by Lynn Donovan
She tilted her head coyly. “Am I terrible to want one piece of bacon when our friends are locked up? Are they in the town jail?”
“No. Actually, they locked them up in this historical jail commissioned by VEIL. I don’t think anybody conceived that we’d ever need a brig for any reason, and so I hear it’s pretty antiquated. I can’t imagine it actually holding a guy like Axel.” Joseph glanced up at her. “I have a feeling whatever charges they are being held for will not stick. And I already put an extra strip in the pan, hoping you would eat it.”
She held up her coffee as a salute to his thoughtfulness and took another sip of her morning brew. “Oh really. Why do I think you and Axel have something up your sleeve?”
“No. Not up my sleeve. But we do have something that is going to work in their favor.”
Abbie squinted at him. “And, I guess you can’t tell me?”
“No. Not right now, but soon.”
She nodded with uncertainty. “Okay…”
“So, what’s your game plan this morning?” Joseph plated the food and brought it to sit beside her. The faeries remained by the stove, surrounded by churros crumbs.
“I want to get back into Lab One. If Axel is out of commission, I wonder if Sharp will be there? Maybe I should take the faeries and get their feedback on the—”
“No!” The faeries flittered into flight and zoomed from the kitchen to their doll house. “We not go near that wall.” “Mother Righteous is there.” “She will see us.” “She will make us go back.” “And punish us.” “She knows we were the ones.” “We were making a rebellion against her.” “Velona on their own.” “We stay here.” “Safe here.” “Love is here.”
Abbie turned away from their complaining. “There’s something about that fissure that draws my attention.”
Joseph tore his eyes off the fury of the faeries. “What are you thinking?”
Abbie put her coffee cup down. “I’m thinking it’s getting bigger. Like the quartz is decaying or crumbling and making it bigger.” She stared at her cup. “I’ve measured it three times, and I know it’s getting wider.”
“What do you think that means? Other than the obvious.”
“Well, as terrified as the girls are of Mother Righteous, and being forced to go back through… and that eye belonged to somebody who scared the bageezies out of me the other day… I think sometime soon there will be an opening big enough to climb or even walk through.”
Joseph nodded. “And you are afraid this Mother Righteous will walk through and snatch the faeries?”
“Well.” Abbie lifted her cup and drank the cooled coffee. “Yes, but more than that, I’m thinking we can send a team through—”
Joseph sat up straighter.
“To find Zeke.” They said at the same time.
Abbie nodded with a smile. “Right!”
“Of course. Excellent!” Joseph finished the last of his meal and put the plate in the sink. He washed all the dishes while Abbie went to her bedroom and finished getting dressed for work.
“Ready?”
“Ready.” Abbie pulled her purse over her shoulder and turned to the still complaining faeries in the doll house. “So, you girls stay here. I’ll come get you when we move to my office.”
“Don’t go to that wall!” Aura begged.
“Aura, I have my job to do. I’ll be safe. Joseph is with me.”
Aura pouted with a shrug. “Layla has… bad powers. She can hurt you when she is angry.”
Abbie carried her canvas tool bag over her shoulder and followed Joseph into Lab One. Aura’s warning clinging to her nerves. She wanted to get more readings from the event site. Everyday the fog and the illuminating effect from the entanglement seemed to remain the same, but that fissure— got bigger. Why? Was it under pressure, decaying, or… was someone or something causing it to widen? Who could be doing that? Stettler had given limited access to the lab. She, Joseph, Axel, and Sharp were the only people allowed to work in there, as far as she knew.
But did she know everything Stettler had ordered? Of course not! She jerked to a halt with a gasp.
“What?” Joseph turned with her sudden stop.
Abbie looked around. No one was near enough to hear her speak to Joseph. “What if…” She stepped closer to him, leaning as if to kiss his cheek and spoke softly into his ear. “What if someone is chiseling at the fissure and that’s what’s causing it to widen? Could it be that Stettler ordered someone to work on it at night, when we leave the lab? Or maybe it’s happening on the other side? Maybe other… creatures are trying to break the quartz wall?”
