"Y-you... you said my name." He swallowed thickly, his voice cutting through the heavy silence that had fallen in the aftermath of her outburst.
She merely nodded in response, suddenly feeling extremely self-conscious around him again.
They were both still naked, though it was too dimly lit for either to see each other as many of the candles were now extinguished.
"Do you know your name?" Michael asked, tentatively.
She scoffed. "Primrose."
"I mean your last name." He impatiently retorted.
"It's Goode." She stood up within the circle with sudden defiance. "Primrose Goode."
"I can explain everything." He tried to place a comforting hand on her arm and was saddened to see her flinch.
"It's you... you're the leader... you murdered my parents." Primrose was now pacing around the room, the cogs turning in her mind, trying to process all the old and new information that was now rolling around her brain at a thousand miles per hour. She picked up her torn night dress and clumsily wrapped it around her body for some form of modesty.
"Please..." He reached out to touch her dress but she backed away, suspiciously. "Let me."
Hesitantly, she obliged. He ran his hands over the torn fabric and with his magic he willed the fibers back together.
"There," He said. "Good as new."
And then, with very little warning, she slapped him across the face.
Hard.
"I gave myself to you, body and mind and soul." She seethed. "And you accepted me with blood-stained hands."
"Hey, let's get something straight here." He fired back as he conjured his clothes out of thin air. "You threw yourself at me. I tried to keep you away, even though it was killing me inside."
"I tried embracing it, the darkness within, and I ended up alone, with everyone I love dead. I just wanted to hide, to protect people from it, to cut it out like the cancerous tumour it is."
"I don't care! I've bedded my mother's killer!" Hot, angry tears were now falling freely from her eyes, and it was slowly destroying Michael to see her so upset, knowing that he was the reason why.
"That woman was not your mother, Cordelia was." Michael gripped her shoulders firmly, trying to keep her grounded as she became overwhelmed with memories and emotion.
"Okay, great. Anything else I should know?" She bitterly replied.
"You were pregnant." He spoke quietly and sadly.
"W-...what?"
"When you died," he cleared his throat. "You were pregnant with our child."
"Who am I?" She sobbed, collapsing into herself.
Michael caught her just before she fell and gathered her into his arms.
"You're Primrose, you're my Primrose." He cooed, stroking her hair gently to calm her down.
"Why did you do this..." She wept. "Why keep me underground all these years... alone and lost... fumbling for answers in the dark..."
"I was there, Primrose. I watched you grow like a wildflower among the weeds. When we spot a pretty flower, sometimes we have the desire to pick it. And that was a selfish desire I shamelessly indulged in. I ripped you out of the earth and then you died. You died because of me."
As her old life slowly returned to her living memory, she felt so much sorrow for all that was lost she thought she might cry a river of tears.
"I lost you and I couldn't bear it..." Michael began, his voice wavering with grief. "Without you, I lost my way. I was much too despaired to know what I was doing."
Primrose wanted to speak, but no words came out.
1,022,000 words in the English language and there was not a single one to describe how she felt.
"Let me show you something." Michael said, helping her up to her feet.
-
Michael transmuted them to the surface, above the compound and into the outside world, a place Primrose had never been before.
The earth was barren and burnt, the atmosphere heavy with radioactive fog.
Primrose saw the groaning figures in the distance and clung to Michael for safety.
"Are we quite safe up here?" She asked, alarm evident in her voice.
"Any normal person would soon perish out here, but as I've stated before... you and I are not normal." Michael clarified.
Primrose's attention then turned to the mysterious swirling shapes in the sky above. "What's wrong with the sky?"
"It's falling." He replied.
Returning her gaze to the far off people, she watched them stare up at the sun, completely transfixed, before falling to the ground, lifeless.
"I-i don't understand."
Michael paused before turning to look at her solemnly.
"The clocks have stopped." He said, simply.
"Yes, I noticed. Are we running out of power?"
Michael shook his head. "Virtually all clocks in the outpost are mechanical."
"But... then how...?"
"The clocks are wound with a key, and this tightens the spring inside. As it unwinds, its energy turns gears which cause the hands to move. It's our energy that powers them. But this energy transference is being intercepted by a greater force; the infinite cosmos." He paused to reflect for a moment, hands clasped behind his back. "The universe is sapping the energy from everything around us, our clocks, the sun, the unfortunate people above ground. It needs this energy to sustain itself because something is draining it... that something is us."
