"Here it is. Finally."
Jolyon of the Flame peeled back the board and settled back against his heels. The portal wavered.
Tetra looked at Hades and Rose. "It's been confirmed. The other you, the unfortunate one, seems to have powered these portals with his worst moments. Here, where the other Rose was killed, is the final portal. This should lead us to where we want to go."
Jol stood and stretched out his back. "I'm going. Tetra?" The scholar nodded. "Hades?"
Hades shook his head. "I can't leave. I have to run things here. You'll be in my prayers."
Tetra nodded. "Thank you." He looked at Jol, the man from another world. "Ready?"
"Nothing left to do but
step inside," Jol said.
They stood on a hill in a large grassy area on a clear, cool day. Puffy clouds scuttled across the blue sky. The two men, each from a different world, gazed around them in silent wonder. Tall, gray buildings rose beyond the trees and sparkled in the sunlight. Jol adjusted his pack.
"Perhaps you should hide your weapon," Tetra said. "This world's inhabitants might not appreciate it."
"You think they'll know what it is?" Jol asked, taking the steam-powered pistol out of his hip holster and stashing it away. "I suppose better safe than sorry."
"Quite. Shall we?"
"Do we even know what we're looking for?" Jol asked as they started walking.
"No. We simply know that this is the place to find it. Hades -- the other one -- was some sort of catalyst for whatever entity created the Unlucky. That was the last portal created using his sorrow -- it must be the one we need."
"I hope you're right," Jol said. "I'd hate this to be a wild flur chase."
Tetra raised an eyebrow in his direction.
They got to the edge of the grassy area and stepped into a hectic zone of vehicles and people. The streets were thronged with sound and sights, and the two men found themselves staring up and around more than walking.
After an hour, Jol raised his voice. "We should have eaten something before we left. We didn't bring that much, either."
"Yes. However, this place looks frighteningly civilized. I'm sure that we can find food somewhere." Before Jol could stop him, Tetra tapped the man next to him on the shoulder. "My good man! My companion and I are new here. Could you direct us to a place that will sell us food?"
The man, who wore a faded cap and gray coat, muttered something. He pointed across the street at a place called Boushlav Burgers, and then hustled away.
Tetra crossed the street, and was startled by a blaring horn. He ran the rest of the way, fat jiggling, and Jol followed, mouthing sorry to the man behind the car. He entered Boushlav Burgers behind Tetra. There was the smell of cooked meat and other food.
"Tetra . . . will we be able to pay?"
"I have a few forms of payment," Tetra said. "We may have to haggle." Seeing the path to the white counter free, Tetra waddled to it, beaming.
Isaac wasn't sure what to make of the fat man that stepped up. He wore strange clothes -- to say nothing of the man that had entered with him, who looked dressed for battle.
Yet . . . Isaac couldn't imagine him a hallucination. He'd gotten good at picking them out. This man seemed too real, too forward, and too cheerful.
"Young man!" He said to Isaac, who wore a white cap and uniform. "I would like to purchase two of your . . . caheeseboorgoors. I'm new in this city, however, and I'm not sure what sort of payment you will require. I have several bills of varying amounts, gold-" The man stopped suddenly, staring at something behind Isaac. Isaac whirled. There was nothing. He looked back at the man slowly.
"Your name," the man said. "Isaac!"
Isaac looked down at his name tag. "Excuse me," he muttered, just loud enough for the man to hear. He stepped to his manager, and his manager recognized the look. "The man at the counter, and the man behind him. Wearing strange clothes," Isaac said, shaking. The manager looked quickly.
"I see them. They're real. Very out of place, but real."
Isaac let out a pent breath and went back to the counter. The man leaned in. "Your name is Isaac?"
"Yes," Isaac said. Even if he wasn't a hallucination, he was still strange.
The man looked behind him. "Jol, his name is Isaac." The other man jumped, and rushed up. The first man pointed at Isaac's name tag, and Jol looked. "Can it be a coincidence?"
Isaac listened as the men talked, confused. "It could be," the one named Jol said. "But we might as well start looking here. We need to find some information."
The first man turned to Isaac. "Young Isaac, my name is Tetra. This is Jolyon." Jolyon nodded. "We'd like to discuss some things with you."
"W-well, I don't finish my shift until two. You'll have to wait until then. Um . . . do you still want the cheeseburgers?"
Tetra looked at Jol, who nodded. "Yes please."
None of the money they had was legal, but the gold seemed real. Isaac paid for the burgers out of his wages and kept a small bar of gold, figuring he was getting the better deal. For the next three hours, the two men sat in a stall at the back of the store and talked in low voices. Isaac watched them with apprehension.
Finally he punched out and pulled up a chair to their booth.
"Your cheeseburgers!" Tetra said. "Exquisite! What was the yellow stuff?" He asked.
"That's the cheese," Isaac said. "What do you want to talk about?"
Tetra and Jol exchanged a glance.
Jol began. He told a story about fighting a red monster in a mine, a voice that spoke to him, and his subsequent study of the monster. He told him about finding a portal that led him to Tetra.
Tetra followed by telling Isaac about what he knew about the story from his world. His exploration of the portals, followed by the transportation to the mirror world with the other Tetra and Hades, and the strange purple machine that they called the Engine of Fate, and the word etched on the side: Casai.
Isaac felt a feeling go through his stomach when he heard it.
They finished by explaining how they got to his world -- looking for a portal at the final unlucky event of the other Hades' life, the death of Rose.
"I saw your name tag," Tetra explained. "Just like all the other worlds. Isaac. Though you don't seem to be in a position of power, like so many are."
Isaac laughed. "A position of power I am not." He looked around. His Saturday was dwindling. "I work here three days a week, a bookstore six. I take pills to keep myself from going crazy, and I still have hallucinations."
"Hallucinations?" Jol asked. "What are those?"
"You . . . I see things that aren't there. People. Objects." Isaac looked at his hands, clenched in his lap. "They can be very vivid. I had to check to make sure you two weren't when you first came up to the counter."
Tetra laid his hand on Isaac's shoulder. "We're as real as you are, Isaac," he said, smiling. Isaac's face went pale, and he pulled his hands away. "We have a few questions, now. Do you know anyone named Casai?"
Isaac shook his head. "I've never even heard the name before."
"Have you heard any voices?" Jol asked. "Both of us have heard an unearthly voice speak to us. I right after sending the fire monster back down its hole, and Tetra after the engine was smashed."
Isaac nodded. "The hallucinations sometimes talk to me. I try not to talk back to anyone, in case they might not be real. But I haven't ever heard a voice without something else being there." Except at the hospital.
"Your hallucinations," Tetra said, "how bad can they get?"
Isaac thought about the hospital. "I was once trapped inside for a week, talking and moving around inside a dream that I thought was real. But . . . that doesn't happen anymore. I have a sweatshirt that I use. I know when I see it, I'm not in a hallucination. It's gold. I wear it often, even in the heat. It's like a protection." Isaac looked around. The restaurant was filling up. "Do you two need to know anything else?"
The two men looked at each other. "No, I suppose not," Tetra said.
Isaac stood. "Are you two going to be all right?"
"We'll be fine. We know how to handle ourselves," Jol said. They all rose and exited Boushlav Burgers. "Actually, Isaac, do you have any idea where we might be able to find the information we're looking for? Isaac? Isaac are you all right?"
Isaac tore his eyes away from the planet that hovered over the clouds. "I'm fine."
Hours earlier, Stasya sat on a park bench. She hadn't experienced heat like this since being driven north by the Tor. She'd found a newspaper and realized she'd not only traveled through space -- to somewhere that used English as its first language -- but back in time three years. Stranger still, the Tor should have already clawed their way out of the antarctic ice by this time, but not one page of the paper said anything about them.
She was sitting on the bench, her coat and gloves next to her, when she heard screaming. When she looked up, she found two tall, thin, blue figures striding towards her through the people on the sidewalk, splitting them like the red sea. Without pausing she ran.
The things that used to be David and Lucya charged after her. If they could run as fast as they had in the cavern under the Siberian plain, she was doomed, but she glanced behind her and found them lagging in the heat. Someone would call the police. They would call the army. They would call someone to destroy those things!
Ten minutes later she huddled behind a trash can in an alley. She couldn't tell what city she was in -- it seemed like it could have been New York, or Chicago. David would have known.
"Excuse me," someone said behind her. She jumped and spun, banging the can and making a clatter. She found a young woman wearing a dirty skirt and blouse. "You aren't from here, are you?"
She spoke English. "No, I'm from Russia," Stasya answered. She looked over her shoulder for the frozen wraiths.
"No, I mean you're from a different world. Like me."
Stasya looked at the woman. She had long silvery hair and bright brown eyes. She could have been a princess. "I don't know what you mean."
"Sure you do. You went through a portal to this city. What was your world like?" Stasya's mouth dropped open. "What's wrong?" The girl asked. "Are you hiding from those blue things?"
"I . . . yes. What's your name, girl?"
"Hanna of Tern. What's yours?"
"Stasya Melikov. You say you came through a portal?"
"Yes. I didn't really mean to, but I got too close. It closed behind me when I did."
"The same thing happened to me. But I meant to go in."
"Why?" Hanna asked.
"Let's find somewhere safer," Stasya said. "Somewhere with a lot of people around us, and I'll tell you everything."
They made it to a large park area with a bandstand. Picnickers and couples sat on the grass around them, talking and laughing and enjoying the cool day. Stasya gazed at the empty bandstand for a few minutes before telling Hanna about her world: the Tor had appeared in the year 2012, and had pushed humanity up into the colder areas of the north. She told her about the strange tunnels and caves that she and her friends found, and how the two of them became the blue things that had chased her. She told Hanna how her group had confined her to a tent, believing she murdered the other two and hidden their bodies. She told her about jumping into a portal and finding herself in an alternate world -- the same Earth, minus the Tor.
Hanna listened, nodding, with her shoes off and her arms around her knees. The wind blew her hair like a banner. When Stasya finished, Hanna explained about her world: the story of how the red lava monster appeared every ten years, how ten girls were selected to drive it back, and how things had gone so wrong ten years before. She told Stasya how Jolyon of the Flame, her protector, had thrown his sword at the monster and made it disappear and then fainted, after which he asked to stay with Hanna's family and study. She told about how he'd opened a portal with a gold leaf and a feather, and disappeared. Then, after ten years, how she'd found another one and fallen in, only to see it close behind her.
