"But how?" I demanded, unable to believe. "How did he get to the other world? How did they know about the wall? Why didn't my mother—"
Mileva waved her hand, dismissing all my questions. "Doesn't make a difference to me. Also, to let you know, your mother couldn't survive the impact of the wall opening—she was standing too close. And that's it." She got up. "Thank you for your time. You three are to keep your mouths shut on this matter. If you tell anyone, trust me, we'll find out." She paused, then shifted forward till she was right in front of us. "And you don't want to imagine the consequences of that."
Saying this, she began to leave.
"Wait!" I cried. "How do you know all this, anyway? And who's this colonel?"
She turned around. Her face expressed no emotion, but she said, "I'm not from this world. And neither is the colonel. I hope that's answer enough."
I simply looked at her, trying to process her words. Anna was shaking her head in disbelief. Heather, however, wasn't as astounded as us.
Mileva was from the other world. Where my father was.
She opened the door and the three soldiers filed back in, their thudding footsteps reminding me of army men. They approached us, and one of them unlocked my handcuffs, roughly grabbed me by the arm and pulled me up. I instantly shook my hand away from his grasp. He glared at me.
Once all three of us were freed from the handcuffs, I felt a hand on the small of my back, and I was shoved out of the strange grey room, followed by Heather and Anna. I turned around. The soldiers, their rifles glinting under the light, went back inside the room with Mileva.
I shivered. I wanted to get of here, as far away as I could from that weird room and those strange people. Anna opened the door outside and I quickly rushed out into the open.
I took a deep breath, calming myself down, trying to think of everything at once. Anna walked out, Heather closing the door behind her.
"So Mileva was leaving the notes," she stated, as the three of us stood outside the shop like before.
"That's creepy," Anna said. "Like I said, a stranger's been going and coming to your house, without you knowing, Amy."
"I mean," I said, still knee deep in thoughts, trying to digest everything that had happened, "she didn't say she was leaving the notes. She only knew about it."
"What are the chances that it wasn't her?" Heather asked. "I mean, from what we know, it couldn't possibly be anyone else."
"No, wait," Anna said, thinking. "She was talking about some colonel person, too. Maybe he could be leaving the notes?" When we didn't say anything, Anna snapped her fingers. "No, it's not him. The fact that Mileva's calling him 'colonel' and not by his actual name, shows that she probably works under him. So he must've asked her to leave the notes."
Huh. I hadn't thought of that. "You're probably right," I murmured.
Heather shifted uncomfortably. "Can we go home?"
"Um, yeah, okay sure," I said. "Are you alright?"
She pressed her fingers to her forehead. "Yeah, I...I'm just having a little headache."
"Let's go," Anna agreed.
My mind was buzzing with the flood of new information, as we walked our way back home. Who was this colonel? Colonel was an army post. So he's from an army of the other world? What was he doing here, then?
And how was Mileva leaving the notes? How did she get in my room? Why did she want to know about the wall?
And what about my parents?
He's in the other world.
Your mother could not survive the impact of the wall opening—she was standing too close.
I'm not from this world. And neither is the colonel.
My father was in the other world. The other world.
My heart sunk. How was I ever going to find him?
And what about my mother's words, then? Fragments. Password.
My head reeled. I was forgetting something. She was trying to give me a clue. Maybe about the wall. Or was it related to my father?
Or maybe she wasn't thinking straight, I thought. She was injured on the head, her eyes were closed, and she was stammering. Maybe she didn't mean anything at all.
A part of me doubted it, though. It might be my gut feeling, but I knew she wouldn't say those things for no reason. Even if she was bruised on the head. She wouldn't.
It was afternoon. We reached home in no time. I unlocked the door and went inside, followed by Anna and Heather. Heather went straight upstairs, saying that her headache was getting unbearable.
Meanwhile, I went to get some orange juice from the kitchen, and when I came back I handed Anna a glass as I sat down with my own on the couch.
"Amy," Anna finally said. I felt more comfortable discussing things with Anna privately, for some reason.
"If Mileva works for the colonel," she began, sipping on her drink and tapping her fingers on her knee, the way she always did when she was thinking, "and she wanted to know about the wall from us, then that means—"
"The colonel wanted to know about the wall," I finished.
She nodded. "But why would he do that? If he, like Mileva said, is from the other world, then he should have come through the wall, right? So shouldn't he know about it?"
She was right. Why did he want to know?
But there was something else I was more bothered about.
"Anna," I said, "That's important, too. But we can deal with that later. I'm worried sick about my father."
"She might be lying," Anna said.
I shook my head. "Where else would he be, then? No wonder he hasn't been answering my calls, or didn't even try calling me. If he was anywhere else, I'm sure I would know." I sighed in anguish. "He's in another world. How did he even get there? How did he know about the wall? How am I going to get him?"
My lip slightly quivered. I rubbed my eyes with my palms. Everything felt so uncertain, so distant, so impossible. What on earth was I going to do?
Anna placed a hand on my shoulder. "Amy, hey. We'll think of something, okay? Don't panic. You're not alone."
I sighed. She was right. "Okay," I answered, still trying to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut. I drank a bit of my orange juice, hoping it would make me feel better. I knew I needed to push the negative feeling away.
You'll figure something out. Soon. It may be distant or uncertain, but never impossible. Impossible was a word your father never taught you.
We stayed silent for sometime. My thoughts once again wandered to my house. It was certain I couldn't live here for long if I don't find my father soon. Maybe I should move in with Heather and her father.
Was it okay trust them?
But what other choice did I have, anyway? They were my only relatives. How long would I live alone?
"Should I move in?" I asked Anna, after sometime. "With Heather and her father, I mean."
