At 10:45 I was sitting in the vacant lot where Ronald’s house had been, a brand-new backpack with the price tag still attached beside me, shivering inside my jacket as I watched the pendulum swing inside the clock.
I had to work hard to convince Evie Larkin to loan me the clock. In the end, I wrote her a check for $10,000, which she was free to cash if I didn’t return the clock in 24 hours. I didn’t have that much money in my checking account, but if I didn’t get Rachel back, I wouldn’t care.
Quinnley had said the clock had taken him to the same place they’d gone last night. That meant Rachel and the others were stuck in a jungle with sharp-fanged monsters like the one that had attacked Quinnley—and maybe worse.
While Steve had called the ambulance, I’d searched Quinnley’s condo. I found a folder with a few papers stuffed inside, one of them showing drawings of the clock on both sides, and inside. The instructions were in Italian, and I had to run them through a translation program. I wasn’t sure how accurate the words were, but they gave me a vague idea of how the clock worked.
The tiny key built into the rear, above the crystal, set the time for the trip. It was marked off in 24 segments so it could distinguish between noon and midnight—something I’d wondered about before. I used the papers and the photo I’d taken to figure out where to set it for tonight. I hoped.
I set it for 11:00 p.m. The papers seemed to suggest that using the crystal—the same crystal Ronald had used last night, and Quinnley had used today—before 24 hours had elapsed since the last time it had been activated would get me to the same reality. I didn’t know. I was guessing wildly, my brain running on wispy fumes. If I was wrong, I could end up anywhere in the multiverse. And I’d never find Rachel.
I tried not to think about that as I sat on the grass. People walked by, a few of them glancing at me, no one stopping. I wondered what the neighbors thought, wondered if any of them had called the city about the vanishing house. Maybe they thought it had somehow been silently demolished in the night.
A cop car rolled by slowly. I stayed still, hoping they wouldn’t notice me if I didn’t move. It would be hard to explain what I was doing out here in the middle of the night. But the patrol car moved on without stopping. One less problem to worry about.
I sipped from my thermos of coffee. When this was over, one way or the other, I was either going to sleep for a week or be too wired from caffeine to ever sleep again. Either way, I’d be going to the bathroom a lot.
I listened to the clock ticking toward midnight. The pendulum was hypnotic. I almost dozed twice, but caught myself both times and drank more coffee. At 10:55 I looked over my shoulder toward the street. A man walking a dog paused, then cleaned up after the pooch and went on. I rubbed my eyes, sat forward, and stared at the clock. Come on, come on . . .
10:59. I stretched my arms, rubbed my neck, flexed my legs, and waited. Just a few more seconds. This had to work. I didn’t know what to do if it didn’t. Come on . . .
The ground shuddered under my butt. The world around me went completely black, as if someone had thrown a dark sheet down over everything. I bit my lip, fighting panic—what if I’d sent myself into a black hole—
And then the shaking stopped. I opened my eyes.
I was back in Ronald’s house again.
For a moment I was too stunned to move. My legs were stiff, and my mind was in shock. It worked. So far. I scrambled to my feet. The front door was shut. Locked.
I picked up my backpack. After unlocking the door I paused, looking out at the universe I was in.
Beyond the front porch, black trees blocked the sky. A fiery sun cast creepy shadows through the branches on the rough and rocky ground. Something slithered through the spiky grass, disappearing before I could focus on it. The trees rustled, and a creature with dark fur jumped down to the ground. The size of a chimp, it had three arms, sharp claws, and eyes like burning coals.
It looked at me. I stared back, unzipping my backpack with one hand. Before finding out if I’d survive an attack from it, the thing turned and leaped back up into the trees with a screech that jangled my already frayed nerves.
I stepped to the edge of the porch. Cupped my hands. “Rachel!” I waited. “Rachel? RACHEL!”
From inside the backpack I drew out a short, snubby gun. Checking the instructions from the sporting goods store I’d stopped at in Western Springs after picking up the clock from Evie Larkin, I inserted a cartridge, raised the weapon over my head, and pulled the trigger.
The flare shot up and burst in the sky, raining a shower of white sparks overhead. I ejected the cartridge, loaded again, and fired another round. “Rachel!”
Nothing. Damn it. I’d have to search on foot.
For the first time in my life I wished I had a handgun. I couldn’t buy one at the sporting goods shop because I couldn’t wait for the background check. And besides, chances were I’d shoot myself, or one of Ronald’s people, prowling around looking for Rachel. I might even shoot her, and then I’d have to shoot myself before she could kick me.