The two women, one nearing fifty and one barely twenty, sat next to each other. One had spent the last three years in Siberia, cut thin and dry by the cold and constant worry. The other had grown and matured at her father's estate on a hill overlooking the city of Tern; two people of different forms brought together.
"Why do you think that the portals appeared?" Hanna asked. "Why do you think they brought us both here?"
Stasya shook her head. "I have no idea."
Hanna tapped her chin. "So this is the same world you came from but with just one difference?" Stasya shrugged. "But my world is entirely different." She went on tapping her chin. Stasya looked up at the blue sky. Some clouds were in the south sky. "What if we do have the same world, but mine is a lot more different?"
"Do you recognize the word America? Russia? Europe?" Hanna shook her head. "I don't think we have the same world."
"We speak the same language, though."
Stasya opened her mouth to say that her native language was Russian, but it didn't matter. The girl was right. She spoke English even though she was from someplace entirely different. She frowned. "Your friend-"
"Jolyon."
"Yes. Did he speak English?"
"Mmm hmm. Everybody did. Is that what you call it? English?"
"What's your name for it?" Stasya asked. Hanna shrugged.
"We don't have a name for it. We just speak it." She paused. "Do you think Jol came to this world?"
"He could have. Maybe all the portals come here. Like this is some sort of . . . central world."
"Like the center hole in a gear!" Hanna agreed. She looked around. "Do you think we could find portals to go back?"
Stasya kept staring at the warm sky. "I don't think I want to go back. All of my friends think I killed two others. They were going to exile me from human camps. I was going to die. From the Tor or from exposure, I don't know . . . but where we were it was a death sentence one way or the other. There aren't any Tor here, and I'm a free woman."
"I wonder if you could meet yourself."
Stasya whipped her head around. "What?"
"This is your world but a bit different, right? Do you think the you from this world is here? What do you think you'd be doing if the Tor hadn't come?"
Stasya looked back at the sky. "I was a teacher. I taught physical education to high-schoolers. Teenagers. Younger than yourself. I had a husband; we lived in Russia."
"Did you have any children?"
Stasya didn't answer immediately. She took her eyes off the sky. "No."
"Do you think we could contact the other you?" Hanna asked.
"We can look her up, but I know if a different me contacted me and told me the things I'd gone through . . . I'd think I was going crazy, or something. But there are ways to find out about her."
Hanna stood. "Let's go do it, then!"
"What, now?" Stasya asked. Hanna nodded. "Well . . . all right. We need to be on the lookout for Lu- the blue guys. If you see them, tell me right away, all right?" Hanna nodded, smiling. She hesitated. "We can probably pass for mother and daughter. Can you call me mother?"
Hanna nodded again. "Yes mother!" She took a few steps away from where they stood, and Stasya watched her walk with a cold grip around her.
He was a strange one.
Tall -- very tall -- dark skin, long black hair and beard, wearing little more than rags and furs, carrying a long staff, bleeding from the leg and hand . . . Eela hadn't seen anyone like him. His eyes darted from person to person as they moved out of his way. The people avoided him. He muttered to himself.
Eela gazed out from under her sunglasses and wide hat in the shade of a coffee house awning. So far, nobody knew of the one called Casai, the Destroyer. In fact, everyone she'd asked had looked at her like she was unhinged.
This one, though, he would give her a straight answer. If he said he didn't know, she would be able to believe him. She rose from her chair and started walking after him, easily able to keep him in her sight due to how high he towered over the pedestrians in this primitive city. She kept her head down, knowing to attract to much attention would make things much more difficult.
The wild-looking man was heading into the city, toward the tallest building. He didn't care about the people he pushed out of the way; they were like little creatures to him, to be ignored. Eela needed to find a place to talk to him out of the way.
She looked over to her left, seeing a shadowed alley. There was a blur and she disappeared.
Zoolk's thundercloud thoughts rained down hate on the human city. At one time he'd been away from all this, now he was back. And, just like before, the humans here looked at him like he was a monster. He glared right back, daring any of them to attack him, but none of them did. He needed answers, and this place would surely have them. Who Casai was, why this force had tried to control him, and succeeded in taking over his pack and the rest of the animals. Whoever lived in the tall tower would know.
His furred feet scraped over the blocks of stone set in the ground as he tried to ignore the stench of the humans around him, and their noisome carts. He needed to get away. He took a turn and started down a less-crowded street, still heading for the tallest tower.
At least, he was, until a sudden and furious force pulled him in between two shorter buildings. He found his feet and wrenched free of the grasp, and took up his staff in both hands, baring his teeth.
A small woman stood in the alley with him, with a large hat and something dark over her eyes. "I want to speak with you," the woman said.
Zoolk sneered and turned to leave.
"You aren't from here."
He stopped at the end of the alley, a few inches from being back in the sun. "You came from a different world." He turned himself around and found the woman looking up at him, craning her neck back to see his face. The dark covering kept her eyes from him. "I didn't know until I touched you," she said. "But I'm sure of it."
"I don't know what you mean," Zoolk said.
"You mean to tell me you didn't come through a portal into this world, from whatever place you called home?"
Zoolk watched her as she put a hand to her face. It came away with the sunglasses.
He recoiled, seeing the green glow from her eyes. He nearly brought his staff down on her, thinking she was some agent of the same force that had brought his pack under a spell. But, no, this wasn't the same. Green, instead of purple, and certainly no animal.
"I see I've alarmed you," she said. She hadn't moved as he nearly swung his staff on her head. She removed the hat and brushed out her reddish hair, shining with green globes. "My name is Eela. I also came from a different world . . . a destroyed world. I . . . have four brothers. They were swayed to kill everything by a force I don't understand."
"Casai," Zoolk said, and Eela blinked.
"You know him?!" She stepped forward smoothly. "Tell me! Tell me everything you know!"
Zoolk took a step back. The sun came out from behind a building into his eye. "I'm also looking for him. He turned my family against me. I'm going to kill him."
Eela stood, arms wrapped around themselves, locking his eyes with hers. "That may not be possible."
Eela slipped the glove back on her hand, hiding the shining green globe. "I stepped through, to this place. I found clothes, and started asking people about Casai. You're the first person to know anything."
The two of them sat together on top of an apartment building, watching clouds roll in. Zoolk had told his story first, about his wolves and their sudden turn into rabid monsters, and the defense of the township that Captain Isaac guarded. Eela had turned her head at the mention of the name, and explained that she was a sort of creation, made by a man named Isaac. Her brothers were the same way, but they were taken by the being known as Casai.
"Our stories have the same end in mind," Eela said. "A man named Isaac and something trying to destroy the world called Casai." She looked at him. "It's impossible to think whatever Casai is he can exist in both of our worlds. The portals, the purple-" she looked around. "-Whatever kind of place this world is."
"There are far too many humans," Zoolk said.
"I suppose," Eela responded. "But that means there is a greater chance of one of us finding someone who knows what Casai is."
"You're going to keep looking?" Zoolk asked.
"Of course. We know little. I imagine there are more of us -- people that have come through portals to this world."
Zoolk pointed at the tallest building in the city. "The man there will know."
Eela shook her head. "No. No doubt there will be a powerful man there, but he will be more concerned with money or his business. No, the person we're looking for will be down there." She pointed over the edge of the apartment at the crowded sidewalk. "One of the people in this city will know something. The odds are with us."
Zoolk looked at the people on the ground with disgust.
"But first, we need to find somebody that will fix your hand and your leg. You're losing too much blood. You won't be any help if we need to fight . . . something." Both of them pictured different enemies. "Let me help you down, and we'll find a doctor."
"We're lost," Stasya said.
They stood on a random city block as people streamed past them. Hanna looked up at the towers with her head to one side. "I don't even know if I could have gotten us in. Let's do something else. Something that will help explain what's going on."
Hanna had moved her vision down to the ground, and was staring across the street.
"Maybe a professor or somebody will know about it. Maybe a scientist did something different, or . . . maybe something in the paper. Do you think you can read English?" Hanna remained looking across the street, narrowing her eyes. "Hanna?"
"Mm?" Hanna said, looking at Stasya.
"Do you see something more interesting than me over there?"
"Well, sort of. You remember me telling you about Jolyon? I could have sworn I saw him over there." She pointed at the entrance to a burger place. "But it couldn't be. He left ten years ago, and the person looked like him then."
"Hanna, I traveled back in time. It was three years in the future where I was."
Hanna looked back at where she'd seen the man. "So it could have been him?"
"I bet the portal you took brought you back to the same time he went through."
Hanna stood still for a few seconds, then started running to the corner. She looked wildly at the crossing cars until Stasya caught up to her. "Slow down, child, you're going to get yourself hurt!" Stasya hit the button to cross and they waited until the light changed. Hanna ran to the next corner and looked around.
"We have to find him!" Hanna said, gripping Stasya's arm. Stasya shook her off. "He studied a lot of things before creating his portal; I bet he can tell us what's happening!"
"Calm down!" Stasya hissed. "Which way did he go?"
Hanna looked down one street, and then the next. She pointed, and hurried off, leaving an already-breathless Stasya groaning.
"The library is about six blocks that way," Isaac said, pointing. "You'll need a library card to use the computers, though." He looked at Jol and Tetra. "Maybe I should come with you."
"What's a-" Tetra began, but he was cut off.
"Jol!" They heard a woman yell behind them. All three spun; Jol put a hand to his empty holster. They saw two women, one young and one old, coming at them. The young woman was smiling and running at Jolyon. She hit him with a hug that nearly took him off his feet. Tetra quickly pulled her away. "Jol!" She shouted again.
"Who . . . Hanna?" Jol said. "I . . . you . . . what?"
"Oho," Tetra said to Isaac. "I had no idea Hanna was so mature. You made her sound like a child, Jolyon!"
"You . . . she was!" Jol looked Hanna over. "Hanna, I saw you no more than a week ago! How did this happen?"
"To her, you've been gone for ten years," the old woman said. Isaac and Tetra turned to her. "She traveled back in time to when you came through."
"I don't believe we're introduced," Tetra said, extending his hand. "My name is Tetra. Yours?"
"Stasya."
"A pleasure. This is Isaac, our new friend." Stasya nodded at Isaac. "Do you know Jol?"
"Uh, no. I came through a portal from the future. A different future." She looked at Tetra sternly. "I figure you already know about the portals."
"I'm the only one here who's actually from here," Isaac said.
