Mia nodded and charged up the stairs. She poked her head in the offices as she passed them. They were pretty much destroyed. Books were torn from the shelves and various medical implements were scattered around. She moved deeper into the next wing. She saw a dark shadow that ducked into an office. Mia strode over and pushed in the door.
“MIA, STOP!” Mike shouted.
Mia backed up and stared into the room. The room had no floor in the middle. Mike was strapped to a gurney directly opposite the open maw. One of the casters was dangling over the empty space.
Mia inched around the edges of the room and pulled the gurney backwards away from danger. She unstrapped Mike. “Where’s your mother?”
“She’s in the next office. I hear her cussing through the wall. They took Cid.”
“Cid’s with Murphy. We found him first.”
“Where’s Ted?”
“Dead,” Mia said and raised her hand before Mike could say more. Mia’s hold on sanity was hanging by a thread.
There was a crash below them.
“Oh my god,” Cid said.
Mia dropped to her stomach and tried to look over the edge. “Cid, what’s wrong?”
Cid forced himself to look up at her. “We found Burt.”
Mia didn’t wait until another word was said. She inched her way back around the room and ran down the hall and down the stairs. She arrived at the cell. Murphy tried to stop her from entering but stepped aside when she growled at him.
Burt lay on his back. His sightless eyes stared upward. His lower torso was open, and someone had filled it with dirt. In the bloody dirt was planted deadly webcap mushrooms. Mia rushed over to Burt and knelt beside him. She was not willing to believe this was the outcome of her quest.
Cid had found the tape recorder and rewound the tape. He pressed play.
Burt’s voice filled the room.
“I hear explosions. My door has opened. Maybe the vibrations jiggled something loose. I’m going to make a run for it…”
Cid plugged in the earphones he found and listened. He took out the tape and put another tape in. He shook his head and took it out. He spied the Tupperware and the cassette inside. He saw it was for Mia, but he put it in the recorder anyway.
Mia felt Burt’s face and shook her head. “He’s not been dead long. How the hell did this happen?” She reached over and carefully picked up a mushroom. “It’s not even growing.”
“Of course not. It takes time for fungi to take hold,” a reedy voice said from the dark corner of the room.
Mia looked over at the ghost. She didn’t see a crazy old man; she saw a murderer.
“Did you do this?” she asked, getting up, her hands closing into fists.
“I didn’t kill him, but I did take advantage of the fresh corpse.”
“GET OUT OF HERE!” she shouted.
“I was here first,” the old man said stubbornly.
Murphy was on him in a minute. He pushed him to the ceiling using the head of his axe. “Who killed him?” Murphy asked.
“That insane doctor!” Glenda called down from the room above. “He was just crowing to me that you just had to have patience to get patients.”
“I did this,” Mia cried. “It was our explosions, our noise. We should have called the cops when we suspected Burt was here. But no, I had to be the one to find him. Oh my god, Burt. I’m so sorry,” Mia said, shutting his eyes.
“Mia, Ma’s hurt. I’m going to get her out of here and call the police,” Mike said from above her.
“Take Cid with you. I’ll stay with Burt, and Murphy will watch over Ted,” Mia said slowly.
Cid got up and stopped. “No, I’ll go out and stay with Ted. You two stay with Burt. Mia, this isn’t your fault. He pulled out the earphone cord so the others could hear what he heard.
“As I sit here, I wonder why this investigation seemed more important than, let’s say, finding a way to subvert the Cynosura in this time or maybe even rescue you from the world of hurt you’re living through. But all I could think of was getting here. Was it my selfishness or something else? Why was this investigation so important? Did the ghosts from this wretched place call to me across time and space? I really wish I had stayed on course and ended up at Mike’s house.”
Cid stopped the tape. “There’s more. It had a label to get this to you in Illinois,” Cid explained.
“Wait,” Mia said. “He wished he had gone to Mike’s house… He wished…” Mia looked at Cid. “Did you find the candle?”
“Yes.”
“You’re going to wish us back in time, aren’t you?” Mia said.
“Yes.”
“You’re going to wish us back to the moment we met in the school,” Mia confirmed.
“Am I so transparent?” Cid asked, pushing his glasses up on his nose.
“No, I think we think alike. Maybe this is why we understand each other from the start,” Mia said.
Cid handed Mia the candle.
“No. You’re going to make that wish. Because if I make it, you won’t know why we are meeting. Murphy and I will remember anyway. It may take a moment for that old fart, but I’ll know right away.”
Cid pulled out a lighter.
“WAIT!” Mia shouted and then explained, “The caveat of the candle is that all in this room will be affected
