Chapter 31: Reconnecting (Part II)

The figure had fully formed in front of her revealing a young man with chubby cheeks and a blank expression, his short hair smoothed down around the bangs and tucked behind his ears. His lips stopped moving and his eyes scanned slowly, staring with surprise at Emily. She stared back, and then looked away, glancing down at the ground as she recalled the aftermath. The apparition above the iPhone didn’t move a muscle but for its mouth which opened slightly as it listened.

“I’d taken a few classes in sports first aid so I checked and he wasn’t breathing. So I did what I’d been taught and started CPR. I could only barely breathe myself but I knew it was my fault. The firemen had to pull me away from him to let the paramedics do their work.

“The rest of this story, you probably know. It’s all in the article. The doctors told me that if it wasn’t for me, he might not have made it. Little did they know, if it hadn’t been for me he wouldn’t have been in danger in the first place. Keeping his name concealed from the newspaper, setting up the fund for his treatment, it all came easily to me. His family accepts the anonymous charity because they can’t look a gift horse in the mouth at their income level.

“And now he rots there. Alone in a coma, and I don’t have the nerve to visit him.”

Elaine looked up from the Enoch as she loaded up a new screen. “There is more to this story that I know, but I don’t think you do.”

Even emotionally exhausted and distraught, Emily still held to her poise. Her back straight, eyes severe amidst the flush of her cheeks, she stared Elaine down. “I’ll not have you play games with me, Ms. Mercer.” She gestured to the stage behind her and the sound of the crowd. “Yes, I’ve been part of some shady dealings and if all of this is in fact my fault—and don’t think I don’t know what that cover-up could do to my political career—but I will not dangle on the end of your…”

“Emily?” The voice came almost out of nowhere—low, soft, and boyish and tentative as if it hadn’t known speech for long.

“Is that—” Emily dared her fingers forward, passing them through the projection from her phone. Puzzled, she looked at Elaine. “Is that really him?”

“It’s really him,” Elaine said.

Emily waved her hand in front of the holographic apparition and his eyes and head followed her hand. “…wait. How?”

Tracers chased his own hands as he lifted them up towards her, but did not move from the spot where he stood. Features blurred when he swung his head around, looking to the sides as if about to cross the street before fixing his gaze again on Emily. As his features resolved again, the white blur of teeth lit briefly behind a smile and his lips pursed.

“Are you really here, Emily?” he asked, testing the words with his tongue. “I’ve been swimming in these dreams for so long. I keep hearing voices. I keep hearing my father, but I never heard you. But I’ve seen you over and over again in my dreams. I dreamed that you made it to president of the student council. Is it true?”

“Not quite yet,” Emily said slowly. Stilling her breathing for a moment, she moved closer to the projection of her old friend. The air around him felt cold and she could see he stood astride her old iPhone, the one she gave Elaine at the beginning of the investigation. When she tried to touch his hand, hers passed through it as if it weren’t there and he didn’t show that he noticed. His eyes, however, followed her wherever she moved, tracking her every motion. “That’s been my goal this year and it’s not very far away in this moment. Victory is almost assured…”

“Good,” Chance said. “I’ve been thinking about you. About that in particular. I knew it couldn’t all be a dream.”

“So… You heard what I’d told Ms. Mercer just moments ago?”

Chance’s figure distorted and smeared like a TV with poor reception as he turned towards Elaine. For a moment, only his eyes sharpened to pale blue rings around black pupils; then he looked back to Emily. “About the fire?”

“Yes.”

“I don’t blame you for that, you know,” he said. He shrugged, a motion that caused his entire body to blot formlessly like watercolors trying to keep up with a fickle wind. “It sounds like you’ve been carrying that with you for a long time now. If that fire was anybody’s fault, it was nobody’s fault. I see you’ve gone on to do greater things. You’re chasing the dream we all hoped for. You’re living it.”

“But you’ve been in a coma…” Emily said.

“I know I’ve been in a coma for years, yet I feel as if I’ve been with you, arm in arm, every step of the way.”

Her eyes flickered to Elaine, catching on her gaze for a long moment before sliding off. “He’s still in a coma, isn’t he?”

Elaine nodded. “I’ve been able to build a bridge between your iPhone and his consciousness with my associate’s help; but he’s still in a coma and I don’t think we can keep this up much longer. However, I figured that I’d give you a little time to catch up before we did what we had to do and I figured it would allow me to fulfill the letter of our contract. You wanted me to find the person responsible for your mysterious popularity. I give you your stalker.”

“But why?” asked Emily. “How?”

“I can provide insight into that,” said a nearby voice. Another holographic figure materialized nearby—that of a long-haired girl wearing a lab coat, limned by a halo of blue light. She nodded towards Elaine. “I’ve been able to triangulate the signal, boss, and Zane is ready. On your mark.”

“Steady, Hadaly,” Elaine said. “Please let Emily and Chance in on what we know about their strange story.”