Time tormented Paige. Seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours as she sat in the backseat overcome with fear. Her father parked on the curb next to the yellow row house and pulled in behind the van. For a brief moment, she forgot herself and expected to see Gabriel step out onto the porch to greet them, his unkempt hair shielding his face as his long slender frame descended the stairs. She blinked away her grief and looked down at the watch to make sure it still existed, secure in her grasp. Her father killed the engine and opened the door but Paige lingered in the backseat and waited for the professor to step down from the van. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she ran into his arms and wrapped herself around his waist. She surrendered to the moment, overcome by a train-wreck of emotions as shock gave way to dread. The professor held her close and ran his fingers through her hair, assuring her that everything would be okay.

“I remember everything,” she whispered. “I’m so scared, Billy.”

“I know,” he replied, rubbing her back. “Come on, let’s see this thing through.”

The others piled out of the van and gathered on the wooden porch while Michael fished for the keys to unlock the door. Justin and Allison held hands as they stood before their oldest son and relayed the dismal news from the radio broadcast. The professor stroked his beard and quietly listened.

“You two ready for the hills?” he asked.

Justin rubbed the back of his neck and shook his head, “Son, you can’t hide from smallpox.”

“We’re not hiding,” the professor replied. “Dad, we’ve talked about this. We have a bulk supply of the medicine along with the recipe. You’re the only one who can make sense of it. Please, tell me you’re not backing out.”

Justin sighed and looked to his wife before answering, “I just don’t know.”

Professor Faraday threw up his hands and turned his back to them. Avoiding eye contact, Paige observed her father while his thoughts streamed through her mind.

I need more time…time to think, time to plan and prepare. I can’t decode that recipe, it’s beyond me! What’ll we do when the medicine runs out? …Breathe, Justin, keep your family safe, that’s the best you can do.

Placing his hand on his son’s shoulder, Justin finally said, “We have to go home and pick up Strutter, after that, we’ll meet you in Bastrop.”

Nodding, Professor Faraday patted his father on the arm and reassured his mother it was the right decision to make. A bright spotlight flooded the dark street and Paige shielded her eyes, blinded by the sudden invasion as the CMC’s barked orders through a loudspeaker. The fully armed tank rolled closer and squeezed through the narrow path while a robotic voice warned them to clear the sidewalk. Flushed with anger, Paige stepped out into the street. Her mother yelled for her to move, but she refused. She infiltrated the four men, planting her seeds and intent on a peaceful resolution. She stood her ground until the approaching tank stopped and reversed its course, backing up and pulling out of the narrow path. She scanned the area for more threats, and although a group of people in hazmat suits walked briskly across the street, they disappeared around the corner before she had to act. Her father smiled and winked. Her mother’s frown deepened.

“Bet you won’t miss those guys,” Professor Faraday remarked.

Paige grinned and shook her head. “Nope,” she replied.

“We’re crashing here tonight,” he said, turning to his father, “and tomorrow we’ll head for the hills.”    

“And what about Paige?” Justin asked. “What if the…well, the wormhole thing doesn’t pan out?”

“Then she’ll come with us,” the professor answered.

Allison cupped her hand to her forehead and then quickly yanked it away. “This is absurd!” she exclaimed. “Wormholes? Time travel? There’s got to be another explanation! I mean, how do we know they didn’t just mess with her mind and then keep her from us this whole time? We don’t! We don’t know the truth!”

“I do,” Paige said. “I know what happened. I know the truth.”

“You think you do,” her mother said, “but no one knows for sure.”

Paige shivered as the cold air blew through her damp clothes. She welcomed the professor’s warm embrace.

“If anyone knows what happened,” he said, “it’s Paige. I understand your reservations, Mom, but I don’t think anyone can stop her from going back to Shady Oak tonight.”

Allison’s eyes filled with tears, but when Justin attempted to comfort her, she pushed him away and stuck her finger in the professor’s face. “This is on you,” she said. “You helped her leave the first time, and now, you’re helping her again. If anything bad happens, it’s on you.”

