The Lightning that Jumps Between

Three

"Are you sure you want to go alone?"

"Hey, I've got this. It's important to make sure we know before this meeting, right? And it'll only take a minute.. I know how hard it is for you to see her like that..heh...or at all."

"I will be here if you need anything, simply call."

—---------

Ethan was standing barefoot in one of the many blooming, cliffside gardens of the Heisenberg estate when Eva's voice faded. He closed his eyes and passed through the liminal space, which he now understood was simply a gateway to the real layers of the Mutamycete's realms.

Passing that one thin layer that almost-touched reality meant that he disappeared from where he stood in the garden. Physically, he was now completely within the mold network.

It was a way to travel that he'd gotten more comfortable with in the last few months, if comfortable was the right word. Thanks to Eva, he was beginning to understand the network he was unwillingly a part of.

This–moving, it felt like flipping through pages of a book. Ethan spoke to the ever-present yet startlingly shy choir of whispers that moved around him.

Take me to Miranda's garden.

The first time he went there, it had been involuntary, nearly a disaster, and Miranda had a hand in his partial appearance. Now that he chose to travel within this world, he could be safer about it. Sort of.

The "garden" was not a real place–it had no counterpart in the outside world–rather, it was one of Miranda's created spaces. It was a deep lake where hundreds, if not thousands, of bodies floated under a mass of liquid that he wasn't entirely sure was water. Sometimes it changed to black, and sometimes a bloody, disgustingly deep red. He saw it in his nightmares.

Instead of manifesting under the water, face to face with scores of decaying bodies, Ethan found himself on the rocky shore of the lake. Large stones made a border around the dark water, where gentle waves created lapping sounds.

Willing himself invisible was something he had no problem learning, much to Eva's delight. In an instant he looked down, seeing the golden shimmer that dissipated like sparks around him. He could not see his own body. Ethan paced along the water's edge.

He chose this spot simply because Miranda seemed to spend more time here lately. Eva guessed it was to help phase out of 'memory' mode, where Miranda had been reliving nearly a decade of her own life with her daughter on a dreamy, ever-repeating loop. Moving into her own created space where she could focus on her "power" meant that she was more interested in that, than her daughter's life and memory.

To no one's surprise, really.

The "garden" was something Miranda had created after she touched the mold in the cave, but not much else was known about it. She could quickly sense Eva in these places she'd made, but so far, she had not sensed Ethan. This would be his third time in this miserable place, and he hoped, one of his last. He needed the connection with Miranda's consciousness to "jump" to the next memory he wanted to see. To see if his, and Eva's, hunch was correct.

But where was Miranda, dammit? Ethan strode farther out toward the beckoning, murky waterside, his eyes tracing the line of the water's horizon across the foggy shores.

It felt like a terrible spot to be, void of any other landmarks save the faux-treeline, faded mountain backdrop and the fog itself. The lake was medium sized, but endlessly deep. Still, on the surface, she had nowhere to hide. There was only water, and several rock formations nearby, away from the shore.