R e t r o s p e c t • PSYPHY

Chapter 10: P a r a l l e l

"Is this..." i wonder, if this is how they do it.

"What'd you remember?"

> *Caasi's House*

"Somethings wrong." Syeef says.

Betty glances at him, "You think?"

"Julbe's Tiempo signature has split." Syeef replies.

Leo drags Jared's unconscious body next to Heather's corpse. He lays his head adjacent to her feet. The blood puddle has spread further.

"No bueno. That means the brothers are up to something." He mentions.

"Question is, who's gonna die for them?" Betty sips her tea.

> Virginia State Hospital

A brunette nurse looms over Hayden's unconscious body. The steady beeps of the IV delay against the ticks of a clock. She walks over to a bin, with his belongings inside. She notices a glimmer, and her curiosity is piqued.

She reaches in the bin, seeing a stopwatch.

It glimmers with a silver lining. Nurse Page doesn't know it, but in this very moment, someone else becomes aware of the same phenomenon. They are not in the same place, yet a stream of consciousness downloaded to all.

In the wake of Casey's temporal rewrite, a double entendre was enacted. Two more contenders of time were chosen. Once one leaves the field, they must instantly be replaced by another.

Time keepers everywhere understand this.

Caasi is slowly becoming aware of their existence.

While he is being teleported to another location via time warp - the other three are also undergoing an irreversible shift.

Nurse Page is dumbfounded. She's astounded by the brilliance of the stopwatch. She can hardly move in it's presence. She doesn't hear the breath of her patient, slowly weakening.

Time stops for him, and begins for her.

> Elsewhere

A rumbling in Virginia Beach stirs the waters. A whirlpool emerges, causing many beach goers to immediately panic. They ruffle, and splash around - desperately running out of the water. Few people remain, as they scream and hysterically evacuate the area.

There is one, who doesn't run.

His brown hair waves in the wind. A slight curl to it, hazel in his eyes and amazement on his face.

This is a phenomenon that he has never witnessed.

It was as if someone divided by zero, and a sinkhole swallowed the sea beneath the depths. A darkness was churning within, and yet he had no fear in his heart.

He watches the wind and water collide, and sees the sands burn at the shoreline. Diamonds dance in the salted mist, and glass shards begin to rain through Virginia's beach.

One by one every single person leaves, and only he remains.

He is chosen, to inherit the esoteric curse.

Though it may be a blessing for some, he is the first of the Markov lineage to be endowed with this knowledge. He may never return home. And he may never be the same man again.

Elsewhere a similar phenomenon occurs. A rumble in the earth at Manases Mall, causes emergency evacuation. Protocol is for every person to leave. Yet the response to a natural disaster is hard to control.