Broken Dreams (The Chronicles of Mara Lantern, Book 5)

by D. W. Moneypenny

  Doubt filled the seconds before she saw anything happen. After all, Prado was no longer in his misty form.

  Until his face dissolved. It atomized into tiny particles that wafted into the air, bobbing along an invisible stream between where he stood and the opening at the base of the bulb. Soon his head lost all cohesion, followed by his shoulders and torso, melting into a formless blob torn into misty ribbons drawn forward by an unseen force, a magnetism that the substance of him could not resist.

  Ping stepped from the path of the vaporous rapids. Rubbing his cheek as the redness faded, he stood several feet away, looking amazed and concerned.

  The bulb shook in Mara’s hand as the impossible volume of mist poured inside. Glancing across the way, she watched the last of Prado—his feet—evaporate, its particles joining the weakening stream that glided toward her.

  A few moments later, a speck of him danced at the edge of the bulb for a moment, but Mara lifted it, scooping the last of Juaquin Prado from the air. She grabbed the brass base of the bulb and, with a quarter-turn, sealed it.

  A blue-black light ignited inside.

  CHAPTER 43

  Less than an hour before Mara expected Dr. Canfield to cut her off from this realm, the other Ping handed her a small rectangular carton. He had fashioned it with sturdy siding and a cushioned interior to accommodate the lightbulb that now contained the soul of Juaquin Prado.

  “This should allow you to safely transport the bulb without fear of accidently releasing its contents,” he said, crossing the steam lab to put away some tools. As he arranged them in a drawer, he turned and pointed to Mara with a screwdriver. “What I don’t understand is how you can transport a container consisting of the ephemeral substance of this realm into the physical one without it losing its cohesion and releasing its occupant. How have you accounted for that? Come to think of it, when you are returned to the physical realm, how will you take it with you? When our Mara was disconnected from us, she simply disappeared. Even the clothes you are now wearing stayed behind.”

  Blankness, then panic swept across Mara’s features as she turned to Ping—her Ping. “None of that occurred to me. Once I got the idea of how to capture Prado, I didn’t consider any of that. What are we going to do?”

  “We may have no choice but to leave the bulb in this realm,” Ping said. “I’m sure we can trust Ping and Dr. Lantern to keep it in a safe place.”

  Mara shook her head. “No, that’s not good enough. It’s too fragile to leave behind and hope for the best. There has to be a way I can get it into the physical world.” Turning to the other Ping, she said, “You said your Mara crossed over and came back with substance, Consciousness. That’s how she’s pregnant, how she’s planning to establish perpetuity in this realm. There must be a way to reverse the process.”

  “She did it in her dreams, while she was asleep,” he said.

  “I don’t have time for that. Even if I did, it could take years to figure out how she accomplished it.” Looking back to Ping, she said, “Come on. You’re always theorizing about how this stuff works. Metaphysically how would we do this?”

  “Metaphysically it’s a matter of passing from one realm to another.”

  Mara’s eyes widened at the same instant as his, and together they said, “The Chronicle!”

  “Do you think I could use the Chronicle of Creation to pass from this realm into the physical world? Wouldn’t that cause some kind of conflict? I mean, my body is already there in the physical realm.”

  “Conceptually it should work. I’d recommend that you not touch your body while you are there, however. Since you exist as thought in this form, you may appear somewhat insubstantial, assuming you are visible at all.”

  “Okay. I must hurry, or they will yank me back into the physical realm before we are ready,” she said. “I need both Pings over here beside me.”

  The other Ping closed the drawer and joined them in the open space at the center of the doughnut-shaped counter. Slipping the gold medallion from her pocket, Mara held it out on her right palm while holding the carton in her left.

  “Just like you warned me,” she said to the other Ping, “please don’t touch anything. I don’t want to chase you down in some strange realm where people are made of gumdrops.”

  “Is there such a thing?” he asked.

  “At this point I wouldn’t doubt it.”

  The copper medallion floated up from her palm and spun like a DVD, its blue crystals blazing, turning into bright track lines as it blurred. Flipping and gyrating, it morphed into a bright molten ball of glowing mercury. It grew in intensity until it emitted a burst of light, a wall of static that passed through and engulfed them in a translucent sphere.

  The other Ping gasped and turned in a circle. Pointing at the periphery of the sphere that now filled the laboratory, he said, “It’s displaying a diagram of lines and circles.”

  “Nodes,” his counterpart said. “We call them nodes. Each represents a distinct realm.”

  Lines appeared and connected, extended and filled the space within the sphere. In front of Mara and each of the Pings, a node appeared. The other Ping narrowed his eyes at the ball several inches from his nose.

  “It looks a little out of focus,” he said. “Overlapping realms? Ours and the physical world?”

  Mara nodded. “That makes sense. So all I need to do is touch the more solid one and it should transport me there. I can drop off the carton and come right back with enough time to say good-bye to Dad.”

  The other Ping pointed to Mara’s left hand, the one that held the carton. “Why is that node floating to the carton?”

  “It must recognize Prado. That must be his realm,” she said.

  “What were you planning to do with him after you got him back?” he asked.

  “I would take him back to his realm.”

  “Why not take him directly? Go to his realm now instead of when you get back to the physical realm.”

  Mara glanced over to Ping. He nodded and said, “Makes sense. I see no more risk in doing that now. Do you?”

  “No, I don’t. I’ll be back in a minute,” she said. She grabbed the node, and the translucent sphere collapsed around her, taking her with it.

