R.E.solve (Rain Experience Book 2)

by Thomas W. Everson

  I was hoping we were done with this. I guess when Ami’s around, Eve can’t just pass up the opportunity.

  “Liar!” Emma yells out. “Rain is a gentleman and would never do that!”

  “Then why did I have his shirt on when we came back, and he have none?” She grins evilly.

  “Of course she’s lying,” Ami responds spitefully before I can interject. “Because no one would actually want someone as manly as she is.”

  “Who are you calling manly?” Eve stands up, slams her fists on the table. Eve glares and Ami doesn’t back down.

  “Why are you upset? Afraid it’s true?” Ami goads her.

  “I’m ten times the woman you are.” Eve’s anger turns to pain.

  Eve storms from the room. Her stomps can be heard all the way up the stairs. Her door slams shut, causing the house to shudder. I look at Ami, disappointed and a little frustrated. She stares back, annoyed.

  “What? She started it with her lies, trying to put me into a tizzy,” she defends herself.

  “Ami –” I’m cut off.

  “What? Are you defending her lies? Or are they true?” Tears form in her eyes.

  “I didn’t take advantage of her. She was wearing my shirt because I gave it to her after she nearly died. One of the beasts ripped her chest open. I had to remove her shirt to put pressure on the bleeding. But she’s not lying about having to sleep next to each other. We had to keep warm to stay alive.”

  Eve. Why do you have to antagonize her?

  Whether she believes I’m innocent of wrongdoing or not, Ami abruptly leaves the kitchen. Her bedroom door slams as well and somehow I’m left holding a bag of guilt I sought to avoid. Looking over at Emma, she is upset too. She plays with the food on her plate with a fork, her head down. I dare not say anything more. Instead, I simply cross my arms and put my head on them.

  After a long amount of time, I hear Emma begin cleaning her dishes. She leaves and it’s Agatha and I left. Agatha stirs and moves around the table to where I’m sitting and rubs my shoulders. My muscles are tense and she does a good job helping them release their tightness.

  Elbows on the table, I rest my head in my hands. Turning my head to speak, I seek Agatha’s guidance. “Why does it have to be this difficult? This can’t be a normal rivalry, can it?”

  “Rivalry is inevitable. I can try and offer some perspective,” she says in her motherly voice.

  “Please do, because women confuse me.”

  “You’re Ami’s first real friend since we started; the only semblance of a normal life she’s had in a very long time. It’s natural she would seek a relationship with the one person she knows she has a lasting future with. Being jealous comes with it since she can’t have you to herself.”

  “With Eve, well she’s a woman who knows what she wants and takes it. It’s her way of life. When you crossed her path, she fixated. Now she’s stuck with the person she obsesses over, but because of how close you and Ami are, she can’t get what she wants. It probably bugs her a lot, so she is antagonistic to drive a wedge between you and Ami.”

  “Makes sense, I guess.” I sigh. “At least Emma can act as a barrier.”

  “True, but be careful not to dote on her too much. You were, and are, her hero. That means she’s already protective of your relationship status and might just try to cut in.” Agatha titters.

  “Please don’t say things like that.” I tilt my head back and frown at her. “I know it’s not fair to say I care for Ami and Eve, but I do, just in different ways. If I pursue Ami, it will hurt Eve, and she’ll be stuck with us until we find a way to break the vortex cycle. I’m trying to fix problems, not make more,” I explain.

  “But sometimes indecision does more damage.” She gently pats my shoulders.

  “So you’re saying I should make a decision?”

  “It’s up to you. I can’t tell you if deciding or not will be the fix. You could be right to not make a decision until you and Evalyn find a way to stop our travels.”

  “I’m still just as confused.”

  My neck begins to hurt and I bring it back down. While I don’t know what to do, I take a little solace from talking about it with a neutral party.

  “Thanks Aggy. You’re like the mother I can’t remember,” I chuckle.

  She laughs and begins to clean up. I help and together we’re quickly done with the dishes, and kitchen. Passing the window, more time has passed than I thought, as the sky is dark and no trace of the sun shines across the land. A sliver of the moon provides very little light.