"Jol, Stasya came through a portal, just like me and you! There must be tons of them! I bet there are people from all sorts of worlds here!" Hanna said, still hugging Jol. "I wonder if we can find more?"
"It's not all fun and games, Hanna," Jol said. "This isn't all a good thing."
Hanna frowned and tilted her head.
Isaac sighed. "I have a few hours before I need to get to my next job. Let's go to the library, and we can talk there. Quietly."
"Gorgeous," was all Tetra could say when he saw the library. "So many books," he said in a dusky whisper. "I could spend the rest of my life here and not tire."
"It's even bigger than my father's," Hanna said in a similar whisper. They gazed around them at the tall shelves packed with books of all colors. Tetra took a trembling step forward, into the hazy sunlight that filtered through a large window. A few people glanced at him.
"Let's get to a room," Isaac said. "We can talk freely there." He took them into a little sitting room with six chairs arranged in a circle, prepared for the AA meeting that would take place that night. Isaac sat in one and sighed. "We already know what happened with Jol and Hanna," he said, and looked at Stasya. "Why don't you tell us what you know."
Stasya nodded and sat across from Isaac. Tetra sat on one side of Isaac, and Jol on the other. Hanna sat between Jol and Stasya. "My name is Stasya Melikov."
"It's a first," Tetra said. "So far all the worlds have been completely different from one another, but now here's one that is the same place . . . with unfortunate differences. Unless, Isaac, there is anything like the Tor or the cold two here." Isaac shook his head.
All information was out. After Stasya's story, Tetra had told his long and rambling tale about Hades the unlucky, the engine of fate, Casai, and how he and Jol met. Isaac felt tired trying to piece the tales together.
"Isaac," Stasya said. "The name was in my story too. He was the head of our group of survivors. He would have likely sentenced me to death had the portal not appeared."
"I don't think I knew an Isaac," Hanna said.
"There was one," Jol said. "He was one of the bodyguards that went down with us. I think he survived. Not as powerful as everyone else's, but he was there." Hanna looked at the ground with her hands under her legs, and nodded.
"Isaac," Stasya said, to the young man that sat looking at the ceiling. "Why are you here? What's happened to you in all of this?"
Nothing like any of you," Isaac said. "Tetra and Jolyon tried to order cheeseburgers from me and started freaking out about my name. They told me everything."
"That's not all, Isaac," Tetra said. Isaac looked at him with a pleading expression, but Tetra didn't see. "This poor young man has powerful hallucinations. He was even trapped inside one for a week." Hanna and Stasya looked at Isaac, who looked away.
"The doctors don't know why," he said. "I thought that I was in a hospital . . . a-a doctor's place . . . and there were these two women sort of . . . competing for me. I found out one of them was a hallucination, but the other one . . ." Isaac clenched his jaw. "The entire place turned out to be fake. Instead of a hospital with tests and doctors, I had been wandering around my apartment for a week, drinking little and eating less." He held up his wrist, showing the gauntness. "I'm still under my weight. Drugs don't help." He lowered his arm. "Nothing does."
"That sounds awful," Hanna said. Isaac nodded, a mere shift in the direction of his skull. "I'm so sorry Isaac."
"It doesn't matter," he said, getting out of his chair and stretching. "What matters, I guess, is figuring out what's going on with you four and the portals. And Casai." He looked out the window, and under the approaching clouds he saw a purple, rising moon with criss-crossing lines. He pretended not to see it. "Is there anything that we can figure out from what you told us?"
"Could we get some paper?" Tetra asked. "That might help us."
"I can get some from the librarian's desk," Isaac said, and he left the room as the others started talking. He went to the librarian's desk and asked for sheets of paper and a few pencils, careful to not mention the other people in the room, in case they weren't real.
When he turned away, he found Stasya behind him. He jumped, dropping a pencil. She bent and picked it up, returning it to him. "Isaac, do you think I could use the internet here?" She asked. "I want to check something."
"You'll just need a library card, ma'am," the librarian behind the desk said.
Isaac's heart caught in his throat. He took out his library card and handed it to her. "The pin is 22724." Stasya nodded and went to an open computer as Isaac returned to the room. She opened the browser and went to Google, typing in her name and the name of the school she'd taught at.
She clicked on the first result. Her bio from the school, in Russian. It was a year old.
'Stasya Melikov has been a part of our faculty for over ten years, and continues to encourage the children to do bigger and better things.' Stasya scanned down. The words at the end sent tremors down her spine. 'She lives with her husband and has a daughter studying at Petersburg.'
She looked at the words for a long time. Another difference between our worlds, she thought. Oh, Feodora. She took a breath that almost turned into a sob. She put a hand to her mouth and closed the browser. She went back to the room and sat down as Tetra rattled on.
"So then, ten years after that, Hanna found another portal and went through it, ending up at the same time that Jol went through, though a different world that he originally went to." Tetra tapped the eraser on his chin. "It's clear that the portals don't follow a constant time line. We were all brought to this time of this world. Why?"
"Maybe it's Isaac?" Hanna said. They'd ended up sitting next to each other. Isaac looked at her. "There's been an Isaac in all of our lives, maybe he has something to do with all of this."
Isaac shook his head.
"It's a possibility. It could be any number of explanations. We could be dealing with a near-impossible coincidence. But when I was exploring the portals before meeting Jol, many of the worlds had an Isaac. Not just that they were there, but in some position of power! Just the fact that our worlds, which have developed our own names and cultures, all identify the name Isaac as valid, is incredible!" Tetra said. Hanna smiled.
"So what does that mean?" Jolyon asked. "We've all been brought here. Could Isaac have something to do with it?"
Everyone looked at Isaac except for Stasya, who was lost in thought. Isaac shrugged.
"Could I see the timeline, Tetra?" Stasya asked. He gave it to her. Jolyon's story, then hers, then the strange tale of Tetra when he met Jol, then all of them coming to this world, and finally Hanna. "I heard a voice in my head while being chased by the cold two," she said, handing the paper back. "I didn't mention it before -- it didn't seem important -- but I remember something." She concentrated. The words had almost blocked themselves away. "Just as the fire will light itself, and the mind will open itself, so will the ice make itself." She looked up. "There was more. Destroying worlds, a coming together . . . I don't remember it."
"I heard something similar," Jol said, suddenly excited. "Right after I threw my sword at the lava monster. 'I live in other worlds,' or something like that. I'd forgotten until now."
"I believe I heard something as well," Tetra said. "When the other Hades smashed the engine of fate. It was short; I think I remember it." He paused. "You are pawns to me. You live your life like you control it, but you do not. I am the being across worlds, and the mind across time. You have powered me, and freed me just as I envisioned." He shivered. "The words . . . it was like they were whispered in my ear by a man that had me trapped."
"Like a blade across slate," Jol said.
"Cold water down your spine," Stasya finished.
"Was it the same thing?" Tetra asked. "The same entity? Casai?"
The room was quiet.
"It must have been," Tetra continued. "Coincidences be damned."
"No, you're right," Stasya said. "There are too many similar points to say it's multiple extra-dimensional beings talking to us."
"Whatever do we do next?" Hanna asked. She rested her head on Isaac's shoulder, who blushed. "What is his goal?"
"We already know that," Jol said. "He's told three of us already. He wants to destroy our worlds." Jol looked out the window at the starting storm. "All of them."
"This won't make things easier," Eela said, feeling drops hit her hat. "Come, let's find a place for you to rest." She led Zoolk to a covered bus stop and let him sit. "Are you all right?"
Zoolk shivered. The wound on his hand wasn't bleeding, but his leg was. He sighed as he sat, stretching his long limbs. The other people at the bus stop watched them: a giant black man covered in scruffy clothes with a staff and a seemingly-young woman in nice clothes. She'd stolen them, but they didn't know that. The bus was two blocks away.
Eela gazed up at the clouds. "It could go for a while. Do you know anywhere we could stay, somewhere you could get rest?"
Zoolk shook his head. "I'm a stranger here, same as you," he growled. "I know nobody."
"I don't know anything about this city," Eela said. "There must be some place you can get help."
She took a look at the wound on his leg. Blood pumped out. Someone at the bus stop gasped. Eela nodded to herself. "Let's keep moving. I wonder if we can find supplies at a store."
The bus, one block away, came to a screeching halt. Zoolk and others with them jumped. Eela looked over at it. As she watched, it was pushed over, revealing four gray forms lit by purple globes set in their skin.
Eela scooped the massive Zoolk up with one motion and sprinted away, carrying him like he was a handbag. As screams and shouts erupted behind her, the wind tore away her hat and sunglasses, revealing her glowing eyes and sparking hair. Without turning her head, she knew her brothers were coming after her, chasing with the same uncanny speed that she possessed. The only one she had to worry about was Three; none of the others could dare catch her. Carrying Zoolk, Three had a chance.
She cut to her right, between two buildings, relying on the labyrinth of alleys to keep her out of sight of the four controlled by Casai. She took more turns, slinging Zoolk along in her arms. Her electric green-streaked hair sparkled in the darkening day.
The thumps of her brother's feet came from behind her, struggling to keep up. She had beaten them each one-on-one, but fighting them all at once would mean her destruction, Zoolk's death, and this city being leveled.
"I wonder what all those are going to," Isaac said, seeing the police sirens blur past. The five of them stood under the entrance to the library.
"I think I might know," Stasya said. "We need to hide."
"What?" Jol asked. "Your friends?"
"They followed me here," Stasya said. "I ran from them just before I met Hanna."
"And you didn't think to tell us?" Isaac asked. "That's so kind of you!" He rubbed his face. "Let's go to my apartment. You can stay there while I go to work. How much gold do you have?" He asked Tetra.
"A few more ounces."
"That will help. It's about ten blocks that way," Isaac said, pointing. "Let's go."
"Here." Eela put down Zoolk. "Don't make a sound," she told him. She checked around the corner of the building he leaned against, seeing and hearing nothing. "We got away." She looked at Zoolk. "Those were my brothers. They would have killed you."
"They would have tried," Zoolk snarled.
"And they would have succeeded," Eela said, kneeling next to him and checking his leg again. "They have just as much power as me, and in some ways more. They are not wild animals. They are machines, even more than I am."
She took him in her arms again. "Put me down, woman," he said. "I can walk."
"You can, but you won't. This is faster, better for you, and I could carry another of you and still outstrip any of my brothers. It's no use struggling, either," she said as Zoolk writhed. "Let's find someone that will help you."
"Are you worried about your hair and eyes?" Zoolk asked. Eela shook her head.
