The Grand Reset (Book 2 Withering Away The Clock)

Guilt

I dug myself into the biggest hole I could imagine before I knew 11 might attack me. I can't come clean about what she would think of me and what she would do to me. I told her "I don't know. She could be another time traveler that would explain her absurd strength." She yelled, "How many of us are there?" I yelled back "I don't know." She looked back at 1 and mumbled "12 cares" She looked back at 1 mark and rubbed hers "There's at least 3 of us."

She mumbled "What am I supposed to do?" She looked back at me and said "Hey....." She faced palm and her voice started to crack "I put so much trust into you. I don't even know your name, funny ain't it." I put my hand on her shoulder and tried to do what I could. "Look I might not have told you 100% of the truth but if you give me a little more time I'll tell you everything."

I can't believe it. I sound just like Young Me trying desperately to keep 11 from leaving. I haven't changed a bit. She sniffled and said "Ok but please no more lying I want you to tell me everything."

I want to. As weird as it sounds I want to tell her everything. How I lied to her about everything, how 1 was telling her the truth. How she is the only person I could talk to. I want to be honest with her. I can't believe that telling her the truth will end in my death without a doubt in my mind. It just hurts, that's all. I lied to her again and promised her that there will be no more lies from here on out.

I decided to get as far away from this place and from 1 as possible. It won't do much considering her speed but I want them as far away from each other as possible. As we walked I decided I should start with telling her a bit of the truth to gain some trust.

"There are 12 of you that I know of. Time travelers that is." She just sighed and said "I figured as much the numbers were a dead give away." I just laughed the comment off and didn't give it much thought. We kept walking and I decided I should at least make a destination for ourselves what good would walking around aimlessly do.

Rachael. That's right because of all this twelve ,time traveler stuff I completely forgot but the only location I can think of where she might be is the white void right next to the glass.I really don't want to go there. Maybe we can walk around aimlessly just for a little longer.

11 tapped me on the shoulder and said "I want to go back." I asked her why and she said "I want to know if people really hate me." I answered "They don't at least I don't think so but something put you in that grave and I want to make sure you don't get killed for real this time."

She forcefully turned me around and said "Look at me. I know someone wants me dead and you know that whatever happens I'll be ok." I don't want to go back to the city but I don't want 11 to distrust or hate me either so back we go.

She grabbed me and sprinted all the distance we walked in a 1 second dash. I didn't have time to comprehend or plan. We were flat in the middle of the destruction we made earlier that day. "Is that the time traveler?" "It really is." "Should we call 1 again?" "The time traveler came back."

11 started to look around until she locked eyes with someone she started to wave and shout. The bystander once realizing what was happening started to panic and run for it. 11 looked saddened at this and tried again with someone else who was nearby. The person hid in one of the broken houses. 11 sighed and mumbled "They're not dangerous but they really do hate me."

She turned around and grabbed my hand and said "We should have never come back." She did make a quick dash away from the city to a desert town that's even farther than where we walked before. I looked around and asked 11 "Do you know this place?" She sat down and grumbled "I don't know and I don't care." She was clearly upset about what happened back there.

I sat down with her and said "Hey it's ok don't let a couple of people keep you down." She was put her knees up and cross her arms and groan "It's not just *a couple* of people, it is a whole town even more." I got my lie to work. She thinks the whole town hates her and I don't have to worry about going back and this is far I might even be safe from 1 for a while.

So why do I feel this way? Why do I feel like I did something wrong? I didn't get what I needed. I know what a twelve is capable of and I can keep testing if I need more answers. This is fine, things couldn't be better. Yeah things couldn't be better. It's going to be perfect.

I look at 11 upset faces and tell her "Hey there still a lot I don't know about time travelers wanna experiment again?" She sighed and said "Sure why not." I didn't know what to test but I was happy to do it again. Last time was the most fun I had in a while.

I started to ramble "So sense where here in this deserted town we can test a bunch of things. Last time we tested physical strength, how about we try something more mental like memory yeah we can test your memory." She punched the ground carting a dent in the broken street around and groaned "I can already tell you the answer before experimenting, It's terrible I don't even remember what happened before you saved me no need to test it."

I was confused. I'm not the best in these types of situations. I just said "Yeah I guess you're right we don't need to test that." Maybe she is better at these things than me. Yeah that would be fun like a little game of social ques. I excitedly told her, "How about we test EQ. we can't really test IQ here so I thought it would be a good substitute."

She crossed her arms as tight as she could. I couldn't even see her face anymore and her voice started to crack. "We don't need to test that either everyone already hates me, my EQ is even worse than my memory." I started to get annoyed and just said "Look, do you want to do this or just sit around in self pity all day."

She went from sitting to lying down and just mumbled "I think I take self pity thanks." I turned around and took a deep breath and sat down next to her. "Look, I just want to have some fun. I don't care whether it's an experiment or not but." I stopped mid sentence I didn't know what to say I look at her and I can tell she trying her best to keep me from seeing

I just said "I miss just hanging out with you." I get up and say "Fine you can stay there but I'm getting you a bed or something if you're going to whine all day at least do it comfortably." I left to look for things that might be considered a blanket or some sort of furniture. It took a bit but I found stuff. I went back to comfort but when I returned she was nowhere to be found.