White Space (51 page)

“Fine, then show yourself.” Casey scrubbed away the whisper-man’s words with an angry swipe of his hand. “Stop playing games. If this is
our
nightmare, you don’t need Rima. Let her go.”

“O
H NOW
, I
COULDN
’
T DO THAT
—
NOT YET, ANYWAY,
” the whisper-man said. “W
E NEED TO COME TO TERMS FIRST
. S
O
I
THINK
I’
LL HOLD ON TO HER FOR THE TIME BEING.
” A crimson spider stretched along Rima’s left side as a fresh seam opened. “A
LITTLE COLLATERAL,
DON
’
TCHA KNOW
.”

“Collateral for what?” Eric said.

“A
BARGAIN
,
OF COURSE
. A
NEGOTIATION
.
”

“What could we possibly have that you can’t already take?” Eric said. “Where can we go? We’re in
your
space.”

“I want to talk to Rima,” Casey said.

“I
WANT TO TALK TO
R
IMA,
PLEASE
,
” the whisper-man said. “C
ASEY, WE REALLY HAVE TO WORK ON YOUR MANNERS.
”

“Where
is
she?” Casey shouted.

“S
HE
’
S RIGHT HERE
—
SCREAMING HER HEAD OFF
, I’
LL GIVE YOU THAT
. T
HIS IS THE PROBLEM WITH USING YOU WHEN YOU
’
RE AWAKE
. E
XCEPT FOR
E
MMA, IT
’
S
MUCH
EASIER WHEN YOU
’
RE ASLEEP
. W
HY, IF
I
WEREN
’
T SUCH
A
STRONG
CUSS
,
SHE MIGHT DISTRACT ME
.”

“What?” Eric heard Emma say; from her tone, he couldn’t tell if she was startled or had suddenly found the missing piece of a mental jigsaw puzzle.

“What do you mean, using us when we’re awake?” Eric said to the whisper-man. “Why is Emma different? What are you talking about?”

The thing in Rima’s body kept on as if he hadn’t spoken. “B
UT
R
IMA
’
S JUST A SLIP OF A THING, AND NOT VERY STRONG
. S
O SENSITIVE, SO SWEET
—
AND
I
KNOW SHE LIKES
YOU
, C
ASEY
. S
HE WOULD DO ANYTHING TO SAVE YOU
. T
RUST ME ON THAT
. I
THINK THE TWO OF YOU WERE SOMEHOW MEANT FOR EACH OTHER.
”

“Then please stop hurting her.” Casey’s lips trembled, but he shrugged out of Eric’s grasp and pulled himself up straight. The deep bruises on his translucent skin were as livid as clotted blood. “Let her go before you kill her. You have the power to do that.”

“It does, but it won’t, Casey. Not yet, anyway. It wants to
play
just a little longer,” Emma said. She had gone very pale. Her cobalt eyes were nearly violet in the bad light. “Where’s McDermott? Where’s
Lizzie
?”

“T
HAT BRAT?
” The whisper-man spluttered a wet, horsey sound. Blood misted in a tiny cloud. “L
ITTLE
L
IZZIE WAS NEVER HERE.
”

SHE HAD ALREADY
half-guessed the truth. The story had spun itself out in her
blinks
: Lizzie’s parents, the Mirror, the panops and Peculiars, Lizzie’s dolls, the flight from the house, that crash, and that very last
blink
in which Meredith lay dying, with Lizzie not far behind, as the fog leaked and nosed its way inside the little girl. There had been all that talk about
tangles
. But the shock still hit Emma like a slap.

Lizzie had felt it with the monster-doll, which must have been some incarnation of the whisper-man. How Lizzie did it, Emma couldn’t guess, but it must be a little like any kid at play: you act out all the parts. You get into the doll’s head and lose yourself in a fantasy world. Somehow, using the galaxy pendant, Lizzie must’ve crossed into some realm. Bypassing the gateway that was the Mirror? Or had she found another machine? For that matter, maybe the cynosure had more than one function, could be used in ways Lizzie’s parents hadn’t known or understood.

