Thin Ice (MPHfPC Fanfic)

Chapter Twenty-Four:

Joseph's hand clung to my shirt as if my life depended on it. In a way, it did. We were suspended high up in the air, so high we were in the lowest clouds. If he let go, I would plummet to my death. That was the point, though. Not to drop me, but to be high up in a cloud. The higher we were and the more covered, the less likely we were to be spotted.

Jake was grasping onto Joseph's other hand as hard as I wanted to. He didn't have a fear of heights (neither did I) but he was biting his lip and his expression made it very clear that he didn't like this one bit. What I wouldn't give to be an Ymbryne so I could just fly over myself! But I was relieved to find that we wouldn't have to travel at a snail's pace after all. We barely slowed Joseph down at all.Suddenly, a gunshot rattled my brain.

"Eep!" Joseph faltered a bit, and for a terrifying moment, we were falling. Then Joseph gritted his teeth and pulled us back up. "We should go!" Despite Joseph's assurances that he would be able to handle being shot at, he was trying to bail out.

"They can't hit us," I reminded Joseph-- and Jake. "We're out of range, for sure!"

"Right. Right." Jake said, nodding to himself for reassurance.

Then a big bang sounded and I saw a large harpoon coming straight at us.

Joseph panicked and we started to fall, the harpoon missing us by inches. There wasn't time to celebrate, or even think about it, because we were still falling. Joseph had his hands covering his face-- he had let go of us-- and his oversized hat had fallen off.

I screamed and waved my hands frantically, but to no avail. But somehow, I grabbed ahold of Jake by accident. As soon as I saw it, I yanked my hand away. But nothing happened to him.

Then the earth seemed to bend and spin around us and we fell into memory.

. . .

"What's happening?" Jake asked as a scene materialized around us. His voice sounded like it was underwater, like mine had in the other memory. Joseph wasn't there.

"I-" I started to say something, but then I recognized where we were. The Center for Parentless Kids, the place where orphans went right before they went to a home. We stood before the front doors, moonlight glinting off the handle.

Suddenly a woman ran up with a small bundle in her arms. A man ran beside her.

"I told you," The woman was saying. Her face was hidden in shadow, but I could see her long, dark hair. "This was the safest time I could find. Our time isn't safe anymore- you know that!"

"I do," The man said back breathlessly. "But she will know nothing. And what if we can't get back? I want the future for our daughter, not the past."

"I know," The woman agreed. They slowed as they walked up the steps to the door. "But we will come back. And destiny will bring her to us, to her future, eventually. She takes after her grandmother, you know that. She takes after you, too. I'm not a time traveler. But she will be."

"She'll be in danger."

"Not as long as no one knows who she is," The woman replied. She turned her head, revealing her face. Her eyes were piercing green, and her nose was pink from the cold. "No one will suspect anything if she lives at the wrong time. That way she'll be able to keep her name."

"Euphora," The man said. "I don't know if we should do this. Your father, Mark, should know about you, even if he hadn't known before, he certainly does now. After-"

"I don't need a reminder of what he did," The woman I took as Euphora said back angrily. "And yes, he should know about me. But not August. And my dead uncles could return eventually as well, remember? And this time is the safest. My mother doesn't even remember, so she won't try anything. And no one else in this time knows."