Return to the Darkness - Ripley Proserpina Page 0,33
It was making me twitchy.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
He nodded, making a noncommittal sound. “So do you remember what these rocks—or stones—or whatever they were, looked like?”
I’d only glanced at them. One had been pretty and blue. The other one… “One looked like green fungus that had hardened. It’s not pleasant.” It had been kind of yucky looking.
Aaron narrowed his eyes as he stared at the scenery. “Hard green fungus… Holy shit.”
He glanced past me to Oliver. “Ol. Atacamite. It opens the third eye. Helps people see into other dimensions and lives.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about at all,” his brother replied. “But that sounds just like Dad. So good. Something blue and something gross. Got it. I’m sure when we’re digging under beds and through garbage, it’ll just pop right out at us.”
Speaking of popping… “I did actually appear in the person’s bedroom. I think it’s because that was where I left you all.”
“Oh really?” I met Colton’s interested gaze in the rearview mirror. “And what were all of us doing in the bedroom?”
My face heated, and I couldn’t hold his stare, so I arched an eyebrow and replied snarkily, “Planning to save the world.”
Colton knew I was full of shit, though, because he just laughed. “Oh, I’m sure we were.” He chuckled again and shook his head. “Well, at least we have the room narrowed down. One bedroom in this universe. Hopefully, they didn’t drop out of your pocket while you were traveling the rainbow bridge.”
He’d lost me. “The rainbow bridge?”
Thorn turned in the front seat. “Colton is obsessed with Marvel movies. He’s talking about the bridge Thor travels between Earth and Asgard.”
Oh. Right. Obviously. I probably shouldn’t get so high and mighty about this though, considering I had traveled through dimensions to an alternate reality.
“What do you think will happen when we find the stones?” Thorn asked. The smile faded from his lips. “Are you going to disappear? Will that be it?”
“If it is, then that’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Colton surprised me by answering. “The sooner she finds the stones and gets back to us, the sooner we can all be together the way we were meant to be.”
“I’m all for that,” Oliver muttered. He reached for me and then stopped, placing his hands back in his lap. I noticed that they shook and that he linked his fingers together to hide it.
Studying him, I took in the way he was swallowing hard. His face was pale and sweaty, and he looked like he might get sick.
Without thinking, I took his hands and squeezed them in one of mine. He was much bigger, but I wanted to give him some comfort. “Are you okay?”
He shrugged. “If I’m not, it’s my own fault.”
I leaned my head on his shoulder and then sat up straight. This Oliver broke my heart. “You’re hard on yourself in both of these realities,” I said quietly. “Be a little bit nicer. If anyone deserves it, you do.”
He cocked an eyebrow, a smirk on his face. “Are you telling me to be kind to myself?”
“Do I sound like a meme?” I grinned at him.
Oliver blinked. “A what?”
I opened and closed my mouth. Well, that was a big difference. Unless Oliver just didn’t know what that was. I turned to Colton. “Do you know what a meme is?”
He shook his head. “Nope. What is that?”
My heart rate kicked up. What else was different? Did other things just not exist? What else had been changed besides the structure of the town?
Aaron laughed. “They’re fucking with you. Both of them know what a meme is. Oliver really likes the one with the grumpy cat.”
Colton’s smile was huge. “I like the one with the monkey.”
The monkey? I wasn’t sure what that was. But I liked how they teased me, even if it made my cheeks hot. I loved they still had this in them here.
“Okay. Pick on the poor girl from the other timeline.”
Everyone was laughing. I was so glad for this moment. This was real, this was us. I could feel who they were on the inside, even this lost version of Oliver. Eventually, we pulled up to the right street. I directed them to the house, and we ended up a bit down the block, not wanting to alert anyone by being too close to it.
“You said you could break in?” I asked Oliver, watching his shaking hands.
“I can. You may not like it. But I can do it.”
Aaron winced. “What are