Joseph’s brow pressed down in thought. “Is that really what you think?”
“I’m not sure. I’m just trying to analyze my findings in my head. Nothing about that fog or that scintillating wall is any different since the… accident. But that crack measures wider every time we measure it. Something is happening to it. I just don’t know what. The simplest answer is that someone is going in there and chipping at it but why? And who?” Abbie licked her lips and swallowed. The memory of that snake-like eye suddenly appearing, the fear that overwhelmed her, like a backflash fireball. Could that creature be trying to get through by tearing down the wall?
“If it’s something from the other side, why doesn’t it just come through like the faeries, or that big creature? Obviously they came through… somehow, without crawling through the crack.” She glared at Joseph with deep concentration.
“And whatever happened to that big creature?” Joseph looked deep in thought too.
“Haven’t heard anything?”
He shook his head. “Me neither. I’ve spent all my time with you. I haven’t heard anything. It’s not like people are posting pictures on Facebook or anything.” He chuckled, but the humor didn’t reach his eyes.
“Or Instagram.” She chuckled. “But I was hoping you’d heard something. Have any more creatures come through?”
He shrugged. “You’re right, though. The fissure was barely a cleavage in the quartz when the faeries appeared. Somehow they just penetrated through and came out of the fog, or… like you’ve said, maybe it is the fog. Maybe it is the portal. And you’re right about that snake-eyed creature, it doesn’t seem to be able to simply pass through like these other creatures. Es muy raro.”
Abbie giggled. “Rare, indeed.”
She continued walking to Lab One. The room was silent and empty. An eery sensation raised goosebumps on her arms. “Man, it’s weird without Axel and Rick in here working.”
“I wonder how long they’ll keep Axel and Holly in jail?” Joseph looked around as if he might see them working behind a large piece of equipment.
Abbie shrugged. “Like I said, it doesn’t even make sense they’d be arrested for trying to inspect the power coupling?”
“No. It does not.”
“Maybe we should talk to Sheriff Spotted Wolf. As character witnesses, maybe we can convince her that Axel and Holly are being judged too harshly. Maybe it’s time somebody knew about how strange Stettler is acting.”
“That’s what I was thinking too.”
“Okay, let’s get these measurements and… wait! I can’t leave the facility.”
“Why not?” Joseph’s brow pressed into a deep furrow.
“The faeries can’t leave the facility. You can go wherever you want.”
“But if Stettler finds out the faeries exist… I just can’t imagine— well, yes I can. They will become the object of study and won’t have any kind of life outside of a laboratory.”
“How is that different from what you are providing for them?”
Abbie’s eyes widened and her jaw dropped. “I-I’m protecting them, not keeping them as a science experiment!”
“I know, but what freedom do they have?”
Abbie stared at the floor. “You make a good point. But I don’t know what else to do for now.”
“How about this? I will go to town and talk to Sheriff Spotted Wolf.”
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br /> She nodded. “Yeah, that’s a good plan. I’ll get the girls. For some reason I feel I want them near me and not left alone in the apartment. I can use the roller cart to transport the doll house to my office while I write up my findings. I honestly think it’s safer.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
Abbie walked up to the still sparkling wall, immersed by the ever-present fog. Something crunched under her feet. She squatted to get a better look, setting her canvas bag on the floor. Fallen rocks of varying sizes, from slivers to the size of a quarter, scattered the floor. Was this evidence someone had been chiseling at the fissure or was it something else? She touched Joseph’s pant leg and tipped her head toward the debris.
He knelt down. “Could the fog be degrading the quartz, and causing it to crumble?”
“Water can make its way through just about any medium and cause damage. Think of Carlsbad Caverns. That was a completely enclosed environment, and yet water seeped in and formed all those amazing stalactites and stalagmites. But that takes years, centuries. This is happening in a matter of days.”
“True.” Joseph stood, looking closely at the darker purple rock that surrounded the fissure.
