Mapleview, North Carolina.
September 23rd, 2025.
5:12 P.M.
Amory’s final moments in Canterbury Lab were entirely gone from his mind.
He hadn’t the faintest clue of what had happened, how long ago it had been, or what had transpired in the aftermath—but, eventually, he found himself blinking awake, lying on his back on the ground, outside, blades of grass gently poking at the back of his neck and his ears.
Wincing, feeling groggy, and suffering from another pounding headache, Amory clasped his head, slowly sitting upright. He paused, glancing around and seeing that he was now seated on the top of a lonesome, grassy hillside, nothing nearby aside from trees and woodlands all around him, and a single, isolated structure standing a ways behind him.
Amory made a strange face, glancing up at the sky and seeing the late afternoon sun, feeling even more disoriented now. He could have sworn it was nearly eleven o’clock at night, but now, he found himself outside, gazing up at a late-day sun…
He made a faint shiver, only just realizing how cold it was, then he slowly climbed to his feet, glimpsing around again.
Then, he stopped—his eyes landing on something peculiar.
A tall, elegant mansion stood by itself in the woodlands, farther across the grassy hillside and tucked deeper into the trees, an ancient metal fence surrounding it, the building an old rustic design, every window tall and dark, the place looking like it hadn’t been lived in for a while.
Amory stared, cracking a smirk and thinking it would make a fantastic place to visit on Halloween. Then, he shook the childish thought away and turned back toward the downward slope of the hillside, searching for anything else, perhaps another landmark—or perhaps the sleeping angel he sought to rescue from captivity.
The last thing he remembered was unleashing a terrifying amount of power, and he had no further memory beyond that. He wasn’t entirely sure what he had done, but Zyon didn’t seem to be here with him now. He hoped he had done something to help free him…
“Damn… okay,” Amory sighed, raking his long hairs back and squinting down the hill. “Okay… I just… where am I…?”
He stood still for a moment, part of him expecting to hear an answer, perhaps a whisper in his mind from Zyon, but he heard nothing. So, he merely sighed and said a silent prayer for him, just before breaking into a brisk stride down the hill.
He felt a spark of worry for the angel, but now—as he ventured farther downhill, and the buildings of town slowly came into view—he couldn’t help feel a surge of excitement as well. He hadn’t been outside of the lab in fifteen years, and he found himself delighted at the idea of finally being free to explore the outside world again.
After all—he felt that Zyon, a being of immense power, must have surely been all right. He would simply have to keep his own worries subdued until the angel eventually reached out to him again.
So—he let out a childlike laugh and skidded down the hill, sliding over the grass and nearly stumbling when he reached the bottom. His feet met the edge of the concrete, and he spun around, gazing down the road in the direction where he believed the town to be.
Amory broke into a steady stride, marching down the side of the street and grinning while he did. He passed under a low-hanging tree and leaped upwards, snatching a handful of leaves off a nearby branch and tossing them into the air above his head. He spun underneath them and laughed before he strolled onward.
The fresh air felt fantastic, and the early sunset looked positively glorious on the horizon of his hometown; he sauntered on without a single care in the world, feeling more overjoyed than he ever had before. A car passed by him—a sleek, rounded sort of car that sparkled a bright blue, and looked newer than any he’d ever seen—and then, the buildings of Mapleview became much easier to make out.
Amory smiled once more, quickening his pace as he spotted the town off to his left—and to his delight, he saw the McDonald’s on the nearest street corner, the very same McDonald’s that he, his friend, and his sister used to visit frequently during the 70s. It sat on the same corner it always had, and instantly, he knew he was right where he wanted to be.
Amory glanced around before crossing the three-way intersection, then speed-walked toward the McDonald’s. He came to a stop on the sidewalk on the other side, and then, as he gathered a closer look of the fast food restaurant, his smile began to fade.
Yes, it was indeed a McDonald’s—but it looked vastly different from how he remembered. The outer walls were a grayish vanilla color rather than the red brick color it once was. The rooftop was flat and dull, harboring no crooked yellow lines, and there were no large yellow arches anywhere. The place looked rather bleak, and the bright, colorful playground that once resided outside the front of the building was now nowhere to be seen.
“Aw… what happened to the McDonald’s?” Amory mumbled.
He stood still there, simply staring at the building and beginning to second-guess himself. Perhaps he wasn’t where he thought he was after all.
Now confused and slightly frustrated, Amory broke into a brisk stride again, marching around the narrow metal fence that wrapped around the front of the property. He reached the edge of the parking lot, then walked over to the glass door on the side, pulling it open and vanishing inside.
Amory slowed to a stop, glimpsing around and feeling another touch of surprise.
The interior had very few colors as well, and there was only one person seated in the dining area, an older gentleman sitting in a booth in the far corner, quietly eating a burger. The old man adjusted his glasses, looking up and squinting strangely at the dirt-spotted man in black bellbottoms who’d just walked inside, but Amory didn’t notice; his attention was now focused on the strange rectangular screens that were posted up across from the front counter. The huge screens looked like sideways televisions that had been fused with pillars, and all of them had electronic menus on them.
Amory shook his head once, scoffing out a noise before turning to the front counter. He approached the cash register, peering around and searching for someone to talk to, but no one was nearby, all of the employees shuffling around far in the back.
