Deadly Designs (Design Series) (17 page)

She didn't live here anymore.

***

Eric studied the look on Storey's face, the emotions whistling across her features faster than a north wind coming through the mountains. The bedroom had been almost dehumanized. Was this normal behavior when a child didn't return home? He'd hate to see Storey tossed from her home because of this. From what he'd seen, she'd been close to her mother. A relationship she'd valued.

The room looked so much the same, yet different. His gaze fell on Tammy, curled into a small ball and fast asleep on the bed. The bed that had different sheets and blankets on it. A similar bed, just dressed differently.

Her art books were missing and that could be a huge problem. She needed her paper.
They
needed her paper.

The stricken look on her face was hard to gaze upon. He busied himself poking into the closet, the same closet he'd hidden in earlier. Finally he heard her speak.

"The house is empty."

Her voice, low and intense, showed such control and balance, he couldn't help but admire her. Again. He didn't know that he could do the same if the conditions were reversed.

"And I have food."

Food. Such a mundane necessity given everything else that had come to pass.

"Thank you. Do you think we should let Tammy sleep?"

Storey gazed at the child, her features softening. His heart warmed. If nothing else, having someone else to look after helped her forget her own troubles. Some matters had to take precedence.

"Yes, she's exhausted. I can't believe how good she's been throughout this." Storey walked over to sit on the bed beside her. Grabbing the folded blanket at the foot of her bed, she gently covered Tammy up. "She's not complained once."

"No. She's been surprisingly easy so far." Eric sat in the middle of the floor. "I, however, could use something to eat."

She opened the bag she'd brought upstairs. "I grabbed what I could. It's not the same as last time, but close."

"Good. Is there cheese?"

He grinned when she held out a large block of white cheese, then another loaf of bread. "Tammy will be happy."

"That's if we leave her any." Storey sorted through the food she'd brought. Eric made a simple sandwich and then watched her as he ate.

"Eric?"

He raised an eyebrow in question, his mouth full of food.

In a soft voice, Story asked. "What are we doing wrong? Everything seems to be getting worse."

***

Storey couldn't help the wave of depression sweeping through her. Yes, they were warm and sheltered, with food at hand and they were safe from attacking Louers. But there were so many things wrong she couldn't begin to list them all.

Tammy's problem was the priority. How could she get Tammy home to her family? The stylus had at one time told her that she could delete the dimension she'd made but it would kill everyone in it. That meant all of Tammy's family and Tammy, if she were home at the time, would be wiped out. So not a good idea. She hadn't presented the idea to the Toran's because she'd figured they'd approve of the idea en masse. Getting rid of their enemy in one final drawing – yeah, they'd be all over that. Maybe not Eric, as he'd come to know Tammy.

They also had to go back and get the missing codexes. And her portals. She didn't like to think that one of them might jump into her bedroom. That made the hair on the back of her neck stand up straight.

"I'm thinking that maybe we should get Paxton's advice," Eric said.

She pondered that. "But we're no more welcome there than here."

"Did you ever consider that this…" he looked around, "might not be your room?"

The apple stalled midway to her mouth. "How do you mean?"

"What if we're in yet a different dimension? Or maybe a different time frame? Maybe your mother moved when you didn't return home."

Cold raced down her spine. She gasped in pain. "Oh, no way. I haven't been gone for that long."

"When you left the party, no. I don't know if time is the same here as there. It should be but…we've twisted so many things we can't count on it."

She slumped back from her position on the floor to lean against the bed. Her gaze centered on the pile of food, not really seeing it. "Why is it that when I try to help someone, the situation gets worse?"

He winced. "It doesn't always. Look, we rescued Tammy."

Storey sniffled, hating the image of that whole female weakness thing, but she'd love to break down and bawl – just for a moment. Just long enough to release the pressure valve threatening to blow. She'd feel so much better. But not here and not now – and not with Eric watching.

The apple would have to do. She took another bite. She needed the food for energy. The thought of this not being her home, or worse not being her dimension, made her sick. She loved her mother. For all her mother's foibles, they'd had a good relationship. They still did, she corrected herself mentally. There's no way she'd accept that her life with her mother was over.

"Ask the stylus." Eric gazed at her, one eyebrow raised.

"Good idea. But I'll need some paper."

"Would they have paper downstairs?"

She shrugged and stood up. "I don't know. I'll have to go see." She didn't want to leave the relative safety and quiet of the room, but she needed answers.

The master bedroom was at the end of the hall, right at the top of the stairs. Even if her parents or whoever lived here came home, it's possible that by keeping the light off in her room, no one would know they were hiding there. She could create another portal but all these jumps were taking them somewhere…not quite right…and she needed to find out why.

At her mom's room, she was forced to turn on the light. And stopped, swallowed hard, and quickly moved forward. Maybe her parents didn't live here. The bedroom set was a heavy mahogany with dark drapes and dark carpet. Terrible.

She strode to the night table and checked the drawers, hoping for a pad of paper. Nothing in the first drawer and the second one only offered a small note pad. Better than nothing, but she needed sheets of paper if her big sketchbooks weren't available. At this rate, she'd be leaving them in all the dimensions. If there was an office downstairs, then a printer and printer paper would be possible. Slipping down the stairs, keeping the lights off, she walked through the rooms, coming to the den. Half the room had been established as an office. Again dark furniture, dark carpets and even darker caramel walls. She hated it.

Walking to the computer, she saw it was still on but asleep. The monitor looked different, too. A great, big, square unit. As long as it worked. She booted it back out of hibernation then searched for paper. At the printer, she found a pile of perforated accordion paper that had gone out of style years ago. The printer also looked old, huge and clunky. Weird. Still the reams of paper were perfect and because it was continuous she could draw as big a picture as she needed too. Several inches should do.

