Part 13 (1/2)

A few minutes later they were guiding Mark unsteadily off the bus in their neighborhood, his ma.s.sive body alternately pressing one and then the other of them uncomfortably against the open doors. It seemed like they'd been gone for days instead of hours.

In the bas.e.m.e.nt, Caleb had taped a note to the big mirror that hung over the ancient flowered couch. Meet me at the stones.

Abbey balled her fists. Trust Caleb to be taking even more risks.

Mark, of course, refused to go, and wanted to go feed his cat, Ocean, instead. But Simon overruled the idea, indicating they wouldn't be using the stones and, surprisingly, Mark acquiesced. They headed up the hill. Simon grimly marched Mark alongside, Simon's hand curved around the autistic man's arm. The image of loner, sarcastic Simon as a caretaker would almost have been funny if the whole thing weren't so serious. And yet with Mark, Simon seemed firm but kind, and reminded her of his younger self.

Caleb stood by the stones, apparently unscathed, his eyes wild.

”They aren't working!” he said. ”I stepped on them a dozen times and nothing!”

”Where have you been? What happened with Mantis? Why did you go with him? What are you doing?” Abbey punched Caleb in the arm with her fist.

Caleb grinned at her. ”Mantis caught me looking in the window of his Jag. Asked if I was a car buff. Offered to take me for a ride. He was smooth. Really smooth. When I got in, he didn't even pretend that he didn't know who I was.”

”You got in, voluntarily?” Abbey gave Caleb another punch in the arm.

”Ab, I have good intuition. He didn't seem threatening at all. He had Al-Ice doc.u.ments on his back seat, by the way. He asked how Mrs. Forrester was, and wanted to know where they'd taken Mark. Said he was an old family friend. I played dumb.” Caleb pulled the folded sketch from Mrs. Forrester out of his back pocket. ”Then he just started asking questions, like he was trying to figure out how much I know. Like what brought me to Granton today. But he seemed totally unconcerned about the fact that I'd found my way to his car. He was obsessed with finding Mark. He was asking about places Mark liked to hang out, and who I thought Mrs. Forrester might leave Mark with. I said I could show him a few places Mark might go, but said I had to get back to school and asked him to drop me off there. He was fine with that. Whatever he's doing, he must think his plan is so foolproof that he doesn't even have to worry about us stopping him. Or maybe he's not bad at all. It was totally weird.”

Except that he was with us in Mark's future and there was blood and arrows, Abbey thought.

”After he dropped me off, I ran into the school and Googled 'Mantis'. Did you know that mantis means prophet? This guy Quentin Steinam has made his living predicting what will happen in the computer industry and being on the inside when it does...like he has inside knowledge of what will happen. Knowledge you could get, say, from the stones.”

”Wait a second,” Abbey said. ”Are you saying you think Quentin Steinam is Mantis? 'Cause we think Sylvain Salvador is Mantis.”

”Or maybe they're friends. I don't know. I just think that if someone knew how the stones worked, and could see the future, they could seriously use it to their advantage financially. And I find it kind of funny this guy Steinam has had so much success predicting what to invest in,” Caleb said.

”And what do you mean the stones aren't working?”

”After I left the note at the house, I came here and decided to just go through a couple of times while I waited for you. I wanted to see if I went to the same future as I did before, or a different one. But I didn't go anywhere.”

”We agreed we weren't going to do that,” Simon said. ”After last night.”

Caleb threw his arms in the air. ”I know, I know, but come on, the two of you have seen your futures. I haven't. It's not fair. And anyway, you aren't listening. The stones aren't working. We need to try again. And Mark needs to go first.” The words poured from Caleb and he practically shook with excitement.

”What?” asked Abbey.

”We need to follow Mark through. We need to know why Mantis wants to find him so bad.”

”I don't think that's a good idea,” said Abbey.

Mark had already taken a step backward, shaking his head.

Abbey crossed her arms over her chest. ”Mark's already had a bad vision of his future-and we were in it. We, as in the current Abbey, Simon, and Caleb, not the future Abbey, Simon, and Caleb. There were people dying in Mark's vision, and the date in his vision was tomorrow. Maybe if we don't use the stones again, none of it will ever happen.” But even as she said no, even though she'd sworn to herself she'd never use the stones again, now that she was near them she felt that strange pull again, like the stones were calling to her, like she needed to know what would happen.

