Somewhere Else

Chapter 26: The Realm of Death

Without even bothering to figure out what Freak was talking about when he told him that Kray was a dangerous man, he slipped from his active life to the realm of death where he could talk to Jessica. She too had been sent on a mission and he wanted to know what she’d discovered about Kray in all those other lives. When he reached her, in the same spot that they normally met, he found her curled up in a corner, knees drawn to chest, forehead touching her knees. This was not a typical position for the woman to maintain and so he was instantly worried that something had gone wrong there as well.

The fear that he had was that Kray indeed was a dangerous man and that she’d found evidence of it in another life of hers. As he reached her, he lowered himself to one knee and instinctively reached out to touch against the side of her head, stroking softly through her golden hair. When she tilted her head into his hand, he at least knew she wasn’t upset with him, which relieved a great weight from his shoulders.

“That was horrible Brecker.”

Settling in a little more, he positioned himself right next to her and slid an arm around her shoulders, let her head rest against him, and his far hand smoothed over her arm as he waited for her to elaborate more on what she was talking about.

Drawing in a breath, her words were still a little shaky when she spoke again. “I found a life in which I remained in a coma. He’s sweet, you know, visiting as often as he can. But the things that he says just tear my heart apart.” That and she had great difficulty being in such a life where she had to fight against her own mind to even leave once more. Had she known there would be that much trouble in the first place, she might have skipped over it. Thankfully she didn’t though, because that was the Kray that they’d all been looking for, the one on the brink of destruction.

“I don’t ever remember him being like that. He seems so far gone and so out of touch that I don’t know if anything can bring him back. He’s not like that anywhere else, is he?”

Brecker thought for a moment. Sebastian had told him that everyone had been worried about him for some time after he lost Jessica. He just wasn’t the same man they all knew. In fact, if he recalled correctly, the drinking had been a main concern of his, hating the way that he would just drown out everything that happened, his sorrows and his pain.

“No. In some lives he’s moved on. In others he’s getting close. There’s only one in which I’m worried about.”

“Which one is that? I went through every one that I could to assure that he was doing fine in them. That was the only one I came up with where he wasn’t just as I remembered him.”

“That’s because you haven’t met him yet Jessica. As alternates, it was a life that I knew him in first. That means you’re soon to come. There’s mild interference though.”

She lifted her head to look at him. If they were alternates, it was always one or the other. They’d known of no third, in any life of his. Even when the Rookie appeared, as he could have been thought of as interference, he was only a stepping stone that proved quite essential in the end. “What kind of interference?”

“Without either of us in his life to ground him again, he’s just about lost hope and lost himself in it. Reese has stepped in to close that gap. I think he’s trying to get him on his side and we can’t lose him. If he’s gone, made friends with the enemy, then he too is our enemy. Not any one of us can destroy him. Besides, without Kray, we lose our realms. Everything will come crashing down.”

“What can I do?”

“Find him. You have to find him and win him over. You need to make an entrance in his life, give him some direction, before he succumbs to Reese entirely. They’ve become partners you know, and he’ll listen to anything he says so long as he’s telling him all the right things.”

“What if I can’t find him? How do I even know where to look?”

He pressed a finger beneath her chin and tipped her head up a bit to offer a reassuring smile. “Think about where you’ve met him before and go with that. Remember also that he’s a cop in every life. I set up a mugging to get introduced to him. I’m sure you can think of something even better than that.”

Before he could say something wrong, as he was so infamous for, he stood and dusted off his pants as though there were such a thing in this realm. Nothing would really touch him, there was no dirt just as there was really no air. They probably weren’t even real, sitting there together, but the thought was too complex for now. Boundless energy pulled together for the sake of a reassuring illusion so that they wouldn’t lose their nonexistent minds.

“Brecker.”

Though he’d already started off, as if he needed a run and a jump to launch himself back into his active life, he pivoted on heel and paused when she said his name so softly. His hands found his pockets so they did not work over one another in anxious motion, trying to keep a rather confident appearance for the both of them, thought it was quickly melting like the ice over his eyes had when she bestowed upon him a kiss of life.

“Winter is looking for you.”

Tilting his head to the side and squinting somewhat, he questioned what she was saying to him. He hadn’t seen the girl in some years, they rarely spoke, and when they did it was only of business. What could she possibly have with him now? He could hardly stand to think of her as the innocent little girl he often held close to him, read bedtime stories to, and put on plays with, knowing she was so much older and wiser than he could ever hope to be. Sometimes though the child inside shone through the rest and he truly felt at ease.

“She said to find her immediately.”

