Fever Dreams

Valentime's

Bree starts receiving little gifts on the 14th of every month. Each gift is more expensive or daring than the last, and strangely, all of them answer her personal wishes, even the secret, intimate unspoken ones. The problem is, she has few friends, and no one knows her well enough to know her heart's desires. Who is her secret admirer?

As I sit alone, I wonder how things got so bad. Piles of devalued money surround me, worthless in this new ruined economy. I stare at my reflection in a piece of broken glass near my foot. Was it worth it? No friends, no family, no one at all. I was richer than anyone could ever need to be, yet here I was, surrounded by useless things I had impulsively bought, things I had thought would bring me happiness.

Happiness.

Maybe if I had been a little happier I would never have gone so far. Maybe I would have had fewer regrets. Maybe I never would have pushed the limits of science and reality, creating the device to travel through space-time. Created to fix my regrets, it became perhaps the biggest of them all.

Slowly, I rose to my feet. It was Valentine's and I had nothing to show for it.

Again.

I picked up a book. By far one of the cheapest things in my whole mansion. A few centuries ago, I had felt I would die without finishing this series. Now the book lay here, gathering dust, and I hadn't even read it. Suddenly, like a flickering light turning on for the first time in a long time, I had the Idea. The Idea grew in my mind, the first positive one I'd had in decades.

I have lived a long, long time. Too long.
And I remember everything.

I needed a friend. A project. Something to keep my mind off eternity. Someone to ease the loneliness. Turning on the time machine, I smiled at the dusty book and let eternity carry me. Then I arrived at my destination. My throat made an unfamiliar sound-a giggle-as I left the book on her- my porch. I immediately came back to my own time, flicking all my monitors to life. I watched from a screen in my lonely mansion as she screamed, barely bothering to check the note before snuggling into her little hammock to read. She called Alice, for the first time in months since the big fight.

"Hey Alice? It's Bree. Thank you so much! You know how much I wanted this! I'm so sorry we were fighting. You're worth more than any science project. Did you get yourself one too?  Call me in 12 hours so we can fangirl together in the middle of the night."

She ended the voicemail and leaned back to continue reading but instead, she reached for the note I had left her.

'Sometimes, all you need is a friend,' it said. I smiled sadly, but then began to feel nauseaous. It was beginning. Maybe after all these years I could finally die. The house shook and the book that had been in my hand moments ago, dusty but neat with disuse, appeared, worn but well loved on a shelf that hadn't been there before. A single contact flickered onto an empty screen. Alice Hepburn. I felt a hot tear run down my cheek. I wasn't alone anymore. Maybe if I continued this little game I might finally fade. Or even...perhaps...be happy.

Whichever came first.