Hauling back hard on the tie, he punched Royce again and again. Micah’s glasses flew into the dirt as Royce clawed at his face. He jabbed a thumb into Micah’s paralyzed eye, and white-hot pain burst in his vision.
Micah cried out and shielded his eye. A knee jabbed into his chest, dirt and rocks scraping beneath him, and Royce smashed his fist into Micah’s jaw. Blood flooded his mouth.
Fingers wrapped his throat, Royce’s eyes blazing and lips peeled back in a red snarl. Micah threw frantic fists, but his chest was full of razor blades, his body trying to seize up.No!He had to fight back. If not for himself, for Cosmo. Gasping, he clawed at Royce’s hands, but the man’s fingers dug harder into Micah’s windpipe. White stars burst in his vision.
Fight back! Get up! You have to–
A rock crashed into Royce’s head with a sickly crack. Cosmo wrapped his arm around the director’s throat and hauled him back, his eyes wild. “You should have killed me when you had the chance!” His voice was ragged and strained, face streaked with dirt and blood. “Because the only one who’ll be warming a grave now is you!”
Cosmo shoved him into the dirt and slammed his fist into Royce’s face. Micah kicked him in the balls with the force ofnine months of frustrated rage. Royce gasped and choked, hands flying to his crotch. Where was that switchblade?
Sirens wailed, lighting up the night. A cop car slid to a stop, and an officer jumped out and skidded down the embankment.
Micah waved his hands. “Over here! I placed the 911 call!” He backed up as the officer trained his gun and flashlight on Royce.
Shivering, Cosmo clutched his elbows and clenched his teeth. Micah wrapped his arms around him and held him as tightly as he could.
“This time was different,” Cosmo murmured into Micah’s neck.
This time was different.
24
NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP
Micah - Snagged Thread
Light Christmas music drifted as Micah walked down a long aisle of international candy. The snow in his hair was melting and running down the collar of his coat, his cheeks still bitten from the December wind. Going to a Christmas tree farm had been a huge mistake. He hadn’t known that the smell of pine reminded Cosmo of Royce, but it still felt like Micah needed to make up for it somehow.
This international market advertised having fake trees, but they hadn’t made it far enough through the store to find them yet. Despite Cosmo voicing their distaste for “suburban mom” decor, they kept stopping to look at ornaments and gingerbread house kits. Micah was afraid he might lose his beloved among the decor because Cosmo’s fair isle patterned leggings might as well have been camouflage against all the throw pillows.
Cosmo opened the glass door of a cooler at the end of the candy aisle, then let out a tiny gasp. “Syrok! I haven’t had this in years. My grandpa sold it at his deli.” Picking up a narrow box, they waved it at Micah. “It’s curd cheese coated in chocolate. A little like yogurt or cheesecake. I must get one.”
Micah stopped at the cooler then swiped all of the boxes of syrok into his shopping basket. He shrugged at Cosmo’s confused expression. “I know it doesn’t make up for ourlast stop, but a dozen tiny Russian cheesecakes can’t hurt, right?”
Cosmo shrank into their coat, pressing their nose against the collar. Their curls were tucked beneath a knit hat, but even without an ever-present lock of hair hanging in their face, it was hard to read their expression. “Micah…” Christmas music filled in the silence between their words. “I need to tell you something. When you asked me to come with you this weekend to pick out a little tree, I – I experienced presque vu. I thought maybe it was my imagination, but when we went to the tree farm, it happened again.”
That didn’t make sense. Micah had felt something at the tree farm, but he’d brushed it off as childhood nostalgia. And he’d been too distracted by Cosmo’s reaction to the scent of the trees to notice anything else. He still got presque vu occasionally, but only during conversations with his brother. His best guess was that Other Micah had moved away, maybe to live with Everett. Cosmo’s presque vu had stopped entirely – because on the other timeline Cosmo was dead. “How is that possible?”
Cosmo’s teeth dug into their lip. “Because we’re going to make another parallel universe. You’re going to help me, and it’s going to work. It already has if I’m alive and helping you tie a pine tree to the top of your car on some other timeline.” Their eyes grew glossy, their voice barely a whisper. “In that universe, I’m never abducted. And darling, you don’t have any scars on your face.”
Goosebumps pebbled Micah’s arms. His chest heaved, and he nearly dropped the shopping basket. His past self was still carrying out his life from three years ago in apartment twenty-one. Still participating in art fairs and dating Courtney and welcoming life models into his studio. He hadn’t let Derek in yet. Didn’t know Derek was a threat.
Pulling in a deep breath of cinnamon and potpourri, he said, “What do we need to do?”
“We write it all down in a notebook. Warn our other selves about what’s to come.”
It was a huge risk. They’d be changing the entire trajectory of two lives. “I don’t know. My assault has shaped every decision I’ve made afterward. If I never become an anxious shut-in desperate for connection, there’s a good chance I’ll never meet you at all.Making sure you’re alive and safe is more important than whether or not we have a romantic relationship, but if I don’t know you, how am I going to give you a notebook of warnings?”
“But we’ve already met. The only reason your past self lives in that studio is because I saw you in the bathroom as a ghost, and it frightened me into movingout. Thus enabling you to move in. If you’re never assaulted, maybe you won’t fall for me in the same way, but if we’re both artists active in galleries and the art community, surely we’ll run into each other at some point. Especially if your other self has a notebook of future events. You’ll be looking for me.”
There was so much confidence in Cosmo’s face. Micah hadn’t noticed the presque vu the way Cosmo had, and he wasn’t sure their theories about how spacetime worked were even correct, but presque vu had given Micah enough future knowledge to stop Cosmo’s death. A whole notebook of warnings would have the power to do so much more. And besides…
“There’s a comfort in knowing that no matter what universe we’re in, every Micah and every Cosmo will fall for each other.” He cupped Cosmo’s cheek and gave them a soft kiss. “I thought that before, and I still believe it. Let’s buy your candy and a plastic tree and figure this out.”
Micah pushed his key into the knob of apartment twenty-one and creaked open the door. Ximena hadn’t rented the studio to anyone else, but it no longer felt like his, especially with the lack of furniture. And he couldn’t shake the sense that he was intruding – because he was.
Clutching at his arm, Cosmo whispered, “You’re certain you saw something on the camera?”
