Timepiece

Chapter 24

“Forget being quiet,” Lily huffed over her shoulder, as we flew down the hall and out the front entrance of the Pyramid and into the crowd.

I spotted what looked like a tour group close to the food stands. All wearing the same shirts, broken English touched by a French accent, and a woman holding a tiny red flag above her head.

“Slow down.” I took Lily’s elbow and pulled her to my side. I’d noticed she got a lot of stares from both men and women in general, but with the appealing addition of flushed cheeks and accentuated curves, it was attention we didn’t need. “Try to blend. We’re too conspicuous if we run.”

“Let’s get good and mixed in with this crowd first.” She pulled the sleeves tight around her waist again and tied them in two knots this time. “Do you see anyone?”

I scanned the crowd. “No sign.”

“I can’t sense them.” Lily exhaled, but her body didn’t relax. Tension pulled her shoulders together, and I reached for the base of her neck to help ease it. I stopped before I touched her and shoved my hand into my pocket.

I was losing my mind.

“I won’t feel safe until we get back to the hotel.” Her hands went to the small of her back, and then she moved them to her waist, stretching and twisting from side to side.

“You okay?” I asked, mesmerized by the movements.

“Yes. I wanted to make sure everything was secure.”

Everything looked secure to me.

“I want to be able to run again if we have to. I’m so scared I’m going to drop this thing.”

I shrugged. “Maybe if you do, it’ll pop open.”

“Not the time for sarcasm.”

We stepped back into the flow of the crowd like migratory birds, wayward ducks falling into alignment.

The bird fetish was rubbing off on me.

“Kaleb.” Lily’s eyes were wide. “Look.”

I took a step back, trying to figure out what was off. The crowd was twice as big as it had been two seconds ago.

There were rips.

Everywhere.

“None of the scenery has changed,” Lily said in a shaky voice. “It’s just extra people. There were fifty people setting up, I blinked, and then there were a hundred.”

“The French tourists are here.” They were chattering away, checking out the Memphis skyline and the reflective surface of the Pyramid. “And they don’t seem to see the rips.”

The bodies occupying the crowded space were sharing features, like multi-limbed demigods. They were in the same air space, possibly even in the same cell space.

“So instead of a whole scene, we have a whole crowd. That’s freaky,” I said under my breath. Facial features blurred like out-of-focus photographs as the living blended with the dead. “That’s way too freaky.”

Lily’s hand tightened on my arm. I didn’t know what it would feel like for a rip to walk through me, and I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.

A mother, father, and two young boys stopped beside us, posing for a family photo. An elderly woman held up a camera and counted to three. It was all very vacationlike and innocent, unless you saw the man standing with them.

Although the more accurate term was in them. One leg rested solidly in the dad, the other, in the mom. His hand was visible on one side of the youngest boy’s neck, his elbow on the other side.

“That’s too much. I’m going to be sick.” Lily closed her eyes and turned toward the breeze blowing off the river, inhaling deeply.

“Stay there and keep your eyes closed. I’ll take care of this.” When the family finished posing, they turned and headed toward the parking area. I rushed to tap the man on the shoulder, expecting him to disappear.

He jumped, startled. “Can I help you?”

The family had been part of the rip instead of the man. Their Memphis Grizzlies jerseys should have clued me in. “I’m so sorry, sir. No.”

“Kaleb?” Lily waited for an explanation.

“My mistake. It’s okay.” I stayed beside her and scanned the crowd, trying to find someone who was obviously out of place. “The rips don’t see us. It should be easy to find one.”

“Just like it was a second ago, right?”

Doubt. Fear. More like terror.

“I bet she’s a rip.” I pointed to a woman wearing white Reebok high tops with fluorescent pink laces. I called out to her. “Ma’am?”

“Yes?” she answered.

I wasn’t expecting a response. “I like your… shoes.”

She hurried away, eyeing me strangely.

“I didn’t even know they made those anymore,” Lily said, now obviously holding the Skroll in place with her hands, ready to run.

I pushed down a creeping sense of dread. I didn’t want to tell Lily, but I was starting to worry that we were becoming planted more firmly in the crowd of rips than in reality. I wanted to run, too. Problem was, I didn’t know where to go.

“Trying again.” A teenage girl wearing a sweatshirt with the neck cut out was my next target. I could see a shiny spandex leotard underneath. I didn’t bother speaking to her; I just stepped in front of her and held out my hand. She walked into it and dissolved before she reached my body.

“Thank God,” Lily breathed out.

“Don’t relax yet.”

Poe and Teague stood on the steps by the Ramses statue, scanning the crowd.

“Run.”