𝐑𝐔𝐁𝐁𝐄𝐑𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃, 𝙌𝙪𝙞𝙣𝙣, 𝙏𝙞𝙢𝙚𝘾𝙪𝙩

08.

eight.
Ts lowkey trash but I thank everyone for reading and voting for this story 😭😭

       "Here," Quinn's voice brings Amber out of her dazed state, her steps slower than the groups, as they all exit the truck Quinn parked near his house. Her eyes find his dim ones before glancing down at what he's holding; his jacket.

   "Thank you." She murmurs, reaching for it and quickly pulling it over her shoulders. "I'm not turning into that monster." Quinn states, a look of determination on his face causing Amber to lightly smile at him.

  She admires that he sees what he could turn into and still has hope that he's able to fix his mistakes. "I know."

    Quinn looks down at Amber, his eyes softening at how beautiful she looks drowning in his gray jacket. "Come on, hurry!" Summer calls out to the two in desperation, waving her hands for them to follow her and Lucy inside before the other Quinn shows up.

  "When he shows up, distract him long enough for me to power up the Time Machine." Lucy states as the group walks into Quinn's garage, Amber holding herself as she shivers from the adrenaline slowly leaving her body.

     A slow knock echoes through the garage over the sound of the machine starting up causing the teens to all look at the door in shock and fear. "Guys, he's here." Amber curses to herself, looking around the room for anything before her eyes land on a screwdriver nearby.

    Holding that screwdriver tightly in her hand, Amber watches as the lock turns and the door opens revealing none other than the killer, Quinn, with his hood over his head. He nonchalantly walks through before turning around and locking the door. "Hey guys, what's going on?"

    When no one responds fast enough for his liking, older Quinn shouts it with more enthusiasm causing Amber to flinch at his aggression.

   Amber raises the screwdriver, waving it around angrily. "Back the fuck up." Killer Quinn's eyes pause on Ambers, a hint of sadness rolling through his features confusing the girl who still holds the screwdriver in front of her, not wanting to falter in her plan if he comes closer.

  "What happened to you?" Older Quinn licks his lips at Quinn's question, slowly taking steps towards the three standing in front of Lucy and the Time Machine. "Don't you mean 'What happened to us?'" Quinn shakes his head, taking a step back as older Quinn continues to advance. "We're the same buddy. It was a lot of things.. Everyone looked down on me. No one cared- they treated me like shit. You treated me like shit. And then the river happened. They threw you in."

    Amber glares at older Quinn as he directs some of his wording to her. "That didn't happen." Lucy says softly to the group's Quinn, trying not to upset either one of them.

   "It happened in my timeline! And things got worse- You two made things worse!" Summer flinches at the knife swinging between Amber and Summer causing Amber to step in front of her friend, her knuckles turning white as she bites out, "We didn't do anything to you."

    Older Quinn stalks towards the two girls in anger, his lips turned down. "Hey, hey!" Quinn calls out, running in front of himself with his hands out in hopes to stop him from doing what everyone else fears he might do.

    Older Quinn looks down at him, his expression relaxing into one of irony, sarcasm dripping from his laugh. Amber shivers at the sound.

    "She played me. Homecoming dance- you and that fucking guy. You left me for that guy and never spoke to me so I moved on to Summer because I thought, you know, getting at your best friend would catch your attention but she laughed at me. Told me, she could never love us like that and you," Older Quinn waves his knife around again before landing on Amber, her jaw clenched as her heart drops at the realization of this situation.

    Her and Quinn never talked in the old timeline- he still thought she had left him there. And the letter he had written for Summer wasn't a sincere love confession, it was to make Amber jealous.

  "Quinn," Amber whispers, lowering the screwdriver and moving from behind younger Quinn slowly. Older Quinn's eyes harden, a scoff emitting from the back of his throat out of sadness and disgust. Disgust. Tears prick the corners of Amber's eyes as she tries to smile at Quinn.

   Her Quinn.

  The same Quinn she fell for, the Quinn she would fall for countless of times no matter the timeline.

   "I never left you. We talked, it was a misunderstanding-" "No! I watched you!" Amber shakes her head. "We both left each other that night- we didn't know. We were both just in denial- insecure. Quinn, I like you so much- ever since freshman year when we had biology together and you wore that cute little cat shirt for the first day of school," Amber giggles softly at the memory of her first seeing Quinn, her tears falling slowly at the look of conflicting crossing older Quinn's face causing him to step back and press the cold knife against his forehead in doubt.

    "I liked you even when your attention was on someone else because I want the best for you, I will always want the best for you. You were the first person to actually see me for me, actually want to talk to me, rant to me about your cute little hobbies and interests in science. And now," Amber inhales through her nose, her head turning to her Quinn, her smile soft. "I think I'm falling more for you every time. And at first I hated it. I hated myself for trying to forget you when I thought you had forgotten me but you didn't, I was just jealous- so, so insecure. But how could I hate falling for you."

      Younger Quinns shoulders drop in relief, a smile stretching across his face as Amber lets out a small laugh. "That letter I wrote for Summer wasn't new- it was years ago. I left it out because I was digging through old boxes in here trying to find parts for the machine and I guess it fell out of the paper pile I was going to recycle." Younger Quinn confesses, sincerely, to Amber who nods in understanding.

    "Stop it. Stop- this isn't supposed to happen! You were supposed to be for me-" Older Quinn groans out, his anger resurfacing causing him to start towards Amber once more, his knife slashing out.

     A wave of shock escapes Amber as her eyes widen, head turning towards Older Quinn just as her Quinn yanks her hand and pulls her body towards him desperately trying to miss the knife.

    The tip of the cold blade barely misses Amber, scraping against her exposed torso causing her to bring the screwdriver up and jab it towards his shoulder.

     Quinn grunts, his body lurching forward slightly at the impact of the tool but the pain doesn't stop him from reaching over and yanking it out. "Hey! I die, you die, right?" Young Quinn grabs a box cutter from his desk and presses it against his throat.

    Amber's heart spikes at this, her hand still gripping Quinn's free hand. "You'll learn that's not how time travel works." Ambers eyes shift from the two Quinn's before finding Lucy near the machine; it had finally finished starting up and now had a wave of light bubbling in the middle of it.

   "Something you didn't plan for when you murdered Summer... You created me." Amber's eyes widen as she's pulled closer to Quinn, the two of them and Summer racing towards the door as Lucy yanks older Quinn's jacket towards her body as the wave of light expands out in Quinn's garage just as Summer finally unlocks the door tumbling out with Quinn and Amber right behind her.