At Time's End

Chapter 29 - It's Over..?

I walked over to Jaiden's room, having heard a suspicious sound. I opened the door, and noticed her silhouette against the window, the bright white light coming from it illuminating the room. "You alright?"

"It... It's over."

"What... is?" I looked over to her feet, something catching my eye. "Is that glass? Watch your feet." I quickly picked it up with my improved telekinesis, the texture of the shards prickling in my palms. Telekinesis does that sometimes.

Jaiden stumbled backwards, scattering some documents from the table beside her, somehow landing in a chair. "I did it." Her eyes were darting across the room. "The cure. I finished it."

"Where is it?!" I was excited to hear this. This was huge news for the scientific community - and huge fame awaited Jaiden, if she were to publish this discovery.

She only gestured to the ground. "There. I... changed my mind." 

"Are-" I had to pause to collect myself. "Are you out of your actual mind?!"

She shook her head defeatedly. "I might as well be..." She collected the shattered papers, making them into a nice stack. "I mean, I did write everything down. Feel free to read that through if you want to." Jaiden handed the papers over to me, and I skimmed it. Her handwriting had improved, and by improved I mean you couldn't even recognize it as hers.

"Alright... I'll keep these for the time being. Get some sleep, you're tired." I left after having said that. Jaiden didn't move a muscle from the chair, despite me telling her to go to sleep. I ignored this.

Karmella was sitting on her bed, seemingly waiting for me. "What happened?"

"Nothing," I sighed, and went straight back to bed without saying another word.

---

I woke up, the very first thing I did being pulling myself up from the floor. What even happened yesterday? Or today? I must've hit my head on the way down, considering the killer headache wrapping itself around my head. How did I even end up on the floor?

I descended down the stairs, holding on for dear life not to faint. "Morning," someone yelled. I was too tired to answer. "So, what's up with you?" The voice seemed to belong to Karmella, but I didn't care enough right then to actually confirm this. "Wh- You're bleeding! From your head!"

I took my hand off my head where I was holding it as if it'd ease the pain, and saw that it was red, blood red specifically. "Huh? When..?" That explained the liquid-y thing dripping down my temples. I rubbed it on my shirt, noticing there were already a few drops of blood on it.

"Jaiden, get down from the stairs. I'll be right back. Stay at the bottom of the stairs." I got to the bottom, my hand slightly aching from having held on to the railing so tightly - however, still not comparable to my headache. I felt thirsty, and just getting some water while I'm waiting for Karmella wouldn't be that bad, right..?

I turned on the tap and got a glass. Glass..? I remembered something, but it escaped my mind as soon as I swallowed the water. A drop of blood fell from my cheek into the glass, and it started to look red. Strange, I seemed to remember something again, it still escaping as soon as I took another sip.

"Did I not tell you to stay at the bottom of the staircase?!" I heard an angry voice. "Sit down right now."

"I was just getting wat-"

"Sit. Down." I complied, and she pressed a cloth onto the wound. I had somehow entirely forgotten about it. "Keep that there." She picked up another cloth, this time soaked with water, and began cleaning the blood off my temples. "So, what on Earth were you doing?!"

"I..." I started, but I couldn't remember anything. "I don't think I remember, actually..."

"That's... bad." She kept cleaning the blood off. "Do you have any idea? Did Eterna come to check on you? Did you drop something, perhaps a glass item?" 

She asked many questions, and I couldn't comprehend half of them, but despite that, I remembered something. Everything, in fact. All too suddenly, the world fell to black.

---

"She's alive, at least." I felt someone's index and middle fingers on my wrist. I shook them off. "Oh, there you are. You fainted."

"Of course I did." I took the cloth off my face.

"Keep those on!" Karmella yelled, and Chester, who I didn't realize was there, stuck it right back. "So, do you remember anything?"

"Right, that.." I cleared my throat, and began explaining. "So, I finished the cure."

"What?! Congratulations!" Karmella was the first to interject.

"Right, thanks, but it has probably already dissolved into the floor in my room right now." I didn't go too much into why I dropped it, besides just saying I regretted some things.

"...Alright, but how does this relate to the head injury?" Chester asked. A reasonable question.

"Uh, I actually have no idea. I remember Eterna and I having a brief conversation, and then her telling me to go to sleep, but after that I have no idea," I said. "Oh, and she picked up the remnants of the vial that I dropped." I was proud of her for finally regaining her ability to use her telekinesis, but that's beside the point.

"You think she left any shards on the floor?"

"I don't know. I was pretty out of it at that point." 

"I'll go check," Chester got up, seemingly bored of the conversation, and left towards the staircase.

He returned a while later, holding a shard of glass which was stained red. "You think this is what caused it?"

"Probably, yeah. But how'd I get it embedded in my face? Head?" I tried looking over to see where Eterna was, if she was downstairs, but the towel on my face obscured my view. "Hang on, I'll just-"

---

She ripped the towel off, blood spouting from the wound as the weak scab opened again. "Wait, I don't think this is health-" She fell on the ground, having lost conciousness.

"Chester!" I called. "We need to get her to the Venus Rings, how long does it take?!"

"Probably like an hour, I don't know! If we want to go there, we have to go, like, now!" I stuck the towel back on her head, carried her to the car - easy, I'm the tallest of the crew - and hoped.