“She damn near did it, too. Probably would have if she didn’t freak out and start crying. She ran away. Care to explain to me what came over her at that moment?”
“Bleeding. I have a confession to make. I did come back to your condo the next morning to try and make up with you from the night before. When I got there I parked outside, and was about to come in, but I started getting very strong thoughts and images from the Pam that was with you. Hateful thoughts. Thoughts of murder. I’d never experienced bleeding before and it scared me. I knew I couldn’t face you at that moment so I sped away, crashed through the gates at the condo and went home. However, she also began to receive my thoughts, my feelings. At that very moment, instead of hatred, she began to feel love for you. Like myself, she couldn’t kill you either. So, as it comes to pass, Richard the serial killer failed again in his attempt to eliminate you. He pulled the other Pam back and kept her in an apartment I keep as a second home, so to speak. A get-away from the lab, just in case he needed her again. Ironically, the same apartment in your timeline was empty, and where I stayed while on your side.”
“Huh, that’s real messed up, Pam. It wasn’t you that attacked me, but it was you that crashed through the gates.”
“Yeah, I guess you could say it’s messed up. But then again, the whole damn thing is.”
“So what else is there to know, Pam?”
“Well, what happened next you already know. The shrink put you under hypnosis. For the first time you experienced deep, non-REM sleep, without sleepwalking. The man in black jumped all over it, and slipped through into your universe. I saw it all happening. He pulled Debra through with him just to add a bit of suspense to the moment, and to get you all riled up. All he had to do, though, was kill you and then slip back. But his sick desire to stretch out the thrill of the moment got the best of him, and thankfully for us he didn’t pull it off right away. And then he took his time with the doctor, figuring to frame you for the crime. Meanwhile, Brutus, under the guidance of Richard the scientist, had just completed work on the second device, and opened another rift. I tripped back to his side. I took the unit back with me. At the same time, Brutus closed up the rift on the man in black. He panicked, tried to leap back but couldn’t, hence keeping him at the scene of the crime he intended solely for you. He had no choice but to flee. As you well know now, he decided to stay and make your life miserable. He got to Samantha, and eventually followed you upstate.”
“And the whole time,” Richard said, “he grew weaker because he was gaining my personality traits. My anxieties. I ended up growing stronger, gaining his knowledge of fighting, his sense of fearlessness. We became equal opponents.”
Pam grinned. “You got it. You, with the edge, because a man on the rise is always stronger than a man on a decline.”
Richard settled back into the comfort of the couch. More than two hours had passed since Pam began revealing the plethora of answers to his plight. Now, with all these facts swimming around in his head, he could only sit back and ignore them, for to start going over each and every one, to try and put each explanation to the multitude of still unanswered questions in his head, he’d more than likely collapse from mental exhaustion, a complement to his physical state that would result in a full-body breakdown. He couldn’t let that happen. He needed to press on because he knew what had to be done.
The experiment had to be ended.
With only one Richard
Sparke
remaining.
He looked at Pam, asked the question she was waiting for. The one he already knew the answer to.
“What’s next?”
Leonard stood outside the building. Awed. Stunned. In an area not far from town where six square miles of wooded area should have existed, a huge building stood, its framework a lattice of silver rectangles holding mirrored windows within. Atop the structure stood a pyramid configuration that culminated one hundred and fifty feet high.
The stress of the last couple of hours had finally gotten to him, and he could only stand and shiver and stare at the building, and not at his uniform where splatters of Pamela Bergin’s blood soiled the navy fabric--a tell-tale sign that would clearly tie him to her murder.
You see, Spencer? There was a murder in Fairview.
He paced toward the building, up the front walkway that led to a mirrored door. Silver letters above displayed the building’s identity:
Quantugen
Industries
.
Finally, his mind unglued itself from the fear holding it in pace, and he said to himself, “Jesus, what is this place?” knowing, somehow, that it had much to do with the startling disorder suddenly encompassing his life.
His cell phone rang, the jingle sounding as loud as an air-raid siren. Trembling madly, he fumbled at his belt, managing a firm grip on the phone by the fifth ring. The digital display showed an unfamiliar number.
He pressed the
receive
button. Said, “Hello?” and nearly fainted at the sound of the voice on the other end.
“Officer Leonard
Moldofsky
? This is Pamela Bergin.”
“Hello, are you there?” Pamela put a finger over the speaker on the phone in her office. “I can’t believe it worked,” she said to Richard, holding up the piece of paper she wrote Leonard’s number on while at her apartment yesterday.
“Hello?” she repeated.
“I’m here...I just...”
“Leonard, we need to meet. If you want to get back home, I suggest you listen to me.”
There was some hesitation, some erratic breathing over the speaker-phone. Clearly, the cop was distressed. “What is this place?”
Richard watched as Pamela frowned. “Where are you now?”
“I-I’m in front of a large building. There’s a pyramid on top.”
Pam locked eyes with Richard, each of them clearly thinking,
We got lucky
. “All right, listen to me Leonard. We are in that building. Circle around the right side of the building, the side opposite the parking lot. Try not to let anyone see you. Just act as nonchalantly as possible. Take the walkway, don’t walk on the grass. Toward the rear of the building is a steel door. Meet me there now. Okay?”
“I...I’m confused...”
“Leonard, go now, if you want to live.”
“Okay...”
~ * ~
In ten minutes Leonard was sitting in the secluded office with Pamela and Richard. His face was drawn of all color. He cowered on the leather sofa, body trembling as if tiny alarms were going off beneath his skin. He looked as if he were attempting to recreate Richard’s own anxieties from twenty-four hours earlier--a naked babe in the woods left alone to fend for himself. Luckily, as did Richard, he had Pam to help guide the way.
