Oliver tried not to get lost in his dark thoughts as they headed toward the horrible black swirling cloud, but it was hard not to because very five seconds or so the ground would shake again.
All around, the people milling through the streets were talking in panicked voices. The streets were in disarray, with smashed wicker baskets all over the cobblestones, their wares splattered haphazardly around them. Some people were nursing bruises and broken bones. It was clear that they’d undergone the same experience as the sailor and Oliver and his friends just had, with gravity losing its hold on them before dropping them back to earth.
Then a sudden huge shake made everyone tumble like skittles. Some held onto buildings to steady themselves but the buildings, too, were swaying. Bits of stone and thatch fell to the floor.
“Watch out!” Oliver cried as debris narrowly avoided them.
“At least it’s falling the right direction,” Esther quipped.
But no sooner had she said it than gravity reversed again. The bits of stone and thatch started to float upward.
“Oh no!” Ralph yelled. “Here we go again!”
He felt his feet come slowly up off the ground.
Terrified, Oliver grasped out for something to hold on to. He managed to grab hold of a roof ledge overhanging the streets. Esther and Ralph did the same.
They hung there, feet pointed to the sky. It was the most peculiar, discombobulating feeling ever. It wasn’t just that the directional pull of gravity seemed to be switching directions, but its strength was fluctuating too. One second Oliver felt weightless, like when sitting in a car cresting a hill. The next second his body felt heavy, like during a sudden deceleration. It felt like being on a rollercoaster only the tracks didn’t exist!
A man who’d been unable to grab anything to hold himself down floated past them with his hands in prayer position.
“Please Lord,” he cried. “We’ve endured your plague. Then your burning fires. Please, Lord, we cannot take any more of your punishment. The people of London repent our sins!”
Oliver felt the strain in his muscles as the gravitational pull on his body became even stronger.
“I can’t hold on much longer,” he cried to his friends.
Then, suddenly, everything switched again. People yelled with terror as they fell down to the street. Ralph, Esther, and Oliver flipped back the other way, their feet now facing downward. They were stuck dangling two stories off the ground.
“We’ll break our legs if we let go,” Ralph exclaimed.
Just then, two bales of hay came flying past them. They must have floated off into the sky when gravity reversed. They smashed into the ground and the straw spread out like a blanket.
“Excellent!” Esther cried.
She let go of the ledge and plopped into the hay bale.
Then she popped back up and called to the boys. “Come on! It’s safe!”
Oliver and Ralph exchanged a glance. At the same time, they let go of the ledge. They fell and landed heavily into the hay next to Esther. They popped back up, unscathed.
“Let’s get to Newton’s before gravity flips again,” Oliver said.
Ralph nodded. He looked a bit green. “I don’t think I can take another one of those.”
They hauled themselves to their feet and ran, their pace even faster than before, now running full pelt along the cobblestone road.
When Newton’s house came into view, Oliver could see that the door was blasted off its hinges. There was a huge hole in the thatched roof, through which the black vortex was coming.
“Everyone be careful,” Oliver yelled over the roar of another rumble from the earth.
They approached cautiously. Panes of glass were falling from the top floors of Newton’s home, smashing to the ground. Ralph had to leap out of the way to avoid falling debris.
As they drew closer, Oliver saw the splintered door. He quickly deduced that someone had kicked it in to gain entrance.
Then he noticed that the large, gold door knocker had disappeared. For a brief moment, he wondered if someone had stolen it. Then he saw the golden drips running down the wood and the pool of congealing liquid gold on the doorstep.
“Something melted the door knocker,” Oliver said, his voice a mixture of curiosity and fear.
Esther shook her head. “Not something. Someone.”
“Obsidians,” Ralph added, finishing off her thought.
Oliver swallowed his nerves, recalling what he’d seen Chris do in the pub with the glass, his demonstration of his power to melt things. It was the only explanation. Chris was here.