So what you're saying is that I'm not allowed to cliffhanger or plot twist? But where is the fun in that? Thanks for the reviews. Go on with them, please. I like reading you. :)
Thanks to Aimofdestiny for the beta.
In Pierce, Myka was just about to start her SUV when her Farnsworth rang. She looked surprisedly at Helena, who sat right next to her in the front passenger seat and then reached behind herself to get her bag. At the fifth buzz, she had pulled the communication device out and then opened it to be met with Abigail's face. And Adelaide's right next to it. The former therapist looked a little worried.
"Abigail" Myka's eyebrows furrowed. "Is everything alright?"
"Actually, Myka. I don't know. Claudia showed up in the B&B around one and a half hours ago and sent me and Adelaide away. She didn't explain, just mumbled something about artifact and making sure that Adelaide here is safe." The keeper of the inn exchanged a look with the girl right next to her. Helena leaned over and reached for Myka's hand to pull the communication device closer so she could see them as well.
"Adelaide, is everything alright? Are you okay?" The Victorian asked, her sudden panic evident in her voice.
"Of course I am, Hel." Adelaide grinned. "Have you listened to Abigail? She said that Claudia sent us away before the strange artifact adventure started, okay? I'm totally safe with Abs. Even though I have the feeling there's an amazing adventure happening without me."
A breath of relief escaped from Helena's mouth. "Take good care of her. We're coming home."
"Yes." Abigail smiled softly at both of them. "The artifact hunt in New York. How did it go?"
Myka snorted. "Well. We snagged the artifact."
"And I can't help noticing that you're actually ignoring your mutual personal space again." The former therapist gave them a grin. "So can I assume that my order of king sized beds was a good decision?"
The curly haired woman's eyes widened. "Abigail!" She growled and lowered her gaze.
"Did the two of you finally talk or am I making you uncomfortable now?" The keeper of the Inn asked carefully.
"'Or?'" The curly haired woman asked indignantly.
"No..." Helena sighed and then looked at Myka from the side, a smile on her face. "No, we talked a lot."
"Aha!" Adelaide exclaimed. "Finally. This was overdue since forever."
"Exactly what I have been saying." Abigail agreed. They exchanged a fistbump. Myka wondered if they'd grown so close in only one day. Well, they were both people with whom one could get a long easily.
"And?" They now looked at the agents in anticipation.
"What 'and'?" Myka asked, confused.
"Did you get along?" Adelaide asked quickly.
"Has there been an exchange of romantic gestures?" Abigail grinned.
"Are you now a couple?" The girl's eyes widened.
"Will you perhaps only be needing one king sized bed?" The former therapist demanded to know.
"Are you going to marry?" Adelaide tilted her head.
"Should I consider sound proofing the B&B's walls?" Abigail held her hands over the girl's ears.
"Oh, god." Helena sighed. "Claudia has created monsters by setting those two up with each other."
Myka grinned at HG. "We can work together on punishing her for that."
"That's an excellent idea, Agent Bering." Helena smiled and then reached for the Farnsworth to close it.
"So you are together?" Abigail managed before Helena and Myka's lips met and the Victorian's hand snapped the communication device shut in the same moment.
Pulling apart again, the younger woman opened it again. "I'm going to call Claudia to check if she's alright."
Helena bowed her head in response. "How's your strange feeling of having to go home quickly?" Myka asked and the Victorian shook her head. "Still the same."
The Farnsworth buzzed and buzzed, but no one took the call. Myka tried it once again and then decided to call Steve. Who didn't reply either. She looked at the writer.
"Now, I'm feeling like I have to go home quickly, too." She whispered.
Claudia teleported directly into the forest behind the B&B and listened for foot steps. Somebody was running, she could hear it. That Kurt Parker guy was surely confused and nervous, he was probably also high on his artifact so he didn't know what to do. The caretaker's arm hurt a lot. The damn drug addict criminal had waved around his knife while she had attacted him. She had found a long cut where he had grazed her. Claudia rolled her eyes while walking into the direction of the loud foot steps. She hadn't been really happy to see her own blood. It wasn't like she'd collapse but i could be that she was a little dizzy. Sadly, there was no caretaker update for that. But hey! There were others!
The redhead looked up to the sky, finding Hugin and Munin flying in circles above the forest. She grinned and gave them signal to show her where that damn criminal currently was. Hugin seemed to fall out of the sky, nose diving directly towards a figure crouching in the woods.
"Ha!" Claudia exclaimed happily and teleported towards Kurt. Quickly, she took the neutralisation bag out of his hand, making sure to get him by surprise. But she didn't. Actually, the criminal made a quick move with his hand and the last thing Claudia saw was the big wooden stick flying towards her face. Then only pain and blackness.
