Kyla woke to the smell of bacon and coffee, which was honestly the best way anyone could wake up. She stretched on the couch, her body protesting from all the running and jumping they'd done yesterday. Her head felt better though—the pounding had reduced to a dull ache.
"You're alive," Josh called from the kitchen. "Good. I made breakfast. Well, I made bacon and toast. And there's coffee. So technically I heated up breakfast."
Kyla shuffled into the kitchen, still wrapped in the blanket. Josh was standing at the stove, flipping bacon with one hand while scrolling through his phone with the other. He'd changed into a fresh t-shirt and jeans, and his hair was still damp from a shower.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"Almost eight. I let you sleep in. You looked like you needed it." He plated the bacon and pushed a mug of coffee toward her. "I've been doing research on Professor Hoffman. Found some interesting stuff."
Kyla took a grateful sip of coffee. "Like what?"
"Like she didn't just disappear. She tried to warn people." Josh set his phone on the counter, showing a screenshot of an old university forum post. "Three days before she vanished, she posted this on the faculty message board."
Kyla read the post: "I need to speak with someone in authority immediately. I've discovered something in the geological survey data that suggests Tides is built on top of an ancient structure of non-terrestrial origin. The implications are staggering and potentially dangerous. If anyone has contacts in government or scientific research institutions, please reach out. This is not a joke. - Prof. S. Hoffman"
"Non-terrestrial origin," Kyla repeated. "She knew about the fragments."
"Or at least suspected something wasn't natural. Look at the responses." Josh scrolled down. Most of the replies were dismissive or mocking. One colleague suggested she was having a breakdown. Another made a joke about alien conspiracies.
"No one believed her," Kyla said quietly.
"Nope. And then three days later, she was gone. Police investigated, found nothing. Her apartment was empty, her car was still in her garage, her bank account untouched. It was like she vanished into thin air."
"Or went into hiding."
"Exactly what I'm thinking." Josh grabbed his own coffee. "So I did some more digging. Checked property records, utility bills, anything that might show where someone would go if they wanted to disappear but stay in the area."
"And?"
"And I found something interesting. Six months after Hoffman disappeared, a property on the outskirts of Tides was purchased under the name S. Hoffer. Similar name, right? Could be a coincidence, or could be someone trying not to be found but keeping their initials."
Kyla felt a spark of excitement. "Where's the property?"
"About thirty miles outside the city. Rural area, lots of farmland. The address is 4782 Old Mill Road." Josh finished his coffee. "I say we take a drive out there today. See if Professor Hoffman is actually S. Hoffer."
"What about Chen? We're supposed to be recovering from our concussions."
"I already texted him this morning. Said we're feeling much better and taking one more day to rest before coming back to work tomorrow." Josh grinned. "Which is technically true. We're resting from our injuries by taking a nice leisurely drive through the countryside."
"Your definition of 'resting' is very different from most people's."
"I'm a multitasker."
They finished breakfast and got ready to leave. Kyla borrowed a clean shirt from Josh—it was way too big on her, but it was better than wearing yesterday's clothes. She caught herself noticing that it smelled like his cologne and quickly pushed that thought away. They were partners. Partners with a world to save. No time for weird feelings.
The drive out to Old Mill Road took almost an hour. They left the city behind, passing through suburbs that gradually gave way to open fields and scattered farms. The GPS led them down increasingly narrow roads until they turned onto a gravel driveway that wound through a thick stand of trees.
At the end of the drive sat a small farmhouse, old but well-maintained, with a large barn behind it. There was a car in the driveway—a fifteen-year-old sedan covered in dust.
"Someone's definitely living here," Josh said, parking behind the sedan.
They got out and approached the house. Before they could knock, the front door opened, and a woman appeared holding a shotgun.
"I don't know who you are or what you want," she said firmly, "but you need to leave. Now."
She was in her fifties, with gray-streaked brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and sharp, intelligent eyes behind wire-rimmed glasses. Despite the shotgun, she didn't look threatening—she looked scared.
Josh slowly held up his hands. "Professor Hoffman? We're not here to hurt you. We're police officers from Tides. We need your help."
"Police?" The woman's eyes narrowed. "Show me badges. Slowly."
They both carefully pulled out their badges and held them up. The woman studied them for a long moment, then lowered the shotgun slightly.
"Sarah Hoffman," she confirmed. "And if you're really cops, you should know I was declared a missing person. Why are you looking for me now, over a year later?"
