Spliced

Cat quickly realised her mistake at taking a second to give Zephyr that look. She hadn’t expected the deer to charge so soon.

Luckily for her, Coal was faster. He sprang to his feet, placing himself between Cat and the charging antler man. He thrust his sword forward meeting the thing in a deadlock. One sharp antler pierced into Coal’s shoulder while Coal’s sword plunged deep into the thing’s stomach and up at an angle into it’s rib cage.

Cat heard Indi gasp.

Initially it looked like Coal had him but Cat could see the risk. In a moment the antler boy was going to twist his head and in doing so he’d rip the top of Coal’s chest wide open. So Cat did the most sensible thing she could think of. She leapt on it’s back and grabbed it by the antlers. In hindsight this was not the most sensible thing.

She realised once she was on it, that there was no way she could hold the antlers steady from this precarious position and all she had probably done was endanger herself.

Except the action did do something, it surprised the deer long enough for Coal to realise the danger he was in and extract himself from the antler.

Right as he got free, pulling his own sword out in the process the deer threw it’s head back and roared.

“Cat, get down!” Coal commanded.

Cat didn’t think she could but the choice was made for her as the deer gave an almighty shake dislodging her grip and sending her flying.

Coal made to go for the thing again with his sword but having learnt from the first encounter the beast lowered it’s antlers. Coal pulled up short just in time. Seeing no way around it or method to stab it without himself getting stabbed again he took a step back.

“Indi! Shield!” he commanded.

The deer lunged, and burst into flames, disintegrating into a pile of ash almost instantly.

It took Coal a moment to register what had happened. It hadn’t been Indi but another figure, one standing in the doorway.

“Amanda!” Indi exclaimed and ran at the woman.

“Wait!” Coal barked but it was too late, Indi had already wrapped Amanda in a huge hug.

Seeing that it was Amanda and she didn’t do anything to hurt Indi, Coal relaxed. He turned his attention to Cat, who was on the floor but seemed to be okay. He was about to go over to her when the whole world started to spin. Small black dots gathered at the edge of his vision. He sat back on the table behind him with a large crash, blinked his eyes slowly and the next thing he knew Cat was at his side instead.

“Amanda!” Cat called as she grabbed Coal’s discarded towel from earlier and pressed it to this new wound.

Coal had the vague thought that he probably should have done that earlier.

Indi appeared to Coal’s right, her hands raised to his shoulder to stop him from falling even though he was still upright at the moment. Or perhaps it was just for comfort. Coal didn’t need comfort though.

What he did need appeared in front of him next.

Amanda arrived and Cat removed the towel briefly so she could inspect the wound. It was bleeding heavily and it was deep.

“Cauterize it?” Cat asked.

Amanda hesitated but quickly came to a decision. She placed her hands over the steady stream of blood and focused. A rough crusty shell slowly began to form over the wound.

“Zeph, you can come out now,” Cat said in an amused voice.

“Yeah right good.” Zephyr replied as he emerged from his hiding spot under a table by the window.

Coal felt heat spread through his chest. It was nice at first, pleasant even but then it started to hurt. It started to really hurt.

He gritted his teeth but did not move or yell out.

Amanda met his eyes. “Hold still,” she said evenly. A warning. He understood this was hard for her, in the same way that when she had looked into his eyes she knew it would not be pleasent for him. This was not a normal firestarter practice. This was beyond what even the most advanced of firestarters could do. She had to be precise. One wrong step, burn the wrong thing, and there was a good chance he would not survive the process.

Finally she removed her hands from his chest. “Find a healer when we get out of here.”

He nodded. “I know one.” His chest throbbed but his head seemed to be slowly clearing. Sitting on the table had helped. He turned to Cat. “Are you alright?”

“You have a hole in your chest,” came the reply along with a snort of indignance.

He smirked. “I know.” His eyes dropped to her belly then back up to her eyes. He raised his eyebrows at her.

Cat glared back. She didn’t need to be reminded that she was pregnant. She knew. She knew the risks and she was trying not to think about it.

