When All is Null and Void

Chapter Forty-Five

Midnight came and passed, and the moon shone through the thing clouds onto the thick layer of freshly fallen snow. Caleb was wrenched from sleep at the sound of a violent crack. Heavy footsteps fell at the bottom of the stairs.

Caleb was out of bed in an instant, running to his own door, opening it with such speed he nearly whacked himself in the face. He might have laughed any other day, but he couldn't find the comedy in it—not now. He ran down the hallway and skidded to a stop at the top of the stairs. He could hear the shouting clearly now.

Three people were moving through the house, over toppled piles of books. Too many. A deep voice thundered through the house. "Alexander Pendergast!" He spoke as if he were reading from a piece of paper. "You have been chosen." His voice was the rumbling sort that set Caleb's legs trembling. Caleb could see him from the top of the stairs. He was familiar to Caleb, and it was only a moment before he placed him as one of the people that had brought him to Rhea those months ago. He was fox-faced, with red hair.

The girl with him had the same red hair which flowed like fire behind her. She banged through the house, and the glass shattered somewhere. "You can't hide," Caleb heard the woman say. She might have been beautiful under any other circumstances, a tall and slender woman. Caleb couldn't help but shiver at the poison in her tone, though. "Come out, come out..." she said in a singsongy whisper which carried up the stairs. Her foot was on the bottom step, staring into the shadows where Caleb hid when he saw her eyes.

Pitch black.

"Caleb." Alexander's voice in his ear nearly caused him to shout in fright. He bit his tongue, and tangy blood oozed from the slice. He turned quickly.

"Why are theyhere?" Caleb asked thickly.

Alexander breathed. "They've been infected with the Void." His mentor's voice was almost lost in aspirant whisper, and when Caleb tried to see more of his mentor's face, the look there sent his heart plummeting through the stairs.

"What do you—"

"You have to get out. You have to get Danielle, and you have to run."

This was not the way things ought to have gone. This was all wrong. "Go to August 3rd, 2012. You know where."

He didn't have to wrack his brains to know Alexander wanted him to go to the safe house he'd set up in Los Angeles, the very apartment they'd spent hours training in. He nodded in agreement, and Alexander stood from his crouch. Caleb grabbed his mentor's arm before he could take the first step into the living room. It was only a matter of seconds before the two intruders came up the stairs.

"Come with me."

Alexander slipped his hand free of Caleb's, but deposited a single, golden band in his palm. "I don't have my ring." Why had Alexander just done that? "You can't get all three of us out."

Alexander gripped Caleb by the shoulders. "You trust me. Keep trusting me. In all times. Everything happens as it should. There is no escaping it."

He then he slipped down the stairs toward Jacob and the other, nameless Timewalkers. Caleb watched in horror as his mentor stepped in sight of the two intruders. Jacob didn't look up as he rifled through a drawer in the kitchen. Caleb noticed Alexander was fully dressed, except for socks on his feet. Alexander positioned himself to make eye contact with Caleb once more. And in his eyes a single command: Go. But Caleb didn't go. He remained, because he couldn't leave Alexander behind. He wouldn't. "I'm here," Alexander said. Jacob twirled around gracefully, his trench coat flipping over another stack of books. The fox-faced woman grabbed Alexander tightly, and Caleb watched as blood dribbled from her fingertips.