The Calling of Time

There's No Place Like Home

Manda snickered and turned to look out the window, and I did the same, heart pounding in my chest. It was ridiculous, really. A stupid time to be thinking about this sort of thing. But when Jai shed his t-shirt and I could see a flash of bare skin out of the corner of my eye, I badly wanted to look.

I kept my gaze fixed on the outside, staring at the forest that hemmed the edge of the road. Think about trees. Think about cool, green forests.

I could hear Jai squirming around on the seat, trying to pull his pants on. Suddenly I was seized by a fit of giggles, and I had to press my hand over my mouth. Still, my shoulders were shaking, and Manda must have caught sight of me out of the corner of her eye.

“What’s your problem, kid?”

I shrugged helplessly, still muffling giggles, and ended up snorting, which only made me giggle harder. In the front seat Manda began to snicker, and her breath fogged up the window as she pressed her forehead to the glass. “You want to look, don’t you?”

I shook my head in denial, but I was still laughing too hard to answer, and Manda cackled with obvious glee. “You want to look! You little pervert! Hey boys, you’re in danger of being ogled at.”

I looked up and pulled a face at her, just on time to see her turn her head slightly, stealing a look at the driver’s seat.

“You’re looking!” I gasped between fits of laughter. “Horace! She’s looking!”

Manda reached over the seat and smacked me on the shoulder. “I was not.”

Horace’s deep voice was amused. “We’re both decent now. You can look. Though apparently you’ve both been doing that already.”

I chanced a peek at Jai, and was startled to find his cheeks were slightly flushed, though he was fighting a smile. He cleared his throat. “Well, I guess we should…um, go over the plan again?”

“Right,” I said hastily. “The plan.”

Horace was fishing in the duffle bag again, and this time he pulled out a length of thick rope. Manda’s amused expression was gone instantly. “Great, I forgot about that part.”

“You know you’ll be able to slip free the second you need to,” Horace said. He turned to me. “And I’ll have the hourglass in my bag with me. If anything goes badly wrong, we can freeze them and it will give us some time.”

Jai added, “Keep in mind. The soldiers will freeze, the soul suckers will freeze, Thanatos won’t, at least…not as effectively.”

My stomach sank. “What? He isn’t effected by it?”

“He’s powerful,” Jai said. “So he’s able to fight it.”

“And who knows how much more powerful he’s grown,” Manda added. “He’s older now, and he’s living high on the hog, pain and suffering is all around him and it only makes him stronger.”

“Hopefully we can avoid him,” Horace said.

Jai frowned at him. “But if we can get to that necklace we have to get it. It’s important.”

Horace and Manda exchanged a look. It seemed to be the one thing they agreed on. They obviously weren’t eager to get the necklace back. The thought occurred to me, that maybe they didn’t want me to get my memories back. Maybe they hadn’t liked the old me, and they knew the necklace would bring that version of me back. I was almost inclined to be on their side. I wasn’t sure if I liked the idea of becoming someone else either.

Jai looked at both of them sternly, until Manda shrugged, looking sullen, and Horace nodded and said, “Alright, yeah.”

“Alright,” Jai looked from me to Manda. “Ready?”