But Coal’s comment had reminded the others. Well it had reminded Amanda and Indi. Zephyr, who did not know, bore a confused look at the exchange.

Zephyr might not have worried about it any further except the other two weren’t willing to let it drop.

Amanda touched Cat’s elbow gently and assessed the woman as she asked, “Are you sure you’re alright?”

“I’m fine,” Cat growled pulling away stubbornly.

Amanda glanced at Coal. He raised an eyebrow and gave a shrug.

Indi, much less subtle than Amanda exclaimed “Cat, You’re pregnant and you got thrown across the room.”

“What?!” Zephyr exclaimed.

Cat ignored him and struck back at Indi. “Well it’s not like there’s anything that anyone here could do about it even if I was hurt.”

“Cat,” Amanda said softly, as if trying to calm a wild animal.

“I’m fine,” Cat replied firmly meeting her eyes.

Coal gave an amused half smile.

“What do you mean you’re pregnant?” Zephyr asked.

Amanda appeared to take Cat at her word this time. At Zephyr’s comment she turned to Indi instead and gave her a look.

Indi’s hands flew to her mouth. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tell the secret.”

“Every one here knows anyway,” Coal replied, still resting on the edge of the table. “Except for Zephyr it would seem.”

Amanda turned to Coal with a puzzled expression. “How do you know?” she asked.

“How do you?” Cat asked turning the question on Amanda instead. “I only told Indi.”

“You told Indi?” Amanda and Coal asked together. It was a fair question. Indi was not known for keeping secrets.

“She had to, she’d just been booted in the stomach in a fight... and wasn’t looking so great.” Indi trailed off as she saw the expression on everyone else's face. She had a sudden feeling that she’d said too much again.

Amanda turned to Cat with arched eyebrows.

Cat shrugged.

“To be fair, she was in much worse condition then than she is now,” Indi continued in an attempt to remedy her already saying to much.

Coal actually chuckled.

Indi looked at him in surprise.

Amanda sighed.

“You want me to take that shovel?” Coal asked Indi with a straight face and with the barest hint of a smile.

Indi blushed a bright pink.

“Wait, just one question,” Zephyr interjected.

“It’s not yours,” Cat replied briskly.

“Ah yes, that was the question on all our minds,” Coal quipped, obviously trying not to smile too much.

Zephyr glared at him. “It’s a relevant question.”

“This isn’t the place for it, for any of this,” Cat snapped. She turned to Amanda “How did you get here? And where are the others?”

“I wasn’t expecting such a warm welcome,” Amanda replied sarcastically back. Then she took a breath and continued more seriously. “Firstly, you told me to come here, and secondly, I don’t remember this being what Wolf looked like,” she gestured at Coal.

Coal raised and lowered an eyebrow in acknowledgement and said simply with no further explanation, “Wolf is in the basement.”

“I didn’t tell you to come here,” Cat replied to Amanda.

Amanda’s gaze jumped between them, unsure which to address first. She settled on both in rapid fire. She turned to Coal first, “Wolf is in the basement?” and then to Cat, “And you did tell me, before you pulled me out of the dreamworld about, well...” She glanced at her wristwatch “Well more than an hour ago actually, it took a surprisingly long time to get here. What is going on in this house?”

“The house is trying to kill us,” Coal replied matter-of-factly and almost as if he was amused by the idea.

“It was designed by a madwoman,” Zephyr replied with a touch of delirium.

Indi jumped in eagerly with her own information, “Kass said the old lady who owned this house was a psychic, that she went mad in her old age.”

Cat snorted. “In her old age? How many physics do you know that are adults and aren’t batshit insane?”

Indi shrugged and shook her head. “I don’t know any psychics.”

“There’s one that practices down by the pier,” Zephyr replied, “And one with a shop along the main street of Little Rock.”

“Those aren’t psychics,” Cat told Zephyr.

“I’m pretty sure they are.”

“Not good ones.”

“We weren’t just talking about good ones, I doubt even Coal knows any good sane psychics but there are plenty of average ones around,” Zephyr retorted.

“Yeah, average ones that can’t even predict the weather.” Cat snapped.

