An Entire Year of You

Chapter 8: Prophecy

Thoughts of disaster haunted Carlos' mind throughout the following days. He tried to shake it off. After all, he would have never been let go if he was really that much of a threat, right? They were probably just trying to scare him. They'd succeeded too. He couldn't sleep, he couldn't focus. He could barely refer to himself as a functional scientist. His team brushed him off. A town couldn't do anything, it was just a place, it didn't care what he did. It just wasn't scientific. Cecil was a little more helpful. At least he believed everything Carlos was saying.

"The town will warm to you." He reassured him. "As long as you don't do anything too risky."

"But everything in this town is risky." Carlos insisted. "How will I know what too risky is?"

"You're a smart man, Carlos. When you reach that point, you'll just know."

Carlos wasn't convinced that he would know. Even if he somehow did, he wasn't convinced the town would care. What if he'd already crossed the line without realising it and now he or someone else was locked into a count down to destruction? Desperate to get the thought out of this head, he went to the only other person he could trust. He went to Josie.

"Carlos." She smiled at him warmly when she answered the door. "I knew you'd come to me sooner or later."

"Hi, Mrs Ortiz. Can I talk to you?" He asked sheepishly.

"Of course you can dear. Come in. And please stop calling me Mrs Ortiz, makes me feel old."

She led him into her cosy little living room. Inside was a pale green armchair in front of a tall reading lamp, which was guarded by two almost teen foot winged creatures who stood either side. Across from it was a sofa, matching in colour, which was separated from the armchair by a wooden coffee table.

"Would you like some tea, Carlos?" asked Josie.

"No thank you I-"

"You will have tea, Carlos." Hissed one of the figures.

"Yes, it will help with what's to come." Added the other.

"What's to come?" Carlos asked nervously.

"Oh, don't mind the Erikas. They're just being dramatic." Josie waved off. "But really, tea will help you relax. You look like somethings stressing you to death."

"Yeah, yeah tea sounds good."

Josie invited him to seat on the sofa and returned a few minutes later with two steaming hot cups of sweet tea. Once she was finally satisfied that Carlos was calm and didn't need feeding, she finally settled down on the armchair.

"So, what's bothering you, dear? Is Cecil again?"

"No, he's actually been really kind to me."

"That's good to hear. I've known Cecil my whole life. He's either a delight or a terror, there's no in between."

"Don't you mean his whole life?"

"Oh, you interlopers and your linear understanding of time." Josie chuckled as she took a sip of tea.

"It's not Cecil." Carlos shook his head. "I just had a kind of weird conversation with two men a few days ago again and...Josie, I don't think it's good for me to be here."

"What do you mean, dear?"

"I don't know. It's just...everyone here is very close. Everything is balanced around all these personalities all existing here for years and I'm just...I'm just here messing all that up, getting in the way...and I think it's going to break things up somehow." He explained.