"Because we know you were right," Kyla said. "About the non-terrestrial structure under Tides. About the fragments. We know about all of it, and we need your help to stop what's coming."
Sarah's expression changed from suspicion to shock. "You know about the fragments? How? Did Price finally come forward?"
"Dr. Edmund Price. We found his journal." Josh took a step closer. "Professor, can we come inside? We don't have much time, and there's a lot we need to explain."
Sarah hesitated, then nodded. "Inside. Quickly. And if this is some kind of trick, I'm a very good shot."
"Noted," Josh said.
The interior of the farmhouse was surprisingly modern despite the rustic exterior. One entire wall of the living room was covered in maps, charts, and printouts—clearly Sarah had continued her research in hiding. A laptop sat on the coffee table, open to a document covered in equations.
Sarah set the shotgun against the wall but kept it within reach. "Start talking."
They told her everything. The burglaries, the glowing fragments, the portal they'd seen, Dr. Price's research, the Messenger, and the King. Sarah listened without interrupting, her expression growing more grave with each detail.
When they finished, she sat down heavily in an armchair. "Tomorrow night. They're really doing it tomorrow night."
"You knew this was coming?" Kyla asked.
"I suspected. When I discovered the geological anomalies, I started researching. Found old myths about Tides, legends from the indigenous people who lived here before the city was built. They called this place 'The Gateway Between Worlds.' I thought it was metaphorical, but then I found the first fragment." Sarah stood and walked to a cabinet, pulling out a small box. Inside was a glowing blue stone, identical to the others they'd seen.
"You have one," Josh said.
"I found it during a survey five years ago. Thought it was a new mineral at first, something that could make my career. But the more I studied it, the more wrong it seemed. It wasn't like anything in our periodic table. Its molecular structure was impossible. And sometimes, late at night when I was alone in the lab, I swear I could hear things coming from it. Whispers. Voices from somewhere else."
Kyla felt a chill run down her spine. "What kind of voices?"
"I don't know. I couldn't make out words. But they sounded... hungry. Eager. Like something waiting to be let in." Sarah closed the box, cutting off the stone's glow. "That's when I started looking into the city's history and found the pattern. Twelve locations where strange occurrences had been reported over the years. Electromagnetic anomalies, unexplained lights, people reporting feeling watched. I mapped them out and realized they formed a perfect geometric pattern with City Hall at the center."
"We saw the same map in Price's lab," Josh said.
"Price." Sarah shook her head. "I tried to warn him. We were colleagues briefly, years ago. But he was obsessed with the portal phenomenon, saw it as a scientific breakthrough rather than a threat. I tried to get the university to listen, tried to go to the authorities, but everyone thought I was crazy. Then I started getting threats. Anonymous calls, people following me. That's when I realized someone wanted to keep this quiet."
"The Messenger," Kyla said.
"Probably. I don't know who he is, but I know he's been operating in Tides for years, slowly gathering the fragments. I went into hiding because I knew I was either going to disappear permanently or end up helping him against my will." Sarah looked at them seriously. "You two are in danger. If the Messenger knows you're investigating, he'll come for you."
"He already has," Josh said. "We've been chased, threatened, almost killed twice. But we're not backing down. We need to know how to stop the portal from opening."
Sarah was quiet for a moment, then walked back to her research wall. "The portal requires all twelve fragments to be arranged in a specific pattern. The fragments act as anchors, creating a stable bridge between dimensions. The alignment amplifies their power, making the bridge strong enough for physical matter to cross."
"So if we disrupt the pattern, break one of the anchors, the portal collapses?" Kyla asked.
"In theory, yes. But it's not that simple. Once the alignment begins and all twelve fragments are activated, they create a feedback loop. Each fragment draws power from the others, making them nearly indestructible. You'd need massive energy to break even one."
Josh ran his hand through his hair. "So we're screwed?"
"Not necessarily. There's a window of vulnerability—the first thirty seconds after activation, before the feedback loop stabilizes. If you could remove or destroy even one fragment during that window, the whole system would collapse."
"Thirty seconds," Kyla repeated. "That's not a lot of time."
"No, it's not. And you'd need to be at City Hall, right at the portal site, the moment they activate the fragments." Sarah pulled up a diagram on her laptop. "Based on the lunar alignment data, activation will happen at exactly 11:47 PM tomorrow night. You'd need to be in position, ready to act the instant they begin."
"How do we destroy a fragment?" Josh asked.
