Special thanks to Malady for his help in editing and ideas.

The Letters Chapter 8

The car touched down, and both Greg and Gracie jumped out. The significance of what had happened escaped neither of them, although they were ignorant of the exact meaning.

If Gracie no longer had control of one of the lines, what would that mean? Well, her ace in the hole against the other, less benevolent versions of herself was lost. That was scary enough, but what if a line was completely gone now? Somehow, that seemed even more frightening. How could that happen? Paradox? She had never seen any indication to mean that a paradox couldn’t happen. The fact that so many different versions of herself were present, hinted that there wasn’t any rule to prohibit a paradox.

So what else was there?

They cautiously entered the main corridor of the Winnipeg facility. Did they have anything to fear? Very much Yes! If another Grace had taken control, then Gracie had no leverage. If a line had disappeared, then Gracie could too.

Very slowly, they made their way down the corridor to Grace’s office. Greg watched out for danger while Gracie opened the door. He slipped into the room and the door closed with a click, signaling that it was locked.

Sitting down at the desk, Gracie pulled up surveillance videos of the facility. Alarmingly, she couldn’t find Grace anywhere. In fact, there appeared to be noone there at all.

Backing up the videos showed little until about forty-five minutes prior. It showed Grace frustratedly walking to a corner, and rounding it. Pulling up the video that should have shown her on the other side of the corner, but it showed nothing.

She placed the videos onto a 3D projection on her desk. It made no sense! It showed her walking to the corner and disappearing around it. Literally! There was even an area where the two recordings overlapped, but she simply wasn’t on the subsequent one! How!?

Neither of the two could understand it, but it appeared that they would have to make their way to the area in question.

Wordlessly, Grace opened a case behind her, pulled out a “crossbow”, and handed it to Greg. He waited as she handed him a quiver which he slung over his shoulder.

He pulled a bolt from the bag, cocked the weapon and slipped the bolt into place.

Calling it a crossbow was a misnomer, but it was more accurate than a firearm. It used a bolt like a crossbow, but the string was a magnetic pull created electronically when the trigger was squeezed.

As cautiously as before, the two exited the office and made their way down the corridor. When they reached the corner where the other Grace had disappeared, they stopped. Neither wanted to proceed around the corner.

But they knew they had to, so they both flattened themselves against the left wall to build their courage. Greg suddenly realised that he had something that might at least offer some kind of idea what was around the corner. He reached into the quiver and found an arrow with a wider head on it. It was nicely polished, and relatively flat, so he thought he might be able to use it as a crude mirror.

Without a word, he eased by Gracie, who was closer to the corner, and carefully pushed the arrowhead out into the intersection where it might reflect something. For a moment, he wasn’t sure what he saw in the cross corridor. There was something there, but before he could define it, the arrowhead simply wasn’t there anymore, as was the shaft that would’ve been visible around the corner.

Greg heard a gasp from Gracie, and found his eyes widening in disbelief. How did that happen? He brought the shaft up where he could get a closer look at it, and found that it was as if something had simply cut it off. The line where it stopped being was crisp and clean.

It took all his courage to turn his head away from the cross corridor to look at Gracie, and he quickly told her, “Whatever it is, knows we’re here, so…”

He turned back and tossed the remainder of the arrow into the intersection. It disappeared faster now, and before it even touched the floor, it was gone.

Now what? He thought.

“You right,” murmured Gracie. “It knows we’re here, but what is it?”

“The only way we’ll know is if we step around that corner.”

“That apparently wiped out Grace’s line,” Gracie objected.

“Apparently,” Greg said.

“But you don’t agree?”

“No,” he told her. “I agree, or at least I think I do.”

“How did it not?”

“What if she didn’t take control, but something, or someone else did?” he wondered. “What if whatever, or whoever is around this corner removed her line from your control?”

Gracie shook her head. “So many questions, but no answers.”

“One way to get the answer,” Greg commented.

“Uh… That doesn’t seem like a good idea,” Gracie argued.

“Look, Sister-Mine. If I step out there, you’ll know whether it’s a good idea or not.”

“Uh, no!”

He shook his head. “Too late.”

She made grab for him, and her hand grazed his shirt, but he was moving too quickly for her to get a grip. “Greg!” she screamed as he entered the intersection and turned to face whatever it was.

-=#=-

Gracie wasn’t a coward, but she turned the other way bacause she didn’t want to see her friend – her brother, or other self – whatever you wanted to call him, disappear. She heard nothing, but that was to be expected. The tears started as she realized the one friend she seemed to have – the self that was on her side and wanted to help her – was gone.

She took a deep breath and turned around. She wasn’t sure what she could do, under the circumstances, but she needed to face this problem, so to speak. Greg had tried to face it and…

She stared. Greg was still there. Not in the normal sense of the word, and maybe it wasn’t him at all. It seemed like an after image of him was fading in and out of sight. She wasn’t sure if it was really him and not just an image until she saw that he was moving. Apparently talking to someone. So he was alive! She was frightened beyond belief, but needed to get to him. Maybe he needed help!

Gathering all of her courage together, she stepped forward before she could change her mind.

She could still see the corridor around her, but it seemed as if she was somewhere else as well.

“ANOTHER!” a voice boomed. “YOU SAID THERE WOULD BE NO OTHERS!”

“No!” It was Greg. “She’s alright! She’s with me!”

“HOW CAN WE BELIEVE YOU?”

“I’m being honest!”

“Greg?” Gracie asked. She had turned to face where the voice was coming from, but she could see nothing. “What is it?”

“I don’t know,” he said, “But apparently it’s not very happy with us.”

Suddenly, there was movement and a figure came into view. As Gracie saw it, she gasped and her blood ran cold.