On Your Own

3B

Your guts feel like they've been scrambled by a champion arm-wrestler and your brain feels like it's been melted into a soupy mess. To top it all off, a new-yet-hours-old memory barrels into you, knocking the figurative breath out of your consciousness. You feel for your wallet and the results warrant a tumbling back onto Kendall's creaking bed and a resigned groan.

And Alpha thinks he's so clever... that isn't to say it doesn't work.

Before Kendall opens his mouth to talk, you silence him with a gesture and pull out your phone and a small slip of paper.

"1, 5, 16, 92, and the one in the far corner."

"Appreciate it, B."

You hang up.

Kendall cups his face in his hands and perks his face up into a small, curious grin. 

"What was that about?"

"You of all people should know. This is the Beta timeline now remember?"

His feet start swaying again and he makes a terrible attempt at not looking embarrassed.

"Oh. Sorry about that. I... I didn't think you knew."

You roll your eyes.

"Of course I do; getting hammered right before switch over only does so much. Besides, I told you Evelyn's been messing with me. The Alpha timeline has been split several times just today."

"Oh yeah. I thought this device might help with that."

You hold the contraption up to the dim light again.

"What did it do?"

"I'm..." he falters, "I'm not sure. When I tried it, I just saw those blue lights. Like when I was in the abyss. I figured you'd see more."

You slowly shake your head. "No. I didn't even see that. I just had this sensation like waking from a dream, then felt sick."

"I'd thought that it let you into a another timeline or something?" A pained expression unravels across his face. "Maybe we should just... talk... to... her," he forces out.

You consider this without much pleasure. You know how Evelyn is and if she thinks you're hiding something from her, she will find out. You can't think of any way of confronting her without causing a whole myriad of problems.

"What if we... found another way."

He locks eyes with total conviction, the vicious desperation of an animal trapped in a corner.

"The field, the burden, the red needle," he offers.

"The measure, the feeling, the illegal."

You can hear yours ears start to ring with impatient tones. They call to you. The world's weight. Your vision blurs, heart sickens...

Then it's over.

You don't remember what you were thinking about. Pain is a distant dream. Where are you? You were just... she was just...

"Come on," you weakly suggest, "we should go."

"Huh? Where?"

"To Evelyn."

"!-"

"Things have changed. She's changed."

4B - You won't ever change, huh?