A part of him wanted to point out that if he was to find her immediately she should have told him just a little bit sooner. In light of the situation though he was quite forgiving. Rather than heading back to the life he knew and desired most at the moment he gave a nod of his head, acknowledging what she’d told him, and made his way deeper down the tunnel of death, in hopes of finding that girl before something worse found him.

Though there was no real ground, he could hear his shoes clipping and echoing down the hall that he took. Though there were no real walls, he felt as though they were suffocating him with every step he took. There were no hands around his neck, no actual end to the tunnel. He needed only to walk as far for as long as it took for him to realize that Winter was keeping step with him at his side. For too long he’d been unable to see her, unable to bring the memory of his dearly beloved surrogate daughter to mind. To find she wasn’t what she truly was broke his heart all over again, but in the end it was for the best. If he didn’t know, he would have never believed her. Just like Kray will never believe what he has to tell him.

“That’s what I have to speak to you about.”

The soft, innocent voice spoken in the empty hall forced his heart from his chest to his throat and he stopped moving entirely. Focusing his eyes, he tried to see her, as though a bright light had been shone through the shadows and forced his sight to become temporarily disabled. With a sigh, he finally looked down. The faintest image of purple, the sweater that she wore, was seen. Dropping to one knee, he tried harder. She slowly came into view, one item of clothing at a time. The very last detail that completed her was those vivid green eyes. Lifting a hand he cupped the side of her face and then hung his head.

“I’m so sorry.”

Gentle as could be, she quickly smacked a kiss to the top of his head and then giggled, so childlike that he was drawn back to those days of happiness, relished them for a moment before he couldn’t stand to think upon them any longer. Withdrawing, he lifted his head and waited for her to continue, knowing whatever she had to say was important.

“If he can’t awaken himself, we’ll have to do it for him.”

“I already tried. We all saw how that ended up.”

“There are other ways to awaken a person. Traditional methods, don’t you remember?”

Of course he remembered. That still included a death though, which he seemed incapable of delivering. Now he was closer to Kray and not just in a physical sense. How easy would it be to poison his food? Slip something into a drink of his? He’d hate to do anything so gruesome as trying to shoot him again. Stubborn as he was, the fool wouldn’t die. He’d prevail and be revered as a hero, humiliated by the fact that his boyfriend – not arch nemesis – had tried to kill him, and likely turn bitter and closed off from the world, the very thing he was trying to prevent in another life of his.

Sensing that he didn’t quite grasp what she was saying, she reached for his hand and curled her fingers around his one, speaking so that he would focus on her words. “I’m going to give him a dream tonight. You’ll both share a dream. When he wakes from it, I want you to introduce the thought that there is no actual Heaven or Hell. I want you to implant in his brain the possibility that there is more.”

“Are you going to kill him?”

Winter just offered him a smile. Either she planned to and didn’t want to speak of such things or what she was telling him had just gone over his head and she didn’t want to belittle him. He didn’t feel quite right about the proposition but this might be the only way to get the ball rolling. If nothing else, should he be on the verge of existence and nonexistence, he’d at least be aware that he could move elsewhere, given the choice by Winter long before his end came.

“I’ll borrow Gideon as well. We’ll make sure everything goes right. Then it’s up to you.” She paused for a moment before turning her eyes up to his. “Please Brecker, it’s the last try we’ll have. No matter how difficult he may be, we all know you can be relentless. Butt heads; push the limits. In the end, if he doesn’t help, you won’t have him to go back to anyhow.”

The very thought sent a chill down his spine. He had nothing to lose. Actually, he had everything to lose. Before going, he pressed a kiss to the side of her face and thought it all over. There was no questioning what he would do. He’d come too far to throw it away now.

As usual, he showed up on his doorstep at an ungodly hour. Despite having a regular work schedule, he learned early on that Kray often stayed up later than he ought to, especially for a man who had to be at work by seven in the morning. Or perhaps that’s when he woke. He was never terribly sure, seeing as how he was always asleep when he left. So far as he could remember though, tomorrow was a day off. It was almost expected of him to visit and from there it was only natural he would spend the night.

When he opened the door, he offered him a smile. Those blue eyes lifted his spirits just a bit and he thought for one moment everything would be all right. By the time they climbed into bed together, he felt as though he might even be able to believe everything he had to tell him. Drifting off while in his arms, he realized he didn’t even care. If this was to be one of his last nights with this man, he didn’t want to spend the last hours of such an embrace being wasted on thoughts of despair and eternal sorrow. He wanted to be happy he found him at all and that he’d gotten something from him, something he could call his own and something that had nothing to do with the rest of the world.