Unraveling

by Elizabeth Norris

  “Eli, people are dead,” he says.

  That stops my forward movement, and I suck in a breath. I didn’t expect to hear something like that.

  People are dead.

  This guy, whose lips fit perfectly against mine, who makes me feel warm and short of breath whenever he smiles at me, he knows people are dead.

  I crouch where I am, steady my balance, and slow my breathing so they don’t know I’m here before I’m ready for them to know.

  “I thought we established that it’s not your fault,” Elijah says. “You didn’t fucking kill them.”

  “No, I didn’t mean to kill them. That doesn’t mean it’s not my fault.”

  “Ben, we don’t know if you’re responsible,” Reid says.

  “What do you mean, ‘we don’t know’?” Elijah says. “We know he’s not responsible.”

  “I’m just saying that correlation doesn’t mean causation. Unless you actually found some link between them—”

  “What the fuck does that even mean? Stop throwing scientific terms at us,” Elijah says. “Ben, none of this was your fault.”

  “The whole thing was my fault,” Ben says. “We wouldn’t be here, we wouldn’t be dealing with any of this if it wasn’t for me.”

  “That’s not fucking true—”

  “It doesn’t matter. This isn’t a school science experiment. It’s people. Lives,” Ben says, his voice rising. “I told you I’m done until I figure out how to do it without hurting anyone.”

  “But we’re still fucking here!” Elijah yells, and there’s a crash of things, possibly heavy things, falling and possibly breaking.

  My heart rate spikes. I can feel each pulse in the tips of my fingers, and I’m too warm. Sweat is beading at the back of my neck.

  “He’s right, we’ve—”

  “You think I want to be here any more than you do?” Ben says. “But did you see the burns on those bodies? They didn’t even look human. I’m not going to do that to more people.”

  Bodies. Burns. They didn’t even look human.

  08:18:50:33

  Air leaves my lungs. Blood stops moving in my veins. And for a minute, it feels like life itself just got sucked out of this room. My vision is blurry, like I can’t focus on anything, and the only thing I can hear is white noise.

  I look up, my eyes watering, and open my mouth, hoping I won’t suffocate from shock.

  And then the earth starts spinning again. Life un-pauses, and the world around me rushes back in.

  From the sounds of their voices, when I get to the bottom of the stairs, they’ll be to my left—all three of them. Each of them outweighs me and could easily take me down if it came to hand-to-hand combat. And I still don’t know what kind of freaky shit Ben can do.

  But I can’t listen anymore.

  Carefully, I slide the backpack off my back and retrieve the Glock 22. And I take a deep breath, hoping I can remember everything my father ever told me about advancing on a potentially hostile target.

  I’ll have the element of surprise on my side—and a gun. Assuming there isn’t another person down there and there aren’t a bunch of assault rifles hanging on the wall—or something worse—I should have the upper hand.

  Bodies. Burns. They didn’t even look human.

  It’s too obvious. I know exactly what they’re talking about. And it’s about time, because I know everything else.

  08:18:48:53

  I don’t rush in. Instead I go slowly, each step matching my even breaths and the steady pounding of my heart. I hold the Glock with two hands, arms straight out but slightly bent at the elbows—relaxed but secure.

  When I get to the bottom of the stairs, I point the gun in their direction and say, “Get your hands up!” Then I absorb the details. All three of them are somewhere between five and seven feet away from me, and the unfinished basement offers a few household items as potential weapons, but nothing that will get me from a distance. “Hands up, right now,” I add, trying not to pay attention to how hard my hands want to shake.

  “Again? You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” Elijah says, throwing his arms out wide, though I don’t think for a second he’s serious.

  Reid has his arms up, but he’s looking to Elijah for cues. “I told you she heard us.”

  Ben is the only one who doesn’t listen right away. And at first glance I think he’s planning to try to talk me out of something, but when I get a closer look at his face, I can see his eyes look pained. He opens his mouth as if he’s going to say something, but nothing comes out.

