The Power Station

It was dark by the time they arrived at the power station. No one was inside. Outside, a phone marked “Call In Case Of Emergency” was lit by a single bulb above it. There hadn’t been much reason to fully staff places like this once the Breach neared a populated area. Everyone was either already gone or making plans to leave. Once the Breach arrived, there wouldn’t be anything left to power.

Vic walked up to the front door and gave it a pull. The lock crunched and the door stayed shut. He looked at the others. “How do we get in?”

Meg drifted through the doors, hovered near — or rather, in — the control panel at the front desk, and after a moment, the lock buzzed open.

Ash opened the door and walked up to Meg at the console. “You can work this?”

“Apparently.” Meg looked down the hallway. “This way.”

They entered the room at the end of the hall. Vic moved off to the side of the room and leaned against the wall, while the rest gazed at the controls like they were tourists in a museum. The space was large, but you wouldn’t know it from what you saw when you entered. Control boards with tall displays lined the path as you entered, blocking the view to the rest of the room.

“Here’s the one,” Meg moved toward one of the consoles and partially entered it. Lights on the board flickered, then turned on.

“I’ve turned on the power at the North end of town. That should slow the Breach for a while.”

Ash and Jake looked at each other, confused. “What do you mean? Why would it ‘slow it down’, and why do you know any of this?” Jake scrunched his brow.

Meg buzzed. “Hard to explain. It … follows? Electricity. I know because I know.”

No one spoke for a moment.

Ash looked at the map board with most of the lights off, with just a few lit in the areas where people still lived.

“So,” Ash began to understand. “When people move out of town, and somebody shuts off their power … the Breach goes where people are?”

“Follows the electricity, yes,” Meg twisted a little. “And magic.”

“Fuck,” Jake shoved his hands into his pockets. “I wish the schoolmasters had known, might have changed things.”

“No,” Meg objected. “This was the plan.”

“What?” Jake moved toward Meg, as if ready to fight.

Meg spun. “I don’t know.”

Ash walked over to a far wall where a larger power grid map displayed electricity activity across the continent. Jake and Meg followed, while Vic remained at the other end of the room.

“The Unraveling started here,” she pointed up toward the Northwest corner of the map, talking to no one in particular. “It’s only been moving Southeast.” She traced a line to their town.

Vic snapped into awareness. “They chose this? They chose to bring this here? To my home?” He looked at Meg as he rejoined the group. He kept expecting (hoping) to see Meg jump out of the void. For the void to wink into a little pinhole and disappear.

Meg’s edges softened. She spun a little extra now, thinking (remembering). Her voice was gentle. “The Breach was here, Vic. No matter what anyone did, it was already here.”

“Fuck,” Jake said again. He looked at the board. “What if we leave the power on in one place, right here? Let it chew on itself forever?”

“Because,” Ash said, understanding. “Eventually, the Breach takes down a whole grid. There’d be nothing left, so it keeps moving.”

“Fuck,” Jake said a third time. He looked at the board for a moment, but there was nothing useful there to see anymore.

He turned to leave when something on one of the desks caught his eye.

He picked up a small figurine from the desk. A little gargoyle.

His little gargoyle.

He picked up the statue. “Fuuuck.”

“What is that?” Vic looked closer, confused and more than a bit exasperated.

“This,” Jake rotated the gargoyle in his hands, “turned to dust in my hands a few hours ago.”

“This exact one?” Ash grabbed the statue, inspecting it from every side. “No way.”

“See right there?” He pointed to a scratch that ran from the left ear around to the right shoulder. “That’s from that one drive two winters ago.”

Ash ran her finger along the crack. She remembered how Jake had been sure the little guy would be fine sitting on the floor of the car. It had not been fine.

Ash handed the statue back to Jake. “What is it doing here? How is it here??”

“I don’t know,” Jake rubbed his forehead, “but I feel dizzy. Glad I brought that water,” he said with a smirk, and started walking toward the car.