…Pearl…

…

…

The red-streaked blonde slowly opened her eyes. Chaotic wave-like ripples of light tickled the walls and ceiling as reality phased back in. From her cradled position, Des could see the candle in the corner fighting to stay lit. The gloom of the dark corridor faded and returned to dark with each flicker.

She noticed a warm softness underneath her head and shoulders that actually felt heartfelt and comfortable. In a way, it was exactly where she wanted to be. As she slightly shifted her torso, a gentle hand stroked her forehead while fingers mixed in with the front portion of her hair, occasionally pausing to gently toss and twirl the red area in front.

“Pearl,” the biker struggled, throat feeling scratchy and dry.

“Shh, Miss Dragonfly. Take it slowly.” Pearl helped her girlfriend up to sit by her side.

“How… how long have I been out?” Des sniffed then rolled her shoulders around, neck feeling tight and a little sore.

“About half an hour, I’d say. I’m just glad you’re back, Des. I started to get worried when the candle went out a couple of times. But it’s hanging in there now.”

Des thought she heard Rachel’s voice and frantically cut her eyes around the area, darting from one fixed location to the other. When unable to locate the Watcher, she shrugged it off. Her head was pounding and she figured she was probably still in shock from witnessing a family friend’s brutal death at the hands of Marzanna.

As if on cue, the flame completely snuffed out. A vapor of smoke and melted candle wax floated in the air. Pearl hugged Des, pulling her in tightly, and it reminded the biker of the grip she held while traveling together to Rachel’s realm.

Suddenly, something occurred to her. “I have an idea.”

Des leaned back and fished around in her pocket, locating the item she retrieved from Kate on campus after reconnecting with Pearl. She recalled her oldest mom asking her to go to campus that day, and it seemed a little odd, if not curious. Chloe had angrily left the room because she didn’t want them getting mixed up in whatever Rachel was planning. When her mom returned to the room, she asked Des to obtain the small tape recording and its device. She remembered that the woman’s demeanor had completely changed. There was a different kind of wisdom in her tone that she’d only heard from the much older, mastermind version of her mom years earlier. She wondered if it was possible that she somehow knew Des would need the item for this particular moment.

The biker recalled Kate mentioning not to open the handheld recorder because it would mess up the tape, so, in the dark, she felt the buttons and located the one with a tiny raised triangle. She pressed it in and the recording began to play. A warbled, sliding tone that sounded like a needle being dragged across a record, rang out first, followed by the professor’s voice.

“Series 135.v4 – Kate Marsh here again at Chloe Price’s bidding. Surprise, surprise. The purpose of this experiment is to sonically capture the vibrations and frequency of several very specific notes I will be playing on my violin. Past experiments have yielded fascinating results, and I do not expect this to be any different.

“Even though I’m doing all the heavy lifting, Chloe brilliantly had the idea and has been masterminding the process. I’m not sure what she will do with all of this data, but it certainly is a phenomenal discovery. So far, we have been able to manipulate tangible elements within a 10 feet by 10 inches square parameter. Water, wind, and solid objects have all responded with each experiment. We begin our fourth phase now in an attempt to manipulate fire.

“I am standing in the middle of my office, in the center of a circle with two dozen candles surrounding me on the floor. All machinery in the room has been unplugged or turned off. The reading on the thermostat was 71°F probably two minutes prior to me pushing the record button.

“I will be using a 24 inch Carlo Lamberti, tuned to a specific pitch. Because of the instructions from Chloe, I cannot verbally mention the date, time, or specific musical notes I play, rosin amount or bow size. Those details can be found on the data sheet accompanying this recording. Chloe says we need to keep these separated for security purposes.

“So, without further ado, let’s begin.”

Neither Des nor Pearl said a word. They intently listened to the recording and waited to see what would happen. The notes Kate played were odd. They sounded almost too high to register, though haunting and beautiful nonetheless.

