Parallel

Chapter 16: Mentor (Part 2)

I went over the entire encounter at the warehouse in my head before I finally said something to the officers standing at my front door, "What's this about?"

I recalled where I had the gun, under my mattress with an empty magazine, I also knew they didn't have a permit... at least not yet. The officers looked at each other, and the first one shrugged and turned back to me, "I'll be frank," he said, "There was a firefight at an abandoned warehouse near the docks, we found this on one of the dead thugs. Would you happen to know anything about it?"

The officer pulled out a small picture of me and my ex girlfriend. The picture was taken at the theme park before I got deployed. I took her on one last date before getting shipped off, and this was the last picture we took together, her arm around my waist, planting a kiss on my cheek.

Except the picture had been defaced.

At the bottom it was writing, in red permanent marker, 'Study-bugs lose girlfriends--- sincerely, D'

The threat was clear.

"Sir?"

I realized I was spacing out.

"Y... yeah um... I used to date that girl, but uh... we broke up before I came back from the war. I don't know who wrote that on there or how they got the picture, probably one of her psycho boyfriends or something."

Again I reiterate, I am a horrible liar.

The first officer gave me a suspicious look before continuing, "We found Megan Hales dead this morning. The detectives say you're not a Person of Interest, but whoever did it knows you, and they were close enough to you to be able to get their hands on this picture. Do you know of any enemies you could have made in your time away from Megan?"

Everything around me seemed like it was black and white, my ears started ringing, and I barely heard the words coming from the officer's mouth. All I knew was that Meg was dead, and Discord had killed her.

The threat was even more clear now, and even closer than I had hoped.

Meg's death was a shock, and unexpected, but there was nothing I could do about it, the deed had already been done. I honestly didn't know how to feel about that situation. I stopped loving her a while before, and the last time I talked with her was when she was breaking it off with me. I heard from some of her friends that she'd fallen into a bad way, drugs, gangsters, the works, but I had no idea it would lead to this.

Meg and I had broken up a long time ago, and now I was dating...

"Tammy," I mumbled.

The second officer raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"

"No, nothing, I was just thinking out loud." I decided to go with a half truth, "When Meg and I broke up I got a bit depressed and she fell in with a bad crowd. For all I know she could have told one of her boyfriends about me."

It was slightly easier than coming up with a lie on the spot.

And now Tammy was in danger.

"I see, well if you hear anything else be sure to give us a call, we'll do the same."

"Thank you."

I breathed a sigh of relief when I shut the door, and silently thanked the heavens that I had taken the gun with me when I had left the warehouse; if I hadn't then I'd have probably been on the way to the jailhouse at that point.

It was Sunday, which meant I was headed to the hospital...

After feeding and playing with my cat, of course.

By the time I got off the bus to the hospital Tammy was already out in front of the entrance and waving at me with a huge grin on her face. She always seemed to get really excited whenever someone wanted to read or study with her; I took a mental note of this. As I approached she calmed down a bit, but still looked like she was a little girl about to go to Disneyland. I got behind the wheelchair and started to push, "So where to Ms. Librarian?"

"Just keep going down this sidewalk for a block, then turn left and go straight, I'll stop you when we're there."

As I started to push her the crowded streets seemed to melt away. I wasn't paying attention to the people on the sidewalks or the cars on the streets.

"Easy enough. So do you know what we're in for?"

She shrugged, "Ms. Celestine didn't tell me much, all she said was what I know about Discord."

"That he tried to run you over?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I've never heard of Discord, so when Ms. Celestine brought him up it was kind of a surprise, especially since it was right after I woke up."

"She came to see you in the hospital?"

"Yeah, you weren't there for it though. All she's told me is that there'll be a lot of reading involved," she said with a giggle.

I sighed, "Seems like I've been reading a lot lately."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, you kind of have the advantage over me, being able to make me read books twenty-four hours a day seven days a week."

"Hahaha, you're the first man I've met that's been able to put up with me for extended periods of time with no sleep."

I shrugged, "It doesn't feel like I'm losing sleep, which I guess would make sense."

As we crossed an intersection, she turned slightly in her wheelchair and poked me in the arm with a grin, "Do you think you're brain dead while you're asleep? I mean, your consciousness shifts, so... it would be really interesting."

I laughed, "I'm not your science experiment."

"Oh but you are." She pouted, "If only there was a way to communicate with the other me, then we could trade notes."

"Alright, getting into freaky territory here."