Caleb ignored her and addressed Mark. ”Come on, buddy, please. Your mom sent us to help you. If we work together, we can change the future. If it all happens tomorrow, then we need to know today.”

You can kill yourself trying to change the future, thought Abbey; that's what the future Caleb had said. Now, hearing Mark's future, that possibility seemed all the more potentially real to her. But she hadn't completely believed the future Caleb. There had been something in his face, something he hadn't told her.

”Caleb, we don't know that,” Simon said, but he, too, looked like he was leaning toward trying it.

”Come on guys, we have to try,” said Caleb. ”We need to figure this out. Everything we learn brings us closer. We'll just go through for a few minutes. We can protect Mark.”

Abbey glared at her twin. ”This is a bad idea, Caleb. How can we protect him? Or ourselves?”

”Ab, Mantis could show up any second and take Mark. This might be our only chance to see his future.”

Mark started to cringe and moan.

”What we should do is call the police,” Abbey said.

”The police will just take Mark away and put him into some home somewhere. And then we'll never get to see his future.” Caleb turned to Mark again and donned a beatific smile, a smile that had won the hearts of so many teachers and girls over the years. ”If it's bad, we just run back as fast as we can.”

Mark stood frozen, his face almost sagging in angst. ”But there was blood and shooting and we were all wearing exactly the same clothes as we are today...except you.” Mark extended a shaking finger at Caleb.

”Maybe that means today's not the day of the shooting. Simon wears a black s.h.i.+rt every day of the week, and Abbey has barely taken that sweater off since she got it. I'm sure they'll be wearing the same thing tomorrow,” Caleb reasoned. ”We can go do recon.”

Abbey stared at Caleb's bright green Poison Spider Bicycle t-s.h.i.+rt. His pupils seemed oddly dilated. Like he was high. Or like the stones were pulling at him, too. ”You said the stones aren't working anyway.”

”I think they are now,” Caleb said. ”I could feel a s.h.i.+ft in the air as you came up the hill, I don't know, like static electricity, like they'd been turned off and now they're back on. We should give it a try.”

Abbey opened her mouth to object, but suddenly Mark closed his eyes, moaned, and staggered onto the stones. His disappearance was expected, but it still made Abbey gasp.

Caleb followed Mark without hesitation, and then Simon grabbed Abbey's elbow and pulled her along with him over the stones.

After the now familiar jolt and whoosh, Abbey opened her eyes to swirling fog. Caleb and Mark stood to her right, their mouths open. She sensed Simon on her left. The landscape had an odd green hue, which seemed to be emanating from the ground, and it seemed that were no natural features except the fog and, oddly, the occasional lone boulder. It was neither daylight nor night, but rather seemed to be a late stage of dusk or an early stage of twilight, where light could be sensed, but objects in the distance couldn't be made out. A few hundred meters ahead of them was a bonfire, surrounded by three figures in cloaks.

”Okay...this has just taken a turn for the really weird,” said Simon.

Chapter 10.

Finding Dr. Bed Truck

The three cloaked figures turned to look at the new arrivals. One of the cloaked figures stepped away from the fire and started walking toward Abbey, Caleb, Simon, and Mark. Abbey tensed to jump back on the stones, but the person approaching was a remarkably cute, blond young woman with freckles and lively green eyes. She felt Caleb and Simon pull out of their customary slouches into more erect positions.

”Welcome to Nowhere,” she said. ”I'm Sandy. It's my job to greet the next arrivals.” Then her eyes widened. ”But, maybe you aren't staying.” She gestured to the stones that were still faintly visible amidst the swirling fog behind them. ”I've heard this is possible, in theory.”

Abbey glanced over at the completely flummoxed expressions on Caleb's and Simon's faces.

Mark had placed one foot in front of the other and was rocking back and forth between them, shaking his head and staring at the ground.

”Sorry, excuse me. What do you mean by 'this is possible in theory'?” Abbey asked.

Sandy cast a quick look over her shoulder, but the other figures by the fire hadn't moved. ”I've heard that occasionally querents see this as their future. They return home knowing they will create paradox and will have to come here to stay. It's like an early-warning system. There's only been a few cases, though.”