Kurt was confused, utterly confused. He just wanted to run away and to be safe with his stone that made him feel good. He couldn't concentrate that well. He knew that this was also the stone. But, well he had been clever to hit this creepy teleporting girl with this stick. Now she couldn't teleport again, could she? Was she ... out of order? Kurt didn't know. Instead, he locked at that strange steampunky weapon in his hand. He couldn't tell properly, but it looked like some electrocution device. Well, that couldn't make anything worse, right? He pointed the stun gun at the redhead lying in front of him and then pulled the trigger. A big lightening escaped the muzzle and then hit that young woman. She shook under the electrocution and Kurt smiled. That was pretty cool, actually.
Suddenly, Kurt heard footsteps and he winced, unsure about what to do. Well, at first he had to get that artifact and then find that Sarah Bering-Wells person that he needed to find. There was something important about it, he knew that.
But before he could kneel down for the purple bag that redhead was holding in her hand, a loud screech cut through the silence of the forest and those black birds again fell out of the sky and attacked him. He ran. That was the worst trip he had ever had.
Sarah grunted weakly in reaction to the voice she had heard. It had been Kurt, she was sure. While waiting for another word from him, she tried to get up. First, she made attempt to move her shoulder, but that was only rewarded with pain from Steve's body. She was afraid that Parker would do something to her friends and brother. She had to know what was going on. Had to keep him busy. Anything. It seemed he wanted to have his artifact back and she was the only one who would know where it was, if this bout of time travel was going where she thought it was.
Are you not going to greet me back? Kurt asked. I can hear you over the loudspeaker. Everthing is as it should be.
"How did you managed it to get into the Warehouse?" Sarah forced out, still trying to get up. Steve's shoulder was probably dislocated or something comparable had happened to it.
Illusions. The help of a Regent and a unimportant medicine student. Managed to sneak in here along with them when they were coming for your help when my little device wasn't doing what it was supposed to do. Kurt giggled. It was an unpleasant, high-pitched sound, almost childlike. It gave Sarah the screaming heebie-jeebies. She could hear Adelaide gasp and couldn't do anything about it, because she was motionless in her time machine, completely helpless. She could only hope he wouldn't do anything to any of them.
"What do you want from us? Your artifact back? Are you some cheap version of Walter Sykes that comes here to get his artifact back?" Sarah finally managed to get up. "Because that won't work. Nobody here knows where it is. You ran outside with it."
It seems you're forgetting who is in charge, Sarah Bering-Wells. Oh...that name. That name. Has always been in my head since back then. What an absolutely breathtaking name...
"You're disgusting!" Sarah exclaimed and reached for Steve's shoulder. Yes, that arm didn't feel at all like it should feel.
Listen to you. So angry... so full of fire. I immediately understood that it wasn't you in that body. That there must have been somebody different. The stone told me, Sarah. The stone told me. Didn't you seen my face when we both touched it? There was something... utterly... delightful when you touched it, wasn't it? The man whispered breathlessly.
"If you want your artifact, then I'll have to tell you that I don't know where it is!" Sarah yelled, getting angry now. This person freaked her out completely. She couldn't handle listening to him.
Well, maybe you'll have to go looking for it, little writer. Pretty little writer. It was like he was singing a song in her head, with his creepy half-whispering voice.
"What makes you think I would do that for you?" The time traveler replied. "I won't do anythi-"
Well isn't it your family who is standing upstairs, completely frozen in stone, Sarah Bering-Wells? I have figured everything out. Everything out. Took me quite long. 24 years, actually. Took me even longer to find you. But, well, it's a good thing you got famous. And... oh...isn't this your little girlfriend who has my gun against her head right now?
Parker giggled maniacally.
"Julia?" Sarah asked, panicking. She was rewarded only with a choking noise from the medicine student. "Don't you do anything to her, Kurt! This is only about m-"
Well, I guess you should better start running now, Sarah Bering-Wells. Lovely little writer, person in the past. Kurt whispered in his high-pitched singsong voice. Better be running by now. Find the artifact, little writer. Find it quickly.
Sarah reached for her belt only to realize that there wasn't a gun, nor a Tesla. Claudia had the gun and Kurt Parker had the stun gun. Weakly putting one foot in front of the other, the time traveller started running. Kurt Parker was in the future because she had allowed him to go there. She was responsible for him threatening his family and friends. She was sure of it. Everything that happened on this day had already happened and Sarah was the cause. She couldn't believe it. It had happened again.
Suddenly, she stopped. No, she would do this differently. It wasn't hopeless. She was having an effect on this past, even if it had to be subtle. Maybe she could trick him. Maybe she could really find the artifact for him but then manipulate him. She'd always been good at manipulation. If only there wasn't his creepy, childish voice inside her head.
Outside, Sarah quickened her pace. She had to find Claudia. She had to help the caretaker to find this monster they had created.