XX.XX.XXXX?
Alex coughed the snow that had gotten into his mouth out, "Oh you!" he intentionally wanted to throw another snowball at Carmen, but he swiftly moved away and it hit Velvette instead.
"How dare you!" she uttered before returning the stroke.
The others joined, and rather than figuring out why it was even snowing, they just behaved like kids again.
Ethan noticed Elodie aiming at him, "No! No! I'm cold already-," before he could finish, Elodie shot his chest.
The snow will surround them with even greater cold after it melts on their bodies, though, at that moment, no one cared. Even Ethan forgot about Theo for a while. It was nice for the thoughts to clear out. Only for a while though.
If his thoughts were written in the sand on the beach, the waves would eventually wash them away and take them to the sea. But they would still come back again with the tide.
They enjoyed the company of each other, forming snowballs from the snow despite their hands turning cold. The snow in this world didn't have the consistency of sand, slipping in between fingers. The snow in this world tends to be more hard, easier to form. This world's environment is bad for living, the conditions are horrible. Yet still, it's beautiful in its own way.
Carmen coughed again, several times actually. And this time, Alex wouldn't let him get away with it without explanation. Yes, it was just a regular thoughts, though he wanted to know if he's jus stick or if it's something more.
He stopped shooting snowballs at him and came to his side, "Okay, enough. Take some rest," he led him to sit on the closest rock, where his coughing finally ceased.
"What's with the occasional cough?" Alex asked.
"I don't want to bother you with it".
"Tell me. You could never bother me".
Carmen smiled slightly, "I have a Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease".
"What?" Alex had no clue what that meant.
"About half a year ago, I was on a walk, when these guys ganged up on me, asking for money. I didn't have any, so one of them stabbed me," he paused before continuing, "In one of my lungs. I passed out and woke up in the hospital where they told me I'd have to deal with this disease for the rest of my life. It practically means that I cough persistently and have troubles with breathing. Sometimes it disappears for a while but…".
"Then it comes back," Alex finished for him. "I'm so sorry Carmen, I didn't know that".
"It's not your fault. And at least I've got a cool scar".
"No, it's horrible. You could die," it was perceivable that Alex never wanted to see that happen just from his voice.
"I told you I don't want you to bother with it".
"I understand," Alex spoke softly. "As long as you're okay".
Carmen smiled before shifting his thoughts along with the topic of the conversation, "Your arm's alright?".
"Yeah. I already told you it's nothing".
"You also said you have tons of scars, right? Where are they all from?".
Alex rolled up his sleeve and underneath—apart from the blood that had stained his shirt revealed scars. They were old, already healed, though still visible, covering most of his skin. They won't disappear anymore.
"Most of them are caused by creatures or my experiments. The rest, I don't even know," he explained. He talked about it like it was nothing, like he was already reconciled with the fact that his body will forever be stained by imprints of his past. He wondered if they had caused him pain or if he was just letting it float like he was now.
"Do you find them disgusting? You're not saying anything," Alex mentioned as he noticed the silence that Carmen didn't even perceive, his thoughts overwhelming the words he would be able to say instead.
Alex was partly right though, it wasn't a pleasant look for Carmen at first. But in the end, he didn't care, which he put in words, "Scars don't defy a person's personality, Alex".
"I actually think they do. A careful person, for example, would jump into danger like this".
"Shut up. You ruined my moment".
Alex gently twirled Carmen's raven-black curls around his fingers, his touch soft and playful "Did I? Sorry," he said in a slow, teasing tone.
"What are you doing? Stop harassing my hair" Carmen giggled.
"Oh my god, is that your entire personality? Should I do you instead?".
Carmen's eyes widened, then he burst out laughing. "What? Yes. No. I mean no".
"Shh, stop contradicting yourself. I know what you want".
"Please just shut up already".
Just then, Velvette approached them, the crunch of her footsteps in the snow announcing her arrival. Her hair whipped back, revealing her face more clearly as the bangs that had curtained it fell away. "Hey you two, we need to leave. And I suppose that we'll have to fight again, so all of us should get some weapons. We could stop somewhere".
"Okay. Is that really what you were intentionally gonna tell us?" Alex guessed. He didn't have a reason for his assumption, it just came out of nowhere but felt right.
"How did you know?" Velvette wondered.
"I could hear it in your voice," Alex responded.
"What the hell. Anyways, we were discussing the snow and time here, and well…".
—
While Alex and Carmen jumped from one topic to the next, barely lingering on a subject for more than a minute, the rest of the group was focused on something far stranger; the sudden and mysterious replacement of rain.
In all the months Elodie had spent in the Eclipsed Abyss, not once had she seen a single snowflake. In fact, there had never been any sign of snow—just mostly endless rain, as though the atmosphere itself rejected the idea of winter. The weather here was as enigmatic as the world itself, a puzzle that never seemed to give up its secrets easily. But now, the rain had stopped, and an eerie, unnatural snow had settled in. It was a change none of them expected.
"We need to talk about how weird everything in this world got," Elodie said, her brow furrowed as she shared her thoughts with the others. "The cities I passed months ago were always set in 1946—literally Ethan can prove that," she shot him a glance. "Even some of those we passed all together, used to be stuck in that year. But the year had just randomly changed, and is now random all over this world".
The years always went up from the year 1946, maximally to the current year. But never below that.
The group fell silent, listening intently to her revelation. The Eclipsed Abyss had always felt like a place caught between realities, a shadow of their own world. But now, with changing time itself unraveling, it was clear they were dealing with something far more unsettling.
The cold wind whipped through the air, the mystery of the Eclipsed Abyss was only deepening as they put it into words.
Victor suggested a conclusion, "Couldn't the snow, or the change in time mean that the two words are connecting…even more?".
