16th June,
2023
A year had passed.
Zayn and Cassandra have been sailing smoothly in the old Era for one and a half years already. They expect nothing less from each other while loving each other till the end of time. It was a miracle, that no one was caring enough to suspect their closeness.
It was to their benefit anyway.
Zayn was watching TV on the couch. It was late at night and the volume was low. Beside him was Cassandra, sleeping on his lap and Nick on the other side.
He looks down at them. The ad was muted as he appreciated the moment with the two.
One was his lover and the other was his own father. He slowly, gently caresses their hair one after the other.
Suddenly, he had forgotten all about his purpose of coming here. He’s heard a lot of tantrums from Cassandra for the past few months. She often cried and said she wanted to go back to her friend, her brother and her mother.
Alas, he consoled her all the time.
Until…
Zayn suddenly feels a dark presence on top of his head. He didn’t dare look up, it could be anything.
Lately, Zayn has been having a lot of nightmares. It often unconsciously pointed towards a dark figure roaming in his room. He asked his siblings to sleep with him for a few nights, to keep him company. But it didn’t help much. He had them recurring in his mind like a broken tape recorder.
His health was getting affected as well.
Louis suggested that they go to the church together.
Well, it should happen today. Going to the church.
Zayn freaks out of his skin when something drops on his lap. A frightful shriek leaves his lips.
But… it doesn’t reach their ears.
He finds it odd. That the two who were on his lap, sleeping soundly, didn’t react to his shriek. He even turns back to see if anyone came to check on him. No one arrives.
“What the fuck…” he shakily utters. He wanted to get up. But he noticed that their heads seemed to be awfully heavy. They weren’t allowing him to get up.
Again, there was an itch on his palm.
He looks at it, then at the white piece of paper that falls on his lap. It wasn’t even paper, but it was white and something in red was scribbled on it.
“Louis,” his palm suddenly reads.
It was etched on his palm. It was itching incredibly, as if he would scratch all the way to his bones but the itch won’t go away. He felt uneasy, but seeing his uncle’s name drawn on his palm made him stop wanting to tear his skin open.
“Louis Johnson. Time of death, 19:23, 23rd June 2023.” The details were shockingly matched to the letter they got while being transported to this Era by a mystic force.
“23rd June…” If he remembered correctly, Louis’s death was followed by an aeroplane crash in midair.
He felt a gut-wrenching feeling of uneasiness in his body.
Louis’s death date, time and cause were clearly written on his palm.
“No… no… no!” He cries loudly.
He wanted to spring up on his feet, run to Louis and hug him for being such a good brother. There was something so unsettling to know that the same sweet man was about to die in a week’s time. He didn’t want to accept the departure of his favourite uncle. He was the best person he’s ever met.
Suddenly, a round of flashes occur to him.
He closes his eyes to see a bunch of memories of Louis, from his perspective.
Oddly, it was also about the days when they were still kids.
They were memories of Zayn’s reincarnated soul.
Zayn’s blood-curdling scream reaches no one’s ears. He was growing paranoid, almost mental with the images of his uncle’s death.
The plane crash was experienced in first person, as if he was with Louis, sitting in front of him.
Louis’s million-dollar smile, his caring behaviour, his brotherly behaviour, their bickering and their love as siblings were forced onto Zayn to see.
He was crying for help, but no one was hearing him.
Suddenly, Cassandra wakes up with sweat covering her body. She screams as she sees the same itch on her palm.
“Louis Johnson. 19:23, 23rd June 2023.”
“Zayn!” Cassandra calls to the man who appears to be crying.
Oddly enough, both were looking at each other but it was as if a sound barrier forbade them to hear each other. They held each other’s hands, and cried so loudly, yet only their ears could decipher their own sounds.
It felt strange. It felt incredibly eerie.
“GET ME OUT OF THIS!! LET HIM HEAR ME, OH GOD!” Cassandra yells to herself, tragically watching the male breakdown worse than her.
She holds him, shaking him and trying to make sounds with her fists and fingers and hands. Nothing was working. He was only watching her.
When she tries to mouth her words out, Zayn gasps.
“C-Cassie!” He says loudly.
She gasps as well.
After minutes of crying and being helpless, they were able to hear each other.
“Cassie!”
“Oh, Zayn…” allowed to fall to the ground, they embrace each other and cry on each other’s shoulders.
Nick senses them at that moment only. Concerned, he wakes up and looks around to see the two hugging each other and wailing their hearts out.
Cassandra notices Nick when he runs inside the rooms to wake up his other siblings.
“What happened?” A sleepy Louis and Jessica appear from the guestroom.
“Gosh, what’s wrong with them?” Jessica grumbles, half asleep. But Louis rushes to them, obviously worried about them.
“You two, what’s wrong?” He moves the table to sit beside them and embraces them gently.
They fall on his lap and shoulder, crying in fear and out of fright of his departure.
Eventually, both had the same dream but were stuck in an astral plane. That’s why Nick couldn’t hear them scream or cry; neither of them could hear the other for a few minutes.
“L-Louis… do you see this?” Zayn asks Louis with a shaky voice.
“See what?” Louis was staring at his empty palm…