beside myself
I was mentally preparing myself for something awful. You know when, like, the doctor asks to speak to you in private, and you kinda realize things are about to go down? That was how I felt about opening the door. Yeah, I'm waffling to put off having to actually look outside, sorry. Outside, though... there was nothing again. I was scared, confused... did we lose? Were we the only ones left? Surely there had to be someone else, somewhere, right? We went around past a few buildings but saw nobody inside. "Maybe they're in here?" Scriff said, pointing to the library.
"I hope so," I said, pushing the door open.
Immediately I knew we were in the wrong place. It was the right place, but we weren't supposed to be here. I mean... this was the right place but it was a bad place, I think that makes it clear enough. There was a droning noise coming from the center of the room, and shards of broken glass from the lamps on the floor. "Watch your step," I said to the others as we entered the library.
By the time I could peek over the shelves at the middle of the room, the sound was almost unbearable. There was some sort of small box sitting on the ground. I vaulted over the shelf and picked up the box, looking to shut it off, and if you're wondering when I realized my mistake it was right around the time when
"𝐀𝐡, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚𝐫𝐞! 𝐈 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐬𝐚𝐲, 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐰𝐨? 𝐖𝐡𝐲, 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭'𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐚𝐲!"
"Get lost!" I exclaimed, not sure from where in the room that was coming from.
"𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐈 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧'𝐭 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐫. 𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚 𝐫𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬."
I still had no idea where he was. I looked around quickly, and Craggy had snapped a table in half as an improvised weapon once he did show his face. "And maybe I didn't make myself clear! I'm not your toy!"
"...𝐖𝐞𝐥𝐥, 𝐢𝐟 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞, 𝐢𝐭'𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐟𝐮𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐢𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐟𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞-𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐤𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐮𝐩."
That's what you think, Amark.
"вєgσnє! nσвσdч αskєd fσr чσu!"
í fєlt wєírd, α kínd σf dull αchє míхєd wíth α rush σf αdrenaline
Suddenly, a figure stepped out of the shadows, and I turned towards them and instinctively tossed the small box their way. The device suddenly stopped in the air and fell to the ground, crumbling to dust. "That's the best you've got?" they asked.
That voice... it was so familiar! It wasn't Amark, for sure, that couldn't have been any of the Retconologists, was that...?
"Your own voice, Miss Emmerson?" they asked.
Yes, it was. Emmi stepped out from the shadows, bright blue irises replacing the deep brown ones I had, she had just before. She was clad in an outfit similar to the one Amark had on, but much cleaner and newer. "Worldbuilder Emmerson?" she said, "Access code Falchion."
"That's—that's not going to work," I said, stepping back.
Craggy suddenly sprung from the shadows brandishing the half a table, but before making any impact suddenly fell to the ground, the weapon splintering into a hundred pieces a meter from its target.
"Wh--?! What was that? What did you d--"
"None of your business, Worldbuilder Emmerson. Rather, I don't think you deserve that title. There's an awful lot of power in a name like that, isn't there?"
"í dσn't wαnt tσ fíght чσu," í sαíd.
"That's right, you don't want to fight me. You want to accept your role with the Watchers and return to work. Isn't that what you want, Suzy? Tell me, how did our song go again?"
"чσu cαn вє вєttєr thαn thís," í sαíd, "чσu dσn't nєєd tσ вє líkє thís."
"Hmm... See, I think I remember the song going a little something li--"
Flux suddenly shot forward to incapacitate Emmi, but without warning dissolved, leaving behind a small silver heart on the floor. "...And your other friend? Excuse me for a second."
She cleared her throat and took on a different tone of voice. "Scriff? You there? You can come out now, she's gone!"
It sounded less professional, a little ditzy and lost... it sounded like me.
She stood in the middle of the library for several seconds, before hearing the rustling of books in the distance. Emmi gestured towards a bookshelf, which instantly began to rot away leaving Scriff entirely exposed. She scurried off towards the front door. "There, now it's just us. Well, that's not quite correct, though. Rence?"
