Umbel (Terminal Trilogy #3)

14: Last midnight

The cycle change was at midnight.

I realized something very dire at ten thirty.

Settling onto one of the couches in the upstairs hall felt like something out of an old childhood dream. I curled my back into the curve of the soft red fabric, a linen sheet from the penthouse acting as my blanket, and I stared at the TV. I was doing better, but I couldn't fall asleep.

One of the channels was covering the news, the unrest outside, the demands of the public for answers. Alexander had changed things.

The worry was no longer if the angelic community could be appeased with a fancy enough funeral- the risk of a riot was at hand. Alexander said Michael would come back. Where was he? What else was the government hiding?

Alexander, long a hated figure whose suicide was celebrated, had suddenly become a figure of worship. He returned from the dead and brought me with me message of potential salvation. What wasn't to be loved about that?

His spectacle hadn't rung with most of the angels, but the more Michaelian ones- the ones who believed all of the old legends Michael had taught them- had taken Alexander as their new idol.

Deaths had been reported. Not many, but there mere fact there had been at least one suicide and one homicide had set people off. Cpholiel Spoon, one of the primary news anchors, was especially distressed, pleading in angelic to the camera before his co-anchor asked him to take a break.

It was not good material to sleep on. I flicked between the other fourteen channels. Twelve of them were off. The community channel had a rerun of a man reading a book to the camera. Channel two switched between various Earth broadcasts, waiting for the cycle to begin to change. I had heard it was quite something to watch.

Everything would go back. Everyone would recall who they used to be. The world would spin through the years and end on the average day that was May the fifth.

Here, straining my eyes and watching the TV switch between major cities and dinky local news in the dark, two things came to mind in a certain order.

First, Mannie blamed herself for my death. My previous death, which was from the previous cycle change. Humans left on Earth always reset.

Second, humans left on Earth always reset. Shit. I knew humans. I knew a lot of humans who would never be the same come two hours.

I bolted upright. Despite the constant fuss over the cycles, the continuous reminders of what a soft reset of the Earth meant, I had somehow failed to realize this scope of 'everything' included my family.

My sisters, Bianca and Nadia, would stop existing at midnight. The younger, ten year old Bianca, would be born again in nine years. I wouldn't be around, they wouldn't know me. They would be completely different people, unknown to me.

My adopted sisters would be worse off. They were orphans, living in a run down house. The old matron, Ms. Robles, had died shortly after I had arrived. I was their legal guardian until my own death. Now they had someone from the state looking after them until Adeline turned eighteen.

Without me, I wasn't sure what would happen. I didn't like to seem particularly egotistical, but I didn't like the idea of them living without my influence.

It was like my younger siblings were strapped to a ticking time bomb I was helpless to prevent. Bianca and Nadia were back home, across the country. There was nothing I could do. Absolutely nothing.

I probably started crying at this point. I do that.

I watched the TV screen like I expected it to offer a solution. Then I turned it off and stared meaninglessly at my hands.