As the first few notes played, Des could feel something in the area change. Her skin felt like it was moving, as if she had walked into a field of static electricity.

“You feel that, Des?”

“Uh huh.”

“It’s so weird.”

As the progression of the notes were moving even higher in pitch, they almost became unlistenable. The screeching sounds physically hurt Des. The girls shifted their weights and reached up to covered their ears in an attempt to muffle the unpleasant violin screeching. As her hand raised, Des dropped the tape recorder. It hit then slid on the ground out in front of the pair a few feet from their location.

Tiny, almost undetectable, sparks started pinging the air like fireflies in the woods at night. Stone-like pieces of material popped and chipped from the walls and ceiling down to the ground like hail from a storm.

“Shit, this place is falling apart, Pearl!” Des stretched for the recording device to turn it off, and a robust tremor shook the corridor all around the pair. Pieces of falling rock echoed from down the dark chamber in the distance.

One spark from the experiment burst above the candle’s wick, causing it to startlingly relight. Both Pearl and Des snapped their heads to the side, eyebrows raised and mouths open. Other than a hand up to block the small falling pieces of stone, they remained still, watching the wax from the candle solidify and grow. Its stem looked to be brand new and unused, not like the ancient item they had come to know.

{{“Des. Can you hear me?}}

“What the fuck?” The biker yelped after hearing Rachel’s voice again.

Pearl gave her a sideways, puzzled glance as she squinted in her direction.

“Did you hear that, Pearl?”

“All I can hear is this stinkin’ place falling down. Can you get us outta here, Silly Lady?” The athlete’s words seemed playful yet her tone indicated she was terrified.

{{“Des. It’s Rachel. Can you hear me?}}

“Rachel!? Holy fuck! Where are you?”

Pearl silently looked on knowing whatever was happening was beyond her understanding.

{{“That doesn’t matter now, Des. Listen quickly, we don’t have much time. Take Pearl to your parents’ house. They need her pretty badly at this point.”}}

“You gotta tell me how I can hear you, Rachel? I watched you fucking die.”

{{“Watchers are all connected outside of time. It’s not easy to explain, but we’re connected now, Des; you and I. I’m sorry about the pain at the beginning, it happened to me too before I received the sight. Then you relit the candle and now… well, you’re one of us.”}}

The red-streaked blonde ran fingers through her hair and turned towards the candle, a new awareness spilling into her mind.

{{You don’t have the luxury of getting to spend time trying to figure shit out like I did. I’ll explain what I can. Max is dead; Marzanna killed her, and you can’t fix this very easily.}}

Des’s breathing hitched and a gasp of horror escaped her lips.

{{Don’t be alarmed, though, there’s a link to the power that will save us. It’s the only link left with a high probability of succeeding. I know it’s confusing, but hear me, please. Time does not matter to a time traveler except when she herself is impacted. Meaning that, yes, you could travel back all by yourself and stop Max from being murdered. However, probabilities react when you change things. I’ve seen this scenario play out millions of times. Pearl is the only way now for a happy ending!”

“Why? What does she have to do with this? And…” She was interrupted after spinning around and making eye contact with her girlfriend.

{{Close your eyes and feel me. Once we link-up, you won’t be able to directly contact me again, but you will have the Watcher’s sight. Before that, though, I need to thank you.}}

“Thank me? What for?”

{{Remember when you saved a version of me during the multiverse merger?}}

“I think so. She was older, right? Yeah… I remember. She was the only version of you that I could bring back. Your death was a fixed point in time that couldn’t be changed in all but one universe.”

{{Because you saved her, I absorbed those memories. Saving her life basically saved yourself and hopefully your moms. She and the older version of Chloe, the one that masterminded the consolidation, made sure you could light the candle with that recording. It was her gambit that’s now paying long-term dividends.}}

“That’s hella crazy shit, Rachel.”

