all true. But I still don’t understand how Grim got back here.”
“You said you only had thirty seconds after you pressed the key. How’d you make it?”
“I did what you suggested, Presley. You said I could clear a path with the sculptor, carve out a straight, level road, then jump in the Jeep. I had weeks and weeks to practice. Got so good I could do it in twenty-two seconds.”
“I said that?”
“You said that, and plenty more.”
“Such as?”
Grim smiled. “You said you loved me.”
Presley felt her cheeks get hot. “I didn’t.”
“You did. Over and over again. It was getting embarrassing after a while.”
“Did you say it?”
Grim nodded. “Of course. I’m crazy about you. Being there when you died almost destroyed me. But I realized that if I was quick enough, maybe I could save you before you even left. And I did. Because I am super hella awesome, which is why Fabler and Lori are naming their kid after me. Right, Fabler?”
Fabler shrugged. “A promise is a promise, I guess.”
Grim snapped his fingers. “Hey! Did you give her the thing?”
“Oh, shit. I forgot. It’s in the kitchen.”
“I got it.” Jake walked over, giving Presley something the size of her fist, wrapped in some kind of hard plastic.
“Can I open it for her, Jake?”
“Sure. The plastiform is preserving it.”
Grim rubbed that gross gland on his arm, and the plastic seemed to melt open, revealing…
The tears came so hard that Presley shook. “You got Brooklyn a heart?”
“No. You got Brooklyn a heart, Presley. You did this.”
Presley had no idea what to do or say.
She glanced at Fabler, who did one of his stoic Fabler nods. Then she looked at Grim, who was smiling so wide it looked like his face would break.
“So… big hug and kiss?”
“I’m grateful beyond words, Grim. But w
hen was the last time you bathed? Or brushed your teeth? You smell… like sour bananas.”
“Sinatra and I had to hunt man-eating bananas to survive. Those things were terrifying. Mouths like sharks. Quick as rattlesnakes. But so delicious. You want to hear about it?”
“After a shower.” Presley cradled the heart like the precious gift it was. “We need to get the heart to a specialist, for a transplant.”
Jake shook his head. “I can do it. I have enough Reformant left for one more procedure. No pain. No scars. No recovery. A one hundred percent success rate.”
“Jake, maybe I’m ignorant about this whole time travel thing, but I have a logistics problem.”
“Hit me with it, Fabler.”
“I was in the light, when they abducted Grim. But I didn’t see Grim riding a giant sloth. Why not? And why did I see me and Lori and you and everyone else coming back through the light?”
“As Mu said, time is linear. When you went into the light the first time, you couldn’t see yourself because you hadn’t come back yet. But when you came back, the past had already happened, so you could interact with it.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“Let me put it another way. Right now, at this very moment, can you look at a selfie that you are going to take tomorrow?”
“No. Of course not.”
“But you can view the selfie you took yesterday. Because that happened in the past.”
“Right.”
“You can see yourself in the past, but you can’t see your future self because it hasn’t happened yet. Make sense?”
Grim rubbed his temple. “I’m getting a nerd headache.”
“I’m sorry.” Presley got up off the couch. “I need some fresh air.”
She walked outside, staring at the round patch of dirt.
“It’s nuts, isn’t it?”
Grim walked up to her, but gave Presley some space.
“Yeah. It’s nuts.”
“I bet it’s hard to believe.”
“It is. You were really there when I died?”
“Yeah.”
“How was I?”
“Brave.”
“That’s the thing, Grim. When I went into the light, I did it to redeem myself. But I don’t remember any of it. Because I didn’t actually do it.”
“You did do it. You did it all.”
“No, I didn’t. Some version of me did all that. I tried to help, and then suddenly I was riding a giant sloth.”
They were quiet for a moment.
“I don’t want to sound ungrateful, Grim. I mean, you and Fabler brought me a heart for Brooklyn. Kadir and Doruk are gone forever. I owe you so much.”
“Also, you have breast cancer.”
“What?”
“Stage 1 breast cancer. You need to get that checked out.”
Presley threw up her hands. “Jesus, Grim. I can’t deal with all of this. I didn’t do all of that stuff with you and Fabler. I feel like…”
“I know.”
“How can you know? How can you possibly know how I’m feeling? You were there. I wasn’t.”
Grim turned away, staring off into the distance. “I was there for five months. I thought of you every hour of every day. I didn’t get back here for me. I did it because I thought I might be able to save you. And I knew that when I got back, that you wouldn’t feel the same way about me as I did about you. Because you’re right. I had that experience with a different Presley.”
He stared at her, looking infinitely sad. “But I also know this Presley. I knew the other Presley for just one day longer than I know you. And next week, I’ll have known you longer than her. And if nothing ever happens between us, that’s okay.”
