Bonnie : Danny!!! Do you really think I'm going to stay in this dump? How could you do this to me!!!
Jason : *sighs*
Danny : Yeah it's a shithole! Why don't you yell at me some more, Bonnie? I bet that'll make it better! I didn't even ask you to come, you invited yourself! It was a trip for Nancy! And guess what? I drove! So we're staying the fucking weekend!
Jesse : *whispers* Well this is awkward...
Brandon : It's fine, they're always like this.
Nancy : Great...we're staying...*sighs in fuckmylife*
Bonnie : Fuck you Danny!
??? : *whispers* Join Us...Join Us...
Nancy : Ummm, can anyone else hear that?
Summary: After the brutal murder of her found family, Gemi loses years of her life to grief, leaving her remaining family member, Chaim, to suffer alone. Gemi is too late to save him from the spiraling path of hatred and revenge against the killer(s), but the Fates are on her side.
Start from the beginning
“We don't have any sweets in the house,” a younger version of Chaim pouted, and threw himself across my legs on the bed, like a dizzy Victorian woman would fall onto a fainting couch. He rolled over onto his stomach, crushing my legs under his weight. “Can you,” he looked down and fidgeted with his fingers before pouting, just as I remembered he used to do. “Come out with me to get ice cream or something?”
“Chaim?” I ended up whispering, overtaken by tears in an instant.
Just as he looked up at me with concern, Obi leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed, and announced, “Should I be offended that you didn't ask me to go out for sweets?” in a faked hurt tone.
My precious family, Chaim and Obi, alive as they once were. “Obi,” I gasped, crying more than I could control.
“Hey,” Obi's tone became delicate, and he moved towards the bed to comfort me.
Chaim pulled me into a hug, filling my heart with warmth for the first time in years. “I'm sorry Gemi, I shouldn't have asked. I know how difficult it is for you to leave the house.”
I attempted to suppress my tears enough to respond, but I ended up snuggling my head on his tiny shoulder. This must be heaven.
Obi, in turn, started to rub my back like he used to. “Hey, it's okay.”
I just grabbed onto his shirt and pulled him closer, mumbling words of thanks to the gods between sobs.
By time I cooled down from crying, a panic took over me in realization. Chaim asked to go out for sweets on that day... What if, rather than dying and reaching heaven, I am being tortured in hell, doomed to relive this day again?
“We need to go.”
I scooped Chaim in my arms, and quickly threw myself out of bed, pulling the blankets caught on my feet off.
“Wh-?” Chaim and Obi tried to voice.
“We need to go right now.”
Chaim wrapped his legs around my torso and held on tightly when I dropped one hand to grab onto Obi. How amazing it is to be in a strong body again! “Woah, Gemi, slow down!” Obi protested, unwillingly moving along with me.
“Ugh, you guys are so loud, I'm trying to sleep here!” Gorka shouted out, and my heart stopped. Turning the corner of the single wall dividing us, I came face-to-face with Bayar, Tiho, and Gorka in the dimly-lit living room.
“You're all alive,” I let out under my breath. Obi attempted to free himself from my forceful grip, but i held on tighter. I cant let him go. I can't let them die again! “We need to go out, right now,” I stated firmly, turning on all of the lights.
Gorka groaned and covered his eyes with his arms. “What the hell, Gemi?”
“We need to leave right now, we need to go to that pond near McDicks.”
“Mhm, I could go for some french fries,” Bayar added, though vae did not budge from the loveseat.
Gorka pulled down his sleeve to look at his watch. “It's 11pm, we should all be going to bed.”
“Please,” I started to beg, desperate to change history. “We'll be too late, we need to go.”
“I'm pretty sure it's open 24/7,” Tiho said.
“No- that's not- please, just get up and leave with me. I can't watch this happen again.” I stood my ground, letting the tears spill from me like a broken dam, but I persisted. I trembled before them as Chaim wiped my cheeks with his sleeve, then looking to Gorka.
Gorka's voice dropped into a gentle, but vigilant tone. “What's got you so scared? Did something happen?”
I closed my eyes and squeezed Chaim closer to me, trying to forget what he looked like covered in blood. “I promise I'll tell you, but we need to leave now, before it's too late.”
We all evacuated the house by 11:15p.m., and arrived at the pond shortly after. Chaim didn't bother asking for a sundae this time, instead choosing to cling to my side, silently looking up at me with concern. As we sat down, I let out a long sigh, half out of relief to be away from danger, half knowing the following conversation was going to be difficult to get through. “You're not going to believe me.”
They waited silently for me to continue, but I couldn't bring myself to say it out loud. You all died; how bizarre would that sound to living, breathing people? I just closed my eyes, and unwillingly envisioned their corpses and the pain attached to their absence.
Tiho leaned forward in our little circle. “Maybe we wont, but we love and care about you, so we're going to listen and take you seriously. We'll do anything we can to support you, we're not going to let you suffer on your own.”
I opened my eyes when Chaim grabbed onto my sleeve. I sighed again, then started the story from the beginning of this horrid day, to my last moments in that other timeline.
-
By time they were caught up with the tale too tall to believe, their concern had only increased. Still, they didn't challenge my interpretation of history.
“When would you feel comfortable going back home?” Gorka asked, wiping away the remaining tears from my face with his sleeve.
“Um, just a little bit longer. Chaim and I returned after we thought you'd be asleep.”
Gorka leaned over me to pinch Chaim's cheek. “Huh? Were you planning to do that today?”
“It's the only way we escape punishment from father time,” Obi commented under his breath.
Gorka squinted at Obi, and released Chaim, but did not comment further. A great show of restraint, because under normal circumstances, he would've chastised the both of them.
I missed even the conflict, and smiled as tears brimmed my eyes again. Tiho crawled over to rub my back as I sniffled, and I leaned into his touch. “I love you all so much.”
