[NOTES] Hey lads! Finally back from the depths of TRADOC hell and bringing you chapter 7 after an 8 month hiatus. There's no longer going to be a long delay anyone as I will be regularly working on this fic on my spare time the Army has graciously alloted me. Hope you all enjoy! [/NOTES] We all walked out together as a single group. Everyone stopped once we went outside at the front entrance of the hospital. A sense of numbness and a bit of euphoria took hold of me. Or… probably that’s just the Vicodin in my system… And I’m sort of glad for that though. Because I couldn't bear to think the idea of… everything. This entire day has been one giant skeleton theme rollercoaster, from waking up in a new reality to learning that Anon or even humans don’t exist and that everyone I knew is the same… yet… different… It came to me and I wondered. Was this some alternative life of mine at some point? Or is this some sort of test of a higher being? Raptor Jesus? God? If it is, why send me here then… I… I don’t know... For now, this is now my life. For the time being… I'm just glad to know Naser is here or at least a version of him that's still alive… I guess the same goes for Naomi too… “Fang, you sure you’re gonna be alright?” Trish said “Yeah… I will be…” “We’ll talk in the morning. Just… take care of yourself, Trish said there was more to this of what happened after both of you were at school, something about a guy we supposedly know? “Anon” it was she said? Well, we’ll catch up with you later… Reed said. “Yeah, we’ll talk about that later… Just… Don’t worry me guys…” “Okay then…” Trish replied. Both Trish and Reed left together for the parking lot. I can tell by their body language that they're obviously worried… “We’re just glad that you weren’t hurt,” Rosa said. “Yeah… We’ll see ya later, being safe please...” Stella chimed in “Same here… We’ll all be at Java Lava later tomorrow... If you want to see us... Well, sweet dreams…” Sage said. All three proceed to leave together, leaving only with just me and Naser. It gave us the signal that it was time to head home or at least something like it... Both of us walked towards the parking lot, following Naser as he was the one to bring the car, or the “NasCar” as he liked to put it. If this version of him even calls it that… We came up to a relatively modern-looking black sedan, couldn't tell what it was trying to be, either a Toyota or some Honda. The car brands I recognize no longer apply I guess. Unlike the Dodge Challenger with the broken windshield that I knew he had. He opted for a modest and utilitarian car in comparison to the pure V8 muscle that he had. We entered the car together and drove out of the parking lot. Awkward silence filled the cabin as I looked outside the passenger window and he was looking out towards the road, trying to think of anything to say to him. I know he isn’t technically my brother or… is he?... At least a version I don’t know… he decided to break the silence. “So… you doing alright?” I don’t know how to respond to that… “What do you think?...” I said “…” I didn’t try to be bleak with him, it was just only… what reasonable answer could I've come up with at that point? “ Oh hey, I’m fine. I’m just coming to terms that I murdered a lot of people out of psychotic rage and tried to kill myself only to be sent to an alternative reality where my bf doesn’t exist, and everyone is still alive!” I couldn’t… “You know… It doesn’t matter what happened or what you think happened. I’m still here. And you’re my sibling regardless. I don’t know if you feel as if you don’t know me. But... that’s the truth…” Naser. “No. It just… how can I come to terms with everything… What I’ve done… Who I killed... Why I’m even alive… I don’t know why I’m here…” “No matter what Fang, you’re still here and I’m still here. That’s all that matters. I still… don’t know if I can believe everything. But I want to take your word on it.” “I did things… hurt… killed... You and Naomi. It doesn’t change what happened…” Some tears started letting loose, trying to hold back as much as possible. I wiped my tears away as I continued looking out the window. Even if this isn’t the Naser I knew, he still can’t hate me no matter what… "He was just like that you know… I try everything to make him… you… hate me.” “Why…” “Do it! I promise nothing is gonna happen! You have wings, it’s going to be fine!” I looked away from the window and looked at his wings. “Do you know... Why your wings are like…” “That” He gestures his eyes toward his wings “*sighs* Yeah... I remembered...” “What happened…” “There was… an accident. Mom and Dad had this one beach spot they loved right on the outskirts of town, we went there just a normal day we thought, play in the ocean, bury ourselves in the sand, picnic with some sandwiches… you know. Well, me and you decided to sneak past them to go check out some tall cliffs nearby like we always wanted to see. But you kno- I mean… You know how Mom and Dads are..." “I know what you mean…” “Well, we get to this one spot, off limits to the public type of place. And here we are, on this massive cliff, had to been like 60-70 meters tall. And you decided that it would be awesome to jump... I was… obviously against that as you could imagine. But being the braver, older sibling, you are. You decided to do it. Annnd you did. I was so sure