I had a long hunting knife from the store, though, and my Taser, and some pepper spray. Would that stop any of the monsters here? I didn’t know. But I was about to find out.
On the top step I paused. Leaned forward, cocking my head. I lifted a hand to my ear. Was that—
“Tom!”
Rachel.
I fired another flare. “Rachel!” I jumped down onto the ground, trying to figure out where she was. I loaded another cartridge. The gun might slow down any creature trying to attack.
“Tom!” I saw Rachel, fighting through the trees. Her blouse was ripped, and she was pulling someone’s hand. “Come on!” she shouted. “He’s here! I told you he’d come! Come on!”
She was leading an elderly woman, and an older man was helping her stagger through the twisted roots in the ground. Ronald came next, limping, holding a young blond woman’s arm, but she pulled away and stalked ahead of him, swearing.
We helped the older couple—the Nelsons—up the steps and inside. Mrs. Nelson was gasping, but insisted she was fine. I waited for Ronald and Cassie, grabbed my backpack, and darted in behind them. I slammed the door and hit the lock.
“Oh my god.” Ronald collapsed in a chair, clutching his ankle. His foot dangled at an awkward angle. “What happened? How did you—”
“Oh, shut up.” Cassie crossed the room and grabbed a bottle of wine. “Asshole.” She took a long swig.
Rachel and I looked at each other.
“You okay?” I asked.
She threw her arms around me, squeezing my shoulders tight, and pounded my back with her fist. “I knew you’d come,” she murmured, her breath hot on my ear. “You idiot.”
“I love you too.” I smiled.
“So what was it like?” I asked Rachel.
It was 2:37 a.m. We sat on the sofa, with the clock on the coffee table blocking the TV. I’d return it to Evie Larkin tomorrow. Rachel had showered for half an hour, and she was in a fluffy pink bathrobe that she hardly ever wore, a beer in her hand.
She sighed. “Dark. And noisy. And stinky. Animals growling and roaring all over the place. We only walked around outside for about fifteen minutes, and then we all decided to go back. That’s when we noticed Quinnley was already gone. The front door was locked, and that idiot Ronald didn’t have the key with him, he forgot it. All the windows had bars. We couldn’t get in. And then we saw through the window, a gap in the curtains, that the clock was gone. That was—” She shook her head. “Scary. We yelled at Ronald for a while, and finally he got sick of us and decided to go exploring.” She shook her head. “Moron.”
I sipped my own beer. Now that Rachel was safe, I wasn’t fighting sleep as hard. But I didn’t want to drop off next to her in the middle of a sentence. “So you went after him?”
“Cassie did. I think she was into him. At first, anyway. I stayed behind with the Nelsons. Then we heard Cassie screaming, and I went to look for her. There was some tree trying to eat her, and I got her off it, but when we went back to the house, the Nelsons were gone.” She scowled. “So we went to look for them. And got lost.”
She drank more beer. “Ronald was really lost. We found him—something had bitten his foot half off and he couldn’t walk. Hey, stay awake!” She elbowed my ribs.
“Sorry.” I jerked forward. “I’ve been up since yesterday morning. Now I know how Jack Bauer feels.”
“Me too, but I was in a hell dimension with carnivorous trees, and you were here with Starbucks to keep you awake.” She smirked. “Anyway, we spent the night looking for the house, going around in circles, trying to fight the animals and trees off, and then we saw those flares. I knew it was you.” She squeezed my hand. “I mean, I was afraid it was you. Thinking you got yourself trapped there too—”
“I was afraid I’d end up somewhere else. And I’d never find the right place.” I stared at the clock. “I would have kept looking forever, but—”
“I know.” Rachel kissed my cheek.
The Nelsons and Cassie had gone home. Ronald’s father arrived to take him to the hospital. He shook my hand, thanking me, and glared at Ronald. His son looked away from his eyes.
“You can send me a new invoice,” Fischer told me. “Thank you for bringing him home.”
“I really just wanted to bring her home.” I was holding Rachel’s hand. “But he was there, so . . .”
Now Rachel rested her head on my shoulder and yawned. “We really do lead strange lives, don’t we?”
“Sorry.”
She punched my arm. “Shut up. At least it’s not boring.”
“Yeah.” I kissed her. “Bed?”
“In a minute.” Her eyes were closed. “Just—in a minute.”
“Right.” I closed my eyes too.
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