Either way, Lizzie had grabbed a piece of the
whisper-man—or he’d hung on to her; who knew?—and then the whisper-man talked to her in a language she could understand. They’d
played
. They went places; it had shown her how to do things in different
Nows
. Yet, with every contact, untangling who she was from
it
was harder. A bit of Lizzie was always left behind, and vice versa. It had sunk in its teeth, gotten a taste. So when the fog finally caught them after the crash, that enormous tangle of energy—from the Peculiars, the whisper-man, and what was left of her father—invaded the little girl, walked her brain, and
became
her, sliding inside Lizzie’s skin to wear her the way you did a glove. It just hadn’t done it fast enough, and Lizzie had time to finish her special forever
-Now
and imprison them both.

“I think she was never here, as a girl, for
us
,” Emma said, “but she put you here. She made this place out of her idea of a Peculiar, and then she bound you. She was bleeding, and you need that, don’t you? It’s the actual blood that matters. It’s why McDermott cut himself. It wasn’t only to activate the Mirror. It was to give you a way in that would stick.”
But it must not work all at once unless there’s enough time
. What was it that McDermott had said?
A cumulative exposure, something he had to do over and over again. He must’ve thought that if he cut himself just every so often, took in only a little of its energy, he could use it without
it
having enough of a hold to use him
.

So was that what London had been about? McDermott taking in too much? But there had been something wrong with Meredith McDermott, too.
Scars. I remember scars on her arms. Her memory was faulty; there were holes, things she couldn’t recall. Hadn’t McDermott said that Meredith and Lizzie went away? To where?

“Y
OU KNOW
,
YOU
’
RE VERY SMART, A REAL CHIP OFF THE OLD
L
IZZIE-BLOCK
.” The whisper-man gave a sly, ghastly wink. “I
CAN SEE WHERE
E
RIC GETS IT.
”

“Why do you keep
saying
that?” Eric asked.

Emma kept her eyes screwed to the whisper-man. “We’re not talking about that.”

“O
H, BUT WE ARE
. Y
OU ALL NEED TO UNDERSTAND THE STAKES HERE,
” the whisper-man said.

“What’s to understand?” Casey said. “You’re an asshole.”

“S
O ELOQUENT
. E
MMA
’
S GUESSED MOST OF IT
, I
’LL BET
. I
T
’
S REALLY VERY SIMPLE
. A
FTER THE CRASH
, I
GOT INTO THAT
L
IZZIE AND, OH BOY
,
WAS THAT A MISTAKE
. S
HE WAS
MUCH
STRONGER THAN EVEN
I
REALIZED AND SUCH A BRIGHT, CREATIVE LITTLE GIRL!
Y
OUNGER MINDS AREN
’
T BOUND BY LOGIC; NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO CONFORM TO RULES
. W
HO KNEW SHE
’
D PAID SUCH CLOSE ATTENTION TO HER MOTHER AND THOSE
P
ECULIARS?
O
H
, I
KNEW THE RISKS
. S
HE WASN
’
T A PUSHOVER LIKE DEAR OLD
F
RANK
,
WHO HAD THE KNACK BUT JUST DIDN
’
T KNOW WHEN TO STOP
. B
UT
I
COULDN
’
T RESIST
. R
EALLY, AFTER
I
SAW HOW SHE COULD PULL THINGS BACK INTO HER REALITY
—
THAT STORM, FOR EXAMPLE; HECK OF A THING
—
AND WITHOUT DESTROYING THAT PARTICULAR
NOW
, WELL
, I
KNEW
I
JUST HAD TO GET ME MORE OF
THAT
.
”

“Where is she?” Eric said. “Is she dead? Did you kill her?”

“S
ON
, L
IZZIE WAS GONE FROM HERE A LONG TIME AGO,
” the whisper-man said. “W
ITHIN MINUTES OF THAT
SWOOSH
. O
H, SHE
’
S ALIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE, AN INFINITE NUMBER OF VERSIONS IN ALL THOSE MULTIVERSES
YOU TALKED ABOUT
,
ALTHOUGH THAT
’
S TOO
N
EW
A
GE FOR ME.
C
ALL IT A REALM, OR A
N
OW
. E
VEN A BOOK-WORLD, WITH ITS SECRET COMPARTMENTS
. I
T
’
S ALL THE SAME IN A WAY, BECAUSE THE WORLD OF A BOOK IS SO REAL TO ITS CHARACTERS, AND THOSE WHO READ IT, TRIP INTO IT, GET LOST.
”

“Where you can’t stay long,” Emma said. “
Now
or book-world, it doesn’t matter, because you’re bound to Lizzie’s story and she’s bound you here. You can be what you want
here
but nowhere else.”

