True or False.

Chapter 13

BEEP! BEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP!

I only open my eyes to slam that alarm of mine and go back to sleep. The blurry painted galaxy on the ceiling being the last image before sleep overtakes me. The knowledge of this being a new timeline, and I am 15 years old again, is a lull reminder for now as I find myself into dreamland.

BEEP! BEEEP! BEEEEEP! BEEEEEP!

"Can you shut that alarm of yours please, Alison." A voice asks me. Groggily without even opening my eyes, I bang my alarm clock which was producing some angry beeping noise. Almost like a hiss instead of its usual beep. Probably cause of all the banging I did to it over the years. Yet, it is still loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood. I sigh as I roll a little only to find myself almost at the edge of bed. Weird. I peek through one eye to see how is that possible.

"Get your ass out of bed Ali. We'll be late otherwise." Huh? Ali. That's definitely not my mother's voice. Who the hell is this? Where am I? What happened? Oh right! How can I forget. Welcome to new timeline Alison!

Groggily I peek through one eye to check the room and also the owner of the voice. Only to realize I am not in my childhood slash teenage bedroom. In fact, this room is quite small to be my bedroom. Weird. Where am I? Usually, I wake up as my 15 years old self, in my childhood slash teenage bedroom at my parents' house. But this is not that, I am sure. Yet, I know for a fact, I fainted or well the darkness took over and now I am waking up in a new timeline. So why not at my parents' house? What is different this time? Uh-oh!

A hazy image comes to mind reminding me of opening my eyes once to see the painted galaxy ceiling before falling asleep again. But that could be from any other timeline as well. I cannot be sure that it was from this timeline only. Then this a huge change from all the other timelines. And it is not sitting well with me.

"Come on Ali. I don't wanna be late. So just get up will ya?" Someone snatches away my covers making me look at them angry. But my anger and the frown soon vanish when my eyes land on a certain violet eyed girl. Her unique eye color always drew me in. and this time is no different. Except why the hell am I waking up in the same room as her. In fact, where will we be late to, if I do not wake up now? Cloe just rolls her eyes and almost goes to pull my leg.

"Okay, okay. I am up. I am up. Geez woman!" I exclaim. Cloe just throws my cover back to me. Great!

"Hurry up Ali. You have exactly 10 minutes otherwise I am leaving without you." Cloe threatens. Weird. I will hurry but will I be lost without her that she cannot leave me. Probably cause I am new to this timeline and have yet to figure out why we were in the room together. Also, where are we?

Without questioning much, I freshen up and somehow manage to get ready in just about 8 minutes, as Cloe times me. Ticking on her wristwatch Cloe congratulates me and we are out the door. But where are we going, I do not know. Also, during this time, I did notice that I am not small. Like my 15-year-old self would be. Also, I can see clearly almost, and I am not wearing glasses. I am not that old either so somewhere in between say about 18 or 19-year-old. That means I am in college and apparently with Cloe. Now this is definitely new. I have never woken up older than 15 before and as far as I remember in my original lifetime Cloe, and I did not go to college together. In fact, if my memory serves me correct, we met up again after college. Strange! Also, why the change? The switch up? Now I am paranoid. Great!

Okay. Maybe my paranoia makes sense. If in the last timeline I thought things were fast forwarded, then this one is running at what 5x speed. Like damn. I literally just woke up. I am still groggy to catch up to the events happening right now. Namely, me and Cloe at the lab at RULE, working on the Thing. If only I destroy it right now instead of making it. Everything would be perfect. Right? No more Cloe dying because of it, no more me being accused of her so-called murder and definitely no more waking up to different timelines. As if the latter is anyway normal. I am assuming that the other two like Cloe dying and coming back to life without a scratch on her are anything normal. This is beyond bizarre. And I still feel like I am missing a key piece of information. Wonderful!

"So, you want to go ahead and trial run on living things, correct?" Cloe asks making me frown at her. Huh? What does she mean? Wait a second did I ever complete the trial run on living things, AKA a plant? I cannot remember though. Also, did I ever want to? I mean it is weird that we are now testing and checking the same thing which ultimately leads to both of our destruction.

"You both ready for your coffee break?" A guy asks us, peeking into the lab.

Cloe smiles responding. Her eyes sparkle making me think she likes him. Or maybe he is our friend. Who know? Not me that's for sure.

"Hey Rick. Of course. Duh! Just, give us a minute, yeah?" Cloe responds still smiling at him. Wait Rick? Like Rick. My high school bully from my original timeline to my ex-boyfriend in the redo, Rick. And now he is both of our friend. Damn that's strange. Also, I still do not understand why is he a big part of these timelines? I mean Cloe is my best friend, my partner, and assistant in the research, so she makes sense. Why Rick though? I don't think I understand his appearance. Guess I will find out soon. With that, both Cloe and I walk out of the lab. No idea what response I gave Cloe regarding her question though. But one odd thing I notice is the clock perched above Cloe's head read 4.15.

Oh, hell no! This is not happening again. We were just at the lab, going to drink coffee. Now how the hell am I kneeling beside Cloe all over again with her bleeding out. This is absurd. And cruel. Very, very cruel.

"Ali, just go. Walk away. You know I'll be back." Cloe splutters with blood flowing out of her mouth. What?

"You mean... you know... like huh?" I stutter, feeling utterly scrambled right now.

Cloe nods a little struggling with pain. Understandable considering, she is literally bleeding out on the ground all over again. Like can this not happen? Why is this a constant? Huh? Wait... did I finally realize what's going on with all these new timelines? Shit! How did I not see this before? It has been in front of me this whole time. What? How can I be so stupid yet be a brilliant person to design and make the Thing?

I do not remember walking or running or entering my parents' house for that matter. But it's okay. Now I know what's going to happen. And just like that I hear voices, I walk down, almost robotically going through the motions.

"You okay Ali?" Cloe asks without any menacing glare my way.

"Yeah. I am good but we need to talk." Cloe widens her eyes, then frowns before nodding her head. I look at the time on the clock above Cloe's head just to be sure. And it is 4.30, just like I thought it would be. That clock only shows 15-minute intervals starting with the loop number. So, this is loop number 4 meaning the original timeline which I thought was my actual lifetime was a lie. It was all part of this stupid loop I am stuck in or well both Cloe and me.

This time I do not even bat an eye when I find myself standing on my destroyed bedroom. Cloe is quiet as well. I do not remember telling her, but I must have. Since she is not laughing like an evil maniac spewing out death threats to me. Instead, she takes my hand in hers to hold while we traverse the inevitable last leg of the loop. And that is me witnessing Cloe's dead body and then destroying the Thing with a sledgehammer which always appears out of nowhere. This time though Cloe stands with me as I do the deed, I am supposed to. As soon as I break the last piece, I notice what it was. Now this makes my eyes go wide as I look at Cloe for confirmation to see if I was correct or not, but she has already fainted, and I do not have much time. If only I remember this piece of information. Something tells me, this is important as I never noticed it before and this time, well it is too late now.

The darkness takes over me as I drop to the ground. Smiling for my breakthrough and hopefully figuring out a way out of this loop.

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Word Count - 22244