  I train the gun back on Elijah, and he smiles at me. “What’s your plan, Tenner?”

  What’s my plan—that’s a good question. I don’t entirely have one, but I do know that I need to stay calm and in control.

  There isn’t a gun rack on the wall. In fact there’s not much of anything down here. An old tattered carpet, an end table with a tiny TV and a small stereo, a shelf of books and DVDs, most of which are scattered on the floor along with the shards of what might have been a vase, and a worn, tan-colored couch that’s sagging in the middle.

  I nod toward the couch. “Sit down.”

  As they move, I circle around, making sure to keep my distance. If I get close enough for Elijah to reach out and go for the gun, it’s all over.

  “Janelle,” Ben says, his voice hoarse.

  “Don’t.” My own voice is harsher than I intended. It has to be. I can’t for a second let them see weakness, and right now any potential feelings I have for Ben are just that.

  Elijah turns. “You really know how to use that thing?” he asks, taking a step forward. “I don’t know if you have it in you.”

  This is it.

  I take a step forward too—still with enough distance—and look down the sights of the barrel to stare him dead in the eyes. I summon all the anger and frustration that have been following me around for the past few days, and I let them pour out. “My dad was a decorated war veteran and the head of counterintelligence for the San Diego office of the FBI. Now he’s dead. You think I don’t have it in me? I think that’s a big gamble you don’t want to take.”

  It’s not the response Elijah expected. He believes me, and as he backs away I can see it in his eyes.

  When all three of them are on the couch, I lean against the wall across from them, steadying myself before my arms begin to shake. And then I take a deep breath.

  “Keep your hands where I can see them,” I say, nodding to Reid, who then folds them in his lap. “Now I don’t care who tells me what, but I want to know everything—the bodies, the radiation burns, and your part in it.”

  “And if we don’t know what you’re talking about?” Elijah asks.

  That would be a shame, since I just played my hand. If they don’t tell me anything, I’ve lost.

  Instead I say, “I’m not leaving here until I know what you’re hiding.” And I don’t have to fake the desperation. My eyes flick to Ben. “I need to know.”

  My voice shakes on the last word. I need to know what the hell they’re into. My dad is dead, and I’m going to solve that, and a couple of stoner punks from my high school aren’t going to get in the way—even if they are more than I thought they were.

  “I need to know,” I say again, steadying the gun.

  All that follows is the music, the sound of my pulse in my ears, and my own ragged breathing.

  Then Elijah stands up. “Fuck this, she’s not going to shoot us.”

  I don’t wait for him to finish. I’m talking over him. “You have no idea what I’m capable—”

  We both talk over each other, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen next. I just know that I’m hyperaware of the air filling my lungs, and the way my hands are starting to feel slick with sweat.

  But I don’t know what else Elijah says, because Ben jumps up and yells, “Stop!”

  He’s loud enough that we do. We both shut up and turn to glance at him.

  When his hands rake through his h
air and grab onto the ends, I know I’ve gotten through and that the wall of secrecy is about to break down—or at least, a few more bricks are going to come loose.

  “This isn’t easy. Are you sure you want to know?” he asks.

  “You can’t be fucking serious!” Elijah says.

  Ben turns on him. “I told you we’d do things my way. Just sit down and shut up.”

  For a moment, looking at the two of them—two guys who have obviously been friends forever—a twinge of guilt worms its way through my insides. I’ve gotten in so over my head.

  But whatever Elijah’s objections are, he throws himself onto the couch with a dramatic sigh.

  “You’re just going to let him tell her?” Reid says, and the way he says it—like I don’t even deserve a second of their time—makes me want to punch him.

  Elijah says nothing, and I look at Ben, this guy with deep-set eyes I can’t read, who surprises and challenges me, and at the same time makes me weak in the knees. I swallow down the sick feeling of betrayal—whatever his involvement in this is, this is about more than him keeping secrets from me.

