Unraveling Selena by Marisa Maichel (best ereader for comics TXT) 📖

claws at me and scratched my chest open.”

Other Mordecai had tears in his eyes now. “Gods, this is all my fault! My baby is going to be born in a world that isn’t his! All because I failed to be a good father and help Reese!” He glared at Alexander. “This is all your fault! You’re the one who told him that he was no son of yours, that he was no longer a Nicolai and that he was a bane on the family!”

“I know, I did say all that,” Other Alexander said sheepishly. “And I regret it. How I regret it. If I could go back in time and change it, I would.”

“I want a-AAAAAHHHHHH!”

“A divorce? Yes, you’ve already threatened me with divorce. I’ll tell you now, if you divorce me, it will destroy everything we’ve built. Everything we have, we will lose. Reese will never forgive either of us, and the baby will be confused and lost.”

Other Mordecai started sobbing. Other Alexander held him, and I left the room to give them some privacy.

Ethan arrived soon with a medical bag, and I barely greeted him before he went into the other room. I heard more screaming, and I texted my father to tell him what was going on. He said that he was in a meeting and couldn’t talk now. I rolled my eyes. He never paid attention if it didn’t involve me.

I went outside and prepared to go back to my own house. Before I reached the front door, I was attacked. I felt blood and pain bloom across my chest. I glanced down at the scratches, then turned. Other Reese was there. His hair was long and tangled, he had a bit of a beard going on, and his clothes were dirty. His eyes were mad, wild.

“Finally,” he hissed, his voice raspy. “I’ve finally got you alone.”

“Spencer!” I yelled out.

“Spencer is incapacitated. So is Toby.”

“You hung him.”

“A pointless move, as it turns out. The moment I caught Spencer’s scent, I knew I’d screwed up. I had to leave, before your father woke up.”

“Why do you want to kill me?” I asked, backing away.

“Because we can switch lives. But you didn’t fight with your father like I fought with mine, so that wouldn’t work. If I kill you, Mordecai will take me in instead.”

“You’re fucking crazy.”

“I know. That’s what Torrance told me. He actually said something about being in love with you. Well, I can’t have that. He’d ruin everything.”

“What did you do to him?”

“I destroyed him. He’s no longer with us. You don’t have to worry about that.”

He leapt at me, and I dodged. He latched onto my leg, though, biting ferociously. I kicked and flailed, to no avail. He was latched on tight. He grabbed my leg, his claws growing as he aimed a scratch at my face. I shielded my face in time, my arm getting the worst of it. Other Reese bit my neck then. I screamed.

I felt Other Reese being lifted off of me. Other Alexander held him around the stomach, his teeth barely scraping his son’s neck.

“Calm down!” he ordered, putting Other Reese on the ground. He covered him, keeping him pinned to the ground on his stomach. To my surprise, Other Reese started crying.

“It’s okay,” said Other Alexander. “Hey, shush. It’s okay, it’s okay.”

“What have I done?” Other Reese quipped.

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“I want to die.”

“Don’t say that. It’s okay, it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay.”

“Yes, it is. Take a deep breath. Relax. Reese,” he focused on me. “Go inside. Now. I will call your uncle.”

I ran inside and hid in my bedroom. Then I started crying. All the stress as of late started to get to me, and I cried hard. Only one person could comfort me and was nearby.

Alexander came the moment I texted him. He opened my door and found me hiding in the closet, my eyes still reddened from crying. He lifted me up like a baby and cradled me. Mother, Sarah, Selena, Sabine, and Cirino were with him.

Mother and Alexander held and comforted me, and Sarah cried when she saw my wounds.

Other Mordecai’s labor lasted for hours. I heard screaming, crying, and threatening. Other Reese was brought into the room by Alexander, and I ventured to enter after a moment. Other Mordecai would have jumped off the bed if Ethan hadn’t been holding him down.

“Reese!” he screamed. “My baby! My son! My life!” He grimaced as he bore down. The birthing itself was mostly blocked by Ethan, but I occasionally saw a sight that would leave permanent mental scars.

Other Reese was sitting in a chair and sobbing, too overcome with shame to respond.

“I’m so sorry, Daddy,” he said.

“No, no! It’s all right! You’re okay, that’s what matters!” He cried out as another contraction hit him.

I left again, feeling guilty. I found Sarah typing away on her laptop in my room, sitting cross-legged on my bed. She was focused on the screen, her eyes roving over the words.

“’I was sure of one thing. I was unconditionally in love with him.’ Very chick lit-ish,” I said.

“It’s supposed to be. It’s so like my own life, and I’m a girly girl,” she responded. I sat behind her and watched her type. I grabbed the book off my nightstand and started reading. Paradise Lost.

I had just gotten to the part where the fallen angels are cast out of Heaven, when Sarah stopped typing and stretched her fingers.

“It’s funny,” she said.

“What is?” I asked. She bit her lip.

“I shouldn’t be the one to tell you. Ariella should be the one to say it. But anyway, Elliot stopped talking to me. I can’t say I’m happy about it, but really, I’m dating you, and he has to accept that. He broke Britt’s heart.”

“I’m glad he stopped speaking to you,” I said. She smacked my arm, then shook her hand in pain. “But what is Ariella up to?”

“Well…okay. You know how she chose Damon Sage? Well, he dumped her again.”

“So?”

