by Jill Cooper
I run down the stairs after Mike. “Wait up!”
He grins back at me and takes my hand. “Slowpoke.”
Mom kisses both our cheeks and behind them, John lurks close enough to say good-bye. I don’t really blame him for what’s happening to Mike, even as the bad feelings between them fester. Rex is an opportunist and he would’ve used anything he could to sink his claws in Mike.
Mike should’ve been stronger.
Mike barely says bye to Mom or John, and when he leaves, I chase after him as he runs down the street toward the bus stop. When I catch up to him, I slap his arm. “You could be nicer. Mom deserves nice things. She deserves to be happy.”
“With him? What about Dad? Why don’t you care about him anymore?” Mike crosses his arms and leans against the stone wall of the neighboring house.
“I care for him. He’s our Dad but that doesn’t mean Mom has to forgive him for what he did. Mom loves John. You ought to give him a fair shot. He’s our sister’s Dad.”
“He said you’d say these things. He said you’d take their side over mine.”
“Rex isn’t your friend. He locked Lara in a cage. He hurt her. He’s duping you, Mike. I need you to see that, and stand with me—”
“I see things just fine.” Mike uncrosses his arms and steps closer. “He showed me what Lara did. How she manipulated time to fit what she wanted to have happen.”
“She’s not perfect, but she’s our sister. If she hadn’t done any of that, we wouldn’t even have been born.”
“Maybe we shouldn’t have. You ever think of that? Maybe it’s time someone fixes it.”
I feel like I’ve been slapped. “Is that what Rex says he’s doing? Because it isn’t. I saw him and the adult version of you. They want only one thing. Power. They aren’t going to reset the timeline to what it was like before. They want more time travel, more money, more power to control everything.”
“And only Lara gets to decide and choose?”
It’s not working. He’s slipping even further away. “Mike…” my voice breaks off as the bus approaches. It comes to a rolling stop beside us and the door opens.
“This is how it happens. This is how we win or lives back. All this time travel back and forth has to stop and it stops with Lara gone.”
I feel as if my emotions drain right out of me. “What do you know about her? What did Rex do with our Lara?”
“What should’ve been done a long time ago, Moll. With her gone, Mom and John will fall apart. Dad will come back and all this time travel nonsense will end once Rex gets what he wants.”
I shake my head. “I can’t let him win. I have to save Lara.” The fact he would do this to our family, to our sister who has given up so much for us, makes me sick. Inside, I rage. I want to hurt him, I want to claw at him, make him explain why. How could he feel this way?
“You won’t. You can’t.”
I press my lips together. “We can’t let Rex have what he wants because he wants Lara. She’s a person, not a thing.”
Mike shrugs. “Maybe she’s not anymore. Maybe she stopped being a person a long time ago.”
My mouth falls open and before I realize it, I slam both my palms into his chest, pushing Mike backwards. “You take that back!”
His face mirrors my own shock and surprise. “She means more to you than your own twin?”
“We grew up with her. She means as much to me as you do but she’s not the one changing before my eyes.”
“You can’t have us both. Not anymore, Moll.” There’s heartbreak in his eyes but I don’t understand it. He’s the one making me choose. He’s the one who won’t stand down.
“Just help me get her back. If you’ve been talking to Rex, you know where she is. Don’t make me do it on my own.”
He gives a short burst of laughter. “You won’t win. You’re not strong enough anymore. Not against me.” Mike raises his hands toward the approaching bus and the door closes, it slowly inches backward as he rewinds time and then he freezes it.
I glance between him and the bus. When had he gotten the power to do that?
“That’s not all I can do. I can do more and like you, puberty seemed to trigger it. But Rex helped me master it. Control it. Just like the girls did for you,” Mike says.
Rex has been training him? “How long?” I back up as Mike approaches me. I glance down and see that my foot balances on the edge of a pebble.
Mike shrugs. “Just about as long as they’ve been training you. My advantage is that no one notices me. You used to, but even that I stopped. You had too many important things to do. Well, you’re not the only one who’s important.”