Abbie nodded. Her mind reeling over ideas of what could be causing this crack to grow larger each day. “I’ve recorded a gradual enlarging of this fissure, but—” She looked directly into Joseph eyes. “This looks different.”
Joseph nodded. “Let’s get our readings and get on with our other errands.”
Abbie lifted her metal ruler while Joseph lifted the clipboard. Together they measured the width of the increasing fissure from left to right. At about the half-way point, Joseph paused. “Do you hear something?”
Abbie tilted her head, listening. “A rhythmic… muffled clomping sound. It seems like it’s getting closer.”
“Sí. If I didn’t know better, I would say it was a hoofed animal… a horse running toward—”
A large, dark shadow fell across the quartz wall. Joseph grabbed Abbie’s shoulders and pulled her back as a smoky-gray horse sprang through the wall as if the rock wall were nothing more than a holographic image. The fog sparkled brighter and swirled around the horse’s hooves and tail as it passed by them.
Abbie stared at the mangy coat and dry, splintered hooves of the beast that nearly trampled her. Froth peeled off its back, like soap. What was it running from?
Its fear-filled eye met her gaze, turned to its right, and charged out the corridor toward the forested mountain. Abbie stood in shocked silence, with Joseph holding her. She could feel his heart beat wildly against her back.
“Holy Cow!” Abbie pressed against Joseph’s muscular chest.
“Nope, I’d say that was a horse,” Joseph answered flatly.
Abbie chortled. “Yeah, but where did it go?”
“I have no idea.”
“Well, that answers one question.” She turned around to face him. Their eyes locked and for a moment Abbie lost her thought in the caramel depths of his dark eyes. She cleared her throat. “They’re not coming through the fissure.”
Joseph touched a tendril of her bangs, pushing it away from her brow. “That’s good to know.” He lowered his face to hers, closing his eyes, his lips pressed onto hers. She pulled back. “We-we need to-to get this done.”
He swallowed. “You’re right. I’m sorry.”
“No. No apologies necessary. I felt it too.” She smiled. “And this time we know for sure it wasn’t the faeries.”
“Sí.” He touched the solid quartz wall. “And yet, we still don’t know if it’s the entangled quartz or the fog that’s letting the aliens through.”
Abbie turned back to the scintillating wall. “Aliens?” She chuckled. “Okay, true.” She, too, tested the solidity of the quartz. “But did you notice how bright the sparkling lights got when that animal came through. Now, it’s not so luminescent.”
“You’re right.” Joseph continued to inspect the quartz. He knocked on the rock with his knuckles. “It’s solid as a rock.” He smiled. “You know, so how did that beast get through it?”
“This portion of the wall is a portal.” She gestured a huge circle. “That’s all I know. And it seems to be a one-way portal. Does that even make sense?”
“Dimensional pathways are theories. This is the first that I know of for anyone to study.” His eyes roved over the glittery wall. “Wait. Let me try something.” He bent to pick up a sliver of broken quartz. Standing, he pushed it through the fissure. It fell to the other side. “I am sooo writing a paper about this!”
Abbie smiled. His eagerness warmed her heart. “Me, too!”
The lab phone rang. Abbie jumped away from Joseph. “Should we answer that?”
“I guess so. We’re the only ones in here.”
It rang again.
Abbie hurried across the lab to the desk. “Lab One, Dr. Abbie Crossan.”
“Dr. Crossan?” Director Stettler’s secretary, Melissa, sounded anxious. “Is Dr. Assad with you?”
“Yes.” Abbie turned to look at Joseph. “We were told to partn—”
“Yeah, sure. Listen, Director Stettler needs you two in his office, ASAP.”
“Okay? What’s this about?”
“I’m not sure. Just following orders. You know how he gets.”
“Sure, Melissa. Are you alright?”
“Yeah. It’s just been a tough several days.”
“Okay. We’ll clean up and head that way.”
“Please don’t take too long. He’s… well you know…” She apparently cupped her hand over her mouth and the phone to speak more directly into the receiver. “He’s hyper-skitzoid today.”