  Agatha disappears into the living room and I’m left alone. Fatigue sets in and I make my way out too, shutting off the light as I pass through the swinging door to the living room.

  Up the stairs and into my room, there’s comfort just knowing I’ll be lying in bed soon. Into some warm nightwear, I slip into bed and the cool pillow feels great on my warm cheek. I sprawl out and fall into the land of sleep.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  I start the self-tasked job I couldn’t yesterday.

  After a hearty breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast, I am energized enough to begin collapsing the chasms inward. Outside our border, I head to the largest part of the chasm, and when I reach the edge I look in at some bodies still visible. Without the tribal people surrounding us, my mind reflects on the quietness. It’s the same as breakfast: not a whisper from anyone.

  A breeze drifts through the air and I breathe in deeply. Ready to go, I point my hands at the other edge of the chasm and begin by ripping at the opposite cliff with a continuous shockwave. Dirt and rock begins to collapse in, causing a cascade failure of the ground. It avalanches.

  The once visible bodies at the bottom become invisible. I do my best to make the collapsing of the giant crack uniform. My feet carry me along, but the work is slow going. I rest after what feels like an hour of constant energy usage, sitting with my legs dangling over the ledge.

  Footsteps approach. When I look, I see the little boy we found huddled near the cylinder. He’s sad by the look on his face. Sitting down next to me, I’m unsure of what he wants, except maybe comfort. Placing my hand on his head, I attempt to consciously use the ability the despair collective has cursed me with.

  I concentrate and close my eyes. Reaching into the darkness, wading through the despairs I’m not looking for, I have to dig deep before I can manifest anything. What I receive is a glimpse of a man, a bit younger than the chief, falling into the chasm. The boy tumbled down after trying to save him.

  A new sorrow and image appear from him in my mind’s eye. He stands away from the tribe, and a ghostly image of the man who fell in fades between. When the image fades it leaves a gap between the boy and the tribe. I remove my hand and I feel his pain deep inside my soul.

  He looks up at me and holds a closed hand out, indicating he has something he wants to give me. I open my palm under his hand, and he places in it a round gem about the size of a horse’s eye, with a leather strap through it. Upon closer inspection I see it’s a chiseled, polished crystal from below with a crude hole punched through it. I smile and nod at him in appreciation.

  “I know you can’t understand me, but thank you. This will help me finish faster.”

  I stand up after my break and hold out my hand for him to stand too. He dusts himself off and points to the house, as if he wants to go inside. I shake my head and watch his face turn sour. He begins to cry, and though I understand he feels separated, there’s no way I can let him in the house. I ruffle his hair and when he looks up I point back to the relocated tribe and then to him. He sniffles hard, but runs off toward them and doesn’t look back.

  I wrap the leather strap around my hand, putting the crystal in my palm. Bracing my lower body, the crystal resonates, and I let forth a massive shockwave toward the middle of the chasm. An explosion of dirt fills the air. The chasm avalanches inward at great speed, and with a few more charged shockwaves, I am able to significantly fill in the ground.
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  When the dirt and dust comes to settle down, there is a large divot in the ground in front of me. Falling in is no longer treacherous, only requiring now a little assistance to climb out. Throughout the day I make my way around, doing the same in order to bury the dead and make the land safe again. Though I can’t expect to fill it all in, I do my best with the time I have.

  It feels like evening comes too quickly. Tired from the day’s work, I hang the crystal around my neck and make my way back to the house. Agatha is outside taking clothes down from the lines and I help her. We bring the baskets inside where Emma and Ami are working on dinner, but Agatha leads us to the living room to fold the clothes.

  “This is the end of the cycle. Day thirty already,” she states as matter of fact.

  “Really? I didn’t think we had been down there that long.”

  “It was a pretty scary time not knowing if you were alive or not,” she says with concern.

  “I was kind of hoping to be able to close more of the openings.”

