Chapter 148: 148 Between Worlds

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148: Between Worlds 148: Between Worlds Mishka and Bruce moved quickly through the hotel’s side exit, avoiding the main lobby where her father—or whatever was wearing his face—might be searching for her.

The afternoon sun cast long shadows across the street as they hurried toward the parking garage.

“We need to find Nathaniel,” Mishka said, her voice low.

“He’ll understand what my mother was talking about.”

Bruce nodded, his heightened senses scanning their surroundings.

“I texted him while I was looking for you.

He said he’d meet us at the old clock tower downtown.”

“Why there?”

“Something about ‘neutral ground’ and ‘fewer electronic eyes.’ He sounded paranoid.”

“With good reason,” Mishka said, thinking of her mother’s warning.

“If these…

frequencies can move through connections, they might be able to access digital networks too.

They reached Bruce’s car, and he unlocked it with a quick press of the key fob.

As Mishka reached for the door handle, she froze, staring at her reflection in the window.

For a split second, the face looking back wasn’t quite hers—the eyes too dark, the smile too perfect.

“Mishka?” Bruce’s voice pulled her back.

“You okay?”

She blinked, and her reflection returned to normal.

“Just tired.

It’s been a hell of a day.”

The drive downtown was tense with unspoken questions.

Bruce kept glancing at her, clearly trying to figure out how to ask about what he had witnessed at the koi pond.

Finally, he broke the silence.

“So your mother…

she’s alive?

But not alive?

In some other dimension?”

Mishka stared out the window at the passing city.

“She called it ‘harmonics between frequencies.’ A place where our physics doesn’t apply.” She turned to look at him.

“Bruce, when you saw her, what did you see exactly?”

His hands tightened on the steering wheel.

“A woman who looked like the photos I’ve seen of your mother, but…

transparent, somehow.

Like she was made of light and water.” He hesitated.

“My wolf could smell her, sort of.

But it wasn’t a human scent.

More like ozone after lightning.”

“That matches what I experienced,” Mishka said.

“She seemed real, but not entirely here.

She said she’s been ‘displaced,’ not dead.”

“And she thinks your father and grandmother have been…

what?

Possessed?”

“Not possessed.

Copied, maybe.

She said these entities are ‘taking impressions’ of people.” Mishka touched the disk in her pocket.

“I need to understand how this thing works.

It’s part of the key, along with my mother’s recording.

They pulled up to the clock tower, a remnant of the city’s Victorian past that had somehow survived amidst gleaming skyscrapers.

Nathaniel was waiting by the entrance, his usual flamboyance subdued by a simple black coat.

His eyes widened as they approached.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said to Mishka.

“That’s pretty much what happened.” She studied his face carefully.

“Before I say anything else, I need to know it’s really you.

Tell me something only Nathaniel would know.”

A faint smile touched his lips.

“The first time we met, you were sixteen and furious that your grandmother had hired an ‘esoteric consultant.’ You called me a ‘crystal-waving charlatan’ and threatened to report me to the Better Business Bureau.”

Mishka relaxed slightly.

“Good enough.

Let’s go inside.”

The interior of the clock tower had been converted into a small museum, but most of the exhibits were dusty and forgotten.

Nathaniel led them past the display cases to a metal door marked “Staff Only.”

“The caretaker’s an old friend,” he explained, producing a key.

“We won’t be disturbed here.”

The room beyond was small and circular, with a spiral staircase leading up to the clock mechanism.

Maps and diagrams covered one wall—ley lines, electromagnetic field measurements, astronomical charts.

“You’ve been busy,” Bruce observed.

“Since the fashion show, I’ve been trying to map the convergence points.” Nathaniel gestured to red circles marked on the city map.

“There are seven major intersections where the frequencies are strongest.

The hotel garden is one of them.”

“My mother mentioned something about that,” Mishka said.

“She told me ‘the boundary is thinnest where you’ve already crossed it once.'”

Nathaniel’s expression sharpened.

“You spoke with Catherine?

When?”

Mishka recounted the encounter at the koi pond, watching Nathaniel’s face grow increasingly troubled

“This changes everything,” he muttered when she finished.

“If Catherine can cross over, even temporarily…”

“She said she can’t stay.

That she’s been ‘beyond the rules’ too long.”

“Yes, that makes sense.” Nathaniel turned to one of his diagrams.

“Once you exist in non-linear time, returning to linearity is…

problematic.”

“But what about these things that are copying people?” Bruce asked.

“Can they stay?”

“They’re not copying exactly,” Nathaniel said.

“They’re more like…

wavelength harmonics.

Echoes that learn to resonate at the same frequency as the original.” He looked at Mishka.

