I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t think there was anything I could say.
I was patient zero?
I knew what that meant. The virus responsible for turning humans into metahumans had finally hit the entire population, becoming strong enough to infect adults and decimating the world until there were only metahumans left. And I was the beginning.
However, part of me couldn’t imagine why people would blame me. I could understand their fury, but it’s not like I could help it. It’s not like I intentionally went around killing everyone.
Right?
I felt Trinity’s presence coming down the hall, only for her sensitive hearing to detect the sobbing, causing her to pick up the pace. She barged in the room a moment later, looking towards me, before her head snapped in Ava’s direction.
“Who is that?” Trinity asked in disbelief.
Harper squeaked in surprise. “T-Trinity Knight?” she stuttered.
“Knight?” Trinity repeated, looking bewildered as she glanced at me.
I was a little stunned too. Shocked that Trinity and I had gotten married. I mean, I could see it happening, but still, having that revelation come out so unexpectedly was like getting punched in the face by Blair.
Because Trinity had said yes.
Ava spoke up before I could respond. “This is Harper Locklear. And apparently, she’s from the future.”
Trinity didn’t believe it at first, but when I confirmed I had used my eye on the girl, an ability that Trinity seemed to be more comfortable with than Ava had been, she finally had to accept that it was true. However, not having heard the part about everyone dying, her train of thought took a different direction entirely.
“You said my name like you were shocked to see me,” Trinity considered. “Is it because I’m dead in the future?” She paused. “I guess I would be really old, if I was still alive.”
Harper shook her head, her white hair bouncing, her eyes wide. “N-No, you’re not dead. I just didn’t know you were here. Every time I’ve checked the past so far, you weren’t around.”
Trinity and I exchanged a glance. I at least knew why she hadn’t been around so far, but it also prompted me to think back to the hospital and Jordyn. “But wait, how did you spy on me on the other side of the world?” I wondered. After all, she had mentioned seeing past events in specific locations.
Harper met my gaze, looking nervous again. “I…I started there. That’s where I’m from. But there wasn’t much to see, so I came here to start looking. I picked you up again in a desolate wasteland where there used to be a town before the volcano erupted, and then I sensed the trail leading here. I didn’t get to see everything in order.”
Hearing her different perspective on these locations was bizarre. She claimed there wasn’t a room here in the future, and that the place where Farah and Sarah lived had been destroyed by a volcano. I tried to put the odd sensation aside, wanting to get to the point.
“But why go through all the effort?” I asked seriously, not understanding why it mattered.
Her eyes began tearing up again, and she pressed her temple into Ava’s shoulder more, still holding my gaze. “B-Because I wanted to kill you too,” she whispered. Trinity glanced at me in confusion as Harper’s voice began to tremble. “I heard a rumor that you had returned to the country back home, so I tried to track you down myself.” She sniffled. “But when I found you…” She paused to sob again, beginning to whine. “You were really nice to me even though I tried to hurt you, and you seemed so sad…” She reached up to wipe her eyes. “So I wanted to know why you did it. I needed to understand why you killed my family and everyone else.”
Trinity’s brow furrowed, finally hearing the part about everyone dying, but she didn’t say anything.
And I didn’t know what to say either. But I felt like I had to say something. So, I went with the only thing that made sense, though surely it wasn’t enough.
“I’m…sorry…” I managed after a moment.
She sobbed. “That’s what you told me before,” she whispered, prompting us all to stare at her in disbelief. “And then you told me, ‘Go look for the answers, Harper. I promise you’ll find them. And I promise you’ll be happy again.’” She sobbed. “I was so angry at you for telling me that. For saying I’d be happy again.” She sucked in a deep breath, trying to speak more evenly. “But, I hadn’t told you who I was. I couldn’t understand how you would know my name, so I had to look. I had to find out why. Why did you know me? And why were you so sad?”
I sucked in a sharp breath as a thought occurred to me.
If what she was saying was true, then what if the reason why I had said that was because…because I already knew Harper Locklear.
What if, at that point in my life, I was meeting this fourteen-year-old girl for the second time?
I couldn’t even wrap my head around that. Her first time meeting me was my second time meeting her.
To dispel the tension associated with that concept, I tried to crack a joke at my own expense. “Well, I’m sure the older-me must have been really ugly. All wrinkly and such,” I laughed with a slight edge.
Unexpectedly, Harper shook her head. “No. You and Mrs. Knight look about the same, although I’ve only seen her on holograms.”
I gawked at her. We all did.
I looked the same? That was over fifty years from now, and I looked the same?
Trinity was the one to dispel the renewed awkwardness by changing the subject. “Ugh. Please stop calling me Mrs. Knight. It makes me sound old.” She glanced in my direction. “Not that I mind having your last name,” she clarified, only to return her gaze to Harper. “But please call me Trinity.”
“O-Okay,” she replied, wiping her eyes again.
I sighed heavily. This was so much to absorb all at once. And I knew this must be traumatizing for Harper too. I didn’t even understand how I had pulled her out of the future, suspecting her ability to see the past must be related to the shadow dimension. I doubted whatever I had done would work on anyone else, not unless the conditions ended up similar, with the other person spying on me like that.
But, putting all that aside, knowing bits and pieces of my future – the real, actual, unavoidable future – was unnerving. I couldn’t even imagine all the things I might have seen at that point in my life.
At least Trinity was still there with me, but still…
“Are you hungry, Harper?” Ava unexpectedly wondered.
She shook her head. “T-Thank you, but no. I still feel nauseous after…after…” She looked away. I assumed she was referring to the experience of being pulled into the past, since it sounded like her family died a while ago.
“I really am sorry,” I repeated. “About…well, everything, I guess.”
She nodded once, her eyes tight. After a moment, she sighed heavily. “I’m really stuck here, aren’t I?”
No one answered her.
She took another deep breath. “Well, I guess I can’t use my ability to find out why you did what you did,” she realized, before glancing up at me. “Which means, I’ll just have to be there when you make the decision. So that I’ll understand why.”
My brow furrowed. “Make the decision?” I repeated. “I thought you said I was patient zero? How could I possibly choose to kill people with a virus?” I wondered seriously.
She winced. “B-Because it started off bloodborne,” she whispered. “You had to manually infect a lot of people before it mutated and began spreading on its own.”
Shit, if I had a virus, then did that mean I had already infected those who I fed from previously, while leaving them alive? Or was it a new strain of the virus I would come into contact with in the future? Although, either way, if it was stuck as a bloodborne disease, then couldn’t I just get my food from blood-bags from now on? Wouldn’t that solve the problem of me killing off the world? I just didn’t understand.
Trinity finally spoke up, wanting to clarify what she had pieced toget
her. “When you say manually infect a lot of people, do you mean from feeding?” she wondered cautiously.
Harper shook her head. “No. He did it on purpose.” She then met my gaze, rephrasing. “You did it on purpose.”
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Acknowledgments
Special thanks to:
Esther Eckstein
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About the Author
Kurtis Eckstein is a huge fan of books, anime, and coffee! He has always wanted to create his own stories, but never felt like he had the time to invest in a full book. Finally, he decided to settle with writing short-stories, only to discover he loved it so much that it became his primary hobby. Within six months, he had written three novels and was over halfway done with two others. Within a year, he had published six books total.
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