FULL NOVELXO Chapter 1. New Neighbors
UNDER THE RAIN, I lay helpless on the ground.
I couldn’t hoist myself up, so I crawled on my elbows, hoping that some sort of adrenaline rush would hoist me up to my feet. The blow in my head made it difficult to stand, and whenever I managed to do so, the world would spin, and I would crumple on the ground again. It seemed that the best chance I had to fix this mess was to rewind time, but since I didn’t know how to control my stupid powers, I felt stuck.
Just a few months into my new school, I learned that I could turn back time, and from that moment on, I knew I was screwed. My roommate, Harumi, told me how I shared this ability with Cassandra, a girl who looked just like me and haunted me in my nightmares. I was pretty sure that this was why nothing good had come out of using my powers. As Cassandra had claimed, I created a timeline in which the boy I liked loved me back, apparently erasing his girlfriend’s, Rachael’s, existence.
When things couldn’t get any worse, Rachael returned as a monster, and this is where it got confusing for me. In this world, we were fictional creations of the Author in his Metropolis, and anyone who would become aware of this would get corrupted and turn into monsters. Had Rachael become self-aware? How? Was corruption possible through other means?
Julio, who had helped explain the mechanics of the Metropolis to me, fought monster Rachael relentlessly. Parts of his hoodie were torn, and cuts and bruises covered his hands and face. He shook as he clutched his knife, creating zigzags with his feet on the pavement. Rachael was just too powerful, and the realization of this made me feel like it was all my fault. If only I weren’t so angry at her, maybe all of this wouldn’t have happened. I had let my emotions take over me, and Cassandra had taken advantage of this weakness. She had used me to mortally wound Rachael in the girls’ bathroom, eliminating her from the Metropolis’ timeline.
It’s complicated, I know. I would do anything to go back to the week before, back to when my life was normal. Maybe I should work on my time traveling powers to do just that, but that shouldn’t be my focus at the moment.
Rachael was back, and Julio got caught in the battle.
From the looks of it, only one victor could emerge from this fight. When Julio pulled out his knife, the message was clear. However, amidst the hopelessness, I noticed something about Rachael’s expression that bothered me. She looked scared and confused.
It surfaced when Julio said those fateful words:
I love you, Rachael…
When Rachael first emerged from the misty rain, she had a demeanor that screamed nothing but apathy, but then, it slowly changed. Her expression softened, and she tilted her head like she was willing to listen to Julio’s words.
And I always will.
I needed to stop him.
“J—Julio…” I croaked. “W—wait…”
But he couldn’t hear me.
What followed was the crunching sound of a piercing knife. I winced, feeling my whole body shudder.
Everything grew silent. The rained ceased, and then I felt something warm against my skin.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes, and I found myself someplace else…
▶▶
Sun shone through the windows as birds flew across the clear sky. From the golden light, I could tell that it had already been a few hours into the afternoon. I sat up, dazed, and I found that I had been lying on a mattress on the floor. On the other side of the room, moving boxes piled up in the corner. Some were torn open, leaving remnants of packaging tape and miscellaneous belongings on the floorboards, while some remained untouched and neatly sealed, cowering in a fear over a boy with a knife.
The boy was probably in his early teens. Unsheathing his knife, he traced the top of a huge cardboard box and ripped it open. With his long, slender arms, he reached inside and began emptying the box’s contents: some clothes, a few action figures, and a dartboard. He paused for a minute and took a deep breath, gazing at the pile of items surrounding him.
“Kuya!” a young girl’s voice then called from the other side of the room. It startled the boy and made him drop the dartboard he was carrying.
“Viv,” the boy groaned. “What do you want now?”
A little girl came running into the room, and it was Viv, Julio’s little sister. She looked about six or seven, and she came tumbling in with her short hair in pigtails. She had a summer dress on, too, but no shoes.
So if the girl was Viv, then the boy must be Julio. He did have the same perpetual scorn, though. I guess things never changed.
“Kuya, there’s a girl at our door,” Viv said excitedly. She was out of breath. “And—and, she’s really pretty.”
Julio wasn’t impressed. “Tell her to go away.”
But Viv wasn’t going to let Julio win. She tugged on his arm forcefully. “Kuya, come on!”
Julio didn’t budge. He was just too big for her. Nevertheless, Viv continued to pull him out the door, taking her a few more moments to collapse on the floor and give up.
This made Julio roll his eyes. “Fine. Let’s go.”
Viv sprang up. “Yay!”
The two siblings proceeded out the room, and I got up and followed them downstairs into a vast living room, with a ceiling higher than anything I’d seen. It looked just as empty as the room upstairs; there was nothing but a brand new couch wrapped in plastic, some expensive figurines lying around, and even more boxes.
I figured that they had just moved into the neighborhood at the time, and Viv was excited to make a new friend. Julio, well, not so much. But as I continued to follow the two siblings around, I began to feel uneasy. Why was I seeing this?
Viv ran for the front door, jumping to reach the knob, while Julio had just made the last step down the stairs.
“Viv, slow down,” he groaned.
Viv ignored him and rushed out the door, excited to see the pretty girl standing right outside the house. Yup, it appeared to him that he had no choice but to follow his hyperactive sister to meet this stranger, and never in his life did he regret that decision.
Even though she was bound to break his heart.
The girl looked about his age. She had her curly brown hair kept in a headband and wore a light blue blouse with its hem adorned with laces. She had some kind of pastry in her hand; it was wrapped in foil and looked as warm as the smile on her face. She talked to Viv enthusiastically like she was her own little sister, and Viv seemed to instantly grow fond of her.
However, when Julio came out the door, the girl’s composure changed; she probably wasn’t expecting someone so intimidating to be living with a giggly little girl like Viv. She straightened up and cleared her throat.
“Hey there,” she said. “Welcome to the neighborhood.” She held up the pastry. “It’s banana bread. Made it myself—well, grandma helped me use the oven—”
I never said that Julio left his knife in the room upstairs, mainly because he didn’t. He had stashed it in his pocket when Viv pulled him downstairs, and the girl watched in horror as he pointed the blade at her.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she asked wide-eyed, taking a step back.
Julio was shaking, clutching the hilt of his knife. There were tears in his eyes as he inched slowly toward her.
“G—get away from me!” she shrieked.
Then he charged.
“Don’t!” I screamed.
I propelled myself toward him, grabbing his arm before he could stab her.
That was when the scene shifted, and we were back in the alleyway under the pouring rain.
Julio tried to pry his knife arm free from my grasp, but despite how disoriented I felt, I held on.
“Quinn,” he groaned. “What are you—”
“Look…” I said.
And Rachael just stood there, staring at us, but there was something glistening in her glowing red eyes.
Julio gasped, putting down his knife. “Rachael…?”
Tears fell down Rachael’s face. For a minute there, I thought she was actually going to open her mouth and speak, but instead, she spun on her heel and ran.
“Rachael, wait!” Julio cried.
Then something astonishing happened before my eyes.
I’d never seen anyone sprout wings before. Rachael leaped, and her body turned into that of a dove, and she disappeared into the night sky.