for a second I thought you die but… thank god you didn’t.” This sounded familiar…. “And so you convince me that I needed to jump… tell me it was “amazing” and “you gonna try”. But, truth be told I didn’t want to... But seeing you do it… I had faith I’d make it” “Hey Naser! Come on it isn’t that scary. Come on! Jump!” “ So then, I back up a little, tried to run for it and jump… Heh, I was thinking for sure I was going to make it and land in the water but…” “But you didn’t…” I said “...” “I’ll remember you calling my name… Everything after was fuzzy, due to the massive concussion I got. Well… Apparently, I landed on the water, barely out from the rocky shoreline but it wasn’t deep enough to soften the landing and so… my wings got caught in between some rocks. I remember screaming top of my lungs as if I was about to rip them off… The pain made me blacked out… You went to go get Mom and Dad, and we all rushed to the hospital…” “Told me that my left wing was severely damaged and barely hanging by a few tendons. My right one got the better end of the deal. Have I thrashed harder than I did I probably would have ripped the left one off… on top of the broken ribs, trauma to the head, multiple deep cuts and contusions annnnd a broken right leg.” “They told me that my left wing will probably be deformed for the rest of my life as I grew, and maybe chronic nerve pain for the rest of it also… But… In the end… I eventually recovered.” “Did you… hated me for that, what I did to you…” “…No…” “No…?” “Because despite the peer pressure from you, I don’t. It was no one’s really. I mean, we were just a bunch of dumb kids back then, you and I didn’t know that would have happened. I saw you jump into the water unscathed and I thought “Hey if they can do it! I can!” and I did so. And no matter what, you are still family Fang.” “If you tell me that if I could have gone back to that moment and not jump… well I probably would… But… what happened in the past happened, we can't change what we did, or how we could have stopped it. You can only learn from it. Maybe I could have not jumped, Maybe I could have landed better in the water… Maybe we couldn’t have gone at all and stayed with everyone. It’s all in the past now… You can only hope for a better tomorrow really…” I look down into my lap, ashamed that even in this reality. I still can’t stop fucking up… All of my strength holding back finally caves in and I let out a stream of tears from my eyes, sobbing as I close my eyes. “I-I’ll still always f-fuck up,” I said as I cried “Fang…” “N-no I do, because n-no matter what *shiff* I still d-do… because…” I wept with my tears again and pulled myself through. I gulped and composed myself. “Because this happened when… I knew my Naser… I told him a joke… That pteros can fly because of our wings… S-so we get on the roof of the house… A-and you told me that you were scared… I told him there was nothing to be afraid of, “Stop being a chicken I said!” A-and…” “…And what?...” “And you did… I made you jump off the roof… Because of me…, the force of the landing was so bad…it made your heart stop…" “…” Naser looked down for a bit before turning his eyes towards the road. I'm all tapped out of tears my voice still tremors from the raw emotion I felt “I-I’m so sorry Naser… for everything…” “…” “…” “Fang…” “No matter what happens, no matter what version of me I exist. I love you. As your little brother and as family… I will always no matter what… It doesn’t matter to me now… What matters is you’re here. And I’m here. Never forget that.” “I-I’m such a piece of shit, Naser. T-To everyone… Mom, Dad, You, my friends…” “…” “…” “You’re not Fang, and never will be to me or anyone…” It seems that we arrived as he pulled up into the driveway, and never really had an opportunity to look from the outside perspective. The house looked really like our own home back in Volcandra Bluffs, a relatively spacious two-story home, with similar looks and architecture. I try to wipe my eyes as I exit the car. Both of us walked towards the front entrance as Naser took out the keys from his pockets and opened the door. In it, was way different than what I remembered. Instead of being instantly greeted by the living room, I saw a big hallway with multiple entrances to the living room and kitchen, various other doors that I don't know, from the end of it was the stairwell leading up to the second story. I followed Naser into the kitchen where we were originally, a full circle now from where we were. “Hey, I could… heat up some noodles if you want…” “Thanks but I’m good… I think… I just gonna go back to my room for now…” “Okay then…” As I was about to walk away, Naser walks towards me He looked into my eyes and so did I. He came in closer and opened his arms to hug me, I would normally be bawling my eyes out but I don’t think there was enough in me anymore, all I did was just hug him back. Pulling in tight. “I’m not going anywhere, Fang… I’m here.” Naser said He lets go and moves out into the hallway and up the stairwell. Crossing my arms as I went afterward. The upstairs hallway was very similar to my own, hell even Naser's Door and Mom and Dad’s were in the same place. I came up to my room door, looking down at the doorknob. I opened it and instantly recoiled in surprise, I remember clearly waking up in my room, and how I always remembered