We sat there afterward in silence, processing. Or at least I was. She’d probably had a lot more time to process everything. Still, she stayed. She knew I needed someone, even if that someone was me from a distant time.
“There’s one last thing we need to do before I leave.”
“What?”
She gave me a small, unhappy smile. “We need to start the journey that’s yet to start.”
That entire sentence made no sense.
She stood, holding out her hand. For a second, I gazed at it dully, then lifted my weighted arm and latched on.
We used Intraverso and dream-walked to a time I would never forget. But it wasn’t just Intraverso, not when I still stood beside my future self in my head while also staring out into the darkness of the cement cell they’d kept me in. Nausea swirled in my stomach, and I knew this was somehow a combination of Intraverso and Praetervado.
That was how she did this. She combined them somehow.
“Please!” past Lucy cried. “Help me!”
Her screams vibrated in my skull, making my nausea worse. Flames danced around her hands, giving light to the dark cement closet. Seeing it through my past self’s eyes made me question how I hadn’t noticed it to begin with, but I guess I’d been out of my mind.
She scrambled for the door, frantically twisting the locked doorknob. After numerous failed attempts, she finally noticed the flames.
I turned to my future self, assuming what came next.
“You know what to do,” she murmured.
After all the dream-walks, all the reveals, I thought I did.
“You always end up in cages, don’t you, Lucille? Except this one’s your own doing.”
I heard an echo to my words, the past, present, and future merging as one. I couldn’t help the bitterness in my tone as I spoke to myself. Not after everything. Not knowing we’d go through so much after this moment only to lose everything anyway.
Part of me wanted to change the script and tell her to rot in there.
“Stop freaking out and use the power on your hands to get out.”
“Why are my hands flaming?”
Why did I have to sound so stupid?
“Because you have powers.”
“How?”
Iwasn’t going to answer that. Oh look. I was already acting like my future self.
“Hello? How is this possible? Why won’t you answer me?”
“I can’t.”
“Then why are you in my head? I need help!”
Why indeed? Why did we have to go through all this? It wasn’t fair. None of this was fucking fair!
“If you want answers, grow up and get out. I’m not allowed to explain.”
“Answers? Like about my mom?” she asked.
Stupid. Stupid tears I’d thought I was finally immune to came at the worst possible moment.