  “There’s only so much you can do Rain. It’s not up to you to fix everything.” She smiles.

  “I guess not. It will fill in over time anyway I suppose, as the openings don’t exist in any other time we’ve seen.”

  We finish with the laundry and return to the kitchen for another quiet meal where no one speaks. It’s awkward, but things are still tense. There’s nothing of great importance to talk about anyway. I simply sit there until they are all done and then take their dishes from them. They disperse in their own directions and Agatha squeezes my shoulder as thanks on her way out. Cleanup is done and I need to relax. I shower and return to the confines of my room.

  Disrobed and in bed, I close my eyes. Despite wanting to sleep, my mind is still active. I can’t help but think about the days past and the ones still yet to come.

  I wish I could follow a roadmap to making things better. In the house and outside. With the history books as potential guides, it’s more than likely the harder I try to fix something, the more it will become broken.

  No sooner does my mind finally unwind, I feel a quake. It’s not the same as the one which opened the chasm, but rather the familiar one marking our hurtling through time yet again.

  The windy vortex kicks up. Blue swirls illuminate my bedroom and when they’ve gone the sun is beaming in. I turn over and groan, slamming the pillow down over my head. It does nothing to drown out the scream I hear a few moments later coming from outside the window. Emma begins frantically shouting and soon Eve confronts her from her room, yelling out the window.

  “Shut up! I’m trying to sleep!”

  I do my best to ignore the commotion. But two sets of feet stomp up the stairs and my door bursts open. Ami and Emma barge into my room.

  “You are never going to guess what is outside the house right now!” Ami sounds a bit frightened.

  “The view is amazing!” Emma shrieks with delight.

  “It better be a future where the land is made of fluffy white pillows in which I can sleep.” I sit up, taking the pillow off of my face, and revealing the near nakedness of my body.

  Emma’s eyes go wide, but Ami is unfazed. Surprisingly, Eve appears from her room and drags them both out. My door is slammed shut. Lying there for a moment I want to sleep, but the three continue to chatter out in the hall. Their reaction makes me curious.

  I suppose I can sleep later.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  4

  REVELATION

  “Leave him be!” Eve scolds Ami.

  “Don’t tell me what to do.” Ami replies. “I think he’s going to want to see this.”

  Eve sighs. Two sets of footsteps head downstairs, one fast and one slow. Ami raps lightly on my door. I take my time getting dressed, more because of fatigue than trying to make her wait. I rub my face. I’m tired and want to curl up into a ball and sleep. She knocks a little harder and I pull the door open.

  “Sorry,” she looks down, embarrassed. “I just…”

  “It’s fine.” I step out, but she doesn’t give me room to pass.

  Awkwardly we stand there for a moment, but she breaks the moment by throwing her arms around me. I hug her back. The hair on the back of my neck stands up and I enjoy the embrace. My shoulder becomes wet, and I stroke her hair to soothe her.

  “So, what’s this all about?”

  She pulls away, and I hold her waist while looking into her eyes. Wiping her face of the tears, she sniffles.

  “Rain, I love you…” the words flow from her mouth, but she frowns. “But that’s not what you were meaning was it?”

  “Ami.” I pull her in, and caress her hair again. “I love you too. But I need to make good on my promise. To make sure you’re safe.”

  “I know. I just don’t like that you’ve gotten closer to Eve. I’ve just been a little jealous.”

  “I told her that all I can offer her is friendship.”

  I sigh. There’s a moment of silence between us again, but the tension is gone. With neither Eve nor Emma to interject, I savor our embrace.

  “I have no idea when we are. There are some large creatures outside. We’re too high up for them to reach us, so you don’t have to go kill them all.” She taps my arm playfully.

  “Well then, let’s go take a look.”

  Releasing her, I follow downstairs. We make our way out the living room door and the sight is breathtaking. A crystal blue sky expands before me, and beyond it I can see a definite edge to our plot of land. We walk to the boundary and look out. Our house is perched on a plateau atop a large pillar of rock that tapers out the farther it gets to the base.