Professor Faraday held his mother’s glare as she removed her finger from his chest and turned her back to him. Catching eyes with his father, he held up his free hand while keeping the other draped around Paige’s shoulders. Justin narrowed his eyes and looked away.

“You can follow us back to Shady Oak if you’d like,” he said to his parents, “if not, I’ll see you in Bastrop.”

Justin nodded, “Sounds good, son. You take care of your little brother now. He needs you.”

The professor groaned and told Paige to meet him inside. I’m done here, he said privately. Think you can handle them? Paige managed a grim smile before motioning for him to go on up. She understood how her mother felt, and she’d been right, the professor was the one who took her to see Gabriel the last and final time she ran away. They’d celebrated their eighteenth birthdays together, two weeks before his death and her disappearance.

“It’s not his fault, Mom,” she said. “I would have left anyway, without his help.”

Allison whipped around and grabbed Paige by the shoulders. Her newly restored youthful appearance did nothing to hide the years of grief that tarnished her spirit. The imprint of old age temporarily disappeared from her face, but Paige saw it emanating around her body, a dull luster painted dark blue.

“I haven’t seen you for twenty-seven years,” her mother said. “I can’t stand by and watch this happen again. Please, honey, come home with us and we’ll sort it out there.”

Wrapping her arms around her mother, Paige kissed her cheek and then gently pulled away. “I have to go back and save him, Mom. Billy’s right, no one can stop me.”

Allison dabbed her eyes with a mascara-streaked tissue and straightened out her blood-soaked blouse. “I don’t believe in time travel,” she said, “but I can’t stop you from chasing ghosts.” Briefly looking away at the yellow shotgun house, she turned to her daughter and smiled, “I’ll see you in Bastrop in a couple of days.”

Paige shook her head, “No, you won’t. I’m not going to Bastrop.”

“We’ll see you in a couple of days, sweetie,” Justin said, cradling his wife. “Your mother and I, we’ll be counting the seconds.” He walked Allison to the car and opened the door as she collapsed into the passenger’s seat. Closing her in, he approached Paige, pulled her against his chest and kissed the top of her head. Paige struggled to breathe.

“You’re not going back to Shady Oak with me?” she asked.

“No sweetie.” Kissing her forehead, he rubbed her shoulders and released her from his grip. “After you save Gabriel,” he said, turning on the car with a click of his keychain, “promise you’ll come back to us?”

“I promise,” she said, wiping her face on her sleeve.

Justin smiled and nodded, his bloodshot eyes catching the moisture of his reluctant retreat. Paige watched the car’s taillights disappear around the corner and embraced herself while the empty street toyed with her emotions. She wanted them to stay, she wanted them to go. Looking out towards Bourbon Street, she smiled and turned around as music played from inside the yellow house. Recognizing the first track off Gabriel’s favorite classic rock album, she climbed the stairs and followed the sound of John Lennon’s voice.

The old record player sat against the wall next to a small lamp and a full pot of coffee. A solar generator quietly buzzed in the corner of the room. Michael and Ashley sat alone at the bar while Abbey and Regan crowded together on the couch with the professor, who sang along and tapped his foot to the music. Paige poured herself a cup of black coffee and pulled up a stool.

“No cream and sugar?” she asked.

“Nope,” Michael replied.

She grimaced after taking a sip and noticed Abbey’s familiar smirk as she set her cup down on the bar. It haunted her. He haunted her, as did the smell of sandalwood that lingered in the air. Twenty-seven years later, Gabriel’s scent still permeated the walls. Through the pops and scratches of the vinyl record, ethereal harmony veiled the atmosphere with psychedelic wonderment. She took another sip and glanced down the hallway, tempted to visit the guest room she once called her own.

“Where’s Kendal?” she asked. “She okay?”

“Not really,” Michael answered. “She’s passed out in the back. I gave her some sleeping pills.” Glancing at the door, he asked, “Sonny and Cher leave?”

“Yeah, they did,” she answered, crossing her arms and legs. “Mom doesn’t believe that I time-traveled, so, I don’t know, they just left.”

Refilling his coffee, Professor Faraday commented, “No one did. We thought you were a clone.”