“To be fair, the elemental festival is this week,” Indi pointed out softly.

It wasn’t so much that Amanda noticed Coal’s gaze drifting in response to the topic of him knowing psychics, as if he didn’t want to be asked the question, lest he have to lie. What drew her eye was when he caught himself and focused his attention back with an almost too blank expression. It made her wonder if he didn’t just have his own psychic stashed away somewhere, a high quality one, feeding him information about the future.

He caught her gaze and was so fast in asking his next question that Amanda couldn’t be sure if that had been his intent or if he was just drawing her attention away from physics and his response.

“What time does your watch say?” he asked her.

“Huh?” Amanda replied confused.

The question made the others stop and turn.

“Your watch, what time is it?” he repeated, and he held out his own silver pocket watch for her to see.

She took his and compared it with her own. From the frown on her face it was obvious she’d noticed a difference.

“What time does it say?” Coal asked again.

“A little after 6pm. There’s a slight difference but...” Amanda frowned.

“Mine says 7pm.” Indi thrust her wrist under Amanda’s nose.

Amanda looked at it and then she looked at the sky outside.

“Bit dark for six isn’t it?” Coal asked.

“You know I felt like I’d been walking for longer,” Amanda replied still staring at the window.

“You wanna know what Zeph’s watch says?” Indi asked barely able to contain herself.

“No, but...” Amanda hesitated then turned, a little afraid of what she might see.

Still clutching the large and very bright torch in one hand, their main source of light now the sun had gone, Zephyr held out his other wrist so Amanda could see.

“Hold on,” Cat interjected suddenly, holding up both hands. “What did you say about being in the dreamworld before?” she asked Amanda.

“Sirius, and Kass, and I entered a room with a dreamwalking rune on the door. We thought we’d gotten out of it okay but then things went kooky. You pulled me out and told me to come straight here.”

Cat shook her head. “I didn’t pull you out.”

“Could someone else have done it?” asked Coal.

Amanda shook her head slowly. “It looked exactly like Cat does now. Acted like Cat. Who else would pull me out?”

“The others are still in there?” Cat asked.

Amanda nodded. “It took me so long to get here. I would have gone back but some of the doors don’t seem to work the same way both directions. I’m lucky I even got here. And before you ask I didn’t try to wake them. They were in the room, past the rune. I didn’t want to risk it, although maybe...”

“And you didn’t see anything? Weren’t attacked by anything until now?” Coal asked, interrupting before Amanda got carried away in her obvious increasing frustration..

Amanda shook her head. “What was that thing?”

Coal shook his head. Indi shrugged.

“Do you want me to to see if I can sense Sirius and Kass?” Cat asked.

“Yes please.”

Cat nodded. She looked around, then sat down where she was on the floor. She closed her eyes and focused.

Amanda turned to Coal. Noticing his other wound she asked, “What did that?”

“Not sure,” he replied.

“It was invisible, it tried to attack me but Coal got in the way,” Indi told her.

“And Wolf’s in the basement?”

“We think so,” Coal replied.

“You thi...”

“We saw a rune.”

“Coal saw a rune,” Indi corrected for him. “I don’t know what they look like, not really.” She frowned. “Which time do you think is the real time?”

“Real time for whom?” Coal asked.

“Out there.”

He shrugged.

“Why did my watch shift?” Indi asked more to the herself than anyone in particular.

“The better question is why are they all different,” Amanda asked.

“Because we haven’t all been together for the whole time,” Zephyr replied.

Amanda turned to him a question in her eyes.

Indi answered. “Zeph and Cat think Wolf and I disappeared but Wolf and I think Cat and Zeph disappeared. We went into a different room and then the other two weren’t there anymore.”

“And you ended up by yourself?” Amanda asked.

Indi nodded. “Just before Coal found me.”

“Shouldn’t we be getting out of here?” Zephyr asked.

Amanda glanced down at Cat, who was sitting cross-legged on the floor, eyes still shut. She shook her head. “If Cat can’t reach them we need a plan. I don’t want to go rushing off through who knows what door.”

“You must have been through a few on the way here?” Coal asked.

