Out Of Time

by Oldfield, Donna Marie

  “Well, take a look,” Neelam laughed. “I’m going to get dressed, I’ll see you downstairs for breakfast in a bit.”

  “Yeah I should get ready too. It’s lucky that I can make the shower work for myself,” Dylan grinned. “Do you want to go first, Scarlett? I can stand out here and work my water magic for you if you like.”

  Neelam turned and looked at Dylan incredulously.

  “I can’t believe you’re being nice to her. I had to beg!”

  “Scarlett’s just come back from the dead,” he protested. “And anyway, she smells a bit, I’m trying to do us all a favour.” He laughed.

  “Hey,” Scarlett yelled, as she replied to his teasing with a gentle punch.

  Neelam rolled her eyes and walked off.

  Twenty minutes later, Scarlett was freshly showered and searching through her wardrobe. Neelam was right, she did have a stupid amount of clothes and they were all to her taste. She and the other Scarlett must be pretty similar.

  She heard a knock at the door.

  “Can I come in?” Dylan said.

  “Just a minute!” she yelled as she pulled a dressing gown on. She didn’t want him seeing her in her underwear. She wasn’t feeling that flirty.

  “What?” Scarlett asked, poking her head round the door.

  “I was going to suggest doing a bit of training after breakfast. See how your powers are. Maybe even show you everyone else’s, that kind of thing”

  “OK, sounds good!” she replied.

  “Cool, I’ll see you downstairs in a minute. Make sure you wear something suitable for training,” he said. She closed the door and pulled a brush through her hair.

  Training? And powers? This was all getting a bit surreal. She didn’t even know what it was she was supposed to be able to do. What if she couldn’t do anything and she didn’t have powers like the other Scarlett. Would Dylan be disappointed?

  She walked back over to the wardrobe and stared at the clothes. What would she wear for training anyway? “Please tell me there aren’t any Lycra suits in here,” she thought in a sudden panic. A quick rummage told her there weren’t. “Phew.”

  She sifted her way through several inappropriate dresses and jumpers, picked out some jeans and a T-shirt and headed downstairs.

  “Hi,” she said to Neelam, as she entered the kitchen. “Whoa!” she yelled as Jay whizzed past, almost knocking Scarlett off her feet.

  “Watch out,” Neelam said. “It’s his turn to cook and, as you can imagine, he does everything in a hurry.”

  “’Scuse me, Scarlett,” Jay yelled as he raced back past from the fridge.

  She watched in awe as he whisked up some scrambled eggs, beans, bacon, sausage and hash browns in seconds flat. “I’d still be trying to crack the first egg by now,” she thought.

  “Here you go,” he said, handing Scarlett two plates. “Can you take these through for you and Dylan?” Before she could even begin to reply, he whizzed back with two more plates. “And Neelam, can you take yours and Lucy’s?”

  “Of course,” both girls replied, taking the plates and walking through.

  “Morning!” Lucy called happily. There was no sign of her bad mood from last night, which was good news. “Did you sleep OK?”

  “Yeah thanks.”

  “I could hardly sleep at all. I’m so excited to have you back,” she said, as she raced over and gave her a big hug.

  Scarlett had to admit, Lucy’s erratic behaviour made her feel a bit nervous, but she was being nice and was clearly a friend, so she gave her the benefit of the doubt. She prised herself away and took a seat.

  “Looking forward to training?” Jay asked sarcastically.

  “Ignore him,” Neelam said. “Jay hates training. He thinks he doesn’t need it. He’ll grow up one day.”

  “Actually, I am kind of looking forward to it. Will you be there? I’d like to see you all in action.”

  “Sure we will,” Lucy said. “It’s important that we focus on you though. We have no idea how your powers have been affected.”

  “Well, you see, the thing is…” she started. “I don’t even know what they are. When I said I knew nothing about this place, I meant just that. I know nothing. I don’t even know if I have powers.”

  “Of course you do,” Jay said.

  “But I’ve never had them before.”