“Well I’m not.”

Setting his mug aside, the professor thumbed through a stack of records. Smiling, he tossed one of the albums into her lap. “I know,” he answered.

She looked down and gripped the prized item. Holding it closer, she ran her fingers across the rare Butcher Cover of The Beatle’s album Yesterday and Today presented to Gabriel on his eighteenth birthday. Her vision blurred as she pulled the record out of the sleeve and a hand-written card fell into her lap. She didn’t need to read it. She knew what it said:

To my sweet brother, I told you it was big. Don’t ask what I went through to get this. You’re worth it. Love Paige.

Wiping her eyes, she looked up at the professor, “You really shouldn’t be throwing this around,” she said.

Grinning, he replied, “The moment I saw you in class, I knew you weren’t a clone.”

Paige nodded and forced out a smile. The strong chicory coffee grew more appealing as she enjoyed another sip and glanced around the room. Every painting, trinket and decoration weighed on her heart. She wanted to relax and reminisce with the others, laugh and delight in their camaraderie, but her other half was still missing. Lost in the past and left behind as the world progressed into a new century, she too, was out of touch and out of time, but the hangman waited in the wings. Plotting destruction and taking cues from a time-tested playbook, the hangman moved between realms. The future could learn from the past, she thought, observing the gold pocket watch. Kendal would never fully recover from the death of her twin brother, but the sleeping pills temporarily curbed the pain. Paige had cradled her twin brother after he took his last breath and collapsed on the ground, but her sleeping pills finally wore off.

“Why did they erase my memories?” she asked. “What was the point?”

“Buy themselves more time, I guess,” Michael shrugged. “You weren’t supposed to leave the library in the first place, but somebody complicated matters.”

Regan scoffed and rolled her eyes, “Hey, I thought I was doing right by Paige. Besides, Justin asked me to.”

Paige sighed and rubbed her forehead, “I’m sorry, I guess I’m still confused as to how all this played out.”

Picking out one of David Bowie’s earliest albums, Hunky Dory, Professor Faraday gently placed the needle on the record and pulled up a small wooden chair.

“Allow me to explain,” he said. “Regan actually did try to do the right thing.”

Michael made a snide comment under his breath while the professor recapped the events that lead to the night of Paige’s return. They’d been expecting her, twenty-seven years to the day, Vincent held firm that on October 31, 2028, Paige would reappear. Her parents had serious doubts, as did everyone, but Justin retained a sliver of hope. He contacted his son a week before the due date and inquired about the possibility of her return.

“I told him Regan would be in the library on lookout that night,” the professor said, “and he begged me to do whatever I could to bring you to him if you did actually show up.”

Regan snickered, “Yeah, he also asked us to bring him some medicine.”

The professor frowned and then nodded, “yes, he did, but he kept it from mom. He knew she wouldn’t be too pleased about it.”

Certain that Paige wouldn’t show, Allison opted to stay at home, but on Halloween morning, Justin hopped in his car and made the nine hour drive to New Orleans. Holed up in his hotel room, he was stunned when Regan called about a quarter-past midnight and informed him that she had the medicine, along with Paige.

“We were all stunned,” the professor said. “You slept a good twelve hours before coming to, and by that time, Vincent and Alain were on their way to Houston.”

Paige nodded, “Yeah, my parents told me about that. They said I remembered everything until Alain worked his magic.”

“I don’t think anyone knew how to handle the situation,” the professor replied, “but in the end, I think we were all in the wrong to some extent.”

Michael slammed his cup down. “Best speak for your own, William! Sittin’ dere with dat beard flappin’ in duh wind.” Ashley choked on his coffee and shook his head but Regan glared at her brother and scorned him for his lack of respect.

“Oh, come on,” Michael said, “just because he shot himself doesn’t mean I have to play nice. Ain’t dat right, William?”

The professor stared at Michael and then turned away before his thick beard revealed a hidden smile. “Anyway,” he said, looking at Paige, “I hope you’re not too mad at us. We never meant to put you in harm’s way, but as always, things got a little out of hand.”