  People are dead—my father is dead. And we’re eight days from the crazy-ass countdown to whatever it is.

  “Yes,” I answer, keeping my voice even. “Everything. I want to know what you know.”

  Ben takes a deep breath, his face lined with worry. “Elijah, Reid, and I. We’re not from around here.”

  “Not from around here?” I’m not sure what that means or how it plays into what they know about the radiation. “All three of you—where are you from?”

  “Somewhere else.”

  “Wow, thanks for the specifics,” I say. “Care to be less vague?”

  Ben wipes a hand over his face and pinches the bridge of his nose. “We’re from another universe.”

  “Another universe?” I’m doing that thing again where I repeat things I hear—like I’m either a moron or hard of hearing. So I clarify. “What do you mean by ‘another universe’?”

  “Like another fucking world,” Elijah says.

  I don’t know what I expected. But it wasn’t this.

  08:18:40:32

  “We were born in a universe like this one, but … different,” Ben says.

  “So you’re saying you’re an alien?” My voice sounds incredulous.

  “No.” Ben shakes his head with a smile, but then he shrugs. “Well, maybe. We weren’t born here on this earth, but we’re human—like you.” He pauses. “Seriously, I checked in a science lab in middle school.”

  That sounds like him.

  “And we didn’t come through space or anything like that. We came from an alternate universe through some kind of wormhole.”

  I’m trying to wrap my mind around that, but I still don’t know what it means. Sure I’ve seen plenty of bad sci-fi movies, but that stuff is supposed to be fake—as in, not actually possible. Maybe the three of them have done too many drugs.

  “That’s ridiculous,” I say, because I need to say something. I can’t just believe this at face value. “Travel through wormholes is impossible—it violates every natural law of physics.”

  “I thought so too. We all did,” he says, waving at Elijah and Reid. “We didn’t grow up believing in this shit, trust me.” Ben takes a deep breath and a few steps toward me. “Okay, so the theory of metaverse says there isn’t one universe, but rather—many. A multiverse. There could be hundreds or thousands of different universes. This is one. We’re actually from one of those other universes.”

  “I still don’t buy it.” They could be making this up to avoid telling me what’s really going on. “If it’s true, prove it.”

  “Prove it?” Ben asks. Then he shakes his head. “I can’t, I—”

  Elijah makes a disgusted noise. “You’ve seen what Ben can do—you’re alive because of it—isn’t that enough proof for you?”

  I look at Ben, and he nods. “The things I can do, it’s because I’m—because we’re—from somewhere else.”

  I ignore the groan that comes from Reid’s direction and plow forward. “And Reid and Elijah—they can do the things you can do?”

  He shakes his head, and I breathe a little easier. “No, I mean, sort of. They can, but not like me.”

  Not exactly the vote of confidence I wanted.

  Ben fidgets, and I want to jump in and ask what the hell he means, but I force myself to wait.

  “Reid can manipulate molecular structure like I can, but he doesn’t concentrate or something, and it only works sometimes. And Elijah can only seem to do anything when he’s really emotional. Partly because he drinks too much.”

  “Whatever, I can concentrate just fine,” Reid throws in.

  Wow. I’m not sure what to say to that.

  I bring my hands together to keep them from shaking. “Okay, so let’s say I go with this. If you’re from a parallel world, does that mean you each have a double who lives here?” I ask. The thought of two Elijah Palmas on one earth might make me hurl.

  “No,” Ben says. “I mean, I suppose there could be alternate versions of each of us in different universes, but who knows? I’ve never seen another me, or another one of them.” He points to Reid and Elijah. “Within a multiverse, all the different universes, they’re not necessarily parallel, though the technology in some of them would be similar. And same with the structure of cities and other things. One theory is that all the universes started parallel, but when different people in the different universes made different choices, things grew outward differently. And now the differences are limitless.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard the theory.”

