January

Chapter 6

"Mommy, don't go."

With a turn, Erine seeks a familiar voice, into an unknown, void of any light. Glancing around the dark, desperately trying to discern even just a ray of light. 

"Mommy, where are you?"

This time it was a whimper, shaking and almost sobbing. It was a terrible sound and Erine is getting more anxious as she storms each corner, but the obscured road was an endless race. And right at this moment, there was a desperation in each stride, in each cry. Her legs shaking in fright, both for herself and for her child's safety.

"Eros! Embry!" Erine called out, throat burning from screaming continuously. "Where are you?!"

"Mommy!" Cried a girl's voice.

"Mommy!" Cried a boy's voice.

Then everything went quiet, and the thing Erine dreaded the most came. Eyes began to widen, lips trembles at the sound of quiet sobbing. Awfully reminding her of things she has abandoned selfishly. Persistently, she tried to deny that she was at fault.

It was the stars! Erine accused into thin air.

"I never wanted to leave you." The lips that said those words started to quiver, chest sinking deeper into the abyss as silent cries turned into wails. Letting out a tiny whisper of, "Please." Erine's legs gave out, guilt sprung out inside her like deeply-rooted threads of skeletons, dirty and hideous.

"Mom..."

All of a sudden, tears stopped falling. Her head snapping from left to right, searching the whereabouts of the voice.

"Mom."

She glanced behind.

Eyes blurry with tears squinting with unexplainable joy. At last, she found her child, alone yet smiling.

She have never moved as fast, her legs even in weak state moved quickly as she hugs the boy tightly.

"I'm sorry. Mommy is sorry." Erine stroked her child back, letting him know that she's finally here. "I won't leave anymore. I'm sorry."

Erine apologized over and over, but she knew that no matter how sincere a thousand apology is, it will never erase the fact that her children disappeared for selfishly turning back the time.

Then she remembered something.

Pushing the boy slightly, Erine grabbed the child by the shoulder gently and looks at him eye-level.

"Where is your sister?" When she didn't receive any answer, she asks once again. "Where's Embry?"

It was silent for a while, every second, her heartbeat increases as she watched those eyes turn up in confusion.

"Who is Embry?"

Erine flinched, chest sank even deeper as realization began to dawn at her, but she denied again. It must be a mistake, there's no way that Eros could have forgotten Embry. The two loved to play pranks on her, and this was no different.

Trying to calm herself, she laughed forcefully. "You're playing pranks on me again."

Eros's head tilted on one side, still confused. "Mom, I don't have a sister."

"What?" With widening eyes, Erine's hand tightened on Eros's shoulder unconsciously. "Embry, your sister."

Erine's voice began to sound desperate as she fought the urge to shake her own son.

"Mom, you're hurting me."

"Tell me?! Where is your sister?" Even though she hadn't intended to, her voice began to rise.

She has only noticed her careless behavior as Eros began to back away.

"I don't have a sister."

Erine let's go of his shoulder. That's when she finally understand what's happening.

The boy wasn't Eros. Instead, it was the face of another child, looking at her frightened. Shaking her head, she too began to back away.

"Where are they?" Erine demanded furiously. "Where are my children?"

There was no answer. The figure of the unknown boy just stared longingly, eyes glistening with unshed tears. And when he gave her a smile, a smile without reaching the eyes filled with loneliness, Erine starts to wonder who the child was.

"That's so mean." The boy finally spoke, his voice heavy. "I am your son."

Erine woke up drenched in sweat, panting heavily, as she reaches for her bed lamp. Relieve wash through her as soon as the light broke through the darkness of her room. She let her head fall at the soft mattress of her bed as she tried to catch her breath.

It was the first time Erine has a nightmare since she travelled back in time. Usually, her nightmare doesn't involve her children, but now they're in it. Worrying her further.

Ever since she came into this time, she's been wondering about something. Things from the future, including her body, her husband Luke, and their children.

If she's in this timeline, then what has become of the future? Did she end up in a coma? Or did the present time stopped entirely...

A gasp went out of her mouth as she has come to realize the interpretation of her dream. It seems likely, but if her guess weren't wrong, it must mean that the future is changing. Who knows, in the new future, she may end up with another guy, perhaps she wouldn't be able to meet Embry and Eros.

The thought of it alone frightened her.

"I need to do something!" Erine tossed her blanket out of the way and hopped out of the bed, it was too sudden that she almost tripped on her way towards the desk. It was unlikely of her, so she let out a deep breath and calmed herself.

This was nothing to fuss about. Everything will lead to the future, all that needed to do is to follow the sequence of event to the eventual happy ending. While telling herself these comforting words, Erine rummaged through her bag, her hands shook as she pulled out a notebook and a pen. Opening her pink table lamp, Erine pulled out her chair but couldn't manage to sit down as she hot down the first event. Her writing almost unrecognizable with all the events popping in her memory.

Fashion show

School play

Fireworks festival

Valentines day...

Erine stopped for a while.

Except for the important events, there are also dates. There were also the time when Luke had saved her from an incident. We'll, there are more cases with the latter, she has always been prone to danger just like a damsel in distress.

Although those occurrences are what lead to their development, there was no way Erine would put herself in danger the second time. What if it'll turned out badly than expected?

Feeling a little frustrated with concerning thoughts, Erine crumpled the paper threw it at the trash can at the side of the study table. Lowering her body at the ground, she grabbed the bag and rummaged through her belongings for a notebook.

Her fingers dug randomly at the corners, with a slight pull the notebook slid pass the suffocating space between the enclosure of thick hard printed modules. Without minding the cover much, Erine turned the pages by groups in order to get to a blank page.

As she began to notice indistinct writing, Erine froze.

