Chapter Text
Janet was perplexed. Simon shouldn’t be here, that much was abundantly clear. “Simon, what happened?”
“I really don’t…know. I came to the boiler room, knowing this was where Maddie had gone and I saw the glow. I didn’t really think - the door was open and I went in,” Simon’s voice sounded dazed.
“He has no key, no scar of his own - clearly whatever door he came in is no longer available,” Everett Martin supplied. The role of the pedantic teacher still ingrained, no matter how much credit he’d lost with his mentees over the last few months.
“He’s right, I’ve tried to go back out. Everything’s sealed tight,” Simon added. He was mostly staring down at the table in front of him through these explanations as if he could somehow glean sense from the resin slab.
“I have a key, the watch. Let’s try to leave together.” Janet said with uncertainty coloring her voice.
“It’s worth a shot,” Simon replied, sliding off the lab stool. Janet took a moment to notice how deeply haggard he looked - his dark eyes were heavy. Simon looked like someone lost. He looked haunted.
He and Janet cautiously approached the boiler room door. She noticed Mr. Martin watching; he looked just as curious as she felt herself. Though he sat with an edge to his demeanor, constantly calculating. Janet pulled the latch and hauled the thick door open. Outside, the basement looked as it usually did and she stepped through. Simon followed, reaching out to the world of the living. His hand found the boundary first. There was an invisible block directly over the threshold of the door. He reared back instinctively and then laid the flat of his hand against the transparent wall. He pushed. He pushed harder. There was no give.
Janet saw his predicament and cautiously stepped back in. After examining the door, she smoothed down the side of her circle skirt and looped her arm through his. “Together this time,” she said encouragingly. Simon was wary of the results, but what other options were there?
After a quick check to ensure Mr. Martin was still in place across the room, Janet led Simon to the threshold. She was again able to cross, this time her arm slipped through Simon as her body crossed the boundary. It seemed her body becomes incorporeal as she leaves the scar, even partially. A simple experiment, then. Janet stood half inside the scar and half outside of it. She reached out to touch Simon and her hand passed right through him again. While she still couldn’t see a barrier, she did notice a strange sensation the longer she stood in place. She could feel the boundary around her in a permeable way; it offered only a thin wall of substantive resistance. This was fascinating and offered a retinue of possibilities, but one look at Simon’s resigned face and she knew that now was not the time to get lost in experimentation. Later.
“Looks like I might as well get comfy. Which will be totally easy in a literal, burning hellscape. Great,” Simon said. There wasn’t a single surface that wasn’t at least partially charred and the smell alone was nearly choking. And let’s not forget the human simulacrums. After spending the better part of a year in her own trauma point, she could empathize with his sentiment too well.
While Janet occupied the purgatorial space, her more peaceful portion was at least temporarily visible. Previously, it had always been filled with visions of her father burning away her dreams and future. Now Grandmother’s kitchen was partially overlaying the chem lab, and it was filled with treats, including her favorite macaroon bars. The light from her door emanated a warm glow over everything. She handed a bar to Simon while she considered their options. He accepted the bar with a nod.
Janet thought back through all her studies and experiments. Nothing they’d ever hypothesized or even seen came close to explaining how a living being could now be in a trauma point, or scar, as her friends and Maddie referred to it. Decades spent trying to understand the boundaries of their world and she hadn’t even scratched the surface. This went far beyond the standard deviation of any variables she could have supposed. She quickly discarded her first inclination, to review her journal. If Janet was going to unlock the secrets of the afterlife, she would need a new approach. A new paradigm to explore.
“I see your mind working. You need me, Janet. I’ve discovered secrets that are too dangerous for you to face alone,” Mr. Martin offered with pleading eyes, “We’re a team, you and me.”
He was right. Simon didn’t have decades to linger on the other side while she painstakingly tested and retested every potential theorem. If she was going to find a resolution and return Simon to the living, then she would need to get to work immediately and she would need help.