Amanda met his eyes and nodded. Behind him shadows danced on the wall as Zephyr swung the torch around for a better look of the room.

“And you didn’t meet too much more trouble after that first one?”

Amanda shook her head “No, but...” she trailed off and then glanced around the room they were in, following the light from Zeph’s torch.

“You’re not dreaming now,” came Cat’s voice from the floor, guessing at Amanda’s recent thoughts.

“How do you know?” Amanda asked. “How do I even... how do I know you’re you? Or that before was you?”

Cat stood up. “You know what dreaming feels like, you’ve done it. If you’re ever aware enough to question if you’re in a dream you will most certainly know if you are or not, unless the dreamwalker controlling it is extremely exceptional.”

“I didn’t know before,” Amanda replied.

“Didn’t know you were dreaming?” Cat asked.

“Not at first.”

“Well, sometimes it takes a bit.”

“Skilled dreamwalkers aren’t exactly uncommon, Cat,” Coal reminded her.

She glared at him.

“Didn’t know you weren’t you then either,” Amanda added to Cat.

Cat looked worried.

“You still can’t be sure it wasn’t her,” Coal replied.

Cat looked annoyed and she slid her narrowed gaze Coal’s way again.

He explained by tapping his silver pocket watch. “Time doesn’t exactly appear to be consistent in here.”

Cat’s eyes widened. Amanda frowned.

“I would have though my phone would have worked since it’s digital,” Indi sighed.

Amanda paused and turned with a thoughtful look on her face.

“What difference does that make?” Cat asked.

“Her clock should update to whatever the time is,” Coal explained.

“Assuming there’s a connection,” Amanda replied.

Indi nodded sadly.

“Do you have a connection?” Amanda asked, guessing at Indi’s expression what the answer was.

Indi shook her head.

“And if there’s no connection?” Cat asked.

“Then it should use it’s internal tick,” Indi explained. “It should show the same as Amanda or Coal’s.”

“Assuming ours are the right time. They were a little off remember.” Coal answered.

“Yeah, but whatever time it is it shouldn’t be 4:11pm.”

“Let me see,” Amanda held out her hand.

Indi passed her the phone.

As Amanda took it she asked Cat, “Did you manage to find them?”

Cat shook her head sadly.

A muscle in Amanda’s jaw twitched a little but she otherwise appeared calm. Only Coal noticed the twitch.

She played with Indi’s phone for a bit. “It says it has a connection,” Amanda observed.

“Yeah but if I dial there’s just a tone. And if Coal entered after us and time is moving faster in here than his... no, actually that would make sense, except yours wouldn’t make sense. I don’t know.”

“Might depend on which door you go through or the area of the house,” Coal replied. “And I wouldn’t trust any technology in here, not if there’s any chance technopath magic is involved. They could turn off or on whatever they want.”

Indi’s face fell and she put her phone away. “Right. There are places like that though right? Where time moves faster or slower.”

Coal nodded. “Pocket dimensions, technically not always a different dimension, but the term applies to both. Pieces of space outside of normal time. People use them for vacations and things.”

“Oh, to be so rich,” Zephyr rolled his eyes.

The other three were looking at Coal with various levels of surprise.

Coal didn’t falter under their gaze. He seemed more amused that they were surprised.

“That is definitely not a normal thing,” Cat replied.

“You still age though?” Indi asked, wanting confirmation.

Coal gave a single nod. “Yes, but it pauses external commitments.”

Amanda was still frowning.

“It keeps people off your back,” Coal added.

Cat shrugged and with a smirk replied, “Well when you put it like that.”

“I mean if I had that sort of money I’d definitely have one,” Zephyr added. Seeing Amanda wasn’t laughing, and instead was looking worried, he then asked more seriously, “So what’s the plan?”

Coal glanced at Amanda and then speaking mainly to her said, “I don’t really see any other option than just walking through the doors in the direction we think we should be heading. I don’t think we’re in a pocket dimension by the way.”

“Really?” she replied. “You don’t have anything cooked up your sleeve?”

He shook his head.