"It's still here?" She muttered to herself.

She had remembered the first encounter with Prince, it disturbed her thoughts although she didn't think of it much. It was probably one the reason why she completely forgotten to return this to the owner. But Erine wouldn't be able to return the diary, there are no name nor an address stated at the information part.

Letting out a sigh, the back of the seat collided with her's as she felt a momentarily calmness at the notebooks presence.

The book sat still at her desk, waiting for something to happen. Her hands pushing it close after randomly reading on the writings. Until something strange caught her attention. Quickly, she opened the book, revealing the content.

"What?!"

Erine almost exclaimed out loud.

If it was morning, she would have jumped out of her seat. But none of that matters for now as she read the date out loud.

"January 9, 1999." The date was clearly written.

It's impossible.

The last entry written on the notebook was January 3, 1999. The first day of her time travel.

Did someone played a prank on her? But she remembered, her mother wouldn't have disrespected her privacy. Between family members it was mostly between siblings, if ever there were really a prank being played.

Still, she was the only child. Unless, there's an intruder inside the house, probably living at the kitchen counter or any hidden construction failures. It was absurd, but in the year she came from, although it's a rare case, it's possible to happen.

Though, if there were really such think inside her current household, the culprit wouldn't be so interested in a journal, if one thing, they'd be more interested in your food and other necessities.

For now, her thoughts are getting wild. She may need to stop for a while and start reading the new entry.

It says,

Dear Emi,

today I ran into her at the bus station. It was late at night, there were no more bus available so I offered to give her a ride home. She recognized me as one of her schoolmates. Even though she told me I was at first, a little suspicious, she accepted the ride. She told me she went to visit her grandmother, I joked, it went a little too far. We didn't talk after that.

Have I finally gotten closer to her?

That was the end of it.

Erine wasn't quite sure if her guess was right.

But if she is correct, she's positive that the writer was pertaining to the event that had taken place earlier.

Judging from the point of view, the owner of the diary could be...

Erine's eyes went wide. "Oh, shit."

Morning came slower than she expected.

Unlike her first week, she was hastily putting on her uniform, and taking her bath was like a breeze. Breakfast was almost forgotten.

This time around, she decided to ask the driver to take her to school. Although, her mother was throwing a questioning look, she must have decided that it's best to keep her mouth shut.

What Erine didn't notice though was her mother's red eyes as she tried to smile forcefully.

But the van had already sped away.

When they've arrived at school, Erine asked the driver to never bother taking her home.

As soon as they got the agreement, Erine quickly got out of the car and stormed the campus, though she's keeping it unnoticeable to avoid another commotion. Besides, rumors easily spread like a wildfire.

Without thinking much of it, her route take a sudden turn towards the college building, the lower years ban completely forgotten. That's the reason why she got shocked when the guard suddenly pulled her by the collar.

"What the..." Erine yelped and looked behind.

It was the same guard who had pulled her by the collar in her first day, that's why the gesture was awfully familiar.

"What are you doing? Miss Piggy Pinky?" Erine's lips twisted at sound of her famous nickname.

"I need to go inside."

The guard only angled his head, lips curving upward, and Erine could guess that she's bound to get teased, early in the morning.

"Are you a college student?"

"No?" Erine c****d an eyebrow. "I'm--"

She couldn't continue. Lips on thin line as she glanced at the glassdoor of the college building, like a waving invitation, just within her reach. But she couldn't even take a step forward.

"You...?" The guard was waiting for an answer but Erine remained in awkward silence as she thought of some excuses.

"You better come up with an acceptable excuse."

Erine's eyes shot up. "I wasn't going to make any excuses!"

She was looked at suspiciously, "Then how are you going to get in?"

It was early in the morning, only a few students were present yet all attention are at her now, wondering what is the famous Miss Pinky Piggy up to.

Erine has to fall down for now. There's still the rest of the afternoon to meet with Prince. Besides, it wasn't a big issue to just neglect her reputation.

"So, are you going in?"

Ernie wanted to retort back but she wanted to do it as sweet and as kind as possible.

As she opens her mouth, her lips froze  as her eyes widened in shock. Hastily, Ernie pulled out the diary from her shoulder bag. The guard seem puzzled by her sudden reaction, but she got no time to think of that.

Without excusing herself, she walked away from the college department and aimlessly wondered around as she flips the pages of the diary.

Just earlier, she found another entry written.

"Right..."

Ernie read the letters from the first paragraph.

Dear Emi,

I saw her at the college department when I came to school. She has something to say to me, she was kinda angry so I did not show myself.

There were only two sentences. That's it, but Erine was startled to find another paragraph below.

It says,

But when she saw Luke by the court, she seem to lose interest and went to watch him play. I was getting irritated so I followed her.

As if under a spell, Erine looked up from the diary. And when she tried to make out of her surroundings, Erin's finally realized where she was.

She was outside of the fence surrounding the court. And true to story at the diary, Luke was training early.

Then when she turned her head back at the entry, she watched in disbelief as new set of writings start to appear magically.

It starts to write the following.

She was too busy looking at Luke...

Erine waited with every letter, as the strokes formed into the thin paper like droplets of blood.

...that she didn't...

Someone had bumped into her, causing her to drop the notebook. Both of them apologized several times before Erine could pick the notebook up.

And when she finally continued to read the next thing it said, Ernie's eyes widen in shock.

"Watch out!"

And it was already too late.

As cliche as it gets, something hard and forcefully had hit her by the face, her head thrown backwards by the impact.

Her head began to spin and darken, as stars seem to dance around her head. But before she lost consciousness, the final words in the book rang through her head.

...that she didn't notice a ball coming her way.

Ernie almost curses. You should have said that earlier!