“I’m not mad,” she said, “I’m just, in awe, I guess. For two months I didn’t leave the house, and when I did, well, here we are.”

“I know,” the professor said, “believe me, when I saw you in class, I silently panicked. I knew the plan but, well, nothing ever goes according to planned.”

“What was the plan anyway?” she asked.

Holding out his arms, Michael exclaimed, “Ta dah!”

The professor sipped his coffee before offering a brief explanation. “Everything was planned, Paige. Taking my course, Abbey giving you the backstage pass, you going to New Orleans, Vincent had it all planned out, and he was watching. From the moment you pulled out of the drive, you were being tracked. He wanted to make sure you remained in the dark about your unique situation until he saw you himself.”

“But why?” she asked. “Why not just tell me the truth?”

“Don’t know,” he answered. “He liked to control things. Everything had to be on his terms, and our hands were tied. We needed the medicine for loud mouth over here.”

Michael huffed and narrowed his eyes, “Watch yourself, William. Anyway, Paige, there’s no way you would have believed the truth. We had to wait for Alain’s magic to wear off. Oh, turn it up, I love this song.”

David Bowie’s, Andy Warhol, strummed away in the corner as Paige silently recounted her first day out of the house. After two months of isolation, two long months of watching television and passing the time alone in her room, her first day of college should have been a wake-up call, but her father had prepared her for the inevitable. He knew they couldn’t keep her locked up forever, and when the time finally came, she’d been told just enough about the state of the world to get her by without too much of a culture shock.

“So, this is the future,” she commented. “Funny, I thought we’d be a lot more advanced.”

“We are,” the professor said.

Paige nodded and sipped her coffee. She knew better than to make a comment like that. Her very existence proved that advancements in technology were kept well-hidden from the general public. While the rest of the world seemed to regress into poverty, broken politics and failed innovations, the privileged select enjoyed progress and enlightenment. She knew the drill, and in her own right, she was part of the privileged select, but she’d been destined to follow Gabriel’s route. He hated what he was and seldom used his gifts unless to defend himself against his own kind. Paige felt the same way, she didn’t want to be special; she wanted to evolve with the rest of humanity, not leave them behind.

“They don’t get to win,” she said. “Dr. Faraday and his council, the others, they don’t get to win.”

Professor Faraday adjusted positions in his chair and stroked the ends of his beard. Inhaling a deep breath as if to respond, he slowly exhaled and observed the walls instead. Michael slinked off the stool and crept down the hallway to check in on his sister while Ashley gazed into his coffee mug. Abbey and Regan kept silent on the couch.

“What?” Paige asked. “You think they’ve already won? You think there’s no hope?”

“There’s always hope,” the professor replied, “but we’re going into hiding tomorrow, if that tells you anything. Sometimes, it’s best to retreat.”

Paige stood to refill her coffee and turned her back to all of them. She despised the future. Mankind was supposed to be riding around in hover cars and living in above-ground cities with robots for maids. They were supposed to be saving the earth, colonizing other planets, solving world hunger and curing disease, but it was just the opposite. Nothing worked, resources ran dry and the earth struggled to breathe.

Turning around, she asked, “What was that red stuff being sprayed from the planes?”

“Manmade pollen,” the professor answered. “It’s used to pollinate our manmade crops. The bees won’t touch it. If they do, they tend to drop dead.”

“Why is it red?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered. “Don’t think I want to know.”

Paige remembered what her father had told her the last time the Green Police paid them a visit. In late November, a couple of months after the hurricane, they’d shown up unannounced, decked out in kaki-pants and green collared shirts. Friendly and non-threatening, they recited a series of codes and federal mandates in a textbook fashion, writing out tickets for each one with satisfied smiles. After they left, her father tore up the slips of paper and threw them in the fireplace, which was, by no coincidence, a code violation. He went into a rampage complaining that the green movement was a joke and that real environmental issues, like manmade pollen and fake food, were touted as life-saving and earth-friendly remedies. They’re the ones destroying the planet, he’d complained, not us.