She seemed doubtful but she glanced at the doorway. She was worried about Sirius and Kass but she was also afraid that if they walked through that door everyone was going to vanish and she’d be left alone again.

“When I was with Wolf, we had a rope to make sure we didn’t lose each other.” Indi twisted her fingers together, evidently a little afraid of the same thing.

“That worked out well,” Zephyr replied sarcastically.

“A magic door could just cut the rope,” Cat added.

Indi dropped her eyes sadly.

“What makes you think we’re not in a pocket dimension?” Amanda asked Coal.

“It just doesn’t feel like one,” Coal replied simply.

“Why not?” Amanda pushed.

“Eugh, who cares. Let’s keep moving,” Cat complained.

“I just want to get an idea of what we are facing,” Amanda snapped at Cat.

Cat held her tongue.

Amanda turned back to Coal and eyed him suspiciously. Her trip in the dreamworld had made her wary.

Coal noticing her expression attempted to placate her. “There may be pocket dimensions here, in certain rooms, but I don’t think this house is one and that won’t be how it split you up.”

“What do you mean?” Indi asked.

“When you enter a pocket dimension you exit it at the same time, or near enough to.”

“Near enough to?” It was Cat’s turn to ask a question.

“Spend long enough in one and a few seconds might have gone by when you return.”

“Long enough?” Cat asked.

“Months, years, it depends on the particular dimension.” Coal studied all of their faces in turn.

“What if it was badly made? Then it’s possible Indi and Wolf walked into one and then...” But Cat’s mind had already seen the problem, or possible problem. She and Zeph had followed them into the same room so then there was no way they could have missed them. “Ugh!” Cat exclaimed. She hated time travel or whatever this was.

Coal shook his head. “It’s generally easier to make time almost freeze than it is to make it only slightly slower than regular time, at which point you’d just make a pocket dimension.”

“What? It is?” Cat asked incredulously. “Well maybe they wanted time a smidgen slower.”

“What for?”

“I don’t know.” Cat threw her hands out. “Make it not obvious they were coming out of a pocket dimension.”

Amanda who had been thinking suddenly piped up. “Alright, I don’t think it matters. How do we get out of here? Do we just walk back in the direction we want to go and hope nothing changes?”

“We could try find that teleportation door again,” Cat suggested.

“That was further in to the house,” Indi replied.

“Yeah but we know where it goes.”

“Do we?” Zephyr inquired.

Cat rolled her eyes. “Well I don’t know. What if we go where Coal and Indi came from and try and find the rune Wolf went through.”

Coal stiffened but only Amanda and Indi noticed.

Indi shook her head. “It might not take us the same way and I don’t really want to go back that way.” She thought about the taxidermy room with the clown and other creepy things. Coal seemed to relax a bit as she spoke. Evidently he didn’t want to go back that way either.

Amanda agreed. “I’d prefer if we found Kass and Sirius first. I’m worried in case something else gets to them first. If we can just get close enough for you to dreamwalk.” She glanced at Cat.

“I’m surprised this isn’t close enough,” Coal observed.

Cat glared at him.

“That wasn’t a dig at your powers or lack thereof,” he replied. “Just that even you should be able to reach them from here, if the house were really only as big as it seems from the outside.”

Cat relaxed her posture a little although she still glared at him. She knew he was right. For all the poking she did to Kass about lack of magic practice she knew she was just as bad. The jab was a fair one even if it was one she would rather not acknowledge.

“We could just stay here,” Zephyr suggested. “Wait until the sun comes up. This room seems safe.” He didn’t really want to stay in the house overnight but the thought of risking any more separation by wandering around was even less appealing.

“If the sun comes up,” Indi replied. She had the weirdest feeling that if they stayed here they might never see it again.

Amanda shook her head. “I can’t leave the others.”

Coal nodded in agreement. “It may seem safe for now but that doesn’t mean it will stay that way. Think you’d remember the way you came?” he asked Amanda.

She shook her head. “No way, but I can probably start us off.”

“It’s better than standing around,” Cat agreed.

With a final look at each other they came to an agreement. And with a groan from Zephyr they set off.