Abbie laughed. “Okay. We’ll hurry.” She hung up. “Stettler wants us in his office. You don’t suppose it has to do with Axel and Holly, do you?”
“No idea.” Joseph put the clipboard in her canvas tool bag and lifted it to his shoulder. “Maybe he found out we were kissing in here and now we’ll be grounded from seeing each other.”
Abbie’s eyes darted around the lab. Were there security cameras? “That’s not funny. I wouldn’t put anything past our Director. He’s been so weird ever since the accident.”
“Well, one thing I do know”
“What?”
“The sooner we get to his office, the sooner we’ll know what he wants.”
Abbie sighed. “Yeah. Should we tell him about the horse?”
“Oh, hell no!” Joseph touched her back to guide her out of the lab. “Don’t tell him anything about faeries or horses, or… No that’s all. Right? We should play it cool— is that the term? And see what happens.”
She jerked her head to look at him. “Should we go check on the girls first?”
“No, she said ASAP, I think we should just go straight there.”
“Okay.” Anxiety roiled in her gut. This didn’t feel right. “It’s just... I have a weird feeling…”
Joseph pursed his lips. “Me, too.”
Chapter Seventeen
“Oh, Abbie!” Melissa leapt from her chair to greet Abbie and Joseph as they walk into Stettler’s outer office. “I’m so sorry. I told you to get right over here and now he’s gone… somewhere. I have no idea where. He just said to tell you to wait in his office and he’ll be right back.” She grimaced. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright, Melissa. You don’t have any control over your boss. We were finished with what we were doing in Lab One anyway.” Abbie patted her shoulder.
Melissa nodded. “That’s good.” She seemed to be breathing too fast. “Okay, well, go on in. Can I get you coffee… or anything while you wait?”
“No.” Abbie looked at Joseph. He didn’t indicate he wanted anything. “We’re fine.”
They walked into Stettler’s office and sat down. Joseph gestured to his ear and pointed at his desk.
Abbie shrugged and put her finger over her lips.
Joseph nodded. There was no telling whether the director’s office was bugged. Ju
st to be safe they didn’t speak. Joseph sat with both feet flat on the floor, his arms casually on the arm rests. He looked around, but remained silent.
Abbie shifted in her chair, crossed her legs, and waited. Her eyes swept his office. A large, split-in-half geode sat on his credenza. Its pink spiky crystals matched the color of the wall she had been studying so intensely the past few days. Minus the entangled light show, of course. She sighed. A clock on the wall ticked.
Stettler’s phone rang. Melissa could be heard answering it from her office. “Director Adam Stettler’s office, this is Melissa.”
She told the caller he was out of the office and she’d be happy to take a message. She was a good secretary, efficient. Abbie liked her as a friend, although she’d spent very little time with her, other than happenstance encounters at The Oasis. Perhaps she should do better and invite her over when this was settled and she could go back home.
Home. Would she ever be able to go home as long as the faeries were attached to her? She sighed.
Joseph caught her eye. He smiled, sympathetically, but said nothing.
Abbie leaned in her chair to look in Melissa’s office. She could just see the door. Where was Stettler? People walked down the hall. No one seemed alarmed or excited. What did Stettler want? Why did it no longer seem so urgent? What was so important to leave them waiting here like this?
Thirty minutes passed. Abbie stood. Joseph watched her with knitted brow. “This is ridiculous. If he still wants to talk to me, he can come to my office. Let’s go.”
Joseph stood. “Alright.”
“Melissa.” Abbie crossed the outer office. “Tell Stettler I’ll be in my office getting work done that he ordered me to do.” Abbie continued out into the hall. Melissa’s voice trailed behind her. “But—”
Joseph followed. Once they stepped into the sunlight, Abbie shook her head. “I cannot believe the nerve of that man!”
“That seemed odd to me. Did it to you?”
“Odd?” Abbie gawked at him as they walked toward the QuESO building. “It was rude.” They entered the indigenous garden and continued along the crushed granite walkway. “It was almost like—