“Try again!” Eli smacked Kevin on the back of the knee.
“Ow! Knock that off!” Kevin crouched down and rubbed his eyes. He was standing in the basement of a leprechaun’s home on an Earth where magic was normal. Sure, why not. Kevin stood again and thought back to all the times that he’d jumped between universes. He thought of the strange hallways filled with doors and paths lined with gates. Each time, he’d felt a pull towards an opening. Initially, he assumed this was just interversal travel but he’d gathered along the way that the jumps were more instantaneous for his companions.
“Come on then, lad, focus and jump!” Eli tapped his foot impatiently and gestured ahead. He’d put an image up on a flatscreen TV in front of Kevin of a skyscraper on a busy street. Instruction was minimal. Just jump, he’d told Kevin. Kevin frowned. Easy for a magical creature of legend to say.
“I told you, I don’t understand how to make it happen!” Kevin focused hard on the picture, grimacing in concentration. For a half second, he thought he could hear honking cars and a bustling street but his stomach flipped and he nearly fell sideways and it was over just as quickly.
“Aye, there it is!” Eli hopped excitedly. “Yer nearly the’e, lad! Just need a little motivation.”
“Hey, what the hell!” Kevin put both hands up defensively as Eli pointed a sawed off shotgun at him.
“Now jump or I’ll blow yer head off!” Eli swung the gun wildly and hopped around Kevin in a circle. “Stressful circumstances make the jump easier, now go!”
Kevin blinked rapidly and tried to focus on the image again. He exhaled and glanced towards Eli who fired a shot into the wall. Kevin ducked, scrambling backwards, his stomach left behind in the room. A sensation like leaving his body overtook him and he bumped into something firm behind him. Turning, Kevin found himself in front of a glass door. Touching its handle, he found himself pulled through and suddenly standing in front of the very skyscraper he’d been looking at before.
“Holy shit.” Kevin rubbed his eyes and looked around. He had indeed jumped. “That crazy little guy was right.”
“Damn sure, I was right! I don’t miss much!” Kevin whirled around as Eli laughed loudly next to him.
“How are you here?” Kevin stared at the leprechaun in surprise as the sea of pedestrians flowed around them.
“Grabbed your ankle and came along for the ride.” He winked and tapped his temple. “Now the fun part, stopping in the middle! Jump us back!”
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Mel slept like a corpse. It had been a minute since she’d felt safe enough to truly rest but curled up on the bench seat of a piano she was able to get several hours of sleep while Kevin trained with Eli. Mel had never had a problem sleeping with noise, in fact, she struggled to rest without it. After growing up in a small town, she’d hopped from city to city and found the sounds at night comforting. For her current nap, a soundtrack of Gerald and Anna bickering about where to go from here and the whispered planning of Grit and Cassia was just right.
Eventually, Mel sat up, stretched, and yawned widely. Glancing around, she saw that Anna and Gerald had given up their argument and were asleep in a pair of armchairs. She moved into the kitchen to find Cassia scribbling thoughtfully in a small notebook.
“How’s our boy doing?” She plopped next to Cassia and pulled the teapot towards her but quickly realized it was long cold.
“There was a gunshot a while ago then nothing for a few minutes then a lot of whooping and hollering so I assume he’s coming along alright.” Cassia paused and looked up at Mel. “So, I need to introduce you to someone.”
Mel followed Cassia back through the open room she’d slept in and through a hall to a cozy office. Seated in two large chairs playing checkers were Grit and a boy who couldn’t be older than ten. The image was comical. Grit spilled over the sides of his chair, while the boy couldn’t cover the whole seat cushion and his feet dangled above the carpet.
“Mel, this is the Eldest.” Cassia said cautiously. The child completed a series of jumps, taking a handful of Grit’s pieces then turned a blank expression on Mel.
“Hello Mel.” He didn’t reach out a hand so Mel didn’t offer hers either. “I’ve heard you’ve been helping Cassia, that’s very noble.”
Mel couldn’t help but let out a laugh but stopped promptly at his expression. Instead she nodded and looked helplessly at Cassia.
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“The Eldest needs to return to the folds between universes. He keeps the very fabric of the multiverse from collapsing. Without him, the multiverse is in grave danger.” Cassia placed a hand awkwardly on Mel’s shoulder. “This is why I needed your help.”
“If I can’t return home, then the space between will continue to shrink until universes collide and consume one another. I provide the buffer that keeps each world safe.” The child spoke to Mel slowly and deliberately with the confidence of someone much older.
“And that’s why we need Kevin to get his shit together?” Mel asked with eyebrows raised. “The Pathfinder couldn’t go there?”
