by Wyatt Kane
“Better not,” June said. “What if you get distracted and lose your grip on time?”
It was a good question. I couldn’t help but think of the scene from the agents’ point of view. One moment, they would be doing their duty, standing guard, and the next June would appear, naked and dancing in front of them.
Or maybe both of us, if that’s what June had in mind.
It might be a funny story to tell one day, but there was a pretty good chance it would end with jail time in a 1976 prison. And that wouldn’t help us against the time demons in the least.
“Is this it, do you think?” June asked. We’d reached the door at the very end of the hallway without any trouble. It was wider than the rest, double-size, and that alone was enough to suggest a more luxurious suite behind it. In addition, there were several agents on guard, including one at a desk.
If it wasn’t Jimmy Carter’s suite, the agents were doing a very good job at mis-direction.
“Has to be,” I said.
I felt June’s hesitation. “Now what?” she asked.
I studied the agents for a moment, searching for any sign of movement. But there was none. My hold over time was still strong.
“We have to find out what we’re facing,” I said. With that, I reached forward and tried the door.
Locked.
“Damn it,” I muttered. “I don’t know if I can do that lock trick at the same time.” Despite this, we had to get in. We had to see what we were up against, and hopefully do something about it. Should I try to kick the door open? With my bum leg, I wasn’t sure if I could.
“Maybe one of these agents has a key,” June said.
Of course.
We searched them, and June proved to be right. The agent to the right of the door had an old-fashioned hotel key in his jacket pocket. I stole it from him, unlocked the door, and put it back in his pocket without him knowing a thing.
June grabbed my arm again before I opened the door.
“What are we doing?” she asked. “How far are we going to go?” She was anxious, but also excited. “Can you keep all of them frozen?”
I had images of a swarm of Secret Service agents pointing their guns at us as if we were terrorists. “Hopefully,” I said, answering her last question first. “As to how far we’re going, I need to see how the bug is controlling Carter. Then we ought to be able to figure out what to do about it.”
Privately, I was thinking of this as more than just a reconnaissance mission. I didn’t know how long we had. If I saw an opportunity to do something, I intended to take it.
I took a deep breath, reached out with my talent to make sure everyone was frozen, and pushed the door open.
The room inside was filled with people. An agent stood next to the door, two people sat at a table in the center of a dining room, and a woman sat at a desk in front of a typewriter, her fingers poised perfectly over the keys.
They were all perfectly frozen. But Jimmy Carter was nowhere in sight.
“Wow,” June said. She wasn’t looking at the people, but at the suite itself. Her mouth gaped open at the luxurious furnishings and the chandelier hanging over the table.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Maybe we’ll get Shell to duplicate this next time. Let’s find Carter.”
It didn’t take long to find the Democratic candidate. He was in the bathroom. I stuck my head in the door and quickly pulled it back out. “Ah … problem.”
June rolled her eyes. “Really? Is he sitting on the john?”
“No, but he’s standing in front of it.”
She giggled and made a face at the same time. “Unbelievable,” she said. “So, now what?”
“There’s only one thing to do,” I said. All by itself, the bathroom was more spacious than my first apartment had been. There was plenty of room to step inside, pulling June along with me, so I could release my hold on time.
I figured that the elevator operator might have a confusing moment or two, but other than that, nobody would even notice.
Carter finished his business, zipped his pants, flushed, and turned around. A wide look of surprise hit his eyes, but I stopped time again.
For a moment, none of us moved. Jimmy Carter because he was frozen in time, and June and me because it was a moment to remember. We were in a bathroom in 1976, standing in front of the Democratic candidate and future President of the United States, Jimmy Carter.
It was a lot to take in.
Then June said, “Well, we’re here. Jimmy Carter is in front of us.” She looked at me. “He looks normal to me. Are you really sure he’s being controlled by the bug? It just seems so far-fetched.”
I cocked an eyebrow. “More far-fetched than a floating Artificial Intelligence and a time-traveling Bedford? Or any of this, for that matter? And anyway, Shell confirmed it.”
The dark-haired twin sighed. “I know,” she said. “I guess I just don’t want it to be true.” She drew a deep breath and waved her hand at Jimmy. “So, are we done here? Have we learned everything we can?”
“Not yet,” I said. I studied the man in front of us. Shorter than I’d expected, but even now the stamp of his features suggested genuine warmth and friendliness. “I’m going to see if I can…” I paused, struggling to find the words. “I don’t know. Reach out with my talent and see if I can understand what’s happening better.”
June projected a wave of uncertainty. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”
“No. But if I don’t, what have we got? And anyway, he’s frozen, just like the rest.”
June didn’t seem keen, but couldn’t refute what I’d said. “Be careful,” she said.
“What could go wrong?” I asked. Then I closed my eyes, reaching out with my talent through the space-time continuum, trying to understand what was going on with the man in front of me. I almost laughed at myself as I did. I had no idea if what I was trying to do was even possible, let alone if I could do it.
