Chapter Seven: Rebuild. Sing.

Part 1

I’m glazing over some of the intermediate details of travel. I doubt you or your readers want to hear me transfer from plane to plane or want me to explain how I got my plane back.

Suffice it to say that I spent a great deal of time during my travel verifying that, indeed, my workshops across the globe had been demolished, a few of which simply disappeared as Tokyo had. This chilled me as I wondered how many of the transference devices Rhianna had. Though, far more chilling was the lack of additional attack. Certainly after removing my workshops she could have begun a systematic attack, but it did not come.

So I set about working on the energy devices that Michelle requested while she briefed the President and the men and women responsible for the United States’ safety. Then, she did something astonishing. She travelled to the United Nations.

Now, something that I did not know: the United Nations has an alien invasion protocol and, now this was certainly mind-blowing, they’d used it once before — without my knowledge no less! Something about the Men in Black encountering something back in the sixties…

So, in the end, I returned to Washington D.C. and my business offices there. Unlike my workshops, my office was rather mundane. But the research offices there did hold some of the secrets I’ve hoarded. For example, the transistor. Holographic technology. Tomagatchi. All of my devising.

So, I visited my R&D offices to release yet another idea upon the world, though, in this incarnation, the idea would be fully formed from start to finish.

The complex of my corporation consisted of twelve building arranged in a circle. I’m rather fond of circles, honestly. The administration building that housed my office stood opposite the research and development offices, separated by a small greenery path with trees, flowers and a small pond. It looked a bit like that Monet painting.

After setting my business affairs in order — the expedition and Tokyo situation had taken a great deal of my time — I made my way to the R&D building.

My head of Engineering was in his office, as I expected. “Stuck in the office again, are we?”

“Not all of us can save the world, Eli.” She glanced over the rim of her glasses at me as I sat opposite her. She returned to her task. “Some of us have paperwork to do.”

“I have a project for you,” I announced as I folded my hands together, regarding her.

“I imagine it has something to do with Tokyo disappearing?”

“Huh, you know about that, then.”

Amelia Olyphant — doctor, mind you — set down her pen and fixed me with her full attention. “What do you have for me, Eli?”

I frowned. Her tone seemed terse and her eyes hard. I’d seen that expression before — In Michelle. “What do you mean?”

“You usually walk into this office every five years and regale us with an astounding, revolutionary piece of technology or science. Which,” she raised a finger, “I might add always results in this company growing. Never have you come in here other than on October first. So you need something.”

“I need you to build a weapon,” I said, the jig apparently up.

“We don’t do weapons here,” she replied easily. “We create new, cutting-edge technologies. Besides, we don’t have anything to make weapons with.”

“With the crystal resonance technology I gave you fifteen years ago, you can.”

“Crystal res… Eli, we still have no idea what to do with it. We’re just now beginning to understand how you programmed that text into it.” She gestured vaguely. “And I don’t think I need to remind you that Dr. Elkton didn’t appreciate the jibe at his expense.”

“How is old Elky doing?” I asked. “That was ages ago. I’m sure he’s gotten over it by now.”

“Dr. Elkton retired two weeks after that.”

“That’s a shame, he is a brilliant man.” I frowned, turning my attention back to the matter at hand. “I thought you all had figured out the crystal resonance bit.”

“No.”

“But I’ve been using crystal technology for years in my office.”

Dr. Olyphant nodded slowly, “Which just may explain why the investors you entertain are so keen to hand you blank checks.”

How foolish of me to have overlooked such a potentially major aspect of my own carefully planned introduction of technology and resources to the world. But, to be fair, it was not my fault they couldn’t figure it out. “Well, then, I’ll share with you how it works.”

“To build a weapon.”

“For now.”

“To combat the disappearance of Tokyo.”

“That’s like saying I want to punch the air.”

“You know what I mean.”

Dr. Olyphant sighed loudly, a very juvenile expression for someone with graying hair, I might add. “I’ll shift our focus onto this project. If it’s as important as the lives of three million people, it’s high priority.”

