The Only

Needle in the Hay

The older rural area and run-down playground were several minutes behind her, as Des quickly sped away on her bike. A focused determination energized the biker, and it reminded her of the way she felt during the multiverse merger. She knew the stakes were even greater than they were then; all of the versions of Max and Chloe that she saved now existed as one inside each of her moms. It was imperative that they were safe in this prime reality.

Her mind was honed in, but she was still trying to decipher everything that had happened with the Watcher. Like a song playing on a loop, Rachel's words repetitively echoed through Des's head.

"...This scenario can play out a countless number of ways, but not a single one ends happy if you go home..."

"...trust me when I say... you need to stay away. They have their own abilities and can manage by themselves, I hope..."

Despite the straight-forward, matter-of-fact look in her eyes, Rachel seemed worried with the 'hope' part, and it bothered the time traveler immensely.

"...No Watcher can see beyond what they can't understand, and I do not understand where they have to go. They totally disappear from any space I can see..."

She wondered where they could possibly go that Rachel wouldn't be able to find them. She also thought the 'no Watcher' comment was a bit strange.

"...You must come to my realm. There's so much you don't know about time, universes, and realities. As much as it pains me to say this, we have bigger problems than whether we save your moms' lives or not. I promised to always protect them, and I will always try. But this is bigger than anything we've faced before..."

Her moms fully trusted their friend, who Des knew ultimately protected them from terrible outcomes in the past, but the biker still had a sliver of doubt in her mind about Rachel's current intentions. It wasn't that she didn't believe what she was told, she just knew the Watcher could see probabilities and futures. She felt there was a good chance the words Rachel chose were more to push Des in a certain direction than anything else. The woman's true agenda is what concerned the girl; why she needed help in the first place. Regardless, it didn't sit right in her mind that her mothers' safety was abruptly put on the back burner. It was unnerving to the twenty-one-year-old that they no longer took precedence to Rachel.

It occurred to the young adult that it was time to make a decision: go home where she assumed her parents were in danger and attempt to save them, or listen to Rachel's warning and avoid the area all together. She wasn't certain about her next steps, but she was going to do what she'd always done; use the information provided and carve her own damn path.

The street where she lived came into view, so Des slowed her speed. She rounded the corner and first spotted their mailbox. Looking towards the driveway, she noticed an idling black car she didn't recognize in front of their closed garage door. Her heart dropped and her palms felt clammy, realizing the gravity of the situation. Remembering Rachel's words, she began to fear the worst. She'd saved her parents countless numbers of times and believed she could do it again if necessary.

Out of the corner of her eyes, just on the fringes of her peripherals, she noticed something odd. She completely stopped her bike two doors down from her house in hopes of confirming what she just witnessed. Because nighttime was settling in, a clear, unhindered view was nearly impossible. She squinted and tried to center her senses on what she saw, desperately hoping to see it again. She cut her eyes left then right, then allowed them to drift out of focus. The moment she unfocused, transforming the objects in her line of sight to a blur, it seemed to uncloak itself with a glint.

Like the outside soapy layer of a bubble, it was there; merely a shimmer at first. Once locked in, with an understanding of how to perceive what she was observing, the picture became unsettlingly clear. Surrounding the house and forming an almost invisible field of distortion, a thin dome-like layer encircled the area; from the front porch to the back yard, and on both sides.