44
WORLDS APART
I roll over in bed, then drag myself upright, and swing my legs over the edge. First task. Discover that why.
Second, stop behaving like a love-sick teenager and do something tangible instead of just… I stare at the dampness left on the sheets from my tears. Instead of just sobbing my widdle poor heart out.
After tossing aside the sheet, I stand on the cold floor and kick away my sexy but so-wrong-for anything-else clothes. A pair of jeans and a top are lying near the door. Molly or Ron must have left them at some time during the night. I pick them up and realize these are mine too. Somehow, they grabbed my leftover clothes from my house. How did they get in?
Those pair are incredible if disconcerting in their burglary skills. I owe them.
When I start dressing, I hear someone moving about outside in the hallway. It seems we are all early risers. I tap my phone and discover it’s ten forty-three. Dayum. I slept in afterfalling into bed at around three in the morning. This should not surprise me.
I rub the sleep from my eyes and keep pulling on clothes and rehashing the complete disaster that is my life. Father, murdered. Still. Investigation on that, stalled. My monster lover has run away, and I don’t know why.
Boo-hoo.Yes, he dropped me like a hot rock, but he will give a proper explanation. Or else. Buttoning my jeans in a demented, angry fashion, I manage to hurt my fingers. This only reminds me of how sore I am down below, and on my neck where he bit me, and elsewhere. So many places. Sheesh. I deserve this pain. Stupidly, I feel I must. Still angry at him.
Someone raps on the door. “Come downstairs when you’re ready, Hailey. We have important news to share.” That’s Molly.
News and it’s important? I’m tempted to ask for details, but she’s already heading down the stairs.
I swallow, feel the heaviness in my heart where it persists in skulking, and belatedly yell, “Okay!”
I check myself for sloppy dressing, decide I look presentable if tired. My eyes pop wider. My neck is bruised and marked with red from those love bites. That’s not a damnable offense, though, is it?
I trot downstairs to where Ron, Molly, and Rasmus are sitting at the table in the dining room. They’re waiting for me, judging by the silence and how they look up as I enter. A steaming cup waits before a spare seat, along with a plate, a pile of cookies, a bowl of sliced fruit, and some yoghurt sprinkled with nuts.
“Morning.” I smile, fleetingly. “Coffee? And cookies! Thank you.”
“Help yourself.” Molly says. “I can get you some eggs and bacon or whatever, after?”
I smile and nod. Being polite is so very normal, yet the world has fallen off its axis. Maybe manners and niceness are what will help fix this? I wish.
“First we need to talk, but you should eat something too.” Ron nods at the food.
Rasmus leans into the table, hands around his mug and a frown line wedged between his eyes.
“You’re all worrying me. Something wrong?” Somethingelsewrong?Crap. Uneasy, I sit down and start spooning things into a bowl. Do they know what we did last night? “Dare I ask if Kail did something?”
“Why would you think that, Hailey?” Molly asks, gently stirring sugar into her cup.
“Because he said he was fixing things…before he left town.” I wince. “And me. He said he was leaving me too.” I pick up a cookie and spoon some yoghurt onto the fruit.
“Ahhh.” Ron rocks back in his chair. “Rasmus, you can say this.”
“He and Esau went to do something, yeah. At the institute, at eight AM.” He clears his throat. “They’re late. They should be out of there, like hours ago.”
“Inside the institute. Fuck me.” The sweet yoghurt I taste on the spoon in my mouth suddenly becomes nothing and tasteless. I draw it out, unsure if anything will stay down if I swallow it. “Keep going. Why. How. All of that.” I take a sip of the coffee then shift aside the food and lean on the table with my elbows, bracing myself.
“I’ll sum it up as best as I can, Hailey. The cops arrested me last night on some cobbled-together hacking charges, which might be true…but, moving on. Arrested me, confiscated mystuff, including Kail’s phone. They released me, and Esau brought me home, but Kail turned up. There are things I figured out from his phone.”
I pop up an eyebrow. “You got into it?”
“I did. These conclusions are not trivial, not done on a whim. That said, the phone is living proof of an alternate world. It’s another timeline of our world, we decided—me, Kail, Esau too—and it’s where Kail came from.”
“What?” My mouth is open. Coolness blows through my mind, sweeping away sense and thoughts, and raising goosebumps all down my arms. I shut my mouth and wave at him to continue.
“Everyone says that. What.” He smiles. “Anyway, the cops have got that info, too, and I sent you three a copy. You included, Hailey.”
