Time Spent (32 page)

AARE YOU OKAY, YOU LOOK LIKE YOU'RE HAVING A
HEART ATTACKK

"I believe the Fortune Teller is studying
me." Gwendolyn put an arm around her. "I find the attention so
flattering, don't you?"

Becca wanted to pull back, Gwendolyn's touch
made her skin crawl, but she dared not.

"I asked you a question, Princess. Don't you
find the attentions of men flattering? Or women, in your case. You
enjoy either, don't you?" She was so close Becca could feel
Gwendolyn's breath on her neck.

"Usually I do, yeah. Sometimes not."

Gwendolyn laughed. "I love a good barb, and
you always have one at the ready. Relishing the crack of the
psychological whip, tearing at the ego as substitute for
flesh."

"Yeah that's me, lion tamer of the
soul."

Gwendolyn removed her arm, but turned to
face Becca, her eyes gone suddenly cold. "Some lions cannot be
tamed, my Princess. Some will remain ever wild. Consider that
before cracking your whip."

______________________

"Another whiskey."

"Don't you think you've had enough," the
bartender asked.

Hal Shepherd tapped the bar with his
finger.

The bartender sighed and produced another
shot glass, filling it with whiskey.

Shepherd tipped back the shot glass and
downed it in one gulp. He placed the shot glass on the bar and sat
with his eyes closed, feeling the burn down his throat.

"What's your name?"

A woman sat on the bar stool next to him.
She had long, curly red hair and was wearing a slinky, low cut red
dress.

"No offense, ma'am, but I'm not really fit
for company tonight."

She smiled. "I only asked your name. You can
at least tell me that much."

"Shep. They call me Shep."

"Very nice to meet you, Shep." She extended
a hand. "You can call me Gwendolyn."

Shepherd tapped the bar again to get the
bartender's attention. "Gwendolyn, I apologize but I'm in no fit
mood for company tonight. Something happened, and I...I couldn't
handle it. Can't handle it. I don't know."

"Aww." She rubbed his arm. "Is it too late
to do something about it?"

Shepherd considered. "No...maybe, I...no.
No! It's not!" Shepherd turned around in his stool and stood. For a
moment, it appeared he might fall back to his stool, but Gwendolyn
reached out and took his left arm, steadying him.

"Every problem has a solution," she said.
"Trust me, I find solutions to mine all the time, just like
that."

"Thank you," he said. "I have to go talk to
someone, tell her...tell her everything's okay."

She rubbed his left arm. "Good night,
Shep."

"Night." He took a step, then stopped,
rubbing his arm in the place she had touched. It stung there.
"Ah...ow..." He walked a bit further. A massive jolt hit his arm,
running up it into his chest. "AHH!" He clutched his arm. Another
jolt. Shepherd went down, face first, knocking over one of the
small tables on his way to the floor.

"Are you okay?" The bartender ran around the
bar and knelt down, rolling him over. "Call 9-1-1! Somebody call
9-1-1 right now!"

______________________

Max appeared next to Gwendolyn,
growling.

"Ah, the Ghost approaches. Have you a
concern, my forgotten one?"

Max concentrated, and the collars appeared,
their chains stretching into the sky, reaching into the void.

"Good boy, Max," Becca said. "Care to
explain this?"

"Merely a tool to ensure that I was able to
find you, should the need arise. The Lost care for our own. I
recognized your resemblance to us upon our first encounter. I
arranged to be able to come to your aid, should you require my
assistance."

"So, this is all for our benefit then," said
Brandon.

"Of course. Why else?"

Brandon folded his arms on his chest. "Gee,
I dunno, what else are chains and collars used for? Let me
think."

"Chains and collars?" Gwendolyn smirked.
"That can only be your mind's way of making sense of something
beyond its understanding. Should you ever desire to experiment with
collars and chains, however," she put a hand on his chin, which
Brandon immediately pulled away, "I'm your girl."

Max barked. The chains flared.

"Max seems to think the image is pretty
accurate," Becca said.

