"Heirs of the Shadow"
by Azar

Part IV - The Other Side

"What happened to the lights?"

Lex turned in the darkness, squinting in the direction of Chloe's voice. "Power failure?"

The blonde snorted. "Last time I checked, power failures didn't affect the sun."

There was a metallic click and then a tiny flickering flame of light appeared. On closer examination it was revealed to be Lois with a cigarette lighter in one hand.

"Since when do you smoke?" her cousin exclaimed in surprise.

Even in the dim light, the other two could clearly see the "duh" expression on the brunette's face. "I don't. Gram just gave me the lighter because I liked the design."

With another soft click, another flame flickered into view, this time in Lex's hands. Chloe sighed--great, Lex and Lois were both more prepared than she was. The day couldn't get much more embarrassing than that.

It could, however, get weirder, and promptly did.

"We're still in the museum," the billionaire of the trio informed his two companions after a quick inspection of the hallway.

"Well, that's good, considering I don't know how we could've gotten out of it," was the snarky reply.

"Stranger things have happened."

Chloe couldn't argue with that. She and Lois followed Lex down the corridor in the direction they'd come from, and soon found themselves back in the foyer of the museum. Or at least...what bore a passing resemblance to the foyer. There was a fountain right by the entrance that hadn't been there when they came in...although Chloe recognized it in a flash of inspiration.

"Omigod...we've gone back in time."

"What?" The brunette stared at her cousin in disbelief.

The blonde pointed at the silent fountain. "That wasn't there when we came in...but it is in the book From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which was written sometime during the mid-sixties or seventies. Which means if we're looking at it now and the book wasn't making it up...we must've been transported back in time."

"That's a pretty big leap in logic," Lex pointed out.

"You have a better explanation?" she shot back. Inspired again, she approached the edge of the pool and thrust one hand into the water, coming up with a handful of pennies.

"What are you doing?" Lois demanded.

"Hopefully finding out if I'm right." She opened the hand with the coins, then gestured with the other one towards her two companions. When they were close enough to cast light on the money in her palm, she picked up one penny after another and squinted at the dates. "1930...1919...1937...1937..."

A cold tingle began to settle in her stomach as she lifted her head to look at the other two. "There's nothing here later than 1937."

Frowning, Lex put his own free hand into the fountain, surfacing with a handful of pennies which he proceeded to inspect. "She's right. The dates on the coins go up to 1937."

The brunette took a deep breath, clearly not ready to accept the idea of time travel just yet. "Okay, fine, but maybe it's just no one's thrown pennies into the fountain since 1937."

"If that's the case, how do you explain what the fountain's doing here in the first place?" her cousin demanded.

"I don't know! But time travel? We can't have traveled back in time, damn it, Chloe--how would we ever get back home?"

The three young people looked at each other.

"Go back through to the other side of that door?" Chloe shrugged. "Okay, it's improbable but it's worth a try."

"It's worth a try," the oldest of the trio echoed in a tone that didn't suggest much faith in the idea.

As it turned out, his lack of faith was well founded, for repeated trips back and forth through the original doorway yielded no mystical portal back to the present, if indeed they were in the past.

"This is just great!" Lois fumed, once they'd finally given up on the simple solution. "What do we do now?"

"Well, this may sound crazy, but leaving the museum did occur to me," was the dry response from Lex.

"And totally blow our chances of getting back? I don't think so."

"Oh, and living in the museum is such a great idea," the blonde shot back.

"Hey, it worked for Claudia and Jamie."

"Claudia and Jamie?" Lex echoed, looking up for a minute from pondering their predicament.

"From the book...I can't believe you didn't read that when you were a kid."

"My father was of the opinion I had more important things to read than children's books."

Chloe shot him a pitying look. "You poor, poor, deprived man."

He chuckled. "Be that as it may, somehow I doubt Claudia and Jamie can do much to help us right now."

"You wanna bet?" Her eyes sparkled as she exchanged a conspiratorial look with her cousin. "Maybe Lois is right, maybe we don't have to leave the museum tonight."

"Pardon?"

"Follow me."

******

They'd been wandering through the museum for what felt like hours, with Chloe's frown growing progressively deeper. Then they turned a corner and the blond's face almost exploded into a smile of both triumph and relief.

"This--or something like it, at least--is what I was looking for."

Much to the amazement of all three, they'd walked into a bedroom.

"I was actually looking for the bed of Amy Robsart, like in the book, but that was written in 1967, not 1937, so I guess I should've known they wouldn't have all the same pieces," Chloe confessed. "This will do."

"Amy Robsart?"

"Wife of Lord Robert Dudley. Rumored to have been murdered so her husband could marry Queen Elizabeth, but most historians today are pretty sure her death was either an accident or a suicide."

Lex nodded. "Ah. I'm impressed," he admitted with a slightly facetious edge to his voice. "Suddenly my bedroom doesn't seem quite so ostentatious."

Ostentatious definitely described the room they found themselves in. In the dim light of the twin flames, it gleamed golden--walls, floor and ceiling...even the rose-colored coverlet on the enormous bed had a slight twenty-four carat glow to it. Carved figures that the billionaire of the trio identified as "amorini" loomed from the walls and ceiling, some with flowers, some holding up a gilt-framed portrait of the dawn triumphant, and others supporting a coat of arms. The marble, brocade, and extravagantly patterned floor didn't soften the look either.

"Well, at least the bed's big enough for three," the blonde argued back half-heartedly.

The look Lois shot her cousin probably could've killed someone less accustomed to it. "I can't believe you just said that."

His cool façade finally cracking under the utter lunacy of their situation, Lex laughed out loud. "I promise not to molest either of you in your sleep, especially considering you're both underage and we're all related."

Chloe grinned as the three of them approached the bed and began carefully turning down the expensive covers. "Nice to know there are some lines the Luthor men won't cross."