{{You’ll have to fight to sort everything out, but you can do it. Now prepare yourself to receive me.}}

The time traveler did as she was told. She shut her eyes, and her mind was engulfed with flames. Infinite timelines poured into her sight and nearly overwhelmed the girl.

After a moment of simply existing within the experience, Des slowed the speeding probabilities down, focusing only on her moms. She watched dozens of potential realities play out. Des finally understood Rachel’s warning. There was no way to save her mom without Pearl. She knew what she had to do and where she had to go.

After releasing her grip from the Watcher’s sight, Des turned back to her side to look at her Pearl. The brunette smiled as their eyes met, and Des stepped in and forced her lips onto her girlfriend’s. Several seconds passed by and Des released.

“Whoa. What was that for, Dragonfly?”

“Pearl. I-I…” She placed her palm on the athlete’s soft cheek, rubbing the girl’s sun-kissed skin in an elliptical motion with her thumb. “I am the new Watcher. I just had a conversation with Rachel, who I think is now inside me… maybe.” The last sentence felt more like a question than a statement.

“Wowee. That’s… that’s…. well, I’m not sure if that’s good or bad. So, you like, hear her voice in your head or something?”

“Not anymore. Once her power was passed to me, I guess I kind of like, absorbed her. I’m not really sure, to be honest.”

“That’s pretty trippy.”

“Then I watched a ton of timelines where we save my parents. I mean, YOU save my parents.”

“Me? How can I save them? You’re the one with the powers.”

Des smirked.

Another tremor shook the realm, causing both girls to lose their balance and fall into the others’ arms.

“How about we get the hell out of here, Pearl?”

“Heck yeah! Good idea.”

Des motioned for her companion to hold onto her once more. “Hang on tight. You remember last time.”

“Yep, yep. I’m ready.”

Des squeezed back after Pearl moved into her body and wrapped her arms around the time traveler’s torso. The girls held onto one another with confidence and hopefulness. Des thought about the litany of possibilities for their next actions, and she knew there was only one spot on the timeline for them to return– Max’s and Chloe’s present.

Utilizing the Watcher’s sight and her own abilities, Des calculated her precise timeline reentry area. The girls disappeared from the Watcher’s realm in just enough time to look back and see it wink from existence. Thinking to herself, Des knew a battle was about to begin. Ready or not, Pearl was about to meet the greatest challenge of her life.

Marzanna sat on the edge of a cliff in her realm, legs dangling. She looked down at the countless sheets of ants below her; souls still trapped and unable to move on. The carrying capacity of the in-between realm was way beyond what she considered acceptable. It would soon be filled so completely that souls would have to be stacked on top of one another, and she wasn’t sure how that would work.

“That sure as shit didn’t do it,” she sighed after complaining to herself, shaking her head in disappointment. Her attempts had been unsuccessful, yet she needed to keep trying. Despite starting to become weary due to the situation she was facing, a strong sense of urgency replaced her typically calm and focused demeanor. Things were out of her control for the first time in as long as she could remember, and it frightened her.

She couldn’t recall the beginning any longer. Death had been doing her job for what seemed like forever, though she knew there must have been a starting point somewhere in her past. She also realized nothing lasted forever. Everything that begins, has to end. She wondered if her own end was coming. If she couldn’t fix the situation, her time could be over soon. Just like every sentient being to ever exist, self preservation and survival was of utmost importance to her.

“Hmm,” she pondered, as a new thought floated through her mind. “Maybe Max wasn’t the key after all.” She stroked her chin in consideration. “The power found its way to her because of Chloe. When she was shot in the bathroom, I had her in my grip. Then, the time control ability pulled her away from me. That’s it! I need to take Chloe’s life too. I Should have just taken them all out when I had the chance. Oh well.”

Marzanna stood from the cliff and turned towards the wall behind her. She chuckled and closed her eyes. A second later, she disappeared from her realm on a path towards the house she just left. Chloe was now in her crosshairs, and she was about to pull the trigger.