The Darkness of Forever

Chapter 3

“How? I don’t wanna die! It’s too early!” she yelled, tears pouring down her cheeks, then flinging onto mine and stinging my still sore cheek. 

“I don’t know! Just fight the pull! Do whatever you can! Just don’t let it take you!” I demanded, tears pouring out of my eyes too. She nodded, and we fought the power of whatever or whoever was trying to take us and getting tired, more tired, and finally so tired that we collapsed to the ground and the whole world froze. ‘Ring, ring, ring! Ring, ring, ring!’ Annie looked at my pocket.

“Um… that’s your phone.” She whispered, voice hoarse from yelling. I looked at my phone and checked who was on the other line. 

“It’s my dad.” I said, and pressed talk. 

“Are you okay? Mom and I were so worried! I tried to get you to come back bu-” I quickly cut my dad off. 

“That was you?! We’re in the future, trying to find a way to get me and you back alive! I thought that I- I mean Annie, was  going to die!” I said, worried terribly.

I heard him sigh then say, “You can go back to the future tomorrow. But come home. We’re signing you up for private school. And Nicky? No one, and I mean no one, can know you’re dead.” I hung up, then hooked arms with Annie. 

“You alright? I’m really sorry about that… My dad was trying to get me home safely, but obviously that didn’t work… Oh well! Let’s walk around before we go! I want to find the future us!” I tried to laugh ‘evilly’ at the end, but failed miserably.

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“Hello? This is Nicky! Who’s this?” I asked into the phone, hoping to be talking to my much older self. I’ve been going through every Nicky in the phone book for the last 30 minutes.

“Um…. It’s Nicky… Like yours is. What do you need?” the person on the other line said, her voice cheerful. 

I thought for a moment then said, “Well, I know this’ll probably sound crazy, but I think I’m your younger self… But, I’m going to have to ask you a question to see if I’m right… So, do you, or did you, have a father that was killed by falling off a ladder?” I heard whispering, then the other Nicky replied yes. “Oh my gosh! That’s so cool! You are the older me!” after some more talking, we decided to meet at the nearby park in half-an-hour. “Bye!”I sang merrily to my older self. 

“Bye!” she replied back. We both laughed, then hung up.

Annie called me from inside her phone booth, and hustled over to it. “Tell her to meet you at the park in half-an-hour!” I yelled through the glass, knowing she’d hear me. Annie  nodded, said something in  her phone with a smile, and then hung up. When she came out of the phone booth, her cheeks were red with excitement, and her black hair was pulled into a high ponytail.

We went into a local café to burn time, and found that we were both starving! Except, after looking through our pockets and everything, we didn’t have any money. We plopped down into one of the seats, exasperated. “Hello! How may I help you today?” a male waiter said. Annie and I looked down, both of our cheeks reddening from embarrassment. “What troubles you?” the waiter asked. Annie was the first of us two to speak up.

 “We don’t um… We don’t have any money.” She whispered, her cheeks reddening even more. The waiter looked confused for a moment, then smiled. 

“Ohh! Money! I’m sorry, I haven’t heard of that concept in… years. You must not be from around here.” He said with a laugh. Now it was my turn to look confused. 

“Yes… We’re definitely not from here…” I said with a smile toward Annie. The waiter smiled. 

“Well, I’ll explain. Here, you don’t need money. You just get what you want. For free. No paying.” My eyes went wide at the word free. 

‘Whoohoo!’ I thought, pretty much having a party inside my head. “Wonderful.” I whispered. The waiter left, saying he’d come back when we were ready to order. 

“This is so cool!” Annie said. I nodded, looking over the menu. 

“Definitely.” I answered back, smiling wide. "Lets eat!"  

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When we were done eating, we walked to the park using a digital map some guy gave us. My bracelet buzzed, and I sighed.”What is that?” asked Annie, looking around with her eyes squinted. I looked at my bracelet, words forming on it. 

They said, ‘Where r u? We told u 2 com home rite away! And r u home? NO! So get home NOW! Love, Dad’ I rolled my eyes. 

“Haha! That was my dad. He was telling me to get home. The message came on my bracelet though! How cool is that!” I thought of what I’d write to him first, then tried to figure out how to write it, when all of a sudden… My message that I’d thought of in my head was on my bracelet! Also, the word SEND appeared on one of the rhinestones. I quickly read over my text. ‘Hey dad! We’ll b bak home soon! Just meeting w/ futr selves. Love ya, Nicky.’

As soon as I pressed send, we were at the park. “C’mon Nicky! This is gonna be so cool!” Annie squealed, eyes wide with excitement. We skipped hand-in-hand, until two voices stopped us. 

“Um… Nicky?” Future Nicky said. 

“Um… Annie?” future Annie said. We turned to be face to face with our future selves and gasped. My brown hair had blonde highlights, I was really skinny, and I looked so mature! Future Annie’s black hair was curly now, and she was also really skinny and looked fun but also quiet, just like my Annie! 

“This. Is. Awesome!” Annie and I exclaimed. 

“Ya… But also pretty freaky… I mean… REALLY freaky… Haha.” My future self said. “Crap! Annie! We have to go! My dad is gonna kill me if I don’t leave!” I said, my eyes wide. “We’ll try to be back tomorrow…. How about five-thirty… or maybe six… we still have to get the back-to-life solution… We really do have to go! Bye!” 

I held Annie’s hand, and we went back to our time, appearing in my room. “Whooh. That, was quick. Hopefully my dad didn’t hear us come in…” I whispered, looking around. 

“He doesn’t seem to have heard… Luckily…” Annie answered back, smiling. “That was so cool! Older me was awesome! I cannot wait, to see them tomorrow.” She enthused. I heard a knock on my door. 

‘Uh Oh.’ I thought. “Um… who-who is it?” I asked, afraid I knew the answer. The door opened and my dad came in, looking ragged, old, and tired. 

“Your mom…” he said hoarsely. “She’s in the hospital. She- shehad a heart attack.”