Paige walked across the room and examined a framed photograph hanging on the wall that Gabriel had taken in Galveston. A blue heron skimmed across the Gulf Coast waters as a setting sun colored the backdrop–he always loved the beach, she thought, I wonder what he’d think about the future. She figured she already knew the answer.

“The earth is dying,” she commented, turning away from the photograph, “and I think that’s what they want. I’d bet this gold pocket watch the red pollen they’re spraying is toxic to real plants and animals.”

“And I would absolutely agree,” the professor nodded. “They want to be the creators, the destroyers and the saviors.”

Slumping down on her stool, she replied, “I understand why Gabriel hated what he was, now more than ever, I get it. We’re just as fake and as toxic as that pollen.”

Ashley’s blue eyes bore into Paige and a faint smile animated his face, softening his calloused features before straightening out again. “You sound just like Gabe,” he said. “It’s a destructive way to think. I’ll tell you exactly what Michael told him, even though you and I don’t buy into religion, you’ll get the point. Angels can be as bad as Lucifer, or as good as, say, the arc angel Gabriel,” he smiled, “but they’re the same kind of entity.”

Paige smiled and glanced at the sculpture of the owl, big and unfaltering, his yellow eyes glared at the broken glass case. Alain presented it to Gabriel on his eighteenth birthday, and Paige had pleaded with him to get rid of it, reminded of Vincent and his love for the occult, she found the sculpture creepy and unsettling. Gabriel refused. Owls aren’t evil, he’d said, just because they’re worshipped by crazy occultists, doesn’t make them evil. It was during that same conversation that he told her about the others, Dr. Faraday’s race, and their philosophy. They worship spirits, he’d said, they practice really strange rituals, and have really weird sex orgies, and that’s just the beginning. Paige laughed when he told her, uncomfortable with the subject matter and suspicious of his sincerity, she’d suspected he’d stretched out the truth a bit. It took a detour into the future for her to believe otherwise.

“Maybe the devil does exist,” she said, picking a cigarette butt out of the ashtray and flicking it at the owl. “Gabriel sure thought so.”

“Oh, he’s real,” Regan said. “Daddy said he met him once, said he was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.”

Ashley snickered and flicked his own cigarette butt at the owl, “Yeah, and I’ve got a date with the tooth fairy this weekend.”

Paige embraced the familiar laughter as she looked around the room and recalled her relationship with each of them. The professor had been like a second father, critical of her when she stepped out of line but always loving and kind. Michael and Ashley had played the role of older brothers, protective antagonists who always made her laugh and shielded her from the darker aspects of their world. As for Regan, Paige had been at odds with her because of Gabriel, who was often found at her house high on heroin. Back in those days, Regan had also been an addict, but Paige suspected that in the future, she’d traded the needle for the bottle. Kendal seemed to have changed the most. A grunged-out hippie girl in the nineties, Kendal had been like an older sister to Paige, taking her to rock concerts and sneaking her into the hippest clubs, she adored wasting the day away with Kendal. I wonder what happened, she thought.

“How’s she doing?” Paige asked. “How’s Kendal holding up?”

“Too soon to tell,” Michael replied. “She knows Alain deserved his fate, doesn’t make it easier.”

“It should,” Ashley scoffed.

“I know,” Michael said, “he had it coming.” Stretching out his arms, he yawned and glanced around the room, “We should get going soon. It’s about time for Gabriel to come home.”

Ashley twitched his mouth and reached for his cigarettes. Sliding off the stool, he glanced around the room and inhaled the fragrant air before stepping outside. Michael smiled at Paige and then looked at the professor who stared at the floor gnawing on his fingernail. Abbey leaned forward on the couch and straightened his posture.

“He’s not coming back,” he said. “Even if Paige saves him, it’s not like he’ll just appear out of thin air. Gabriel’s dead. Game over.”

Michael glared at Abbey, “You don’t know what’s going to happen. No one does.”

“Oh yeah?” Abbey asked. “Well, Dad certainly doesn’t think it’ll change anything. He told me so.”

Slamming his hands on the bar, Michael exclaimed, “I know how Ashley feels! He’s never had much faith in anything, that’s always been my job.”

