A Circuit of Time: Book Two of Spark (A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Seven

Francesca and Sophie went to buy cruise tickets to Germany, while the rest of them scattered around the area.

John and Blanche stood by a pier, staring at the vast ocean.

"Will it feel weird to go back?" Blanche asked.

"No, why?" John replied.

"I mean, we just crossed Atlantic a few weeks ago, I'm not sure how I feel about going back." Blanche explained.

"Well, we are going somewhere else this time." John said. "So, it's not exactly going back."

Blanche nodded, then said, "Remember the island man we met? Do you think we will ever deliver his letter?"

"Not likely." John admitted, "I still have it with me, but what are the chances his son is still alive? He left during World War One, if his son isn't dead already, he might be as old as Emma now. How many normal can live longer than peculiars?"

Blanche sighed, "I have been thinking about finding his son in the past. Just an idea, and doesn't seem probable now that we are leaving this continent."

"Maybe after this war is over, if we survive, we can go find him." John said. "To be honest, I don't think David really believed his letter can ever reach his son. It's been too long, I'm sure he's aware of that as well."

Blanche nodded. They didn't say much after that. As silence fell between them, they just kept their eyes on the deep blue sea.

Emma and Olive found a table at a local café. Olive ordered black tea while Emma ordered a cup of coffee.

"The last time I drank coffee was when Jacob was driving us across America to rescue some peculiar child." Emma took a sip of her drink.

"Sometimes I just want to stay in the past." Olive said. "At least I know all of us were still safe in this time period, happy, even."

"Most of us weren't even born right now." Emma replied.

"You know what I mean." Olive frowned.

"Yeah, I do." Emma put down her cup, her face darkened, "But we weren't safe back then, either. They still got Victor. And there was a bomb falling on us every day. We were still hiding, from both normals and wights."

"I guess you are right." Olive sighed. "I just miss them, Em. We may not be free back then, but at least we had each other."

Emma didn't look at her, she just picked up the teaspoon and started stirring her coffee.

"I spent a decade sitting in Abe's deserted house hoping I'm somewhere or sometime else. I used to want to go back in time and just stay with that version of us in the past, and I still do sometimes. But after John dragged me back into this world, I saw what the modern world is really like. And I think I'm starting to understand now, the past and present, they aren't that different." Emma finally put down the spoon and met Olive's eyes. "Be it normals or wights, we are always struggling against something. The past and present is just an endless cycle of conflict. The only thing we can do if we want to break this cycle is to focus on the future, where there's still possibilities for change."

*

As the sun descending beneath the horizon, black smoke rising from the depth of the funnels and passengers finishing boarding, RMS Augusta slowly pulled itself away from the land.

Eight peculiar passengers were taken to their cabins. They shared four twin rooms, all first class. Miss Bittern insisted that first class cabins were more convenient for their meetings and harder for the enemy to eardrop.

After dinner, John and Blanche went for a walk on the promenade deck.

"Despite all the troubles we are getting ourselves into, I'm surprised by how good things seem to turn out to be sometimes." John said.