ALEX TOOK A DRINK of water. She had hurried the story of her ability to time travel as she didn’t want her mom to walk in right in the middle of it. She searched Chandon’s eyes for any sign that he believed her or if he thought she was crazy but the expression on his face never changed.
“So that guy Stygian was the one coming after you in time?” Chandon asked, speaking for the first time since they entered Alex’s hospital room.
“Yes, but he has a Master, someone who he was taking orders from. He’s someone very high up in the Marines,” Alex said.
“Won’t he come after you?”
“I don’t know. In all the rush to get away from Stygian, I never thought to ask Uncle Mark about Max Poder.” Alex met Chandon’s eyes. “You’re not running away screaming or rushing off to tell people I’m nuts.”
“Well, you are nuts. Mainly for keeping this a secret for so long. Stygian could have killed you and you chose to face him alone. I’d say that’s pretty nuts.”
“I’m not alone. I have Jenn, and Sean and Gavin. Besides, most people would never believe me. Why is it you do?”
“I don’t know exactly. I just do. It’s like that feeling I get that I have known you forever. Which isn’t possible because I only just moved here. I can’t explain why I believe you any more than I can explain why I know you, you know?”
Alex laughed. “I do know, yes.”
“So what do we do now?”
“Go home and sleep for a week. After that...” Alex shrugged.
“I vote sleeping for two weeks,” Jenn said, her jaws creaking as she yawned.
“The whole blindness thing totally makes sense now,” Chandon said.
“Without being able to see, Alex won’t have to worry about traveling back in time anymore,” Jenn said.
Alex’s mom returned with the doctor.
“You’re free to go but I want to see you back here in a few weeks. And I also recommend that you talk to someone. A trauma like this can come back to haunt you,” the doctor said.
Alex nodded absently, having no intention of talking to anyone about this but the people who already knew her secret. They would help her through what was to come.
She said goodbye to her friends and followed her mom to the car. Everything looked strange to Alex. The sky was the same blue, the mountains still surrounded the valley, the cars still made their way on the same roads, the air smelled the same and yet it was all different. Alex felt as though she was an intruder and that the world was grinding along, hoping to shake itself free of her presence.
The world’s not different. I am.
“Your uncle’s friends left for their hotel room but wanted to talk to you as soon as you were released,” her mom said.
“I’ll call when I get home.”
“Maybe you should wait until tomorrow. The doctor said you have to rest your voice.”
“If I feel fine later I’ll give them a quick call.”
“All of this is still so strange, like it’s happening in a movie or something.”
“Tell me about it.” Alex reached up and rubbed her throat, certain she could feel Stygian’s handprints pressed into her skin.
“You’re lucky Chandon was there. If he hadn’t been, I don’t...”
Alex reached out and patted her mom’s arm. “But he was, so let’s not even think like that.”
“You’re right. You’re fine, Chandon is fine, and that guy is most definitely not. What do you say we call Karen, C.C., and Bruce and have them over for my famous spaghetti dinner?”
“Sounds good to me.”
Alex retreated to her room as soon as she and her mom got home. She could tell her mom wanted to talk, or perhaps just keep Alex close but Alex needed to be alone to process what happened. And she needed to call Gavin, despite her mother’s warnings to wait until tomorrow.
“Alex! I still can’t believe what’s happened. It’s a miracle that Chandon was there.”
“If he hadn’t have come to see me and followed us, Stygian would have killed me.”
It was the first time she had said the words aloud and they terrified her. She reached up to her neck and tried to hold back the flood of tears threatening to fall but they would not be denied. Gavin said nothing as she sobbed into the phone, trying hard to be as quiet as she could so her mom wouldn’t hear.
She apologized to Gavin when she regained control. Alex told him what she had read on Stygian’s patient chart.
Gavin whooped into the phone so loudly Alex had to hold the phone away from her ear.
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. You’re free, Alex. You can finally put all of this behind you.”
“Can I really? What if his sight returns and he starts traveling again or what if he just pays someone to come after me?”
“He will be in prison a long time so I don’t think you have to worry about him being able to pay someone to come get you. From what your uncle says, he was a loner and only spent time with Max Poder.”
The mention of that name sent a shiver down Alex’s spine. “What’s to stop him from training someone else? Maybe the connection isn’t between me and Poder, but between me and whoever Poder trains.”
“You won’t have to worry about him either.”
***
Max Poder stood staring at the pictures of his ancestors, hand reaching out to gently caress the glass. When he’d received word that Stygian had fled the base and that he was wanted for murdering a man in the civilian world, he knew it was only a matter of time before his own involvement would be questioned.
He walked calmly to his desk, opened the bottom drawer on the left hand side, and grabbed his firearm. Poder fixed his eyes on the pictures as he cocked the gun and pulled the trigger.