Midnight came and passed, and the moon shone through the thing clouds onto the thick layer of freshly fallen snow. Caleb was wrenched from sleep at the sound of a violent crack. Heavy footsteps fell at the bottom of the stairs.
Caleb was out of bed in an instant, running to his own door, opening it with such speed he nearly whacked himself in the face. He might have laughed any other day, but he couldn't find the comedy in it—not now. He ran down the hallway and skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs. He could hear the shouting clearly now.
Three people were moving through the house, over toppled piles of books. Too many. A deep voice thundered through the house. "Alexander Pendergast!" He spoke as if he were reading from a piece of paper. "You have been chosen." His voice was the rumbling sort that set Caleb's legs trembling. Caleb could see him from the top of the stairs. He was familiar to Caleb, and it was only a moment before he placed him as one of the people that had brought him to Rhea those months ago. He was fox-faced, with red hair.
The girl with him had the same red hair which flowed like fire behind her. She banged through the house, and the glass shattered somewhere. "You can't hide," Caleb heard the woman say. She might have been beautiful under any other circumstances, a tall and slender woman. Caleb couldn't help but shiver at the poison in her tone, though. "Come out, come out..." she said in a singsongy whisper which carried up the stairs. Her foot was on the bottom step, staring into the shadows where Caleb hid when he saw her eyes.
Pitch black.
"Caleb." Alexander's voice in his ear nearly caused him to shout in fright. He bit his tongue, and tangy blood oozed from the slice. He turned quickly.
"Why are theyhere?" Caleb asked thickly.
Alexander breathed. "They've been infected with the Void." His mentor's voice was almost lost in aspirant whisper, and when Caleb tried to see more of his mentor's face, the look there sent his heart plummeting through the stairs.
"What do you—"
"You have to get out. You have to get Danielle, and you have to run."
This was not the way things ought to have gone. This was all wrong. "Go to August 3rd, 2012. You know where."
He didn't have to wrack his brains to know Alexander wanted him to go to the safe house he'd set up in Los Angeles, the very apartment they'd spent hours training in. He nodded in agreement, and Alexander stood from his crouch. Caleb grabbed his mentor's arm before he could take the first step into the living room. It was only a matter of seconds before the two intruders came up the stairs.
"Come with me."
Alexander slipped his hand free of Caleb's, but deposited a single, golden band in his palm. "I don't have my ring." Why had Alexander just done that? "You can't get all three of us out."
Alexander gripped Caleb by the shoulders. "You trust me. Keep trusting me. In all times. Everything happens as it should. There is no escaping it."
He then he slipped down the stairs toward Jacob and the other, nameless Timewalkers. Caleb watched in horror as his mentor stepped in sight of the two intruders. Jacob didn't look up as he rifled through a drawer in the kitchen. Caleb noticed Alexander was fully dressed, except for socks on his feet. Alexander positioned himself to make eye contact with Caleb once more. And in his eyes a single command: Go. But Caleb didn't go. He remained, because he couldn't leave Alexander behind. He wouldn't. "I'm here," Alexander said. Jacob twirled around gracefully, his trench coat flipping over another stack of books. The fox-faced woman grabbed Alexander tightly, and Caleb watched as blood dribbled from her fingertips.
"Alexander!" he exclaimed loudly. It was not surprise, and it wasn't friendly, although it seemed as if the Timewalker had tried to make it so. A viper unable to hide its deadly, venomous fangs. "A pleasure to see you after so long."
"I wouldn't say it's a pleasure to see you under the circumstances." Alexander stood with his back to the wall, and Caleb could not see him. The woman had pulled him from view, and the only sight he had was of Jacob and the third person who'd come along. Caleb observed only as far as the eyes, filled with that impenetrable darkness. He thought Voidsick were rabid, animals with rabies.
The man's eyes turned toward the stairs, and Caleb pulled back into the shadows. He felt as if someone had dunked him in an ice bin.
Jacob's features did not change from the time Caleb looked to the red-haired woman and back. He did press his gloved hands together, and his annoyance was evident in the way the leather ground together. "Rhea James commanded me to come...but she doesn't know something Loss does." His teeth clenched over tight, trembling lips. "Loss desires your life."
"Can't imagine why." Alexander said flatly. Caleb felt a surge of admiration for the man, in spite of the anxiety racketing through his blood. He couldn't leave. Not yet.
