Page 10 of Unruly
“Right.” We stand awkwardly across from each other. “Do you have a place up here or do you return to the Revival House at night?”
Farnsworth’s jaw drops for a moment as he blinks rapidly. “Ah, a detail without a solution.”
“Does that mean no?”
“Correct.”
“Oh, uh, well, you can stay here, of course. I only have one bedroom, but the couch isn’t bad.”
Farnsworth directs his gaze to the couch that has seen better days. “We’ll make do. Thank you for your hospitality.” He walks to the wall closest to the front door and looks at the calendar on the wall. “Two thousand twenty-five. October. Very interesting.” He glances at me. “We’re in Cambridge?”
“Yes.”
“Cambridge is famous for Harvard, yes?”
“Yep. MIT too.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“Not important.” I walk to the window and peer outside. It looks just like it did when I was in the car with my friends earlier. My back pocket vibrates and I pull my phone out. My friend Nico’s name is on the screen. “Hey, Nico.”
“Hey, man, sorry to cancel at the last minute, but I got called into work at the hospital. We might try again on Wednesday.”
“Cancel?”
“Yeah, the trip to Salem? Remember?”
“Sorry, yeah. I was distracted. No one’s going, then?”
“Nope. Jenny didn’t want to go anyway, so Matty said we’d just reschedule. Cool?”
“No problem. Go save lives.”
Nico chuckles. “Will do.”
I end the call and look at Farnsworth, who is watching me. “That was my friend. He canceled the trip we were taking when the truck hit us.”
“Alternate timeline. You and your friends live.”
“The craziest thing is that Jenny, Nico’s girl, didn’t want to go today because she had a bad feeling, but she gets those a lot, and usually nothing comes of it, so we convinced her it would be okay. She was right this time.”
He nods. “Perhaps she has gifts in the making.”
“I won’t discount her intuition again, that’s for sure.”
Farnsworth moves to the couch, sitting down and producing a tablet out of nowhere. He taps the screen, his brow creased as he reads over the page. He lifts his head abruptly.
“There’s an antique shop in town. The Horror may be there. We should go.”
Guess we’re jumping right in. “Let’s do this.”
Chapter 3
Farnsworth
Stepping outside in the Above is jarring. While not sunny, it’s considerably brighter than the Revival House, and I have to blink several times to let my eyes adjust. Borja is already several steps ahead of me.
He pauses, turning when he notices I’m not beside him. “You okay?”