  “Yes you…” Jay started, before slamming his knife and fork down and turning to Dylan. “When is she going to get over this?”

  “Quiet, Jay,” Dylan replied. “We don’t know if there’s anything to get over. I have to admit, it’s all very confusing. Scarlett thinks she isn’t from our world, we think she is. She believes she was hit by a lorry, we remember her going missing in battle. It’s all, well, strange.”

  “You said it,” Jay muttered. Scarlett blushed with embarrassment. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she remember anything? Was it her? Had she gone mad? Even she was starting to doubt herself.

  “But all we can do,” Dylan said, “is be patient and help Scarlett. Hopefully, we’ll figure out what happened in time.”

  Jay rolled his eyes. It was obvious he thought Scarlet had just hit her head or gone crazy. Did they all think that?

  “Don’t worry,” Neelam said to her telepathically. For once, she was pleased to have her poking around in there. “Dylan and I understand. Lucy and Jay are just finding it hard to grasp that you’ve lost your memory or might even be a different Scarlett to the one we know. They will get used to it.”

  “I wish I could get used to it,” she moaned.

  “It’s OK” Dylan said in her head. “We’re here for you.”

  “Whoa, how did you do that?”

  “Through Neelam, she can open mind links between us all.”

  While she found that impressive, she hoped it didn’t mean that Dylan could read her thoughts too.

  “You can’t read my mind, can you?” she asked.

  Dylan laughed. “Don’t worry. We’re only talking, we all have a strict privacy code. Neelam included. You’ve got nothing to worry about.”

  Scarlett looked at Lucy and Jay, wondering if they’d noticed the three of them having a telepathic conversation. Had they heard… somehow? But they were oblivious. Lucy was inspecting her perfect fingernails and Jay was licking the remains of bean juice from his plate. Nice.

  “Come on then, gang. Shall we get this table cleared, then meet in the training room in 20 minutes? I’ll give Scarlett a tour of the house and see you there.”

  “Yes boss,” Jay said, standing to mock attention.

  Dylan obviously didn’t find it funny because he just shot Jay a look and headed for the door.

  “Come on Scarlett, I’ll show you round.”

  She looked at the others, then did as she was told. Cor, Dylan sure could be moody.

  “Are you OK?” she asked, as she followed him into the hall.

  “Yeah, sorry,” he said, shaking himself slightly as if it would get rid of his mood. “I wish Jay would take things a bit more seriously, that’s all. He and Lucy can be so impetuous. Jay thinks it’s all a joke and Lucy can’t control her emotions and impulses. They’re both so irrational, I wish they’d grow up a bit.”

  “That’s slightly harsh,” she argued. “They’re allowed to lighten up sometimes.”

  “Sure, but not all the time,” he snapped, his green eyes looking serious. “Don’t they understand? People are getting killed and we thought we’d lost you. That should have drilled a bit of reality in to them.”

  “I know; I see your point, but they’re kids.”

  “So are we! True, they’re 17, but I’m only 19, Neelam’s 18 and you’re…”

  Dylan’s eyes went wide. “Oh my goodness, I forgot. It was your birthday the day you went missing. None of us remembered.”

  “Well, it sounds like it was overshadowed a bit…” she joked.

  “Yeah, but we didn’t even remember on the day itself. I had everybody so focussed on the mission at h
and.”

  “The one that almost killed me?” she asked.

  “Yeah…”

  “Maybe that’s a good example of why it wouldn’t hurt for you to see life as more than a battle. Goulden’s won anyway if you let this take over your life.”

  “Yeah but…” he protested.

  “You’ll see, I’ll get you to lighten up,” she smiled.

  At that moment, a loud shriek came from the kitchen and Jay whizzed past them – closely followed by a much slower Lucy.

  “What, like those two?”

  “Not quite,” she joked. Dylan laughed. “Now come on, where’s that tour you promised?”

  “Oh yeah. Well, this is the hall,” Dylan said flourishing his arms around the grand entrance hall. “That’s the door, and, well, those are the kitchen and dining rooms, as you’ve seen.”

