Elijah lit a cigarette as he pulled up into Emily's driveway. His eyes avoided Rachel's gaze as she glanced over at him. Anxiety crept up his arm as he reached for the stick shift. Emily's front door creaked back and forth. The air smelled of wet leaves and stale smoke, Elijah's cigarette curling into the cool autumn air. He felt like he was sitting next to a tamed tiger while entering a lion's den.
Rachel's mulberry eyes glowed as she gazed around at Emily's trailer. The beige paint faded over time and with the weather. She glanced over at Elijah, who didn't meet her gaze. Her eyes glowed as the strings twisted around Elijah, like threads tying him to this moment.
"What are you looking at?" Elijah asked as he put the car keys into his pants pocket.
Rachel blinked heavily as the glow in her eyes faded. "Oh, sorry, was I staring?"
Eli chuckled, then rubbed his neck. "Yeah, kind of. Your eyes were glowing. Did you mess with time again?"
Rachel shook her head. "No, I never want to use my powers again unless necessary. I was just...daydreaming."
"And what constitutes as necessary?"
"What do you mean?"
Elijah shook his head and sighed. "Just forget it, not like I would remember if you did or didn't mess with time."
Rachel's eyes lowered as a frown formed on her face. "I remember what happened in the last loop now, how we met at the intersection," her hands clenched, as if she could still feel the last loop unraveling. "Emily pulled the fire alarm and the Ether aptitude test. I even remember how you died."
Elijah glanced back at her as he opened the driver's door. His cigarette dropped to the ground as his hands trembled briefly. "Emily didn't say anything about that."
"Of course she didn't. That's typical, Emily. Even after multiple time loops, I could hardly get a straight answer from her," Rachel replied as she glared at Emily's trailer. "I know her old journals are in her room."
"She's going to know for sure you've been snooping."
Rachel shrugged. "It doesn't matter if she knows," she replied as she opened the passenger side door. Her shoes sank into the mud as she walked towards the front door.
Elijah breathed deeply as he followed. A familiarity swelled within him as he knocked on the door. He glanced briefly at Rachel, then knocked again. His eyebrows furrowed as he watched Rachel stomp towards a side window of the trailer.
"Help me up," Rachel asked as she gestured for Elijah to come over.
"Is her parents home?" Elijah asked as he walked over.
"Her mom? Maybe, but she doesn't give a shit. I've tried convincing Emily to come live with me for months, but she always refused," Rachel replied as Elijah lifted her.
"Fuck," Rachel yelled as she opened the door and crashed into Emily's room. She rubbed her back as she scowled.
"You okay?"
"Yeah, I will open the front door for you."
Rachel stood up and breathed deeply as she gazed around at the band posters and art splattered across the walls. Her eyes lingered on the Eldritch machine sketches, its mulberry eye always staring at her as she stepped over cassettes and VHS tapes on the floor. She fixated on the translucent strings glimmering in the air. Memories flooded her mind as she looked at the bed. A flicker of her and Emily kissing and laughing at Mike. She saw Emily, her laugh echoing, lips warm against hers.
"Anytime now!" Elijah yelled as he glanced at the reactor looming on the hillside. His head turned towards the doorknob as it turned.
Rachel unlatched the door, and Elijah stepped in, gravel crunching under his boots.
The trailer smelled of mildew, alcohol, and old tapes; the air buzzed faintly.
"What took you so long?"
"Reminscing," Rachel responded as she gazed at the ground. "Nobody home, so we got all the time in the world."
Elijah chuckled. "Pun intended?"
Rachel blinked as she stopped in her tracks, then frowned. "If you could control time, what would you do?"
"Probably fix a lot of bad decisions I made when I was younger," he replied, then frowned. "But I guess that means everybody else."
"Yeah, now imagine doing that more times than you can remember?" Rachel asked flatly as she opened Emily's door.
Elijah's eyes widened as he gazed around Emily's room as he walked inside. "What the ever creepy goth shit is this!?" He shifted, eyes flicking from the sketches to the strings only Rachel could see, his cigarette trembling slightly.
Rachel chuckled and then shook her head. "This is the lair of a girl who can communicate with other versions of herself in her dreams."
"And that's how she remembers despite time loops?"
She yanked open a drawer. Her fingers dug into the drawer, chasing Emily's secrets with each crumbled sketch."Yup, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. She is... different than us and I need to find out how."
"What do you mean?" Elijah asked as he looked under the bed. "What are we looking for anyway?"
"It's hard to explain," Rachel sighed as she glanced back at Elijah. His strings glimmered as he shined a flashlight underneath the bed. "We are looking for her diary. She never let me see it, and I bet that's where all her juicy secrets are."
Elijah reached underneath the bed, reaching for a notebook tucked behind clothes and worn-out boots. His hands trembled as he grasped it and pulled it from underneath the bed alongside several flannel shirts and cassette tapes. The black notebook was covered in dust and various cartoon stickers.
"Is this it?" He asked as he raised an eyebrow.
Rachel's eyes widened as she breathed a sigh of relief. "Yes, that's her old journal. She stopped using it several months ago," she replied as she retrieved it from Elijah. "What are you hiding, Emily?"
