Hexad: The Chamber Read online

  Dale led Amanda down the garden to the seating area and slumped into a weathered Adirondack chair. "Tell me all about it, don't hold anything back."

  Amanda looked around guardedly, then said, "Well, if you're sure?"

  Dale just nodded. What choice did he have?

  ~~~

  "We did what!?"

  "Told you it was kind of crazy. Who would have believed it, right? Us, responsible for breaking time, the death of universes, then we, well you and the other Amanda, fixed it. Almost. You killed all the other Amandas that were housed in that terrible room, and then it was all fixed, everything went back to normal. Like none of it ever happened."

  "Except not quite, right? Otherwise you wouldn't be here, you wouldn't have ever existed."

  "Exactly. You and the other me made one huge mistake."

  Dale didn't like the way this was headed. "And what's that?"

  "You didn't kill me. Now there are two of us, when there should only be one. I shouldn't be here, or her, as it means there is a continuity of what went on in the past. Well, the future to be more precise, but it doesn't matter."

  "So, um, why are you here? Sorry, that sounded like I'm not glad you are, but all of this is a bit hard to take. It sounds made up."

  "I know, but I am here, you have the proof this is real. I am here to kill Amanda, the other one, then we will be all right. I think."

  "You think! What, we just go in there and stick a knife in her?"

  "No Dale, not we. You."

  It Gets Worse

  3 Hours 19 Minutes Past

  "That sounds like the craziest piece of logic I've ever heard. There is simply no way I'm doing it. None." Dale folded his arms across his chest, resolute.

  Amanda burst into tears. "Dale I've missed you awfully; it's been so lonely, and terrible. The things that happened, it was too much, too much to take. And besides, you've done it before, hundreds of times."

  "So you said, but I don't believe it. There is simply no way that I would go around killing anyone, let alone you, or versions of you. Certainly not over and over again."

  "Well that's what happened."

  "But you didn't see it, did you? This is just what this Caretaker told you has happened, will happen. Whatever." Dale waved it all away, it was the stuff of nonsense, gibberish spouted by people locked in asylums for their own good.

  "Yes, and I believe him. Look, I've lived through all that happened, I was a part of so much: finding the Hexads, us digging up that damn note under the tree, being chased by Laffer, all the stuff I've told you, it's all true."

  "Okay, okay, so you say. Even if I believe every word you've said it doesn't mean I can do it. How can you ask this of me?"

  "Because it's all still going on. The mess. We didn't solve a thing, not really."

  "Because The Caretaker told you?"

  "Not really, no, although he did. But it's because I'm still here, still have a Hexad, know where I can get lots more. It's all going to repeat itself over and over. There's another reason too..."

  "Come on then, tell me." Dale could sense that Amanda was holding things back and there was a lot more to this incredible story than she had told him so far.

  "Because, well, because you aren't my Dale. I'm sorry."

  Dale got the now all-too-familiar icy feeling creeping up his spine, making him think of the room Amanda had described, feeling like he too was on a hook, spinal fluid draining away along with his sanity. Resigned, he said, "Okay, spill it."

  "I've searched and searched, but you aren't my Dale, not the one I have lived with for so long. I'd know you anywhere."

  "The scent?"

  Amanda nodded. "The scent. It's off somehow, this isn't you."

  "I don't understand. After all you've told me, how can I not be me? Of course I am."

  "Well, yes, of course you're you," said Amanda, like she was speaking to a child. "Just not the you that I lived with. You're a different one. You aren't the one that had all the adventures with me, you are a Dale that woke up one morning after getting very drunk and thought he was with a different version of the Amanda that he thought he knew."

  "I am, aren't I?"

  "Yes, and no."

  "Bloody hell Amanda, this is doing my head in. What are you talking about?"