So, Amory leaned on the counter, giving a quick glimpse to the cash register and wondering why no one was manning it. He leaned over to the side, gazing into the back and watching the distant employees in black uniforms, hoping to get someone’s attention.
Moments later, a young man in the back walked around to the front, holding a small device with a screen and staring down at it, seeming rather distracted.
“Ahm—excuse me,” Amory called out before the man could walk by.
The young employee turned to him, giving him an odd look. He scanned Amory up and down for a second, then made a dismissive shake of the head.
“Just use the touchscreens,” the young man instructed, pointing to the large screens behind him.
Amory glanced back at the screens, then faced the young man again, who was now trying to walk away.
“Just—wait,” Amory said, scooting over to the side and waving at him. “I just have a question. Am I in Mapleview? Is this Mapleview?”
“Yes—this is Mapleview,” the young man replied without turning back, sounding annoyed.
Amory watched him disappear around the corner, sighing deeply and feeling totally lost. He couldn’t think this was really Mapleview, but somehow, apparently, it was.
Giving the bizarre screens another befuddled look, Amory turned and walked out of the McDonald’s, pushing the glass door open and striding across the parking lot, not minding the bewildered stares he was getting from a family in a nearby car.
When he reached the edge of the parking lot, he couldn’t help but turn back for a second, eyeing the McDonald’s strangely.
“I’m in a dystopia,” Amory murmured, facing away and resuming his pace down the block.
He crossed a smaller street, separating the McDonald’s from a thrift shop at the edge of a small shopping center. As he walked across the edge of this parking lot, he looked to the left, seeing more cars and trucks parked in a row, cars and trucks that were rounder and shinier than he remembered seeing as a kid. He expected that things might be a bit different whenever he eventually left the lab—as he had never witnessed the outside world during the 1980s with his own eyes before—but this amount of change seemed incredibly out of place. He’d watched plenty of TV shows and movies during his time in the lab, many of which were made during the 80s, and none of them had such round, shiny cars in them, nor any touchscreens or any gray, bleak-looking McDonald’s restaurants.
Amory stared at the cars, then faced forward again as he walked.
“Or another universe,” he mumbled.
He walked onto the next parking lot—and he stopped for a second, spotting the next building and releasing a sigh of relief.
“Oh, here we go,” Amory smirked. “Thank God.”
Before him was a diner, with streamlined blue lights along the rooftop and a decorative archway in front of the entrance. He remembered this diner from long ago—a place that had been in business for quite a long time here in Mapleview—and it didn’t look anything like the McDonald’s. It very much looked like it was a product of the 1950s.
As the sunset slowly began to darken into a peaceful twilight, Amory strode across the open parking lot, observing everything nearby and approaching the glass double-doors. He pushed the doors open with a faint ching-a-ling , easing inside and glancing around once more.
The interior of this place was far more spacious and welcoming than the McDonald’s; directly ahead was a long, rounded counter, where an employee dressed in blue stood behind the cash register, speaking with a large group of college-aged guys. To the left was a long series of tables, some of them occupied, all of them with a blue and white theme, and to the right was a narrower area, with a single row of blue booths and white along a wall of big, rectangular windows.
Amory maintained his smirk, looking to the side and deciding to claim one of the empty booths away from everyone else.
He sank into the nearest booth, looking down at the menu in front of him and sighing.
His eyes became lost in the wonderfully enticing images of food on the front of the menu, and suddenly, he felt his stomach aching in a way he was usually able to ignore. Now, however—looking at a picture of cheese-covered tater tots, and smelling the heavenly aromas that emanated out from wherever the kitchen was—he felt hungrier than ever.
The glass double-doors flung open behind him—and a girl speed-walked past him from behind, heading directly towards the counter.
Amory turned his head, watching as the girl stepped in line behind the group of college men. She wore a navy blue beanie over her head of short black hair, as well as a pair of black cargo pants and a t-shirt to match, and she was tapping her foot rather quickly as she stood behind the college kids, looking impatient. The college guys were all laughing and making small talk with the clerk, not seeming to care that they were holding up the line.
Amory stared at them all from a distance.
Eventually, the girl rolled her eyes and walked away from the line, now marching directly toward him.
Amory watched, but the girl ended up storming right past him, walking down the way and vanishing into a women’s bathroom. She emerged a few minutes later, moving toward the edge of the counter and peering around the corner, seeing that the college guys were still standing in the same spot.
Sighing and tossing her head back—she turned and spotted Amory.
The girl stopped, simply staring at him with a blank look.
Amory managed a smile and a wave. “Hello.”
The girl squinted at him, giving him a strange look and sputtering out a laugh. “Hi. Did you just come from a 70s party, or what?”
Amory blinked and scanned himself up and down, seeing that his flowy white shirt was spotted with dirt along the bottoms of the sleeves, and she was still able to see the cuff of one of his bellbottoms peeking out from underneath the table.
“Um… yes?” Amory laughed.
The girl giggled, glancing over at the front again, then shrugged and moved over to Amory’s booth, propping her hand on it and leaning closer.
“Has anybody come to take your order yet?” the girl asked him.
“No,” Amory replied.
