The Split

by Hannah Hopkins

  A noise behind him made him jump and he immediately realised that he was no longer alone on the street. A woman had appeared a few yards in front of him, a thick winter coat and scarf drawn around her body to protect her from the cold. She had her back to him, but Will could see her chestnut brown hair billowing out behind her as she moved. Something about her posture and way of walking told Will that she wasn’t a threat, and deciding she would be his best chance for help, he pursued her, calling after her as he ran.

  “Hello!” he shouted as he levelled with her. “Excuse me!”

  The woman did not stop or even slow her pace. Desperate for her attention, Will ran in front of her, jogging backwards to keep up with her stride. A gust of wind blew her hood back and Will reeled with shock when he saw that the face of this woman was the very same face he had been picturing just a few seconds earlier. It was his mother.

  “Mum!” he cried, a mixture of euphoria, confusion and fear convulsing through his body. Much to his displeasure, she still did not stop, speeding past him as if she could not hear him at all.

  “Mum!” Will yelled. “It’s me!”

  She walked faster still, his words having no effect on her whatsoever.

  “Mum?” he faltered, beginning to feel that something was wrong.

  He ran after her, reaching out to grab her coat, but his hands slipped through the material as if it wasn’t there. He tried to grab hold of her arm but all he felt between his fingers was the cold, night air.

  “What’s happening?” he asked himself out loud. His mother was here but she was a ghost, or a hologram, unable to see, hear or feel his touch. He was utterly terrified and perplexed beyond anything he had ever experienced. Not knowing what else to do, he carried on following her, hoping she would lead him to safety.

  They turned a corner and the suburban road they were walking on suddenly began to descend sharply, giving way to a magnificent view. Will paused for a moment, his breath taken by the sight. Glorious mountains rose in the distance, their peaks topped with heavy dustings of white snow that tumbled down the sturdy rock of their faces until it reached the ground. Spanning between the mountains were rolling hills and plummeting valleys, dotted with sheep and a smattering of small cottages. It was a truly beautiful sight to behold.

  Will continued to tail his mum down the road, following her as she veered into an alleyway and stormed through it, arriving at a vast body of water that he knew from his lessons was referred to as ‘the sea’. She headed towards the water’s edge with Will a few paces behind her, stones crunching beneath his feet as he struggled to keep his balance on the strange, new terrain. At the end of the beach, a figure was waiting, his back turned to them as he contemplated the infinite, black surface of the water.

  His mother stopped and for a moment everything was still. Will stood quietly, listening to the sound of waves breaking on the shore. He watched as the figure turned and walked towards where Will invisibly stood, his face becoming clearer as he drew closer. It was his father.

  “Elsie, I’m so glad you came,” he smiled as he reached her, taking her hands in his own. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come.”

  Will listened intently, hardly daring to move.

  “Of course I came,” Elsie replied. “You disappeared Austin. You promised me you would come home.

  “We’ve got to go Elsie,” Austin said urgently. “We can’t trust the Government. We’ve got to make our own escape from Earth.”

  “No, Austin,” Elsie shook her head. “Please, stop this.”

  “Is it really so hard to believe Elsie, after all the things we’ve seen?” Austin pressed her.

  She said nothing, her face twisted with despair.

  “You’re too scared to admit the truth,” Austin sighed, shaking his head. “You know that I’m right.”

  “I thought we had dropped all of this,” Elsie said, her eyes beginning to fill with tears. “I thought we’d moved past it. You have to forget about the Great Conspiracy. It’s not real.”

  Austin opened his mouth to protest but Elsie cut him off, raising her voice louder to be heard.

  “No one is trying to interfere with the Mayfly. Humans ruined the Earth and this is our only chance to start over. I know it seems too good to be true, but we have to trust that there’s a better life out there somewhere. Otherwise what’s the point of all this?”

