‘And Terra is Earth?’
‘That’s right, each book contains within it all the secrets and magic of each of the five domains.’
‘And you don’t know where they came from?’
Sam shook his head.
‘No, but they’re old, I mean seriously old, like from before the Gods.’
‘Before the Gods?’ her eyes widened.
‘The story goes that the five books were created by an ancient race, that understood the most primal and elemental powers. They harnessed them and locked their secrets inside the books and each book had its own guardian, the only one who could understand its secrets.’
‘So what happened to them?’ Olivia leaned closer in fascination.
‘War, sickness, or maybe they just died out? We just don’t know, but I do know that Infernum was supposed to be the most powerful of all of the books. Terra was hidden on Earth but it was destroyed during the holy wars; the humans claimed it was heresy when they couldn’t read it and unlock its secrets. As for Caelorum, Purgatorio and Alterum I don’t know if they’ve even survived, they’ve been lost for so long, and now you’re telling me that Infernum has been hidden by your family for generations?’
‘That’s what I’ve been told.’
‘That’s incredible,’ he shook his head, ‘what I don’t understand is where Theo fits in. I mean, why would I pull him through time?’
‘I don’t know’ Olivia shrugged, ‘maybe because he kept dreaming about me and about Infernum.’
‘What?’
‘Oh,’ she frowned, ‘didn’t I mention that? Theo has visions, dreams mostly.’
‘And he had a vision of Infernum?’
‘Not exactly. From what he’s told me, it’s more like he’s dreamed about me and in those dreams we’ve been talking about the book but he hasn’t actually seen it. Although he did save my ancestor Hester who was apparently the last person to have seen the book.’
‘So he is connected to it somehow,’ Sam mused.
Olivia stopped in front of the door of a private room. Beyond it lay the room in which she had first seen Theo, the night he had realized she was real and not a figment of his imagination. So logically this room should hold some meaning for him. Reaching out with trembling hands her fingers closed around the handle. She pulled in a deep breath and allowed the door to swing open silently. Her heart sank as she beheld the empty room, the bed was neatly made and nothing was amiss.
‘I’m sorry Olivia,’ Sam murmured quietly behind her.
‘I don’t know where else to look,’ she sighed. I’ve tried the house, the pub, Jake’s apartment, the hospital, I don’t know where he is.’
‘To be honest he could be anywhere,’ Sam drew her away from the room. ‘If he was pulled through as abruptly as you say, he might not even realize he’s not in the real world anymore and just to complicate things, he might be in a different time frame from us.’
‘What do you mean?’ Olivia stopped abruptly and turned to stare at him.
‘Time doesn’t run the same way here as in your world.’
‘My aunt said something like that to me,’ she cast her mind back, trying to recall exactly what she’d said. ‘Something about time has no meaning here.’
‘That’s not entirely correct,’ he replied thoughtfully, ‘it’s more like time is fluid.’
‘I don’t understand,’ she frowned.
They started slowly walking again as Sam tried to organize his thoughts.
‘In your world, time is like a river, it only flows in one direction. You divide it into minutes, hours, days, months, years but essentially it all flows at the same rate. It is inevitable, you are born, you grow old, you die. It’s linear, it’s flesh and blood. In the spirit world you cast off your mortal body and with it, your mortal lifespan and all its restrictions. The soul is infinite; it exists as pure energy. If time on Earth is a river which flows in only one direction, time in the spirit world is like a giant ocean moving in all directions.’
Sam stopped suddenly, his eyes distant and lost in thought.
‘Time is an ocean,’ he murmured to himself.
‘What is it?’
‘Time is an ocean,’ he murmured again, like he was trying to figure something out. ‘What if time is like an ocean? The energy produced from the motion of the currents and tides changes when it encounters land mass, it slows, dissipates or is diverted. What if time is the same only instead of land masses they are fixed points in time, events of such importance they are embedded deep within the fabric of existence?’
Olivia stared at him blankly.