Abbey rolled his eyes and relaxed back into the couch, crossing his arms and mumbling under his breath, “Faith is just disappointment in hiding.”

Michael pushed himself off the bar and turned on his heels. Towering over the couch, he peered down at Abbey and asked, “Been reading fortune cookies again?”

Regan grunted and laughed, but Abbey glared at Michael and opened his mouth to speak before deciding against it. Michael bent down nose to nose with him and quietly said, “Faith is all we have, so you’ll bite your tongue. You’ve never known grief.” He approached Paige and gestured for her to hand him the pocket watch. Looking it over, he held it up to his face and clicked it open. Paige gasped and followed him to the lamp.

“Hieroglyphs,” he said, “don’t ask me what they mean.”

“What do they mean?” she asked.

“Rebirth,” he answered, handing it back to her. “Do you have a plan of action when you get back?”

“Save Gabriel,” she replied, “that’s it.” Paige thought for a moment and then asked, “What happens if things go wrong and I get sent to back to the wrong time?”

“Cold feet?” Michael asked.

“Do any of you know how this thing actually works?” she asked, ignoring Michael.

Silence.

“So I’m the guinea pig, wonderful.” Paige examined the watch again, clicking it open and running her fingers across the engraved symbols as shivers crawled down her spine. She recalled its supposed origin. Moloch, she thought, the god of sacrifice, sometimes symbolized as an owl. Holding the watch closer, she saw the unmistakable owl-like figure surrounded by an eye, a pyramid, a beetle, a snake and a few other squiggly lines and shapes that she couldn’t make out. Her hands shook as she snapped it closed. The professor clicked off the record player and filled his mug with the last of the coffee while Michael stepped outside to check on Ashley. Paige turned and stared at the wooden cross on the wall, still hung upside down from Kendal’s short-lived uprising. She walked over and flipped it around. Gabriel’s breathless voice played through her head as she turned and glared at the owl, they practice really strange rituals. Alarmed by her trancelike stare, Abbey and Regan abandoned the couch and joined the professor at the bar. Paige narrowed her focus, tunnel-vision, until tiny fragments of limestone slowly broke away from the sculpture: first the pointy ears, then the orange beak, then large chunks of the wings until the owl crumbled into a pile of dust. Two yellow marbles fell off the table and rolled across the hardwood floor. Grinning, Paige inhaled a deep breath and blew the dust off the table, polluting the air with a thick cloud of limestone.

“After I return,” she said, holding up the watch, “I’m getting rid of this.”

Clutching his green coffee mug, the professor coughed and replied, “Good idea.”

“They don’t get to win,” she said, “but if Vincent was telling the truth about the others, that they move between realms, then I guess they have the upper-hand because if this thing came from Moloch, I don’t want it.”

“He was telling the truth,” Regan said, “and the others are far more advanced than us. Unfortunately, Princess, they do get to win.”

Abbey scoffed and shook his head. A well-polished version of her beloved twin brother, without the long tangled hair, dirty fingernails and blemished face, he stood with crossed arms and stared at Paige with his mood-ring eyes, appearing more blue than green. She held his gaze, amazed that he looked almost identical to Gabriel, yet somehow, resembled a stranger.

“You’re just like everyone else now,” he said privately. “You cringe when you look at me. I don’t know true grief, but I inspire it.”

“I didn’t cringe,” she said aloud.

Abbey clinched his jaw, “Gabriel’s not coming back,” he said, “and Moloch was a figment of Vincent’s psychotic imagination.”

Stepping closer, Paige replied, “Gabriel’s not going to die, and I don’t know if Moloch is real or not. Doesn’t matter what we believe.”

Abbey sighed and dropped his arms, “He’s already dead, Paige, and what we believe is all that matters. Just stay here with us and leave the past alone,” he said. “If Gabriel returns, I can’t compete with the real thing.”

The professor gently squeezed his shoulder, “you’re two different people, Abbey, you know that, there’s room for both of you. Gabriel went through a lot of trouble to give you a good home with Matthew and Robin. I’m sure he’d love to meet you.”

Abbey scoffed and pulled away.

