Falling Up - Part 10

Rain stung my cheeks as I opened my eyes. Unforgiving cold metal grate bit into my shoulder blades and the back of my head. I blinked but my vision of blanched sky didn't clear. I turned my head to find the towering spire of the Eiffel Tower the only reality I recognized. My fingers dug into the grate as I realized the nightmare of my situation. I'd materialized on a narrow expansion bridge connected to the tower. Judging by the strength of the wind, I was a couple hundred of feet above the ground. Maybe more.

I hated bridges. Something about them triggered the phase-stream's energy. My realities always began and ended with a bridge. The bigger the bridge--the bigger the shift. I repositioned my weight. One wrong move and I'd plummet to my next reality.

"Don't move," a masculine voice cut through my hazy synapses.

I twisted my head ever-so-slowly until I spotted Robert some ten feet away. He leaned against the outer safety railing of the tower, his position somewhat more stable than my own but still precarious. His clothes were soaked, his dark hair matted to his head.

"Surprised?" He blinked away the steady stream of rain. "Don't be. And the answer to your question is no. I'm not a jumper, like you." He wiped his face with his wet sleeve and held out a hand to me. "Let me help you."

Help? He'd hitched a ride on my stream of reality. Which begged the question. "What are you? And how did you follow me through the stream?"

He retracted his hand and pushed the hair out of his face. "Wouldn't it be a better idea to have this conversation on the ground? When we're both safe?"

"I'm safe enough." I'd managed to contort myself into a sitting position. My fingers clenched the grate on either side as the wind buffeted me from side to side. Over my shoulder, I could see the other end of the bridge. It was connected to a scaffold attached to the arm of a crane. A big bucket stretched into the sky like an offering to the gods. My options were down or sideways. It was a long, perilous trip either way. "Your partner, the girl in the hoodie who drives like a Nascar racer. Start with her."

"The girl you followed into the bathroom? She's a tracker."

"Which makes you?" I'd run into a couple of trackers in my day. None of them had been able to follow my jumps.

"A rider." He made a motion with his head I interpreted as concession.

"You mean a stowaway?" Rider implied there was some consent on both sides which there sure as Hell hadn't been.

"To be accurate," he agreed. "I'm here to help you, Sarah." He stretched out his hand for a second time. "Let me help you."

"Why should I trust you?" He'd already helped my too much, in my opinion.

"Because your brother sent me."

Impossible. My brother was safe in another reality--another stream where he'd never met that granite wall. Never spent three years in a rehab where my parents had all but forgotten his name. And he'd never had a sister named Sarah.

"You're a liar."

"Come with me and I'll prove it."

I shook my head, scooted my butt in the other direction. The wind caught my shoulder. My hand slipped on the wet surface. I went down hard on my face, the grate cutting into the soft flesh of my cheek. I grappled with the bridge for safe purchase. The ground below seemed to buck and spin until I righted myself. I took a deep breath. Tasted blood.

"Sarah!" Robert called out. "I know your brother in this reality. I know Joe. He's a scientist. He's found a way to control the jumps. I'll take you to him." He made a noise of frustration. "You can trust me."

Not likely. Control the jumps? I'd heard this before. I'd given myself over to an entire research facility full of doctors. They'd determined the only way to control the jumps was to stop the current running through my system. They hadn't given me a choice before they'd shocked my heart.

I died. Once. Twice. Three times. Each time I'd spontaneously resucitated. The doctors labeled my condition as latent electrical impulses and turned me into an lab rat. After a couple of months, I'd figured out how to override the electric locks and escaped.

One thing I knew for certain, scientist or not, my brother would never put me through that. He loved me. He knew the sacrifice I'd made to change his world.

"Tell whoever you work for I'm not interested." I levered my body a few inches toward the crane.

"London Bridge is falling up."

My fingers halted, twisted in pain with the effort to hold on and pull myself to the other side at the same time. "What did you say?"

"London Bridge is falling up," he offered. "Joe said you'd know what it meant."

I did. They were the last words I'd said to Joe before I'd jumped off the London Bridge and out of his reality.

"Sarah?"

"Stay there. I'm coming to you."