‘When the wave hits the land or in this case the fixed point in time, it fractures and is refracted outwards in different directions, alternate time lines. What if you can ride those time lines like a wave?’
‘Er Sam?’ Olivia interrupted his random trail of thought, ‘could you dumb it down for me a bit? I’m not really up on temporal mechanics.’
‘Sorry,’ he shook his head, ‘the point I was trying to make was that time in the Otherworld can exist at any point in time. It is the soul that chooses where it wants to be, where it wants to return to. It’s not even a conscious decision.’
‘Not a conscious decision? So I can’t just choose to jump to whatever time I want to?’
‘No,’ Sam shook his head, ‘I mean there are some souls who are able to. Souls who are very old and gifted enough but for most of you, you just end up where you end up.’
‘Great,’ Olivia sighed as they reached the emergency department and headed for the main entrance. ‘So Theo could be stuck in another time period and I’m stuck here?’
‘Theoretically.’
‘Well that’s just fucking great,’ she blew out a frustrated breath.
‘I’m sure that’s not the case though’ he replied sympathetically, ‘after all this is specifically where Hades sent you, that must mean Theo is here somewhere.’
‘I don’t know,’ she sighed. ‘I can’t rule out Hades sending me on a wild goose chase just to amuse himself.’
They stepped through the main entrance and back out into the daylight, heading back towards town.
‘It’ll be alright Olivia, we’ll find him.’
‘I hope so,’ she let out a deep disappointed breath.
A shiver suddenly danced down her spine making her pause. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and her skin began to crawl. Turning back towards the hospital she caught a glimpse of the same strange black shadow she’d seen twice now. It hovered by the entrance of the hospital. Her breath caught in her throat and for a brief second it almost seemed to stare right back at her, as if it were challenging her somehow and then it melted into the shadow of the building.
‘Did you see that?’ Olivia whispered.
‘See what?’ Sam turned back to the hospital.
‘There was…’ she shook her head frowning, ‘never mind.’
‘Come on,’ Sam drew her attention, ‘there’s a few more places we can try.’
Louisa took one last deep drag on her cigarette and dropped it to the floor, crushing it under her boot. Blowing out a breath she buried her hands deep into the pockets of her jacket and stared up into the dark starlit sky. Even though spring was now fast approaching there was still enough bite in the air to cause her to shiver.
‘Dr Linden?’
She looked across at one of her interns, standing out in the cold without a jacket clutching a chart, and shook her head. So much for her break.
‘What is it Adams?’ she snapped irritably.
‘I’m sorry to disturb you Dr Linden but it’s Mr Bailey, his stats have dropped again.’
She pushed herself off the wall and plucked the chart out of the young woman’s shivering hands.
‘You really shouldn’t be out here without a jacket’ she frowned, as she gazed down at the chart. ‘This isn’t the West Coast, you’re not in Santa Barbara anymore.’
>
‘Santa Cruz,’ she corrected.
‘Just get inside before you end up sick’ Louisa sighed, as she headed through the hospital entrance.
The young intern scurried after her, trying to keep up.
‘Are the test results back in.’
‘No, not yet.’
‘Go and chase them up then’ Louisa replied, stopping so abruptly the intern nearly crashed into her.
The young woman stared at her.
‘Now Adams.’
‘Oh right, test results, sorry.’
Louisa watched in exasperation as she scurried off.
‘Still traumatizing interns,’ a warm familiar voice chuckled.
She turned and found herself staring into a pair of amused brown eyes. Dr Achari was the newest addition to the staff. Although the young Indian doctor had only been with them a few months, he’d arrived just as they’d been slammed with massive intakes of patients suffering with all types of different diseases, common and otherwise. She found out later that it was because of a supernatural creature who’d escaped through the gateway into Mercy and liked to infect humans with sickness. Unfortunately for them, not only had half the town been affected but most of the staff as well. They’d had to borrow staff from nearby Salem and Georgetown. Dr Achari and herself were the only two most senior staff unaffected and after several weeks of total chaos they’d emerged with a kind of war buddies’ friendship that came from surviving such an intense situation.
