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

CHAPTER 179

As I move around the clock, I notice the same thing happening each time. The twelve always becomes six, the three goes to nine, and the eight flips to two. I imagine that my picture stretches into a pole so the numbers can connect when I think of something. And it's not long before I understand how it relates to my life. I seem to be repeating the same things over and over; people, places and situations. It's just that each time the coin flips the similarities fade. The same thing happens but with a twist.

I wonder if this is a test, a multiple choice I wrote for myself long ago, like with the hidden treasure. And each time I fail the cycle repeats itself. Either way, I lead my own self to the slaughter every time then line up again for another bashing. And then someone else gets caught in my web of confusion. That's why Lily died. If only I had paid attention when the clock landed on two, I'd have seen it about to flip to the eight. Ebony was my warning sign. Her drinking herself to death should've alerted me that Lily was next. And what of Debbie from the ground floor? The hand might've never flipped back to the two had I kept the door shut. What about the man who stole Ebony's music? Wasn't he my warning that the castle thief would strike? Yet, it has to be more than that. I mean, what are the odds that two Rubrums would come to Leer Island, and the both of them end up best friends with Mary Pethiel? One left me in death, and now I'm leaving Hazel the same way.

Everything flips although it remains the same. My eviction from Matron Caine simply followed unwritten ones where others threw me out years ago. Ruby – a fish, crossing paths with a human who also wanted to die. Me not saving Debbie but making sure the beret lady's niece lived. And here comes another flip, the one of me once fleeing Stocatta with Ebony; now wanting back in.