“You have to understand...I’ve seen both your dead bodies in the past eight hours, one of which died by my own hand. Now here you are, standing in front of me, alive and breathing. This kind of thing doesn’t happen
everyday
, you know. Jesus Christ, if I hadn’t seen my own twin, I’d have trouble believing this whole damn thing, I’d think I was losing my freaking mind. Now I have no choice but to swallow the unbelievable story you’re telling me.”
Pam had given Leonard the ten-minute version, the basics about Richard
Sparke
the scientist, and the experiment he conducted. About the five Richards, and how she was involved. Then, a brief review of how Leonard ended up on the other side, and what might happen through bleeding should he stay.
“I’ve noticed a slight change,” he said. “I feel lethargic, almost ready to lie down and give into the mess I’ve gotten myself into. It all happened after I killed the other Pamela. This is unlike me, I’m always looking for answers to quandaries.”
Richard could tell, by the frown on her face, that Pam seemed bothered upon hearing of the death of her ‘twin nemesis’. At first, Richard felt relieved, one less thing they had to worry about. Now he wondered if there wasn’t more to the other Pam’s presence than met the eye.
“Leonard,” Pam said. “We need to get you back before too much bleeding occurs. You’ve been here about six hours, and still have some time before irreversible retention sets in, before your mind settles with unwanted memories of your experiences here.”
“Are you saying that I won’t remember anything about this place once I go back?”
“If you go back soon enough. This way the other Leonard’s memories won’t have time to root themselves into your consciousness.”
Leonard stood up, legs wobbling a bit. “I’m game. Just send me back home. I’ve had enough of this place.”
“There’s one thing you should realize.”
“What’s that?”
She cleared her throat, looking a bit uncomfortable, then said, “This timeline has been created, and will always exist. It is an entire universe, it can’t be destroyed. Therefore life will go on here indefinitely.”
“Okay, so what’s the problem?”
“The problem is that an innocent man here will probably go to jail for murder.”
Leonard shrugged his shoulders, eyes narrowing. “I’m not sure I follow.”
“You killed Heather Barron, aka Pamela Bergin. Although she is a ‘Pam’ from another timeline, authorities will identify her as
me
. Richard
Sparke
the scientist’s wife. And now, your prints are at the scene. Ballistics will trace the bullet she was killed with back to a police-issue gun. Maybe not Leonard
Moldofsky’s
gun, but someone’s nonetheless. Someone in this world. Of course they won’t have any knowledge of the event, may even have an alibi. But all evidence will point to that person. Especially if their prints are at the scene. I just wanted to let you know that.”
Leonard gripped his chin in thought. “If you’re trying to depress me, you’re succeeding.”
Richard interrupted, “Why the morals, Pam?”
She leaned against the couch, rubbed her eyes, then waved her hands as if swatting flies. “We just need to get this done before...before...” She looked suddenly drugged.
“Pam, what’s the matter?”
She pinned Richard with tear-laden eyes. “What’s the matter is that I can’t stay here anymore, unless I find a way to get rid of the body in that apartment. And I just can’t find a way of doing that because the other Pamela is gone. She was my strength. My courage. Her memories, her physical know-
hows
are seeping out of my consciousness. I don’t have the balls anymore to do something like that anymore. And that’s why I’m needlessly worrying about other people. Remember, Richard, this is
my
world. And now I’m dead in it.”
“We can help you.”
“No, we need to take care of the two of you first, get you back to where you belong, in your world. And then the timeline experiment must be obliterated.”
“But what about you?” Leonard asked.
“I’ll be okay. Don’t worry about me, I know more about all this than either of you could ever fathom.”
A silence filled the room, all three of them trading pensive glances. Finally Pam made a move for the door. “Our first step will be to take out Brutus. He knows I’ve defected, so to speak, and will resent me for it. Plus he’s extremely loyal to my husband and won’t let anything happen to him. So, that’s two obstacles we must get by. His mistrust of me, and his protectiveness of Richard.”
“Pam, what do we need to do?”
They exited the room and followed Pam down a dark corridor. Above, steam whistled through large pipes snaking across the naked ceiling. Steel boxes housing fuses and electronics sat side by side like soldiers along the cement walls. Wiring shielded in rubber casings twisted around the boxes and led off into the darkness of many directions.
“We’ll talk to Brutus, try to convince him of the consequences. If he resists, we kill him. Leonard will go through first.”
“What do I do when I get there?” Leonard asked, his voice a bit broken, probably because of Pam’s reserved determination.
Kill Brutus? Sure, let’s make it two in one day
.
“I suggest you come up with a good excuse as to where you’ve been. Remember, you’ve been missing all this time. Your colleagues and loved ones are going to want a feasible explanation to your disappearance. Then, just lie low for a while and let the experience fade. Best not to try to explain anything. They’ll think you’ve lost your mind.”
Leonard nodded in understanding. Obviously, his memory would retain some of the experiences here for a while. But which remembrances would remain? And how would he go about dealing with them in his once mundane world?
Halfway down the long
hall
they approached a service elevator, its large steel doors suggesting an interior much larger than a standard passenger unit. Dull yellow lighting illuminated the area as if it were an emergency exit zone. “There are cameras in here. A member of the security team will see us and notify Brutus of our approach. So, he’ll be expecting us. We’ll need to be ready.”
The doors opened and they went inside.
Getting nervous, Richard tried to change the subject. “I think the first voice inside my head, my conscience, as I once called it, was really the family man’s perceptions breaking through. When the man in black murdered him, the voice inside my head died too. From that moment on, my voice of reason was gone.”