“Maple?”

Dyna didn’t move. She looked around the auditorium, worried for just a moment that the Hatman had come up behind her and phase-shifted her off into wherever. But no, there was no one around. No Hatman looming over her, staring with that scribbled-out face. She felt no different than she had a few moments ago and nothing looked different.

With the obvious exception of Maple’s sudden absence.

Whatever happened, it hadn’t happened to her.

“Ado?” Dyna bit her lip, waiting.

There wasn’t an immediate response. Had something happened out at the truck as well? Surely this hadn’t been planned. It was possible that they might want to ditch her for some reason, maybe to flee with Ruby for experiments or just to use her as bait for something. Dyna might not trust Tartarus, but she couldn’t believe that Maple had been at all fake. He had been nervous and scared just walking through this place. If that had been a lie, he was a better actor than Ruby.

“Ado?” Dyna tried again. “Are you still there?”

“Yes.”

Dyna let out a breath. “Okay. Maple just—”

“I am aware of the issue and am attempting to determine what just happened.”

Busy. She was just busy. Dyna could empathize after having had Ruby disappear from under her nose. This was different though. Unless the mask was providing protection, that was. But this time, Dyna could remember that Maple had been right here and had disappeared.

“Approach the stage, please.”

“Uh…”

“I am remotely recalibrating your sensor to provide me with better readings of the area. If you would please—”

Ado cut off abruptly. It wasn’t difficult to see why.

Maple stood on the stage, back near the stairs that led up to it. The man’s face was still hidden behind the mask, but his hands gripped the disruptor gun hard enough to turn the color of his knuckles. He whipped his head back and forth, frantically looking around, only to stop on Dyna.

“Wh—Where did you go?”

Dyna opened her mouth, hesitated, then slowly answered his question. “I didn’t move,” she said. Her feet hadn’t budged since he disappeared.

“No. You left me. I was…”

“She isn’t lying,” Ado said, cutting in. “Can you hear me, Maple?”

“Yes, I—”

“I’m bringing Doctor—”

“Darq here!” The chipper voice of Doctor Darq overwrote Ado’s in Dyna’s earpiece. “And what a spatial anomaly. I must say, I’ve only encountered three such anomalies in my time here. One of which is right up in the Psionic Engineering and Replication Division. Tell me, Mister Maple, how do you feel?”

“What?”

“Inside-out, perhaps? Or maybe outside-in? You still retain normative knowledge of basic numerology, correct? One plus one still equals two and three comes after four, right?”

“I don’t know what… three after four? That’s not—”

“Good. Glad you noticed. The odds of you being a psychic doppelgänger have dropped by seven percent.”

“Darq,” Maple hissed, “I swear I’m going to—”

“No time for that I’m afraid. Dyna Graves,” Darq stopped.

“Yes?” Dyna said, slightly startled at being addressed.

“If you would be so kind as to advance toward the spatial anomaly.”

“I’d rather not, if it is all the same to you.”

“The spatial anomaly is likely a concentration of lingering psionic energy, unbound to a person or an object such as an artifact. Given its similarity to the entity’s psionic signature, it may be a remnant it left behind. If it is, then it is likely keyed into the same phase your friend now occupies. With Mister Maple having transitioned between phases with no apparent ill effects, it may prove to be an alternate method of bringing your friend back to our reality.”

Dyna straightened her back, paying a bit more attention now than she had been during Darq’s questioning of Maple. “It can get Ruby back?”

“Think of it like a doorway. We’re on one side. Ruby is on the other. I just need to run some frequency analysis. Mister Maple’s equipment may be compromised due to his unauthorized phase traversal—”

“It’s not like I meant to,” Maple grumbled.

Darq continued talking as if nobody had interrupted him. “Your mask is equipped with a number of psionic sensors. If you could get right to the border of the anomaly, all parties involved should benefit. Especially your friend. Wouldn’t want any fractal instabilities to make themselves manifest and collapse the doorway while she’s trying to go through it, would we?”

“Alright,” Dyna said, nodding her head. It sounded good. The problem with paranoia was that it meant she really couldn’t trust these people at all. “Except how about we don’t.”

“Don’t help your friend?”

“There are more masks in the truck. We’ll go back, grab one of them, then toss it into the anomaly. I stay well away. Maple doesn’t have to put himself into any more danger. You get your readings. A much better idea for… all parties involved.”

“That would delay our results.”

“If the anomaly isn’t stable enough to wait for a trip to the truck, it isn’t stable enough to put Ruby through. If the Hatman shows up while you’re going over your readings, we can always drive around for a few hours and come back later. If the doorway collapses, we’ll still have the original plan to fall back on.”

“I’d rather have things sooner.”

“I’d rather have things safer. I’m sure Maple would agree.”

