Traveler (Traveler #1)(14)
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means,” Mario finishes, “you’re being killed off. One by one. Everywhere. In every reality.”
I go cold inside. “Who?” I ask. “Who’s killing me?”
Mario’s face is full of sympathy, but Finn’s voice chills me to the bone.
“I am.”
7
The Target
I jump off the boulder, my mind whirling with panic. Oh my God, I knew it! I saw this coming! Another horrified thought invades my brain: What if I’m not dreaming? What if Finn drugged me or something and … that sounds improbable to the point of crazy, but then again, I think I’m talking to people in a dreamworld. And now they’ve brought me out into the middle of nowhere, where no one will hear me scream and no one will find my body.
“Jessa,” Finn says, coming to his feet slowly. “Sit down. Just listen.”
“Don’t touch me!” I shriek. I scramble to put the boulder between me and the three of them. “I mean it! Don’t come any closer!”
“Calm down,” Rudy orders. “No one’s going to hurt you.”
“You’re here to kill me!”
“Do we look like we’re here to kill you?” Finn asks, spreading his hands wide.
“We’re here to save you, not hurt you,” Mario promises.
I stare at them all, wide-eyed.
“What is going on?” I demand. “I need you to tell me the truth—all of it. How can I protect myself if I don’t know what I’m up against?”
“Jessa…,” Finn starts in again.
“I mean it,” I snarl. “Somebody had better start talking!”
“Fine,” Finn agrees. “But you really need to come out from behind that rock before you step on the damn snake.”
I leap away so fast, Mario breaks into laughter. I stumble a little, then glance back to see that Finn was right. A snake lies coiled just behind my former refuge.
“It can’t hurt you,” Mario reminds me, “but I can imagine it would be hard for you to concentrate with a snake nearby. Let’s move back to the classroom. Rudy looks like he’s tired of sitting on a rock anyway.”
“Indeed.” Rudy stands, brushing off his pants. Mario stands as well, gesturing to the large boulder just behind me, and the red door set within it.
Finn opens the door, and I step through warily, still not over my encounter with the snake. The stark white of the classroom makes me squint my eyes after the darkness of the desert. I take my seat, and Finn slides into a desk beside me as Mario—who’s back to his original self—and Rudy each lean on a corner of the teacher’s desk.
“So…” I look over at Finn. “Why do you want to kill me?”
“I’m not the one trying to kill you,” Finn clarifies. “But I am the one responsible.”
I raise my eyebrows, failing to see the distinction. He rubs a hand over his face before going on.
“In almost every reality that you’ve died in,” he says, “the cause lies indirectly with me. Either an accident or some other circumstance brings it about, but the bottom line of every situation is that if I weren’t there, it wouldn’t have happened.”
“So you’re involved in my death? Deaths?”
“I’m not doing it on purpose. In fact, most of the time, I’m trying to save you and failing.” His eyes are haunted, gleaming in the firelight. “I can never see it coming, either.”
“So you’ve watched me die…?”
“Over and over again. Either directly or in the memories of the other Finns.” His eyes are full of pain, so much that I have to look away.
“Why me?” I ask Mario. “What does the universe have against me?”
“We’re not sure,” Mario answers. “But it’s happened too many times to be a coincidence. And since Finn is indirectly involved, I thought I’d reach out to Rudy and we could all work together on this.”
Rudy nods. “When Mario approached me, we agreed to work together to figure out who was causing this kind of widespread targeting of one individual. It happens every so often,” he explains. “A Traveler goes rogue, gets some idea in his or her head about challenging the order of things, seeking vengeance on somebody across realities. It’s not unheard of to involve another Dreamer if you need to cast a larger web to track them down.”
“We’ve never seen it quite to this level before, though,” Mario says, and the concern is clear on his face. “Someone wants you gone, Jessa. All of you.”
“I’m a nice person,” I say. “I haven’t done anything to piss anyone off—that I know of.”
“Whoever is doing this is acting of their own accord,” Rudy says.
“Can’t you … ask around or something?” I ask. “If it’s a Traveler, they have a Dreamer. I mean, the Dreamer had to have sent them, right?”
“That’s not how it works,” Finn says. “The Dreamers give us direction about where to travel and what to do when we get there, but we’re not dependent on them for the ability to cross into other realities. We can do it anytime we want to.”