"Us?" She asked, incredulously.
"Us." He confirmed with a solemn nod of his head. "We are walking contradictions, a collective paradox. When you went back in time and died saving my life, you splintered the timeline. I should have no knowledge of you and yet I remembered every kiss, every touch, every precious moment. It put a strain on the universe, your re-entry into this world only served to deepen the wounds. This timeline is now collapsing in on itself in an attempt to fix it. Our very existence is a scar upon the earth. We can't stay here. The walls of the universe are weakening."
Primrose shut her eyes, wearily. "Michael, stop. I-i can't..."
Realizing that she had once again begun to cry, he gathered her in his arm again, vowing to protect her.
"It's okay, angel. Just go to sleep." He placed his hand on her forehead and muttered some vague incantation, and she felt the darkness descend upon her vision until she lost her grip on consciousness and fell into sweet oblivion.
-
Primrose awoke some hours later, safely in her own bed. For one sweet, blissful moment she did not remember everything that had occurred in the last 24 hours, and it was magical.
Magic.
Michael.
She shot up out of bed and yelped in surprise when she realized he was sat in her chair by the fire, watching her carefully.
"Hello." He said.
"Hi." She breathlessly replied.
"How are you feeling?" He politely enquired, as though they were merely acquaintances and not unearthly soulmates from another world.
"Like my entire life is a lie." She replied.
Michael recoiled slightly at her brutal honesty. "I'm sorry."
"I know you are, I can feel it. Eternal bond thingy, remember?" She deadpanned. "Where do we stand on that, by the way?"
Michael hesitated. "It... it was weakened when you were reborn not knowing who I am, but now that you're you again, I suspect it shall be in full effect once more... is that okay?"
She turned around, not wanting to face him. "Don't ask me how I feel about things neither one of us can change."
Through the reflection of her dressing table mirror, she could see his head fall into his hands with remorse. "I thought I was keeping you safe by binding you to me, and instead I've condemned you to countless lifetimes spent chained to the side of a heartless monster. If I had any sense at all, I wouldn't be here. I'd be far away, let you live out your new life in peace." He chastised himself.
"A peaceful state is going to be quite hard to attain now." She laughed, mirthlessly.
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
"For everything."
"I know."
Sighing, she turned toward the fireplace and sat cross-legged next to his chair, leaning against the velvety material wistfully. "But you were right though," Primrose said. "About... my parents. They weren't really my family. Cordelia is my true mother."
Unsure of how to respond, Michael simply laced his fingers through her hair, secretly delighting at the way she instinctively leaned into his touch.
Just like old times.
He spoke quietly, his voice barely above a whisper. "You've been far from my eyes, but always near in my heart."
She moved to sit in between his legs and looked up at the pained expression on his face.
"I can't imagine a world without you by my side." He whispered.
His palm caressed the side of her face and shivered as she realized it had been 18 years since he'd last touched her like that.
"Is this why you let the new world fall to ruins?" She asked. "The people are very unhappy with their 'leader'."
"I succumbed to grief. Your face... it haunted me." He admitted, sadly. "You used to get this look in your eyes, like you felt desperately sorry for me... I see it now."
And it was true. She did pity him. It was illogical but true.
Despite all he'd done, Primrose knew that she had been the only person (bar Ms. Mead) who had ever truly known and loved him.
And she had died.
She had left him all alone.
"I still think you're the most beautiful soul that's ever graced this wretched earth."
And with this comment, suddenly Primrose remembered the precarious state of the earth.
"Oh Michael, what are we going to do?" She sighed into his breeches.
Michael took her small hands and held them within his larger ones.
"Not long ago, when I was still but a stranger to you, and you knew me only as sir... I asked you a question. I asked if you would believe me if I said we had met once before... Well, now I'm asking you to take that leap of faith again."
"The Earth is failing... it won't be long until the universe becomes so deficient in energy it simply eats itself. Now I don't know about you, but I'd like to avoid that. Now that you are returned to me, I have once more the spirit and passion of a younger man with a grander purpose; that dream I once had many years ago of a new world, a dominion for us to rule over, lovers in arms; king and queen."
"There's another world where we're together, happy, United by a child. We could go there... for a price."
Primrose eyed him suspiciously; great things often come with greater consequences. "Which is?"
"This one sacrifice is all I ask, and in return I'll give you everything you've ever wished for... a family."