“Aunt Sarah called these tools conduits,” Aiden explains.

They look old. Like, older than William’s watch, old. Two pieces of wood, each about the size and shape of a tongue depressor. I take one from Aiden, straining to get a good look in the dim Ghost Office. He notices me squinting and lifts a hand, forms one of those little balls of light he’s so good at. Another spills out from his fingers, then another, and another. They float around our heads like fireflies. A glowing golden circle gathers around us, lighting up the strange thing I’m holding. I take a moment to appreciate this casual miracle before turning back to the conduit.

I can see now that it’s carved from wood I don’t recognize. It seems too dark to have come from any tree I can think of - but I suppose I have to factor in its age. Because again, this thing is old.

There are little symbols carved into the front, but the ancient wood is splitting and dry. Impossible to see anything clearly.

“Why are there two?” I ask, flipping over the one in my possession. The back is carved as well, more of the symbols scratching their way across the aged surface.

“According to my aunt, there used to be five.” Aiden offers me the other one, and I give him back the first before accepting. “She said they’ve been in our family for a long time. Someone must have used the first conduit too long ago for anyone to remember. And…” Aiden pauses. “No one has been able to make them work since. My mom, she broke two more, trying to activate them. After that, she gave the remaining two to my aunt. I think she didn’t want to be responsible for them if they couldn’t be useful to her.”

I examine the second conduit. It has the same kind of symbols marked across the surface, and five shallow lines cut into the side.

“What sort of wood is this?” I ask, choosing at random one of the five million questions I have.

“Let’s just say it’s very rare and basically impossible to replace. If we fuck these up, there are no more.”

“What do the symbols mean?”

“I don’t know.”

“What are these indents on the side?”

“Ah, okay. There’s one I can answer.” Aiden holds up the other conduit, revealing that it has the same kind of indentations. “The only thing my aunt remembers my mom saying about these is that the notches represent minutes.”

“Minutes?” I frown at him, trying to piece it together. “Like we can only go back five minutes?”

“No, clearly not, since we proved it’s possible to go back days, at least. Since it can’t be that, I think…” Aiden swallows, like he’s about to deliver me some bad news.

“Uh oh. Just say it.”

“I think that when we go back, we’re only going to have five minutes to do everything we need to do.”

“Oh.” I stare at him blankly. “Totally cool. No pressure at all. We have two shots to make this count.”

“One,” Aiden corrects. He tucks one of the conduits back in the tissue paper and wraps it up. “We need to keep one of the conduits so that we can return the watch to ourselves when we’re done with it. Which means that one in your hands… that’s going to have to be the one that does it.”

I hold it up closer to one of Aiden’s free-floating lights. A tremendous rumble of thunder draws our attention to the windows.

“Guess we’re working inside tonight,” Aiden says, slipping the wrapped conduit into his backpack. “At least if there’s a fire, it’ll go out on its own.”

“The storm is supposed to slow down later tonight.”

“The storm was also not supposed to hit Ketterbridge, so far as I recall.”

“Just tell me that the roof isn’t going to cave in on us, now that it’s burned and soaked.”

“Yeah, it won’t.”

“Aren’t you going to listen and check?”

“I don’t have to listen for that, I would hear it if-”

“At least pretend to do it! For my sanity.”

Aiden turns and leans against the workbench. He presses one finger to his ear and holds up another, like a singer trying to hit a high note. Screws up his face to a comical extent. There’s a moment of silence, and then he drops his hands.

“Confirmed. No destruction of the Ghost Office tonight.”

I roll my eyes and smack his arm. He grins and snatches the conduit out of my hand. He sets it down carefully on the workbench and starts rooting through his backpack.

“What are you looking for?”

“Our supplies.” He pulls them out one by one. “A stopwatch, the sunglasses you forgot at Kent’s, and an emergency fire blanket. Just in case.”

“Smart. I brought supplies, too.” I set my bag on the counter and flip it open, lay out my things next to his. “Thermos of coffee. And I stopped at the Big Belly Deli. Check this out. Cheese blintzes with sour cream and blueberries, potato pancakes with applesauce, and cinnamon nut rugelach cookies.”

“Jesus Christ!” Aiden sputters, as I flip open the boxes to reveal their treasures. A waft of pleasant steam drifts up into our faces.

“I also brought a few rice krispie treats, just in case, but I left them in my car. And I ate mine already, so. Really just yours is in the car.”

“Jamie, when I said bring supplies, I meant like, something that could help us if we successfully travel through time tonight.”