“Yes,” Maple said, nodding his head. “I definitely agree. Let’s be as safe as possible.”

Even if he hadn’t agreed, Dyna still wouldn’t be following along with Darq’s suggestion. This wasn’t a democracy. If they wanted her to do something like that when there were obviously better alternatives readily available, they would have to be a whole lot more convincing.

Dyna turned and started back out of the auditorium.

“Wait for me,” Maple called. “Don’t leave me again!”

Dyna paused, looking back just long enough for him to catch up to her. After which, she broke into a light jog. Nothing that would tire her out if she needed the energy all of a sudden, but enough to get her back to the truck a little faster. “I didn’t leave you the first time.”

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“Yes,” Maple said between steps. He matched her pace, obviously not wanting to be alone in a haunted school again. “But you disappeared.”

“You disappeared. Into some other phase… What was it like?”

“I was terrified. I was standing there, talking to myself. You weren’t responding. Ado wasn’t responding. I look over and you’re just gone. Thought you ran off or… worse.”

Dyna shook her head. “I meant, what was the other world like?”

“Oh. Right. Uh… normal?”

“Normal?”

“I mean, it looked the same. Seats, abandoned stage, curtains torn, so on and so on. I didn’t see anything weird in there. No entity, if that is what you’re asking.”

“Was it all… warped? Twisted? Like the worst funhouse mirror you’ve ever seen?”

“No. Just… an empty auditorium. I didn’t exactly explore the place. As soon as I walked back, you came back.”

“I didn’t go anywhere,” Dyna said.

“You know what I mean.”

They slowed down at the entrance to the school. There wasn’t much debris in the halls, but the entrance had a bunch of garbage all over the floor. Dyna didn’t want to trip over a bit of the front door and slice her arm open on a bit of jagged metal.

The truck was just ahead. A short walkway and overgrown grassy area separated them. Ado was already up at the back, holding out a pair of the silvery masks in one hand and a small silvery sphere in the other. “The masks are not inexpensive,” Ado said. “If you would put this through first,” she said, motioning to the sphere, “I would appreciate it.”

Dyna had half a mind to just toss both masks and the sphere in, just to cost Id a little extra, but dismissed the idea almost immediately. Despite not personally liking any of them on principle alone, they were helping. Even if it was for a price.

Looping the masks around her arm to keep her hands free for the flashlight and gun, she handed the orb off to Maple to deal with.

“That everything?”

“We’re lacking in more specialized equipment. If this anomaly is unstable, we don’t have the equipment to stabilize it. We’ll have to determine whether or not to risk putting someone through it.”

“It was stable enough for Maple. I’m more concerned with whether or not it goes to the same place where Ruby is,” Dyna said, looking over to the harness. “Should we take her in as well?”

“Should it become necessary to flee, doing so may delay us.”

“It might speed things up should we determine that the doorway is usable.”

Ado nodded, not disagreeing with the point. “That may be the case. It is up to you.”

Dyna bit her lip. There wasn’t really a good answer. There was one way everything would work out, but potentially a dozen ways of varying degrees of intensity where they wouldn’t. “We’ll hurry,” Dyna said. “But make sure everything is ready to work as fast as possible.”

“Understood. Would you like me to hold onto the piece of the anatomy dummy?”

Dyna narrowed her eyes. The mask hid her face, keeping her suspicion out of view. Tartarus probably had a way to contain it and keep any side effects away from the general populace—or just everyone present—but she had a feeling that if she handed it over, it would disappear, never to be seen again.

“Let’s focus on the anomaly first.”

Ado nodded and immediately turned back into the truck.

Dyna had expected a little bit more resistance. At least one word of argument. But Ado was already stepping over Matt and taking a seat at her terminal. Looking over to Maple, Dyna gave him a quick nod. “Let’s go.”

He let out a deep sigh, but, not wanting to be left behind, followed right behind Dyna as she broke into a jog.

They rushed back to the auditorium. Nothing changed between their visits. Maple’s scanner still showed that there was something strange about the stage, though neither of them could actually see anything. There was no evidence of some doorway, no shimmering or twisting fields. It made Dyna wonder if this place had been abandoned by those without homes because of the anomaly.

If a small community had formed, but people started disappearing into the anomaly, it would probably spook everyone else.

“First, carry the sphere on stage,” Ado said. “Slowly. Do not enter the anomaly’s area of effect. Merely approach.”

Maple, holding the sphere, gave Dyna a look like he wanted her to take over.

Dyna just waved him up onto the stage.

“It’s your friend.”

“It’s your job.”

Maple sighed, stepping toward the stairs. “It’s really not.” Climbing the stairs, he held the sphere out as far as he could possibly reach, angling his body to stretch his arm away from the rest of his body. He slowly inched across the stage. One tiny step at a time.