my room. My bed is usually on the left of me. Having the Non-binary banner above it, my keyboard and various other instruments are to the left of it, and guitars are to the right alongside other various shit like posters, lighting, etc. But… It wasn’t… Looking around, I noticed a complete shift in the room, it was like it was mirrored from the entrance. The bed, no longer having the canopy it had, was now on the right from me, and above it was a decorative moon crescent flag, in front of me across the room was a white desk and bookshelf full of miscellaneous books, plants, and a collection of CDs on the very top shelf, alongside next to it a balcony looking out towards the neighborhood and ocean. To the left of that, It was an entertainment set with a decently sized TV with collections of binders and… a Pachystation? There was a decorated circular coffee table in the middle of the room. Surrounding my room were various posters of random stuff, bands, and album covers I do not know. Slowly walking and observing the room I noticed to the right of the bed were some Polaroid pictures. When I came to observe them, it was me and Trish, doing group selfies in various poses and show-off tickets to some concert but… what is up with the red hair? It looked like a younger version of me but I had deep bright red hair. Was I a redheaded in this world? Seeing it, the more I saw myself with red hair just… No. But that doesn't explain why my room changed and was completely unrecognizable, at least from my perspective, walking in here felt like walking into a stranger's room but at the same time… this was my room. I don’t how to feel about this other than confused and oddly scared. Then again considering the events that happened as of today. Should I be surprised at this point? I breathed in and sighed, sitting on top of the bed. Why am I here? What does all mean? Punishment? A second chance? Or just this is some way of the brain coping with the process of dying. I don't know why I'm here…. Obviously, whoever was this version of myself was better off than me taking over… I don't belong here... Like I took over a copy of me's life and now I don’t know what the point was even… I lay my entire body on the top of the bed now, trying to comprehend everything as my mind wanders and thinks. I can't sleep, not like I don't wanna anyways considering that fucking nightmare I had with the corpses of my actual brother and Naomi trying to grab me while holding my bleeding boyfriend's body. Maybe some research into this world will help me understand what the fuck is going on... As my laptop is now pretty much non-existence, pulling out my phone would do the trick. Okay, let's see… … At least DinoDinoGo is a thing at least…. “History of the world I guess” I typed into the search bar. … … … … … About about 2 hours passed, aimlessly scrolling around this world version of whatever Twitter is. Apparently, Pangea is still a thing, Dinosaurs are the only sentient intelligent species in this entire world, so other reptilian species aren’t a thing and humans obviously don’t exist either… The United States or any other country I can think off the top of my head isn’t a thing also. There seemed to be some sort of a unified government going on for the whole continent… and talks of a giant meteor heading towards the planet... That's what I've been gathering so far going to this version of Twitter since #CO-103 is first in trending. Seemingly, a lot of people were interested in this, saying stuff about how it's affecting electronics and signals and it’s the end of the world now. I remember something like this back then when a giant meteor was supposed to hit us, it was big news too. It barely missed us from what I’ve remembered, I think. Something about how they launched a rocket or satellite into it to make the meteor miss us or… I don’t know. I was in elementary school when that happened… and I’m not much of a science nerd to know otherwise. I checked the time, 0307 in the morning… as much as my eyes wanted to close on their own. I feel I couldn't just bring myself to go to sleep. But… I don’t know. Maybe I just don't want to relive that horrid nightmare. Maybe some sleep wouldn’t be a bad idea… I placed my phone on the left side of the spacious bed, it was now just me and my thoughts. I turned my body to see the moon glistening light into my room from the balcony door. Everything was just quiet, Pure silence. As I began to close my eyes. My mind wonders what the life I had here, and who are my parents? Are they similar to mine or completely different? What other people do I know? Is my actual name Fang?... Lucy then?... Is my hair naturally red? So many questions yet, very few answers… My thoughts wandered onto the rooftop… I remember thinking about when I just jumped off and saw some sort of future vision of myself. Playing with a hypothetical daughter of ours. Anon smiling and cherishing the moment as we sat on a hill, seeing our daughter play around in the grass… And me being just… Happy… If I could just… do it all over again… with him... What could have been us... A family. A daughter. With the person who was one of the few that I loved and understood me for what I was… a life that could have been now gone. Now I’m alone… In some room I don’t know… In a life I took over... In a strange and unfamiliar world….