“Excellent. So, where is my lab?”

She looked as me, laughing. Then, seeing that I was serious, laughed harder. “Oh, Eli, you’re a character, aren’t you.”

“So… I don’t get a lab?”

“You really want your hands on this, don’t you?” she shook her head. “Alright, tell me more about this weapon.”

“It’s a ray-gun.”

The Mage shook his head slowly. “You know, I do try my best to make sure that the normals don’t have any clue about what’s going on. How annoying might it be if we and your family were having a picnic somewhere and someone told you that there were killer robots coming to destroy the planet?”

 

“I’d probably think that person insane,” The Writer replied easily.

 

“Yes, well, imagining if you believed the person, your day would be ruined.”

 

“I guess it would.”

 

“So then, I try not to interfere with the lives of the normals around the world. But, in this case, with the world so interconnected, there was little to be done. And I don’t mean connected in the social sense, but in the technological sense. Do you know how many people witnessed the moon exploding?”

 

“I couldn’t begin to imagine. There weren’t any reports of it in the news that I can remember.”

 

“That’s because you were a child. You don’t tend to notice the big picture as a child. But that’s not the point here. The point is that the explosion of the moon was witnessed by three observatories and seventy thousand people.”

 

“Why not everyone on that hemisphere?”

 

The Mage paused and rocked his head back and forth. “A telescope. You can only see through it by looking directly through the lens. Similarly, one could only see through to the device if it was pointed at them.”

 

“So… Did the people in Truth or Consequences see a crazy moon?”

 

The Mage grinned widely. “Very good point. But no, that was a smaller machine. It was probably placed on a hill nearby, or was in the air.”

 

“Direct line of sight was needed for the device?”

 

“What? No. It’s just helpful to see what you’re going to affect.” The Mage paused. “Where were we?”

 

The Writer glanced down at his notes. “Telling the normals.”

 

“Right.”

 

“Why ‘normals’?”

 

“They aren’t demons, are they? But it doesn’t matter; I didn’t want the public at large to know what I was doing or what was happening, at least, temporarily. Beyond the fact that I didn’t want to panic anyone, Rhianna had a method of finding information that she should have no access to. I wasn’t going to make it easier for her.”

 

And, beyond building ray guns or directed energy machines, I still needed to find a way to get the demons across the world home. Charlie said, quite depressingly, that all of the machines that the demons used, all across the world, had been either destroyed or disappeared.

To do that, I needed to go back to a mage tower.

Part 2

“The mage tower in Truth or Consequences was buried under thousands of tons of rock,” The Writer pointed out.

“That isn’t the only mage tower in this reality,” the Mage replied easily. “There’s one in Stonehenge.”

“Stonehenge?” The Writer frowned. “The Stonehenge?”

The Mage nodded, then laughed. “Oh, no. Stonehenge in New York. The Hotel.”

“There’s a mage tower in a hotel?”

“Oh, yes. You see, it sort of… Got stuck in the air. So I had a Hotel built around it,” the Mage explained.

Stonehenge was thirteen blocks west of the UN. So I made arrangements to have lunch with Michelle who was giving her brief at gathering of nation representatives. I probably should have been a little more discerning at that point. A great deal of events was coming to a head that had nothing to do with the Event. Unfortunately, being focused on the impending invasion, I did not pay much attention to the tell tale signs of trouble.

Stonehenge is a five star hotel in the heart of New York City. Opulent in the capacity that such businesses are. Stuffy in the ways that such opulence is. Which is why I was stopped at the desk. “Room 1408,” I announced.

The young woman behind the marble counter clad in a blue and green uniform smiled brightly at me then lowered her eyes to work on the computer hidden behind the counter. After a moment, she frowned. “I’m sorry, sir. That room is unavailable.”

I smiled in response, “No worries… Lily,” I read from her nametag. “I am Elijah valentine. You hold that room in reserve for me.”

