“Oh.” Daniel smites his forehead. “Ahdi left a trail.”
“Are you sure it’s Ahdi?” Ellie is still staring at the note.
“Yup.” Daniel gestures at the wall. “Study it for yourself.”
“Here, read this.” Ellie hands him the note.
“Seriously?” Daniel is beside himself. “Why would he set up a trail for us to follow and leave us a note telling us not to look for him?”
The trail presents itself to Ellie right away. Daniel is right, of course. It’s too neat and precise to be laid by anyone else. Wherever it ends, the trail seems to start in the middle of a wall stud. It curves immediately through some other universe, and Ellie would have to follow to know where. On first glance, it could be a feature of the wall. That it can send someone who doesn’t quite have the hang of it yet spiraling into a mental fugue isn’t all that surprising. As usual, Ellie admires the precision. It has to be this precise or it’d be useless.
“At least he won’t be hard to find.”
Daniel purses his lips. He looks down at the note.
“Maybe we should send him a text and wait for him to get back to us?”
“Daniel.” Ellie folds her arms across her chest. “You’re the one who’s in a hurry to find him.”
“I know but he said…” Daniel shrugs and points at the note.
Ellie’s phone buzzes. It’s a text from Chris. Ellie’s not reading it now, maybe not ever.
“Would someone like to clue me in?” Belt waves at them as though the other side of the room were an ocean away.
“Oh, sorry.” Ellie lets her arms fall. “Some secret cabal of maintainers—”
“You mean, like you and Daniel?” Belt at least tries to hide the smirk.
“Someothersecret cabal of maintainers.” In her mind, Ellie is shooting useless virtual daggers at Belt. “Is making dangerous changes to the skunkworks—”
“Different laws of physics depending on who you are. Causality violations,” Daniel interjects.
“—and we’re not absolutely certain who’s behind it but it’s probably not Ahdi.” Ellie sighs. “If it were, we probably wouldn’t have detected signs of it in the first place. Not to mention, if it were Ahdi, he’d probably be done by now and the new physics would be in effect.”
For a few seconds, the room is silent. The three just stand there, staring at each other.
“So why are you still here?” Belt opens his palms.
“Yes, Daniel, why are we still here?” Ellie turns to him.
“Ahdi has to have a good reason to keep us away.”
“Fine.” Ellie turns her focus back to the wall. “You stay. I’ll go.”
“No.” Daniel is practically inaudible, but the room vibrates in sympathy.
Belt’s mouth forms a small O and he takes an involuntary step back. Ellie rolls her eyes.
Ellie’s phone buzzes again. This time, the notification on its screen stops Ellie cold. The text is from Chris and starts with “I’m sorry.” Ellie’s heart pounds and races. She’s in uncharted territory. Chris has never apologized to her before. Not for anything, not even in jest or as a prank.
She unlocks her phone and reads the text. It’s a paragraph long and everything Ellie has been afraid to hope for. Chris admits to trying to kill her, to torturing and gaslighting both her and Mom, especially the past couple of years, to nurturing her resentment because she wanted to show Mom and Dad that she was a better daughter than Ellie. Chris says outright she was wrong and apologizes for making Ellie’s life horrible. Mom is gone, and Ellie is the only one left. Chris doesn’t want to lose Ellie. She wants Ellie to come over right now so that she can make amends.
“I can’t believe this.” Ellie hands her phone to Daniel. “She did it. She finally admitted she was wrong and apologized.”
Relief floods Ellie’s body. It feels like she’s soaring through the air. Cool, clean wind washes across her and every bit of tension and stress drains from her. Chris has been relentless for decades and, now, not only has Ellie been right about all of it, but it’s over. Or at least it can be, she decides when her brain kicks back in. Chris’s apology is just the first step toward the door Ellie has left open for her all these years. Perhaps, eventually, Chris will finally walk through, and they can have some approximation of a normal relationship between two sisters and what Mom always demanded will be satisfied in a way that Ellie can bear.
“You realize it’s a trap.” Daniel’s tone is friendly but flat. “This is the person who laughed at my suicide attempt when I was a kid. She was a cruel teenager, she became a cruel adult, and she’ll be cruel until the day she dies.”