  “Yep.”

  “Follow me.” Dylan walked past the staircase on their right to the end of the hallway.

  “What’s down there?” she asked, as she noticed the stairs went down one more level.

  “We’ll see that later,” he said

  “Jeez. Does this guy practise being mysterious?” she thought.

  Dylan opened a door on the left.

  “This is our library and communications room,” he said.

  It was huge. Leather-bound books lined the mahogany wood walls. The room itself was old-fashioned and quaint, but one side was full of up-to-date technology.

  “Wow, you’ve got a fair few computers,” she remarked, as she counted no less than 14 Macs and PCs, all connected to servers and other gizmos she didn’t understand.

  “Yeah, they come in useful for finding things out. Lucy is our resident little whizzkid and hacker. She’s always been naturally brilliant at computers and science, then about a year ago, her power to control electricity developed to allow her to easily manipulate electrical machines. The combination of her braininess and her super power means there are very few systems she can’t get into to bring them down or discover vital information.”

  “What kind of things do you find out?”

  “We try to keep tabs on Goulden, and the other group that you met.”

  “Do these others have a name?”

  Dylan laughed. “What do you think this is, a comic book?”

  “I guess not! I have to admit, I was pleased to see there were no Lycra outfits and masks in my wardrobe.”

  “Oh we do wear those,” he said matter-of-factly.

  “Really?” she said in a panic.

  “No I’m kidding,” he laughed. “I’d forgotten how gullible you can be for someone so smart.”

  “You’re mean,” she mock sulked.

  Just then she noticed a table full of wires and circuit boards.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “Oh that’ll be Lucy’s latest invention. She’s always making gadgets to help our missions. I think that one’s some kind of sound amplifier that’ll let us listen in on people.”

  “Like your enemies?”

  “That’s right. Sometimes we need to find out what they’re up to.”

  Dylan headed back into the hall and up the staircase. Scarlett tried to peer back down to the lower level to see what was down there. Was it a monster? A Batcave-style cavern of cars and planes? That would be cool. She quickly stopped being nosey and followed Dylan to the first floor, where he stopped.

  “OK, this is where Lucy and Jay’s rooms are and their bathroom,” he said before he made his way up the stairs again. He gestured down the corridor at the second level. “This floor, as you know, is where you, me and Neelam sleep. We have a couple of spare rooms too… And this leads to the attic.”

  Scarlett looked at where Dylan was standing. It was just a wall with a painting on it. A pretty ugly painting of some old woman.

  “What’s that?” she asked.

  “That is Lucy’s godmother’s great aunt. Her godmother owned this place.”

  “Aha!” Scarlett thought. She’d been wondering how these kids owned such an amazing property.

  “She left it to Lucy and because she wasn’t a relative, the property is untraceable to her and us. Especially as Lucy used her powers to make a few government files disappear.”

  “She’s a clever girl that Lucy,” Scarlett said. “I still don’t get how this leads to an attic though.”

  “Watch.”

  Dylan swung the picture to one side and pressed a section of the wall, making it slide open.

  “Wow, it’s like those hidden corridors they have in the movies.”

  “Exactly. Come on.”

  They both stepped into the other room and Dylan closed the door behind them before pulling a cord that lit up a small, rickety staircase.

  “This leads to the top of the house,” he said as he climbed the steep steps. “There’s not much up here, just lots of our old stuff, but I wanted to show you the view.”

  Dylan clambered into the room and Scarlett followed.

  “Achoo!” she shrieked as the dust tickled her nose.

  “Sorry, we don’t clean this area much. Come and look over here.” Dylan ran to the windows. She followed him at a more hesitant pace, carefully weaving her way through the old furniture and boxes that were covered in dust and sheets.

  “That’s some view,” she said as she peered over Dylan’s shoulder and through a small, old window.

  She could see the whole of the London skyline. From here it looked just like she remembered it. No grey, dismal, boarded-up streets, none of the decay and dismay she’d seen in the past few days, just all the familiar sights.