Back at the computer, she opened a browser, and tried to bring up a few of her favorite sites to see if there were any messages. And couldn't find any of the pages. Her throat started to close in on her. Surely what she was thinking wasn't possible, was it? Clicking on the calendar in the corner of the screen, the day was May 21st and that was certainly reasonable, but the year – she gasped.

Ten years ago. Ten. A whole decade earlier than she wanted it to be. This wasn't her house. It wouldn't be her house for another few months at least. That's why it all looked so different. She didn't remember if this is how the house had looked when she first moved in because, well, she'd been a kid. So much hadn't happened yet. She'd only be in first grade. Chances were good her parents were either newly divorced or in the process. A tough time back then for her family.

Unbelievable.

Once again, her arms full, she ran up the stairs. Eric looked up in surprise as she burst into the room.

Trying to keep her voice low so as to not disturb Tammy, she said, "Oh Eric, we've got a bigger problem than we thought."

He frowned, grabbed an apple and took a big bite. "What are you talking about?"

"We've gone back in time. Ten years backwards."

His brows furrowed and he stopped chewing in mid bite. He blinked several times as if trying to process the information. "What? How do you know that?"

"The computer downstairs."

"Could it be wrong?"

Could it? She twisted her lips and considered. "I don't know. Maybe? I never thought to double check. God, that was stupid."

"Is there any way here to check? Without having to go downstairs again?"

How could they check? A small radio sat on the desk. A clock radio. She walked closer. "This might tell us." After pushing the power button, she set the dial to radio. Soft music filled the room. "I don't know if they'll talk about the date, though."

Along the back of the dresser sat an old calendar. For the year 2002. She picked it up, turning to show it to Eric. He frowned.

She scavenged through the rest of the drawers, wishing there'd be a few articles of usable clothing. Nothing. The closet was just as empty. Crap. The master bedroom might have some, but she had no way of knowing what size the woman, if there was a woman living here, wore. There might be a front closet with sweaters or jackets, but she and Tammy could use a change of clothes.

Striding to the center of the room, she dropped to the floor and reached for the ream of paper. Pulling out her stylus, she started in on the questions.

"Is it possible that we've gone back in time?"

A hum filled the air.
Yes.

"Can we get back to our normal time?"

The answer came faster.
Yes.

Her breath gusted out and she couldn't resist looking at Eric. He grinned. "See. We can fix this."

She rolled her eyes at him and returned to getting answers.

"Stylus, how do we go back to our time?"

Go back through the same portal.

"The portal that took us here? I thought it was damaged so we shouldn't use it again." She picked up the paper she'd folded and tossed at the foot of the bed.

When damaged they still go to the same place, but might not hit the target right on. In this case the time line appears to be damaged.

"Actually we ended up not quite in the right spot either. We were close, but landed several miles away."

Exactly.

Storey snickered. "To you maybe. So if we go to the same portal, we'll arrive either back outside of the house or inside this room again. And it could take us closer in time, or might hit the right time?

Yes.

"Oh boy."

Eric stood and looked at Tammy. "I could carry her."

"We could we end up miles away again."

He grimaced.

Storey continued to talk. "Stylus, if we try to go back to Paxton's lab, will the time frame be wrong there?"

Yes. You would be moving through this time frame now.

"So we have to fix the time here first?" She rubbed her eyes. When would something be simple.

That is correct.

"So after we get back to the normal time, how do we find Tammy's parents so that we can portal to them and reunite them? We don't want to go back and risk meeting the wrong group of Louers again."

Eric stepped up behind her to read the stylus message this time for himself. He crouched down, his arm over her shoulder.

"Hey, are you reading this?"

O
ne thing at a time. Fix the time warp first.

Eric rubbed the back of his neck, his other hand absentmindedly rubbing Storey's back as he thought about what the stylus had written. Like it made something so hard to even contemplate – easy.

"I'm so tired. Do we rest first?" She stared at his face, so close to hers, for answers.

"Or do we do this next jump so that you are at least back in the house that you actually live in – at the right time."

She rolled her eyes.
Oh right.
"Yes, that makes sense. It would be wonderful if walking through that portal takes us right back into this room. Then we could sleep for a few hours."

On cue, they both looked over at the sleeping Tammy.

Storey frowned. "I hate to disturb her."

"If we're just going to end up back in this room, then I can pick her up, walk through and lay her back down again.

"Why is it I don't think it's going to be that simple?"

He grinned. "Because it never has been?" he suggested, straightening. He glanced around the room at the food still lying out in disarray. "I guess we should tidy this mess first."

"Definitely. It would be better to not leave any sign that we've been here."

"And I'm getting hungry again."

Storey groaned. "You're as bad as she is." She hopped to her feet and began cleaning up the food, absentmindedly making him another sandwich while she was at it. Bagging their food and garbage, she added the computer paper to their collection and put on her jacket. Finally, she laid the portal drawing on the floor. Glancing over at him, she watched as he carefully bent over Tammy and her pet, scooped them up like they hardly weighed anything. The skorl glared at him for disturbing his sleep but never cried out or tried to run off.

Straightening, Eric walked to where she stood. "Ready?"

Taking a deep breath, she said, "Yes." She stepped back as he hopped through, Tammy still asleep in his arms. He disappeared from sight.

"Please let this work."

She grabbed the corner and fell once more into the portal, taking the paper with her.

***

Eric opened his eyes and studied his new location. It wasn't Storey's bedroom. Unfortunately. Tammy still slept in his arms and he'd have loved to have been able to lay her right back down. He waited for Storey to show up. And waited.

"Anytime Storey. I don't want to be lost in time without you and your portals, thank you very much."

The words had barely left his mouth when she arrived behind him.

She flopped back onto the pathway. In a hoarse whisper, she said, "I'd really like to be in bed right now."