Lily looked down at her computer again, then colored brightly. “Oh, well yes, Mr. Valentine. Let me just get your standing reservation.” She was silent for several moments as she worked, her cheeks steadily growing redder. She smiled up at me as she reached across the counter to catch up the nearby phone. “One moment Mr. Valen — Yes, Mr. Lauer? Can you come out to the desk? No, Mr. Valentine is here.”

She placed the receiver back on the phone and she smiled again. “One moment.”

“What seems to be the problem, Lily?” I asked, growing concerned. If there was something wrong with the room, why hadn’t I been informed?”

The man who came from the back looked annoyed as he approached the desk. He didn’t spare me a glance as he rounded on Lily “What needs my attention so badly that you could not handle?”

“Mr. Valentine wants to check into 1408,” Lily said softly and I watched as the man waved her aside to check the computer.

“That room is currently occupied,” the man said.

I blinked, “Occupied… By whom?”

“I’m sorry, sir, I cannot give you that information. Can I check you into a different room?”

Often, I forget that time has a way of wearing away at things, especially thing that I expect to last a good while. Like standing instructions. In this case I’d made great efforts to ensure that the room had remained vacant for me. After all, that one room had been the reason why I’d built the hotel in the first place.

“Mr. -” I glanced at his nametag. “Grim” What an appropriate name, especially given his perpetual air of annoyance. “I am a majority stakeholder in this hotel.”

Lily, it seemed, got it. Mr. Grim did not. “I’m sorry, Mister Valentine,” the man said through gritted teeth. “Stakeholder or not, I can’t book you into that room. There are laws.”

“There are, aren’t there?” And I knew there were. The situation irked me, though. Why was it so difficult for people to remember simple directions? Though, to be fair, I suppose holding a room vacant for more than fifty years is a bit much. But, regardless, I needed access to that room. “Maybe you can call-”

“Sir, it’s not our policy to-”

“Maybe, for your job, you can call up and ask to see if the occupants might be willing to leave the room?”

“Can you verify that you are the majority shareholder in this hotel? I don’t recognize you and I was interviewed, personally, by the board of directors.” Mr. Grim raised a brow, arms crossed.

I pointed to one of the busts that lined the main entrance hall. “That’s me.”

“Most of those men are old, or are dirt,” Grim replied. He didn’t bother looking.

“I look young for my age.”

“And?”

I gestured towards the phone. “May I?”

Lily scooped up the receiver and handed it to me before Grim had an opportunity to stop her. “The number?”

I gave her the number, then waited. The phone answered in two rings. “Roberta, are you still working? I could have sworn you’d retired.”

The female voice on the other end of the line was old but sharp as a tack. “Elijah, if you’re calling to harass me, I’ve still got that restraining order. I think it also applies to phone conversations. What do you want?”

“I need to talk to James.”

“Right. He’s in a meeting.”

“Thank you,” I said, waiting. Roberta sighed loudly and transferred me. Two additional rings.

“What,” came James’ terse greeting.

“James Delmonico,” I said, eyeing the two employees before me. Lily’s eyes had gone wide, Grim looked, well, grim. “I have the… Manager?”

“A-assistant manager,” Grim said weakly.

“Assistant manager here and I’m having a bit of trouble dealing with him. Would you mind terribly speaking with him briefly?”

“Give him the phone,” James said quickly.

I handed the phone over to Mr. Grim, then regarded Lily. “Lily, would you be a dear and call up to the room and see if the occupants might not like an upgrade?”

“Certainly.” She gave her boss a quickly glance. The noise coming from the phone seemed rather angry. Something about interrupting a meeting or some such. I stopped paying attention. She picked up another phone and dialed it. We waited. “No one seems to be answering. Maybe…”

“Send someone up, see if they have that do-not-disturb sign on the door,” I suggested.

“Yes,” she said, reaching to dial another number.

“Matter of fact,” I said waving at her, “I’m sure Mr. Grim wouldn’t mind going up and having a quick look? You know, to personally see to the upgrade?”