"More worried about my brothers." She looked up and down the dampening street. "This city was designed by a madman."
"I still think going to the highest tower is the best bet."
"Yes. You're also losing blood every moment. Your decisions will get worse."
She took a step and five people came around the corner, two women and three men. They stopped when they saw her and Zoolk. Eela took a step backwards.
"Wait!" The younger woman shouted. "You came through a portal, didn't you?"
Eela nodded. So did Zoolk.
"Here," Isaac said, dumping the contents of his arms on the floor. "Bandages, medical tape, painkillers, compression wrap." Eela picked up the bandages and motioned for Zoolk to stretch his leg.
They'd spent the last two hours talking in Isaac's apartment. In retrospect, Isaac should have assumed that the bionic woman carrying the huge black man had come from a different world, but he'd had his doubts at the beginning. Zoolk and Eela had told their stories, and how they'd met, and then Tetra had explained everything that had happened with the other five. It had taken a little bit of time for Zoolk to get over the fact that Hanna and Stasya's name didn't start with a vowel, which apparently was the norm on his world.
Both he and the glowing-green woman looked surprised when Isaac told them his name. The details of their stories cemented what the other five had been suspecting: Casai was trying to destroy everything, and in some cases had already succeeded. The importance of the name Isaac became greater, but for what reason nobody knew. When Isaac came back from the store with food and drink and medical supplies, the other six watched him with strange expressions.
"What is everybody looking at me for?" He said as Eela started wrapping Zoolk's leg in a bandage. "What's going on?"
"Tetra discovered something," Jol said. "About Casai."
"What?" Isaac said to Tetra. "What is it?"
"It's strange; none of us saw it at first. Isaac, your name is just Casai scrambled."
Isaac frowned. "That can't mean anything."
"It could, though," Stasya said from the couch. "All of our worlds there is an Isaac, usually someone with control or power. Casai spoke to all of us, with the exception of Hanna. Now we realize Casai and Isaac are just anagrams. Another coincidence we can't rely on."
"This is insane," Isaac said. He went to his bedroom and came out a moment later with a golden zip-up hoodie sweatshirt. "I'm going to call in sick at work, and we're going to figure out what exactly is happening," he said, putting the sweatshirt on over his t-shirt. He felt momentarily calm, then opened his eyes and saw six strangers sitting in his living room. "This is all just ridiculous."
"We know," Jol said. "We've all had to deal with that fact."
Isaac rubbed his head. "I'm going to make a big pot of spaghetti. I feel hungry, and I bet the rest of you do, too." He took a step into the kitchen. "If somebody wanted to help, that'd be nice."
Moments later he was filling up his biggest saucepan with water, and Hanna entered the room. He heard talking from the other room, mostly Stasya and Tetra.
"Are you all right?" Hanna asked. "You seem upset."
"Of course I'm upset," Isaac said after getting over the surprise of seeing her. He almost felt excited. "What's happening out there is unbelievable. You have to see that."
"I see it," Hanna said with a low voice. "I was ten when all this started for me." Isaac put the pan on the stove and took a few boxes of noodles out of the bags of food he'd brought home. She put her hand on his arm, and his skin prickled. "There's something else, isn't there?" She smiled.
Isaac almost smiled back. He remembered the last time a girl had smiled at him in that way. She had been a mockery, made by his own mind. He looked at the noodles.
"My hallucinations," he said. "They've been getting worse. I didn't think that was possible after what I went through, but . . ." He started opening boxes. "For the past few days, I've been seeing planets, moons . . . sometimes even long landscapes that shouldn't be there. They last. Normally, hallucinations will come in and out quickly, but these . . ."
"And you don't think that we're real."
Isaac watched the water in the pan. It would take some time for it to boil. "Not entirely. What I've been through . . . it made me doubt a lot of things. For months after that I wondered if this day or that day were just hallucinations of normal life. If anything strange happened I wondered if I was trapped again. I was scared to meet anybody's eye or talk to them. They might have been fake."
"Well, I'm not fake," Hanna said. "I know that much."
"Why wouldn't a hallucination say that?"
Hanna creased her forehead. Isaac took the chance to glance at her eyes, and she caught him. She giggled.
"I know one way to prove I'm real," she said.
Isaac backed up. He pictured Alena. "No. No. Stay back!" He closed his eyes and gripped the cloth of his sweatshirt. "I'm sorry, I-I . . . " He leaned against a counter. "In the hospital . . . the one I hallucinated . . . the doctor told me that I couldn't touch hallucinations. They touched me anyway. Almost like it was a dream."
Hanna's lips pressed together, and her eyebrows tilted. "I've already touched you," she said. "More than once. Right? Before, in the library, and here. So there are only two options."
Isaac nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of."
Hanna glanced at the direction of the living room. She and Isaac heard Zoolk's deep voice rumble. "Isaac, tell me what I look like," she said.
"What?"
"Come on now. This is something my mother had me do once, when I had a fever. She asked me to describe her."
Isaac's mouth opened and closed. He scratched his head. "Well, you're about five foot six, pretty thin. Uh, you have long white-silver hair, big brown eyes."
"Keep going," Hanna said. She was smiling. "My clothes."
Isaac had trouble swallowing. "A white shirt with lace edges and scalloped sleeves, and a blue skirt that goes to your ankles." He said it quietly, embarrassed. "And gray shoes."
"Which are not good for all this running around," Hanna said. "More."
"Somewhat tan skin. Thin wrists. A prominent collarbone."
"Okay. That's good enough. Now you. Let's see." Hanna looked him up and down, and he almost turned away. "Nice and tall. Almost as tall as Jol. Too thin. Curly brown hair and dark eyes. A nice, strong chin." She smiled. "A gold sweatshirt and white shirt under it. Blue pants."
"They're called jeans."
"Jeans, white socks. A tired expression. Bags under your eyes. Twitchy, nervous. For good reason. That's what you look like."
"Yeah." Isaac's heart pounded.
"But there's so much more in there," she said, poking his chest with a finger. "I couldn't dare know it. Just like you, there's more in here than you think." She tapped over her own heart. "I could tell you my entire life story if we had the time."
Isaac watched her clasp her hands in front of her. She tilted her head and the light over them glinted off her silver hair. "Feel better?"
Isaac took a breath. His mind whirled. "I do, I guess. I mean . . . you could still be a hallucination-"
"I know I'm not."
"And I don't know you're not lying. But I feel better about it. Before, in the hospital, everything seemed bad. Trying to hurt me. You seem . . . nice."
"Good." Hanna spread her arms. "Hug?"
Isaac stood stock still. She grinned. He took a step forward and they wrapped their arms around each other. She was a calming weight inside his arms. He heard her breathe, and a feeling of joy grew.
"Well well," he heard a smug voice say. "I'm gone for a few weeks and you're already into the arms of another woman?"
Isaac jumped back, burned by the voice. He found a blond woman leaning against the back wall of the kitchen, arms crossed, glasses at the end of her nose, her smile curved mischievously. "Who's this tramp?"
Not now, Isaac thought. Just when things felt all right.
"Isaac?" Hanna said. "Who is that?"
He went cold. So it is all just fake. Every piece of it, from the restaurant this after noon, and the library, and the stories, and here. And Hanna. Where am I? Lying in a ditch somewhere? Talking to myself and hugging thin air in my apartment?
"She's a hallucination," Isaac said quietly. "Just like you are."
"What?" Hanna said.
"You've wizened up since last time, pretty boy," Alena said. She wasn't wearing her hospital scrubs. Instead she had faded jeans with holes in the knees and a purple t-shirt. "I bet you've been waiting for this to happen, haven't you? Waiting so you can take advantage of your mind's beautiful creations." Alena looked at Hanna. "Aren't you pretty. Has he kissed you yet?"
Hanna blushed. "No! We're just-"
"Let me guess." Alena took a simpering tone. "It's a difficult time for both of us! We just want to feel safe! Wah wah wah," she said in her normal voice. "Now Isaac is realizing how alone he is, how alone he still is."
Isaac grabbed the gold cloth of his sweatshirt and twisted it, turning his eyes away from Alena. Tears fell on his cheeks.
"Aw, don't cry," she said, stepping closer and wiping one away. He swiped at her, screaming. She ducked back, the smile still on her face.
The people still in the living room came running. Jol, Stasya, and Eela appeared in the doorway and saw Alena looking triumphant.
"Isaac-"
"Get out!" He screamed. "All of you just get out of my head!"
"It isn't that simple, Isaac."
The voice came from behind the three in the doorway. They parted, revealing a young woman with dark hair wearing a black skirt and white blouse. This un-identical twin to Alena took steps forward on black heels. "Alena and I were hallucinations once, but not for much longer. It's because of you.
"And because of Casai."
Missy came into the kitchen, making Isaac take a few steps away. Hanna didn't move. "In fact, you're the only person here who has always been real, but soon they'll all be. From the fat magician to the mechanical woman to the sweet young thing Alena caught you getting close to, they're all turning into people just as real as you."
"How?" Isaac asked. "Why? Casai?"
"In a way," Alena said, dropping her fun-loving voice. "He needed your help. He picked you for your powerful imagination, someone who could picture everything." She paused and tilted her head up to the ceiling. "From a harrowing future of monsters to worlds unlike anything you've seen before. They're coming together, you see, becoming real, because of the hallucinations Casai gave you."
"He needs you, Isaac," Missy continued. "He needs you to bring it all together."
"To destroy?" Eela said. "To destroy everything?"
"Yes Eela," Missy said, turning to the metal woman. "Your brothers tearing down the city was just one of thousands of worlds falling to the power of The Destroyer. Zoolk's pack and the other animals was another. The Tor would have succeeded in a few more years," she said to Stasya. "Along with the Cold Three that you barely escaped becoming a part of."
"Why are you here?" Isaac asked, straining to get the words out. "Telling us all of this?"
"Because Casai isn't done with you. You're making the worlds real, yes, but he needs you to do one more thing. Telling you would be pointless -- you don't know how to do it anyway -- but just knowing will make you do something." Missy smiled. Not the rogue smile that Alena had, but a smile that had no well-meaning behind it. It wanted him to hurt. "In a matter of minutes, the people around you will become just as real as you. So will Alena and I. So will all the worlds they have described and more."
Alena joined Missy at the door to the kitchen. The two women, once harrowing parts of Isaac's hallucinations, put their arms around each others' waists. "And so will Casai."
And they were gone.
This story is continued in All Comes Together Part Two.
