YesterWorld (Book 2 of the Down World Series)

Original Edition: Chapter Two

I ran up to the door to Yesterday, side-stepping Kieren's hunched body, and I slammed the heavy brick barrier closed. But I knew it was futile. The door had been unlocked with the only key capable of doing so: a flattened penny, crushed by the long-distance train as it barreled into the local station and created a momentary rift between the dimensions.

Once opened, only another such key could reseal it.

"How did you know?" I asked Kieren, who continued to watch me from the ground for a moment before standing to his full height, over half a foot taller than me. "How did you know about the key?"

He peered down at me now as if trying to make out a form emerging from shadows. "I learned how to open these doors when I was a freshman here," he said, his voice tentative, questioning. I let that sink in for a moment. In my reality, I had been the one to discover the power of the flattened coins. But I guess in Kieren's world, things had been different.

"And now I think it's your turn to talk," he said.

I felt flustered at being so close to Kieren. I had managed to keep my sanity these last eighteen months, as much as possible anyway, by avoiding him completely. As he had graduated two years ago and didn't live in my neighborhood, that hadn't been too difficult.

But now he was so close I could feel his warm breath land on top of my head. I took a step back, trying to find my voice. But he took an equal step to meet me, and I found myself backed against the wall in the small chamber that held the three parallel doors.

Kieren broke away from me then and put another flattened penny into the coin slot of Yesterday, sealing it back up again. He knew better than to leave any evidence of his visit, or to create an opening for anyone else who might follow.

"What's your name?" he demanded.

"Marina."

"How do you know me?"

"We were friends once," I stammered, not sure how much I could possibly share without breaking the promise I had made myself: none of my friends could ever know what had happened. What if they tried to change something, alter the past? Robbie was safe now. I needed it to stay that way.

"We were never friends," Kieren said, his voice betraying no feeling at all, and the words hit me like a shower of ice.

"I don't know what to say."

Kieren glared at me for another moment before stepping back. "Wait a minute," he muttered. "Weren't you that kid Brady was talking to in the darkroom that day? Like two years ago?"

I gulped and nodded.

"You were the one who followed him to the train station and saw Piper leave."

"Yes," I admitted. It made sense that Kieren would remember that, for in this reality, Piper McMahon had still gotten on that train. She had still taken her DW parents through the portal, and they had later gone back on their own.

But seeing me confront Brady that day in the darkroom was probably the only memory he would have of me. Everything else had evaporated for him.

Kieren surprised me then by reaching into his pocket and pulling out a deck of playing cards. I couldn't help but inhale sharply when I saw them. They were a special deck we used to play with when we were kids. Every card had a picture of a different city on the back with a map of where in the world to find it.