"What?" It was the first time I had spoken in several minutes. The words sounded foreign to me and as I moved my head, I got a little dizzy and almost fell over.

Bella and Luke stood at the threshold. I had not noticed them before now.

Everyone else pulled their heads in closer, waiting for Liam to continue. Each face had a different expression. Dad's held surprise, as his eyes grew wide, and lips narrowed. Mom's mouth dropped, and her eyebrows rose in anticipation. Bryan exchanged looks of hope and expectation with me. Luke came in closer out of excitement and I knew that, as a knowing smile filled his face, he was desperate to get out of here. I understood his feelings completely. Bella; however, was the only one who didn't smile. She stayed at the door, out of the way.

The look of bewilderment in her eyes was replaced with fear. Did she not want us to find the phone? Was there more that she was not telling us? Had she not told the complete truth and lied about not seeing her father since Rome? But I could not complete my thoughts in time because Bryan spoke.

"Look. We can understand it is hard to talk, but please. Just name the place you saw it," Bryan said. His face became redder with passion, and the words tumbled from his mouth. He was barely able to contain himself.

"Where?" Luke said, and his legs shook with excitement.

"Hey. Let him regain his breath," said Mom with a slightly stern tone of voice.

"No. It's okay," said Liam, taking another deep breath. "I can't name the place." Another deep breath, "it was in someone's hand. A young person, probably about our age. He was typing in something on the phone."

How could Liam have seen the phone, anyways? If his heart had stopped and he was basically dead, then did that mean he witnessed one of those "Heaven is for real" or "soul outside the body" thing? But all those stories about people in a coma and seeing what happens around them were not what Liam witnessed. He had seen someone with the phone. Who? Why wouldn't he have seen Blake with it?

"Maybe someone found it?" Bryan said.

"What was he typing in?" I asked.

"I can't remember. It's blurry," Liam said.

"Do you remember anything else? What about the background? Where was he? Do you know?" I continued.

Dad stood up to get more water, jogging out to the kitchen. I could tell that he did not want to miss anything.

When Dad came back, and Liam gulped up some more water, he began speaking again.

"Oh, now that's coming back. Yeah," Liam began. "It looked like hospital beds were behind him. But not now-a-days hospital beds. Like almost from the early twentieth century."

"What? Is it in a different time then? Is the phone even here?"

"Yes, it is," Liam said, and his eyes shot wide.

"How do you know?" I was eager to hear what he had to say next.

"Because he was typing in 'Black Death'."

~ ~ ~

"You remembered what he typed?" I asked.

"I do now," Liam said.

It was silent for a second as we all thought.

"I think our best hope is going into town," said Liam.

"One of us could go into town tomorrow," said Mom.

"It's too dangerous." Dad said, looking straight into Mom's eyes.

"Yeah. You need at least two people together at all times. Especially with everything going on right now," Bryan said, biting his lip.

"He's right," I said.

"So, what is the plan?" Bella asked, speaking up for the first time in a while.

It was completely silent for a few minutes as everyone thought. I wondered what time it could be. The day seemed like it did not want to end. Like it wanted to cause as many crises as it could possibly cause in a twenty-four-hour period. At least now it acted as if it wanted to come to an end. We now had more of an idea on where the phone was, meaning we were closer to getting home. A good thing happened from a bad thing. Thankfully Liam had survived, though he may have been dead for half a minute.

But the problem remained. We could not all travel together. At least not for a few weeks. Liam was stuck where he was for several days. I had no idea how long it would be before Liam could walk again, if he even ever could. I wanted to ask Mom what she thought, but there were more important matters to discuss right now.

"I say we sleep on it. I can tell we are all very tired and I think Liam definitely needs his sleep," Dad said, and everyone nodded.

Everyone, except me and Mom, got up and went back to their rooms. Bella, however, was the last to leave the room. I couldn't imagine how she felt and how ostracized she may think she must feel. I didn't know what to think of her yet, but by the morning, I would decide whether I thought she had been telling the complete truth or not. I needed to sleep on it first.