By this time, Grim had gotten off of the line and he looked pale as a sheet. Which isn’t a great look for a man in his middle years. It is my firm belief that the ‘white as a sheet’ look should be restricted to young people under the age of 27 and older women over the age of 72, Simply because they seem the most believable. Everyone else just looks… Odd.

“Yes,” Grim replied tersely. As he made his way to the elevators, I returned to Lily.

“So, are you from the City?”

It took Mr. Grim a few minutes to arrive at the room and, once he did, he called down to the front desk. “Maybe…” he said slowly, as if a man on the edge of breaking. “You might want to take a look at this, Mr. Valentine.”

I handed the phone back to Lily and she hung it up. “Lily, fancy taking a break? I’m going to show you exactly why room 1408 has been vacant since I had the place built.”

When we arrived at the room, the door was already open. Intense light spilled from the doorway and illuminated the entire beautifully, if opulently, decorated hall. I ran the few meters to the door and stopped short at the entrance.

There was the pedestal in the center of the room wedged between the bed and the in-suite television. Floating around it were two forms held upright, bathed in the intense glow from the device. They moved slowly, like a strange mobile bodies drawn up into a fetal position, eyes closed.

Mr. Grim stared at me from where he stood the phone still in hand. “What’s going on?” he whispered.

“Well,” I said slowly, “I think these boys are in a bit of trouble.”

Part 3

“Society tends to think of time as a destructive force. The reasoning being that it is through time that entropy works its magic. Through time that the things we cherish erode away or die. But few ever look at time as a positive thing. It is through the progression of time that we learn. That children grow and that natural things prosper. Without time, certainly nothing would diminish, but nothing would be created, either.”

 

The Writer watched the Mage carefully. “Having lived so long, how can you say that?”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“You’ve fallen in love. Loved. Been married?”

 

“Yes, many times.”

 

“And it doesn’t rip at your heart to know that each time you are with someone, they will die and you will continue on?”

 

The Mage was silent for a moment as he pondered the question. “Have you ever been to Disneyworld?”

 

“As a kid, yes.”

 

“What do you remember about it?”

 

“I remember it being sunny except for the last day. We rode on a lot of rides. And I got a picture with Aladdin.”

 

The Mage nodded. “How do those memories make you feel?” He didn’t wait for a response. “You knew when you arrived at the hotel, preparing to go to the park, that eventually you would have to leave. But that didn’t stop you from wanting to go. And when you finally left, you felt sad, yes? But your memories of the place aren’t even touched by the fact that you left it.

 

“Love is much like time,” the Mage said after a few moments of silence. “It grows as it progresses, but eventually it must come to a conclusion; not an end, mind. But a conclusion. Then,” he gestured, “it’s free to start the cycle again.”

The two men, I would find later, had checked in together. Since there was some sort of festival in the City, hotels had been at capacity. The two of them had been bounced from hotel to hotel until finally Mr. Grim had opened 1408 for them. A strangely kind thing given Grim’s disposition. But, not quite so kind when I found out how he’d been gouging them.

“So,” I said as the two men floated around the pedestal. The light it emitted was enough to cause their skin to become translucent. “Any ideas?”

“I think we need to call the police,” Lily said. She’d been using me as a shield and clutching at my arm with such a grip that I was surprised that she didn’t break a finger.

“Nonsense, what would the police do?” I countered. “Probably shoot something no doubt. Nope, we’re going to shut this thing down. Lily, Grim, float those two over to the bed.”

“You want us to touch them?” Grim asked, phone receiver still in hand.

“You could use a broom if you like,” I said as I crossed the room to stand before the pedestal. I had to duck to avoid hitting one of the men.

“Is it dangerous?” Lily asked, moving slowly into the room, she closed the door behind her and leaned against it.

“No more dangerous than a sleeping baby. And that’s relative, anyway,” I said. The pedestal before me was shaped like a pawn from a chess set and only came up to my waist. Usually, it was invisible and insubstantial, which meant that people theoretically could use the room, but I didn’t want to risk accidents like this happening.

