by Matt Drabble
In the centre of the remains she saw that the rollercoaster was still largely in one piece. The ride seemed infinitely smaller than she remembered as a small child, even accounting for the time gap. She remembered touching the sky before plummeting to the ground along the rattling track, but now the rails were only around 25 feet in the air and seemed like a child’s ride.
“Smaller, isn’t it?” a voice spoke to her out of the shadows.
She wasn’t shocked by her brother even if that had been his intention. She had been expecting his voice and now it had arrived.
“Yes,” she answered. “In my memory it was huge with tracks that stretched on and fell forever.”
“Time shapes all things,” Simon said profoundly. “Hello, Jane.”
“Hello, Simon,” she replied. As the words tumbled from her mouth she found that she really was pleased to meet him; here was a man who could offer her unique understanding.
“That’s true,” he said eagerly before stopping himself. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t peek, but it’s kind of hard not to; we are so closely linked that I can’t help catching your thoughts.”
Jane let her mind open a crack and immediately caught wafts of her brother floating in the space between them. She could sense his excitement even though he was working hard to control it. He was desperate to share everything but she knew that the torrent would be too much in one go.
“You were here,” she suddenly said as an image flashed through her mind. “You were here with us, with me, that night.”
Yes,” he said happily. “You’re getting it, you’re getting me. Don’t fight it, Janey - don’t be afraid.”
She risked opening her mind a touch further, only this time taking full control. She stepped through the doorway into the Shadow World although such distinctions no longer seemed quite so necessary. She saw herself on that night with her mother on the pier. It was the night that she remembered so clearly, but now she saw that they hadn’t been alone. Simon and his father had been there with them. It had been a foursome outing, a family outing. She saw herself running off into the distance as her mother shouted warnings about getting too far ahead before laughing as a young Jane ran in circles, burning off adrenaline-fuelled excitement. But Jane hadn’t run alone - there was a young infant boy’s hand in hers and they had run together, both laughing as they embraced the night and prayed that it would last forever.
They had eaten too much junk food until their stomachs were fit to burst. They had ridden dizzying rides and laughed more than she thought possible. Her mother had held hands with Simon’s father and they had been a family for one brief shining night.
“Why?” Jane asked from far away. “Why was this memory taken from me?”
But Simon didn’t need to answer. The movie skipped to the end and she saw her mother arguing with Simon’s father. There had been sadness and guilt on her face and Simon’s father had pleaded and finally begged, but her mother had not listened. Jane didn’t need to hear the words as she could feel the metaphorical ghost of her own father standing between her mother and the life that she might have led, the life that they might have both led. She could feel the gap widening between her mother and Simon’s father until whatever had existed between them fell into the caverns and he disappeared, taking his son with him.
“He was just a gardener,” Simon said, his voice thick with bitterness. “Not good enough for your mother; neither of us was. I was always just a bastard reminder to her, a reminder of her mistake!”
“How could I not have known?” Jane wondered aloud. “My mother, your father, you? She was pregnant with you and I have no memory of that.”
“Your mother was a powerful woman, Janey - a powerful woman indeed. She was able to shape your reality as a child growing up under her isolated roof. She kept your father alive in your eyes while burying mine. I wonder just how she’d feel at how her children had turned out? Which of us takes after her more Jane, me or you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? SORRY!” Simon roared aloud. “My father crumbled away until he was nothing because your mother couldn’t look you in the eye. Have you any idea what it was like for me growing up with this…, this thing in my head?” He punctuated the question by thumping the side of his head hard with a clenched fist. “I thought that I was going mad when I was a child. I could hear voices all the time in my head. I knew that my teacher was having an affair with the headmaster by the images that I saw. I was 6 years old! My mother abandoned me and left me to drown.”
Jane didn’t dare offer her sympathies again.
“My father died of a broken heart less than a year later. They said it was cancer but I know what it really was. Your mother murdered my father, Jane, pure and simple; she may as well have put a fucking gun to his head!”
Jane stepped backwards, suddenly afraid by his ferocity. Waves of anger were flowing from him with dizzying speed; his bitterness and rage were barely under the surface and barely under control. His mind was a whirling bear trap and she couldn’t fall into it.
“But we’re brother and sister,” he said suddenly, his voice filled with tenderness and hope. “She kept me from you, Jane. I know that. It was her but now we can be together again and I can show you such wonderful sights.”
Jane was about to ask him what he meant. He was clearly a very seriously disturbed man but there was an undeniable part of her that wanted to join with someone like her, someone who could understand what she went through. They were family, after all.
He finally stepped from the shadows and whatever sort of bogeyman she had been expecting, he was far from it. He was tall and slender with short brown hair and an aura of average. He was the sort of man that you would pass in the street and never even notice. The only discernible feature that he had was her mother’s eyes embedded deeply in his skull. He wore jeans and a short cardigan combination that seemed too old for his youthful appearance.
“Simon,” she greeted him as they stood facing each other in front of the rollercoaster tracks. “Okay, then show me.”