“That must be horrible for you. But I don’t feel what you feel, Grim.”
“Do you want to hear my original plan?”
“Sure.”
“Originally, I wasn’t going to come back to today. Not now. I was going to come back three years ago. Stop my sister from being taken. Fabler never would have gone to jail. I wouldn’t have lost my job, or tried to drink myself to death for three years. You never would have met me, but I pictured the scene in my head. Visiting you, even though you had no idea who I was, and giving you a heart for Brooklyn. Saving you all the pain you went through. Maybe even stopping you from doing all those things you hate yourself for. We all could have had one big do-over.”
“Why didn’t you do that? Why didn’t you prevent all of this?”
“Two reasons. First, because there was already another Grim living here three years ago. Having to deal with me is something I didn’t want to do. Jake is going to have to figure that out. He’s here now, but he’s also in San Diego right now. It’ll be interesting to see how that works out.”
“What’s the other reason?”
“Because I didn’t know Presley from 2015. But I know you, right now. And I know you’re a good person, because I saw you make hard decision after hard decision, I saw you risk your life for others. I was in awe of you. Presley… you are who you are today because of everything you’ve ever done. You’re the result of all your choices, good and bad. If I went back in time and fixed everything, I might have prevented you from being who you are today. You’re the most amazing person I’ve ever met. The world deserves you, Presley. The world needs you. I could never even think about taking that away.”
“I need some time to absorb all of this.”
“I know.”
“And you need to get to a dentist. I think you have a rotten tooth.”
“Cracked tooth. It got broken by a giant scorpion. I got stung, and spent three days delirious, thinking I was Kobe Bryant.”
Presley held her breath, and held his hands. “I need a big favor from you, Grim. I know it’s a lot to ask. But… don’t call me. I’ll get in touch with you when I’m ready.”
He seemed devastated. But he nodded. “That’s cool. My cell phone got fried by the dragon anyway. I’m going to, um, borrow some cash from Fabler, get an Uber back to my apartment, get cleaned up. Take care of yourself, Presley.”
They walked back into the cabin.
LORI ○ January 12, 2018 ○ 7:13am
“Push, babe. You can do this.”
The contraction came, threatening to tear her in half, threatening to break her, promising a lifetime of endless pain.
She squeezed Fabler’s hand so hard her nails dug in, but he didn’t make a sound, keeping eye-contact, ever-calm, wiping the sweat from her forehead and tucking Lori’s hair behind her ear.
“Your baby is crowning. Next contraction, one more big push, Mrs. Fabler.”
But Lori had nothing left. Eight and a half hours of labor. The epidural working for shit.
She didn’t want more coaching.
She didn’t want more encouragement.
She didn’t want more goddamn ice chips.
She wanted this to be over. To hold her son in her arms. To look into his eyes for the first…
“Oh, God!”
“Here we go. Push, Mrs. Fabler.”
“Push, honey. You got
this. You’re strong. You got this.”
“I can see the head, and… oh, sweet Jesus.”
The doctor backed away. Lori turned to Fabler, who released her hand, drawing a gun from his belt.
“Fabler… what’s…”
Then Lori saw the bat wing stretch out between her knees, flapping blood and amniotic fluid, and she tried to reach for it but her arms ended in stumps, and Fabler pulled back the slide on his weapon, taking aim and—
Lori jackknifed up in bed, heart hammering, sheets soaked with sweat.
Fabler sat next to her, their son, Pilgrim, swaddled and tucked into the corner of his arm.
“Nightmare?”
She blew out a breath so hard it sounded like a snort. “You know all those stupid movies where something horrible happens and you think it’s real and it’s just a dream?”
“I always liked that in movies.”
“Well, I always thought it was stupid. And I just lived it.”
“Want to hold him again?”
“I’m worried this is still the dream, and if I pick him up he’s going to grow horns and bite my face off.”
Fabler stroked his son’s cheek. “No no no. This widdle man could nebber bite off mommy’s face, could you widdle man? Could you widdle man?”
Lori laughed, shaking her head. “Your baby talk is worse than the nightmare. Bring him over here.”
Fabler stood and sat on the edge of the bed, presenting Pilgrim to her.
“He’s beautiful.”
“You’re both beautiful. You want to try again?”
“Still worried this is a dream?”
Lori nodded.
“Okay, let’s say it is. And bad things happen in dreams. Just like bad things happen in real life. But in either case, you always get through it, right?”
“Right.”
“I’m here with you, Lori. And I’ll be honest. I can’t stop everything bad from happening. No one can. Bad things happen. That’s how it works, dream or reality. Today, or in the future. But I’ll be here. With you. Always.”
Lori pulled open her gown and slowly brought Pilgrim to her breast.
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