Jolyon of the Flame peeled back the board and settled back against his heels. The portal wavered.
Tetra looked at Hades and Rose. "It's been confirmed. The other you, the unfortunate one, seems to have powered these portals with his worst moments. Here, where the other Rose was killed, is the final portal. This should lead us to where we want to go."
Jol stood and stretched out his back. "I'm going. Tetra?" The scholar nodded. "Hades?"
Hades shook his head. "I can't leave. I have to run things here. You'll be in my prayers."
Tetra nodded. "Thank you." He looked at Jol, the man from another world. "Ready?"
"Nothing left to do but
step inside," Jol said.
They stood on a hill in a large grassy area on a clear, cool day. Puffy clouds scuttled across the blue sky. The two men, each from a different world, gazed around them in silent wonder. Tall, gray buildings rose beyond the trees and sparkled in the sunlight. Jol adjusted his pack.
"Perhaps you should hide your weapon," Tetra said. "This world's inhabitants might not appreciate it."
"You think they'll know what it is?" Jol asked, taking the steam-powered pistol out of his hip holster and stashing it away. "I suppose better safe than sorry."
"Quite. Shall we?"
"Do we even know what we're looking for?" Jol asked as they started walking.
"No. We simply know that this is the place to find it. Hades -- the other one -- was some sort of catalyst for whatever entity created the Unlucky. That was the last portal created using his sorrow -- it must be the one we need."
"I hope you're right," Jol said. "I'd hate this to be a wild flur chase."
Tetra raised an eyebrow in his direction.
They got to the edge of the grassy area and stepped into a hectic zone of vehicles and people. The streets were thronged with sound and sights, and the two men found themselves staring up and around more than walking.
After an hour, Jol raised his voice. "We should have eaten something before we left. We didn't bring that much, either."
"Yes. However, this place looks frighteningly civilized. I'm sure that we can find food somewhere." Before Jol could stop him, Tetra tapped the man next to him on the shoulder. "My good man! My companion and I are new here. Could you direct us to a place that will sell us food?"
The man, who wore a faded cap and gray coat, muttered something. He pointed across the street at a place called Boushlav Burgers, and then hustled away.
Tetra crossed the street, and was startled by a blaring horn. He ran the rest of the way, fat jiggling, and Jol followed, mouthing sorry to the man behind the car. He entered Boushlav Burgers behind Tetra. There was the smell of cooked meat and other food.
"Tetra . . . will we be able to pay?"
"I have a few forms of payment," Tetra said. "We may have to haggle." Seeing the path to the white counter free, Tetra waddled to it, beaming.
Isaac wasn't sure what to make of the fat man that stepped up. He wore strange clothes -- to say nothing of the man that had entered with him, who looked dressed for battle.
Yet . . . Isaac couldn't imagine him a hallucination. He'd gotten good at picking them out. This man seemed too real, too forward, and too cheerful.
"Young man!" He said to Isaac, who wore a white cap and uniform. "I would like to purchase two of your . . . caheeseboorgoors. I'm new in this city, however, and I'm not sure what sort of payment you will require. I have several bills of varying amounts, gold-" The man stopped suddenly, staring at something behind Isaac. Isaac whirled. There was nothing. He looked back at the man slowly.
"Your name," the man said. "Isaac!"
Isaac looked down at his name tag. "Excuse me," he muttered, just loud enough for the man to hear. He stepped to his manager, and his manager recognized the look. "The man at the counter, and the man behind him. Wearing strange clothes," Isaac said, shaking. The manager looked quickly.
"I see them. They're real. Very out of place, but real."
Isaac let out a pent breath and went back to the counter. The man leaned in. "Your name is Isaac?"
"Yes," Isaac said. Even if he wasn't a hallucination, he was still strange.
The man looked behind him. "Jol, his name is Isaac." The other man jumped, and rushed up. The first man pointed at Isaac's name tag, and Jol looked. "Can it be a coincidence?"
Isaac listened as the men talked, confused. "It could be," the one named Jol said. "But we might as well start looking here. We need to find some information."
The first man turned to Isaac. "Young Isaac, my name is Tetra. This is Jolyon." Jolyon nodded. "We'd like to discuss some things with you."
"W-well, I don't finish my shift until two. You'll have to wait until then. Um . . . do you still want the cheeseburgers?"
Tetra looked at Jol, who nodded. "Yes please."
None of the money they had was legal, but the gold seemed real. Isaac paid for the burgers out of his wages and kept a small bar of gold, figuring he was getting the better deal. For the next three hours, the two men sat in a stall at the back of the store and talked in low voices. Isaac watched them with apprehension.
Finally he punched out and pulled up a chair to their booth.
"Your cheeseburgers!" Tetra said. "Exquisite! What was the yellow stuff?" He asked.
"That's the cheese," Isaac said. "What do you want to talk about?"
Tetra and Jol exchanged a glance.
Jol began. He told a story about fighting a red monster in a mine, a voice that spoke to him, and his subsequent study of the monster. He told him about finding a portal that led him to Tetra.
Tetra followed by telling Isaac about what he knew about the story from his world. His exploration of the portals, followed by the transportation to the mirror world with the other Tetra and Hades, and the strange purple machine that they called the Engine of Fate, and the word etched on the side: Casai.
Isaac felt a feeling go through his stomach when he heard it.
They finished by explaining how they got to his world -- looking for a portal at the final unlucky event of the other Hades' life, the death of Rose.
"I saw your name tag," Tetra explained. "Just like all the other worlds. Isaac. Though you don't seem to be in a position of power, like so many are."
Isaac laughed. "A position of power I am not." He looked around. His Saturday was dwindling. "I work here three days a week, a bookstore six. I take pills to keep myself from going crazy, and I still have hallucinations."
"Hallucinations?" Jol asked. "What are those?"
"You . . . I see things that aren't there. People. Objects." Isaac looked at his hands, clenched in his lap. "They can be very vivid. I had to check to make sure you two weren't when you first came up to the counter."
Tetra laid his hand on Isaac's shoulder. "We're as real as you are, Isaac," he said, smiling. Isaac's face went pale, and he pulled his hands away. "We have a few questions, now. Do you know anyone named Casai?"
Isaac shook his head. "I've never even heard the name before."
"Have you heard any voices?" Jol asked. "Both of us have heard an unearthly voice speak to us. I right after sending the fire monster back down its hole, and Tetra after the engine was smashed."
Isaac nodded. "The hallucinations sometimes talk to me. I try not to talk back to anyone, in case they might not be real. But I haven't ever heard a voice without something else being there." Except at the hospital.
"Your hallucinations," Tetra said, "how bad can they get?"
Isaac thought about the hospital. "I was once trapped inside for a week, talking and moving around inside a dream that I thought was real. But . . . that doesn't happen anymore. I have a sweatshirt that I use. I know when I see it, I'm not in a hallucination. It's gold. I wear it often, even in the heat. It's like a protection." Isaac looked around. The restaurant was filling up. "Do you two need to know anything else?"
The two men looked at each other. "No, I suppose not," Tetra said.
Isaac stood. "Are you two going to be all right?"
"We'll be fine. We know how to handle ourselves," Jol said. They all rose and exited Boushlav Burgers. "Actually, Isaac, do you have any idea where we might be able to find the information we're looking for? Isaac? Isaac are you all right?"
Isaac tore his eyes away from the planet that hovered over the clouds. "I'm fine."
Hours earlier, Stasya sat on a park bench. She hadn't experienced heat like this since being driven north by the Tor. She'd found a newspaper and realized she'd not only traveled through space -- to somewhere that used English as its first language -- but back in time three years. Stranger still, the Tor should have already clawed their way out of the antarctic ice by this time, but not one page of the paper said anything about them.
She was sitting on the bench, her coat and gloves next to her, when she heard screaming. When she looked up, she found two tall, thin, blue figures striding towards her through the people on the sidewalk, splitting them like the red sea. Without pausing she ran.
The things that used to be David and Lucya charged after her. If they could run as fast as they had in the cavern under the Siberian plain, she was doomed, but she glanced behind her and found them lagging in the heat. Someone would call the police. They would call the army. They would call someone to destroy those things!
Ten minutes later she huddled behind a trash can in an alley. She couldn't tell what city she was in -- it seemed like it could have been New York, or Chicago. David would have known.
"Excuse me," someone said behind her. She jumped and spun, banging the can and making a clatter. She found a young woman wearing a dirty skirt and blouse. "You aren't from here, are you?"
She spoke English. "No, I'm from Russia," Stasya answered. She looked over her shoulder for the frozen wraiths.
"No, I mean you're from a different world. Like me."
Stasya looked at the woman. She had long silvery hair and bright brown eyes. She could have been a princess. "I don't know what you mean."
"Sure you do. You went through a portal to this city. What was your world like?" Stasya's mouth dropped open. "What's wrong?" The girl asked. "Are you hiding from those blue things?"
"I . . . yes. What's your name, girl?"
"Hanna of Tern. What's yours?"
"Stasya Melikov. You say you came through a portal?"
"Yes. I didn't really mean to, but I got too close. It closed behind me when I did."
"The same thing happened to me. But I meant to go in."
"Why?" Hanna asked.
"Let's find somewhere safer," Stasya said. "Somewhere with a lot of people around us, and I'll tell you everything."
They made it to a large park area with a bandstand. Picnickers and couples sat on the grass around them, talking and laughing and enjoying the cool day. Stasya gazed at the empty bandstand for a few minutes before telling Hanna about her world: the Tor had appeared in the year 2012, and had pushed humanity up into the colder areas of the north. She told her about the strange tunnels and caves that she and her friends found, and how the two of them became the blue things that had chased her. She told Hanna how her group had confined her to a tent, believing she murdered the other two and hidden their bodies. She told her about jumping into a portal and finding herself in an alternate world -- the same Earth, minus the Tor.
Hanna listened, nodding, with her shoes off and her arms around her knees. The wind blew her hair like a banner. When Stasya finished, Hanna explained about her world: the story of how the red lava monster appeared every ten years, how ten girls were selected to drive it back, and how things had gone so wrong ten years before. She told Stasya how Jolyon of the Flame, her protector, had thrown his sword at the monster and made it disappear and then fainted, after which he asked to stay with Hanna's family and study. She told about how he'd opened a portal with a gold leaf and a feather, and disappeared. Then, after ten years, how she'd found another one and fallen in, only to see it close behind her.