Yet, I had to try. We’d learned much about the layout of the hotel and how to get to the presidential candidate, but without knowing how the giant bug-monster was controlling him, it might all come to nothing.
I had to understand what was happening if I hoped to stop it.
So I pushed out with my talent, feeling my way through the molecules of time all around us. Just like when I’d tried this in the van, it was like swimming in thick syrup. I struggled, feeling like I was drowning. Even though I wasn’t doing anything physical, the effort was tremendous. Sweat poured off my face, stinging my eyes, and I almost gave up.
Yet, at the same time, it felt like it was working. I understood the way time flowed in this room better than ever before. I could see the currents of it flow all around us, only to stop at Jimmy Carter. It was as if he was a chunk of ice in a sea, solid and immovable while the ocean drifted around him.
I could also sense something else. Something not quite right about Jimmy Carter.
There was something in his mind that didn’t obey the normal laws of space and time. A connection of some sort that joined his reality here and now with another here and now that was also subtly different.
At first, I didn’t know what I was sensing. I only figured it out when the giant bug demon turned to look straight back at me.
And it was pissed.
XXVI
All at once, I realized three things. First, I’d made a terrible, terrible mistake. Second, somehow the gigantic monster from the rift was occupying the same time and space as Jimmy Carter, yet simultaneously, it was not.
And third, it wasn’t bound by my time freeze in the least.
I was able to draw in a quick breath, and then all hell started to break loose. The bathroom grew dark, and the tides of time swirling within it turned into a whirlpool, sucking me down into an abyss, with the monster at the bottom. I felt a moment of real terror as the bug demon drew me toward it. I knew that if it managed to pull me in, all would be lost.
It was all I could do to wrench my consciousness a
way. I cried out in fear and opened my eyes.
The terror remained. My heart was pounding in my chest and my hands were shaking. June stood next to Jimmy Carter, who in turn stood next to a giant shadow that hadn’t been there before and was taking over the bathroom. The shadow grew, quickly taking shape, coalescing into something more real. It was like the monster had found a pocket dimension in which it could hide, and it was now working its massive, unstoppable way back into our own. Claws and pincers materialized out of nowhere and reached for June, who stumbled back into the bathtub in panic.
Without thinking, despite my own fear, I threw myself between her and the claws. Sharp pain pierced my ribs, and I was hurled back into the mirror. It shattered, raining glass down onto my neck, back, and the floor. It hurt like a bitch, and I lost my hold on time.
June yelled something, my head spun, and the tile floor rose up to my face. I put my hands out, knowing that if I lost consciousness, I’d probably never wake again.
June’s terror consumed me, mingling with my own until I couldn’t see straight. Her scream stabbed my eardrums, and more shouts ensued as the agents, responding quickly to the noise, rushed inside.
They took the monster’s attention away from me and June. With great effort, I heaved myself off the floor, staggering toward the monster that was trying to take physical shape. It was stuck halfway between this world and the next, and Jimmy Carter was slumped back on the toilet. His eyes were glassy, his expression blank, and I hoped he wasn’t dead. Surely he couldn’t be? Unless the monster had done something to him as it clambered between worlds?
The agents shouted in confusion and fear, but they were trained well. Guns fired, the flashes of muzzles lighting up the space. The monster gave a screech that made me wince in new pain and reached for the nearest shooter.
The agent didn’t stand a chance. He screamed as the monster’s claws tore him in half.
Then June was tugging my arm. “We’ve got to get out of here!” she shouted.
My head was still spinning from my collision with the mirror, but I knew she was right. So I did the wrong thing entirely. I pushed myself back to my feet, straight into the line of fire between the agents at the door and the monster coalescing in the bathroom.
“Get down!” shouted one of the agents. He didn’t care about us. All he cared about was the monster looming over the presidential candidate. It was huge, far too big to fit in such a space, and I didn’t want to be there when it fully emerged.
With desperate energy, I reached out to stop time yet again.
It only partially worked. The agents lurched from one pause in time to the next. It was like watching a scratched DVD, except this was real.
It was also enough to let June and me shove our way through the agents at the door, slipping over the blood on the floor. We made it partway through the main room before my head finally cleared.
“Wait!” I said. “We can’t leave. It’s killing people—we have to help!”
June shook her head, clearly terrified, “We can’t help them if we’re dead!” she replied, and as much as I hated it, I knew she was right. I didn’t have the power to stop it. We had to get out of there. We couldn’t do anything else.
We weren’t the only ones with that idea. The secretary at the desk ran screaming, but as she reached the door, more agents burst in, guns drawn.
As one, they aimed at us.
“No!” I yelled. “Don’t shoot!”
At that moment, the giant bug demon crashed its way through the bathroom door, dragging a limp Carter along behind it. The doorframe wasn’t strong enough to withstand the impact. It was as if it had been hit by a battering ram, wood and plaster shrapnel exploding into the room. I covered June as best I could, and took advantage of the moment of shock and horror the agents experienced. As they hesitated, we ran for the door, leaving everything else behind. I tried to slow time properly, to help make good our escape, but, judging from the shriek behind us, my attempt only pissed the monster off further.