"He's a clever fellow, your Howling Ghost."
She walked back over to Max and knelt before him, her smile
vanished. "Clever, clever. Very well, Maximillian. I will break
your chains, if you so desire."

She raised her hands and the collars and
chains dissolved away.

"You see, little Ghost? I want nothing more
than to be friends."

______________________

When the doorbell rang, Max lifted his
head.

"Someone at the door, huh Max?" Paul
Zebinsky set aside the Braille book he had been reading with his
fingertips and stood.

He knew the layout of his own home
perfectly, so he had no need to let Max out his kennel to assist.
Max settled his head on his front paws and waited. Paul opened the
door.

"Can I help you?"

"Mr. Zebinsky?" It was a woman's voice. Max
couldn't see her from his position.

"Yes?"

A hand reached forward from beyond the door
to touch Paul on the chest. Max stood, a bit alarmed.

"What are you doing?" Paul stepped back,
unsure why she had touched him. "Who are you?"

"Please give Maximillian my regards."

"What? Max?"

As she walked away, the sound of her steps
drifted through the door.

"Hello?" Paul waited a moment, then closed
the door. "That was...so...."

He took a few steps, then fell to his knees,
clutching his chest.

Max began to bark.

Paul fell on his face, just outside Max's
cage, a thin fluid draining from between his lips to pool around
his jaw.

Max kept barking, then began to whine, and
eventually his keening stretched out into long, mournful howls.

______________________

The other Kevin tumbled through the void,
unmoored from reality, unable to stop his fall. He would fall for
millions of years, just as she had, Gwendolyn knew. Unlike her,
however, his form did not dissolve. Rather, he rejected the
energies of the void. Gwendolyn considered. If he was indeed like
his twin, he too would gain the power to open and close rifts, to
move between realities. Given time, they might both become masters
of time and space like the Tyrant himself.

She had no intention of giving him that
time.

She needed another tool, a way of turning
him against her enemy the insect, to destroy him for her and bring
her plan to fruition. This Kevin already possessed the powers she
needed, the same power as his doppelganger. She merely needed a way
to enslave him to her will.

She peered back through the cracks in time,
searching through Kevin's life. Searching...and eventually,
gleefully, finding what she needed.

______________________

The other Kevin had fallen through the void
for so long he had lost all bearing on how much time he passed.
I want to go home, I want to go home.

A strange sensation passed over him just
then. It was as if, at the thought of home, something reached out,
pulling him in a certain direction.

Kevin seized upon it.
HOME!

The void cracked open and Kevin fell through
the hole, tumbling to the ground. He felt carpet under his hands.
He looked up. He was in his living room! He looked around.
Everything looked normal, just as he'd left it, except....

The photographs. He picked one up, examining
it. His parents, Brian and Glenda Lloyd, were in the photo, one arm
around each other, and the other around...
a girl.
In front
of them, where Kevin should be, a young girl sat, smiling and
happy.

A voice came from behind him. "So not only
did you break into someone else's house..."

Kevin spun about. A man and woman stood
there, where no one had been before. The man had dark brown hair,
the woman lustrous red. They both appeared to be dressed for a
night out at the club.

The man continued, "...but you left the door
wide open."

The woman laughed, her breasts bulging from
the top of her red leather outfit. "It's an understandable error.
This is home, it's just not...your home."

"Who are you?" Kevin asked.

"We're the ones who are about to ruin your
entire fucking day," the man said.

The woman kissed his ear. "Go get 'im,
boy."

His body shifted, his flesh melting away to
become a swirling cloud. The cloud surged across the room before
Kevin could even react, pouring itself into his eyes. Kevin clapped
his hands over his face, but it was too late. He could feel it
inside him, running up and down his body, his nerves.

When it was over, Kevin could still think,
still see and feel, but it was if his limbs were not his own.

"This is awesome!" Ryan said through Kevin's
mouth.

Gwendolyn smiled. "I told you, baby." She
wrapped her arms around him, kissing him. "It was the fortune
teller who figured it out. His power stops anything except that
taken in by his senses. We'll have to reward him for that."