  "I didn't want to do this, tell you this, but that is your Amanda in your bed, you just had a weird dream when you woke up, you were just confused, everything would have been all right. A few hours later and you would have forgotten all about it."

  Dale was having a really hard time trying to get things straight in his mind. "I don't understand. You said—"

  "I know what I said. I lied."

  "You lied. Why? You wanted me to kill her! Kill you."

  "I know, I know, I had no choice Dale. Honestly."

  "Tell me."

  "I'm lonely Dale, so lonely. I've searched and I've searched, jumped into countless alternate universes, and we aren't together in any of them, not any more. When you, you and the other Amanda, when you killed all those versions of me, then that was it, you repaired the damage, set the universes right, but it meant that I wasn't a part of your life then in any of them. You killed me in most of them before we ever met, or before we had a proper future together anyway. And in the few where we managed to have a life then it ended badly, or I was killed, by you, or by the other Amanda. Or the detective."

  Dale felt his palms beginning to sweat. "What detective?"

  "It doesn't matter for now. But I'm sorry, I need you."

  "Just tell me one thing, is she my Amanda, the one in bed?"

  "No Dale, she isn't."

  "So that part was true, that she is the one that came to help sort things out?" Amanda just nodded. "But you are my real Amanda aren't you? You have to be, you smell right."

  "Not quite Dale, but it's so close that it may as well be us, the us that were always together."

  "But we're not?"

  "No. Yes and no. Look, this us here, we lived, or would have lived, lives so similar to the ones we do that it makes no difference, not really. In all the places I've been, not just in time but in parallel universes, you are the only one where we stay together, where we have a future."

  "And how do you know this? No, don't tell me, because you've jumped to check, haven't you?"

  "Yes, I have. If you let me stay then it will work, if we do what we're supposed to do. I need you Dale, you're my only hope."

  "But I'm not your Dale. How can you be happy with that?"

  "I can get over a little change in your scent Dale, that's the only difference. There aren't any Dales that remember what happened because of the Hexads, all that changed when the last Amanda was killed that was in the room, but it doesn't mean there aren't still countless other versions out there. But none of them are your true Amanda, and do you want to know why?"

  "No, not really." Dale watched as Amanda began to cry. It was just getting worse by the minute but he had to know. "Okay, get it over with."

  "Because, Dale, you are dead."

  "What do you mean I'm dead?"

  "I mean that the Dale that had all the adventures with me until we got split up, he died. The Universe set things right when you finished in that room, and then you vanished. Poof, gone."

  "But I'm here, right here," protested Dale.

  "You are, but you aren't him. All those things that happened, they didn't happen to you, they happened to him. Then when things were reset you were gone. I went to find you, but you'd never existed. It all became too impossible after the mess we made of things because of the Hexads. When we repaired it all then the timeline you had been a part of was still too convoluted, so you simply popped out of existence. You were never born."

  "If that's the case," said Dale, head dizzy, the caffeine nowhere near enough to keep him straight, "then I have no part in this. It wasn't me that did any of it."

  "Like that matters. The version of you that did it all wouldn't remember even if he had ever existed. As so
on as reality was set straight then it stands to reason that you would be back in your own present, having no idea any of it had ever happened. You're all I have left Dale, I want you back."

  "But I never existed, so how could you want me back? You shouldn't be able to remember me at all if I never existed." Dale thought his reasoning made sense, as much as was possible with such a bizarre conversation.

  "I know, but I do. I was away from it all when it happened, when you and the new Amanda solved the problem, so for some reason I remember. And I've hunted for you for an age Dale, and you're the only one that is like my original Dale."

  "Apart from the fact I smell different and aren't really him?"