She opened the notebook, skimming over the early entries, but only found a depressed teenager, groaning about life's misfortunes. Her eyebrows furrowed as she sat on the bed and flipped to another page.
"She had a crush on Sarah in middle school!?" Rachel laughed as her eyes bounced across the pages. "Yup, this is the book."
Elijah shrugged. "I hope we didn't do all this just for you to embarrass her about her secret crush?"
Rachel chuckled. "You don't understand. Look around you. She would rather let you see her creepy art than tell you who she had a crush on," she explained, then turned another page. "Here we go," she muttered out loud as her eyes narrowed on the following diary entry.
"I talked with her again today. For the first time in years, I didn't see myself die, and the crazy part is that this Emily knows of my powers. She called me a Conduit and told me that my dreams were not just dreams, but like astral projecting across the multiverse or some shit."
"Find anything?" Elijah asked as he leaned against the wall and lit a cigarette.
Rachel nodded as she turned the page.
"I have been seeing this tall Latina woman in my dreams recently, and I think I am not an exception to the rule like the other Emily. Why do I gotta die at a young age? I encountered a lot of other Emilys, even those who got married and had children. I got the short end of the stick. Maybe I am overthinking it, stay optimistic, I guess. I talked with that other Emily again. She doesn't like talking about where she's from, and she always looks sad, like she's been to hell and back. She did open up a little more. Her world is so much different than mine. She told me more about the strings and hum I hear, and drew a picture of this machine. She called it the Engine. I think I will get back into writing music, it helps."
Rachel leaned forward, her eyes teared up as she turned the next page. A permanent frown formed on her face as she forced herself to continue to read.
She carved her path through shadowed skies,
A whispered tale behind her eyes.
The Crown was hers,
the power gleamed,
But she walked away, and I asked why?
Prime of the Engine, destined to reign,
Static throne calling, whispering my name.
I chase her steps, but the truth's not mine,
She hides the key, and I'm left blind— Why stay blind?
Her words are shards, they cut, they twist,
A puzzle locked in fog and mist.
The hum still pulls, the strings won't break,
What did she dodge? What's at stake?
Prime of the Engine, destined to reign,
Static throne calling, whispering my name.
I chase her steps, but the truth's not mine,
She hides the key, and I'm left blind— Why stay blind?
A shadow fell, her friend was gone,
The Engine's price played cruelly on.
She turned her back, but won't confess,
I'm stuck with echoes, truth suppressed.
The fragments taunt; they won't align.
Your secrets are ours, but still not mine.
Rachel's eyes widened as she reread the diary entry. Her hands trembled as she stood up and started to pace around the room. Each lyric sliced through Rachel's mind as she imagined Emily jotting down the song at her art desk. "You're even hiding it from yourself?"
"Did you find what you're looking for?" Elijah asked as he watched Rachel pace back and forth. He let his cigarette dangle, forgotten. His eyes traced Rachel's steps as if glimpsing the ghosts she chased.
"This is what you wanted me to find?"Rachel muttered to herself as her eyes darted around the room.
"I didn't ask you to find anything?"
Rachel shook her head as she blinked. "No, not you."
As Rachel paced, the strings shimmered faintly, threading into everything in the room.
"There's nobody else here?"
"There is. You are just blind, but it's not your fault," Rachel replied as her eyes glowed again.
"I know you're watching. Is this what you wanted me to find?"
No response.
Rachel groaned as she rubbed her face.
"I need a new job," Elijah replied as he lit another cigarette. "What in the ever paranatural shit are you going on about. I am from the P.I.A., so whatever it is, trust me, I've seen worse."
Rachel chuckled and closed the notebook. "This is what is watching us," she said as she grabbed a crudely sketched picture of a machine eye. "It's called the Engine."
Elijah grabbed the paper, gazing at the sketch with a raised eyebrow. "So it's an anomaly?" His voice held steady, but doubt flickered in his eyes. He felt the same dread that he felt flying over the Bermuda Triangle early in his career.
Rachel bit her nail as she gazed at Elijah and then at the strings attached to him. "I don't know fully what it is, but if what I read is true, then there is a multiverse and the Engine is like some GOD. Emily, or this Prime version of Emily, wait, it calls me Prime as well."
"Wait, did you say multiverse?" Elijah replied as his eyes drifted towards the notebook. His mind raced back to memories, but he only found a void. He gazed around the room as if he had been here before, a lingering echo of a conversation that he had forgotten.
"You just had Deja vu, did you?" Rachel asked.
Elijah nodded slowly. "I guess you can call it that. I think I talked with Emily about the multiverse here, but I can't recall the conversation."
"Which Emily!? Can you recall anything? Did her eyes glow? Was she different somehow?"
Elijah shrugged and frowned. "I can't remember anything, but I feel it."
Rachel breathed deeply and threw her hands into the air. "I need time, no pun intended. I need to read all this," she explained as she put the notebook into her jacket, then left the room.
"Then what?" Elijah asked as he followed Rachel down the hallway. "Hey, you hear me?" He asked when she didn't respond as he reached the living room.
Elijah mumbled under his breath as he pushed the screen door open. He reached for his cigarettes, shaking his head, and cursed incoherently. His eyes widened and his heart raced when he saw a dozen black SUVs parked in and around Emily's driveway.