The Mirrorverse
Chapter 40

Ellie

Ellie knew she should have been thinking of all that had been said and all that had happened but something else kept sliding into her mind. Someone else. She steered her thoughts away from Brian as best she could, to try and focus on and take in all that was Joe. Did she pity or loathe him what he had done? She knew she liked him, but was that right? Had he paid for his crimes? Can anyone pay for mass genocide? She wondered if after all that had happened to Joe, whether it was possible for him to come out sane on the other side.

Like her new friends, Ellie had a whole heap of questions and no answers. Not only was she worried for Maya’s safety in the astral plane, but she feared for Maya’s mental state having lost that kind of power. She was afraid that Joe would leave Maya in the wrong universe, that she’d never get home.

Everyone else in the room was silent. Les was drinking whiskey, while Rob was sitting next to him on the sofa, his head lowered deep in thought. Ka was twitching, his leg almost vibrating with the strain he was putting on his muscles as he couldn’t sit still. Ke was in his usual state of single point fixation, barely blinking. And then there were the vacant bodies of Maya and Joe, seated side by side on the other sofa.

Ellie thought how one day she would get Maya to take her to the astral plane, then remembered that the power would be gone. She was going to lose this Maya too. She would return to her own world and would never see her again.

Ultimately, she decided to stop holding it off and phone Brian. He’d make sense of it all. She went into the hallway that led to the bedrooms and bathroom dialling his number, waiting to hear his voice. Her stomach did a little flip as the phone started ringing, expectantly waiting for him to speak.

“Hey, it’s me,” she started, as he greeted her warmly. “You’ll never believe what has happened!”

Ellie told him all about Joe and his tales, and how Maya was giving him the gift back as they spoke. It didn’t strike her as odd when Brian asked where she was, saying there was something he wanted to tell her; that he was just making sure she was alone. As Ellie assured him she was alone in the hallway, he appeared in front of her. Before she got a chance to scream he’d dragged her through a portal.