The Post Sunday Experiment | COMPLETED 2020

Chapter 14

Footsteps. Both Winter children could clearly hear footsteps coming down the stairs heading towards the very room they were trespassing in.

Faces white and hands shaking, they ran in through the wooden door labeled 'Winter' and flicked off the light as fast as they could. The children cowered under the desk, praying that their gasping breaths and pounding hearts weren't as loud as they sounded to their own ears. They hoped the strangers outside the room would pass by.

Through the thick door, they could make out the hum of conversation but not distinguishable words. There were multiple people out there. The children hadn't had time to make out their faces before they had dashed into what must've been their father's old study room.

They observed the shadows of figures moving about from the light that shone under the door. The strangers paced back and forth, then appeared to walk away. Holding their breaths, the children hoped the people wouldn't return. That was not the case.

That's when a tap tapping inside of the concrete walls of the underground lab started. It was at that moment when Ody's thoughts clicked into place. This place looked like a bomb shelter more than anything else with its concrete walls and metal floors.

As the tap-tapping grew loud the children could see the lights flickering on and off from the other room in a strobe-light fashion.

The faster the lights flashed, the faster the children's hearts raced. It didn't take long for the rapid tap-tapping and the strobe lights to cause their breathing to quicken to an unnatural pace. As their hands shook and their terrified eyes shot back and forth about the room, they felt something odd come over them.

It was almost as if gravity was a force that no longer applied. Perhaps they had entered another dimension. Everything seemed frozen in time. The light stopped flashing. The tapping stopped beating and everything appeared to be back to normal on the outside, yet on the inside, the children felt like something was wrong.

Ody carefully climbing out from under the desk. Penny crawled out from under the desk after her brother. As she stood up and placed her hand on the wood of the top of the desk, she knocked something over.

Both their eyes grew wide as they watched the cup of cold coffee her hand collided with, begin to spill and drip off the wood. Rushing to stop the flow before it could hit the concrete floor and make a noise, something odd happened.

As the cup came in contact with Penny's hand, the liquid inside, froze. The cup tilted, the coffee only spilling as far as the momentum of her hand pushed it. It hovered in the air over the edge of the desk where it sat there as if time had... stopped.

Penny and Ody exchanged petrified expressions.

Hands shaking, Penny stood the cup back up and touched the liquid. "It's... like a gel almost, now," whispered Penny into Ody's ear.

Treating the liquid as if it were putty, she picked it up and placed it back in the cup and then took a step back to think over what had just happened.

Both Penny and Ody froze in astonishment as they stood there dumbstruck and gazed at the coffee mug. "Penny," Ody whispered so softly and shakily that she could barely make out his words, "time and force seem to be... stopped. But we aren't."

***

Earlier that very day, a woman with long brown hair and bright blue eyes stepped off a bus and onto the dusty road of Cazenovia, New York. Her thin figure and tall frame turned heads as she walked over to the familiar car of an old friend she hadn't met with for several years.

Eric climbed out of the car and walked over to Mae to give her a hug. It was clear that she'd been crying; her puffy eyes and red cheeks stood out for miles. The poor woman was shaking all over with fear as she climbed into the car without saying a word to her friend and ex-husband's assistant.

As the car started heading down the dirt road, Eric swallowed hard. "Mae, there are some things you need to know. I don't know where your children are, but I know what they're looking for. Mae, there are some things Devlin never told you and now it is tearing your family apart."

"Wha- what do you mean?" Mae stuttered, surprised at his boldness to jump right into the situation. She wiped the tears off her cheeks and attempted to sit up straight and be rational.

For a moment, Eric smiled at her pretty face. Although he would never admit it, he loved how she always tried to appear strong even though she had reason to be in pieces. The woman was a fighter. He'd always admired that about her. She'd lost her parents, then her husband and daughter's company. Her husband had died, then both of her children had gone missing. The poor creature was in pieces, but she still sat up straight and found a way to put on a smile. She knew that without a strong attitude, she wouldn't get anywhere.

"Mae, Ody and Penny are looking into Devlin's past. He was hiding more than you can possibly imagine. I'm sure that he was never truly who you thought he was. That new job you didn't like him having, well, you didn't know the half of that and neither did I. All I know is that it's much bigger than it appears. Mae, we have to find it before the kids do or else they may just be in deeper waters than you can even imagine."