  “It’s amazing how pretty the city looks from up here,” she said.

  “I love it,” Dylan agreed. “I come up here and sit and think sometimes. It calms me down for some reason.”

  “I can see why.”

  Dylan turned around to face Scarlett and she was suddenly aware of how close they were standing. Her heart was racing and she was pretty sure from that pounding noise that his was too.

  “We used to come up here sometimes.”

  Scarlett’s thoughts started racing. “The two of us alone? Had we been… where we…”

  “Just to chat,” Dylan said. He must have sensed her confusion. “You know, talk about things outside of the whole war with Goulden and super powers stuff. Music, art... the things we probably would have been into if the world had stayed normal.”

  “That sounds spot on,” she laughed nervously. “I loved art and music in my ‘normal’ world. I was hoping to become a graphic designer.”

  Dylan smiled.

  “You’re a great artist, I’m not surprised. You always said you wanted to design things.” Then he looked sad. “I wanted to be a writer. It’s weird that we’re not working towards things and studying, that our lives aren’t following their pre-destined path.”

  “Maybe we will one day,” she assured him, placing her hand on his arm. “Or perhaps we have more important things to do.”

  “Yeah…” He shook himself like he’d done before. It was as if a shrug of the shoulders could reset his mood.

  “Come on then,” he said. “Let’s show you that basement that you were so nosey about.”

  “What’s down there?” she asked

  “The training room. You ready for that?”

  “Not really,” she grinned. “Does that make any difference?”

  “Nope, I’m gonna put you through your paces all the same.”

  “Slave driver,” she muttered as she followed him out of the attic and back down the stairs.

  Chapter 7

  “Hi, Scarlett,” Neelam said. Her new friend was smiling up at her as she walked down the stairs into the basement, which was a vast, open, white space. It looked like it belonged on a futuristic spaceship, not in an old north London house.

  “This is awesome,” Scarlett said, as she stared wide-eyed around the room. “Did you do this?”

  “No,” Lucy replied. “My godmother did.�
�

  “Wow!” she said, before adding: “Dylan did mention that she used to own this place.”

  “That’s right,” Lucy nodded. “She turned the basement into a funky music studio for me and my brother when we went through a phase of wanting to be in a band. It’s fair to say she spoiled us. So it was already all modernised and soundproofed when we moved in, which means we can make as much noise in here as we like without drawing any attention to ourselves.”

  “Noise?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” Jay sighed. “Dylan pushes us really hard. He makes us beat the stuffing out of each other.”

  Scarlett looked at Dylan in shock.

  “Don’t listen to him,” he assured her, rolling his eyes at Jay. “We used to fight each other, very safely, but these days we train against virtual enemies.”

  “Against what?” she asked, somewhat baffled.

  “We fight in a virtual, computerised world thanks to Lucy. She’s a bit of a computer genius.”

  “I wouldn’t say genius…” Jay quipped.

  “Yes she is,” Dylan said defensively. “Lucy’s developed some amazing computer systems for us, as well as creating state-of-the-art technology for this room.”

  Lucy blushed, obviously pleased to receive such a compliment from Dylan. “Well, you know, I used my electrical powers to make a few shortcuts here and there,” she said in an attempt to seem humble.

  Scarlett looked from Lucy to Dylan and back again. She was still confused.

  “Lucy’s turned the room into one big computer game,” Dylan explained. “She took a virtual-gaming computer and upgraded it beyond your wildest dreams. It’s truly amazing. You have to experience it to believe it.”

  He grabbed some black leather gloves, shoes and a belt and passed them to Scarlett.

  She looked at them and wrinkled her nose. They were ugly.

  “Put them on,” Dylan insisted, as he pulled on an identical set. “And take this headband too.”

  She looked at the black headband with disdain. “But it looks silly.”

  “Do it,” he laughed.

  “Hmph.” she obeyed him, but she felt as uncool as she looked.