“It’shim,” she replied. “He has … unfortunate hobbies.”
“You call this a hobby?” I was appalled. “Who is he?”
“I can’t. If I say too much, he’ll know and come for me. He’ll get you in the process.” She looked beyond the tableau. “The door is on the other side. He likes to mark them with his … art.”
“Who is that?” I pointed at the body.
“Don’t you know?” Mom shot me an inquisitive look. “He came from your side.”
When I turned back, it took me a moment. The facial features weren’t the same. They’d obviously seen hard times. “Clive,” I realized, my mouth going dry.
“Was he a friend?” Mom looked concerned.
I shook my head. “He headed the DDA. We kind of deposed him from power. He fled through a plane door so we wouldn’t kill him.”
“Well, it doesn’t seem he found a better outcome here,” Mom replied. She clucked her tongue. “He tried to pretend he was powerful and should take over. That didn’t sit well with … .”
“Him,” I guessed.
“It didn’t sit well with anyone,” she replied. “He pushed too far. It was an inevitability.”
“And this man, this thing you’re afraid of, he did this to Clive?” I pressed.
“He did,” Mom confirmed. “He enjoyed it. The whole thing took days.”
Even picturing that was too much. My eyes moved back to Clive. I couldn’t look at him for more than a few seconds. The man had been a monster but this was beyond monstrous.
“The door will open in a minute,” Mom announced, drawing my attention back to her.
“How do you know that?”
“I’ve been here a very long time. You learn things.” She smiled at me, but it was forced. “Don’t come back, Hadley,” she warned, turning serious. “I’ll be forever grateful for this time, but don’t come back here. Not for me.”
It was only then that I remembered Wesley, the reason I’d been in the field in the first place.
I took a step toward her. “Grandpa,” I gasped. “Wesley. I think he might be here.”
Horror washed over Mom’s face before she managed to collect herself. “I don’t think so.”
“I do. I was looking for him when I accidentally crossed the plane door threshold. He disappeared last night.”
Something else occurred to me. “I cast locator spells but they kept running into a wall. The plane door was the wall.” I said that more to myself than her but she had no trouble following my train of thought.
“I’ll find him,” she announced as a door of light appeared next to the tableau. “Don’t come back. Iwillfind him.”
“And then what?” I protested.
“I will figure a way to get him across.” She was deadly serious. “If you come back here, Hadley, I won’t be able to protect you. You won’t go home. Let me find Dad.”
I wanted to believe her but I couldn’t. “I don’t even know who you are. What if you’re not her?”
“I am.” Mom looked sorrowful. “I can’t fault you for being suspicious, but I can’t explain it all. There isn’t enough time in either of our worlds.”
I opened my mouth to argue but her countenance turned cold as panic licked through her eyes. “Go!” she ordered. “Go now! It’s almost too late.”
I walked backward through the plane door, a dark shadow appearing behind Mom as I fell into my world.
The last thing I saw was the shadow advancing on her. Then they were both gone.
