Pigment (Millard Nullings X Reader)

End of the Bl**dy World

Hey guys! So, I'm almost finished writing the Hollow City section of this book and will go on with Library of Souls. But the bad thing is, I don't actually remember the third book except the ending?? So yeah, updates might get a lil bit slower as I quickly reread that book before writing some more. Also, thank you so much for all of your comments! They always end up making my day, especially with how stressed I've been lately. Thank you so much! Love you all!

"(Y/N)?"

I snapped back into reality, and turned my head towards the voice. Jacob was standing above me, looking at me strangely as I layed down peacefully on the ground. I recently made a little grave for myself, all prettied up with bricks and soot surrounding my pre-corpse. It was quite lovely, if you asked me. I even had my arms crossed and all, although it seemed as if Jacob wanted me alive right now.

"What can I help you with?" I asked politely.

"Emma wanted you to check something out with us," he said, and helped me up from the ground.

I followed him to find Emma dressing Millard's wound and talking excitedly to him. I pulled up a brick, and sat next to Millard while Emma quickly finished up. She smiled mysteriously to herself, and pulled out a large book from behind her. I gasped when seeing it, and allowed myself to smile as well.

"A Map of Days," I muttered quietly to myself. "I still can't believe it has every loop ever created!"

Emma flipped through it, and Jacob suddenly stopped her at one of the coordinates. It marked 29-3-316 / ?-?-399, and he asked, "What is this, some kind of code?"

Emma traced it with her fingers, as if trying to read braille. "This loop was the twenty-ninth of March, 316 A.D. It existed until sometime in the year 399, though the day and month are unknown."

"What happened in 399?"

"It doesn't say."

Jacob leaned over Emma to flip the page to find more coordinates, most of them starting and ending hundreds of years ago. I personally found them all interesting, but Jacob was looking at it with a skeptic's eye.

"But what's the point of listing all these?" he asked, obviously confused. "How would you even get to these ancient loops?"

"By leapfrogging," Millard replied. "It's a highly complex and dangerous undertaking, but by leapfrogging from one loop to another--a day fifty years in the past, for instance--then you'll find you have access to a whole range of loops that have ceased to exist in the last fifty years. Should you have the wherewithal to travel to them, within those you'll find still other loops, and so on exponentially."

"That's time travel," Jacob gasped. "Real time travel."

Millard tried not to sound cocky as he said, "I suppose so, yes."

"It's a bit like Doctor Who, really," I tried explaining. "Back in my day, Jacob, we had this sci-fi show that was all about time travelling. There was this alien guy called the Doctor, who could time travel, but only when places needed him, and when he had his time machine with him. As they always said, 'I never know why, I always know-"

"Yeah, that show is still on," Jacob said.

Really? Why?

Jacob pointed at Horace's lovely ash painting of the gulag. "Anyways, about this place. We wouldn't just have to figure out where it is, but when, too?"

"I'm afraid so," Millard answered. "And if Miss Avocet is indeed being held by Wights, who are notoriously adept at leapfrogging, then it's extremely likely that the place she and the other ymbrynes are being taken is somewhere in the past. That will make them all the more difficult to find, and getting there all the more dangerous. The location of historical loops are well known to our enemies, who tend to lurk near the entrances.