Until the end of Time

TWO 」OH NO!

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I DIDN'T KNOW this small table could fit so many people. Not in the chairs, on it. These people are sitting on the table watching Five make sandwiches so intensely, it seems as if they fell asleep with their eyes open. I open the fridge as Five says "What's the date? The exact date?" Five says "Bread." and I toss him the bread. I rub my throat where I was bleeding, seeing if I still am. I sort of am, and I clear my throat wincing in pain. The girl with the ponytail replies with "The 24th." Five looks at me for a second, before opening the bread.

I walk over and lean against the counter, finishing the croissant I had started earlier. I want to hug him and kill him at the same time, so I decided I would keep my distance for now. "Of what?" Five asks again, opening up the bread. "March." The girl answers his question again, as I watch their conversation. "Good." Five sighs. "Do you want a sandwich?" Five says to me, finally acknowledging me. I swallow the bite of croissant. "Are you going to make it your way?" He goes back to his own, giving me the answer. "Then no." I say.

The big one hesitates and says "So.. are we going to talk about what just happened?" Five ignores him, and lays out his bread. The blonde one shakes her head and the one who threw the fire extinguisher shares a look with her. The big guy stands up. "It's been 17 years." I giggle as I finish my croissant, and stand up straight. "It's been longer than that." Five says.

He jumps around the big guy, and grabs something. "I haven't missed that." I snort. Diego looks at me, but he talks to Five.
"Where did you go?" Five jumps to his sandwich. "The future. It's shit by the way." I replied, knowing the question was not intended for me. Five looks at me, as does Diego, a sneer on his face. The one with the- okay, I gotta get their names. But the one with the fire extinguisher says "Called it!" Five goes over and grabs something else. "I should have listened to the old man." Old man? "Ya know." Five opens the fridge again. "Jumping through space is one thing. Jumping through time is a toss of the dice."

Five sets the peanut butter down he was carrying, and looks up at the Fire Extinguisher. Not literally, I'm talking about the person. "Nice dress." He looks down, and grabs a piece of it. "Oh, well danke!" and the girl with the ponytail interrupts him. "Wait, how did you get back?" I groan, because what he's gonna say isn't going to make any sense.

"In the end I had to project my consciousness forward into a suspended quantum state version of myself that exists across every possible instance of time." He puts peanut butter on his bread, and Diego says "That makes no sense." to which Five replies immediately, with "well it would if you were smarter." and I have to stifle a laugh. Diego stands up and the big guy puts his hands in front of Diego, preventing him from hurting Five. If he could, anyway.

"How long were you there?" I jump in and say "about 28 years. Give or take." Five nods, not looking up once. All of them sit in shock. "And... and how do you know all of this?" Ponytail girl says, directed at me. I reply, "Well, I was there too." Big guy interrupts "so what are you saying? That you're 46?"

Five grits his teeth. "No. My consciousness is 46." He grabs his sandwich. "Apparently my body is now 14 again." I nod in agreement, although it's only half true. "Wait, how does that even work?" one of them said. "Delores kept saying the equations were off. Eh. Bet she's laughing now." I roll my eyes and suck on my teeth to stop myself from saying something. Dumb mannequin. "Delores?" Ponytail says.

Five ignores her and grabs the newspaper. "Guess I missed the funeral." I walk over to him, still in my bright pink socks, now dark mulch poking through them. I look over his shoulder. I ask "Whos?" and the blonde replies with "Our dads." My eyes go wide for a second and I hit Five lightly. I feel him tense underneath the fabric of his much-too-large suit. "Reggie died?" He sighs and gives me a look of tiredness. I back up, my hands up in sarcastic surrender. Big guy puts his hands out, a confused look on his face.

"Wait a minute, how did you know about that?" Five and I look up at him "What part of the future do you not understand?" I snort and take the paper. "Heart failure, huh?" I read off and got two answers. "Yes." Diego says, right as the big guy says "No." I look at them confused, as Five walks off and says "Nice to see nothings changed." I watch him walk to the wall, not jumping this time. I stick my tongue in my cheek in annoyance. He hasn't really said anything to me yet, and he hasn't apologized. I need to set some boundaries, or else he's going to walk off again.

"That's it? That's all you have to say?" Five says "what else is there to say? The circle of life." I watch the space he walked off to and let out a breath of air. "Well.. That was interesting." I hum in agreement. "Ooo a coupon for 50% off coffee!" I say, as I see a coupon for coffee at a store in town, and I set down the paper, carefully ripping the coupon out. They all look at me like I'm crazy, and I give them my best smile. I bend over and slide my shoes on, my tongue sticking out as I tie them. I ignore the pieces of mulch that didn't come off that are now stabbing me in the foot.

"I don't believe we properly met." They groan, but the one on the table sticks his hand out. "Klaus. Number Four." I smile at Klaus. "That is an epic skirt, by the way." He smiles and shakes my hand. Big guy says "I'm gonna go." He stands up and before he walks out he says "Luther. Number 1." I nod. The other three sort of just sit there, not giving me a response, until one walks off. "Okay, Okay, I'm Cassandra. Cassie for short. I don't have a number, but I'm pleased to meet you all." They all sort of just stare at me, making it more awkward than it was before. I squeeze my hands together and take that as my cue to walk outside.

I let the rain soak through my clothes, the cold feeling touching my burning skin. I sit out there for a while, my eyes closed, not really thinking about anything, just sitting. I hear the door open, and I open my eyes. A woman comes over to me and hands me an umbrella, her outfit matching the 60's housewife aesthetic in the kitchen. Something looks wrong with her, and I don't know what, but she looks kind. So I take it, with a gracious smile.

Many of the other people come out into the yard. Luther comes out holding something that oddly looks like an Urn, the rest with umbrellas. I continue to sit, as the woman who gave me the umbrella says "did something happen?" and by the looks everyone is giving her, this is Reggie's wife, Grace. Blondie looks at her and says "Dad died. Remember?" to which the woman replied "Oh yes. Of course." Everyone sort of gives her odd looks again, until they all just stand there. I drown out their conversation, I don't want to be invading on a private moment.

I look up, and see someone else come out. Are they a... Monkey? Ape? I have no idea, but then he starts speaking. I decide to go inside, this isn't my family, I didn't know Reggie. My wet clothes hang on my body oddly. My shoes thunk on the ground, with more force now, as I sit down on one of the chairs.

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