“You know what Rex is. You know what he’s done. I need you to stand with me, Mike. Please.”
“That’s why you keep backing away? Because you need me?”
“You’re scaring me.”
My words finally seem to reach him. “You’re my sister. I don’t mean to scare you. I am fixing the future so the two of us can be happy. We don’t need to live in fear!”
“And you’re my brother. I need you on my side. I need you to help us. If we go to Lara and Cassidy, if we tell them what you can do, they’ll help you. They’ll protect you, too.”
“Because that’s going so well for them?” Mike shakes his head. “Lara couldn’t even protect herself.”
The way he talks about Lara breaks my heart. “You used to love her. You used to love me.”
“It’s not that simple,” Mike says sadly. “I wish it was.”
“It can be. We can show you. We can show—Mike!”
“Sorry, Moll. You can’t change my mind, but I wish I had been able to change yours.” He shoves his hand over my mouth and forces me backward toward the bus. I try to scream as he snaps his fingers and we disappear.
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Donovan James
It’s like living a nightmare from which I can’t wake up. I eat breakfast with Lara. I drive her to Boston to see her parents. She’s dressed in Lara’s clothes and she’s every bit the woman I married.
Except she isn’t.
We go inside her mom’s townhouse. This is where I had picked her up on her first date, where we’d stood outside and had our first kiss. All those moments that had led to everlasting love. Except this isn’t her. This is another Lara, hugging her mother and nearly crying as she embraces her parents.
Miranda and John are clearly surprised by Lara’s outburst of emotion. “She’s just tired,” I explain away.
“Yeah, I’m sorry.” Lara gazes back at me, grateful for the save. “I just feel like I haven’t seen you guys in so long.”
“We’re glad you came to check on us.” Miranda smiles. “Everything that happened…well I still can’t wrap my mind around it.”
“It’ll get easier.” Lara hugs her again. “I promise, Mom. No more time travel for me, ever.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” John says.
I watch Lara as she jumps at how stern he is. “I am serious, Dad.”
“Your mom is strong enough to handle the truth.”
“Am I?” Miranda asks. “I’m beginning to worry that I’m not strong enough to handle any of this. What I remember and what I saw…I know you’ve been through so much worse.” Miranda pinches Lara’s chin. “I don’t know how you manage to hold it together, pumpkin.”
Lara smiles at her and it’s pure. The most pure expression she’s worn since I’ve met this version of Lara.
John and Lara set the table for a quick breakfast. When I’m grabbing silverware from the baker’s rack, I see Cassidy lurking in the kitchen. She puts her finger to her lips so I’ll keep quiet.
I glance over at Lara. She’s snuggled up to her mom and looks happy, content. The smile on her face stretches ear to ear. “Hey, Lar, want to help me in the kitchen? Give your poor mom a chance to relax.”
She glances at me from her place at the table. “Can’t you grab whatever it is, honey?” It sounds so fake coming out o
f her mouth. It’s not something Lara would ever say.
“Nah, my hands are full. I’m going to need help.” I smirk as I put the forks on the table.
Lara sighs and heads over. “Excuse me for a minute, Mom. Dad.” Lara follows me into the kitchen smiling through a clenched jaw and throwing angry darts with her eyes. “What is so urgent that you need me to help you, honey?”
She pushes through the swinging door into the kitchen. Cassidy steps out from her hiding place and places a chloroform-drenched rag over Lara’s mouth. Lara fights back, clawing at Cassidy, her eyes wide. It hurts too much to see any version of Lara scared and struggling. I look away and only glance back when the sounds of the struggle fade.
Lara’s arms are limp by her side and her head is hanging back like a rag doll. Cassidy hoists her up easily and opens the portal to the bridge. “You coming?”
I glance back at the kitchen door. On the other side, Miranda and John expect us to be back any moment. If we disappear, things will be hard for them. They’ll both panic. I should stay, be the good son-in-law and explain.