Facing Mr. Martin, Janet began following the threads of her ideas and let them grow. It felt so natural to get carried away in the rush of realizations, especially when speaking to her long time mentor. “Don’t you see? Since I took Maddie’s body and left, nearly everything about this place has been changing. We were so wrong about how to cross over. I will need help, but not from you. Not ever again. I’ve been trusting the wrong person. You’ve treated them as test subjects, we both did. But I have to do things differently this time. The answers are bigger than our precisely controlled tests have been able to discover.” She turned to Simon and with a gentler voice added, “I’m going to speak with the others, let them know you’re here. We’re looking out for Maddie, too, or any of your friends to get an update on what’s happened. I won’t leave you here for long.”
“So we don’t even know if she made it, yet?” Simon asked, his voice breaking.
Janet laid a tentative hand on his shoulder, “We think so.”
With an air of desperation, Mr. Martin interjected, “You think you’ll be able to uncover the secrets of the afterlife with those children?! They’re completely clueless, only stumbling on discoveries possible because of OUR work! Our labor! I’ll be here when you come to your senses. You’ll need me, no matter what you think. There are dangers none of you are prepared for. Don’t come back saying I didn’t warn you.”
As deceitful as he was, Mr. Martin had on some level always been driven by the need to rectify his wrongs against her. Janet couldn’t trust him, but she felt a seed of doubt take root at what dangers he spoke of so adamantly.
Simon offered a, “Good luck,” as he returned to his lab stool and let his chin rest on his crossed arms. When Janet made her way out of the scar she saw living students, people she had met, setting up a Ouiji board.
——
Claire did her best to process being back in this mildew-covered boiler room of death for the second time in the last 24 hours, “I know we bonded and all, but this feels ridiculous.”
Nicole continued pulling the game she had picked up from the local supermarket out of her backpack. “I mean, isn’t our life a little ridiculous right now? Besides, this is all we’ve got. Simon’s not home. He hasn’t been to see Maddie. And he’s nowhere at the school, but it’s the last place we saw him. We also know this place is loaded with an unsettling number of helpful ghosts who’re Maddie’s friends. So, why not ask them?”
“Yeah. Say we do make contact and it’s the creepy chem teacher who had a fire poker to Diego’s neck last night. What then?”
“Then, I say we still have to try.” Nicole laid out the board for them to both sit beside and waved for Claire to join her.
With a halfhearted shrug, Claire sat and added, “You know these things never work anyway.”
“Shush! Now come on, put your fingers on the thing and focus.”
Claire complied. Looking around, Nicole thought about how scary it must have been for Maddie to go through what she did down here. It was orderly enough for a boiler room slash tool storage, but it was lifeless, too. The walls felt tight around her.
Nicole addressed the dank basement walls, “Um, hello? Ghosts? Charley, Wally, Rhonda? It’s Nicole and Claire, Maddie’s friends. If you’re with us, please talk to us. We could really use your help.”
Janet, who had been watching unobserved, saw the opportunity. She grabbed the planchette, moving its essence within the spirit dimension and dashed back into the scar, her skirt swishing around her. She snatched a pair of scissors lying on a nearby lab table and slashed a small notch to the corner of the toy piece and ran back out, Simon and Mr. Martin observing her quietly. By changing the physical composition of an item, even a little, within a scar, one could alter items so that they wouldn’t reset in the spirit world. This had never worked in effecting items in the living dimension, but under these particular circumstances it seemed worth a chance.
She hurried back out to the girls and carefully placed the ghost-planchette in the precise location of the physical item.
“Look, it was a good idea. Maybe none of the ghosts are around here now. I think we need to keep looking for Simon.” Claire said.
As Nicole sat back in defeat, Janet focused her energy and pushed the planchette hard enough that it zipped out from under Claire’s fingertips. Success! There was resistance as if the piece now weighed 10 pounds, but she could communicate.
“Jesus!” Claire exclaimed before quickly collecting herself and encouraging Nicole with a nod to join back in. They both placed their fingers gently on the triangle.
Nicole asked, “Who are we speaking to?”
J-A-N-E-T
Claire and Nicole looked at one another with a mix of disbelief and amazement.
Encouraged now, Nicole continued, “Janet, hi. Are you okay…now that you’re back?”
-> YES
“Maddie made it, she woke up this morning at the hospital. Thank you for your help,” taking a breath, Nicole continued, “Look, we're here for Simon. We know he came back into the school last night, but we haven’t seen him since. Do you know where he is?”
