We'll Go Down In History

Chapter 47

Hope- The Real Hope, stumbled away from the blackened archway in horror. It was true that her feelings for Lizzie had changed the way she saw Landon now, but that didn't mean she enjoyed watching the once love-of-her-life getting killed by a mirror-image of herself.

The Hope inside the black archway suddenly looked up. She tilted her head slightly, and shifted her gaze to the side. Alternate Hope stared directly into Real Hope's eyes. And then, Alternate Hope moved away from Landon's body, and walked straight out of the archway.

Black smoke pooled around the two Hopes' feet. Real Hope stared in disbelief at this monstrous being who somehow looked exactly like her.

"Who are you?" both Real Hope and Alternate Hope asked. However, while Real Hope had asked this as an actual question, Alternate Hope spoke her words in a rather mocking way, as if she was having fun mimicking Real Hope.

"Where are we? What am I doing here?" the two Hopes said together once more.

"Stop copying me!" the Hopes yelled. Real Hope shouted indignantly, while Alternate Hope gave a small smirk.

"Haven't you guessed by now, love?" Alternate Hope said. A slight British accent was audible in her voice. "Do you really not know where we are?"

Real Hope looked around the void they were in, which was completely barren save for the two archways next to her.

"Are we... Are we in my head?" Real Hope asked.

"Close. But not quite," Alternate Hope said. "You see, we're in our head."

Real Hope blinked. "What?" she asked.

"You dove in too deep, sweetheart. I could explain it to you in full detail, but I think I'll allow myself the fun of watching you figure it out yourself, instead," Alternate Hope shrugged.

Real Hope frowned. 'You dove in too deep'. What did that mean?

"The alternate reality," Real Hope breathed. "You- You're the Hope from the other 2028. The one who was there before I arrived from 2011 to take your place."

"There you go," Alternate Hope smiled. "I'm a permanent part of you, now. The small lingering feeling at the back of your brain has been given a physical form," she bowed.

"That- That doesn't make sense," Real Hope said.

"It makes a lot of sense, actually," Alternate Hope replied. "You may only have known about me for less than a week, but where I'm from?" she laughed. "Where I'm from, the world has known who I am for seventeen long and beautiful years. Our paths were never meant to cross, love. But the little slip-up you caused whilst traveling through time brought about this," Alternate Hope gestured around to the infinite darkness around them. "You managed to restore your timeline, but not all traces of the alternate world was erased. After all, it's quite literally impossible to make an entire world disappear once you've created it."

"What?" Real Hope said, only having understood about half of this.

"You really are a bore, aren't you?" Alternate Hope sighed. "The same thing has happened with your other time-traveling companions. But unlike you, their alternate selves weren't at all different from who they are currently. The people they were in my world, are nothing but a small memory in their minds, now." Then she shook her head.

"It doesn't matter, anyways," Alternate Hope shrugged. "The only thing that matters now is who makes it out first."

"Makes it out?" Real Hope asked.

"Out of our head," Alternate Hope smiled. "You took away my entire world, sweetheart. You don't really think I'll let you get away with taking over my body, too?"