But this is Lara’s life and if that means disappearing for a little while to find my wife, that’s exactly what I need to do.
I step through the portal without another word.
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Molly Montgomery
We disappeared into black nothing. I’m mere consciousness as light rushes toward us. A moment later, a setting snaps into place. I slam hard onto a black tile floor and we skid along until I bang into a plexi-glass cage. With a gasp of breath, I glance back. I assume Lara, my Lara, will be in that cage, but it’s empty. It holds nothing but a chair with restraints fastened to it.
It’s waiting for someone and I fear that person is me.
Mike slams into me a moment later. “Well, I guess that landing could’ve been better.”
I don’t know how he can joke. I push myself up to my knees and step back, away from him and into the center of the room. Taking it all in, I run a mental inventory of where I am. It’s a giant control room with black walls and center consoles. Behind it, is a viewing screen. There’s no earth, no space, but gold dust whizzing by at a frantic speed.
It’s just like the bridge Lara had accidentally created when she’d destroyed Xavier Daniels’ time corridor in the future. A duplicate, except it’s dark. But where had it come from?
Future Mike manifests before my eyes in mid-stride. “I’ll explain it all to you, dear Molly.”
I glance between him and Mike. My twin looks proud and puffs out his chest as he takes a breath and holds it. In that moment, I can’t stand either of them and I want nothing more than to get away and escape. Find Lara and Cassidy and end this.
“Cat got your tongue?” Future Mike says with a sly smile. “I made this place. I know you’re wondering.” He taps his temple. “Just by thinking about it. Manifesting it in the time stream. Lara and Cassidy may be able to change it. You may be able to detect it. But I control it and everything inside of it.”
Mike glances at me. “We’re stronger than you and Lara put together.”
My nose crinkles at him in disgust. “That’s not what it’s about. It’s not what any of it is about.”
“From here, I can shape whatever I want. I can give Mike the family he wants. I can change Mom’s and Dad’s mind, put them together. I can move John Crane halfway across the world. Even kill him if I desire.”
“Don’t,” I urge him. “You can’t do that. Mike,” I implore my brother, “you can’t seriously agree with any of this!”
“I don’t want John hurt. I just want him gone. I want all this time travel business to stop.”
“And that it will.” Future Mike clasps his hands. “I thought placing dear Molly in the hospital would be enough to keep her from interfering. See, you’re the one person I can’t change. Anything I try to do to you, just gives me a horrible nose bleed. You’re immune to all time travel ability, it seems. Lara can’t freeze you and I can’t change you.”
He leans forward and sneers in my face. “Which is a problem.” Future Mike gestures to the plexi-glass cage. “This will be your home and this special cage will mute your powers. Once you’re in there, no one will be able to track you, no matter how long Cassidy searches for you on the bridge.”
Mike steps behind me and puts his arm around my shoulders and my chest. I stiffen against him as I realize what he’s going to do. “Just for now,” he promises, “until we do what we need to do to fix things.”
“There will be no fixing things, Mike. He’s lying to you! Just as Rex has lied to you!”
“Did I hear my name?” Rex says as he saunters into the room from the double wide doors ahead of us. “Oh, Molly, where’s the respect? I’m Uncle Rex to you.”
I sneer at him in response.
Rex sighs. “So much like her sister. Get her in the cage, Mike. Be a good boy.” He smiles at my brother and Mike tugs me toward the cage.
“It’s for the best, Molly,” Mike whispers. “Don’t you want to fix things? Don’t you wish you had a simpler life?”
I dig my heels in. “Not if it’s without Cassidy and Lara.” I grit my teeth. “What did you do to Lara!”
Rex grabs my face and squeezes my cheeks together. “She did it to herself. She couldn’t stop messing with the timeline. Over and over again, isn’t that right?”
“To fight you! To stop you!” I pull my face away from his grubby hands.
“I didn’t think she could do it,” Rex admits. “She shouldn’t have been able to get out of that timeline and onto this dark bridge. Once here, she never should’ve been able to restore your timeline, but she pushed. Harder than she ever did.”
