Coin #2 - Quantum Coin by E.C. Myers Read Free Book Online Page A

Shelley, but it isn't her. It's like she's both of them.”
    “Did you see what happened when we tried to leave?” Zoe asked.
    “You sort of went wispy,” Nathan said. “Like the ghosts. Then you were back. I recorded it.”
    “I thought I saw Nathaniel's universe for a moment,” Zoe said.
    “Me too. We almost made it, but something…blocked us,” Ephraim said. He'd felt some sort of resistance. He wanted to sit down. He wanted to go home.
    “What do we do about Mary and Shelley?” Jena asked.
    “Whatever's happening is bigger than them, or any of us.” Zoe sighed. “I know it isn't much consolation, but they're fine in another universe. There's a reality right next door to ours where they're both still at prom with you and Ephraim and Nathan. Where I never appeared to…” She looked around. “To cause all this.”
    “You don't know your presence had anything to do with this,” Ephraim said.
    “But the controller…if I'd destroyed it?”
    “You can't blame yourself,” he said.
    “I think that's usually my line.” She smiled.
    “What do we do about Mary and Shelley?” Ephraim repeated. “We stick to the plan. We find out what's wrong with the multiverse. We try to use the Charon device again.”
    “What good will that do if we were blocked the first time?” Jena asked. “Something else might happen to one of us.”
    “That's also true if we do nothing,” Zoe snapped.
    “Try another set of coordinates?” Ephraim said. “Just to make sure the controller's working. We'll go to your universe, Zoe.”
    “Mine?” Zoe said.
    “Why there?” Jena asked.
    “Because if we make it, I can try to contact Nathaniel.” Zoe grinned. “Smart, Ephraim.”
    He glanced at Jena. She nodded. Zoe dialed up her universe's coordinates.
    The limo pulled up alongside Mary Shelley. She climbed into the back. The tinted window lowered, and Maurice stuck his head out.
    “Hey, you guys ready to go somewhere else?” he called.
    “We're working on it,” Ephraim said. “Give us a couple more minutes.”
    The driver pulled his head back into the car and drove off.
    Ephraim slotted the coin into the controller. Once again, it spun to get a fix—this time on Zoe's universe. When it settled, the three of them linked arms, and Ephraim reached for the coin.
    He made eye contact with Nathan. His friend was devastated and afraid, so shaken he didn't even switch on his camera.
    “Bye, Eph,” Nathan said.
    “Stay frosty,” Ephraim said.
    He grabbed the coin. The parking lot rippled around them, then warped back into focus. His stomach seemed to contract into a dense ball and rapidly expand to normal size. He tasted his dinner and swallowed hard to keep the bitterness down.
    Ephraim blinked. Nathan was gone. So was the limo.
    No, it was Zoe, Jena, and he who had disappeared. They'd made it to Zoe's universe.
    “I'm going to—” Jena pivoted and buried her face in the bucket Ephraim had given her. She bent over and retched.
    Shifting between universes invariably made people sick their first time, but the effect was brief, and subsequent trips between universes got easier. After all the trips he'd taken, Ephraim shouldn't have felt anything at all. It had been a while since he'd shifted, but the fact that he'd also felt a twinge earlier when Zoe burst into his universe, and that his stomach felt rather unsettled now, might be another sign that something was wonky.
    “Welcome back, Eph.” Zoe didn't let go of Ephraim's hand until he pulled away. She preoccupied herself with the controller as he turned to make sure Jena was okay.
    He was supposed to hold her hair or something, he thought. But his girlfriend shoved him away.
    Jena looked up and got her first look at the shuttered library. Her expression turned even bleaker.
    “Now that really makes me sick,” she said.
    The dim moonlight revealed that its facade was drab and in disrepair, like most things were here. The glass doors were broken and covered in