The Adventures And Mishaps of a Half-Plant Apothecary - Febuwhump 2024

Day 11 - Time Loop

CW: Death, unrealistic grief / mourning

AN: oooooo I hated writing this tbh and it shows. doesn't really fit the theme but eh

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If Nyxie is dead, it sure doesn't feel like it.

After all, she's woken up, right here in her bed! Looking around a little, it looks just the same as she left it, only maybe a little cleaner. Her clothes are off the floor, and the lamp on her bedside table is nicely dusted, as far as she can tell.

Is her vision blurrier than it was before?

Nyxie squints when her Ba walks in. Partly because she's sure that her eyes have gotten worse since before, but also, her Ba looks old. His hair is grey in patches, and wrinkles seem to have formed around his eyes.

Her Ba's gaze skips over Nyxie. Instead, he glances at a vase that definitely wasn't there yesterday. A bouquet of forget-me-nots, slightly wilting, sit in the vase. He pours a small cup of water into the vase, and sets a card onto the top of a pile in front of it.

He leaves.

Confused, Nyxie stretches and stands up. She wobbles a bit, like she does after she sleeps for a long time, and leans on the wall a little for support, but she's upright. She heads over to the pile of cards, and picks the top one off. She opens it, hoping she isn't snooping or something.

Dear Nyxie,

It's been two years.

Your Ma's been inconsolable. She hasn't been herself in ages, and I hope that if you've been reading the past messages that this won't come as a shock to you. Your Jie Jie's been trying to get her outside, but to minimal success. Maybe it's because she always ends up crying too.

We've missed you.

Love,

Ba

Nyxie stares at the card in shock. Surely it hasn't been that long? After all, it really was just yesterday that she'd fallen asleep outside. It was just a day, right? Her Jie Jie is probably just pulling a prank on her, and gotten their Ba to follow along.

Right?

Nyxie stumbles back into bed. She hadn't stayed out of bed for long, but if this was a prank, Ba or Ma would definitely come and wake her up, or she would hear Ma scolding Jie Jie for the joke, or maybe...

Nyxie yawns. It is too tiring to think about this. It is the weekend, right? She can sleep a little longer.

---

If Nyxie is dead, it sure doesn't feel like it.

After all, she's woken up, right here in her bed! Looking around a little, it looks a teensy bit more dusty than she'd last left it, but everything was neatly tucked away, or left as it was before. Her bed is the only really weird thing she can see, now; it's nicely tucked in around her. She can't really see anything that well, though, especially on her left side.

Does she need glasses?

Nyxie ignores this as well as she can, until she sees Jie Jie walk into the room.

That was the first weird thing. Jie Jie never enters her room this early in the morning, just like Nyxie never enters Jie Jie's room. The second weird thing was that Jie Jie had red splotches under her eyes, as if she'd been crying. She has what looks like a paper of some sort clutched tight in her hands. She stops at the bedside table, where she takes out a bunch of wilted forget-me-nots and puts in a fresh bouquet. She then sets the paper in front of it. The third weird thing is that Jie Jie seems older. She's taller, almost touching the top of the doorframes, but if she stood taller, maybe she would be taller too.

She leaves.

Confused, Nyxie stands, shaking a bit for a second, but otherwise fine. She walks over to the vase, where she picks up what she now sees is a letter.

Really hoping she isn't looking at something important, she begins to read.

Mei Mei,

It's been a while. Two more years, to be exact.

Ma's gone. Winter fever, the doctors said. I don't really know, I think she just missed you too much and just gave up. It's been going for a while, but only got bad last month. I hope wherever you've gone, Ma's gone too. She'd be happy to see you again.

It feels kinda bad to say, but everyone's getting used to you being not here. Teacher's stopped accidentally talking to me as if I'm you. It's nice.

The doctors checked Ba over, and he's probably got winter fever as well. He's older than Ma was, so they aren't sure how he will do.

We miss you.

Jie Jie

Nyxie stares. She skims back over the letter, not knowing how to interpret any of this. Ma was gone? Ba was going to go as well? She'd been... asleep for that long?

She can't process this. She tries not to think about the connotations of whatever this is, and decides that she should probably go and sleep.

It takes a lot longer for her to fall asleep, this time. Her sheets seem to scratch against her skin a lot more than before, and her pillow seems almost unnaturally cold.

Only hours later, she falls into a deep, dreamless sleep.

---

And she awakes. She is not in her bed.