"The fortune teller?"

"Someone you'll need to retrieve soon.
First, we deal with the insect. Then, we collect the savage."

"I don't know who all these people are."

She giggled. "Don't worry. I'll show you
everything you need to know. Just wait until you get to see all the
fun you're going to have."

"I can hardly wait," he said, kissing her
again.

"You won't have to." She ran a hand over
Kevin's smooth head. "The end is closer than you think."

Clasping her hands to the sides of his head,
Gwendolyn poured all the knowledge Ryan would need about Kevin and
his friends into his mind.

______________________

Simon stood atop the tallest of the wooden
towers, and looked down on his city, his home. He breathed deep,
enjoying the scents of the jungle. No exhaust fumes, no factory
smells, just pure, rich rainforest air.

"Smells like monkey shit here."

Simon looked up to find Kevin beside him.
"What are you doing back here?" It wasn't too long ago that Kevin
had brought him here, after they had taken the other super-powered
kids back to their own reality.

"I need your help, Simon."

Simon's shoulders slumped. "Oh, God...what
now? I thought we were done with all that."

"I thought so, too. But it turns out I was
wrong. Splitting us all up didn't stop it. We have to get back
together again."

Simon looked out over the jungle. "I'm happy
here...really happy. I don't want to leave this place."

"If we don't get back together, there won't
be a place to be happy in. I'm sorry, but we have to stop it."

Simon sighed, then looked up at him. "Okay,
what do I have to do?"

Ryan placed Kevin's hand on his shoulder.
"Just come with me."

They appeared in an alley, stinking with
garbage. Simon covered the hole of his nose. "Ugh. Where are
we?"

"Stay here. Becca's next. She's just around
the corner."

He walked down the street and opened the
door to the salon where he knew Becca waited, stopping just inside
the door as the little chime sounded. The door swung slowly closed
as he stepped forward and looked around.

"Hello," the salon manager, a slim Asian
woman in her mid-forties, greeted him, "can I help you, sir?"

"No, thanks," Ryan said. "I'm looking
for...." He spotted Becca at the back of the salon.
Oh I am so
gonna enjoy destroying this bitch.
He pushed past the manager
and walked toward her quickly.

"Shit," Becca said, recognizing Kevin's
face. "What the fuck is he doing here?" She paused as if hearing
something in her ear. "No, wait!" She jumped to her feet.

Agents burst in the front and back doors,
turned around from where they had been sitting at nail stations,
hair stations, stood from the waiting area. All drew their weapons
and surrounded Ryan/Kevin.

Ryan calmly raised Kevin's hands.
Play it
cool. It's just me, your old pal.
"Hello, Becca," he said.
"Long time no see."

She reached across him and yanked the hood
back, revealing Kevin's bald head, brown skin, clean-shaven face
and penetrating brown eyes.

"Not long enough," she said.

Ryan put Kevin's hands down. The agents
tensed, but held their fire.

How the fuck does Slut Barbie rate FBI
protection?
"These men," Ryan said, "Are you using your powers
on them?"

Becca grinned. "They're with
me!
" She
took out her badge and showed it to him. Ryan nodded.

One of the agents, who had come in the back
door to the salon, approached Becca from her right. "Powers? What's
going on, Miller? Who is this and what is he talking about?"

Ryan was silent, waiting for her to
answer.

"Someone I really hoped I'd never have to
look at again," she said, putting her badge away.

"I didn't think you would," Ryan said. "But
it's important. You remember the last time I saw you?"

Becca rolled her eyes. "You're kidding,
right? Um, yeah. You don't forget the end of the world."

"It's worse. Everything's worse."

"End of the
what?
" the agent
asked.

"The world," Ryan said. "And it's closer
than you think."

Becca reached into her purse. "Sorry, I'm
gonna need a cig if I have to deal with this."

"You smoke now?" Ryan asked.

She raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? That's
the part of all this that bothers you?"

Ryan sighed, glancing around at the armed
agents who surrounded them. "Do you think you could get them to
lower their guns?" he asked.