The two women, one nearing fifty and one barely twenty, sat next to each other. One had spent the last three years in Siberia, cut thin and dry by the cold and constant worry. The other had grown and matured at her father's estate on a hill overlooking the city of Tern; two people of different forms brought together.
"Why do you think that the portals appeared?" Hanna asked. "Why do you think they brought us both here?"
Stasya shook her head. "I have no idea."
Hanna tapped her chin. "So this is the same world you came from but with just one difference?" Stasya shrugged. "But my world is entirely different." She went on tapping her chin. Stasya looked up at the blue sky. Some clouds were in the south sky. "What if we do have the same world, but mine is a lot more different?"
"Do you recognize the word America? Russia? Europe?" Hanna shook her head. "I don't think we have the same world."
"We speak the same language, though."
Stasya opened her mouth to say that her native language was Russian, but it didn't matter. The girl was right. She spoke English even though she was from someplace entirely different. She frowned. "Your friend-"
"Jolyon."
"Yes. Did he speak English?"
"Mmm hmm. Everybody did. Is that what you call it? English?"
"What's your name for it?" Stasya asked. Hanna shrugged.
"We don't have a name for it. We just speak it." She paused. "Do you think Jol came to this world?"
"He could have. Maybe all the portals come here. Like this is some sort of . . . central world."
"Like the center hole in a gear!" Hanna agreed. She looked around. "Do you think we could find portals to go back?"
Stasya kept staring at the warm sky. "I don't think I want to go back. All of my friends think I killed two others. They were going to exile me from human camps. I was going to die. From the Tor or from exposure, I don't know . . . but where we were it was a death sentence one way or the other. There aren't any Tor here, and I'm a free woman."
"I wonder if you could meet yourself."
Stasya whipped her head around. "What?"
"This is your world but a bit different, right? Do you think the you from this world is here? What do you think you'd be doing if the Tor hadn't come?"
Stasya looked back at the sky. "I was a teacher. I taught physical education to high-schoolers. Teenagers. Younger than yourself. I had a husband; we lived in Russia."
"Did you have any children?"
Stasya didn't answer immediately. She took her eyes off the sky. "No."
"Do you think we could contact the other you?" Hanna asked.
"We can look her up, but I know if a different me contacted me and told me the things I'd gone through . . . I'd think I was going crazy, or something. But there are ways to find out about her."
Hanna stood. "Let's go do it, then!"
"What, now?" Stasya asked. Hanna nodded. "Well . . . all right. We need to be on the lookout for Lu- the blue guys. If you see them, tell me right away, all right?" Hanna nodded, smiling. She hesitated. "We can probably pass for mother and daughter. Can you call me mother?"
Hanna nodded again. "Yes mother!" She took a few steps away from where they stood, and Stasya watched her walk with a cold grip around her.
He was a strange one.
Tall -- very tall -- dark skin, long black hair and beard, wearing little more than rags and furs, carrying a long staff, bleeding from the leg and hand . . . Eela hadn't seen anyone like him. His eyes darted from person to person as they moved out of his way. The people avoided him. He muttered to himself.
Eela gazed out from under her sunglasses and wide hat in the shade of a coffee house awning. So far, nobody knew of the one called Casai, the Destroyer. In fact, everyone she'd asked had looked at her like she was unhinged.
This one, though, he would give her a straight answer. If he said he didn't know, she would be able to believe him. She rose from her chair and started walking after him, easily able to keep him in her sight due to how high he towered over the pedestrians in this primitive city. She kept her head down, knowing to attract to much attention would make things much more difficult.
The wild-looking man was heading into the city, toward the tallest building. He didn't care about the people he pushed out of the way; they were like little creatures to him, to be ignored. Eela needed to find a place to talk to him out of the way.
She looked over to her left, seeing a shadowed alley. There was a blur and she disappeared.
Zoolk's thundercloud thoughts rained down hate on the human city. At one time he'd been away from all this, now he was back. And, just like before, the humans here looked at him like he was a monster. He glared right back, daring any of them to attack him, but none of them did. He needed answers, and this place would surely have them. Who Casai was, why this force had tried to control him, and succeeded in taking over his pack and the rest of the animals. Whoever lived in the tall tower would know.
His furred feet scraped over the blocks of stone set in the ground as he tried to ignore the stench of the humans around him, and their noisome carts. He needed to get away. He took a turn and started down a less-crowded street, still heading for the tallest tower.
At least, he was, until a sudden and furious force pulled him in between two shorter buildings. He found his feet and wrenched free of the grasp, and took up his staff in both hands, baring his teeth.
A small woman stood in the alley with him, with a large hat and something dark over her eyes. "I want to speak with you," the woman said.
Zoolk sneered and turned to leave.
"You aren't from here."
He stopped at the end of the alley, a few inches from being back in the sun. "You came from a different world." He turned himself around and found the woman looking up at him, craning her neck back to see his face. The dark covering kept her eyes from him. "I didn't know until I touched you," she said. "But I'm sure of it."
"I don't know what you mean," Zoolk said.
"You mean to tell me you didn't come through a portal into this world, from whatever place you called home?"
Zoolk watched her as she put a hand to her face. It came away with the sunglasses.
He recoiled, seeing the green glow from her eyes. He nearly brought his staff down on her, thinking she was some agent of the same force that had brought his pack under a spell. But, no, this wasn't the same. Green, instead of purple, and certainly no animal.
"I see I've alarmed you," she said. She hadn't moved as he nearly swung his staff on her head. She removed the hat and brushed out her reddish hair, shining with green globes. "My name is Eela. I also came from a different world . . . a destroyed world. I . . . have four brothers. They were swayed to kill everything by a force I don't understand."
"Casai," Zoolk said, and Eela blinked.
"You know him?!" She stepped forward smoothly. "Tell me! Tell me everything you know!"
Zoolk took a step back. The sun came out from behind a building into his eye. "I'm also looking for him. He turned my family against me. I'm going to kill him."
Eela stood, arms wrapped around themselves, locking his eyes with hers. "That may not be possible."
Eela slipped the glove back on her hand, hiding the shining green globe. "I stepped through, to this place. I found clothes, and started asking people about Casai. You're the first person to know anything."
The two of them sat together on top of an apartment building, watching clouds roll in. Zoolk had told his story first, about his wolves and their sudden turn into rabid monsters, and the defense of the township that Captain Isaac guarded. Eela had turned her head at the mention of the name, and explained that she was a sort of creation, made by a man named Isaac. Her brothers were the same way, but they were taken by the being known as Casai.
"Our stories have the same end in mind," Eela said. "A man named Isaac and something trying to destroy the world called Casai." She looked at him. "It's impossible to think whatever Casai is he can exist in both of our worlds. The portals, the purple-" she looked around. "-Whatever kind of place this world is."
"There are far too many humans," Zoolk said.
"I suppose," Eela responded. "But that means there is a greater chance of one of us finding someone who knows what Casai is."
"You're going to keep looking?" Zoolk asked.
"Of course. We know little. I imagine there are more of us -- people that have come through portals to this world."
Zoolk pointed at the tallest building in the city. "The man there will know."
Eela shook her head. "No. No doubt there will be a powerful man there, but he will be more concerned with money or his business. No, the person we're looking for will be down there." She pointed over the edge of the apartment at the crowded sidewalk. "One of the people in this city will know something. The odds are with us."
Zoolk looked at the people on the ground with disgust.
"But first, we need to find somebody that will fix your hand and your leg. You're losing too much blood. You won't be any help if we need to fight . . . something." Both of them pictured different enemies. "Let me help you down, and we'll find a doctor."
"We're lost," Stasya said.
They stood on a random city block as people streamed past them. Hanna looked up at the towers with her head to one side. "I don't even know if I could have gotten us in. Let's do something else. Something that will help explain what's going on."
Hanna had moved her vision down to the ground, and was staring across the street.
"Maybe a professor or somebody will know about it. Maybe a scientist did something different, or . . . maybe something in the paper. Do you think you can read English?" Hanna remained looking across the street, narrowing her eyes. "Hanna?"
"Mm?" Hanna said, looking at Stasya.
"Do you see something more interesting than me over there?"
"Well, sort of. You remember me telling you about Jolyon? I could have sworn I saw him over there." She pointed at the entrance to a burger place. "But it couldn't be. He left ten years ago, and the person looked like him then."
"Hanna, I traveled back in time. It was three years in the future where I was."
Hanna looked back at where she'd seen the man. "So it could have been him?"
"I bet the portal you took brought you back to the same time he went through."
Hanna stood still for a few seconds, then started running to the corner. She looked wildly at the crossing cars until Stasya caught up to her. "Slow down, child, you're going to get yourself hurt!" Stasya hit the button to cross and they waited until the light changed. Hanna ran to the next corner and looked around.
"We have to find him!" Hanna said, gripping Stasya's arm. Stasya shook her off. "He studied a lot of things before creating his portal; I bet he can tell us what's happening!"
"Calm down!" Stasya hissed. "Which way did he go?"
Hanna looked down one street, and then the next. She pointed, and hurried off, leaving an already-breathless Stasya groaning.
"The library is about six blocks that way," Isaac said, pointing. "You'll need a library card to use the computers, though." He looked at Jol and Tetra. "Maybe I should come with you."
"What's a-" Tetra began, but he was cut off.
"Jol!" They heard a woman yell behind them. All three spun; Jol put a hand to his empty holster. They saw two women, one young and one old, coming at them. The young woman was smiling and running at Jolyon. She hit him with a hug that nearly took him off his feet. Tetra quickly pulled her away. "Jol!" She shouted again.
"Who . . . Hanna?" Jol said. "I . . . you . . . what?"
"Oho," Tetra said to Isaac. "I had no idea Hanna was so mature. You made her sound like a child, Jolyon!"
"You . . . she was!" Jol looked Hanna over. "Hanna, I saw you no more than a week ago! How did this happen?"
"To her, you've been gone for ten years," the old woman said. Isaac and Tetra turned to her. "She traveled back in time to when you came through."
"I don't believe we're introduced," Tetra said, extending his hand. "My name is Tetra. Yours?"
"Stasya."
"A pleasure. This is Isaac, our new friend." Stasya nodded at Isaac. "Do you know Jol?"
"Uh, no. I came through a portal from the future. A different future." She looked at Tetra sternly. "I figure you already know about the portals."
"I'm the only one here who's actually from here," Isaac said.
"Jol, Stasya came through a portal, just like me and you! There must be tons of them! I bet there are people from all sorts of worlds here!" Hanna said, still hugging Jol. "I wonder if we can find more?"