The girl made a flattened sort of expression, turning and glaring pensively at the college guys again. “Ughk… they’re taking forever. I wouldn’t care so much, but my little nephew hasn’t had dinner yet, and I’m seriously starving.”
Amory nodded, giving her a curious look. “Uhm… could I ask you something?”
The girl met his gaze again, and he only just noticed that her eyes were a seep, shiny blue.
“Yeah. Go ahead,” she said.
Amory gnawed his bottom lip for a second. “It’s… a weird question. You might or might not know what I’m even talking about.”
“That’s cool. Go ahead.”
“Okay…”
Amory clasped his hands together, scooting slightly closer.
“Do you know where Canterbury Lab is from here?” he asked.
The girl stared, slowly shaking her head. “No… sorry.”
Amory nodded and looked down at the table, then raised his head again. “Do you have a map?”
The girl’s eyes narrowed. “Like a paper one? No.”
Amory sighed and looked down again. “Okay… well, thank you anyway…”
The girl surveyed him for a second, then scooted into the bench across from him, pulling out her smartphone and swiping the screen.
“I can find it on Google Maps for you,” she muttered.
Amory squinted oddly at her.
The girl looked up from her phone, spotting his confused expression.
“You want me to look it up on Google Maps?” she inquired.
“Ahm… sure,” Amory uttered. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know what that is.”
The girl’s eyes narrowed bizarrely at him. “You don’t know what Google Maps is?”
“I… know what a map is,” Amory laughed.
“Wow. Okay… must’ve been a hell of a party last night,” the girl snickered, returning her attention to her phone and typing quickly on it with her thumbs. “Canter… bury…”
She finished typing the name of the place, but her Google Maps search showed no results.
The girl paused, glimpsing up at him. “It’s not showing up. Do you know its exact address?”
“Oh… um…” Amory folded his arms over the table, looking downward in thought. “I can’t remember the numbers… but it’s at the very end of a street called Maple Branch.”
“Okay, that definitely helps…”
The girl started typing on the phone again, yet still, it showed nothing, not even a road by the name of Maple Branch.
“Sorry… it’s saying that road doesn’t exist,” the girl reported. “Was it a road that might’ve existed a long time ago or something?”
Amory stared in confusion, making a halfhearted shrug. “I don’t know…”
The girl tapped on the table, watching him and hesitating for a second.
“Sorry,” she said.
“Oh… don’t be. Thank you,” he said genuinely.
The girl pocketed her phone, smiling and giving him a nod. “No problem.”
She stood to leave—and just when she did, something else occurred to him.
Amory turned in his seat and reached out—grasping her arm.
“Wait—I’m sorry,” he breathed, quickly releasing her. “I just have one more question. What year is it right now?”
The girl stared down at him, now wearing a strange sort of expression.
“It’s… 2025,” she muttered.
Amory hunched forward involuntarily, his mouth opening, ogling her in surprise as his heart gave a sudden jolt.
“ 2025 …?” he gasped.
The girl nodded.
Amory took back, slowly facing forward and feeling a great, heavy shock overcoming him, inhaling a deep, shaking breath and blowing a strand of his curly black hair from his face. He leaned forward on the table, coiling his hands together and pressing them both to his mouth, falling eerily still and silent as the heaviness of it all set in.
As he sat there, perfectly still and quiet now, his hands were clasping together even harder, both of them beginning to shake.
The girl stared down at him with a conflicted visage, studying him and seeming to sense that something was wrong. She turned, eyeing the front of the counter and seeing that the group of college guys had finally left the area of the cashier. Then, she turned back, gazing down at Amory, who was inhaling another long, trembling breath, staring directly forward and looking almost traumatized.
Sighing, the girl reclaimed her spot in the bench across from him, folding her arms over the table and watching him closely.
“You hungry?” she asked.
Amory’s eyes flickered over to hers, and she only just noticed that they were watering now.
After a moment of taking in another shaking breath, he finally lowered his hands again, wiping his eye and nodding.
“Yeah,” he choked with a laugh, nodding and smiling at her. “Yeah, I’m actually starving…”
The girl smirked, a pained little grin, seeing this man’s brilliant smile emerge despite how terrible he apparently felt.
“Okay, well… they usually want money when you order food,” she remarked, warranting another little laugh from him. “I’ll get you something, okay?”
Amory gulped, staring into her as a tear rolled down his cheek.
“Thank you,” he said gratefully, flashing his winning smile once again.
“No problem,” the girl replied kindly. “You seem like you’re having a bad day…”
“Oh… it’s been all over the place,” Amory chuckled, shaking his head down at the table.
The two of them paused for a second.
Then, Amory squinted at her, and he thought to ask. “What’s your name…?”
“Xena,” the girl introduced, reaching over the table. “You?”
“I’m Amory,” Amory replied, returning her handshake. “Thank you so much.”
“Don’t worry about it… it’s just dinner,” Xena laughed, tapping on the menu in front of him. “It’s not a big deal. Just let me know what you want.”
“I like this,” Amory said, lifting the menu and pointing at the picture of cheese-covered tater tots. “This looks really good.”
“Oh, yeah… me and my nephew like those, too,” Xena nodded. “We’ll just get two plates of that, and one to go.”