"Amy..." she sighed. She drank the rest of her juice and placed her empty glass on the coffee table. "No matter what I suggest, it's you who has to decide. This is your house in your father's absence. If you want my opinion, I think you should move, because it's not safe here, like I said earlier."
"Is Heather's house safe, then?" I asked. "She got the same notes that I did. What's the guarantee that it'll be safer there?"
"You're right," Anna admitted. "But that's their house. For now, you're living here, vulnerable, all alone."
I took some time thinking over her advice, then nodded. I had made my decision.
"I'm shifting there," I announced. "And..." I paused, going over the details of what I had decided. "I don't...I'm not doing anything to this house. I'll wait for a month. If by then, I...don't find my father, then I'll decide what's to be done."
"Good thinking," Anna said. "And about your father?"
"We need to go over everything we know," I said. "All from the beginning. Analysing the problem to find the solution."
She grinned. "Looks like someone's intelligence is finally rubbing off on you."
I rolled my eyes and kept my empty glass on the coffee table next to hers.
"Okay, start," she said.
"Alright. I woke up after the final exam. I heard screeching sounds. I found my mother. Before she passed out, she said, 'Fragments. And numbers. For the pass...'"
I stopped midway, as my mouth slowly opened. Of course! That's what my mom was trying to say! It all made sense, and I was so astounded with what I had realised that I shot up instantly from the couch.
"What?" Anna asked, confused. "What happened?"
I whipped around to look at her. "Password, Anna! The password!"
"What about it?" she asked.
I started walking around the room in my excitement. "My mom knew about the wall, yes?"
"Yes. And?"
"And my father reached the other world through the wall, yes?"
"Again, yes," she answered.
"So the password—"
"Is for the wall!" she finished, eyes widening in realisation. "Amy, that means your mom—"
"—was trying to tell me what the password was!" I exclaimed.
"Wow!' She got up too. "So what could the password be? Fragments?"
"Or numbers," I added. "Or both."
"Two passwords?" she asked.
"No, maybe like a combination." My mind's gears were turning. "Numbers of fragments? Or is that too big for a password?"
"I think that's too big," she agreed. "But how are we going to use the password? Should we...I don't know, just say it?"
"Maybe," I answered. "Hey, is that why Mileva wanted to know more about the wall from us? Because she doesn't know the password?"
"But wouldn't she already know it if she's here?" Anna asked.
"So there are two possibilities," I concluded. "Either she already knows the password, and her objective was something else, or maybe..."
"There's a different password for both sides."
I snapped my fingers. "Exactly."
"Wow," Anna huffed. "That was a lot done in two minutes."
"I thought your intelligence did these kind of things all the time."
"Even if it did, what would you know about intelligence?" She gave me a sassy hair flip that made me laugh and she grinned, showing off her perfect, white teeth. What an idiot.
"Coming back, though," Anna said, thinking, "Why would Mileva think we know what the password is?"
I shook my head. I didn't know.
"I mean, come on, I haven't even seen the wall yet."
"You haven't?" I asked. "Oh yeah, you haven't."
Anna rolled her eyes. "Heather's probably resting. We could go together now."
"Sure," I said, although my laziness went against it. Didn't we just come back from outside?
But it was important for Anna to see the wall. She was a part of all this, too.
"I know what you're thinking," she said, as we stepped outside once more. "'Oh, didn't we just come back from outside?'" she said teasingly in my voice.
How did she even know that? "Hilarious," I muttered.
Shoving my hands in my pockets, we did some brisk-walking and reached the wall in about a minute. Frost n' Scoops was only a little distance behind us.
"So this is it," she said slowly. "The wall at the end of the alley."
"Mmhmm," I answered. Anna walked closer to it, and gently touched the wall with her fingers the way I had done it. She pulled it back immediately when she saw what happened.
"How is this even..." she started, then changed her question. "I mean, I believed you when you told me about it, but it's so..."
"Weird?" I finished. She nodded. We stood like that for sometime while she observed the wall carefully.
"Have you tried breaking it?" she asked, not taking her eyes away from it.
"No," I said. "But it's worth the try. What are we going to break it with?"
"No, wait, let's not break it. I have a better idea." She looked around, and finally picked up a pebble from the ground. She slowly started scraping the wall with the pebble. She took a long while, and then finally moved away to see her progress. I came closer to her to see what she had done.
Where there should have been a sort of dent in the wall, there was a tiny glitch, similar to but much smaller than the hole in the corner.
"So that's what would happen," Anna concluded. "If we broke the wall, they'd be a bigger, glitch-like hole."
"Hey," I said, remembering something. "Should I try saying the password?"
"Say it." Her eyes lit up. "Maybe it'll work."
As I opened my mouth to say it, Anna shouted, "Wait!"
"What?"
"You remember what Mileva said? About your mom?"
Your mother could not survive the impact of the wall opening—she was standing too close.
"Yeah," I muttered. "Good reminder." We both moved away from the wall.
"Now say it."
"Fragments!" I shouted. Nothing happened. I huffed.
"Numbers!"
"Number of fragments!"
Nothing.
"Argh," I grumbled. "It didn't work."
"Yeah, well—"
Before she could complete whatever she was going to say, someone cleared their throat behind us.
We both whipped around. There stood Mileva, cheerful as ever.
She raised her eyebrows. "And you both are here, because...?"
"Oh, um—" I started, "we just—"
"Doesn't matter," she interrupted. "The colonel wanted to meet you and Heather. Heather is already there. You need to follow me. And I suppose—" she gave a disapproving look to Anna, "—you want to come too? In that case, you both are coming with me. Make a sound and you'll both regret it."
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A/N: Hey guys! How was this chapter? And are y'all liking the book so far? Vote if you like it, and have a great day ahead :)