"Break the glass!"Said the voice.
My eyes were quirking, my skin tangled in the small tireness folds in between the lids. I could feel the stickiness on them. I could feel my own fear. A man wearing a green shirt was pushing people out of broken glass, and I intuitively understood I was next. I mean, it didn't take much intelligence to get the breakthrough.
The voice in my head was sharper. Which freakin' universe was that? What was the purpose of it even? AND WHO WAS THAT GUY?
Billions of useless questions hovered over my wrecked brain. I was tired, but whatever that was, I had to survive it.
The voice in my head kept yelling : "Break the glass!"
I took a hammer and kept shattering the glass leftovers on the corners even though every pair of eyes was fixated on me. The window was now clean.
"The window is now clean." I said with a stupid smile.
As the green-shirted man approached me, I heard a blunt sound and my heart bumping like a grenade. My whole upper body jumped on my seat and painful tensions seemed to contract my chest. Something...electric.
My eyes blurred but caught the vision of Brian unplugging some shady hardware. I had plenty of questions in mind but I was short of breath. My body was still bursting with electricity. I inhaled deeply, time and again, before finally getting the strength to ask.
"What was that?"
"The capsule you wanted to watch. It's been two days since you've been on this. I don't know how much you've seen."
He added: "You're most certainly starving."
"I am."
"I'll bring you something. In the meantime, try to process what you saw."
I touched my arm and got struck. I started wondering why the hell I had all of this electricity travelling around me. Or inside me, it really was hard to tell. Did I get the frequency of the hella black hole Mitch had previously studied?
As calmer thoughts start flowing in, such as "I'm about to eat something", I realised that the amount of information I had taken in these past two days wass gigantic. Who knew where to pinpoint that on the timeline of the Universe? But I saw people I knew, I saw them in different places and in random events. I saw glimpses that sounded sufficient to me. I saw Mitch kill Isabel and kill mom soon after. I saw things I wish I didn't see, but I didn't see Aurora killing herself. I saw what made her kill herself though, I saw what she saw.
It was an outdated time dilation. I needed a new one to simply know what she changed, if she changed a thing. And to know where Mitch is. And to know if we can trust this technique to prevent crime, even though an unexpectable Butterfly Effect could ruin it all.
Now my thoughts were interrupted. Bry brought me a whipped coffee and a cheesy croissant. I told him to sit there because I had stuff to tell him.
When I told him I wanted to record a time dilation, he quirked his eyebrows and told me to finish my meal and find an alternative solution. As soon as I put the dishes in the sink, I told him this was the only alternative to find, in the here and now. We couldn't sit still.
"You have to go think of your financial future. Go to college. The League is fun, but it's not a remunerating job."
"I know. But, I need to understand this Anticipation thing. What if it happens at College? I need to know if it's a controllable, or reliable, or somehow accountable method, or impulsion, or whatever."
"I can't stay here forever, Cece. I am going to Berkeley."
I wasn't expecting that. But I wasn't that alone, was I?
"Suzy will help me figure everything out, right?"
"Yes, she'll stick up for you. I'll miss you and I'm sorry for not telling you before, but we were so focused on our quest..."
I couldn't help but hug him.
"Thank you for calling it our quest. Thank you for being there. It would be selfish to ask for anything more."
"You have everything more, Cecilia, stop acting as blind as your name suggests. You have my love. I said I am going to college, not breaking up with you."
"Well, come ask about that weird investigating business from time to time. "
"I am not leaving tonight." He chuckled.
"Thank you for your consideration." I hoped he got the sarcasm and didn't think I was actually thanking him for leaving.
I needed to ask him for a favour though.
"Please, talk to Suzy about the time dilation recording. It probably is urgent."
"Don't you understand how much budgeting that might be?"
"We'll see if we can afford it."
"And what if we can't?"
"Then I'll trace my dad. We'll enjail him for all the bad he did us. And he'll tell me what to do."
"Funny how you're expecting him to help you after emprisonning him."
"He will. I know it. And if all I can gain from the endeavour is making Justice win again, then it's fine by me."