NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 63

Desiree Mollete and Pete Falona have matching statuses tonight. He shared it and tagged her. It's a picture of them both. Now I'm no longer in the dark about their big news. They're getting married on November 27th and moving to Stocatta before Christmas. I'm so tempted to click angry. But even at this last stage I want to hide in my dark corner. As can be expected, everyone's mooning over the happy couple. Good for him. At least one of us has good news. Maybe one day I too will move to Stocatta and have him envy my new husband.

The news has hit me with little to no impact, like a blow from feeble hands after a professional boxer already did a number on you. But what is this stuffiness I feel? This tightness behind my neck? Perhaps I need air; more room to figure things out. For a while now, these four walls have been boxing me in more than usual. Maybe what's out there can help me breathe again. It's almost eleven though. If I leave now, I'll wake up on Sunday morning outdoors again. Do I dare risk a warm bed for the real world? This won't be the same as haunting the corridors, knowing that I can run to safety if one of the elite cracks a door open. And it isn't even like sleeping on the rooftop. This will be the real Leer Island, a climb down the ladder to the horrors that come out in the darkness. No gates; no locked doors. Just the ocean's roar versus the lion's.

I leave my phone charging and head to the toilet. Oh, no! The crazy fish is out again; this time on the floor and almost dry. I drop it into its bowl and wait. Nothing happens. It's just lying on its side immobile. Perhaps it's dead. Come on. The clock is ticking. If you're alive, give me a freaking sign or something. Suddenly it awakens and dives down to the bottom of the bowl; then darts to and fro like a headless chicken, before its fins put on a weakened display. Great! It's alive. Hmmm. I can't be all that bad if I saved this fish. Maybe I didn't kill Debbie after all.