  “I’ve got something for us,” Austin said calmly when she had finished speaking, gesturing down the beach to a large spacecraft parked a few metres away. Will was surprised he hadn’t immediately noticed it, its sheer size making it difficult to miss.

  “Where did you get that?” Elsie demanded, panic rising in her voice.

  “The flying department at the College has very lax security” Austin boasted. “It was easy enough to steal. The ship is big enough to accommodate us for several years. We can find our own new planet to live on. We don’t need Novum, or the Mayfly. This is the only way.”

  “Austin, stop this! You sound insane,” Elsie pleaded with him. “We need to go home. We need to get away from this place, it’s not good for you to be here.”

  “I can’t do that,” Austin replied.

  “Yes, you can!” Elsie argued. “Come home and apply to the Mayfly with me. It’s the only hope the three of us have.”

  She put her hand on her stomach, drawing Will’s attention to her pregnancy. His heart began to pound in his ears as the sickening reality of what he was about to witness dawned on him.

  “We can stand here and argue about it all night,” Austin said. “But the fact of the matter is, the Mayfly isn’t safe. I’ve been saying it since College and I know I’m right. I’m leaving. And you can either come with me or you can stay here and die with everyone else.”

  Elsie jerked her head back as if he had slapped her.

  “How can you say that?” she whispered, tears escaping down her cheeks. “You would really leave me and your child here to die?”

  Austin didn’t reply for a moment, watching in contempt as she continued to sob.

  “I’m disappointed you didn’t believe in me Elsie,” he said thickly, his voice shaking with anger. “Now this is what it’s come to.”

  “You can’t be serious,” she spluttered. “You can’t leave us.”

  “You’ve given me no choice,” he replied coldly.

  Elsie sank to her knees, watching as Austin strode with determination down the beach, her sobs growing louder and more uncontrollable with every step he took. Will watched with horror as his father left, not stopping once to look back at his mother or the unborn child he was leaving behind.

  He tried to reach out to comfort Elsie but she couldn’t feel him. He yelled out in rage against his father, but he couldn’t hear. After a moment, he dropped to the floor, sitting beside his mother as he waited for the turmoil to end.

  There was a “whooshing” noise and a powerful gust of air as his father entered the spacecraft and took off, ascending into the sky with furious speed. Will watched as he flew higher and higher, drifting over the sea directly in front of them. Suddenly, the spacecraft halted and hovered, floating gently in mid-air. Will’s heart leapt with hope for the possibility that his father had changed his mind, despite knowing how the story ended. His mother’s sobs slowed beside him as her eyes too glimmered with the dream that Austin was about to return to her. With one, colossal “bang” that echoed terribly through the night, the spacecraft exploded into a spectacular ball of fire, illuminated the sky in a burst of orange and red.

  Will got up and ran, covering his ears so he could not hear the horrible, broken screams that were coming from his mother. He could not bear to look at her, running until the water’s edge had filled every corner of his vision. A glinting light in his peripherals caught his attention and he turned to see the mirror from Krecher’s office materialising by the shore. He ran towards it at top speed, not caring if he smashed it to pieces, and threw his body against its surface. There was a moment of inky black
ness before he fell, hitting the floor with a heavy thud. He lay still, refusing to open his eyes in case he should find himself still on the beach, trapped inside the terrible moment forever.

  “Had a nice trip did you boy?” Krecher’s gruff voice sounded from somewhere close by.

  Will opened his eyes and saw, with great relief, that he was back in Krecher’s office. Krecher himself was sat on his patchy, blue armchair, sipping coffee from a china mug and watching Will with concern.

  “Come and sit down,” he ordered him. Will stood up on shaking legs and did as he was told, moving to sit on the red armchair opposite Krecher.

  “Cup of tea?” he asked and Will nodded, sitting in silence as Krecher rose and made his way over to the drinks machine in the corner, presenting Will with the piping hot beverage before sitting back down in his original position.

  Will sipped the tea gratefully, the warm liquid soothing the numbness that had spread all over his body.