"Where your ring?" The woman said. But Caleb couldn't see her. She must have been stronger than she'd looked, or Alexander let her bowl him over. He hit his knees on the ground, and Caleb grimaced at the crack. What was he doing?
"Table," he replied through gritted teeth. He nodded to where another golden ring lay, but it held none of the effervescence the one in Caleb's own hand did.
"No one ever taught you to keep your ring close by?" This wasn't a true question, Caleb knew it. Alexander had told him, on many occasions, to keep his ring close by. He hadn't said it in a long while now, since his Ringlock had made it a moot point.
Jacob walked to the table and slid the ring into his palm.
"Should I have to keep my ring close in the comfort of my own home?"
Jacob laughed, but it was dark and without humor. "Would you expect three Void infected dogs to come breaking through your door?"
"Dogs!" the woman spat.
Jacob held up a hand. "I would have had to break down your door if I weren't Locked out."
Caleb's heart had not stopped pounding, and it pounded even harder as Jacob looked to the top of the stairs. "Where's your apprentice?" Caleb drew deeper into the shadows. He gripped Alexander's ring harder and felt it bite into his skin.
"He isn't part of this," Alexander said. "Leave Caleb out of it."
"He's the one who knows the girl." Jacob stepped over a fallen pile of books and moved to the foot of the stairs. "He's as much a part of this as anyone."
Alexander forced himself out of the grip of the red-haired woman and threw himself in front of Jacob and held up his hands. "I said to leave him out of this."
"Get out of the way, please." The raspy, earthy tone of Jacob's voice sent ice down Caleb's already trembling spine.
"I will not move unless you promise me to leave Caleb out of it." Alexander had thrown his arms wide, blocking the staircase completely. He looked ready to jump on Jacob, to tackle him. The two who'd come with him stood back, the epitome of dogs waiting for orders. Bated breath, hands held adroitly at their sides.
It happened so suddenly the Caleb was barely sure he'd seen it. Out of Jacob's jacket had a fist covered in black flame. It slammed into Alexander's chest, and a hissing whine pierced the air. "Pity you weren't more helpful." And as Alexander fell, Jacob stepped around him. "Shame."
Caleb wanted to scream for help, for anyone to come save his mentor. But nobody would even hear. And Jacob would probably murder him like he'd murdered Alexander. Nobody would know.
When Jacob's left foodt reached the top step, it hit Caleb. To get out, to escape.
To run.
Jacob's eyes fell on him before Caleb Hopped. He fled, leaving Alexander at the bottom steps.
+++
Caleb held back a violent shiver as his feet hit the icy grass and he slipped. The snow had finally stuck, but the beauty of it under the pale moonlight didn't bring joy to Caleb. He had blood in his mind: His mentor standing still as a statue an instant before he tumbled. The gaping black hole in his chest, and Jacob's devilish face staring up at Caleb.
The ring had provided a set of clothes: Winter boots, dark jeans, and layers of sweatshirts. He ought to have been warm from it, but a deep sense of cold had settled itself into his gut. His own stomach was gaping now. His thoughts reeled with what couldn't have happened—what should never have happened.
He'd come to the first place he could think of. Danielle's house was bright and shining with Christmas lights completely contrasting the darkness gripping tightly to him. Across the lawn, in red and green lettering lay the word PEACE.
Caleb might have laughed, had the frenzy inside him not swallowed it up.
He looked at Danielle's window. Dark. It was only a few minutes after one in the morning, and he hated to think about what he had to do. He pictured her room vividly, silently thankful she'd invited him into her house before, unwittingly.
He Hopped to the foot of her bed.
He placed his hand on her foot, which was socked and out of the covers, and shook. Starbuck was nowhere to be seen. "Danielle," he whispered. The panic in his voice was overwhelming, and he was afraid he might hyperventilate. He clamped down on his mouth and shook her harder.
"What—" she mumbled, and when Caleb shook her again, she shot up in her bed. Caleb jumped to cover her mouth with his hand. She bit down, and she stifled his grunt with a small whimper.
"It's me, it's Caleb," he said. "Don't scream." She writhed out of his grip.
"What are you doing here?" At the animosity in her tone, Caleb shrunk back a little. He realized how this seemed. He realized how it would look to her. But he never would have woken her up if it hadn't been important—he never would have violated her privacy like this if it hadn't been needed.
