“Time after time. Time after time. Time after time!”
I slowly turn to face the alley and blink the snow from my lashes. I need to go back. I need to go back to…Luca! That voice. That voice is Luca’s! I shuffle down the dark alley until I see someone sitting on the ground, leaning against the wall and wrapped in dirty tattered blankets. I drop to my knees, not even feeling the icy pain that shoots through them.
“Time after time. Time after time…” He mumbles and I reach out and pull him closer so I can see the madness in his eyes. The fog that was starting to fill my head clears and I just stare at the man whose love almost killed me.
“Luca! Luca, can you hear me? It’s Eden. Luca, look at me!”
I shake him until he focuses on me and then involuntarily rear back when he starts to howl with mad laughter. Fuck! He’s almost skeletal and his skin is the same color as the snow falling. I need him to be sane to release me from the compulsion he put on me. I look around the dirty alley and spot a broken bottle near by. If Bas’s blood can clear my mind then maybe mine can clear Luca’s. I reach for the bottle and slash the heel of my hand and then shove it against his mouth. He tries to pull away at first but then I feel his fangs slide into me and have to brace against the wall with my other hand as an orgasm roars through me and steals my breath. If I wasn’t already on my knees I would be on my back as the pleasure shakes me.
Luca pushes my hand from his face and gasps as he stares up at me. His red eyes are filled with confusion.
“You came back again. Time after time you come back and then…you fade away.”
I cup his cheeks tightly. “Because you made me! Why? Why did you do this to me, to us, Luca?”
His laugh rings out once again but some of the madness has left it.
“Because I simply couldn’t exist without your love.” He tells me.
I lean forward and press my forehead against his.
“Oh, Luca…you destroyed us. Baby, you have to let me go. I’m…I’m dying because of what you did. Please, Luca…don’t kill our love.”
He blinks at me a few times and then presses his cold lips against mine and then pulls back.
“I release you but I will never stop loving you, Eden.”
I sit with him for a while as the tears flowing down my face at all we have lost freeze on my cheeks. When I feel strong enough to leave him, I kiss him one more time.
“I’m going to fix this, Luca. I promise. I will take all the pain away.”
I leave him there mumbling about time and walk slowly back to my home. When I close the door behind me the first thing I do is walk to the living room and pick up the note my aunt sent me with the compass. I read the words over and over and then let the paper flutter down to the floor. I know what to do now. I know how to fix it all.
I gather food and water and my aunt’s stationery set and settle under a blanket on the couch. I eat slowly and take small sips of water as I start writing a long letter. I need to regain my strength to accomplish what needs to be done. In two months this will all be fixed and all the damage will be reversed…for all of us.
Eden
It’s a dreary spring day when I heave my guts out in the park across the street from my Aunt’s house. I know she isn’t home because it’s the day of my parents’ and Hope’s memorial. She sat beside me and held my hand as my family’s friends got up and gave moving speeches in their honor. She held me together that day and got me through it when my asshole husband was nowhere to be found.
I get to my feet and brush the dirt from my clothes. Clothes that are starting to fit again as my body fills out and my health slowly comes back. It will take a long time to fully recover from the months of starvation I suffered under the obsessive compulsion Luca had me under. None of that will matter when I travel for the last time once the mirror recharges on the next full moon.
I leave the park, cross the street and climb the steps to the front door, one hand clutching an envelope with the long letter I wrote, telling her my story and asking for her help. My other hand holds the compass. I stare down at the mail slot in the door and lift the letter to push it through but pause for one moment. Once I give this to her, the chain of events that caused so much happiness and tragedy will be set in motion. For the last time, I wrack my brain to find a different solution but come up empty. Any changes I make from this timeline could send us all down a different path but there are so many paths that it’s impossible to predict whether they will be good outcomes or even worse than what has happened in this one.
I shake my head and steel my resolve. No, this is the only way to fix what has been broken so I slide the envelope through the slot and turn my back to the house. I glance to both sides to be sure no one is nearby and then click the moonstone to take me home.
I spend most of my time over the next month sitting in the turret’s window seat while I wait for the mirror to recharge for my final trip. I never did find my phone but their pictures were on the cloud so I was able to download them and print them out again. I look at them a lot as I hold them in my lap. I smile often and cry even more as I relive every moment of the time we shared together…good and bad.
When the mirror lights up again, the rain runs down against the window like tears. My tears are gone. I’m ready to make the sacrifice. I’m ready to shatter it all to fix what was broken so badly.
Sebastian
It’s raining but I don’t feel the wetness or cold as I stand in front of the house he built for her. He’s out there chopping wood obsessively, still convinced that she will return and needing everything to be perfect for her. When Cade and Finn step from the house to stand beside me I don’t turn their way. I know what is coming next.
“It’s been a week and she still hasn’t returned. Do you think she’s dead?” Finn asks me.
I can’t answer him, say the words, so I just nod. If she was still alive, her obsession, her madness would drive her to keep coming back.
“It is done, then. We are agreed? None of us will approach her if we live long enough to reach her time?”