  “So,” said Krecher. “I see you found my Looking Glass.”

  “Y-your what?” Will stammered.

  “The Looking Glass. That’s what I call it,” he motioned towards the mirror, standing perfectly in-tact in the corner.

  “What is it?” Will asked, staring at its glass surface with terror.

  “That’s a good question,” Krecher replied. “One I’ve spent many years trying to answer. The truth is, I don’t know exactly what it is. I discovered it one day, a very long time ago when I was still a professor on Earth and I have been trying to understand it ever since. It’s alien, of course, that much is clear. No human technology could ever match its capabilities. As to how it works though, I must confess it is still as much of a mystery to me as it was the first day I found it. All I know is that it shows you things, past, present and future, but only if they are relevant to you. Only if they mean something.”

  “I don’t understand,” Will shook his head. “How is that even possible? Just then… I was… It was like I was inside my mum’s memories. How could that be?”

  “It isn’t memories,” Krecher responded. “I thought so too at first but then I saw something from the future and realised it couldn’t be so. It makes sense if you really think about it. Memories are unreliable. They are altered by time and perception. You can convince yourself of anything if you tell yourself its true enough times. No, this doesn’t show memory. It shows you a point in time. It allows you to explore, to spectate, to journey about the moment to your heart’s content, but it doesn’t let you change anything. The people that you can see, they don’t know you’re there. Nothing you do has any effect on what happens. I’ve tried to change the past, to right a few wrongs, but it’s impossible. You can’t interact with anything. That is the mirror’s curse.”

  “I think the curse is being able to see anything at all,” Will swallowed and Krecher looked at him with worry.

  “What did you see?” he questioned him. “If you don’t mind me asking?”

  “My dad,” Will replied. “I saw my dad… die.”

  Krecher inhaled deeply.

  “My boy, I’m so sorry,” he sighed. “You shouldn’t have been put through that.”

  He glared at the mirror with fury as though it could understand he was angry at it. Will said nothing, no words able to describe the way he felt about what he had witnessed.

  “Well,” Krecher continued. “You know my secret now Will. I trust you will keep it in exchange for me keeping yours.”

  “What’s mine?” Will asked with confusion.

  “Sneaking out after curfew,” Krecher said with a smile. “Breaking into my office. I don’t need to remind you how the Admiral would feel if he knew about all this. I think it’s best for both of us that we keep this incident to ourselves.”

  “Yes, Mr. Krecher” Will said. “I understand if you’re angry with me. I shouldn’t have come here. It was wrong.”

  “I’m not angry,” Krecher assured him. “Truth be told I feel I’m to blame for the whole thing. It was only natural that you’d come looking for answers after you saw a picture of your mother and father in here. I should have sat you down and spoken to you about it, but, I confess it’s not a time in my life I enjoy discussing.”

  “How did you know them?” Will pressed, sensing that now may be the only chance he would get to ask the questions that had burned in his brain for the entire school term so far.

  “I taught them at College,” Krecher answered simply. “They joined my Alien Studies class, along with the Captain, in their final year. They were my best students. They showed a dedication to the subject that was unprecedented amongst their peers. I was terribly sad when I heard what happened to your father. He was a bright, young man full of promise, but his obsession with the Great Conspiracy got the better of him in the end. A real shame.”

  “Why didn’t my mum tell me any of this?” Will wondered aloud.

  “For the same reason that I didn’t, I suspect,” Krecher answered. “It can be incredibly painful to recall time spent with a loved one that you no longer have.”

  Will nodded, digesting this information slowly. He thought back to all the times he had questioned his mother about Austin as a boy and understood now why it put her in such a difficult position to answer. How could you tell a child about what he had just seen?

  He finished his tea and put his cup down on the small, wooden coffee table beside his armchair, his eyes itching with tiredness. He let out a small yawn, his brain exhausted from all the revelations he had dealt with that evening. Krecher noticed this and got to his feet, Will doing the same.