"I need you to come with me. You're not safe." He was murmuring in a near whisper. His voice cracked.
"No," Danielle said, "this is a dream. Leave me alone." She covered her head with her pillow.
"Alexander is dead," Caleb said. His voice was raw and cracking, scratched by inward pain he couldn't make sense of. Danielle pulled the pillow off her head. They could barely see each other in the dark room.
"What?" she said. She stood and crossed to the light switch. She looked into Caleb's eyes, which must have looked as dead and simultaneously delirious as he felt, because tears welled into her eyes and confusion stole across her face.
"We have to go," Caleb said.
Danielle held Caleb at arm's length when he came to grab her hand. "Why do we have to go?" The contrast between her sleepy anger and the calm she was displaying now shook Caleb to the core.
"Please," Caleb said. "Just come with me and I'll explain when we've gone."
Danielle threw clothes on quickly, and Caleb turned the other way. He couldn't cry. The tears wouldn't come, and looking at the panorama photo of Danielle's last trip to Disney World didn't make him feel any better.
"Okay," she said after a moment. Caleb didn't say a word; he only grabbed her hand, and they left the bedroom behind. He didn't know how much longer they had before Jacob showed up at Danielle's house. He didn't know if they knew about Los Angeles and what was hidden there. He hoped not.
It was only a short second before he felt a sharp pain in his stomach, the tug becoming a scythe stabbing sharply. "Dammit!" he yelled as they landed on a dirty street with cracked, crumbling concrete sidewalk.
"What's wrong?" Danielle asked. Caleb was bent over, on the verge of vomiting from the sheer pain overcoming him.
"He never invited me in!" Caleb shouted. His voice echoed through the street and a few passerby crossed to the other side of the road.
"What do you mean?" Danielle had placed her hand on his back, and he was able to straighten up, though the pain was still coursing through him.
"He never invited me in," Caleb was crying now. "I don't have a key, and we can't get in because I can't just Hop in." They'd never Hopped into the apartment. Alexander knew the people around the apartment, and they'd always walked by them, always gone straight through the door without thinking about it. Because of this, when he'd tried to Hop directly in, they'd been shoved out. And Caleb was left with the punishment.
"It's okay," Danielle said. "It'll be okay. I promise."
She was only trying to help, but promises were flimsy things at the moment. "No," Caleb replied. Death and doom tended to bring about pessimism in people, and Caleb felt it now. It wouldn't be okay. "Alexander is dead."
The air was dry and heat filled; the setting sun cast an orange glare to everything. The palm trees swayed in a nonexistent breeze. The world moved as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile Caleb was slowly shattering.
Caleb covered his eyes with his palms and pressed down. He took a huffing breath and took off down the street. Danielle followed, and he didn't say anything more for a while. Danielle didn't try to make him talk either. He stewed in his pain, the evening air boiling it with its warmth. The air was acrid with the smell of garbage baked under the heat of day for far too long.
"This wasn't supposed to happen," Caleb said at last. They passed a Mexican restaurant with sun bleached advertisements in the windows. He back trailed to the door and they walked inside. An elderly man with a mustache sat them and handed them menus recently wiped clean with sanitizer. Caleb didn't plan on eating, but he knew if he didn't sit for a minute and think he would fall apart, and it might not be reparable.
"Can you explain things?" she asked. Caleb knew she was being far more patient than she ought to have been. She was calm for him, but he could see the hurt in her own eyes. Alexander had meant something to her, too.
"I told Rhea James you didn't want to help," Caleb said. His eyes were heavy with exhaustion as adrenaline leaked out of him
"So she killed Alexander?" Danielle breathed. She thanked the old man for the water he set onto the table moments after, and the incongruity of it actually brought a deranged laugh out of Caleb's mouth. She took a sip, and Caleb watched a bead of condensation fall to the table.
"No," Caleb said. "She said she wouldn't protect us. That I needed to see the real danger of it all."
Danielle's face screwed up in confusion. "So she didn't kill Alexander?"
"These Timewalkers claiming to be from her came. Alexander, he... he tried to protect me. But they were infected with the Void. Somehow sentient and aware of what they were doing and..." he didn't say any more. Could he? The thought sent a shard of glass into his heart.
"But what does it have to do with me?" Danielle asked. "Why was I in danger?"
"Because they wanted you. They weren't just there for us. They were coming for you."