Tessa hears the voice, and though it startles her, she doesn't immediately turn to look. What if she does and this scene fades away? Her phone died ages ago with the few pictures of Mike she had on it. Silly her, thinking she could retrieve those images someday. Thinking society would stabilize and not be sent back to the middle ages. But if she looks away and Mike fades away, that's it, isn't it? He'll be gone forever. And his image in her memories will grow fuzzier and fuzzier until she can no longer remember what he looks like, or the sound of his voice, or the smell of his jacket as she'd cuddle up beside him at night when it was too dangerous to light a fire.

She swallows the lump in her throat. It has to end sometime, doesn't it? Then she hears a voice she recognizes and blows out a shaky breath.

"Aware that there's some weird thing with spirits going on? Yeah, sort of. I don't really get the particulars, like why, or how to make them freaking stop, though." Her shoulders slump. "This is Mike. From home." And finally she looks back, moving from her knees to resting back on her thigh, a hand pressed to the stone for support.

"Who's that?" He kind of looks like a sci-fi villain with that goatee. Like in that episode of that one show where they went to the mirror universe and every comedy show after spoofed it for forty years.