Dyna kept a close eye on him. She hadn’t really been paying attention the first time. Had he disappeared all at once, or gradually like he had walked through an actual door? He certainly wasn’t going to accidentally pass through it at this pace, but just in case, Dyna didn’t even blink.

“Stop,” Ado said.

Maple froze. He even sucked in a breath then held it like even breathing would put him over some invisible boundary.

“The anomaly should begin approximately one meter ahead of your current position.”

“My position or the device’s position?”

“The device.”

Dyna lowered her eyes down to the floor of the stage. It was a bit hard to gauge distance in the air, but she could count a few floorboards ahead. Not knowing exactly how far a meter was without a measuring device didn’t matter much. It still gave her a rough estimate of the edge of the anomaly. Just a small bit off-center from the middle point of the stage.

“Closer, if you will.”

Even hidden behind his mask, Maple visibly swallowed. Dyna hadn’t thought it was possible, but he started taking even tinier steps. Not even picking up his feet, just sliding them across the floor.

“Stop.”

Maple froze again.

At Ado’s command, he continued. And paused. Continued. Paused. All barely moving more than an inch each time. Ado was presumably gathering readings.

Dyna’s gaze started to drift. This felt like it was taking too long. Maple was barely moving; it probably would have been better had she taken the sphere. But, because of her position down in the aisle, Dyna could watch the entire stage. As Maple kept inching across, she started noticing something.

Movement.

Sweeping her flashlight across the stage, Dyna didn’t see anything, but the moment she pointed the beam of light downward, she caught a glimpse of it again. Just faint shimmers in the corner of her eyes on the opposite side of the stage from Maple. Every time she tried to stare at it directly, it vanished entirely.

Some kind of ghost-like thing? Similar to what Matt saw? Dyna was fairly certain that she didn’t have his ability to see ghosts and, without Ado’s goggles, she was mostly sure that she shouldn’t be seeing them through other means. Then again, they were standing in front of some portal to an alternate phase of the world. If there was anywhere where something odd would happen, it would definitely be right here.

The more she tried to focus at the center of the stage to better see through the edges of her vision, the more certain she was that something was going on. At first, she thought the silhouette was a mirror of Maple. Arm outstretched and pushing through the other side of the anomaly. Like a refraction or reflection.

But that wasn’t quite right. The stance and posture was all wrong. It was pushing through with two hands, not just one outstretched. The way it leaned forward like there was a thin membrane it was trying to break through didn’t match Maple either.

“Something’s up,” Dyna said, readying the disruptor, worried that the Hatman was coming here.

Except the Hatman had never done something like this before. As far as Dyna understood it, the phase-wandering entity could… wander phases. At will. Not at some specific location like this.

Her warning call caused Maple to jump back in alarm, dropping the sphere as he readied his own disruptor.

The sensor ball slowly rolled across the stage, passing into where the anomaly should have started. But it didn’t disappear. It rolled, slowing with friction, until it came to a stop right where Dyna saw the ghostly silhouette. Now looking directly at the area, she couldn’t see any outline or transparent form.

And yet, something nudged the sphere. Just a slight kick.

With the sound of shattering glass, the world broke. Fractured facets twisted and split like panels of a broken mirror, suspended in the air by strings. Amid it all, a figure appeared. Not an entire person, not all at once. As the panels spun in the air, bits and pieces of the person appeared and disappeared as if only some of the fractured world could properly reflect them.

Dyna raised the disruptor, finger already squeezing down on the trigger. They didn’t need some other entity complicating matters while the Hatman was still around. This one was a woman, wearing clothes far more ragged than the Hatman. They looked about five sizes too small, made to fit through a combination of several rips and tears in the fabric and a thin, almost anorexic body.

Its body wasn’t stable either. While the shards in the air were fading into nothingness, its body was still covered in them, reflecting the world at points while allowing sight through to the entity at other points. The entire creature looked like it walked out of a glitched-out television.

And yet, Dyna’s trigger finger stilled.

Its face, though winking in and out with the shimmering facets, was visible. And something, some small primal part of Dyna’s brain, thought she recognized that face, framed by a matting of messy black hair. She couldn’t place it. No name jumped to her mind. But it made her hesitate just long enough for the person to raise their arm, pointing back over Dyna’s shoulder.

“██’s comi██,” it said, voice just slightly off. Out of tune with the rest of the world. Out of phase with the rest of the world.

And yet, despite the static, Dyna understood fully.

She turned, rounding on her heel without hesitation.

The Hatman stood at the far end of the aisle, blocking the doors Dyna and Maple had entered through. His face, an angry, furious mess of scribbled permanent marker, twisted and broke. It stretched, looking like a child’s drawing of a monster.

Dyna pulled her trigger.

At the same time, something screamed out from behind Dyna.

Indecipherable static filled her ears.

“████████████”