“Oh.” I pause, a little embarrassed. “Well - my mom says never to travel on an empty stomach?” Aiden shakes his head, hiding a smile behind the fingers pressed to his lip. “Come on, just take a deep breath of this and tell me I didn’t nail it.”

“Oh, my god. You are ridiculous.” He pauses. “That does smell really good, though. I fucking forgot about the Big Belly Deli!”

“Time to remember, dude.”

“Okay, but then we need to focus. I know we have all night, but we need to go really slow, make sure that we don’t explode the conduit, because otherwise, that’s it.”

“Deal.” I offer him a plastic fork and some napkins. “Feels good to know that we’re going to make it work. For once."

~~~~

“Okay, maybe we can’t make it work,” I admit, several hours later. Aiden lets out a long groan of frustration, tipping his head back. “At least we didn’t explode it!”

In fact, it would appear that we’ve done nothing to it. It’s just sitting there in the middle of the floor, unaffected. I’m starting to feel like those symbols are eyes looking out at us with contempt.

“It’s been hours,” Aiden says. “We’ve made no progress.”

We’re taking a break at the moment. After finding the concrete floor too inhospitable, and unable to go sit out on the beach, we’ve climbed up to the loft. Thankfully the old mattress up here is still soft, and though it smells a little smoky, it was on the wrong side of the room to get burned up. Aiden sits with his long legs stretched out and his back against the wall, cradling the coffee thermos in his hands. The storm has slowed to a thin, steady shower over the past few hours, but it’s still loud, this close to the roof.

“How good was the food, though?” I ask, poking his leg. “I was right, wasn’t I?”

“God.” Aiden runs a hand over his stomach. “It was so good.” He pauses, then adds: “When I was on the soccer team, we went often enough that Coach banned us from going there during training. Like, from Big Belly Deli, specifically. Before that, I was there at least three times a week.”

“Really?” I smile around a mouthful of coffee. “So we did have something in common during high school, after all.”

I feel warm inside, despite the rain-cooled air. It’s always a treat when Aiden shares something about his past with me, but doubly so when it’s unprovoked. I’m sitting even with his bent knees, and I lean my elbow on them, looking at him affectionately. We haven’t gotten a single damn thing to work today, and yet, sitting here, in the warmth, surrounded by his tiny golden lights, the rain on the roof…

I need to get my mind back on task.

“So. Why won’t the fucking conduit work?”

“Ugh. I don’t know.” Aiden rubs his eyes. “It feels like I’m hitting some kind of wall around it. It’s pushing me back, almost like - it doesn’t want me to use it.”

“Maybe…” I tap my chin, thinking. “Maybe it’s not the right time for us to use it? Nothing’s ever given us outright resistance before. What do you think, should we put it away and try again tomorrow? The storm’s let up, and it’s… oh, god. Half-past midnight.”

Aiden doesn’t answer. His eyes have suddenly clouded, and he’s staring directly over my head. I turn to see what he’s looking at, but there’s nothing among the wooden rafters that seems amiss.

“Aiden? Are you okay?”

He’s completely still, staring like something shocking is happening right behind me. As I watch, a thread of white-blue light catches and flares in his eyes.

Some kind of magic is happening, but the conduit is still on the lower level of the Ghost Office, nowhere near. I crawl to the edge and peer down from the loft. The conduit is still there, and it doesn’t look any different. I rejoin Aiden on the mattress, alarm bells starting to ring in my head.

“Aiden? Hey!” I poke his cheek. No response. Can he see right now? I lean closer, trying to get a better look at his eyes.

He jolts upright, suddenly out of breath. The movement brings him right up to me, and my hands fly up automatically, my fingers sprawling against his chest. “Oh my god! What’s wrong?”

“We have to go.” He sets the thermos aside and gets to his feet. I scramble to follow as he takes off down the curved stairs.

“What? Where are we going?”

He bends to grab the conduit, snatches up his hoodie. He shoves open the door of the Ghost Office, letting in a gust of cold air. I catch him by the elbow just before he goes to step outside.

“Aiden! What’s happening?”

He looks down at me, and his entire gaze is white-blue.

“Someone’s in trouble."

~~~~

“What kind of trouble?” I ask, strapping in. “Like - potentially fatal trouble?”

Aiden, in the passenger’s seat, stares through the windshield like the answer is written there.

“Yes,” he says, and a chill runs down my spine.

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

He looks over at me, and I see the fear behind his eyes.