He smiled warmly and lifted his hands high above his head like a vicar greeted his flock. Jane watched on as the coaster behind him suddenly exploded into bright life. The neon lights shattered the darkness, blasting it back into the corners. The rails rattled like an earthquake as a train of cars rose and fell, powered by her brother as they picked up speed and then flew past in a flash.
“There is power in you, Janey,” Simon cooed. “And I’m going to show you how to use it.”
----------
Danny was grateful for the police issue car’s extra power, although he couldn’t help but feel that no matter how hard he pushed he was going to be too late.
He’d taken Randall’s phone, which was mercifully still working, but Jane’s little red dot was now stationary in a small coastal town called Westhaven. He knew the place from his childhood when his grandmother had taken him on glorious summer day outings. He’d always called her ‘Grammy’ as a child and the name stuck into his adult years, however silly he felt saying it. In more recent times he knew the town from a professional standpoint and he didn’t like what he knew. The town was a cesspit and in danger of being sucked under completely. The night was upon them now and he didn’t like the idea of Jane wandering those particular streets alone.
He knew that the men sent to put a stop to both him and Randall must have come with Barrett’s full authority and their eagerness to use deadly force did not bode well. The commander was tying up loose ends and it would seem that Danny had greatly underestimated his boss’s nature. It wouldn’t be long before his assassins would be missed and the police would come looking. The car that he was now driving would surely be fitted with GPS and Danny hoped that when the next wave arrived they wouldn’t be solely Barrett’s men.
He still had faith in his profession and the men and women who wore their badges on their sleeves. He couldn’t and wouldn’t allow himself to believe that Barrett’s influence was bound
less. He would find Jane and the flashing blue lights wouldn’t be far behind; he just had to reach her in time.
----------
The coaster screamed into the night and Jane held onto the car’s bar with ever-whitening knuckles. Simon had been fully powering the ride but now she could feel herself sharing more and more of the control. It had only been minutes but already she was learning that time was of little consequence within her brother’s world. His teaching seemed to transcend mere words as his thoughts mingled with hers, forming a solid substance with external powers.
The coaster train rose and fell on rusting tracks but she had little fear of falling between the gaps and plummeting below. She could feel waves of childish pleasure washing over her from Simon and his joy was infectious, as was his hate.
Her mother’s face flashed before her eyes with increasing malice attached. Jane knew in her heart that whatever deception her mother had perpetrated over her father’s death, it had been born out of love, but Simon’s mind was strong and his influence deep. Jane started to wonder if her mother’s actions had been entirely selfless. After all, what right did the woman have to deny Jane the truth? Speaking of which, just what was the truth? Jane had lost her father, but how? What if her mother had been culpable in his death and her projected images were in fact born out of guilt and not love?
The coaster train roared faster through the night as Jane’s mind wandered and existed on pure, undiluted emotion. Her growing anger fuelled the rising power that had lain dormant for so long. She had barely scratched the surface of her gifts, but now she had a guide.
The cherished memories of her running and playing with her father were false and at that point she hated her mother, a twisted shrew who had ruined two men and destroyed two families. Jane could feel her brother’s excitement as their thoughts aligned and she understood his pain. He had just been a small boy wanting to be loved but instead, cast aside by a monster who should have been a mother. His father had died of a broken heart and he had been robbed of his family, his sister.
Dimly, Jane could feel the rollercoaster’s lights burning increasingly brightly, the bulbs screaming with light far beyond their natural boundaries. The flooding light illuminated further and further into the darkness showing the gleam of days past and the pier in its full glory. She could see and hear a thousand children running and playing with boundless joy. The wooden planks beneath them were pristine and whole and the railings shimmered with fresh paint. This time had no specific age but everything was beyond new as though she was laying her eyes on the sight for the very first time. It was here that she could exist forever with a full heart fit to burst with unbridled rapture; here, she could be happy without fear of her gift or the looks from others as though she was a monster. This could be her world now. She and Simon could live within these boundaries forever young and forever happy children; or at least they could have, if not for their mother.
The hate boiled in her veins and she felt the bones in her fingers crack as she squeezed them tightly. The train increased in speed until her body shuddered and thunder roared around her, the air thick with static. One by one the bulbs exploded, showering glass down onto the floor, but still the light burned fiercely and then she was slowing. The coaster train completed its last rotation and she came to a gentle halt into the station.
Simon stood waiting for her, his face torn between hope and sadness. His right cheek was wet with a single tear track but his eyes brimmed with tomorrow. The car’s bar rose as she willed it to and she climbed out. Her brother opened his arms to her and she ran for his embrace and the family that she had been denied.
----------
Danny came to a screeching halt behind Jane’s car. She was parked by the old pier that had clearly seen better days. A couple of kids darted back under the boardwalk as he approached, their eyes momentarily lighting up in the headlights before guiltily disappearing from view.
He was out of the car in a flash and running through the pier’s entrance. He withdrew a gun, which he’d recovered from the scene of Randall’s death, from inside his jacket and headed forward towards whatever lay ahead.