On our way to the stairwell, June pulled the fire alarm. People began bustling out of rooms, at least those who hadn’t already been checking on the noise. I wondered who would be sharing a floor with the democratic candidate, and figured they were probably all members of his staff. Then we reached the elevator alcove.
“Stairs!” I shouted, and we burst through the door to make our way down. A handful of terrified people came with us, and the walls shook from the onslaught above. I had a brief flashback to shells raining down around a building where I’d lost a couple of buddies in Afghanistan, but shook it out of my mind and kept going, with June beside me.
Finally, we reached the ground floor and piled into the lobby, then outside onto the street. There was less abject terror and confusion there, but the fire alarm was making an awful racket and more and more people were filing out to join us. It must have been only minutes since the alarm started sounding, but already fire engines were pulling up outside, along with the police.
Yet that wasn’t my main concern. I was looking around the crowd, searching for the other sister.
“April!” I called.
As soon as I said it, June froze. Then she looked about as well, and with a wave of desperation, turned and fought her way back into the chaos. “Fuck. Fuck, fuck,” she said. “April!”
Dammit, I thought. I circled the crowd, looking for the blond bombshell but not having any luck. June’s desperation permeated my skin, making it crawl. “April!” I shouted.
“Sir, you’re bleeding,” someone said. A paramedic. I didn’t have time for him, not with April unaccounted for, so I shook him off and ran back into the crowd as fast as my bum leg would allow.
“April!” I yelled, still desperately looking for her.
A cold chill swept over me, and I pushed people out of the way to get back into the hotel. Police and agents and random hotel guests blocked the doors, but I threw my hands out in front of me and briefly stopped them in their place. I was desperate to find April. If something happened to her, it was my fault. I couldn’t bear the idea of her getting hurt.
“April!” I called. More people streamed through the lobby, and I pushed my way against the crowd, limping quickly toward the screams coming from the restaurant area.
Somehow, the monster was there. I didn’t know how it had come down from the top floor, nor did I care. All that mattered was that it was entirely present in our universe. It was huge, as big as I remembered, with its head putting holes in the ceiling as it rampaged over tables to chase the hotel staff.
I saw April hiding behind an overturned table. The monster bore down on her, its claws tapping on the floor, putting holes in the carpet, shoving tables out of the way. I tried to stop it in time, putting everything I had into the effort.
The monster paused, its head weaving from side to side as if to say, “No.”
“No, I won’t leave you!”
The creature turned its intelligent eyes on me, its pincers clacking together as if it couldn’t wait to make me its next meal. The remnants of its last victim hung in shreds from its maw, and I shivered.
It charged. My talent for stopping time meant nothing to it. Yet perhaps it saw me as a threat rather than food, because instead of biting my head off, it swung one if its massive pincers, throwing me backward into a wall. I crashed all the way through it, coming out into a conference room feeling bruised and broken, and for a moment, the shock paralyzed me. April screamed my name, and I felt waves of worry from June, who must have been somewhere nearby.
The ongoing fire alarm was maddening. I tried to block it out of my mind, and at the same time, tried to wiggle my toes. They responded, so I climbed painfully back to my feet as the monster started forcing its way through the hole in the wall, ripping wood paneling and supporting beams apart.
But the d
istraction I’d provided proved sufficient. I’d taken its attention away from April. With the monstrous bug halfway through the wall, I staggered to the conference room door and out, and found both April and June heading my way.
Together, we stumbled away from the ongoing destruction through a side exit.
There were fewer people there than out in front of the hotel, but the signs of confusion and panic were still prevalent. We could see the police out in front starting to take control even though they couldn’t know what was truly going on. Part of me wanted to help, to warn them of what they were facing, but my first priority had to be to get the girls—and me—to safety.
It was time to regroup. So, ignoring the ongoing fire alarm, the intermittent sounds of the bug monster’s screeches, and the general confusion, we made our way back to the Bedford in the alley.
XXVII
The three of us sat among the cushions in the relative safety of the van. The mood was one of disappointment and residual horror mixed with relief that we’d made it out alive.
“Is everyone okay?” I asked. Despite being thrown around, I was relatively unscathed, with just a few minor scrapes from the glass and bruising over much of my body that would probably be a bitch in the morning. Other than that, and a lingering ache in my ribs that I didn’t want to think about, I was doing pretty good.
June nodded. “I’m fine,” April said. I had to agree. The blonde twin was very fine indeed, despite the recent mayhem. She looked a little smudged here and there, but otherwise might have stepped straight from a salon.
Not to be outdone, June had also maintained her immaculate appearance. Only her slightly gloomy expression gave any hint of the experience we’d just had.
Somehow, April even managed to conjure a smile. She reached out to me and put her hand on my cheek. “You came back for me.”
“June did, too,” I said, taking both their hands. “I wouldn’t leave either one of you, ever. I hope you know that.”
The twins leaned in close me, and we rested quietly for a minute.