“So? She’s not upset about it! I think she’s actually relieved.”

“Good riddance.”

“Be nice,” she said, smacking my arm again. “But she told me that she regrets not choosing Soren over Damon. I know it’s too late now, he likes Mitra, but I think she might try to chase him again.”

“She won’t get anywhere. Like you said, he’s in love with Mitra Dearwood now. And why not? She broke his heart, and Mitra came along and was nice to him. Not at first, but eventually, she was nice to him.”

“I really shouldn’t be the one telling you this.”

“But you are. You like to gossip, Sarah Cresley, admit it.”

“Fine, yes, I admit it. I like to gossip. It’s so much fun! But don’t tell Ari that I said this, okay? She’d kill me.”

“Not a peep. I promise.”

“Thank you.”

She saved her work and closed her laptop, then set it on my desk. She came back over and sat by me. She fiddled with her leggings, then found my shirt and pulled it over her.

“Why do you like my clothes so much?” I asked.

“They smell like you.”

“Of course they do; they’re mine.”

A knocking on the door sounded.

“Come in,” I said. Ethan came in, smiling.

“It’s a boy.”

We went over to the other house, Sarah trying to steal my boots, too, but then she realized they were too heavy for her.

“Giant feet,” she teased.

“Fairy feet,” I teased back.

We walked to the other house. When we arrived, Other Alexander was grinning like a fool, and Other Mordecai was holding a bundle in his arms.

“He’s beautiful,” he said.

“What are you going to name him?” Sarah asked.

“I was thinking…Cirino…It means ‘like the sun’. And he’s my sun, the radiance in my life.”

“Sun, son,” said Other Alexander, still grinning.

“Clever,” I replied. Sarah smiled at the name.

“Like mine,” she said.

“You also have a baby named Cirino?” Other Alexander asked. “In that case, he’s definitely sticking with the name.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It would not be easy getting the couple, the me, and the new baby through the portal. So many things could go wrong. So many things. I had called Father, and he apologized for not being there sooner. He made sure I was okay, and I told him to stay in Denmark.

“If you’re sure,” he said.

“One hundred percent,” I replied. We ended the conversation then.

The portal had to be created by a witch, wizard, or warlock. Luckily, I knew two warlocks who were willing to do it. I won’t say that Mason and Krauvas were not surprised when they saw our doubles, because they were.

Krauvas chanted in a language I didn’t understand, moving his hands around. He threw some salt over the area, then some sort of oil. The portal began as a speck, then grew larger. Krauvas put his hand on Mason’s chest and told all of us to step back.

“Back, everyone,” he said, and we all stepped back. “Now you four, go through the portal when it gets to its full size. Go at once, or someone will be left behind and I’ll have to do it over again. Go carefully, and hang onto each other, especially the baby. He’s the most fragile, and he’ll be even more fragile and dizzy after this.”

Other Alexander and Other Mordecai nodded like they understood, and Mordecai gripped the baby tighter.

The portal kept growing, and it grew to the size of a small tree, then a medium-sized tree, then the size of an evergreen. It paused, the shrank slightly.

“Shit,” Krauvas said. “I didn’t bring enough salt. Mason, do you have any?”

Mason produced a bottle from his backpack. Krauvas took it and threw the rest of the salt over the portal. The portal expanded again, and then Krauvas told us to wait a minute. When it didn’t do anything, he spoke up again.

“Go in,” he said. “Remember what I said about touching each other. And hang on to the baby.”

There was a pause, then they stepped through at once. The cream-colored portal paused, then shrank, until it was gone.

“So that’s that,” I sighed. “Thanks, Krauvas and Mason. How much do I owe you?”

Krauvas stated an exorbitant amount, and Mason punched him.

“Fine, a hundred dollars will suffice,” he said. Mason frowned at him. Krauvas frowned back.

“He’s your friend, not mine,” he said. “I can charge him however much I want.”

I handed him a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill, then walked back to the house.

“I’m going to miss Other Reese,” I sighed. Mason and Sarah stopped and stared at me.

“He tried to kill you!” Sarah said, jogging to keep up.

“Yes, but I’ve always wanted a brother. It turns out that there’s a possibility that, somewhere, in another universe, I have a brother. And it turns out I do. In their universe, I now have a baby brother. But in another universe, I could have an older brother. I know that Kieran’s my stepbrother now, but I’d rather have a biological brother.”

“I have a sister,” Sarah said.

“I’m an only child,” Mason said. “Trust me, I understand where you’re coming from. I wish that I had an older brother or sister. Maybe I do, in another universe. My mom actually lost a baby years and years ago.”

“You never told me that,” I said.

“My parents don’t like to talk about it. Apparently, they had a baby that only lived a few hours after he was born. They didn’t even name him. Then they had me years later.”

“Both my mother and my sister have lost babies,” I said. “I had a baby nephew that was stillborn, and when my mother was human, she had a miscarriage and later a stillborn. She won’t tell me their names, though. My sister didn’t even get to name my nephew.”

“Sabine and I are our parents’ only babies,” Sarah said. “We were the apple of Dad’s eye. He called us his princesses and sang songs to us.”

“You’re lucky,” Mason told her. “Your parents never divorced.”

“My parents are dead,” she reminded him, and I gave him a warning growl.

“Oh, right. I’m sorry. Anyway, my mom caught