Paige had known Matthew and Robin, not extremely well, but enough to know that they were good people. Matthew had been one of Gabriel’s closest confidants, and when he was at his worst, strung out, paranoid and severely depressed, Matthew’s door was always open. Paige remembered many nights spent at Matthew and Robin’s place taking turns as they watched over Gabriel to make sure he didn’t overdose or do something stupid. No wonder Robin seemed so nervous around me, she thought, she didn’t know how to act.

“Matthew and Robin raised you?” she asked.

Abbey nodded, “Matthew’s more like a father to me than Ashley. I mean, Ashley’s not really my dad, Paige.”

“So everyone was just putting on a show for my benefit?” she asked.

Regan held up her hand and leaned across the bar. “That was my doing,” she said. “I thought it’d be easier if we played the role of mommy and daddy. Cause, you know, it’s easier to hide the truth when you’re lying.”

Abbey and Paige locked eyes while the professor stroked his beard and nodded in agreement. “She’s right, Paige, besides, you and Abbey were both spawned from one of her eggs.”

Paige frowned. Abbey crinkled his face and crossed his eyes. Regan laughed and sauntered back over to the couch. “I’m everyone’s mother,” she proclaimed.

“Nice job blowing up the cottage,” Paige said. “Operation: Destroy Regan’s eggs.”

Smiling, the professor replied, “That was Michael’s idea. He said he wanted to free the spirits. I don’t know, you’d have to ask him about that.”

“I think I understand,” she said.

The phantom sound of the crying infant stopped after the cottage burst into flames, and Vincent fell to his knees and pleaded with the open air, terrified it had seemed, of a restless past that only he could see. Paige understood, and although her own ghostly encounter pleaded his case for freedom and eternal rest, she refused to listen. The necklace wasn’t a talisman at all, it was a gateway to the spirits. Michael has some explaining to do, she thought. Speak of the devil…

“Hey guys, it’s time,” he said, popping his head through the door. Paige grew weak at the knees and her heart pounded against her chest. She forced herself to move towards the exit.

“I’m staying here,” Regan said. “Kendal needs me.”

Michael eyed his sister. “Right,” he said.

Pushing herself off the couch, weary-eyed and sluggish, she approached Paige with extended arms and gave her a forced hug. “When you get back,” she said, “go to that upstairs room with the piano, I’ll be in there watching Back to the Future.”

Michael laughed and shook his head, “Regan, that’s not what you were watching.”

“Yeah it was,” she shot back. “It was the only thing on besides Halloween. Anyway, come get me and I’ll give you a ride to the Quarters. You might have to get nasty, but I’ll deal with it.”

Paige nodded, “Will do.”

They piled into the van with the professor behind the wheel and Paige riding shotgun. The professor reached over and clicked on the radio as REM’s, Automatic for the People, played at a low level. The album came out in the early nineties when grunge music was king, flannels were fashionable and compact discs were all the rage. She would move mountains to return. Gabriel’s crusade to take down Vincent and the others proved to be a death sentence, but as Paige contemplated the demise of millions of people, ninety percent of the population wiped out from a premeditated smallpox outbreak, she knew they still had to try. He warned people through his documentary, and no one believed it, she thought, but Paige understood denial. Waking up to an unpleasant reality is easy to put off, especially when it broke all the rules of understanding and challenged the status quo. Professor Faraday yelled for someone to fetch him a bottle of water from the cooler. Michael’s reply broke the sound barrier.

“Here we go!” he shouted. “Time for the bellowing bearded boy-scout!”

Flinching, the professor yelled, “Lay off the beard!”

Propping up her feet on the dashboard, Paige took a swallow from the professor’s water before quietly asking, “When I get back, do you really think it’ll alter the course of things? You think Gabriel will just appear, show up like he never left?”

“I don’t know,” the professor replied. “I hope so.”

“Me too,” she said. “Honestly, I wish I could just go home, crawl under my bed and wait for things to somehow work themselves out.”

Smiling, the professor replied, “I have the same urge from time to time.”

Paige couldn’t see the forest for the trees, but the future would soon become a memory, and the past would become present—pliable and hers to manipulate.