“Right.” Cassia shook her head and looked down with frustration plain on her face. “I thought for sure the Pathfinder could get us there and I still think it can in combination with Kevin somehow.”
“He’ll probably figure it out.” Mel shrugged and gave a small smile. “He’s a bit stronger than he lets on.”
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Another three hours later, Kevin collapsed to his knees. He was tired and the repeated jumps were taking a toll. His legs felt like jelly and if there was anything in his stomach he’d be throwing it up. But he was making progress. After several successful jumps back and forth, he could reach an almost meditative state and feel the doorways. He was developing a new sense that reached out for a door to pull away from his current universe and simultaneously learning how to focus his mind on another place. He could convey his intent to the space in between worlds and it would provide a doorway.
Over the last hour, he’d jumped to his old bowling alley job, Thorn’s Vegas Penthouse, the Eiffel Tower, and the dry docks at Wraith Harbor. Now, Eli was trying to coax him into pulling them not to another world but into the folds between worlds itself.
“No, no, you gotta empty your mind, don’ let it take ye elsewhere.” Eli, in an uncharacteristically gentle gesture, helped Kevin to a chair. “One more try, then food.”
Kevin nodded once, cleared his mind, and reached out for a door. The sensation was different as he was ripped from his current universe and pulled along into the tunnels between. Jumping was normally an out of body experience where he lost most sensation but this time Kevin felt more himself, more real. He landed abruptly and awkwardly at an intersection. Hallways extended in all four directions around him and he touched his own arms and legs tentatively.
“Did it work?” Kevin whispered into the nothingness. There didn’t seem to be a source of light here but he could see perfectly. Turning in a full circle, Kevin quickly noticed that Eli had not followed him here but to his surprise, this didn’t cause panic. A smile grew across Kevin’s face. Purpose bloomed inside of him and with it the notion that maybe he was a little bit special. For the first time since this ordeal began, he started to feel like he wasn’t just tagging along with others more competent. He felt like he could contribute.
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Hours had passed since Mel met the Eldest. Anna and Gerald had packed up their things and were gone. An easy bounty had popped up and they needed the payday. They’d invited Mel along but she’d stayed instead. Now, she sat at the table with Cassia in Grit sharing something that resembled a messy fully deconstructed pot pie. Grit nodded and grumbled out his approval as he ate.
“Does the kid eat?” Mel said as she set down her fork and pushed away her plate of mush.
“Only rarely, I think.” Cassia said slowly. She turned wide eyes to Mel. “I wish I knew more.”
“Doesn’t matter. When Kevin learns what he needs to learn he will take us… somewhere?” Mel was trying to get a grip on what exactly the plan was here.
“Well, Eli thinks we should get the Pathfinder.” Cassia spoke slowly, for the first time sounding unsure of what came next. “The other Thorn had something like a Pathfinder but he said he needed to get off the grid, left right after we got here while you slept.”
“Coward.” Mel smiled at Cassia as she said it and gestured vaguely around them. “Do we know where the Pathfinder is? Last I saw it, that helpless dope was riding it back to Dallas but it seems like you guys didn’t receive it there.”
“Derrick and Tango might have made it back to it. I suppose it probably wouldn’t work for them. Unless, maybe he turned into me?” Cassia tilted her head as she explored the possibility and Mel barked a laugh.
“Doesn’t work, we fucking tried.” The two shared a small laugh that was suddenly interrupted by a scream from outside. Grit rushed to the window first, and turned to them with a confused look.
“Mailman’s stuck in the ground.”
Outside, Mel and Cassia found that the mailman was indeed stuck in the ground. He had sunk into the earth up to his waist and it didn’t seem to be in any mood to let him out. This must be from the wards Eli had checked. They tried tugging him by the arms and digging around him but nothing had an effect on the grassy ground around his midsection.
“What the hell is this?” The man, who was tall and thin with round glasses balanced on the edge of his nose, gestured at the ground and tried again to push himself upwards.
“We don’t know, we haven’t been here long.” Cassia looked at Grit leaning in the doorway. “At least pretend to help and get the leprechaun!”
Grit ambled inside as the two looked down helplessly. Mel gave the ground near him a kick but this really only elicited a groan as pain shot through her toes.
“Well, might as well give you this, I guess.” The man produced an envelope from his breast pocket. “Letter for Ms Moreng.”
“But, how do you…” Cassia trailed off as she took the letter and exchanged a concerned look with Mel. Before she could open it, a sudden gust of air hit her in the side and she turned to find Kevin standing between her and Mel with an elated smile.
“Can I take you two ladies on a trip?”