“Your father probably isn’t being impersonated by a single entity.

Rather, his pattern is being…

borrowed.”

“That doesn’t make me feel any better about it,” Mishka said.

She took out her phone and the disk.

“My mother said these two things together form a map.

The recording and the disk.”

Nathaniel took both items, examining the disk under a desk lamp.

“The symbols responded to your singing before.

Maybe they’ll respond to your mother’s voice.”

He placed the phone near the disk and played Catherine’s recording.

The haunting melody filled the small room, Catherine’s voice singing words in a language none of them recognized.

As the song reached its climax, the symbols on the disk began to glow faintly.

“It’s working,” Bruce whispered.

The glow intensified, and suddenly the symbols rose from the surface of the disk, projecting into the air like a hologram.

They began to rotate slowly, rearranging themselves into a three-dimensional pattern.

“It’s not a map,” Mishka realized.

“It’s a model.”

Nathaniel stared at the floating pattern.

“A model of what?”

“Frequency intersections.” Mishka walked around the projection.

“Look—these points match your red circles on the city map.”

The holographic display shifted, the symbols flowing into new arrangements that resembled the city’s layout.

Seven points glowed more brightly than the others, connected by lines of shimmering light.

“These seven points,” Nathaniel said, “they form a perfect heptagram—a seven-pointed star.”

Bruce pointed to the center of the pattern.

“What’s that?

There’s an eighth point in the middle.”

Mishka leaned closer.

“That’s where all the frequencies converge.

The hub my mother mentioned.” She looked up at Nathaniel.

“Where is this in the real city?”

He compared the projection to his map.

“It’s…

the old water treatment plant.

It’s been abandoned for decades.”

“‘Come to water,'” Mishka quoted her mother’s parting words.

“She’s trying to guide us to the hub.”

The phone suddenly buzzed with a text message, breaking the moment.

Mishka glanced at the screen and felt her blood go cold.

*Where are you, sweetheart?

Everyone’s worried.

Come back to the hotel.

—Dad*

A second message followed immediately:

*We need to talk about what happened at the garden.

I know about your mother.

—Myrtle*

“They know,” Mishka said, showing them the messages.

“Somehow they know I spoke with her.”

Bruce’s eyes flashed yellow.

“How?

Were we followed?”

“The frequencies,” Nathaniel said grimly.

“They move through connections—including cell networks.

By texting your phone, they might even be able to locate us.”

Mishka quickly powered off her device.

“We need to go to the water plant.

Now.

Before midnight.”

“Why midnight specifically?” Bruce asked.

“My mother said ‘the songs intersect at midnight.’ I think she means the frequencies will align somehow, making it easier to cross between worlds.” Mishka looked at her watch.

“We have less than three hours.”

Nathaniel began gathering his maps.

“I have some equipment in my car that might help us understand what we’re dealing with.

Frequency analyzers, electromagnetic field detectors.”

“And I have something that might be more useful,” Bruce said, pulling back his sleeve to reveal a silver bracelet etched with symbols similar to those on the disk.

“Your grandmother gave this to me after the fashion show.

Said it would ‘mask my signature from prying eyes.'”

Mishka stared at him.

“Myrtle gave you that?

Why didn’t you mention it before?”

“Because I thought she was being her usual cryptic self,” Bruce admitted.

“But after what happened today…

I’m thinking she might not be as compromised as we feared.”

“Or it’s a trap,” Nathaniel countered.

“These entities are clever.

They could be playing a long game.”

Mishka considered this.

“We won’t know until we reach the water plant.

But we need to be careful.

No phones, no electronics if we can help it.”

“I know a back way in,” Nathaniel said.

“An old maintenance tunnel that runs beneath the river.”

As they prepared to leave, the clock in the tower began to strike the hour.

Nine deep chimes echoed through the room, vibrating in Mishka’s chest like a second heartbeat.

With each resonant tone, the symbols projected from the disk pulsed in synchronized rhythm

“It’s responding to the clock,” she whispered.

“To the sound waves.”

As the final chime faded, the projection collapsed back into the disk.

In its place, hovering in the air for just a moment before vanishing, was a single word in glowing script:

“Hurry.”

Bruce took Mishka’s hand, his expression resolute.

“Let’s go find your mother.”

Nathaniel opened the door, checking the hallway before gesturing them forward.

“Be ready for anything.

Where frequencies converge, reality gets…

flexible.”

As they descended the tower stairs, Mishka felt a strange doubling in her perception—as if she were simultaneously walking down the steps and watching herself from above.

The sensation lasted only a moment, but it left her with a certainty that hadn’t been there before.

She wasn’t just going to find answers at the water plant.

She was going to make a choice that would change everything.