->YES
Nicole smiled, her shoulders settled in relief. “Thank god, where?”
H-E-R-E-S-T-U-C-K
“Stuck like Maddie? Did someone take his body?”
->NO
Voice trembling, Claire asked the next question, “Is he dead?”
->NO
Nicole had tears welling in her eyes. The living girls were out of ideas of what new, terrifying scenario had taken place that would trap Simon with the dead. They sat there out of questions. Janet gave them what hope she could.
W-E-L-L-F-I-N-D-A-W-A-Y
——
Xavier lumbered out from his bedroom and made his way to the kitchen. The last time he ate was a couple slices of lukewarm pizza that Simon brought to the cabin. Everything ached, his head, his wrists, even his teeth felt painful right then. The late afternoon sun blaring through the window did no favors towards his disposition. He opened the refrigerator and immediately honed in on his prey. I see you, Leftover Ramen he thought. Through the fog, he registered the tail end of his father’s current phone conversation.
“Okay. Right. When did you last see or hear from him? Alright, come down to the station, I’ll meet you there in half an hour… Alright.” Sheriff Austin Baxter put down the phone as he let out a deep sigh. His usual five o’clock scruff was making its way to midnight.
“What’s going on, Dad?” Xavier asked yawning and taking a seat at the kitchenette. After the events of last night and waiting up with Maddie at the hospital he had needed to crash when he got home. Who would’ve thought ghost hunting would involve kidnapping and being hogtied in a row boat? It was worth it to see Maddie, though - the real Maddie. It felt good to finally apologize today, but there’s more that needed to be set right. They didn’t have a chance to talk about her dad before the doctor and her mom interrupted, either.
“That was Mr. Elroy, they haven’t seen or heard from Simon all weekend and found out he didn’t make it to school today, either. You said he was with you kids yesterday, right? Maddie has to be taken away by an ambulance and now another kid disappears?”
“Yeah, he was there. I told you, he’s the one that’s been talking to Maddie this whole time she was a ghost. Last we saw him he went back to the school looking for her. He also hasn’t had a phone since Friday. Janet boiled it.” Xavier paused, “So you still don’t believe me?”
“Son, I know something’s happening and you and your friends are mixed up in it. But ghosts? What am I supposed to do with that? There’s no proof I can investigate. I can’t assign deputies to track down psychics. I have to do something tangible to help the Elroys.” After leaning his weight onto the table he added, “All that being said, I’m hearing more corroborating stories about…supernatural body swaps. People acting in ways that’s outside their usual behavior.”
Xavier nodded, and took a moment to let that acknowledgment set in, “People like Mr. Anderson?”
His father returned a reticent nod.
“Look, there’s some crazy shit happening at this school, and if something really did happen to Simon, then that means this isn’t over.”
Just then Xavier’s phone buzzed with a text from Nicole, you need to meet us asap, Simon’s stuck in the school
——
As Maddie’s mom pulled up to their home, Maddie reflected on finally being back. She had played this moment through on her mental movie reel so many times since she found out returning was even a possibility. While it was all the familiar features she had pictured; sun-faded blue door, neglected garden beds, the tree where she and Si had carved their names in a declaration of 11-year-old solidarity and rebellion - somehow, the rush of emotions were quieter than she expected, and a shade darker, too. She and her mom were walking on eggshells around one another. There was a weight to their relief, and Sandra Nears had questions. Her mom was hurting, that was clear. How could Maddie share all that she had been through? It was crazy and would sound like a teen’s desperate attempt to stay out of trouble. And considering her mom’s recent fall off the wagon, she couldn’t possibly be in a state to process Maddie’s burdens.
“Can I make you something?” Sandra asked somewhat absently as she made her way to the house and inside.
“That’s okay, I’m not that hungry,” Maddie answered. She shut the car door and noticed her mom’s worried glance as she went inside the house. The doctor told them that Maddie had suffered a significant concussion and was lucky to be conscious and clear headed. She hoped everything would heal normally going forward - it’s not like she could WebMD long term side effects of undergoing a spirit body swap.