"There's no such thing as freaky when it comes to science."

"Says the purple haired girl who had a five legged mouse as her high school project."

"NOT TRUE! He was missing a leg and I was trying to grow it back!"

"Did he turn into a lizard?"

"What?"

"... Nothing. Anyways, did you notice Discord was calling us ponies and stuff?"

"Yeah, I heard that, do you think he's from the other world?"

"I'm pretty sure of it. You guys seemed like you knew him over there or something."

"Hmmm."

She fell silent after that, and I couldn't think of anything else to bring up aside from the threat I had received that morning. I didn't know how to tell her about it though.

After a moment of inner debate I decided to stop beating around the bush, "Discord's probably gonna try to kill you again."

"I figured he would."

"Yeah, but... listen Tammy." I stopped the wheelchair as we reached another intersection on the left sidewalk. There were a few people walking about, but nothing was too busy yet. I circled around and leaned down to face her, "This morning the cops came to my door with a picture of my ex girlfriend. They... they found her dead, and there was a message on the picture from Discord."

"He threatened to kill me."

"Yeah."

She shrugged and smiled, reaching out and patting me on the head, "Don't worry about it William, it wouldn't be the first time I've been threatened. We're here by the way." She pointed to the left, and on the corner of the street was what appeared to be a small book store.

As we entered the book store I was assaulted by the scent of very thick incense. The store was about as disorganized as you could get, with shelves lining the walls and piles of books on the floor here and there. There was a small counter, which I assumed was where business was conducted.

Tammy frowned as I wheeled her past the door and into the shop, "Ugh, I hope Sean gets back soon, this place is a complete mess."

"Sean?"

"Yeah," she said with a sigh, "He's a Freshman in high school, we hired him a while back to help around the shop."

"Heh, I'll be damned. Spike."

"Who?"

"This kid is pretty much your assistant right? He has a counterpart too."

Tammy smirked, "Pony Sean?"

"More like... dragon."

"D... dragon?"

"Just a small one, nothing fearsome, at least not yet," I said with a laugh.

"Ah, hello, you must be William." I looked up and was greeted by the smile of a middle aged woman in an extremely sharp black suit with high heels and a long skirt. Her hair ran down to mid back, and was a very light blond, almost white in color. A thick book was tucked under her arm, and she wore a small and very defined pair of square rimmed glasses, "My name is Julia Celestine, Tammy has told me so much about you."

"Um... nice to meet you."

Celestine smiled, "Is something the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"No, you're just really familiar."

Tammy elbowed me in the side.

Celestine laughed, "Ah, yes. Tammy's last letter covered your stories of a parallel universe."

"They did?"

"They did. I already know Discord is from the other world, and I already know how to stop him."

Even Tammy looked shocked at that, "Ms. Celestine, what are you talking about?"

Celestine stepped forward and laid a hand on Tammy's shoulder, "A long time ago a man came to this book shop, he had an extremely long beard and a very interesting disposition." Celestine stepped away and walked to the counter, setting her book on it as she continued to speak, "I asked many questions, and he was strangely willing to answer them. He even called me by an interesting name a few times. I found out about Discord from him, and I'm sure he would trust me to handle this situation. The problem is that our magic will most likely not have an effect on him."

"Why not?" I asked.

Tammy turned to me and frowned, "We're not God's William, we're mages, there are very specific rules set in place. It's more of a science than it is a magic. Think of it this way, every time we cast a spell it disrupts the laws of the world in some way, if we take it too far parts of the world could even break."

"Wouldn't that have happened then? People can get greedy."

Tammy nodded, "It has happened, several times. The fall of the Roman Empire, the disappearance of Atlantis. We tend to avoid the heavy duty spells these days."

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, "So why is magic less restricted in this other world?"

Celestine shook her head, "We're not sure. What we ARE sure of is that there's something on the other side that can defeat Discord, and we want you to bring it here."

"Why do I feel like I'm a universal courier?"

Tammy elbowed me again.

Celestine laughed lightly, then turned to face us again, "Tell me William, would you be willing to do this?"

"I've done it once already, when I brought medicine for Tammy."

"Indeed you did, but that wasn't your fight, and neither is this. Why do you want to help so badly?"

I looked at Tammy for a moment, then turned back to Celestine, "I think at first I was trying to make up for a mistake I made in the past, but now that I've gotten to know everyone... I just want to help."

Celestine nodded, "That is exactly what I wanted to hear."