Darkest Designs by Dale Mayer

could do that without speakers she didn’t know. She laughed. “That’s perfect. How come you don’t play music to lighten the air?”
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    How can music lighten the air?
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    Storey shook her head. “It’s a figure of speech. Music makes people feel good. It lightens their moods, their souls. Makes people happy.”
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    Interesting.
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    She stared at it. “That’s all you have to say? It seems much of your education is missing.”
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    Education? We have had no education. We are Louers. Slaves. We received no education.
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    That whole ugly history thing again. She sympathized, but this was so not the time. “Back to the problem then. I have a piece of paper. Why not just draw a portal back to Paxton’s lab?”
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    We don’t have a location for where we are at.
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    She pursed her lips, finally starting to understand there were limitations to the stylus. She hadn’t come up against them before, because she hadn’t really understood how the stylus had done what it did. Now she realized it had need of certain information to follow through on some of her requirements and for the first time they were both in new territory and neither knew what to do.
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    â€œWhat if we try it anyway?”
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    She pulled out an old portal she’d stashed in the pack a long time ago. Unfolding it, she found it led to Paxton’s lab. She grinned and stood up. She placed the portal on the ground and reached out a hand to Dillon. “Dillon, step on this paper, please.”
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    He blinked. He reached out a hand. Grabbed hers and stepped on the paper.
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    ***
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    Eric studied the trees and bushes of Storey’s world as the black mist of the portal dissipated. It looked the same as the first time he’d ventured here. The size of the trees and the season all appeared to fit. But with the time shifts and new dimensions being created – he no longer trusted what stood before his own eyes. And how sad was that.
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    Before meeting Storey, life had been simple and complete…and boring. Now he felt so energized and alive. In ways he’d never experienced before and could hardly explain. But life thrummed through his veins now. Sure, so did worry and fear, but that was better than ennui.
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    And the weird thing was, he hadn’t realized how lacking his previous life really had been. Ignorance really was bliss. He’d read that saying in the archives and had to admit there was some truth to it.
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    He walked the path to Storey’s house, keeping a wary eye out. He should be in the right dimension and the right time frame, but as Storey had messed with things here, twisted time as the stylus had put it, he didn’t know what to expect each time he came.
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    That brought back memories of Tammy, the little Louer child they’d rescued from her old home dimension. He grinned at the memory of her insatiable appetite. And her scream. He shuddered. That was very forgettable. At least he wished it were.
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    The house loomed ahead of him. He walked cautiously around to the front to see if any of the metal boxes Storey called cars were there. None. His breath gusted out in relief. That didn’t mean no one was home, just meant there were likely less people at home. He stepped back into the trees and punched the coordinates for Storey’s bedroom into his codex. He could have done it this way from the beginning, but the thought of porting into a stranger’s bedroom while they were there made him cringe. With Storey having shifted time, there was no guarantee that he was in the same time as when Storey had lived here. The less he had to explain the better. And according to Storey, he should avoid capture at all costs. Something about not having the right identification or history. He shrugged. The black mist rose up around his shoulders, quickly blocking out the world around him. When it cleared he smiled.