"It's not all fun and games, Hanna," Jol said. "This isn't all a good thing."
Hanna frowned and tilted her head.
Isaac sighed. "I have a few hours before I need to get to my next job. Let's go to the library, and we can talk there. Quietly."
"Gorgeous," was all Tetra could say when he saw the library. "So many books," he said in a dusky whisper. "I could spend the rest of my life here and not tire."
"It's even bigger than my father's," Hanna said in a similar whisper. They gazed around them at the tall shelves packed with books of all colors. Tetra took a trembling step forward, into the hazy sunlight that filtered through a large window. A few people glanced at him.
"Let's get to a room," Isaac said. "We can talk freely there." He took them into a little sitting room with six chairs arranged in a circle, prepared for the AA meeting that would take place that night. Isaac sat in one and sighed. "We already know what happened with Jol and Hanna," he said, and looked at Stasya. "Why don't you tell us what you know."
Stasya nodded and sat across from Isaac. Tetra sat on one side of Isaac, and Jol on the other. Hanna sat between Jol and Stasya. "My name is Stasya Melikov."
"It's a first," Tetra said. "So far all the worlds have been completely different from one another, but now here's one that is the same place . . . with unfortunate differences. Unless, Isaac, there is anything like the Tor or the cold two here." Isaac shook his head.
All information was out. After Stasya's story, Tetra had told his long and rambling tale about Hades the unlucky, the engine of fate, Casai, and how he and Jol met. Isaac felt tired trying to piece the tales together.
"Isaac," Stasya said. "The name was in my story too. He was the head of our group of survivors. He would have likely sentenced me to death had the portal not appeared."
"I don't think I knew an Isaac," Hanna said.
"There was one," Jol said. "He was one of the bodyguards that went down with us. I think he survived. Not as powerful as everyone else's, but he was there." Hanna looked at the ground with her hands under her legs, and nodded.
"Isaac," Stasya said, to the young man that sat looking at the ceiling. "Why are you here? What's happened to you in all of this?"
Nothing like any of you," Isaac said. "Tetra and Jolyon tried to order cheeseburgers from me and started freaking out about my name. They told me everything."
"That's not all, Isaac," Tetra said. Isaac looked at him with a pleading expression, but Tetra didn't see. "This poor young man has powerful hallucinations. He was even trapped inside one for a week." Hanna and Stasya looked at Isaac, who looked away.
"The doctors don't know why," he said. "I thought that I was in a hospital . . . a-a doctor's place . . . and there were these two women sort of . . . competing for me. I found out one of them was a hallucination, but the other one . . ." Isaac clenched his jaw. "The entire place turned out to be fake. Instead of a hospital with tests and doctors, I had been wandering around my apartment for a week, drinking little and eating less." He held up his wrist, showing the gauntness. "I'm still under my weight. Drugs don't help." He lowered his arm. "Nothing does."
"That sounds awful," Hanna said. Isaac nodded, a mere shift in the direction of his skull. "I'm so sorry Isaac."
"It doesn't matter," he said, getting out of his chair and stretching. "What matters, I guess, is figuring out what's going on with you four and the portals. And Casai." He looked out the window, and under the approaching clouds he saw a purple, rising moon with criss-crossing lines. He pretended not to see it. "Is there anything that we can figure out from what you told us?"
"Could we get some paper?" Tetra asked. "That might help us."
"I can get some from the librarian's desk," Isaac said, and he left the room as the others started talking. He went to the librarian's desk and asked for sheets of paper and a few pencils, careful to not mention the other people in the room, in case they weren't real.
When he turned away, he found Stasya behind him. He jumped, dropping a pencil. She bent and picked it up, returning it to him. "Isaac, do you think I could use the internet here?" She asked. "I want to check something."
"You'll just need a library card, ma'am," the librarian behind the desk said.
Isaac's heart caught in his throat. He took out his library card and handed it to her. "The pin is 22724." Stasya nodded and went to an open computer as Isaac returned to the room. She opened the browser and went to Google, typing in her name and the name of the school she'd taught at.
She clicked on the first result. Her bio from the school, in Russian. It was a year old.
'Stasya Melikov has been a part of our faculty for over ten years, and continues to encourage the children to do bigger and better things.' Stasya scanned down. The words at the end sent tremors down her spine. 'She lives with her husband and has a daughter studying at Petersburg.'
She looked at the words for a long time. Another difference between our worlds, she thought. Oh, Feodora. She took a breath that almost turned into a sob. She put a hand to her mouth and closed the browser. She went back to the room and sat down as Tetra rattled on.
"So then, ten years after that, Hanna found another portal and went through it, ending up at the same time that Jol went through, though a different world that he originally went to." Tetra tapped the eraser on his chin. "It's clear that the portals don't follow a constant time line. We were all brought to this time of this world. Why?"
"Maybe it's Isaac?" Hanna said. They'd ended up sitting next to each other. Isaac looked at her. "There's been an Isaac in all of our lives, maybe he has something to do with all of this."
Isaac shook his head.
"It's a possibility. It could be any number of explanations. We could be dealing with a near-impossible coincidence. But when I was exploring the portals before meeting Jol, many of the worlds had an Isaac. Not just that they were there, but in some position of power! Just the fact that our worlds, which have developed our own names and cultures, all identify the name Isaac as valid, is incredible!" Tetra said. Hanna smiled.
"So what does that mean?" Jolyon asked. "We've all been brought here. Could Isaac have something to do with it?"
Everyone looked at Isaac except for Stasya, who was lost in thought. Isaac shrugged.
"Could I see the timeline, Tetra?" Stasya asked. He gave it to her. Jolyon's story, then hers, then the strange tale of Tetra when he met Jol, then all of them coming to this world, and finally Hanna. "I heard a voice in my head while being chased by the cold two," she said, handing the paper back. "I didn't mention it before -- it didn't seem important -- but I remember something." She concentrated. The words had almost blocked themselves away. "Just as the fire will light itself, and the mind will open itself, so will the ice make itself." She looked up. "There was more. Destroying worlds, a coming together . . . I don't remember it."
"I heard something similar," Jol said, suddenly excited. "Right after I threw my sword at the lava monster. 'I live in other worlds,' or something like that. I'd forgotten until now."
"I believe I heard something as well," Tetra said. "When the other Hades smashed the engine of fate. It was short; I think I remember it." He paused. "You are pawns to me. You live your life like you control it, but you do not. I am the being across worlds, and the mind across time. You have powered me, and freed me just as I envisioned." He shivered. "The words . . . it was like they were whispered in my ear by a man that had me trapped."
"Like a blade across slate," Jol said.
"Cold water down your spine," Stasya finished.
"Was it the same thing?" Tetra asked. "The same entity? Casai?"
The room was quiet.
"It must have been," Tetra continued. "Coincidences be damned."
"No, you're right," Stasya said. "There are too many similar points to say it's multiple extra-dimensional beings talking to us."
"Whatever do we do next?" Hanna asked. She rested her head on Isaac's shoulder, who blushed. "What is his goal?"
"We already know that," Jol said. "He's told three of us already. He wants to destroy our worlds." Jol looked out the window at the starting storm. "All of them."
"This won't make things easier," Eela said, feeling drops hit her hat. "Come, let's find a place for you to rest." She led Zoolk to a covered bus stop and let him sit. "Are you all right?"
Zoolk shivered. The wound on his hand wasn't bleeding, but his leg was. He sighed as he sat, stretching his long limbs. The other people at the bus stop watched them: a giant black man covered in scruffy clothes with a staff and a seemingly-young woman in nice clothes. She'd stolen them, but they didn't know that. The bus was two blocks away.
Eela gazed up at the clouds. "It could go for a while. Do you know anywhere we could stay, somewhere you could get rest?"
Zoolk shook his head. "I'm a stranger here, same as you," he growled. "I know nobody."
"I don't know anything about this city," Eela said. "There must be some place you can get help."
She took a look at the wound on his leg. Blood pumped out. Someone at the bus stop gasped. Eela nodded to herself. "Let's keep moving. I wonder if we can find supplies at a store."
The bus, one block away, came to a screeching halt. Zoolk and others with them jumped. Eela looked over at it. As she watched, it was pushed over, revealing four gray forms lit by purple globes set in their skin.
Eela scooped the massive Zoolk up with one motion and sprinted away, carrying him like he was a handbag. As screams and shouts erupted behind her, the wind tore away her hat and sunglasses, revealing her glowing eyes and sparking hair. Without turning her head, she knew her brothers were coming after her, chasing with the same uncanny speed that she possessed. The only one she had to worry about was Three; none of the others could dare catch her. Carrying Zoolk, Three had a chance.
She cut to her right, between two buildings, relying on the labyrinth of alleys to keep her out of sight of the four controlled by Casai. She took more turns, slinging Zoolk along in her arms. Her electric green-streaked hair sparkled in the darkening day.
The thumps of her brother's feet came from behind her, struggling to keep up. She had beaten them each one-on-one, but fighting them all at once would mean her destruction, Zoolk's death, and this city being leveled.
"I wonder what all those are going to," Isaac said, seeing the police sirens blur past. The five of them stood under the entrance to the library.
"I think I might know," Stasya said. "We need to hide."
"What?" Jol asked. "Your friends?"
"They followed me here," Stasya said. "I ran from them just before I met Hanna."
"And you didn't think to tell us?" Isaac asked. "That's so kind of you!" He rubbed his face. "Let's go to my apartment. You can stay there while I go to work. How much gold do you have?" He asked Tetra.
"A few more ounces."
"That will help. It's about ten blocks that way," Isaac said, pointing. "Let's go."
"Here." Eela put down Zoolk. "Don't make a sound," she told him. She checked around the corner of the building he leaned against, seeing and hearing nothing. "We got away." She looked at Zoolk. "Those were my brothers. They would have killed you."
"They would have tried," Zoolk snarled.
"And they would have succeeded," Eela said, kneeling next to him and checking his leg again. "They have just as much power as me, and in some ways more. They are not wild animals. They are machines, even more than I am."
She took him in her arms again. "Put me down, woman," he said. "I can walk."
"You can, but you won't. This is faster, better for you, and I could carry another of you and still outstrip any of my brothers. It's no use struggling, either," she said as Zoolk writhed. "Let's find someone that will help you."
"Are you worried about your hair and eyes?" Zoolk asked. Eela shook her head.
