Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"I don't know why you smoke if you know it doesn't do anything to your body."
For the first time in what felt like hours, Leo heard a sound other than windchimes. Taking a drag from his cigarette, he saw Lina sit next to him on the steps of the front porch. He'd been staring at the same patch of burnt grass, replaying his time with what he'd assumed were two people, over and over again.
Lina tried seeing what he saw, the burnt grass adjusting to the looped wind current Gerald coded. "Are you still mad?"
What tripped him up was not noticing the aura. Normally, people would emit similar color patterns but Lina and Kev's were on two opposite sides. They weren't even complimentary.
"You ... " he took his time finding the appropriate sentence to form. Some sounded too harsh, others too accommodating to them, others less accommodating to his own feelings. " ... stumped me. I had no idea."
Lina released an exasperated sigh, "It wasn't intentional."
"Things like that don't just happen," he flicked the butt out into the grass. He turned to her, "By you leaving that out, lying to me — this isn't happening anymore, okay? We're done."
"Nno," she quivered.
"Yes." He stood up, pulling up the hologram on his watch. "Gerald, get me — "
She yanked at his arm, dismissing the pixels. "No — "
"Get off of me," he heard himself say calmer than he felt. "You know you didn't even tell me? You waited for me to figure it out my damn self."
She gulped, stepping closer. "Look at me."
He wouldn't.
"I just ran with it," she said, scrolling through his watch. "Because I knew you'd never act like that with me like you do with her."
He met her gaze, "You could've said something."
"But I didn't." She hovered her lips against his, whispering.
He felt her adjust something on his watch, "Wait — "
Being two levels down, took Leo a little bit longer to wake up than it did Val. One minute he's arguing with Lina — who he thought was Lina — then the next minute he blinks and he's staring at a blank, shadow casted ceiling.
On the walls, he could see rain silhouettes dripping through the blinds. Sitting up to stretch his muscles from the uncomfortable floor, he saw Val sitting up against the side of the bed, hugging her knees.
"Hey," he scooted closer to her, coming close enough to feel the heat radiate from her body.
Her already swollen cheeks were red and puffy, eyes glossy. When gently placing his hand on her shoulder she didn't flinch a beat. He didn't say a word until she did. "Gabriel was gone before I woke up," Her voice was stoic, empty. She handed him a blue post-it note. "I saw this right before they took her body away."
Leo didn't need to read the note to know what it said, but he read the barely readable penmanship just to be sure:
I COULDN'T NOT GO BACK
I'M SORRY
— GABRIEL
"I think I'm gonna stay with Tessa for a few days," Val mentioned. "I gotta um, she's helping me with the funeral. She went back, uh, I mean, Gabriel went back to take her to tell us what she would like at the service."
Leo's ears went back, "Wow."
"Yeah," she exhaled. "He's fuckin' crazy. I wish someone'll love me like that one day. Then again ... time jumpers don't really — they are a particular breed that are difficult to come by."
Leo looked down at her blank expression. "Val, do you wanna sit down on the bed? I can get you some water — "
"No, I gotta call her Dad." Val shot up from the floor, grabbing her phone from the bedside table. Leo cautiously followed her into the living room, keeping his distance to give her enough privacy but able to be a shoulder when needed.
"Hi, Rehaan, it's Valley. I'm sorry if I'm calling you so late — ? "
As she spoke on the phone, he scrolled through his Twitter feed, getting up to date with everyone waking up. Sweven was trending. As was the Keeper of the Diadem.
"Oh, you're in Oregon, now?" He heard Val say.
There was something punny that made him smirk quietly.
"I'm good — yeah, I'm still in school. Listen, um, I know you haven't spoken to Andie but she was in that game — "
Leo's eyes shot up to her sitting on the couch, her mouth agape. He couldn't hear Star's father on the other end. Leo didn't have the best sight, he had to thank video game streaming for that. But at the split sight of Val's quivering jawline, he dropped his phone on the counter to go to her.
Val held her hand out, keeping his intentions at bay. "Yeah, they took her about twenty minutes ago," she placed her head in her hand at the sound of her own voice breaking.
Leo just kept watching her nod as she listened to Star's father on the other end.
"Okay, I'll call you when a date's been set — no, everything is paid for." She bit her bottom lip, "Don't worry, I've got it. I'll call you in the morning. Okay, love you too. Bye."
She placed the phone on the table, sinking into the couch.
Leo grabbed her a glass of water from the tap. She drank all of it in one sitting. He took it from her to sit on the coffee table.
He didn't know whether or not to turn on the television. Or if she was experiencing an attack, her colors were inconclusive. Too many feelings.
"A fucking poem?"
Leo turned to her quizzical expression. "Huh?"
"I vaguely remember Star saying that at her funeral she wants someone to recite an Emily Dickinson poem."
"Oh," he chimed. "Usually people go with something religious."
"I know right," she agreed. "But why would she go back to tell me that, it's not anything important."
"Maybe the poem means something?"
"Not to me, I don't know anything about Dickinson."
"To her then?" He wondered, "Maybe you just can't remember right now? You could always ask Gabriel to go and ask."
She scoffed, rolling her eyes.
"What?"
"He can talk to her whenever the hell he wants, on his terms." She looked at him, "But on her terms, I have to wait to suffer from an attack."
"At least you can," he shrugged.
She rested her head along his shoulder, "Yeah, but it's not something you ever get used to. You just suffer through the pain. And hope you'll make it out alive."