“Hey. It’s okay. I’ll drive, you listen. Just like last time.”

He nods, but doesn’t look reassured. I back the car out of the driveway of the Ghost Office, the tires kicking up a spray of water. It’s late, and the headlights cut two cones of illumination through the darkness.

“Do we have a direction?”

Aiden lets out a frustrated breath.

“No.”

“No worries. We’ve done this before, right?”

“Right.”

“I’m just going to drive and talk, and when you get a direction, let me know.”

He nods again, closes his eyes. We pull up to the main road, and I hesitate, my hand over the blinker.

“Left,” Aiden says. “I think.”

“We’ve got this,” I tell him, turning out onto the street. “Be there in no time.”

~~~~

I don’t want to break his concentration, but I feel like I need to say something.

“Aiden. We’re not in Ketterbridge anymore.”

“I know,” he murmurs.

“We haven’t been for a little bit.”

“Yes.”

“Are we… on the right track?”

Fields roll out around us in every direction, too dark to see clearly. At least the rain is thinning out, slowing to a drizzle the further we get from town. I’m trying to stay calm, for myself and for Aiden. That being said, the longer we spend driving through empty fields, the more I’m concerned that we’re going to end up in a Children of the Corn situation. What sort of mortal danger is our mystery person facing? Because if they’re being sacrificed to a demon in a cornfield, I don’t think that Aiden and I are qualified to help out.

My fears crystalize when Aiden says: “Around here. Pull over.”

“Um.” I guide the car to the side of the road, trying to sound casual. “Are we just - about to walk out into a field?”

Aiden hops out of the car, pulls his hood over his hair, and sets out down the road.

“Why does it always have to be raining when this happens?” I grab my keys, scramble out of the car, and lock it. I have to break into a jog to catch Aiden, who is already like, thirty feet ahead. “Jesus, it’s dark.”

He appears to be beelining for a cluster of trees up the road. I have to resist the urge to cling to his arm. I’m freaked out, and while normally this means I would start yammering about nothing, I don’t want to make us an easier target. I follow in silence as Aiden reaches the trees and curves around them. We both draw to a stop. We’re at a crossroads, and there’s a building across from us, huddled in the darkness. Aiden deflates next to me as we take it in.

It’s a bar.

An extremely small dive bar, it would seem. A glowing neon sign in the window informs us that it’s open. The light from it reflects off of a few windshields belonging to cars too difficult to see in the dark. The bar looks like one of those places you see off the highway on a road trip - not a place to stop unless there’s an emergency. The windows are both tinted and papered over with faded poster advertisements for various brands of beer. No way to see inside.

I turn to look at Aiden, and the expression on his face feels like a stab through my own heart.

“You don’t have to go in,” I tell him. He looks away sharply. “Honestly, I can go in and-”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” His voice is strained. “I’ll be fine, I just need a minute.”

“You - you did fine at the party,” I tell him. “And when I had a beer at the flower shop-”

“I didn’t do most of my drinking at parties or flower shops. I did it in shitty little bars like this.” He shakes his head like he’s trying to clear away a cloud. “I’ll be okay, but someone else is in trouble. Or about to be in trouble. Or something.”

I want to tell him that I'm proud of him, but I don't know how he'd take it.

“I’ll be right there with you,” I tell him instead. He gives me a sad smile, ruffles my hair.

“I wonder what sort of mess we’re about to walk into,” he says, as we cross the muddied street.

“I don’t know, I don’t hear anything from inside.” I squint at the windows. “Can’t see anything, either. Except for a whole bunch of what Kasey would call male-gaze-objectification posters. Who came up with that pose? Why would a girl ever hold a beer like that?”

“I don’t know, but if the person we’re rescuing is the proprietor, he can thank us by taking those down,” Aiden answers, and I laugh. He smiles at me, and for a moment I forget that we’re walking into some sort of danger. I remember all at once when we stop just outside the door. There’s a brief pause. Aiden puts his hands in his pockets, then takes them out again. “Oh, shit. I have the conduit in my pocket. I forgot about it.”

“Probably too late to go back to the car, it’s all the way up the road.” I hesitate. “Do you think you can just hold onto it?”

“I guess.” Aiden tucks it back into his hoodie. “We just need to make sure nothing happens to it.”

“Okay.” I stare at the door, behind which lies something unknown and scary. “Will we know who we’re here for, when we go inside?”

Aiden slowly puts a hand to the door.

“Let’s find out.”