Flames engulfed the entirety of the area around me. I am free falling, sky skydiving. Miles are passing before me by the second. Miraculously, the searing pain from the burns across my body, are mildly numbed by the speed of my descent.
I can't open my mouth.
I can't see anyone.
My eyes struggle to open, just a sliver. I can see smoke, thousands of miles of clouds. It feels like led in my throat.
I can't move. I'm trying to breathe.
Where's the watch?
This can be solved in a matter of will.
## There
I want to see something, anything but the flaming abyss in the sky.
If i could just open my eyes.
Maybe tilt my head, to try and catch an angle.
> Waterfall Caverns
There is a boat, and I'm in it.
"Where was this going again?"
"You see, what you perceive is your reality. So the less you know the better."
"Doesn't make it easier to communicate this." I reply... my speech works here.
"If consciousness is linked here, then one of you can process information." Krys replies.
"So then who are you?"
"I'm a manifestation of a memory you had on the train."
I look around. This is the sunken place... so it's one of the doorways my dad mentioned.
"Does that mean this counts as a real place?"
"Yeah. But here we hardly know each other at all." Krys says, steering the boat with an usually old paddle.
It's safe to assume his version of me, has already left and intercepted some other timeline. I don't know if that's good or not... but he has to be warning me of something.
Every other version doesn't seem to be leaking any information. Why else would my father end up with parallel in dire circumstances?
## Elsewhere
"You flipped the coin... and didn't take any karma? Or chance?"
"I wasn't aware that was available." Isaac says.
"Then that means Syeef and Caasi can't exactly interact in this space... damn... neither can we then... and now that makes his house just another limbo." Casey says.
Isaac looks at the clock on the wall.
It's not moving.
"Yeah... i guess you're right."
"You're gonna give up this reality already? You just got here..."
Isaac chuckles. "It usually plays out like that though, isn't that right?"
Casey sits down. Leo wakes up.
"Dammit! Stop doing that!" He stands up. "And untie me! You know I'm the only one who can conjugate."
Betty looks at Casey, then nods.
Isaac walks over, and lets him go.
"Now, he isn't going to logically be able to escape freefalling from a plane."
"Correct." Betty sips tea.
"So we have to introduce a savior."
"Not possible, they died in the explosion."
"But he didn't." Leo says.
Betty puts her tea down. "Correct."
"That means a watch user has to intervene." Isaac says.
"Who's family isn't opposing him? Everyone, including myself, was present from the airport." Leo says.
"Who doesn't matter. The laws of his timeline do not enable such a hypothetical." Casey interjects.
> Waterfall Caverns
"So... what happened to your version of me?" I ask.
Krys stops paddling. They look over to me.
"He asked me that... just before..."
WHOOSH!
A wave pushes our boat with force.
I look at Krys as the boat sways. It takes a moment to catch balance. He chuckles.
"Before he told me about your watch."
I put my hands in my pockets. There it is.
"I suppose, he isn't here then?"
"No... he mentioned that he was going somewhere. But when he returned, it wasn't going to be him. So that if it happened, i was to bring you here." Krys stirs.
I wonder about that. Is there a version of me that predicted this would happen? How are we aware of multiple timelines beyond our own? This is something i have to ask my dad when i see him again.
"Here's the catch," Krys reels in something with a fishing rod.
I try to see what's splashing - the water however, is too dark for me to process it. This is kind of what is was like when
BANG!
A wave crashed against the backside of the boat - flipping it over upon impact. We're dragged beneath the surface into waters absent of any light whatsoever.
My lungs can't expand. It's hard to move, as the weight of the ocean is descending upon my crown. Even Atlas, would be indecisive in this moment.
I try to think of using the watch.
It begins to glow before it floats out of my pocket.
## FREE FALLING
I see it, but that's not all i see. There they are, them - at least three other people. They're too far away for me to identify.
I still can't aerodynamically reach the watch. I can't use the primary functionality without contact. The Epoch mode is working, but i don't think i have much time before i go splat.
"What?"
Then parachutes one by one erupt from their visages.
"How?"
Who could've been prepared for such an event?
I look around, a stream of light is leaking from the watch - and within it i can pear a jagged glass like view of a slanted reality.
There... instead of a parachute... i had a hydrophotonic pair of Yeezy Pods.
YOU ARE READING
R e t r o s p e c t • PSYPHY
RomanceHindsight is twenty-twenty. Although for Caasi Stintin even that is subject to change. His less than average life of mediocrity suddenly undergoes a shift. There's a death in the family. Little did he know the severity of the impact it would cause...