Not only did it lead to clean-up, but it cut into the bottom line. Word of mouth of urban legends like this was hell on certain high-class hotels. That is, if the rumors weren’t started by the hotels themselves.

And, as I said before, it’s dangerous… Relatively. I knelt before the pedestal and placed a hand on it. The interface between myself and the device is difficult to explain. Imagine a box. Then another box placed beside it. Then multiply that by three-hundred billion.

Lily and-

“Hold on,” the Writer said, interrupting the Mage with a raised hand. “Explain that to me again.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

The Writer frowned, “During this time that has to be the single worst explanation for anything you’ve said. Boxes? Three-hundred billion?”

 

The Mage pursed his lips slightly, pausing. Finally, he let out a long breath. “To explain the mage towers in detail requires a different sort of story.”

 

“We have several days to get through,” the Writer pointed out.

 

The Mage nodded slowly. “Alright. I will try to keep this short, though the science and magic behind it might be a bit confusing.

Part 4

Think… Of two boxes sitting before you on a table. One white and one black. If you open the white box, you find two more boxes within, also white or black. If you open one of these boxes, you find, again, two boxes, white or black. And on and on.

Now, each of these boxes have a meaning. Yes or no. On or off. Light or dark. It isn’t so much a matter of opening the correct sequences of boxes, it’s a matter of willing what you want to happen through the usage of these boxes.

You seem confused. Let me put it another way.

The boxes are a type of energy tapped by the tower itself. It taps a sort of magic that transcends the ordinary cause and effect clauses of reality. Thereby giving it the power to change the world. It is through the tower that these changes are affected.

And this, too is not a correct explanation for it.

The simplest way to put it is that the mage tower is an electrical outlet powering whatever it is you might will.

Sometimes the pedestal reaches out and finds a will of its own accord and works from it. Such is the nature of the power it can harness that spontaneous intelligence is not uncommon.

But… Disregard all of that. Think of it as a really complicated and powerful computer. One that may or may not have the power of three hundred trillion suns. In each atom.

Like I explained. Relatively not dangerous.

Lily and Grim were able to get the two men hovering over the beds and I turned off the pedestal, which is more like turning off a stove that has a pilot light than hitting a light switch. The fell into a heap on each bed and remained unconscious.

“What was that about?” Lily managed first. She pushed her hair out of her face and adjusted her uniform and seemed to be ready to take on a bit more weirdness. Grim… Didn’t.

“Well, it looks like either one or both of them activated the device. But I wonder why…” I trailed off as I moved through the records of the pedestal device. “Oh…”

“Oh? What the hell is that? What the hell happened? And who the hell are you?!” Grim nearly exploded as, I imagine, his mind started working again.

Now, bear with me as I explain yet another thing to you: I do not like being shouted at. Never did. Which you absolutely must bear in mind as I progress with this story.

“These men did not activate the device willingly. Something happened to them or there was something about them that caused their subconscious to reach out to the device,” I explained.

“You control that… Blue light thing with your mind, then?” Lily asked.

I pointed at her, “Just so. So, why would to healthy men reach out for something completely alien and start floating around the room?”

“Maybe they didn’t mean to float?” Lily asked carefully.

“Just so,” I repeated. I continued interfacing with the device. “And that blue light was… Oh…”

“What oh?”

“Lily, be a dear and take a look at that gentlemen’s arm.” Which she did, very professionally I might add. After all there were two nude young fairly attractive unconscious men on beds in front of her. “Now, look at the other arm. And check the legs of the other.”

“That’s… Strange… One arm is hairy and the other isn’t… And the other has a hairy leg — just one… The other is baby-smooth.”

“Just so,” I said a third time and turned away from the device. “Lily, did you check these men in?”

“No.”

“Do you happen to know if these two men were handicapped?”

“No, they weren’t,” Grim said. “I know all of the rooms housing those who will need assistance in the event of a fire. There are none on floor 14.”

