Parallel by Anthony Vicino Read Free Book Online

of laughter that spread in an infectious wave of aural stimulation, overriding all of Hari and Gerald’s higher thought processes.
    For his part Hari didn’t know what was so funny, but he couldn’t resist the laughter. Nor did he want to. Every synapse released chemicals of pure pleasure. The truckload of seratonin dumped into his brain made Hari feel like a dust mote floating through a ray of sunshine. He wrapped his foot around the leg of the chair, anchoring himself to the ground for fear he might fly away.
    Hari finally coaxed his lips into action. “What did you put in the tea, Gerald?”
    Ryol abruptly stopped laughing. The happiness overwhelming Hari’s senses disappeared. In its wake it left a feeling of loss that manifested itself in the shape of a black hole in Hari’s heart. Hari swallowed and clamped his mouth shut, afraid he might be sick.
    “My apologies,” Ryol said, her voice a soothing balm to Hari’s pit of sadness. His emotions slowly equalized. “My people release chemicals when we experience intense emotional arousal. I’m afraid it has an infectious result on those in close proximity. We guard ourselves against emotional spikes, but it is not always avoidable. I’m sorry if I caused you distress.”
    “You can distress us anytime,” Gerald muttered with a sanguine smile plastered across his face while his head lolled about on his shoulders.
    “Um… I assume that was happiness?”
    “Quite.”
    “Was it something I said?”
    “No, no, nothing like that.”
    Hari frowned.
    Gerald smiled.
    Hari said, “Then what?”
    Ryol hesitated, her irises smoldered like a setting sun. “Your Dimension has a unique structure not dissimilar to my own. My people have spent centuries searching for an element that would mean the survival of our world, and we’ve finally found it…here.”
    “Glad we could be of assistance.” Hari licked his lips with a parched tongue that did nothing of use. “What exactly is it you were searching for?”
    The words had no sooner left his mouth than the door to the laboratory burst apart in a blue-flamed explosion. The wooden door disintegrated into shards of toothpicks hurled across the room.
    The concussive wave from the explosion knocked Hari back into his chair, which teetered for an instant on two legs before toppling to the ground with a bone-jarring thud. Millions of mosquitoes buzzed in Hari’s ear. He stared at the white ceiling overhead, trying to shake away the sound. His thoughts and senses abandoned him, though, and the high-pitched squeal stuck in his head.
    Hari raised a hand to his ears to manually muffle the sound, and felt something wet. He swooned at the sight of the red liquid coating his hand.
    Blood.
    Hari propped himself on an elbow and he took a shallow breath.
    The air tasted of charred ozone. It burned on its journey down Hari’s throat and into his chest. Plumes of grayish-black smoke wafted in the air, stinging as Hari peered through the haze.
    First he saw Gerald.
    Then he saw Ryol.
    Then he saw a nightmare come to life.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER FOURTEEN
    Falia
     
    Falia enjoyed the view from the window of her office whilst meditating on the logistics of the Temporal Freeze she would put into effect in only a few hours. She had paused all other thoughts, disconnecting from any possible distractions, and focused entirely on that single task before her.
    The sun, sitting low in the sky, looked down on Lenora like a loving parent. In the beginning it had been there with its life affirming rays. Fitting that in the end it would be there lighting the way into an existence yet unknown.
    She had spent a lifetime contemplating only that which could be known. As the sun arced upward through the sky she wondered how long it would be before her people saw another sunrise. Falia found solace in the knowledge that somewhere in the ever expanding Universe there lived a Dimension of Lenoreans who would wake