It took me to realize that Chase was already disagreeing, but what was wrong with Chase? We have been together in this mess since it started. Why the sudden cold behavior?
“I’m not sure if that is a good idea right now,” he said, and I interrupted him.
“It is fine, Chase,” I managed to say, incredibly shocked at how calm my voice was. “Me… Me perhaps I must speak with Alessandro. Privately to ask him about my parents. ”
Alessandro also had a perplexed look on his face.
That’s exactly what I expected, momentarily, the Chase might come up with something to say. But I must have looked at him exactly the wrong way, since he put his head to one side and nodded. “Fine,” he reacted, although he seemed to be annoyed. “But of course we will be right outside, if at all you will require our presence. ” he stopped for a while before leaving ” It’s nice to have you back, Bro”
“Thank you”
When all the other guests left the room, looking back at Alessandro and me suspiciously, I could not escape the impression that a feeling of tension mingled with anticipation seized me. Who was actually this man? I sometimes used to wonder how different everything would have been if I had taken the other route, but the past unpleasant experiences I had with him suppressed the thought I was having. Why did he seem to fit perfectly being in close proximity to me when every other aspect of my life seemed to be on its head?
As soon as the door shut on the others, I only had Alessandro and me and an awkward silence that fell over the lab all the same. “Alright,” I replied, shifting my focus to properly look at him eye to eye. “I think you have some explanation to do here. How did you survive? ”
Alessandro merely nodded his head, albeit with a small smile that tended to be sad. “I did,” he said. “Nevertheless, I think the answers I have to provide may be less easy to accept as compared with the problems you are trying to solve at the moment. ”
‘Okay …’ I smirked and challenged, ‘You try me. ‘ “Looking at what I have been through I am very sure that I will be in a position to withstand whatever you have in mind. ”
Alessandro’s expression grew serious. “Very well,” he said. “But remember, Brianne you are pushing it all yourself, And once the real truth is out there, there can be no turning back; are you prepared for that?”
For a moment, I closed my eyes thinking, not being able to decide. Did I really want to complicate things which already seemed crazy as they were when I had to deal with life and death here and there? But when I glanced into the dark eyes of Alessandro, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t do that. Regardless of whatever there was for him to impart me with, whatever news or message, as it were, I wanted to know.
“Yes,” I replied, standing tall and with squared shoulders. “Tell me everything. ”
Alessandro moved nearer with a look of sympathy in his eyes and there was something like the shelter of a protective cloak in his proximity. “Alright,” he said softly. “However, let me tell you something important first. How do you explain that ‘hallucination’ that happened not long ago?”
I was left wide-mouthed, stunned at what he was serving me. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” Alessandro said, articulating every word, “that what you saw the portal, the other you, the coming end of the multiverse it was real. I tell you it was really real. ”
“But, how?” I mouthed out loud to myself and to the situation, setting my thoughts into a whirl. “The others did not notice anything. But it was all gone…”
Alessandro extended to me and took my hands into his handshake. The contact gave me a little electrical shock; it was as though a current of electricity ran between the contact. “Brianne,” he said, his gaze steady on me, “what you have just seen was not the future, or a fragment of it, what you saw was memory, your memory from the timeline which no longer exists. ”
I looked at him awestruck as I could not comprehend a single word that came out of his mouth. “That… that’s impossible,” I was stuttering. “I would remember…”
“Would you?” Alessandro inquired softly. “When the very fabric of the universe has been altered? When the self-identity you knew has been erased, then replaced by that you? Who are you ? Brianne or Lucy ? How do you have a memory of both? What really happened to Lucy that night? Who pushed you off the cliff? Do you think all this is a coincidence?”
Part of me ran from the idea, to ignore it as ludicrous words from a crazy man. But there was a voice, probably buried somewhere in my soul that was agreeing with everything he was saying. A truth I had been running from, perhaps, ever since I had woken up from my journey from the impossible.
“Who are you? Where have you been?” I repeated in half a whisper. “Really?”
Alessandro’s fingers squeezed my hands slightly.
I didn’t want to let Alessandro slip away again, but what did come as a shock was him asking to borrow the money. “Tell me something that I am,” he said. “A guardian, a watcher. And for more timelines than I even care to think about, I have been your companion in the battle to preserve the very fabric of reality. ”
It was like all the remaining reality faded away as moments from our date and as Alessandro and I stared into each other’s eyes. For a brief time, I could see other realities ourselves, torn through time and space and locked together in an eternal embrace.
‘Brianne,” Alessandro said. The options and the future blurred together before him so that he didn’t have much time, and the multiverse was still a threat and she this version of her was the only hope to save what could have been.
I did not know what to say, so I just took a deep breath and said, “What do I need to do?” still I wondered how I could remain calm.
Alessandro looked a little proud as well as sad at the same time as he stared. “You need to remember,” he said. “Recall who you are truly, recall what strength you possess, and then we have those that we had in the other timeline complete. ”
That’s when I suddenly realized that I had changed on a very profound level when Alessandro stopped talking and his words lingered in between us. It felt like the door that had been locked from inside was slowly opening and leaving the light in the black abyss in my head.
‘I…’ I managed to say before silence descended and a barrage of memories all filled with impossible, wondrous, frightening emotions washed over me.
There I was in that dark and silent lab with Alessandro’s hands grounding me, and it occurred to me that my evil adventure was far from ending.
It had only just started.