“So, the question is: how did these two loose limbs in such a fashion that their subconcious would call out to an alien device to activate a regeneration field to regrow them?” I stared at the two men thoughtfully as Lily and Grim thought the question over.

“What?” Lily said slowly. When I looked at her I saw the slow, dawning comprehension come over her and watched as the color drained from her face. “Oh.”

“Oh? What oh?” Grim repeated for the third time.

“Now, I have a feeling,” I said slowly, “That whatever caused the injury was frightened away by the device’s light.”

“But now that the light is gone…” Lily led.

“Well, now that the field is gone. It or they might return.”

The two men sat up suddenly, screaming.

“And,” I added, “They just might tell me.”

Part 5

We stood still for a moment before Lily moved to restrain the man nearest to her. He was flailing, eyes wide with terror. The other man leapt out of bed before Grim could do anything and caught up a chair. He held it over his head, staring around the room with eyes wide, searching. He didn’t seem to recognize us for what we were.

“Grim, back away from him. Lily! Step back,” I instructed. Silence followed, punctuated by quick breaths from the two men.

“Where is it?” The man on the bed whispered as he slowly moved to get to his feet. His eyes swept across the room quickly and — my heart sank when he did this — he glanced up at the ceiling.

“Where is what?” Grim.

“The… Thing?” The first man said.

“Calm yourselves,” I said, waving a hand dismissively. I already had two panicked people in close proximity, I didn’t need four. Beyond the fact that such people were bound to make terrible mistakes, the irrational fear of humanity lead to something I didn’t particularly like: namely, babbling.

I like my babbling like I like my bodies of water: brooks.

Regardless of personal preference, I needed Lily and, unfortunately for me, Grim to keep level heads. Panic causes more panic, which in turn gives me a headache, which I was not in a position to deal with at that point.

The two men looked at me as if I was insane. And, I suppose, to them, I was. I approached the standing man in the corner and carefully took the chair from him. I set it on the ground a few feet away, then sat in it. “So, tell me your names.”

“What the hell are you talking about –” he started, then glanced at the door. “Wait, how did you get in here?”

“We — I am a manager of the hotel,” Grim offered weakly. “I used my keycard.”

“No…no,no,no!” The man on the bed leapt off of the bed and crossed the room in three sprinting steps. He slammed bodily into the door then caught his balance. He turned the handle and ripped the door open.

On the other side of the door was — this is fairly difficult to explain — complete nothingness. Not black, not darkness, just a complete lack of… Existence. Its color isn’t black, because it isn’t an absence of color, instead it’s just… Absence. I understand that there are those who have seen the void between realities and have waxed poetic about it, but they ultimately all fell into insanity. Edgar Allen Poe is one such person. Though that is not this story.

“Close the door,” I said firmly. When the man didn’t comply, frozen in place from the sight of it, I strode across the room and shut it myself. “Right, what’s your name?”

“It’s Ian,” the man said softly. I pointed to the man standing in the corner. “That’s Steven.”

“P.H. Or V?” I asked.

“V”, the man in the corner said softly.

“Well then. I’m Elijah Valentine, the sour man over there is Grim and the lovely young woman is Lily,” I said brightly, and patted Ian on the shoulder. “So, I know you’re terribly frightened, so is Grim-”

“W-what?” Grim asked, startled to hear himself referred to.

“Nothing wrong with that, Grim. But, Ian, Steven, I need you to tell me exactly what happened here, alright?” I offered Ian another smile, trying to be as reassuring as possible. Luckily for me, the man started talking immediately. I didn’t want to have to slap some sense into him.

“We checked in this morning –”

“This morning?” Grim began, but I cut him off with a glare.

At my urging, Ian continued. “We checked in this morning. We came to the room and started unpacking. I went to shower and then Steven shouted.”

“That thing,” Steven pointed to the pedestal. “Just showed up out of nowhere.”