  "Exactly."

  "And you can live with that? Live with the knowledge that I'm not really, truly your guy?"

  "Yes, and do you know why?" asked Amanda, eyes moist yet Dale could tell she was refusing to cry. Dale shook his head. "Because apart from that one thing then you are him, you really are. And I love you Dale, I love you so very much."

  "I love you too Amanda, but you aren't my Amanda, you said so yourself. Not that I get it if I'm not the one that did any of those things anyway. How can I not be with my Amanda if it wasn't me that did any of what you have been saying?"

  "Ask her," said Amanda in shock, but seemingly resigned to what she appeared to know was happening.

  "Dale? What's going on?" said a sleepy Amanda, coming out the door in her green silk dressing gown, staring blearily at Dale and Amanda sat at the table.

  "Oh shit. This isn't good, is it?"

  "No. In fact it's very bad."

  "Don't come any closer, stay right there!" shouted Dale.

  Amanda kept on walking, shock spreading across her face as she looked at Dale and then at... herself.

  "Dale, what—"

  Amanda vanished. She was gone, just disappeared from where she had been walking towards them. Dale turned back to Amanda. "You knew, didn't you?"

  Amanda looked him in the eye, sad, but at the same time determined, resolute. "I'm sorry, I was so lonely. I had to be with you again. I'm sorry."

  Dale put his hands to his temples, trying to stop the pounding that felt like his head was going to split in two.

  He just wanted to mow the lawn and have a chilled out Saturday.

  A Wakeup Call

  3 Hours 19 Minutes Past

  "Change it back, right now."

  "I can't," said Amanda. "I'm sorry."

  "Just get out your thing, your Hexad, and jump us back a little, before she woke up."

  "It doesn't work like that Dale. If I do that then all that would happen is that we'd be sat next to that version of ourselves and then we'd probably all disappear, or one version of us anyway, and on and on it would go. She's gone, there's no changing it. It's for the best."

  "For the best? For the best! Are you kidding me? I just watched her disappear and you're saying it's for the best?"

  "Yes, because she wasn't your Amanda. You might be a Dale that never did time travel and have the things happen to him that my Dale did, but that's only because I came here and stopped you digging that hole, changing everything. But the rest is true. If I didn't come then everything that has happened would have happened to you and that wasn't your Amanda."

  "But none of that did happen to me, or will, not now, will it? So how could I have woken up to be with a different version of you?"

  "Because of the paradoxes. Some things just can't be put properly right."

  "And now they are?" Dale was furious, yet at the same time it didn't seem real. How could it when he was sat across from the love of his life? Even if she did have crow's feet forming at the corners of her eyes. It was still his Amanda. It felt right; it was her. "So what are you saying? That wasn't her even though because of what a different me did it should have been?"

  "No," sighed Amanda. "It wasn't her because you would have done it all if I didn't return, so you would have woken up next to a different Amanda once everything was set right, so you did. That's the best I can do. It's happened, all that I told you, it's simply that it wasn't exactly you that did it, or, well, not did it once everything got put right."

  "Makes no sense at all. I need coffee; this can't be happening." Dale picked up the mugs and went into the kitchen to make coffee.

  He opened the cupboard door. A simple, familiar act.

  Dale blacked out, falling hard onto the tiles Amanda had said would be a good investment though he never understood how tiles could be seen as an investment. Bloody expensive, yes. An investment, no.

  The two mugs Dale had placed on the counter top were still where they had been before he'd taken them out of the cupboard to make the coffee. It seemed that mugs didn't follow the same rules as people in terms of being able to be in the presence of each other, were Dale's thoughts before he hit the ground.

  He never did see the mugs disappear into thin air just before they hit the tiles and cracked into a million pieces, just like his mind.