  Out as far as the eyes can see, there are many other columns of rock varying in height and girth, with green trees and vegetation scattered amongst the top of them.

  Far below us lies a land covered in green. Many kinds of vegetation blanket the landscape. Enormous trees reach skyward while rivers cut a swath through the jungle below to create a network of interconnecting ponds and lakes. Amongst the foliage, very large and lengthy reptilian creatures mill about casually.

  “What are they?” I ask. “Those aren’t the lizard-men from the chasm. They’re too big, even to be the lizard-beast.”

  “I have no idea,” Ami replies.

  Our moment of peace is interrupted when Emma, Eve and Agatha join us from the other side of the yard. Eve’s face is pale and it’s apparent she’s afraid to come near the edge. Emma strolls over and lies prostrate, head hung over the side. She squeals in wonder. Turning up to me, Emma smiles wide and giggles excitedly.

  “This is so awesome! They don’t look like the lizards you fought. These things are way bigger!” Emma says.

  “I was just saying that same thing.” I crane my neck and lean part way over the edge to get a better glance at the ones directly below.

  “Rain! Get away from the edge!” Eve’s yells.

  She grabs my hand and pulls me back. Ami slaps our hands apart when we are away from the edge. Eve glares angrily at her.

  “What has you so worked up?” I ask her.

  “Just…I don’t know. I just don’t want to hear Ami bawling if you fall over.”

  I raise an eyebrow and there’s a moment of silence.

  “Well, if they’re dangerous, we’re safe up here. Finally, a quiet month.” I grin.

  “No danger. Stocked up on food. Quiet sounds nice,” Agatha states.

  “Good! I’m going to catch up on my sleep.” I begin walking back to the house.

  “Wait! You’re going to sleep?!” Ami protests my departure.

  “I sure am.” I laugh loudly without looking back.

  In my room I breathe a sigh of relief. It doesn’t take me long to become groggy once more. As my eyelids become heavy I have my last thought before sleep.

  Finally.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  My nose rouses me. While drifting back to consciousness, my stomach joins in waking me with a gurgle. A s
weet, buttery, baked smell fills my room and my body protests me continuing to lie here. My hunger isn’t urgent, so I take my time. I swing my legs over the side. My feet contact cool wood floor and I shiver. The air is cool and warrants a long-sleeved shirt.

  Today, I relax. If sunbathing doesn’t warm me up, I’ll just have to take a nice hot shower.

  Downstairs, I push through the swinging door, and the smell intensifies. My mouth waters with delight. Agatha looks over with a smile, removing a waffle from the waffle iron. Next to her, a stack of them is already piled high, and she makes it taller with the new one.

  “Good morning, Aggy.” I yawn and stretch in the midst of greeting her.

  “Good morning indeed. How are you feeling?” she replies cheerfully.

  “Pretty good. My body is a little sore, but it will recover just fine with a nice quiet month ahead of us.” I grin from ear to ear.

  Emma appears from the basement with a heavy jug of syrup. Her face brightens with a smile when she sees me. Setting the jug down, she throws her arms around me for a quick hug.

  “So, I assume I’ve been out for a couple days?” I ask.

  “Only a full day,” Emma replies, returning to her task. She begins heating up the syrup in a pan.

  “Good. Nothing like wasting a bunch of time asleep!” I am playfully sarcastic about our predicament. “Where are Ami and Eve?”

  “Ami’s outside tending the garden and we haven’t seen Eve this morning,” Agatha replies.

  “Well, it looks like you’ve got enough help in here,” I walk over and rub Emma’s head and kiss Agatha on the cheek. “I’ll go keep Ami company.”

  Funny. A couple months ago I would have never thought of kissing her on the cheek. Now it’s like she’s my own mother.

  Outside a cool breeze moves the air. It’s refreshing with the light mist being thrown up by Ami watering the garden. Her yellow summer dress and wavy brown hair waft in the wind. Seeing me, she smiles and I smile in return. The grass is nice on my bare feet as I walk to Ami. I rest my chin on the crook of her neck.