Reality Check

The World Is Ending

A/N - If you listen to this song I highly recommend the erich lee gravity remix version it just gives me all the feels :)) anyways lmk if you like this chapter!

Unsteady (by the X Ambassadors)

"Hold on, hold on to me. 'Cause I'm a little unsteady . . ."

___

ii. autophobia; the fear of oneself

"Can you tell me again why we're not inside yet?"

They were standing outside Waffle House, waiting in a line that seemed to be impossibly long. They'd been waiting for a solid fifteen minutes already, shifting from foot to foot with rumbling stomachs. After discovering this sacred place for eating breakfast, Kara had been the one to suggest that they go to eat there.

"I could jump forward in time, but it's kind of satisfying to wait," Kara said to Owen, who was standing next to her with growing impatience. There was a strange, foggy feeling in her head that she couldn't shake away, but she didn't take much notice of it, as she was too focused on getting inside the restaurant.

"But we've been waiting for ages!" Owen complained. "Could you jump forward in time? At least five minutes in time would be fine. We'd get in quicker, and then we'd be able to eat right away!"

She shoved her shoulder against his. "You must not see the benefits of the plan."

"Not really, no."

Kara laughed a little. "The restaurant has an all-you-can-eat breakfast special today," she said, nodding towards the sign at the front door. "That means that the hungrier we get, the more we can eat."

Owen stared at her. "That doesn't make any sense. Are you trying to make me starve?"

She gave him a small grin. "Only because I care about you," she said, which made him blush in the most adorable way possible. Her heart fluttered. "It'll be fine. We only have, what, ten people ahead of us? That's a lot less than it was earlier."

He sighed, glancing at the line ahead of them. "I'm pretty sure the line for Kiel Gnomenfoot and the Source Of Magic was just like this."

Kara cringed a bit. "Is this one of your nonfictional things?"

"Oh, yeah," Owen said, and it was his turn to smile at her. "But that time, I was working and I wasn't actually in line. This takes more time than I could've even imagined, and it's not even for a book!"

"Yeah, perspective does change things," she agreed. "Trust me, it'll be worth it once we're ordering dozens of waffles. You'll love it."

Owen grinned.

Twenty minutes later, they'd finally made it inside the restaurant. They were sitting at a booth, alternating between talking about what they'd get and looking at their menus. Soft pop music played in the background, filling Kara's ears with a pleasant noise.

It felt peaceful to Kara, who had come to appreciate the good, safe moments. Currently, there was no ominous threat, no dinosaurs and certainly no time agents seeking to destroy her. Instead, she was sitting in a Waffle House with her best and only friend, about to dive into the most important meal of the day.

Too bad the universe had other things in store for them.

At first, Kara didn't notice the sound. It was too quiet and hardly noticeable unless one was purposely trying to listen for it. But then, it got louder, loud enough to make her lift her head from her menu. That was when she saw something that made her mouth go dry. The forks and knives on their table had begun to rattle.