  ~~~

  Dale woke to find himself in bed, head pounding. Amanda had an arm over his back, clutching him like she never wanted to let him go, like she hadn't held him for years.

  Dale shot upright, thoughts a mess, trying to shake off his sleep. Was this a dream? Had it been a dream? Must have been. It didn't feel like one though.

  Amanda shifted at the sudden motion and sat up next to him. He turned, fearing the worst, happy to see her smiling back at him, hair disheveled like it always was first thing in the morning.

  "Morning love."

  "Morning Dale," said Amanda happily.

  Dale stared at her face. Since when did she have crow's feet?

  Dale thudded back on the pillow. Maybe if he just closed his eyes it would all go away and life would be uncomplicated once more.

  It didn't work.

  Strangely, and it proved that he really had lost his marbles, the first thing Dale thought was how could he be in bed if he'd traveled back in time. Surely he'd be lying on top of himself, or there would be one of those paradox things and the other him would have disappeared. No, that couldn't be right either, as if the other him disappeared then he wouldn't have gone on to have the kind of morning he'd had. Would he?

  "You didn't, did you?"

  Amanda looked at him, questioning what he meant, then realization dawned. "No, gosh, of course not. I love you Dale. It's early afternoon, we've gone to the pub."

  "Um, okay. How? If the other you disappeared then surely I can't be at the pub with her."

  "You're not, you're there with me, well, your Amanda, like you would have done if none of what I told you happened. Imagine if I never came here, you just woke up like normal, dug up the garden, began down the rabbit hole that I told you about — that's what's going on with them. We're intruders, of sorts."

  "Christ Amanda, this is too much. This is totally messing with my head you know?"

  "Well imagine how I feel. I saw a room full of countless versions of me all lobotomized, or whatever it was. Hung up like meat, being milked to power time travel devices. Not to mention being chased through time by a giant, searching for you through the ages and the universes, going to the future and seeing it empty, running around foreign lands, visiting Venice after it had been taken over by cats and—"

  "Okay, I get the point. So, now what?"

  "Now you give me the shagging of my life and then we get dressed."

  "Um, okay."

  ~~~

  Amanda had been intense in bed, yet Dale somehow felt like he was cheating. It had been exciting, wild, and... how could he explain it? Different. Like he was having an affair with his own lover. Was it that she was older now? No, that wasn't it. It was because it was Amanda yet it wasn't. That wasn't right either.

  It was like coming home. It felt like the most normal thing in the world as it was the woman he loved, the only woman he had ever loved.

  Amanda.

  As he showered and toweled himself dry he tried to get his new life
straight. He couldn't.

  As far as he could make out then he wasn't the Dale that Amanda had gone through so much with only for that Dale to then get sent back to when it all began and have no memory of it. According to her that Dale was gone. He couldn't help wondering what he had looked like. Was he a clone or did he have a different eye color? Different hair. Was he fat? Bald even?

  Maybe he'd ask Amanda. On second thoughts maybe he wouldn't.

  He had another idea, and padded barefoot back into the bedroom, where Amanda was sat on the edge of the bed brushing her still damp hair.

  Dale dropped his towel.

  "Busy?"

  Amanda turned and stared at him, eyes widening as her gaze traveled lower across his body. "No, but I can be."

  ~~~

  What is wrong with me? This feels so good, but so—

  Dale's reveries were interrupted by Amanda saying something. "What's that?"

  "I said we have to go, we'll be home soon."

  "Huh? Oh, right, the other us that is me and a different you. Of course, how silly of me."

  "No need to get sarcastic," pouted Amanda, face still flushed from their bedroom antics — the third time.

  "Yeah, well, I'm having kind of a hard time here."

  "I know, I can see," said Amanda, pulling back the bedsheets. "No time for that though. Come on, get dressed."

  Dale did as he was told, feeling terrible about himself, but really rather good at the same time. He stared at Amanda — she really did look radiant. Could this be real? And how come he was fine with her having not long ago made another version of her drop out of existence?

  Because she was still with him, that was why. It meant that nothing else seemed real, not when she was here and it felt so right. It still made no sense to him that for her he wasn't the right Dale but for him she was the right one, but then, if you thought about time travel even for a moment all it did was leave you confused, confounded, and you'd do anything to take your mind off it — even give your girlfriend, that wasn't really your girlfriend, the best rogering, or three, that you'd had in your entire life.