Amory smiled, feeling warmed by her presence, and silently thanking God that a kind soul was somewhere close by him right now. He felt horribly out of place, and he had no idea what he was going to do from here, or how he was going to find Zyon, Raven, Crowe, or anyone else—but meeting a nice stranger was certainly making him feel better.
Then, another thought occurred to him, and he gave her a questioning look.
“Don’t you have to take dinner to your nephew…?” he asked.
“Oh. Well…” Xena shrugged and nodded sideways. “He has snacks to eat in the meantime… whereas I have nothing to eat all freaking day. He can wait a little bit. I can’t.”
“Oh,” Amory laughed.
“Yeah… and it’s not gonna take long, anyway,” Xena said. “He’s in the motel right behind here. He’ll get his dinner soon. He’ll actually come here and get it himself if I take too long. Heh.”
“He’s in a motel…?”
“Yeah… I work there, and right now, me and him are living in one of the rooms on a discount.”
“Oh…”
Amory stared, wondering why she was living in a motel with her nephew, or where the boy’s parents were, but he figured there must have been a story attached to their situation, and he certainly didn’t want to pry into her business, so he decided not to question her about it.
“Hey… what do you want to drink?” Xena asked.
“Oh… just water, please,” Amory replied. “Thank you.”
Xena nodded, then stood and headed over to the counter, ordering the cheese-covered tater tots and the beverages before making her way back to the booth. When she sat down again, she intertwined her fingers atop the table, surveying him curiously.
“So… like…” she uttered, loosely waving at his dirt-smeared shirt. “Is there a story here, or…?”
Amory sniggered and dropped his head, then raised his arm, only just noticing a freshly-torn hole in his sleeve near the elbow. “Where the hell did that come from…?”
Xena laughed again. “So what happened?”
“Well… that’s…” Amory slowly lowered his arm, making a shrug. “It’s a long story… and I don’t… remember all of it.”
“You don’t?” Xena asked. “What… like you have amnesia?”
“Kind of…” Amory mumbled. “I don’t remember everything from right before… I woke up in the woods on the edge of town…”
Xena narrowed her eyes. “Do you drink?”
“No…”
“Do drugs?”
“No, not on purpose…”
Xena shot him a double-take. “Not on purpose …?”
Amory simply nodded.
Xena stared, scoffing out a disbelieving laugh. “Holy crap. I hope somebody didn’t sneak a dose of fentanyl in you somehow. People are so screwed up…”
Amory chuckled, shaking his head. “Well, no, it was more like…”
“Here you go, hun,” a waitress said, stopping at their table and removing a small plate of cheesy tots from her tray, placing it in front of Xena. “And, here’s yours…”
The waitress placed the second plate in front of Amory, immediately seizing his attention. The woman set a glass of ice water next to him and a glass of sweet tea next to Xena, then turned and walked away.
Xena took a sip of her drink before grabbing her fork, pausing and staring at Amory, who was staring down at his plate of food rather longingly.
She let out a laugh again. “What…?”
Amory’s mouth drifted open, mildly shaking his head, staring into the small pile of cheese-slathered tater tots and feeling wholly enamored by them.
“Nothing, I jus…” he murmured distractedly. “I’m really hungry…”
“Well… eat,” Xena shrugged, stabbing a tot with her fork. “It’s really good. Trust me. It’s like our favorite thing to get here.”
Amory still hesitated, gazing into the hot fresh food and feeling almost intimidated by it. During his time in the lab, there was a five-meal rotation, involving pre-frozen pizza squares, ham sandwiches, bean burritos, spaghetti, and ramen noodles. He only just realized that he hadn’t had any genuinely decent food in a very long time.
Biting his lip anxiously, he lifted his fork, inserted it into one of the cheesiest tater tots on his plate, and lifted it to his mouth, biting it off and chewing it slowly. Then, he made a muffled little noise, dropping the fork and holding a fist to his mouth. He stopped chewing instantly, turning and gazing out the window at the now darkened sky, and he fell eerily still.
Xena took her third bite, then glanced up at him. “What’s wrong?”
Amory paused, then swallowed his food and lowered his hand, facing forward again and smiling brilliantly, his eyes watering again.
“Nothing,” he said happily, shaking his head once and choking out a laugh. “Nothing…”
He lifted the fork again and took another bite, making a few mild laughs while he ate, and he soon began to scarf down his meal.
Xena finished half of her plate before she noticed that he was eating rather savagely and she stopped for a second, giving him another strange look.
“Did you just get out of a prison or something?” she asked. “Or… some other place where they don’t feed you real food?”
“M-hm,” Amory nodded at her with a mouthful of food.
Xena tilted her head, eyeing him oddly. “Really?”
“Yeah… but… i’n wasnn…” Amory paused, only just remembering that he couldn’t speak with his mouth full. He swallowed, cleared his throat, and continued. “Ahm… sorry… no, it wasn’t a prison , exactly. Not… not really…”
Xena squinted at him. “What was it?”
“It was a lab,” Amory told her, taking another bite.
Xena continued to gaze at him with intrigue.
“Canterbury Lab?” she asked.
Amory nodded, chewing another mouthful.
“Sheezus… what did they do there?” Xena uttered.
Amory finished his food, lifting the plate and licking three parts of it before setting it back down and meeting her eyes again.
