“I guess I just don’t understand,” I said, sipping some white wine. We all were a few drinks in and both Desdemonia and Ernest had relaxed a bit more.

“Consider the nature of the Universe. We are only one plane and exist here.” Desdemonia laid out a bony hand. “On top of us, is another dimension but it’s not at exactly the same time. There are dimensions that line up perfectly with our timeline, but there are also some that line up in in a perpendicular fashion.” He held up a hand straight up and down.

“So if I entered that one, and exited I’d return exactly to the same point.”

“Correct, which is why that happened with your last jump.”

“Other dimensions are at a more acute angle, or obtuse.”

“So some hours there could be days here or vice-versa, I get that.”

“So The Who, is yanking you from dimension to dimension, testing each outcome, then yanking you to another, then testing that one.”

“Okay.”

“Once it finds a dimension with the best likelihood of success, I suspect you will remain in that dimension until the Gateway is established.”

“But it can’t work in this one, right? Since I’m not dual faction?”

“The dual faction was only needed at the initiation of the contact. That has now been established. You are at its mercy unless we break that connection.”

“How do we do that?”

“Well, we could kill her,” Ernest said with a sly smile.

I shrugged. “If that’s what saves our dimension…”

“I think it will just find another Key, someone we don’t know, and attempt the same conditions.”

“It was just a thought,” Ernest said.

“No, we need to use this to our advantage,” Desdemonia said. “If we play our cards right, we could potentially save the dimension from ever having to go through this again.”

“Save the cheerleader, save the world,” I said, toasting them with another glass of wine. I was feeling delightfully sloshed.

“What cheerleader?” Ernest sat forward, suddenly interested.

“Just a reference to…nevermind.” I waved my hand.

“Okay, so, we know the ripples are going to increase in frequency, and we know Seth has the ability to somewhat control where she comes out. How can we use this information? Desdemonia sat back, and finished his drink.

“Tell me about these realities,” he said.

I nodded. “Well, the first one, April and Dad didn’t get trapped as werewolves, and she and I—“

“Yes, released the knot by consummation.”

“Right. And then the next day your soul transmigration occurred.”

“Oooh, wonderful!” he said. “I like that reality.”

I sighed and nodded.

“The next reality, you had transmigrated but my body was essentially a mirror of April’s. I didn’t spend long in that reality.”

“The snap back, yes. Interesting.”

“Then I was on another planet and there was this gigantic elephant-headed monster tromping around eating everything and trying to kill me.”

“The Origin World!” Ernest said. “That’s the reality all other realities have been spawned!”

I nodded. “Well, I almost got elephant stomped, but woke up just before it happened. In the next reality my parents—“

I got choked up, thinking of my mom and holding her. “My parents were both alive, happy and healthy. You had performed your transmigration and Mitzy had been trapped as a feral butterfly.”

“So instead of choosing you, she chose Mitzy. Interesting development.”

I nodded. “That’s when I tried to control the temporal jump. I wanted to be returned to my original timeline to give me more time to prepare. In that reality, the Dark Night was only three days away.”

Desdemonia nodded.

“That’s it. Four other alternate timelines.”

“And you, of course, favor the one where your parents are whole.”

I shrugged. “Actually, not so much. I stepped in this whole thing to be April’s Fool because I didn’t want Mitzy to suffer the consequences. So yes, while I’d love for my parents to be back, I find it’s more important to be in a reality where Mitzy is herself. That means I saved her.”

They both considered the information for a few silent moments.

“So?” I said.

Ernest stood up. She fluffed her dress and her hair. Desdemonia stood also.

“What?” I said.

“Stand with us, dear,” Desdemonia said.

She held out her hands. Ernest took her left and I took her right. Then Ernest closed the circle by taking my left.

“Lean your head in, until you touch mine and Ernest’s head.”

I felt a little strange, but agreed. We touched heads together.

Immediately, I felt a circuit close. It was like I was attached to a live wire. I could feel both of them as our consciousness melded together.

Emotions, memories, skills, all were passed around and absorbed. I was literally experiencing life as the other two.

A young girl, sitting on her mother’s knee as she drank the blood of one of her victims from an ancient bowl.

The girl, playing with a sister, taking a doll and setting it on fire with her mind.

The young man, filled with anger and resentment, at a military boarding school where he just arranged for one of his roomates to be electrocuted.

The girl, dancing with a boy at a school dance, leveling a strong love potion…

The boy, releasing the magic from an artifact to cause sickness at the boarding school.

The boy, forming a cult, becoming their leader.

The girl, the boy, the girl, the boy…images and knowledge passed, shared, and filled. Memories, feelings, all of it combined in my mind.

I tried to pull away, but it was useless. Soon, I figured out what they were doing.

Books, tomes read, research on The Who, facts, figures, dates, rites, ceremonies. Exploration to find a weakness, find a method of restraint, CLOSE THE GATE.

Realization: She is the key. I am the Key. We are the Key.

We pulled away, collapsing back into our seats.

New information, patterns filtered down into my mind. I felt very tired.

I yawned.

“So we are agreed?” Desdemonia—Ernest Landcaster said.

“We are.” Ernest—April Landcaster said. We’d made the decision in our inner space to stop referring to ourselves with who we ‘were’ and move forward with who we ‘are.’

I nodded, feeling sad. I felt like a part of me had been taken away.

At the same time, I had all this new information, knowledge and memories.

I had a plan.

Everything was going to be alright.

Night had fallen while we’d been in our strange communion.

Ernest and April left.