The Battle Across The Universe

Chapter 2: The Venomous Snakes

Fawn spoke to Fawn. It might sound weird, but in this situation it isn't. Twenty-year-old Fawn told eighteen-year-old Fawn what she would see or hear if they fucked up.

The first thing she had to listen for was Anna-Marie saying something about...snakes. But Fawn wasn't entirely sure what that meant.

Fawn made a note on her phone so that way she wouldn't be able to disappoint her older self by destroying the universe.

So it was now the day after Flower's birthday party. Fawn invited Anna-Marie, Lan, and Isabella to come over to her house to sleep over since Lan probably needed a break from Flower for a while.

Fawn noticed that the clock read noon when she heard the doorbell ring. Fawn got off the couch, and walked to the door. She saw Lan outside with a few bags of stuff and a pillow and a bunch of blankets.

"Hey!" Fawn said. She hugged Lan. "Please. Come in!"

Lan walked inside, and just dropped her stuff on the ground. "Fuck. I. Am. So. Fucking. Tired. Do you realize how hard hosting a birthday party is and you're the parent?"

"Um, no," Fawn said, closing the door. "But that's why I invited you and the gals over! So that you could relax!"

Lan smiled. "Thanks. And Li's okay with it. He should be good. Being with Flower by himself. He'll get a break sometime tomorrow. Now, may I please take my stuff up to your room?"

"Yeah, of course. Let me help you with that."

~~~~

Anna-Marie and Isabella came over as well. Anna-Marie came fifteen minutes after Lan, and Isabella came ten minutes after Anna-Marie.

They all just decided to be in Fawn's room, either lying on Fawn's bed, sitting in a chair, sitting on her desk, or lying on the floor. Guess who was who.

Isabella was laying down on Fawn's bed, playing with a bouncy ball. Anna-Marie was sitting in a chair. Lan was sitting on Fawn's desk. And Fawn was lying on the ground, staring up at her off-white ceiling.

"So," Anna-Marie said, "what should we talk about?"

"No fucking clue," Isabella answered, bouncing the ball on the ground, but Fawn caught it instead.

"Then what should we do?" Lan asked.

Fawn threw the ball back to Isabella. "No idea."

All four girls sighed at the same time.

"Hey," Anna-Marie said. "Remember when we were sixteen. The first task. With the poisonous snakes."

Fawn sat up, and faced Anna-Marie. "Yeah? And?"

"They weren't poisonous," Anna-Marie sat up straighter. "They were venomous. There's a difference. If you bite it and you die it's poisonous. If it bites you and you die it's venomous. No matter what it is. Snakes or not. And remember how terrified we were? Especially you, Lan!"

"I was a scaredy cat!" Lan yelled defensively with a smile. "I hadn't even met Joseph the Dickhead! I didn't know shit! I didn't know that things would escalate so fast!"

"Yeah, that only took place over a matter of three months, right?" Isabella asked.

"Three or four months," Fawn said as she shrugged. "But still scary as fuck."

The four girls started laughing for no reason.

But Fawn just randomly stopped laughing. She realized...

Anna-Marie...

Anna-Marie talked about snakes.

Had it begun?

Was Fawn already too late?

Or was there still time to fix whatever happens?