“It was a… I don’t know what you call it,” he admitted with a shrug. “For a lot of the other people showing up there, it was a voluntary thing where they sign up to participate in medical trials… but, for me and my friends… we’d just been there for most of our lives.”
Xena said nothing, her mouth barely drifting agape. “Did… did your parents sign something where they could just… take you to a lab? You could sue them. That doesn’t sound legal.”
“Oh… no… they’re long gone,” Amory sighed, glancing off to the side again. “Canterbury doesn’t exist anymore, apparently…”
Xena ogled him in bewilderment.
Amory took a sip of his water, then placed it down and smiled gratefully at her.
“Thank you so much,” he said honestly. “You… you really made my day a lot better.”
Xena opened her mouth, wanting to question him more, as many parts of his story simply left her hanging—but she silently decided against it, nodding and offering him a smile.
“Yeah… don’t worry about it. You’re welcome,” she said. “But… are you gonna be okay? You have anywhere to go?”
Amory stared at her for a second.
“I have an idea for that,” he said softly, glancing away. “For right now, anyway…”
Xena nodded quietly.
“Okay… here you go, hun,” the waitress said, stopping by their table again and placing a brown paper bag in front of her. “Here’s your tots to go.”
“Thank you,” Xena replied, smiling and waving as the woman walked off.
She looked back to Amory, who finished off his water and sighed.
“Well… I shouldn’t take up any more of your time,” Amory disclosed, moving to scoot out of the bench. “Thank you again.”
“Wait… hang on a second,” Xena said, raising a finger and sliding her hand into the pocket of her cargo pants. “Just… real quick…”
Amory hovered on the edge of the bench, watching her patiently.
Xena pulled out her wallet, flipped it open, and pulled two twenty-dollar bills out of it.
“Here… in case you need to eat again anytime soon,” she said, sliding the two bills over to him and pointing at the glass double-doors.
Amory raised his brows at the bills, then at her, shaking his head. “Oh, I can’t take this…”
“Yeah you can,” Xena insisted, scooting them closer.
“It’s too much,” Amory argued, his voice softening. “I really don’t need that much.”
“Oh… yeah you do, trust me,” Xena laughed. “Half the crap in town costs twice as much as it used to now.”
Amory opened his mouth to argue, but he fell momentarily silent, sighing heavily and thinking that she might have been right. He hadn’t seen the outside world since 1973, and he’d missed out on fifty-two years of the world’s endeavors. The cost of things could have been entirely different now, for all he knew.
Feeling somewhat guilty, he slid his hand onto the table, placing his fingers over the bills and giving her a hesitant look.
“I’m sorry,” Amory sighed faintly.
“Why’re you sorry?” Xena replied with a laugh. “Just take it. It’s fine.”
Amory smiled sadly, taking the bills and sighing again.
The waitress returned one last time, placing the bill and the receipt on the table before walking away and giving them her farewells for the evening.
“Okay… one more thing,” Xena said, scooting the receipt and the pen close to herself. “Let me write down my number… and if you need anything, like food, or a place to sleep… you can just text me. I’m pretty sure I can get another discount room at the motel, since they can’t get by without me right now.”
Amory stared at her. “Text…?”
“Yeah… or call,” Xena shrugged, finishing writing her number and sliding the receipt over to him. “Whatever you want.”
Amory took the paper, seeing her phone number written crookedly on the bottom corner. Then, he raised his head and glimpsed outside for a second before facing her again.
“Do you know where the nearest payphone is?” Amory asked.
Xena paused for a second. “Um… I haven’t seen one in a long time, to be honest. But if you don’t have a phone, you can just come here and use theirs. They don’t care.”
“Oh… okay,” Amory muttered, nodding and placing the receipt in his palm along with the two twenties. “Thank you so much. Seriously…”
“No problem… don’t worry about it,” Xena dismissed. “I’ve been in hard situations, too… and it really bothers me that people don’t even care about that most of the time, even though pretty much everybody’s going through it right now. I mean… I don’t have a lot of money to spare, but… y’know. I’ll help you out as much as I can.”
“Thank you,” Amory smiled, feeling as if he simply couldn’t say it enough. “I’ll pay you back for this. I really will.”
“You’re welcome,” Xena said. “And don’t worry about it. Be careful.”
Amory nodded and slid out of the booth, turning and waving her off with a quick goodbye, then he strolled out the glass double-doors.
He emerged under the night sky, the parking lot mostly empty now, and the wind gentle and cold. He took in a deep, refreshing breath, still smiling calmly, and feeling rather touched. He hadn’t expected to be treated so kindly by a perfect stranger.
Still, as his thoughts of his friends and the long-gone lab returned to his mind, he let out a heavy sigh, and he broke into another stride, marching down the sidewalk and heading back toward the edge of town from where he’d come. The abandoned mansion in the woods seemed like as good a place as any for him to spend the night, and he felt incredibly tired now…
By the time he was trekking up the long, grassy hillside, a gentle rainfall had started, and he marched toward the single pathway that led toward the mansion, a dirt path that looked like it might have been tire tracks at one point in time. They led onto the property, past the black metal bars of the old fence, and past a large rectangular sign that stood on the edge of the yard, mounted on the ground and partly overgrown with weeds and vines.
