Free Hexad: The Ward by Al K. Line

almost non-stop.
    He was so unhealthy looking as he really was unhealthy, living on a diet consisting of takeaways, buffet food and dodgy sandwiches from vending machines.
    He was also a very nice man. Genuine. Amanda was glad to call him a friend.
    Now she had to explain what on earth was going on — not easy when she wasn't sure herself. Still, it couldn't hurt to share what had happened with him, could it?
    "Should we tell him?" Amanda stood in the living room, feeling awkward and in two minds about telling Peter anything. Would he just laugh?
    Dale nodded from where he sat on the sofa. How could he look so relaxed? Didn't he know how serious this was? "Yeah, I don't see why not. It's Peter."
    "What is all this, guys? You are seriously beginning to freak me out, you know that, right?"
    Amanda fiddled with the Hexad nervously behind her back, the metal, now rather warm from her touch, reassuring her. She'd forgotten just how nice it felt to hold it, and that was not a good sign. She felt like Gollum, holding on to her "precious" and slowly going mad as it took her over, wiping away her mind as though her thoughts were written in chalk on a board.
    Dale leaned forward and stared at Peter. He began to talk then stopped. "Haha, this is going to sound so weird. Um, Peter, we have a time travel device. We have jumped through time and space, we have saved the world, twice, apparently, and we have sent proof into the past, from the future, so we could dig it up today." Dale pointed at the tin on the coffee table.
    "Chocolates? That's proof of time travel? Look, guys, this is all very funny and everything but the joke's gone far enough. What's with you two? Have you been taking drugs!?" accused Peter. "You have, haven't you? You're both high and you didn't save any for me."
    "No, Peter, we have not taken any drugs, and Dale's telling the truth. It's a long story, very long, but I think we ought to tell you. Dale?"
    "I agree. But you have to promise us, Peter, you have to promise you will never tell a soul as long as you live."
    Amanda felt awkward. She felt ridiculous for telling the truth. It sounded so silly saying it out loud, like a bad joke. But then, Peter was a believer, or at least he wanted to believe — it was why he spent his life going from one convention to the next. Amanda brought the Hexad out in front of her, then walked over to the coffee table and put it down in the center.
    The table needs to be polished again, the tin's scuffed it.
    Taking a step back, she raised her eyebrows at Peter as if this was all the proof they needed to supply, then said, "Don't touch it, just in case. But feel free to take a look and then we'll tell you what's going on."
    "Um, okay," said Peter. He stared first at Amanda, then at the Hexad, then at Dale, as if looking for confirmation of what they were saying.
    Peter got up and knelt on the carpet next to the table. He squinted at the Hexad like he did when he was working on one of his technical projects.
    "Okay, spill it guys, are you for real?"
    It took a while.

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Prove it Then
    Present Day
     
    Peter finished his third cup of coffee with a slurp and a smack of the lips, then put the mug down on the table. Amanda picked it up and put it on the coaster — again. She'd given up saying anything, it wasn't something that entered Peter's head.
    Leaning back, Peter put his hands behind his head, scratching at his neck. "Okay, prove it then."
    "You want to do a jump? Peter, have you been listening to what we've been telling you? How dangerous this all is? Now you want to jump?"
    "Are you mad?" said Peter excitedly, getting up and shaking his legs — he hadn't moved the whole time they'd been talking. "Of course I want to jump. This is freaking amazing. Chambers and weird factories and parallel universes and people disappearing from the future and being chased by giants, it's what I've been waiting for my whole life. This is what I've been searching for, going to all