Maddie paused with her fingers on the door handle. She steeled herself to see the bottles that would be laying around. Her desire in that moment to be back at Split River High was enough to make her feel lightheaded. This didn’t even feel real, yet, and a piece of her heart was still back there. With one deep breath she put those feelings aside and entered. This was what she had fought to return to. Maddie had literally walked through her friends’ nightmare fueled trauma, this is just a quiet moment in comparison.
The detritus was not as bad as expected, it looked as though things had been kept up better than she remembered. Sandra had had the presence of mind to clear away any evidence of her Saturday night binge. And she sat on the couch looking at Maddie expectantly, while clutching a glass of water. A glass of water with ice was sitting on the coffee table presumably for her. “We need to talk, Maddie.”
“I’ve set up a meeting with the counselor I told you about. You can’t keep yourself so isolated.” Sandra paused, taking a steadying breath and a deep drink of water. She wouldn’t meet Maddie’s eye. “What do you need to not run away again? You disappear - again, and then your friends find you barely alive at the school… I didn’t want to push you before, but there’s something’s happening to you, Maddie. Please, give me a chance.”
Maddie looked at Sandra and knew that there was still a part of herself that wanted to share every detail of what she’d been through, to just let someone else carry her struggles for a little while. Back when their family was whole, she could do that. That desire was tempered with the image of a vodka glass overflowing until they were drowning - by the knowledge that her mother had been drowning slowly for years.
“Mom, I’m sorry I left. You’re right, I have been going through some things. But I promise; I’m not going to run again. This is where I want to be. I won’t just disappear,” with a collecting breath Maddie starting thinking of her old routines. “Let me cook for you tonight and I really want to catch up with Simon. I haven’t heard from him all day. After that, we can watch a movie. I’m looking forward to just getting back to my life. I’m behind in my classes and I’ve got a lot to do tomorrow.”
Sandra looked at her daughter as though she were speaking another language. “Why are you talking about going back there? We already decided you would finish online. I don’t want you there. Not at all…” I’ve tried so hard not to say anything wrong, but for what? she thought. “Why was your blood in the boiler room? What happened to you?”
The truth was too much. Even worse, the knowledge that Dad’s spirit was at the hospital. Sandra was fragile, and telling her everything - it could give her that final push over the edge.
“I was upset that day in the boiler room. I fell and hit my head. I've got a head wound and concussion diagnosis as fun souvenirs. After that, I just needed a break to process everything we went through. It was wrong of me to not let you know I was okay. I’m sorry, but I truly feel like myself in my body again. And I have to go to school, I don’t want to be away from everyone anymore. It’ll be good for me, I’ll have people looking out for me.”
“Maddie, no. You’re not safe at that place,” Sandra squared her shoulders as she said this.
“Well, the last time you made a decision for me it involved trading my college funds for a cabin in the middle of nowhere,” she replied. Sandra flinched, her posture returning to a slump.
Maddie regretted the words immediately. The suggestion of never going back hurt, but her mom had no way of knowing the cost. “I’m sorry. That doesn’t really matter anymore anyway. I just really need to get back to my normal life. I miss it. Please.”
Sandra gave a half-hearted smile and nodded. What argument could she make after Maddie had been the functional linchpin of the two for so many years? She pulled out a small box from beside the couch and passed it over, “I bought a new phone for you while you were asleep this morning. I’ll call Principal Hartman and talk to him about re-enrollment, after that, we can both scrounge up something to eat.”
Maddie didn’t want to leave things so fractured so she added, “I missed you so much. While I was away. I hated that you were here alone.”
Sandra paused in getting up and looked at her little girl, a young woman who had had to do so much growing up alone. The weight still lingered between them, but she walked over and hugged her daughter before turning to make her way to the kitchen.
——
Maddie made her way to her room with her new cell phone in hand. She opened it up, it wasn’t the newest model, but that was fine. She needed to reach out to her friends, her living ones who could finally see her again. Turns out dying really shows you who your real friends are. No matter what shit had gone down between them all, Simon, Nicole, Xavier and Claire came through.
She took a moment to reminisce over the pictures on her dresser. She felt joy over the friends she would connect with again, but in turn there was grief over the three faces missing from her mirror. When she examined her own image, nothing was different - same diamond-shaped face and messy blonde locks, but that Maddie in the pictures felt separated by eons from who she was now.