Amory approached the old sign, squinting at it and pulling one of the vines back. Then, his mouth eased open, blinking and rereading the sign twice more in disbelief.
In elegant Old English letters, the sign read: Evervale Manor
Amory slowly took back, a wave of shock unraveling down his spine, feeling as if he was living through a dream. The number of unthinkable things to happen today was astronomical—but this made him feel even more like he might have been losing his mind.
His gaze ventured up to the old, spooky mansion, eyeing it closely and wondering where it had come from, who it actually belonged to; perhaps it was someone else in his family, or perhaps, somehow, someone had expected him to come here.
Shaking his head, he broke into a brisk stride toward the large front porch and the mansion’s double-doors, seeing a brief shine behind their stain-glass windows. Without thought, he marched up the two wide stairs, pushed the doors open, and walked inside.
Contrary to what he’d expected, the inside was not entirely shrouded in darkness; before him was a wide, spacious room with a black and white floor, windows on either side, a pair of wooden double-doors far to the back, and twin sconces resided on either wall, all of them with candles, and all of them lit, the room aglow with the calming orange light of the many dancing flames. Far across the room was a single grandfather clock against the wall, a rounded stairway off to the right—and there, just in front of the clock, a man stood, facing away, gazing up at the face of the clock with his hands pocketed in his long black trench coat.
The front doors eased shut behind him—and Amory stood still there, staring across the enormous room, his eyes narrowing, fixating on the man as his heart began to pound.
He slowly began to move closer.
As he did—the man turned around, revealing his face, his sharp blue eyes and short black hair, someone he’d seen countless times before, and yet, never laid eyes upon before today.
Amory choked out a faint little noise of astonishment at the sight of him.
“You are here,” he uttered breathlessly.
Zyon flashed a flattened sort of smile, making a nod.
The two merely stared at one another for a few seconds, each seeming longer than the last.
“And… you,” Zyon said in his low, softened rasp, sauntering slowly closer. “You… have no idea what all you’ve done… do you?”
Amory continued to stare, transfixed, hardly even registering what the man had said. He just couldn’t believe he was staring directly at Zyon, in real life—the angel from his dream world—standing before him now, talking, walking, realer than ever.
“Well… you have done something… that might potentially rescue the souls of everyone who was undertaken by Canterbury,” Zyon informed, stopping a few feet away. “But… that is only if we continue to act from here on.”
Amory still didn’t reply, his mouth hanging halfway agape, surveying the man as if he simply could not believe he was there.
Zyon read his expression, gently tilting his head at him. “You appear to be rather confused.”
Amory scoffed out another disbelieving breath.
“I jus…” he muttered, shaking his head and stepping forward. “I can’t believe y…”
He reached out, poking Zyon in the chest, then slapped him once on the arm, scanning him up and down as if he expected the man to vanish before his eyes, or to flicker out like a dream—but he remained there, standing directly in front of him.
“I can’t believe you’re here here,” Amory grinned.
Zyon’s mouth curled, his subtle half-smile emerging. Just when he opened his mouth to reply—Amory tackled him with a tight embrace, silencing him and nearly startling him. The angel blinked and paused, then returned the hug, patting him on the back.
“Well… you brought me here, Amory,” Zyon said. “You really have no idea what you’ve done, do you…?”
Amory stepped back, still smiling, but squinting questioningly at him.
Zyon slid his hands back into his pockets.
“It goes far beyond the simple psionic tricks you’ve been playing around with over the years,” the angel informed. “The side-effects of that ‘procedure’ would almost inevitably result in an expanded mind that creates new abilities, regardless of what the recipient allowed in… but no one who allowed demons inside would be capable of doing what you can really do.”
Amory stared at him. “What I can really do…?”
“You traveled in time today,” Zyon stated. “I’m not the one who brought us here. You are.”
Amory fell silent.
“In fact… you’ve saved a lot of lives, and you’ve made a lot of gateways through time, too,” Zyon added. “Which very well might enable us to find the runaway Canterburys… before Valek and his men have a chance to do the same.”
“What’re you… wait.” Amory held up a hand. “I’m lost. What now…?”
Zyon prepared to explain further, then stopped, sighing and massaging his forehead. He fell silent, his eyes closed, looking as if he felt ill.
Amory examined him, his eyes traveling down to the side of the angel’s neck, where the small rounded bruise was in plain view.
“You’re not okay, are you…?” Amory asked glumly.
“No… I am still… not well,” Zyon sighed again, lowering his hand. “But… no angel has ever been captured and repeatedly dosed with concentrated evil before. I have no way of knowing how long it’s going to take for me to recover, but I expect my power to be limited and my mind to be foggy for an… unforeseen amount of time…”
Amory frowned. “How long have you been… y’know… out?”
Zyon raised his eyebrows, huffing out a breath. “Since… 1944.”
Amory blinked and shot him a look. “You were really in a demon coma for forty-four years …? Okay, well, no wonder you don’t feel good. It probably is gonna take you a while to get all that weirdo garbage out of your system…”
He paused and gave the angel a curious little squint.
