My sister dies the summer we turn thirty. Complications from a heart condition. That’s less than ten years from my reality.
I sit down on the bed hard.
Is this really what I’m fighting to get back to? Is this really what the future had in store for me?
It can’t be.
“And why is that?”
I don’t even flinch back when Pious’s voice breaks through the silence of the room. My heart feels like it stops, though. I’m just glad for once he doesn’t get to witness it.
I stand up slowly and turn to face him.
“Well, female? Why can’t it be?” he sneers.
“Because the future would have changed when the Caelum went back in time,” I say, trying desperately to keep my voice steady.
His smile slowly fades.
“You’re lying to everyone, aren’t you? My motherdiesin my reality when I’m twenty years old, from whatever happened when the Caelum came back.” I point to the revolving images of my shitty life. “Yet there she is sitting in a wheelchair well into her 80s.”
His form glitches in and out of view. “It matters not, female.”
“Yeah? Why is that, asshole?” I growl, lunging at him.
He suddenly disappears and I stumble trying to find my footing and stop myself from falling, but I can’t catch my balance.
“Because,” his voice echoes inside my head. “It’s been long enough that I know exactly where you are hiding.”
I keep falling.