With a sniff, she refocused on the task at hand - tracking down Simon; there would be time to reconnect with everyone, and she had to believe that Charley and Rhonda would still be visible to her…and Wally, that she hadn’t lost him.
Claire and Nicole went looking for Simon at the school this morning, but it had been most of the day already. It’s possible they just had to finish out their classes. It just didn’t add up that Simon wouldn’t have come and found her, though. He’d been there every step of the way, since she sorta died. Maddie also couldn’t shake how broken he looked during their last fight. Was he avoiding her? Do you even wanna come back? he’d said.
She dialed Nicole’s number as soon as the phone finished setting up, “Hey, Nicole, I just got home from the hospital. Did you guys find Simon?”
Nicole responded, “Yeah… so how restrictive are your doctors' orders? Any chance we can come pick you up? Like, now?”
“Why?”
After Nicole finished filling Maddie in on the day's developments they agreed on the pickup and Maddie gathered what she could. It was her turn to help her friend.
——
Charley was living his death.
At that precise moment in time, he felt so many emotions that went far beyond his usual spectrum of feelings - namely, regret.
Of course, his heart ached over watching Maddie leave. Not having to say goodbye is one perk of being stuck here. After dying, you grieve the living people you leave behind and eventually become comfortable with the ones around you. Then, they’re always there. Saying goodbye to her was like a little death all over again. There was a bittersweetness, also. He would get to watch his friend live; and there was a living person in the world that knew him as he was right now.
Charley also felt joyousness, which he was currently basking in as he leaned into Yuri’s warm side. After confirming there was no sign of Maddie, Charley had decided that morning that what he really needed was to slow down and appreciate the good that he’d found. Gather ye rosebuds while ye may. He couldn’t remember which poet wrote that, but it sounded great in Dead Poet’s Society. In that vein, he invited Yuri to join him for an afternoon outing on the athletic field. They found a small tree that gave just enough shade to relax underneath and watch the grounds wind down. Charley had grabbed a few of his favorite (nut-free) baked goods from the cafeteria along the way. This moment was nearly perfect. The autumn afternoon light dappled Yuri’s hair with spots like gold, and the breeze felt like a balm after the chaos of the last few days.
He took a glance at Yuri’s current reading material, Understanding Quantam Physics. Charley had to ask, “You landed on some light reading for today’s outing I see?”
Without looking up from his page Yuri responded, “I figured I’d get a head start on the next existential crisis we have to deal with.”
“Well, that’s a glass is half empty approach.”
“It’s not like we can just leave Mr. Martin locked in his scar forever.”
“No, but at least another decade wouldn’t hurt.”
At that, Yuri glanced over and gave him that small, boyish smile. The butterflies in Charley’s stomach were soaring. He leaned in for a soft kiss. They both lingered for a moment before Charley pulled back and resettled on his elbows. Looking across the field he noticed Janet making her way towards them, she looked upset, but also determined. “Ugh, you were right. The glass is clearly always half empty. Let’s go find out what she wants.” They stood and brushed themselves off, before making their way to Janet.
“I’m glad I found you two. Sorry, to interrupt,” she was glad to see Charley had found someone, though it was disconcerting for Yuri to simply be anywhere besides the pottery wheel.
“It’s fine, what’s up?” Charley responded kindly.
“We have a problem. A big one. Wally and Rhonda should be here, too. Will you help me find them? We can meet down in the boiler room.”
“Of course, we’ll be there. And thank you…for coming to find us,” it was odd to have Janet back again. Charley realized now how much she had kept to herself. He didn’t want her to feel cut off any more.
Janet met Charley’s eyes and realized she no longer felt separated by a wall of secrets. She had spent a year isolated from nearly all contact and being driven into her scar constantly for “research.” Before that she had been the secret observer, always mindful not to influence her subjects. She forgot the simple pleasure of connection.
With a nod, they set off to find their friends.
——
Janet and Wally stood waiting for the rest of the group to catch up; both were quiet. She had found him on the football field. Instead of running through old drills or calisthenics, how he was known to pass his time on the field, he was just sitting by the sidelines. She realized the best way to describe his demeanor was pensive. That was a first. Many things had changed in the Split River High afterlife, but of all her friends, Wally’s differences were the most stark.