  “Right,” Ben says. “So technically we could have doubles on some of the worlds, but it’s actually pretty unlikely. And if we have doubles here, we’ve never met them.”

  I take a deep breath. As much as I want to call bullshit, I have seen what Ben can do, and I already know there’s a lot about the world—or worlds—out there that I don’t understand.

  “Okay, so you’re from another world, what else?”

  “So each world,” Ben says, his voice sounding strained. “They’re supposed to be completely independent of one another, you know?”

  Reid says, “Crossing over has ill effects.”

  “Ill effects…,” I say, turning back to Ben. “Like turning into someone who can bring people back from the dead.”

  A bitter laugh comes from Elijah. “So you are more than just book smart.”

  “But it’s more than just that,” Ben says. “Crossing over … we were lucky. Lately, anyone who’s crossed over has ended up dead.”

  Ended up dead. Crossed over. Unidentified people.

  This shouldn’t make sense—it shouldn’t fit.

  But it does.

  “From radiation poisoning,” I whisper.

  Ben nods and looks down at his feet. “Not a good way to go.”

  “Wait,” I continue. My body feels cold and weak now that the adrenaline has fled. If I believe them—if—then I’m in even more over my head than I’d thought. I don’t know how I’ll ever make sense of this case if it’s this far outside my scope of understanding. “How did you cross over?”

  All three of them look at me, and I’d be an idiot to not notice how much Elijah and Reid don’t want Ben to tell me.

  But he will.

  I can see it in his eyes—he wants me to know.

  Ben asks me to put down the gun. I don’t want to. I know it can’t protect me from anything I’m about to hear, and I feel light-headed and a little sick to my stomach. But I remind myself it’s not even loaded—my dad always said never to point a loaded gun at someone unless you plan on pulling the trigger, and Elijah was right. No matter what happened, I wasn’t going to shoot anyone.

  I put the gun on the table.

  And Ben tells me everything.

  08:18:34:51

  This is how it happened:

  Ben and Reid have birthdays less than a week apart. When they were turning te
n, Ben’s mom and Reid’s dad, who both worked together in a government-funded lab, decided to throw them a joint birthday party.

  Elijah came.

  The party was at Reid’s house. They played games, ate cake, opened presents, and had a video-game tournament. It should have been perfect.

  Only once Elijah got knocked out of the tournament, he was bored. He wanted to play something else, and Reid was pretty sure there were some old games down in the basement. Ben and another boy went with them.

  There were board games in the basement, but nothing exciting. But there was more than that. There was a locked door.

  And once Elijah discovered the locked door, he had to know what was behind it.

  It was Reid’s father’s home lab. It was where he kept all his failed experiments—the ones the government wasn’t funding anymore, but he wasn’t ready to let go.

  Between the four of them, they managed to pick the lock.

  They found weird-looking laser guns that didn’t actually shoot, a computer with some kind of card game, and a table full of different multicolored liquid chemicals. And they found something that looked like a helmet made of different wires that all hooked up to a mini television. The other boy tried it on, and Elijah turned on the TV and pressed several buttons to see what it did. The TV just showed white noise, but the helmet gave the boy a shock and made his hair stand on end.

  Which was funny. Funny enough that Elijah wanted to try. Then Reid, and finally Ben. They took turns making their hair stand on end and laughing at one another. Until Elijah declared he was thirsty and ready for something new.

  Reid grabbed some kind of weird juice from the lab-room fridge, and they all split it. It tasted bitter and strange and somehow it made them even more thirsty. They drank it until it was gone, then started to head upstairs.

  Only on the way, Ben found something half-covered and discarded in a corner. It looked like an engine. He called the others over and began inspecting it. At first it wouldn’t start. But that didn’t stop them. Reid found what looked like his father’s notes, and each of the four boys looked through a few of the pages. Ben fooled with the engine while Reid read random comments, until eventually Elijah had enough, and he reached in and pressed two of the open wires in the ignition together, and it flared to life.