"I need to re-stitch Liam. I'm quite surprised he's not bleeding right now."

I nodded and then rested my head on Liam's chest as Mom stitched Liam up. His arm wrapped around me and within seconds after that, I drifted into a dream.

~ ~ ~

As the consciousness crept back into my system the next morning, I opened my eyes and noticed I still had my head buried in Liam's chest, and his arm still tight around me. The sun peeked its way through the window and rays of sunlight fell onto my lover and me.

The bandage on Liam's leg was stained with small spots of blood, but that was a great sign that he had not bled through during the night. Mom had done the second stitching well, then. And as the thin and pale right leg was compared to the left, it didn't look as bad as it did yesterday.

No one else seemed to have woken up yet. I assumed that because I heard no one stirring in the kitchen, so I closed my eyes once again, but did not fall asleep. Instead I thought. Thought about everything. About the phone. About this malevolent time. About what would happen if we kept ending up in a time different than our own. About. . . Amy.

I mean, what would the point be of finding the phone and just ending up in more terrible times? Might as well just give up on trying to find the phone and just make a living in this time, until we all die off. I was never one to give up, but this was one of those times that I needed to decide what was and wasn't worth it.

I didn't even think life was worth it anymore. For any of us; especially in this time. It didn't matter if we had a lead on where the phone was. Liam could have been dreaming and it all could just be a hoax. It may bring us into a trap: one worse than we were in now. The thoughts of what is the point took over my mind and kept repeating itself.

Did I even want to do this anymore? I asked myself.

No, said a voice in my head.

Liam's already dead, said another voice.

Don't risk it, said the first voice.

And with that, I was once again pulled through the mist into slumber.

~ ~ ~

"Do you hear that, my love?" Liam said. I knew straight away it was a dream because we were both standing, facing each other, surrounded by trees, with the Thames River on my left. We were back where my family and I were a few days ago. Liam's leg was as perfect as it was on the Titanic, and his cheeks were, once again, the rosy color.

"Hear what?" I asked. I would hold onto this dream as long as I could. I did not want to wake up.

"Music," Liam said. And then I heard the sound of an orchestra playing one of the most beautiful songs I had ever heard. Liam took my hand in his and put his second around my waist and pulled me close.

We swayed back and forth with the music, and every now and then, he would spin me, or pick me up and twirl me in the air. I could dance with him forever. Our bodies moved to the music as if they were meant to. It took no effort at all, but instead, our dance could have been choreographed and no one would know.

As the music slowed to a stop, two beautiful, white horses, with silver manes, sauntered towards us. Two golden saddles wrapped around their pearly backs, and the one that walked straight up to me had shiny blue eyes that reflected the sky. I noticed that the one that greeted Liam had amber green eyes, which met mine when I stared into them.

As swift as a rabbit hopping into its burrow, I jumped onto the saddle, feeling an overwhelming warmth of love from the stallion below. Once Liam had leapt on his, the two charged through the trees, leaving all my cares behind. I felt the cool wind blow my hair back and chills of happiness run down my spine. At exactly the same pace, the stallions quickly strolled upstream. Liam and I met eyes every few moments and our smiles would meet each other across the breeze, dancing together as serenely as Liam and I had moments before.

My heart thumped hard in my chest, but not out of pain, more out of joy. This was the happiest moment I had witnessed since Bryan survived the fight and we found Dad. It did not matter that this was a dream and it did not matter if the hope was only for a little while and until I woke up, but I had it. When we had found Dad, and then Mom, I had had hope that we would finally go home. I did not know that we would be tossed into another time, and another, but the hope still lingered.

Living in the moment was the best way to live. All my cares were lost and all I wanted was the feeling of hope, and I would grasp that for as long as I could. It had been a long time since I had this good of a dream. And I was happy to name this one of those perfect dreams.

Or so I thought.