Black Holes - The Mors Mortis Trilogy Book 3

Chapter Five

By the time they reached Danny's house, Zarah was exhausted.

He lived on the other side of the police station, close enough that the trip would've taken minutes if more portals hadn't appeared. But everywhere they walked, the ground tore open around them, until the only way to reach Danny's second-story apartment was by climbing onto a neighbouring roof and jumping across to his balcony.

When Zarah finally skidded over the railing, she was almost sagging with relief. There was something hypnotic about the portals that made them difficult to pass by. They pulled at you physically, like a rip in water, but they also dulled your senses, making it necessary to fight off sleep with every step.

Danny pulled the wire door open and gestured Zarah inside before closing it firmly behind them.

"Cass?" he called out.

No one responded, and Danny sighed.

"She must be getting supplies. You can sit if you want. She should be back soon."

Zarah perched on the lounge chair that faced the kitchen and looked around. It was a curious mix of minimalist and messy. He didn't have a TV, or any paintings on the walls, but the living room table was cluttered with books and papers that displayed various mark ups: paragraphs and sentences circled with bright red pen.

Danny followed her gaze.

"Cassandra and I have been doing some reading," he explained. "We've been trying to figure out how all this happened."

Zarah wandered over to the papers, pulling them out from beneath each other and squinting at the scrawled notes.

"Dark energy?" she said, reading a line that had been written in capitals and underlined repeatedly before glancing back up at Danny. "You've been reading about dark energy?"

Danny scratched the back of his head, his face crumbling into an adorably confused expression.

"Yes, and no. It's all astrophysics and chemistry, so it's been hard to get my head around, but basically there are different types of matter and each form of matter holds a different world together. Dark matter is where this world exists. Regular matter holds the live world, but they only make up a fraction of the universe. The rest is dark energy."

"What is it, then?"

Danny's frown deepened. "We don't know, and I don't just mean me and Cassandra. I mean humanity in general. Physicists know it's there, but they haven't got much further than that. A couple weeks ago I wouldn't have really cared, but now..."

"Now it's forming the portals?" Zarah guessed.

"Yes."

Zarah's heart kicked, a spike of hope pricking her.

"So, the portals are just another type of energy that's forming channels between us and the live world?" she asked. "Ones that all the people who've disappeared might be able to get back through?"

Danny grimaced, and she knew from his expression that whatever he was about to say wasn't the confirmation she wanted.

"Portals is a word the authorities used so people didn't panic too much. It makes what they are sound so much more... human-friendly."

Zarah stared at him, waiting for him to continue, and Danny looked away, fiddling with a loose string curling off the bottom of his shirt.

"They're black holes," he said. "They crush whatever gets sucked into them and consume it. Once someone goes in, I doubt they're able to come back out. No matter what's on the other side."

Zarah looked down at the paper she held and stared until the words blurred.

"Oh."

Her voice wavered, even on that one syllable, and she saw Danny reach forward out of her peripherals, as if to comfort her, but then he hesitated and his hands dropped back to his side.

"I could be wrong," he said. "All of this could be wrong."

"But you don't think so?"

"No."

Zarah nodded and then dropped the paper, backing away from the table.

"Do you know how all of this got triggered?"

Danny looked pained. "Zarah, I —"

He cut off as the front door swung open and Cassandra stepped inside, grocery bags hanging from her arms and shoulders. She glanced at Zarah and then nodded, as if she'd expected her to be there the whole time.

"Hello Zarah," she said calmly. "I'm glad Danny finally found you. I was beginning to worry you'd been taken."

Zarah stared at her, unsure of how to respond. Even though people got to choose their ages in this world, Zarah was always struck by how timeless Cassandra looked. Where others let their hair grow, or their bodies age naturally, she always stayed exactly the same: early thirties, a short bob of hair, limbs clad in black clothes that fit somewhere between business attire and activewear.

It was how Zarah imagined Cassandra had looked when she'd died.

"I wasn't looking for Zarah specifically, Cass," Danny muttered, looking slightly flushed. "Just anyone."

Cassandra smiled and moved to the bench, putting the bags down.

"Well, if that's the case, I found someone else, too: Riley."

Danny jerked as if Cassandra had slapped him, his eyes widening.

"Riley as in Riley Rodriguez?"

"Yes."

Zarah's mind flicked back to a couple of weeks ago, to the red-haired girl who'd appeared in her bedroom with Leah.

"She died?" Zarah asked, surprised.

"Apparently. She was outside the police station."

Zarah blinked at Cassandra, hoping she was about to say she was joking. But she didn't, and Zarah felt a strange sense of forbidding fill her. Riley wasn't someone who'd meld easily into this world. She'd just been too much. Too much fire, too much strength. People who died that young and hungry never wanted this kind of existence.

"Well, why didn't you bring her here?" Danny asked. "She must be terrified."

Zarah glanced at Danny, and she could see another emotion flickering beneath the surface, one that suddenly reminded her of all the history these people had.

"I know," Cassandra said, leaning against the counter. "I was going to, but then she walked up to the station and the officer let her straight in."

Zarah's forbidding deepened, but Danny hadn't reached that point yet, instead he was glaring at Cassandra.

"That's ridiculous. They're not letting anyone in. At least, no one who isn't a police officer."

"Exactly," Cassandra said, face grim. "So why is Riley Rodriguez allowed?" 

...

Next chapter out in two weeks!

- Skylar xx