Sarah opened the box again, looking at her fragment thoughtfully. "I've been studying this for five years, trying to find a weakness. The fragments are crystalline structures, but unlike any crystal found on Earth. They're incredibly dense, resistant to heat, cold, pressure. But..." She picked up the fragment carefully. "They're also tuned to a specific frequency. I believe they resonate with dimensional energy. If you could generate a counter-resonance, a frequency that opposes their natural vibration, it might shatter their structure."
"How do we generate that kind of frequency?" Kyla asked.
"That's the problem. The equipment needed would be highly specialized, expensive, and impossible to acquire in less than two days." Sarah set the fragment down. "I've spent years trying to build something that could work, but I don't have the resources."
The room fell silent. They were so close to a solution, but still hitting walls.
Then Josh said quietly, "What about using another fragment?"
Sarah and Kyla both turned to look at him.
"Think about it," Josh continued. "If the fragments resonate with each other to create the portal, what if we could make one fragment resonate at the wrong frequency? Like feedback in a microphone—one loud noise causes all of them to scream."
Sarah's eyes widened. "That... that could actually work. If we could alter the resonance pattern of one fragment, introduce it into the array during activation, the conflicting frequencies might cascade through the entire system."
"How do we alter a fragment's resonance?" Kyla asked.
"I'd need to experiment. Try different methods of energy manipulation, see what affects the fragment's vibrational state." Sarah looked at her watch. "It's nine thirty now. If I work through the night, I might be able to figure something out by tomorrow afternoon. That would give you a few hours before the ceremony to prepare."
"We can help," Josh offered. "Tell us what to do."
Sarah shook her head. "You two need to rest and prepare for tomorrow night. Getting into City Hall during the ceremony, reaching the portal site, timing everything perfectly—it's going to be incredibly dangerous. You need to be sharp."
"What about backup?" Kyla said. "We can't do this alone. We need to tell our sergeant, get a team together—"
"No." Sarah's voice was firm. "The Messenger has resources, connections. For all we know, he has people inside your department. The more people who know about this, the greater the chance he finds out and changes his plans. It has to be just you two."
Josh and Kyla exchanged looks. This was getting more impossible by the minute.
"Okay," Josh said finally. "You work on the fragment. We'll prepare for tomorrow night. But Professor, if this doesn't work—"
"Then an army from another dimension invades Earth, and humanity faces an enemy it can't possibly defeat." Sarah's expression was grim. "No pressure, right?"
They spent another hour going over details, making plans, discussing contingencies. Sarah showed them the layout of City Hall's basement levels, explained what the portal site would probably look like, and warned them about possible defenses the Messenger might have in place.
By the time they left, it was almost noon, and Kyla's head was spinning with information and anxiety.
"We're really doing this," she said as they drove back toward the city. "Tomorrow night, we're breaking into City Hall during a public ceremony to stop an interdimensional invasion using modified crystal fragments."
"When you say it like that, it sounds ridiculous."
"It is ridiculous."
"Yeah, but it's also our only shot." Josh glanced at her. "You scared?"
"Terrified."
"Good. Me too. Means we're taking this seriously." He was quiet for a moment, then added, "Hey, Kyla? If things go wrong tomorrow night—"
"They won't."
"But if they do, I just want you to know... I'm glad I got you as a partner. Even with all the crazy supernatural stuff, these past few days have been... I don't know. Important."
Kyla felt something warm spread through her chest. "Yeah. Me too."
They drove in comfortable silence after that, watching the fields give way to suburbs, then city streets. Tides looked so normal, so peaceful. People going about their lives, completely unaware of what was lurking beneath their city.
Tomorrow night would change everything.
But for now, they had one more day to prepare. One more day to figure out how two rookie cops were going to save the world.
When Josh dropped Kyla off at her apartment, she stood by the car for a moment.
"Get some rest," Josh said. "Tomorrow's going to be intense."
"You too. No staying up all night doing research."
"Me? Never." His grin was tired but genuine. "See you tomorrow morning. We'll grab breakfast and go over the plan one more time before..."
"Before we break into City Hall and fight interdimensional bad guys?"
"Exactly. Just another day at work for Tides PD."
Kyla watched him drive away, then headed up to her apartment. Inside, she looked at the dishes in her sink, the pile of laundry in the corner, the normal mundane mess of her normal mundane life.
Tomorrow night, nothing would be normal again.
She needed to be ready.
End of Chapter 8