‘Sachiv,’ she smiled as he handed her a cup of coffee, ‘I thought you were off an hour ago?’
‘I was but I was just waiting on a patient transfer,’ he took a sip of his own coffee. ‘Why do you look like you’re about to tear someone’s head off?’
‘I’m just tired’ she shook her head, ‘and frustrated. I’ve been here for sixteen hours straight, I haven’t seen my husband in two days and I still can’t figure out what’s wrong with Mr Bailey.’
‘You run his bloods again?’
‘Yeah,’ she nodded, ‘but they still keep coming back normal, I just don’t get it. Meanwhile his stats keep dipping, we can’t seem to keep him stable. It doesn’t help that I have his wife who refuses to leave his side.’
‘Well come on, you can understand that, he’s her husband. She is bound to want to stay close, it’s a natural reaction.’
‘I understand that and I don’t have a problem with it, what I have a problem with is tripping over her every time I turn around and her demanding that I explain and justify every single decision I make with regards to his treatment.’
‘We’ve had worse Louisa’ he chuckled, ‘do I need to remind you of Mr Trevino?’
‘God no, I still have nightmares about him’ she chuckled, taking a sip of her coffee. ‘I just want to be left alone to get on with my job, maybe then I can figure out what the problem is.’
‘Unfortunately overbearing relations are part of the job description.’
‘I know’ she sighed, staring into her cup absently, ‘but half the time they’re worse than the patients.’
‘Do you want me to take a look at Mr Bailey’s chart? Might help to have a fresh pair of eyes?’
‘Well it certainly couldn’t hurt,’ she handed him the clipboard.
Young Dr Adams hurried back down the corridor and collided with a tall dark haired man wearing a white coat. Unfortunately, there had also been a large cup of coffee added to the mix which had exploded on impact, drenching the front of her scrubs, her white coat and covering the blood test results in her hand.
‘Hayley, where’s the damn fire at?’
She glanced up at Lucas Garcia her fellow intern and roommate. She lifted up the soggy piece of paper which now dripped coffee and stared at it, her eyes filling with tears.
‘Hey, Hayley I was only kidding, what’s wrong?’
‘Nothing,’ she swallowed hard, ‘I’m just tired. I studied all night and then I’ve just pulled a double and Dr Linden has been riding me all day.’
‘Really?’ he frowned, ‘she’s not usually that bad.’
‘I know,’ she blew out a breath.
‘You need a break,’ he told her pointedly.
‘I can’t,’ she shook her head miserably. ‘I need to get these test results back to Dr Linden before she kicks me off her rotation.’
‘She won’t do that and you know it,’ he took the mangled and almost illegible paper from her hand. ‘I’ll go get a fresh copy and drop it down to her, I’m heading down that way. You go grab a sandwich and take ten.’
‘Are you sure?’ she smiled gratefully.
‘Get out of here’ he grinned, and remember you owe me when it comes around to my turn to clean the bathroom.’
‘You’re still not getting out of it’ she told him, ‘but I will make you breakfast tomorrow.’
‘Blueberry pancakes?’
She nodded.
‘Sold.’
She laughed and headed down the corridor feeling lighter. She stopped by the cafeteria quickly and grabbed a ham on rye and a bottle of water. Taking the elevator down to the lowest floor she stepped out into the stillness of the deserted corridor. She was well beneath ground level and not far from the boiler room. To some it would have seemed creepy but to her it was a place of solace, no one else seemed to come down there and it was so peaceful. She climbed up on an empty gurney parked up against the wall and folded her legs under her. Unwrapping her sandwich, she took a bite and sighed in pleasure. She hadn’t realized she was so hungry; after all she hadn’t stopped in hours. Taking a deep gulp of water, she leaned her head back against the hard concrete wall and closed her eyes. God, what she wouldn’t give to just curl up on the gurney and go to sleep. It felt like she hadn’t stopped in forever, and she was alarmingly close to selling her soul for a solid eight straight.