A figure dropped down from the second floor of the library in an attempt to attack me. It was James, staring at me with similar, almost glowing blue eyes, his Retconologist suit a mess, with a disheveled tie and torn up--
He had taken a swipe at me, and I quickly grabbed and twisted his arm, trying to drive him down towards the floor. "Markev, Isaias?" Emmi called out, "Even out this fight for us."
Suddenly the two other Retconologists ambushed me, and I quickly did my best to get out of the way, but stumbled over Craggy still out cold on the floor. The three of them stood over me, and stαrtєd tσ murmur thíngs, thíngs í cσuldn't mαkє σut
e1 8e a5 20 e1 8e a6 e1 8e a7 e1 8f 92 e1 8f b0 e1 8e a5 e1 8e b4 20 e1 8e a9 e1 8e a7 e1 8f ac e1 8f 92 20 e1 8e b4 e1 8f 8b e1 8e a6 e1 8f 8b e1 8f 97 e1 8f 96 2c 20 e1 8e a9 e1 8e a7 e1 8f ac 20 e1 8e b7 e1 8f ac e1 8f 95 e1 8f 96 20 e1 8e ae e1 8f 92 e1 8e a7 e1 8f 96 e1 8f 8b e1 8d 88 e1 8f 96 20 e1 8f 96 e1 8f 82 e1 8f 8b 20 e1 8f 97 e1 8e a6 e1 8f 96 e1 8f 8b e1 8f 92 e1 8f 87 e1 8f 97 e1 8f 92 e1 8e b4
í gσt σff thє flσσr,
í stσσd вєfσrє thє wαtchєrs,
αnd ín αn ínstαnt,
ᏖᏂᏋᎩ ᏰᏗፈᏦᏋᎴ ᎧᎦᎦ.
"...Impressive, I must say," Emmi said, as the three former Retconologists sunk to the floor, "but I'm afraid you're--"
I suddenly grabbed Emmi. "Whatever you're about to say, just save it."
"Wh... what is this?" she asked.
"...A hug. Something someone should have given you before any of this happened. Someone to help you, to keep you away from ending up... here, trying to destroy other people... and if nobody was going to help show you what being loved is like, then you're just going to end up having to learn to love yourself."
She fell silent for a second. I closed my eyes. I was gently running my fingers across her back, trying to imitate what Scriff had done to me several times before. "Look," I said, taking a moment to catch my breath, "I get it. It's a big world. It's a messed up world..."
"Wh..." Emmi began, but never continued.
"And it's easy to get mixed up in the wrong crowd, especially if you don't know where you are or why you're here. I get it. I'm looking to help you. This doesn't need to be how problems get solved."
I could tell she was trying to push away, but I did my best to keep going at a gentle, even rhythm. Emmi slumped forward in my arms. "We can do better. We can make a more peaceful world. It doesn't need bloodshed. It doesn't need to mangle the people we know. It doesn't need to be a whole new story."
"Um..." she began, in a tone I was much too familiar with, "I... gosh..."
"Listen to me, Emmi. You're a good, kind-hearted person. You can feel that, right?"
"yeah..."
"And helping others? How does helping others make you feel?"
"'s good."
"Yeah? And you can help others without hurting them, right?"
"yeah"
"So just look me in the eyes real quick."
And she did, and I found myself staring into half-lidded eyes the deepest, warmest color brown I've ever seen. "And tell me what you want to do next."
"i wanna nap" she said, leaning into me.
I stopped, and helped her up. She was very unsteady, and she found her balance with me. "We can do that later, but for now we need to help out Flux, Craggy, and the Retconologists, and stop Amark and the other Watchers. Can you help me with that?"
"I... yeah, I think I can."
"That'd be great, thank you," I said, pulling her into another hug.
ns 18.68.41.177da2
