“I was born with it,” I snapped. “Does that matter?”
“There’s only one woman I know with a birthmark like this. She’s out of my league. I was hoping I could try to get some property… try to impress her…”
“Yeah, well, I don’t know what you’re on about. You already told me you don’t believe in superstitions like birthmarks.”
“I never said that to you.”
“It’s complicated,” I said.
“Why don’t you uncomplicate it?” he asked.
I sighed.
“Look, all this has happened before,” I said. “All of it. You’re not even real. You’re just an Echo.”
“What?” He looked confused.
“The Routshammer thing. It worked on Tremblay. He’s haunted his house for a century and a half. He reconstructed the night he died—he called it an Echo—and said everything here has already happened. I’m in the future. The year 2020. I’m reliving all this as an Echo recreation.”
Vic grabbed me by the shoulders.
“That’s not how the Routshammer works,” Vic said. “All it does is trap someone’s consciousness to a physical object.”
“You said he was a Land Wight,” I said.
“Me?”
“Yeah. You and I got locked in this house in the future. We’re just trying to find out what happened to Tremblay, so he’ll let us go. All of this. It’s all an Echo. None of it’s real.”
“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but this was all real,” past Vic said. “The Routshammer gives limited omnipotence and omnipresence to whoever has it. They can travel back and forth between points in their history and carry others with them—usually to the day they were nailed in, but no further.”
“So this whole time…” I said.
“Yes. You’ve been in the past.”
I blinked. Tried not to think of the ramifications of this. Thought about them anyway. Anything I did here could potentially mess everything up in the future…
I felt sick to my stomach.
“So, how do I get back to my time?”
“Well,” past Vic said. “You have a few options. You could go back and show Tremblay what happened. Or tell him. And hope he forgives and forgets. Or. You could stop all this before it begins.”
“And how is that?” I asked.
“Your birthmark,” past Vic said. “I believe it’s known as the Moon Kiss. It means you’re born under a certain sign. If it’s what I think it is, or what they say, it gives you a certain sway over some things. Almost a power. Odds are you could wrench the Routshammer out right now. Stop this whole thing before it starts.”
“Wouldn’t that mess up time?”
“It could,” Vic said. “Then again, I’m here, so all of this has happened. So, if I remember, I could warn you—”
“Slight problem with that,” I said. “You don’t remember.”
“Huh,” Past-Vic said.
“Wait,” I said. “I have an idea. Here, help me out. We’re going to write a note together.”
And we sat together. And I told him everything. And I do mean everything. How we met, who I was, where I came from, and what would be happening once upon a future from now. And then we decided what to write down, and when it was done, all sealed up and folded, tucked behind the false door in the safe, I reached down, and grabbed the hard end of the Rootshammer. And I pulled.