At this point, Wally was committed to seeing through…whatever was happening. Janet told him she needed to share something important and so he came. In life, Coach had trained him relentlessly to push through physical pain if it meant getting done what had to be done. This pain wasn’t that different, he almost believed that.
It wasn’t long before Charley and Yuri came with Rhonda and Quinn following behind. Charley and Rhonda didn’t bother to disguise their worry over Wally. “She didn’t come to school today, probably still at the hospital,” Charley shared hoping to fill the uncomfortable quiet.
“Yes, I got word from her friends, Maddie’s alive and well.” At their surprised looks Janet added, “I’ll explain inside.” Wally nodded his acceptance, feeling self conscious of their scrutiny, but doing his best to be unaffected.
Rhonda, without her usual low key aggression, added, “You know you don’t have to be here, right? It’s okay if you need…time.”
“Guys, I’m fine. I’m here,” Wally responded. He was keeping his head in the game.
“Sing that ditty somewhere else, songbird, no one’s buying.” At Rhonda’s retort, Quinn shifted awkwardly, “Um, what did you want to tell us?” she asked.
Janet, still processing the interplay, took the segue, “Right. Just..follow me, you need to see this.” She adjusted the journals she had collected in her arms and led the way into the red light. Janet didn’t even falter going through the portal anymore, she really had found her way through the pain. Wally was the first to duck in and follow; the others complied, not sure what to expect.
Simon looked up from his pacing and recollections when he heard the hatch opening. With nothing but himself and Mr. Martin to engage with, he found himself spiraling more and more into the past.
There was this one time when he was just a little kid, he and his friend Dez had had a playdate at the park. Dez’s dad had driven them and on the way home he stopped at some rando’s house. He said he just had to stop in for a couple minutes and he’d be right back. Now it was hot that day, like the sun was hovering right above instead of billions of miles away, zero breeze, and the seatbelt clips were painful to the touch. He and Dez made a bet about who could stay in place the longest without opening the door before his dad came back. Sitting in a hot car was one of those things parents were always touchy about and it made them feel daring, just sitting there. And with their little kid egos, neither one budged.
Dez’s dad did not return within a couple minutes; Simon had no idea how long they sat in that car, but he remembers what it felt like. It was uncomfortable, sure, but after a while all of his body felt heavy, each breath of air required his chest to puff out larger, like a slow gasp, and he remembers starting to drift. Like he was just becoming the warm heat, too. At some point he came to enough to register that they were driving and the A/C was back on. His mind keeps going back to that backseat. Then it jumps between memories of Maddie. From her dad’s funeral, to just the other night when he feared she was really gone.
While they had worked together to find clues about her death, he felt like they were still connected. They had a shared purpose and goal, she was even sharing some of the ugly parts of her past that she always kept hidden. Over the last few weeks, though, that connection had felt like it was coming undone. She still went through the motions, she still cared about what happened in the world of the living, but Simon could tell there were other things drawing her attention and her heart. It wasn’t hard to tell that she was falling for someone. He just had no idea how far deep she was until it was almost too late. If she still needed help, though, Simon could no longer give it. He was truly trapped. Now he could only watch as the spirits that his potential escape hinged on filed into the room.
“Oh, shit,” Wally pulled up short as soon as his eyes landed on Simon. As the rest of the group filed in, no one came up with anything more eloquent to add while processing the new addition to Split River Afterlife.
Simon took the startled moment to look over Maddie’s friends. It was one thing to have seen her all this time. She was the most important person in his world. Their history woven together over the years. Sure, it was eerie to see someone who’s invisible to everyone else, but she was first and foremost Maddie, being a ghost was secondary. Now, Simon was surrounded by people who only existed as memories, their bodies long past gone, each one somehow an amalgam of the decade in which they died, like characters out of the movies. Though here they stood, just as real in this purgatory as he was. I guess I’m just a ghost now, too, Simon thought. The surrealism of his present situation began to settle in. Simon looked at his hands, certain he’d see something unexpected like shooting sparks or maybe he was melting into the heat like that day in the car. Same hands as always. He used them to clench the edge of the table, needing to feel something solid. “No one stole my body, I don’t know how to get out of here, and I’m…pretty sure I’m not dead.” Keep taking deep breaths he reminded himself.