“W
ELL, IT
’
S NOT AS LIMITING AS
THAT
. B
INDING WORKS BOTH WAYS
. G
IVE A LITTLE, GET A LITTLE
. Y
OU
’
RE RIGHT
; L
IZZIE AND
I
ARE TANGLED, THE SAME WAY THAT
F
RANK
’
S IN HERE AND, OF COURSE, ALL
 … 
WELL
 …” It threw Emma another wink, so eerily similar to the one McDermott had given her in that Madison
-blink
, she felt a swift, sharp frisson race up her neck. “
M
OST
OF YOUR STORIES, THE ONES STORED IN THE
P
ECULIARS
.”

“What do you mean,
most
?” Eric said. “There are others? Ones that aren’t finished, like …” Emma felt Eric move a little closer, as if to shield her, too. “Like Emma’s?”

In reply, the thing only hunched Rima’s left shoulder, but when it did, Emma heard a distinctive
riiip
that made her flash to Sal tearing up old sheets for rags. “S
O
I
CAN
BREACH THE
P
ECULIAR FOR SHORT PERIODS OF TIME, BECAUSE
L
IZZIE HAD THAT KNACK; JUST LONG ENOUGH TO GRAB ONE OF
YOU
, WHICH ONLY MEANS THAT
I
GRAB THAT PIECE OF
HER
IN YOU
. I
CAN VISIT ANY
N
OW
AND PLAY WITH THE VERSION OF YOU—
IN
YOU—THAT EXISTS IN THAT
N
OW
FOR A LITTLE WHILE
. T
RUE, EXCEPT FOR
E
MMA, YOU
’
RE ASLEEP
AND YOU MISS ALL THE FUN; WELL
 … 
MOST
OF YOU DO.
”

All my blackouts. All those
blinks. She felt the cold, keen blade of this new horror slice into her heart.
They haven’t been fugues or seizures. It’s been using me
, wearing
me to visit versions of me in different timelines
. And it could use her while she was awake. Why?
Because I’m my own person: real, not set in a story with an inevitable end?

“Emma’s the key, isn’t she?” Eric said. “She’s the constant. This has all been a series of … of
tests
. You manufactured everything so Emma would eventually learn what to do to get you out of here and into a different
Now
. That’s why you kept bringing different people. You had to keep altering the mix to help her get there. That’s right, isn’t it?”

“What?” Somehow this idea was even worse. “Eric, what are you saying?”

“Think about it, Emma,” Eric said. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. If it’s tangled with Lizzie and McDermott, then it already knew you had the ability. What it had to figure out was who would help you get there. Must’ve sucked for it, constantly having to hit the reset button.”

“You’re saying I’ve … I’ve been here
before
?” Multiple contacts with this thing? In this
place?
But didn’t every contact leave a stain? How infected with
it
was she?

“B
INGO!
” The whisper-man gave Rima’s right knee an exaggerated
by-golly
slap that left a palm-sized splotch on her jeans that swiftly turned the color of blackberry jam. “B
Y GOD, YOU
’
RE A BRIGHT SONUVAGUN
. B
UT IT WASN
’
T AS SIMPLE AS ALL THAT
. I
T WAS ALSO A MATTER OF
E
MMA COMING INTO HER OWN, MARSHALLING THE
RIGHT
ABILITIES HERE AND, WELL
,
IN THAT LIFE SHE
’
S MADE FOR
HERSELF
. E
ACH OF YOU HAS A GIFT, MY BOY
,
WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT
. B
UT ONLY ONE OF YOU HAS THE GIFT
I
NEED.
”

“What’s that?” asked Casey. “Who?”

“W
HY, THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING
, S
ON
. I
NEED SOMEONE WHO CAN CARRY A WHISPER, AN
ENERGY
AS STRONG AS MINE, WITHOUT COMING APART AT THE SEAMS
. I
NEED A
MIND
THAT CAN ABSORB ME WITHOUT GOING
TOO
MAD, SO WE CAN PLAY TOGETHER FOR A NICE,
LONNNG
TIME ACROSS THE
N
OWS
,
” the whisper-man said. When it smiled, Rima’s lower lip split in two to sag from her teeth. “I
NEED THE GIFT
, C
ASEY, OF YOU.
”

“NO.” ERIC MOVED
to put himself between Casey and the whisper-man. “You can’t have him. You can’t have any of us.”