“But you…” Amory said, waving loosely in front of Zyon, gesturing at him as if he was a unique anomaly. “You’re all… you’re all human . Don’t angels have like… a different form? They do in the bible, don’t they? Couldn’t you just take your true form and get rid of your human body? Then you might get rid of all the poison in your system… maybe…”
“My angel form would devastate this town and the adjacent towns and cities, not to mention cause countless natural disasters,” Zyon told him. “My being human is not just something I prefer to do. It’s necessary to do if I am to walk the earth—or else I could very easily kill and destroy countless people across this entire region.”
Amory stared, his mouth hanging open again, and he began to nod. “Okay, well, then… yeah… never mind. Let’s not do that…”
“It’s also… not… necessary,” Zyon determined, his gaze landing on Amory’s, looking serious. “Because… now… there is you.”
Amory went quiet again, swallowing and fidgeting with the end of his baggy sleeve.
“In your final act… of righteous justice… you sent every patient of Canterbury out of Canterbury,” Zyon explained. “Which… as it happens… consisted mostly of young children. Patients that you never saw during your time there. The rifts tore wide open, and the children were scattered through time throughout the 20th and the 21st centuries.”
Amory simply ogled him, feeling utterly perplexed.
“If… I am gauging the sensation of misplaced temporal energy correctly… then, I believe… the rifts reach all the way from 1925… to… here,” Zyon determined, rubbing his temples again. “It’s not fully clear… but that… is what I feel…”
“1925 to 2025,” Amory uttered. “That’s a perfect hundred years…”
“It could be by divine design,” Zyon said, lowering his hands again. “Or, it could just be a numerical coincidence… but… yes. If I am correct… the children have been sent to different time periods between 1925 and 2025. Valek and his forces will be looking for them… which means… they need to be taken to safety before the Legion can reach them.”
“Wait… are you telling me I have to… hop all over time? ” Amory asked, totally flabbergasted. “I don’t even know where to go, or what any of these kids’ names are, or how many there are, or… anything! I don’t even know how I got here, and I definitely don’t know how to do it again! And how could Valek go looking for these kids if they were all sent through time? Demons can’t time-travel too, can they?!”
“Well… they can now,” Zyon replied grimly. “Canterbury Lab just became the heart of several open rifts and broken time periods… and Valek will use that to his advantage. I imagine he will utilize his twisted science and create gateways in the remnants of his facility… but… we can do the very same thing here.”
Then, the angel turned and began walking towards a single black door at the end of the room.
Amory made a face and broke into a brisk jog to follow him.
The two of them opened the door and emerged in another large room, this one rounded, and the floorboard was a perfect checkerboard pattern, a single couch pushed against the wall, just across from an old fireplace and a huge, box-shaped television, its dark screen coated in a heavy layer of dust. On the other side of this room was a long row of rectangular windows, facing the back of the property, though all that could be seen out them was darkness as of now.
Amory’s eyes instantly landed on the television—a huge, wood-paneled TV that looked eerily too familiar for him to ignore.
“That looks like my… my Dad’s TV,” he breathed, strolling over to it and giving it a surveying once-over. “It looks exactly like the one that was in our house growing up…”
Zyon pocketed his hands and nodded.
Amory raised his head, giving him a skeptical look and approaching him again.
“Why does the sign outside say Evervale Manor?” he asked.
Zyon stared, sighing heavily, not replying right away.
“I’ve been connected to you for a long time,” he said softly. “And I have seen the light of your future and the darkness of your past. In fact… I’ve seen so much of you that I… have seen… even beyond you now.”
Amory cocked his head oddly at him.
“Things that are connected to you… but also… beyond you,” Zyon muttered. “Like… Raven Evervale, and where she’d gone after leaving the lab… and Candice and Joseph Evervale, too.”
Amory slowly took back, now looking even more perturbed.
“And… as divine providence would have it… Candice and Joseph Evervale both lived very long, fruitful lives, eventually purchasing this old historic property and living out their golden years here,” Zyon informed. “In their deaths, in 2020, and in 2024… they did with this home what they had planned to do with it for a long while. They left it to their only next of kin… their children, Raven and Amory Evervale.”
Amory reeled back slightly more, making a slow, strange shake of the head. “That doesn’t sound like my parents.”
Zyon sighed again. “People are complicated, Amory.”
There was a pause.
Then, Zyon turned, moving across the room and studying both of the walls on either side.
“But, the reason I brought you in here… is simply because… this room is a good fit for what we need,” he said, stopping in the center of the room and turning back around to face him. “We… are going to have a room… dedicated solely to seeking out the children of time.”
Amory stared, still not quite understanding.
“I don’t…” he uttered. “I don’t get it… why would Valek go through the trouble of time-traveling to find these kids? There were other patients at Canterbury that ended up leaving the lab, and he never seemed to care.”
“Well… he’s going to care now ,” Zyon told him firmly. “Because now… he knows that any of those patients could have been dosed with the holy spirit rather than his demonic influences. He knows now that I have been interfering with his procedures… and he will not allow that to go without attempting to enact his retribution. I reached out to everyone… everyone in Canterbury. Some allowed me in, and some did not. I can’t say who, for sure… but all of those children are in danger… and they are also… all… a gamble.”
Amory narrowed his eyes at him. “A gamble…?”