“Is this becoming normalized now? Living people just dropping in like a regular Bed and Breakfast?” Rhonda was doing her best to make sense of her shifting reality, but the rules had always been set. No contact with living people. The dead exist in another world from the living, always. “Look, I could accept Maddie being some fluke of your freaky Jekyll and Hyde science experiments, but this is more!”
“You’re right. I think there is much more happening to the very makeup of our world.” Janet waited a moment for Rhonda’s shoulders to drop a bit, a sign she was ready to listen, “Simon and Maddie being able to communicate while she was here, Yuri and Quinn waking up from their respective loops, even you three, are changed.
My theory still stands: our trauma is power and we triggered the energy last night by simultaneously entering the scars. That’s when the door opened for Simon. Initially, I thought our combined energy could overpower the boundary, but maybe it’s more than that. Our trauma, that energy, is aligning the two worlds. Both existences are simultaneously real and coexist.”
“Almost like a state of superposition?” Yuri asked as he shifted onto one of the tables.
Once again, Janet felt a rush of relief for his sharp uptake, “That’s a decent reference point. Our two realities always exist simultaneously, but the energy we generate lifts that which separates us.”
Mr. Martin couldn’t help but to interject, “Don’t you think you’re taking one too many giant leaps of assumption, here.” His usually smoothly slicked down hair had begun sticking out sporadically, yet he still managed to be utterly patronizing.
“Wait. Are you basically saying that people who’re alive can come here and we can walk around in their world, too?” Charley asked. Everyone focused their attention at that one, Wally leaned in recrossing his arms.
“It fits for why Simon’s here and why he can’t leave now, it’s hard to know if we can exit in the living world or not,” she finished.
“You said this has been affecting the three of us; how? We’re still here and invisible and completely powerless to change anything,” Rhonda added with exasperation.
“Maddie was here, both alive and dead. You interacted with a living person and are now all notably changed,” at her scoff, Janet added, “even you, Rhonda. It’s like we were all stuck in comfortable patterns, but ultimately as fixed as the world around us.”
“Like we were looping?” Rhonda asked quietly. Quinn stayed close to Rhonda hoping her presence was some sort of steady support.
Through all of this Simon did his best to keep a level head, but after not sleeping in what felt like a week on top of his own heaps of new trauma; he just didn’t have the patience to go down the paranormal rabbit hole. Simon groaned and lifted his head to address the group, “I know this is all really big, important stuff for you guys, but HOW…does this get me out of here? I have no idea if Maddie made it to the hospital, if she woke up. My parents haven’t heard from me in days and by now must know something’s wrong. Can we just focus on how to open this fucking door?!”
Wally blinked at him and answered with what patience he could manage, “Dude, just, take a chill pill, we’re trying here.”
“Are you kidding me? I’m only here because Maddie was so turned around about leaving you that I didn’t know if she was gonna come back. She almost lost her only chance to live. Because of you! Now you’re seriously gonna stand there and tell me to chill?”
Uncrossing his arms, Wally, who was barely hanging onto levelheadedness himself, stepped towards Simon, “Whoa. Okay. Are you saying that it’s my fault that you’re here? Is that it?”
“If the Letterman jacket fits…” Simon bit out.
Both Wally and Simon faced one another; Wally was a good half foot taller, but neither boy looked ready to back down. With an empty laugh Wally shot back, “Okay. Well answer this- who’s risking Maddie’s safety now? She finally made it out and now has to turn back around to haul your ass out of here,” Simon flinched at that.
Still holding his eyes, Wally gave a small nod before turning to leave. “I need to get some air.” He strode past the others. Charley leaned towards Wally as he passed, wanting to help, but unsure how. Yuri took his hand, offering him something to hold onto, instead.
Wally stepped through the hatch, desperate to get away. The hurt he had pushed down was becoming overwhelming and maybe Rhonda was right and then Wally turned to discover himself staring down into a pair of wide green eyes, “Maddie.”