  “Probably time to get to bed now,” he told Will. “Try not to get caught on the way back.”

  Will smiled and made to leave. He was a few centimetres from the door when Krecher called to him again.

  “Oh, and Will… try not to get too lost in the past. There are things there that you may not want to discover.”

  Will left the office quickly, unescapable curiosity burning in his mind.

  11.

  The Creature In The Hallway

  Lois flicked her perfectly coiffed blonde hair over her shoulder and sighed, examining the chipped pink nail varnish on her fingers. Despite her best attempts, contemplating which shade suited her best was not providing a sufficient distraction from Ms. Dido's lecture, which she had struggled greatly to concentrate on that day. Truthfully, she didn't think anyone enjoyed being confined to a classroom to learn about Resources, but the entire year group were forced to endure it once a week before their practical session started.

  The effort not to look at the time on her Personal Device was strenuous and so she let her eyes wander around the class, taking in the mutual boredom of the Alderin, Armstrong and Grissom students alike. A pang of envy shot through her as she looked upon Penelope and Florence, her best friends from Floor One, sat beside each other and laughing silently at a whispered private joke. Ms. Dido insisted that her pupils were organised into alphabetical order, which unfortunately meant that Lois was stuck next to Kyan Smith, who spent most of his time smirking to himself and glaring at people in an off-putting manner. In all her time as his desk partner, she had never once heard him speak, his apparent mutism proving extremely problematic when they were set group work to do.

  She glanced towards the window, hoping to amuse herself with the view of the lamplit school grounds, but was drawn instead to the sight of Will, sitting next to his friend Emily on the far side of the room. She watched as he bent down to rest his head on the desk, an expression of deep disinterest on his face. It reminded her of the first time she ever saw Will, standing awkwardly at her mother’s funeral held in the Commiserations Hall on the Mayfly. Lois had only been five years old, but the memory of the day was still razor sharp in her head, available to replay in super high definition at any time.

  “That’s Will,” her father had said, bending down to talk softly in her ear. “He’s Elsie’s little boy.”

  He pointed to Will’s mother, who was st
anding beside him and doing her best to look the appropriate amount of sad. Her father’s attempt to distract Lois from the fact her mother’s coffin had just been launched into Space was feeble and she resented him for even trying.

  “I’ve been hoping you two would meet properly,” her father continued, “but Elsie and I are always so busy and you’re always with the nanny…” he trailed off awkwardly, as was the custom for discussing the little amount of time he had for Lois.

  She remained silent, watching Will as he took a small, toy rocket out of his pocket and began running it along the top of the benches, making “whooshing” noises as he did so.

  “I think it might be good for you two to be friends,” Alfie continued, “You know, what with you losing your mother and his father dying before he was born.”

  Lois remained silent. Earlier that morning, she had made a vow to herself that she wouldn’t speak for the entire day. Her mother had been the only person who understood her, and if she couldn’t talk to her, she decided that she would simply never speak to anyone again.

  “Go and say hello,” Alfie urged her, nudging Lois forwards.

  She walked over to Will obligingly, if only to prevent further conversation with her father. Sitting on the bench that Will was playing on, she stared at him with her arms folded, scowling darkly to make sure he knew she wasn’t happy to be there.

  “Hello Lois,” Elsie smiled at her sympathetically. Lois said nothing, continuing to regard Will with her fiery stare.

  To her dismay, he was completely unaware of her anger. He continued playing with his toy happily, soaring the rocket above his head. Her desire to bait him into an argument and release some of her fury overwhelmed her, and before she could stop herself, she began to speak.

  “Can I have a go?” she asked. She was almost certain that Will would say “no” given his obvious attachment to the old-fashioned toy and hoped that would be a valid excuse to start the quarrel she so desperately wanted. He paused for a moment, chewing his lip as he considered his answer.