Cogs Of Fate

Eye To Eye

Present Day

The moment the Lifeboat returned to the bunker, the hatch opened and the crew quickly descended from the steps. Lucy rushed by to grab Tenley's laptop. She hoped the firewalls would allow her access to the sites she wanted to look at.

Agent Christopher watched as the historian blew by. Confusion and concern were written on her face. "What's going on?" she asked. She turned to face the others, brow furrowed. "What happened?"

"Well," Rufus began, drawing out the word. "We met Bram Stoker, who apparently is a Bloodstone agent working undercover. Tenley was in danger which is why the man was even there and," he paused, holding his pointer finger up as he added, "Can I just say that people are crazy!?"

Agent Christopher blinked at him, turning to the other two men standing before her. "Can someone explain to me what all of that means?"

While the others worked on explaining what they could to Agent Christopher, Lucy found herself in the infirmary, pulling the computer out of the cabinet. She opened the lid, powering it on.

She drummed her fingers on the table impatiently as the computer booted. When she saw the login screen, she quickly typed in the necessary information and watched as all of the icons appeared on the screen.

It took Lucy no time at all to open up the browser and look up the 'Mercy Brown Incident'. She skimmed the articles as she read. Everything was the same as before. Edwin died two months later, despite the so-called tonic made from his sister's burned organs.

The town still went through impending terror and continued their ridiculous displays of superstitious hysteria. They still firmly believed that the dead were coming back from the dead as vampires, hoping to drink from their family's blood. There at the bottom of the article, was a small section that talked about how a body was discovered on a recently exhumed grave and the occupant of the coffin was missing. It was said that the body in the coffin had broken through the lid and clawed its way out, killing the unfortunate passerby before disappearing into the woods surrounding the town.

She saw that vampire hunts remained in effect within the town's limits for another forty years. She closed the browser and shook her head. Lucy was about to shut the computer down before she realized she also wanted to look up Bram Stoker.

From what she could see, Bram had gone back to London and wrote all of his books. He stayed true to history - married, had a child, and died after suffering numerous strokes.

Lucy leaned back in her chair, blinking at the screen. She never would have pegged him to be a Bloodstone agent, as Flynn said he was - even now as history remained virtually the same. As she shut the computer down, she realized that it wasn't so far-fetched to believe after all. Bloodstone had continually taken people from their timelines and dropped them into different ones. She questioned Bloodstone's motives. She tried to understand the reasoning behind their actions. So far, she was drawing a blank.

The rest of the team had left the main living area once they finished detailing the mission to Agent Christopher. Flynn had found himself in his room, pacing as he thought over the details of Bram's comments.

There was something about the way the man behaved around them. He acted with a sense of familiarity with the team. Flynn closed his eyes, pinching the bridge to his nose as he tried to recall the man's features in hopes of remembering him from some other mission. He sighed, dropping his hand from his face when nothing came to mind.

Bram spoke of Tenley in a fond way. Flynn could see it behind the man's eyes - there was something about Tenley that the author eluded to - something vital to the Bloodstone agenda. The fear and panic that sat in the pit of his stomach churned. He wouldn't - couldn't - rest until he had her safely home. Whatever they wanted with her, he knew it couldn't be good. They had yet to show any inkling of goodness in their actions yet- until this last mission.