"If they're so connected, then why is it snowing in April…May maybe? I feel like I'm hallucinating or something," Ethan shared his thoughts out loud.
The silence lingered, everyone lost in their own thoughts.
—
That's what Velvette explained to Alex and Carmen—though simplified. "I was just wondering if you knew more about it," she added.
"No. Same as Elodie". Alex's voice softened. "But maybe Victor's right, the worlds are connecting, as more of our real world imparts with this one. The cure could help it. Perhaps. If not, at least, we'll save people from getting hurt by creatures," he paused before continuing, "The problem is, I can't make it because I don't have the right chemicals—or the stuff generally anymore, since it all exploded. And finding it all over again would take too long".
"You're saying?" Velvette asked, even though she knew the answer.
"Yes".
They had to use the laboratory in the real world, hidden underneath the corridors of an orphanage. They had to get rid of Mrs. Agnes first. Dr. Jacobs. Just Agnes. Whatever.
That bitch.
"Shit," Carmen, who was carefully listening, broke his silence.
"Exactly," said Alex.
—
After a while, they returned back to the van and Alex was sitting behind the wheel this time, Carmen beside him. The rest chose to stay in the back because, apparently, it's warmer there. The road was lubricious, and the gentle snowflakes casted a white curtain on the windows.
Carmen was drawing on the foggy window during the way, out of boredom. They both had nothing to say, and Alex was too focused on the road ahead. In the defiance of his focus, he found a moment where he turned to Carmen, observing his actions.
"What are you drawing?" he asked.
"Cats," he wiped off the fog from the window. "But I fucked it up".
"I liked it actually".
Carmen's lips curled slightly, "Thanks".
Alex returned the smile, and shifted his attention back to the road again. He let go of the wheel with one of his hands and messed with Carmen's curls, again, his fingers running through the strands.
"We're gonna crash, asshole," Carmen said, turning to him with a playful grin. Alex's side profile revealed a smirk tugging at his lips, his eyes fixed on something ahead.
Carmen took his hand and led it gently on the empty middle seat, his own hand resting atop his.
"You're literally just holding my hand".
"No," Carmen refuted. "I am making sure your hand's far away from my hair".
"But what if they're in love," Alex extended the word 'love', not moving his hand, their fingers intertwining instead. "It's like there's this person, you, who is in the middle of them. Let them be".
"Alex. Where did this come from," he laughed. "Your dumb vision is just an excuse to annoy me".
"Well… I guess you got me there-". In all of a sudden a creature popped out of nowhere in front of the van and Alex abruptly stopped, the car skidding across the icy road. From the back echoed a defeating thud, which worried the both of them. There was no time to ponder now, the creature jumped on the front of the van, its figure their only focus. Its limbs were long, and its body twisted in a flexible but unnatural way. It could stretch his limbs—even its neck, all around its body. Its moves were physically impossible. A regular creature, though still eerie.
As its feet touched the glass, it stained it with dark matter the more it moved. It started hitting, the long claws screeching against it. The creature was only moments from breaking in, which caused anxiety to both Alex and Carmen.
Alex, acting on instinct, pulled out his gun, trying to recharge it, though he had a lack of ammo. "Fuck, fuck, fuck," he started panicking.
Carme tried luck with his own gun but it was empty either. They looked at each other briefly before the glass shattered into pieces under the weight of the creature's strike.
They spotted the eternal black holes that took the place of the creature's eyes—the only revealed feature of its face until a mouth that hid beneath the dark matter opened widely. More than widely, the mouth stretched down along with the dripping dark matter.
The creature stretched out its limbs and chose to kill them both at the same time, the distance from their end a grain of sand. They'd be dead if Elodie didn't appear at the scene and shoot the creature in its head, the dark matter spreading all across the car. Their hearts still raced as it all ended, barely processing what just happened.
Velvette—and the rest, emerged behind Elodie, and Velvette was the one to speak.
"Are you two hurt?" she had to raise her voice above normal a little so she could be heard clearly.
"No. I don't think so," he rubbed away the dark matter that had counseled his vision. He had already calmed down a bit, though when he turned to Carmen, his breath was still rapid as if he was reliving the scene.
"It's okay. We're okay now," Alex reassured him as he led him out of the car, deliberately to get some fresh air but then he remembered that the air outside is not infact fresh, so he only led him outside to get out of the car because the dark matter sticking to everything—including their clothes, felt disgusting.
Outside, he gently placed both of his hands on Carmen's shoulders. "Breath. It's over now".
"Y-Yeah," Carmen struggled to form actual words, his words were only barely audible murmurs. At least his breath eased on the rapidity, eventually turning back to normal.
When Alex sensed that, he let go of the touch. At the same time, the others approached them, the footsteps they left in the snow trailing behind them.
"Thanks for saving us," Alex spoke to Elodie.
"It's nothing," she smiled.
"Is the car still working?" Velvette asked, glancing over the car, whose front was completely enveloped in dark matter.
"Fuck. I didn't even think of that," Alex returned back to the car and tried to turn on the engine. And again. But it didn't work, the thick matter stuck to it and destroyed it.
He pressed the klaxon on the wheel and that worked. He let it echo until Elodie made him stop with her words, "Rapturing my ear drums is not going to fix anything!". She paused before continuing, lowering her voice as Alex stopped. "Though this isn't good…We're in the middle of nowhere". She scanned the towering trees surrounding them. The road ahead of them rolled as far as an eye could see, along with the trees on both sides. The only source of light now was the headlights of the van. But their light was fading, extinguished by the dribbling dark matter. Luckily, they still had the flashlight. No one knew for how long it would last though. Or how far they were from a town, a village. Anything other than trees.