Page 69 of Shadow & Stars
What is this?I thought.
Huh?my younger voice responded.Did I just say that?
You did. We did.Did we really? Oh. My. God.
Are you me?he asked.
Yeah. Adult you from the future,I answered.Well, the present. What’s going on?
I think I need to lay down.
Later. What’s happening?
“What is this?” the Xavier at the door said.
“We have to talk,” the other Xavier said.
Teenage Me got talking.
He’s alive?I said. The relief almost knocked me out.
Yeah. No thanks to us.
I hadn’t killed him. For once in my existence, I hadn’t taken a life. A sudden spike of giddiness threatened to floor me, to break me apart.
I didn’t kill him.
I didn’t kill him.
Oh my God…
Exactly,Teenage Me said.We got to fix this.
Which also meant Darcy was alive, maybe somewhere in this time scared out of his mind. Unless I’d sent him somewhere else.
What happens now?the younger me asked.
I don’t know.
Helpful.
Give me a moment.
Yeah, yeah.
God, I could be one snippy little shit.
I heard that!
Good!
The connection broke, slamming me back into the present.
Man, the day this time-jumping stopped would make me one happy bunny.
Scratch the killing part. At least for the time being because I hadn’t killed Xavier or Darcy, just put them somewhere else. What about their bodies, though. What?—
Fuck it. They were alive and that’s all that mattered.