“Steven… Touched it and then the creature came,” Ian’s voice was hollow, as if he had been unable to summon forth the full energy behind his words. I saw his eyes, how they tightened as he remembered..

“Ian,” I began slowly. The more information I got, the better off we would be. “I need you to think very very carefully. What did it look like?”

Ian shook his head, but Steven spoke up. “It was bipedal. It was smooth, and had black… lobster skin. It had claws and large facetted eyes. And a large mouth.”

“This is going to be a strange question, but what did it feel like?”

“What it felt like…” Stephen said slowly. “It felt like… When something so terrible happens to you that you can’t believe it. Like…When you miss a step on the stairs. Like… Fear so terrible you want to die.” Stephen’s eyes were wide, focusing on a point far away. His voice hollow, haunted.

“Oh god,” Grim muttered softly.

“Lily, do you have a signal on your mobile?”

She checked, then frowned slightly. “Yes… But I only have one bar. That’s strange, we have a repeater on each floor.”

“But we’re in the middle of some sort of void,” Grim

said as he crossed over to the window and found that, though he could see the city outside, when he opened the window there was nothingness. “Oh god.”

“Which means that we aren’t stuck in the middle of the void, which also means that you can send a very important text.”

The Writer held up a hand. “If the pedestal thing — the mage tower — had the power of a trillion something or other stars, why not use it to… put the room right, turn back time, or send a message?”

The Mage nodded thoughtfully. “Use the same machine that brought forth the nightmare creature?” He paused to let the writer think about his suggestion then continued with his story.

Yes, I’d considered the possibility of using the device to call for help but I didn’t want to call other things as well. Even still, the message I wanted sent needed to be clear, concise and very urgent. I took the phone from Lily, then stared at it in confusion. “What’s this?”

“It’s the new Apple phone,” she answered. “You use you fingers… Here.” She did something with the phone, which then displayed a teeny tiny keyboard on its screen.

And I’d just gotten used to using the keypad to type out messages.

A moment later, I figured it out.

“Right,” I said as I crossed the room and scooped up the two bottles of water on the table. I tossed one to Ian who caught it reflexively, and opened the other. Lily reached out as I did this.

“That’s a fifteen dollar bottle of water…” she said carefully, cradling her cell phone.

“Really? Fifteen dollars? Are we in the middle of a water shortage that I didn’t know about?” I waved my hand and took a sip. I regarded the two men again. “So I assume this… Thing attacked you as soon as it appeared?”

Steven nodded slowly. “Yeah. It just showed up and…”

“It was crawling on the walls. Like it was the ground.”

“And when did it hurt you two?” I asked carefully.

“I was crawling on the wall and I tried the door. There was nothing behind it and when I turned around… It… Had taken off Ian’s leg. I ran over to try to…”

“And it took off your arm,” I said carefully. “And then what happened?”

“I don’t remember.”

“Um… I just got a text back,” Lily announced.

“What’s it say?”

“‘Forces surrounding Stonehenge. Evacuation complete. Quarantine in place.’”

“Quarantine? What quarantine?”

I sat back down and waved for everyone else to do the same. Once everyone was settled I began carefully. “I’m not sure what this thing is, but it cannot be allowed to run rampant through the city. Right now the dimensional anchor that makes up the walls of this room is keeping the creature here… I think.”

“How did it get here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why can’t we leave?”

“It’s a defense mechanism of the device.” I gestured to the pedestal. “It was witness to what the creature can do and has decided that it is a danger.”

“So… It trapped us in here with that thing?”

“It protected you as it is doing now,” I explained. “It grew back you limbs and now it is holding the creature at bay.”

Steven rubbed at his new arm. “What do we do now? How do we get out of here?”

“We need to remove or eliminate the threat. And to do that, I need to bring the creature here.”

“Bring it out again?” Grim said,  cringing. “It took of their arms!”

“To be fair, it took off only one arm.”

“And a leg!”

“So, I’m going to need you to do something important. I need you four to stay out of the way and not get killed.”