Her family had thought she was crazy when she told them she was going to medical school. With her blonde hair and blue eyes and West Coast roots, she looked every inch the surfer chick rather than potential doctor. From the moment she’d hit med school she’d had to fight twice as hard to be taken seriously but she was good at her job. She knew she was and even though Dr Linden had been hard on her Hayley knew she was capable of proving them all wrong. She was going to be a Cardiologist, in fact she was determined to be the best Cardiologist in the whole damn country then perhaps it would finally silence the California Barbie jokes once and for all. Although, she sighed, she doubted it as there was always going to be some asshole who mistook her for a beauty queen instead of a medical professional.
She picked up her sandwich and took another bite, chewing thoughtfully. Maybe she should dye her hair. She shivered suddenly and frowned. It was cool down in the lower levels but not usually this cold. She dropped her sandwich onto the gurney next to her and unfolded her legs. The sudden and strange scent of flowers filled her nostrils. It smelled like…lilies she decided. She remembered the scent well from her grandmother’s funeral, the whole place had reeked of them.
She looked up and glanced down the corridor, she could have sworn she’d heard something. Screwing the lid back onto her water bottle she placed in down next to her half eaten sandwich. She dropped her legs back down to the ground and stood up, moving slowly and cautiously in the direction where she’d heard the faint sound.
‘Hello?’ she called into the stillness, ‘is anyone there?’
She was met with silence, a cold clammy shiver crawled slowly down her spine and she swallowed in unease. Suddenly this place didn’t seem so peaceful, maybe she should just go back up she decided. She turned around and her heart slammed into her mouth. An extremely tall man stood silently in front of her, he was dressed in a long dark heavy overcoat and wore a strangely dated wide brimmed hat.
‘Um,’ she cleared her throat trying to ignore her heart hammering in her chest. Forcing herself to appear more confident than she felt, she confronted him. ‘Sir, are you lost? These lower levels are off
limits to visitors; you need to be four floors up.’
He didn’t answer instead he raised his chin and slowly his face was revealed from under the brim of his hat. Her mouth fell open in a silent scream at his pale papery skin and pitch black eyes. She felt a pressure and as she looked down in horror she could see his hand plunged into her chest. As he slowly withdrew his hand she saw a bright pulsing white sphere of light, before her eyes rolled back and her body collapsed to the cold hard floor.
The stranger watched the light pulsing and throbbing in his palm like a heartbeat. His abnormally long tapered fingers squeezed slightly and it burned brighter. He brought the strange ball of light to his face and inhaled deeply, his black eyes burning with a dreadful kind of hunger. His mouth suddenly split into a grin, revealing brown rotting teeth, a sharp contrast to his skin which was so white it was almost transparent. His other hand dipped into the folds of his long coat and pulled free a small glass bottle. Removing the stopper with his teeth he tipped the glowing ball of light into the bottle and sealed it. Cradling the bottle gently he turned and disappeared through the solid concrete wall, leaving Hayley laying grey skinned and lifeless, alone in her sanctuary of solace.
Chapter 7.
Jake sat and stared at the screen with a confused frown. He flicked back to the beginning of the security footage he’d retrieved from the Bailey’s store and watched it through again.
‘What the hell?’
He turned it back and watched it again.
‘Shit,’ he swore silently under his breath.
Pulling the disk, he headed out of the room and towards Mac’s office.
‘Don’t you ever knock anymore?’ Mac looked up from the file he’d been reading.
Jake checked to make sure no one else was listening and then closed the door to Mac’s office and rounded his desk.
‘There’s something you need to see’ he told him, handing him the disk.
Raising an eyebrow at Jake’s cryptic mood he took the disc and loaded it up on his laptop.
‘What is this?’
‘The security footage from the Bailey’s store.’
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