Pre-series oneshot. What if they heard him die?
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Jack plugged in the portal with a flourish and a grin of triumph.
Six years. Six years of their life spent building this thing. A singularity without a particle accelerator. A doorway, a portal to another realm. A stable wormhole through dimensions to a universe with different physical constants. One final attempt to complete what they'd begun in college. One final push into the unknown.
It might not work. It might destroy the world. Heck, it might invert both universes and implode every molecule on both sides. It might kill them all. But then...
It might work. And then they'd be the first ones to open a portal to a whole new universe. Punch a hole through the barrier between life and death. Prove once and for all that there really was something beyond.
There was a whirring hum as the portal tapped into the reactor's power. A stray spark shined in the middle of the portal.
And that was it.
Jack's face slowly fell. No anger, no frustration, nothing but a slow, tired resignation.
Maddie stood beside him. She'd been there since the beginning those 20 years ago when the first portal blew. She'd been there long before then, when two outcast nerds came to her with this idea that intrigued her beyond imagination. She'd been there when their accomplice, their partner, their best friend was critically injured by their experiment and then just disappeared. She'd been there for Jack so much that she didn't hesitate when he asked her to marry him. When he asked her to restart this project.
She was there when they failed again. An oppressive weight settled over her, dragging her shoulders down and her hopes and dreams down with it. There was nothing left for them. Nothing left at all.
She and Jack trudged upstairs. They passed the curious eyes of their teenaged son, barely caring when he took his friends downstairs to gaze into the wasted years of their lives. The wasted time, wasted minds, wasted lives.
An idea that was as futile now as it was decades ago.
Once in the kitchen Jack reached into the cupboard over the fridge. He pulled down a dusty bottle, bought once on a whim almost a decade prior. A bottle of cooking sherry that Maddie thought she'd put into a holiday cookie recipe. Unused for ten years, it tempted them. It called to them.
Today seemed like a sherry day.
Maddie got two glasses from the cabinet and Jack poured.
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The bottle was almost empty. Jack sat slumped over the table, his massive girth hiding a substandard liver. He swallowed loudly as he laid with his forehead against the cool surface of the kitchen table.
Maddie was much less drunk. She knocked back another finger of sherry, not caring that she was supposed to savor it. She was supposed to taste it. Bah. She didn't care what anyone would think. She just needed the alcohol.
The next step would be to figure out what they were going to do. Would she and Jack divorce? Their entire relationship they'd had the ghost portal project as common ground, as the glue holding them together. Honestly, they didn't even know if ghosts could exist in this universe. Could there be ghosts here on earth? There was evidence, sure, but her sister also had a photo of Bigfoot. That didn't mean much.
She sighed and poured herself another finger of sherry.
And then she heard the scream. She jumped, sherry splashing all over the table. She plunked the bottle down before the fact that there had been a scream, no, that someone was still screaming registered in her mind. She shot to her feet before realizing they were asleep and falling to the floor.
"Jack!" she shrieked. "Tell me you hear that!"
Jack mumbled, an arm sliding off the table.
Maddie grabbed Jack's dangling arm and used it to haul herself upright. The floor tilted but she managed to stand. "Jack, please, I heard a scream!"
"Ish nuthing," Jack slurred.
"But... but Jack!"
Jack raised his head and grimaced at her. "Woman, thar ain't nuthing screamin'," he growled.
Maddie squinted at her drunken husband, trying to hear him through his slurring and the pounding in her ears. At least the screaming had stopped.
Wait, it stopped?
It stopped. Whatever it was it had stopped. She let go of Jack's arm and slumped down onto the floor.
Whatever that was... Whoever that was... She hoped they were okay. But at least whatever it was, it was over.
She sobbed.
Everything was over if they couldn't get that damned portal fixed.
Everything.