“But it gave us a unique opportunity,” Future Mike says. “Didn’t she, Uncle?”
“Yes.” Rex smiles and it chills me to my bones.
“What did you do to her! Where is she!”
Rex gazes at me with compassion in his eyes and it frightens me. “Oh Molly, she’s nowhere. Lara, I’m afraid, no longer exists.”
****
I can’t feel my legs and I’m pretty sure I’m floating away. I try to wrap my mind around what he’s just said. “What?” I’m breathless and I sound younger than I have in a long time.
“At least not in the traditional sense. To restore the timeline, she…well, I guess you could say she ascended. Into that.” He points at the view screen.
I’m no longer trying to fight them. Now, all I want to do is understand. I walk away from Mike and stand in the center of the room, studying the strands of time as they fly past. I can’t read the streams, but a particle floats by and it looks like a strand of curly hair. The next moment, I can feel her, smell her. The essence is there, peaceful and mournful all at the same time. There’s consciousness there, she’s aware of what is going on. Aware of what will be.
Oh, Lara…I want to talk with her. Embrace her. There’s no way I can fix this.
Rex sees my sorrow and tries his best to capitalize it. “She pushed harder than she ever had to safe you and your family. To give you this chance at a normal life. When she did that, her essence separated and we contained it here. This was always Lara’s fate.”
I shake my head. “She was fine!”
Rex raises his eyebrows. “The ability to freeze time was slowly destroying her mind. Xavier Daniels knew this. We have his notes. It’s why he put the restraining device on her in the first place, but she embraced that new power. And it grew so strong, she was able to use time to transport herself anywhere she wanted. When she did that, what do you think happened to her body?”
I can guess, but I’m unwilling to answer. I won’t accept what they’re trying to say.
“Her body ceased to exist for fractions of a second here and there, but when she restored your timeline and erased all my hard work, it was too long, Molly.” Future Mike’s voice borders on mournful. “You might think this brings me pleasure, but it doesn’t. I remember too my big sister putting a bandaid on
my knee. I remember the laughter.” He grits his teeth.
I glare at him and turn to my Mike. He’s gazing down at the floor and there are tears in his eyes. “You’re okay with all of this? Putting me in the cage so you can achieve your goal?”
“It’s only temporary,” he mutters. “So, the changes in the timeline can cement without you interfering like you did before.”
I puff out my cheeks as Rex grabs my arm. “It’s time now. Come on, Molly. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. No one wants to hurt you.”
He never means what he says. There’s always a sinister smirk in the sound of his voice. He’s fooled Mike and has turned him into this future abomination who wants to control everything.
But to what end? The same end it always is: ultimate power for Rex Montgomery.
As they pull me toward the cage, I cup my hand and think of Cassidy. I don’t know where she is, but I think of her and slowly, my power manifests into a glowing ball. A portal. An image flashes in my mind.
Cassidy is on the bridge and angry as she questions the imposter Lara. She wants to know where our Lara is and the Imposter is afraid and shaking because she knows the truth.
There is no more Lara. Our Lara no longer exists.
Her knowledge is absolute truth and it crushes me. I’m standing with the people who have destroyed her, who have forced her to give her life up.
Future Mike opens the door to the cage and stands to the side. “I’ll take good care of you, sister.”
I grab the edge of the cage and the door to keep myself from going inside. I scream. “Mike! Don’t let them do this! Please!”
Rex pulls my hair and punches me in the back, sending me into the cage. I turn and scream, wedging myself between the door as they try to force it shut. “Mike! Please!” I’m near tears as they push me back. I kick out at Rex, trying to give myself a little more room to get out.
My eyes are on my shocked brother’s face. “Help me! Don’t let them win!”
I don’t think Mike is going to do anything, but a moment later, he flashes away. Rex glances for him and in that moment, I push the door open. I force myself against Rex’s chest and use the full weight of my body to get him away from the cage.