  The Pings stood in the center of the room, blinking at each other.

  “How long do you think it will take her?” the other Ping asked.

  “Time isn’t a factor when moving between—”

  The blue sphere erupted from nowhere, and Mara stood next to them again. She extended her palm, and the static light surrounding them collapsed into a blue sunburst above it, revealing the copper medallion as it faded. The Chronicle dropped into her hand.

  “There. Prado’s back where he belongs,” she said.

  “Where did you put him?” Ping asked.

  “In the luminarium, where he belongs.”

  The other Ping looked confused.

  “It’s what they call their funeral homes, where they store dead people,” she said.

  “In lightbulbs.”

  “Exactly.” She waved toward the doors. “Let’s go. Dad and Sam are waiting in the study. We thought we’d wait there until I, well, until I disappeared.”

  The Pings followed her from the steam lab, down the hall and up the staircase. As they took the first flight, Ping asked, “Did you happen upon anyone interesting while you were in Prado’s realm?”

  Without pausing, Mara said, “No, but I stopped by the shop—the gadget shop where my counterpart works. I wanted to ask her a question, but she was not there, and I was a little nervous just hanging around, so I came back.”

  “What did you want to ask her?” the other Ping asked.

  “It’s a little complicated. I’m not sure I have time to explain.” She cleared the top of the stairs and took a right toward the study, breaking into a jog. “I think we are cutting it close.”

  When she entered the study, she ran to her father who stood at the windows with Sam, looking at the back law
n, still scarred by the encounter with the mechanical dragon. He embraced her and said, “I didn’t think you would make it. If my timing’s right, your twenty-four hours was up a couple minutes ago.”

  “I know. I’m sorry. We ran into a complication with Prado that had to be resolved.”

  He waved away his complaint and hugged her again. “Thanks for coming here and showing me another side of my little girl. And for giving me my son back, even if it was for a short time. I’m so proud of you, of both of you, and of how willing you are to give so much of yourselves to help strangers in a strange world.”

  Pulling back from the hug but leaving her arm around his waist, she said, “You are not strangers. We are family—you, me, Sam and Ping. We’ll never forget you.”

  Sam pointed at her. “You said I could stay one more day.”

  Mara nodded and was about to say something when she flickered. Her body flitted in and out of sight, but her brown leather pants and vest remained solid. A moment later, the flickering stopped, and Mara was solid again. Except she had a look of confusion on her face.

  “Dad?” Mara asked.

  “Yes, dear?”

  Nodding to Sam, she said, “Who is this?”

  And before he could answer, she glanced across the study, and her eyes widened. “And how did we get two Pings?”

  * * *

  Mara’s eyes fluttered open, and she felt great, like she’d just had the best night’s sleep of her life. As she lifted her arms to stretch, her knuckles rapped a smooth, hard surface, and she realized where she was—inside the receptacle. Below her, Dr. Canfield stood at the console, tapping the screen with one hand and holding up a finger with the other. She mouthed the words, just one moment, but Mara could not hear through the transparent walls of the stasis tube.

  The front half slid open, and warm air rushed over her body. Looking down, Mara realized she was in her jeans and polo. She felt the Chronicle in her pocket.

  She was back. In her body. Well, in her synthetic body.

  The doctor walked up the steps of the pedestal on which the tube sat and extended a hand to her. “How do you feel? Are you dizzy or lightheaded?”

  Mara took Dr. Canfield’s arm and said, “Not at all. I think I’m a little disoriented, but that’s just switching from being over there to being over here.”

  “Over there?” the doctor asked as she led her down the steps.

  “You know.”

  “Over there in the so-called dream realm, you mean.”

  “Yes, but we don’t need to have a debate about it. Believe whatever makes you comfortable.”

  “I’ll do that,” the doctor said. She punched a button on the console, and the front half of Mara’s receptacle slid closed, and the screen went dark. Nodding to the three receptacles next to Mara’s, the doctor asked, “What are your plans for them? When do you intend to take them home?”

  Mara marveled that she felt no stiffness at all as she walked to the tubes containing Ping, Sam and Abby. Looking up at them, she felt a wave of affection she couldn’t quite explain. She smiled and said, “I told them they could stay for one more day.”

  “You told them?”

  “Yes, in the so-call dream realm. I told them they could stay for one more day, and then I would take them home. Is that a problem?”

  “Actually that’s ideal. You see, we need to discuss a little problem that occurred last night. It might be best to wait until you have been animated for a while.”

  “I feel fine. What could have happened last night that involves us?” Mara asked.

  The doctor looked down at the pad she’d picked up from the console and then back at Mara. “It doesn’t involve you, meaning the four of you, but you personally.”

  “Okay, spit it out. What’s the problem?”

  The doctor bit her lip. “I’m not sure how to say this, but last night someone broke into the morgue and stole your cadaver—your biological body.”

  Author’s Note

  Thanks so much for taking the time to read Broken Dreams. I hope you enjoyed it. If you find yourself with a few free minutes, please consider writing a short, honest review of the book on Amazon. It not only helps other readers discover the book, but gives visibility to a new writer.

  Thanks again.

  _______

  The Chronicles of Mara Lantern on Amazon:

  Broken Realms (Book 1)

  Broken Souls (Book 2)

  Broken Dragon (Book 3)

  Broken Pixels (Book 4)

  Broken Dreams (Book 5)

  Learn more about the books at my website.

  To receive an email when the next book is released, sign up here.