"More worried about my brothers." She looked up and down the dampening street. "This city was designed by a madman."
"I still think going to the highest tower is the best bet."
"Yes. You're also losing blood every moment. Your decisions will get worse."
She took a step and five people came around the corner, two women and three men. They stopped when they saw her and Zoolk. Eela took a step backwards.
"Wait!" The younger woman shouted. "You came through a portal, didn't you?"
Eela nodded. So did Zoolk.
"Here," Isaac said, dumping the contents of his arms on the floor. "Bandages, medical tape, painkillers, compression wrap." Eela picked up the bandages and motioned for Zoolk to stretch his leg.
They'd spent the last two hours talking in Isaac's apartment. In retrospect, Isaac should have assumed that the bionic woman carrying the huge black man had come from a different world, but he'd had his doubts at the beginning. Zoolk and Eela had told their stories, and how they'd met, and then Tetra had explained everything that had happened with the other five. It had taken a little bit of time for Zoolk to get over the fact that Hanna and Stasya's name didn't start with a vowel, which apparently was the norm on his world.
Both he and the glowing-green woman looked surprised when Isaac told them his name. The details of their stories cemented what the other five had been suspecting: Casai was trying to destroy everything, and in some cases had already succeeded. The importance of the name Isaac became greater, but for what reason nobody knew. When Isaac came back from the store with food and drink and medical supplies, the other six watched him with strange expressions.
"What is everybody looking at me for?" He said as Eela started wrapping Zoolk's leg in a bandage. "What's going on?"
"Tetra discovered something," Jol said. "About Casai."
"What?" Isaac said to Tetra. "What is it?"
"It's strange; none of us saw it at first. Isaac, your name is just Casai scrambled."
Isaac frowned. "That can't mean anything."
"It could, though," Stasya said from the couch. "All of our worlds there is an Isaac, usually someone with control or power. Casai spoke to all of us, with the exception of Hanna. Now we realize Casai and Isaac are just anagrams. Another coincidence we can't rely on."
"This is insane," Isaac said. He went to his bedroom and came out a moment later with a golden zip-up hoodie sweatshirt. "I'm going to call in sick at work, and we're going to figure out what exactly is happening," he said, putting the sweatshirt on over his t-shirt. He felt momentarily calm, then opened his eyes and saw six strangers sitting in his living room. "This is all just ridiculous."
"We know," Jol said. "We've all had to deal with that fact."
Isaac rubbed his head. "I'm going to make a big pot of spaghetti. I feel hungry, and I bet the rest of you do, too." He took a step into the kitchen. "If somebody wanted to help, that'd be nice."
Moments later he was filling up his biggest saucepan with water, and Hanna entered the room. He heard talking from the other room, mostly Stasya and Tetra.
"Are you all right?" Hanna asked. "You seem upset."
"Of course I'm upset," Isaac said after getting over the surprise of seeing her. He almost felt excited. "What's happening out there is unbelievable. You have to see that."
"I see it," Hanna said with a low voice. "I was ten when all this started for me." Isaac put the pan on the stove and took a few boxes of noodles out of the bags of food he'd brought home. She put her hand on his arm, and his skin prickled. "There's something else, isn't there?" She smiled.
Isaac almost smiled back. He remembered the last time a girl had smiled at him in that way. She had been a mockery, made by his own mind. He looked at the noodles.
"My hallucinations," he said. "They've been getting worse. I didn't think that was possible after what I went through, but . . ." He started opening boxes. "For the past few days, I've been seeing planets, moons . . . sometimes even long landscapes that shouldn't be there. They last. Normally, hallucinations will come in and out quickly, but these . . ."
"And you don't think that we're real."
Isaac watched the water in the pan. It would take some time for it to boil. "Not entirely. What I've been through . . . it made me doubt a lot of things. For months after that I wondered if this day or that day were just hallucinations of normal life. If anything strange happened I wondered if I was trapped again. I was scared to meet anybody's eye or talk to them. They might have been fake."
"Well, I'm not fake," Hanna said. "I know that much."
"Why wouldn't a hallucination say that?"
Hanna creased her forehead. Isaac took the chance to glance at her eyes, and she caught him. She giggled.
"I know one way to prove I'm real," she said.
Isaac backed up. He pictured Alena. "No. No. Stay back!" He closed his eyes and gripped the cloth of his sweatshirt. "I'm sorry, I-I . . . " He leaned against a counter. "In the hospital . . . the one I hallucinated . . . the doctor told me that I couldn't touch hallucinations. They touched me anyway. Almost like it was a dream."
Hanna's lips pressed together, and her eyebrows tilted. "I've already touched you," she said. "More than once. Right? Before, in the library, and here. So there are only two options."
Isaac nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of."
Hanna glanced at the direction of the living room. She and Isaac heard Zoolk's deep voice rumble. "Isaac, tell me what I look like," she said.
"What?"
"Come on now. This is something my mother had me do once, when I had a fever. She asked me to describe her."
Isaac's mouth opened and closed. He scratched his head. "Well, you're about five foot six, pretty thin. Uh, you have long white-silver hair, big brown eyes."
"Keep going," Hanna said. She was smiling. "My clothes."
Isaac had trouble swallowing. "A white shirt with lace edges and scalloped sleeves, and a blue skirt that goes to your ankles." He said it quietly, embarrassed. "And gray shoes."
"Which are not good for all this running around," Hanna said. "More."
"Somewhat tan skin. Thin wrists. A prominent collarbone."
"Okay. That's good enough. Now you. Let's see." Hanna looked him up and down, and he almost turned away. "Nice and tall. Almost as tall as Jol. Too thin. Curly brown hair and dark eyes. A nice, strong chin." She smiled. "A gold sweatshirt and white shirt under it. Blue pants."
"They're called jeans."
"Jeans, white socks. A tired expression. Bags under your eyes. Twitchy, nervous. For good reason. That's what you look like."
"Yeah." Isaac's heart pounded.
"But there's so much more in there," she said, poking his chest with a finger. "I couldn't dare know it. Just like you, there's more in here than you think." She tapped over her own heart. "I could tell you my entire life story if we had the time."
Isaac watched her clasp her hands in front of her. She tilted her head and the light over them glinted off her silver hair. "Feel better?"
Isaac took a breath. His mind whirled. "I do, I guess. I mean . . . you could still be a hallucination-"
"I know I'm not."
"And I don't know you're not lying. But I feel better about it. Before, in the hospital, everything seemed bad. Trying to hurt me. You seem . . . nice."
"Good." Hanna spread her arms. "Hug?"
Isaac stood stock still. She grinned. He took a step forward and they wrapped their arms around each other. She was a calming weight inside his arms. He heard her breathe, and a feeling of joy grew.
"Well well," he heard a smug voice say. "I'm gone for a few weeks and you're already into the arms of another woman?"
Isaac jumped back, burned by the voice. He found a blond woman leaning against the back wall of the kitchen, arms crossed, glasses at the end of her nose, her smile curved mischievously. "Who's this tramp?"
Not now, Isaac thought. Just when things felt all right.
"Isaac?" Hanna said. "Who is that?"
He went cold. So it is all just fake. Every piece of it, from the restaurant this after noon, and the library, and the stories, and here. And Hanna. Where am I? Lying in a ditch somewhere? Talking to myself and hugging thin air in my apartment?
"She's a hallucination," Isaac said quietly. "Just like you are."
"What?" Hanna said.
"You've wizened up since last time, pretty boy," Alena said. She wasn't wearing her hospital scrubs. Instead she had faded jeans with holes in the knees and a purple t-shirt. "I bet you've been waiting for this to happen, haven't you? Waiting so you can take advantage of your mind's beautiful creations." Alena looked at Hanna. "Aren't you pretty. Has he kissed you yet?"
Hanna blushed. "No! We're just-"
"Let me guess." Alena took a simpering tone. "It's a difficult time for both of us! We just want to feel safe! Wah wah wah," she said in her normal voice. "Now Isaac is realizing how alone he is, how alone he still is."
Isaac grabbed the gold cloth of his sweatshirt and twisted it, turning his eyes away from Alena. Tears fell on his cheeks.
"Aw, don't cry," she said, stepping closer and wiping one away. He swiped at her, screaming. She ducked back, the smile still on her face.
The people still in the living room came running. Jol, Stasya, and Eela appeared in the doorway and saw Alena looking triumphant.
"Isaac-"
"Get out!" He screamed. "All of you just get out of my head!"
"It isn't that simple, Isaac."
The voice came from behind the three in the doorway. They parted, revealing a young woman with dark hair wearing a black skirt and white blouse. This un-identical twin to Alena took steps forward on black heels. "Alena and I were hallucinations once, but not for much longer. It's because of you.
"And because of Casai."
Missy came into the kitchen, making Isaac take a few steps away. Hanna didn't move. "In fact, you're the only person here who has always been real, but soon they'll all be. From the fat magician to the mechanical woman to the sweet young thing Alena caught you getting close to, they're all turning into people just as real as you."
"How?" Isaac asked. "Why? Casai?"
"In a way," Alena said, dropping her fun-loving voice. "He needed your help. He picked you for your powerful imagination, someone who could picture everything." She paused and tilted her head up to the ceiling. "From a harrowing future of monsters to worlds unlike anything you've seen before. They're coming together, you see, becoming real, because of the hallucinations Casai gave you."
"He needs you, Isaac," Missy continued. "He needs you to bring it all together."
"To destroy?" Eela said. "To destroy everything?"
"Yes Eela," Missy said, turning to the metal woman. "Your brothers tearing down the city was just one of thousands of worlds falling to the power of The Destroyer. Zoolk's pack and the other animals was another. The Tor would have succeeded in a few more years," she said to Stasya. "Along with the Cold Three that you barely escaped becoming a part of."
"Why are you here?" Isaac asked, straining to get the words out. "Telling us all of this?"
"Because Casai isn't done with you. You're making the worlds real, yes, but he needs you to do one more thing. Telling you would be pointless -- you don't know how to do it anyway -- but just knowing will make you do something." Missy smiled. Not the rogue smile that Alena had, but a smile that had no well-meaning behind it. It wanted him to hurt. "In a matter of minutes, the people around you will become just as real as you. So will Alena and I. So will all the worlds they have described and more."
Alena joined Missy at the door to the kitchen. The two women, once harrowing parts of Isaac's hallucinations, put their arms around each others' waists. "And so will Casai."
And they were gone.
This story is continued in All Comes Together Part Two.