“Yes. Meaning… any of them could be touched by the holy spirit,” Zyon elaborated. “Or… any of them could be possessed by a demon. We’ll have no way of knowing for sure which ones are which until we find them. But… the ones that accepted my protection… they will be the ones who are in danger. The rest… will simply be a danger.”
“Oh.” Amory nodded and looked away, tossing up a hand. “Well that’s great…”
“And it’s not only children, per se,” Zyon continued. “They were children when they were sent out of the lab—but when we find them lost in time, they could be any age, and they could be anyone. And this isn’t just an issue that involves the lost children of the lab, either—it involves every ex-Canterbury patient. Every last one.”
Amory slowly stopped, turning back around to face him and wearing an uncharacteristically severe expression.
Zyon nodded gravely, affirming his thoughts. “Yes—that means Crowe, Raven, and every other friend you made there. They are all in danger, too—and they will likely be the first to be targeted, because there is no time-travel required for Valek and his forces to pursue them. They are all in 1988—all in the same place, and all in the same town.”
“Well—then what the hell are we still standing here talking for?!” Amory griped, swatting the air. “I have to go back! I have to go get—”
“Calm— down ,” Zyon said in a flat, stern voice, holding up a hand and giving him a look. “We are talking about time-travel , Amory. We are not wasting time by simply standing here and organizing a plan beforehand. Do you understand?”
Amory fell silent, huffing out a breath and making a nod.
Zyon slowly lowered his hand, then gestured to the right, then to the left. “Do you see how these walls are clear? No doors, windows, or fixtures at all?”
Amory glanced at either wall, nodding again.
“Well… this room makes the perfect place… to set up our doorways through time,” Zyon told him, turning to the left wall and extending his hand. “And, I believe… the very first doorway we should make… should lead right back to 1988.”
Suddenly—Zyon’s eyes brightened a brilliant blue, a fantastical aura emanating from all around him as he focused intently on the wall.
Amory raised his eyebrows, observing in fascination and slowly moving closer.
A beam of white light emerged from Zyon’s feet—shooting across the floor and over the tiles until it reached the wall. Then, it expanded, traveling up the wall and creating a tall, rectangular shape there.
In seconds—a dark blue door began to materialize before their eyes.
“Whoa,” Amory grinned, hunching by the angel’s side and beaming as he watched a brand new door fully form in front of them.
Zyon continued to glare at the door, still using his power, focusing intently—then he lowered his arm and sighed, staggering back and falling as the light faded from around him.
“Oh—hey!” Amory gasped—snapping his arms around him and hitting his knees, catching him just before he could hit the floor. “Zyon! What happened? Y’okay?!”
Zyon lay slumped crookedly back against him, looking utterly drained.
“Can’t finish it right now,” the angel breathed hoarsely. “I can’t finish it right now…”
His eyes drifted shut, and Amory stared down at him, looking and feeling troubled.
The longer he sat on his knees, holding the now unconscious angel, the more it began to make sense to him. Zyon had been poisoned and sedated by a wicked amount of evil power for a very long time, and it seemed it truly would take a while for him to recover from that terrible endeavor. He had only just been freed from the lab, after all. Neither of them could expect that he’d be in top shape to utilize his power.
What he needed now was rest.
Amory slid his arms beneath Zyon’s, levering him off the ground and dragging him gently over to the couch. Then, he released him and stood, flourishing his wrist—and lifting Zyon off the ground, the angel’s body hovering above the tiles, the trench coat dangling off him and lightly grazing the floor. With a slow, steady movement of the hand, Amory guided him above the couch cushions, carefully lowered him, and laid him easefully on the couch, allowing him to simply sleep and rest there.
He lowered his hand, stared for a moment longer, then turned, glancing at the dark blue door.
Amory sighed, marching over to it and pulling it open—and he found nothing but the wall behind it, the wall of the room, looking the same as it had before the door and its frame were both there.
He slowly closed it again, his hand lingering there, resting on it, staring at it and taking in a deep, thoughtful breath.
He still felt incredibly impatient; the idea of Valek sending men out to hunt down the runaway Canterbury patients set him on edge, and he thought of Crowe and Raven, pondering dreadfully on how much danger they were in, a sick churning beginning to fester inside him.
Perhaps Zyon was not yet ready to organize a means of time-travel-but maybe Amory could do it on his own. Maybe he could finish manifesting a physical doorway to 1988—or maybe he could simply leap back there by himself, which was evidently how he’d landed himself here.
Still, the longer he stood here staring into the blue door, the more he began to notice how truly exhausted he felt. He’d had an incredibly long day, and he still hadn’t slept at all. Not to mention, he didn’t much like the idea of leaving Zyon alone while he was in such a bad state.
And—as the angel had said—he didn’t have to worry about wasting time before a rescue, not with the element of time-travel in play.
Perhaps he did have the time to rest and recuperate before he set off to find his friends.
Amory let out a final, definitive sigh, his hand slumping off of the door, and he turned and gazed across the room at Zyon again. Then, he wheeled around, spotted another couch along the far windows, and flicked his wrist at it—dragging it across the room and halting it crookedly nearby the other one.
Despite how very fatigued he was—he ended up lying on this couch and staring at the ceiling for hours before he finally managed to get any sleep.