The wood creaked worryingly beneath his feet and he forced himself into a jog instead of an all out sprint, not wanting Jane’s brother to hear him approach. In his mind he tried to envisage the man as only a target, a killer, a master manipulator and not as Nathan, the man he’d loved.
The moon was bright enough to light his way but up ahead there seemed to be an unearthly glow emanating from one of the old fairground rides. He stuck as closely to the shadows as he could manage knowing that, given the ability of his quarry, he needed all the cover he could get.
The gun was down by his side and he slid the safety off as he reached the end of the pier. He could make out two figures as he approached stealthily. One was clearly feminine and he instantly recognised the other as the man that he’d shared his bed and his life with.
He looked on as Jane was suddenly engulfed by Nathan and his heart skipped a beat at her predicament. From where he was standing, Jane’s brother looked like he was attacking her and Danny broke cover and ran forward with the gun raised.
“NATHAN!” he roared.
“Don’t call me that,” the man spat back. “Of all the things I’ve had to do for my family, my time with you was surely the most vile. My name is Simon. Nathan was a figment, an illusion that is now firmly dead.”
“You don’t mean that,” Danny said, unable to stop the words tumbling from his lips or the pleading tone that accompanied them. He’d wanted to be a cop now, an avenging force for good - not a lovesick child.
“You disgust me, Daniel, you and your kind. I had plans for you at the hands of young Martin Kline. He had somewhat strong biblical views on what should be done with such abominations.”
Danny kept the gun raised and was pleased to see that the hand at least was steady. “Let her go,” he ordered, steeling himself.
“Let her go?” Simon laughed riotously. “Are you serious? After everything that I’ve done to bring me and my sister together, you expect me to let her go?”
“It’s over Nath…, Simon, it’s all over and all that remains is whether you’re finishing on your feet or on your back. Now step away from her and put your hands on your head.”
“You think that I’m scared of you or your so-called weapon? I am a god before you, Daniel. I have power the likes of which your puny brain could not even begin to comprehend. Would you like to feel your brain crawling with lice? Would you like to claw the flesh from your face trying to get rid of the burrowing itching beneath the surface?”
Danny inched closer as the man pontificated with wild eyes that were clearly mad. Simon held Jane in one arm as she slumped against him; her face was distant and absurdly happy.
“I wouldn’t even waste my time trying to explain myself to an insect like you,” Simon continued. “I am as far beyond your comprehension as an ant before the sun. You should bow before me with reverence for my light and warmth.”
“And what about her? What about your sister? Where does she fit into your grand plans?”
“We will be together forever,” Simon beamed.
“Joined at the hip I suppose?”
“Joined far deeper than that Daniel. Jane has a power that could, in time, rival my own.”
“She’d never join in your madness.”
“Oh she’ll join me, whether she likes it or not. I will absorb her essence into my own, I will join us together at a molecular level, Daniel, and together we will be unstoppable.”
“And what about her? What about her life?”
“She won’t need a life, not where she’s going. She’ll be eternal energy burning inside of my form and she’ll be happy, Daniel, I can promise you that, and isn’t that what we all want?”
“She won’t let you; she’ll fight and she’ll stop you.”
“She’s already gone, Daniel.”
As if to prove his point, Simon waved a hand
out while still holding onto Jane firmly with the other. Danny felt a rush of light charging towards him as time rolled backwards and the pier came to life around him. He could smell the candy floss rolling and the onions frying. The sun was warm on his face and the seagulls called above him, flying in the crystal blue sky. The clothing of those around him pegged the timescale at somewhere in the forties. “Smoke and mirrors,” he shouted above the loud organ music.
“Really?” Simon grinned.
Danny almost yelped in shock as a pretty woman bumped into him as she walked past with two young children in tow. The physical contact was shocking; he could accept the projected images but not an interactive flesh and blood world.
“Two minds are indeed better than one,” Simon said excitedly and Danny could see the petulant child that had never grown up.
“This can’t be real,” Danny whispered.
“Oh yes it can. Just think about it, Daniel, why don’t you fire that little gun of yours and rob someone today of their actual existence? Kill a parent or a grandparent and wipe out an entire family line; and this is just the start, the possibilities are endless.”
“You’re insane.”
“Now why is it that visionaries are always dismissed as crazy?” Simon snapped annoyed. “People like you would only be happy if we all still lived in the mud and worshipped the sun.”
Danny tried to move closer through the overlapping worlds but was buffeted by the sheer force of Simon’s will and his creation. The gun felt impossibly heavy in his hand and his arm fell to his side. He was walking into a hurricane that drained his will, no matter how hard he tried to fight it, and his vision of saving the day was fading fast as he sank to his knees.
“Now she looks familiar, doesn’t she?” Simon’s voice cooed.
Danny looked up into the eyes of a young woman; he didn’t know her face but she shared the same eyes as him, kind eyes that he had only ever seen in an elderly face as she gave him sweets from her bag. “Grammy?” he asked his grandmother as the young woman looked at him with a curious but warm expression.