Fault lines In Flesh
1228 Words
The warmth of Nova’s embrace lingered long after Aria left the clock tower.
Even hours later, walking beneath the fractured moonlight, she felt the memory of his arms like a second skin. It hadn’t just been a hug—it was as if the timelines themselves had folded inward and wrapped around her heart. She hadn’t kissed him. She hadn’t needed to. The intimacy had already happened somewhere else.
Somewhen.
He had said her name like a promise, and when he looked at her, she swore he saw every version of her that had ever existed.
And somehow… he still wanted all of them.
She didn’t sleep that night.
She couldn’t.
Her dreams were now windows—fractured scenes playing out in endless loops.
In one, she stood on the roof of the high school, flames behind her, tears streaking her face, screaming into the void as Wendy lay lifeless below.
In another, she was the one on the ground—while Elior, covered in blood, held her body like it was the last fragile thread tethering him to sanity.
But worst of all—was the version where she stood beside Nova, holding hands, while the world burned behind them.
And she smiled.
By sunrise, Aria had drawn twenty-seven sketches. All different timelines. Some peaceful. Some horrifying. All real.
Isabel arrived first. She took one look at Aria’s bloodshot eyes and unwashed hair and cursed softly.
“You saw him,” she said. Not a question.
Aria nodded.
“He remembers every timeline. Says he’s the fifth. The Traveler.”
Isabel sat down, stunned. “Did he try to take you anywhere?”
“No. But he showed me something. A memory that wasn’t mine. Or… hadn’t been yet.” Aria paused. “It felt like being in love and falling off a cliff at the same time.”
Isabel’s brow furrowed. “You think we can trust him?”
“I don’t know. But I think I’ve already trusted him in timelines I don’t remember.”
By noon, all five of them sat in Harper’s garage, staring at the necklace Aria had recovered from locker 812. The spinning orb in the center pulsed with soft, rhythmic light—like a heartbeat.
Nova hadn’t taken it back.
He’d told her: “You’ll know when to use it.”
Now, as the group sat in a circle, the orb began to spin on its own.
Faster. Then faster.
Then—
Boom.
A silent shockwave rippled through them, knocking Wendy flat on her back.
Her eyes rolled upward, lips trembling, fingers twitching.
“Wendy!” Harper shouted, grabbing her.
Isabel dropped to her knees, checking her pulse. “She’s alive. Just… not here.”
Suddenly, Wendy gasped.
Her eyes flew open, and she sat bolt upright, breath ragged, eyes filled with tears.
“I was there,” she whispered.
“Where?” Aria asked.
“August 12th, 1983.” Wendy shivered. “I was there, Aria. You were too. But different. We weren’t… us. We were other people. And it wasn’t just a light in the woods. It was a rip. A literal c***k in time.”
Harper swallowed hard. “What caused it?”
Wendy looked at Aria. “You did.”
Aria stumbled outside, the world spinning.
She had caused the first event?
No. That couldn’t be.
But the memory wouldn’t stop replaying—Wendy’s terrified eyes. Her words. The way her voice had broken when she’d said it.
Could it be true?
Was she the origin of the disturbance?
Before she could answer, her phone buzzed.
Elior.
Unknown Number: “Meet me where it began. Come alone.”
She didn’t hesitate.
The woods behind the school had been sealed off, but Aria knew the gap in the fence. She slipped through, heart racing.
Elior was already there, leaning against a tree, arms crossed.
“I warned you,” he said the moment she stepped into view. “About touching the timelines.”
“You kissed me,” she snapped. “And you didn’t warn me about Nova.”
Elior looked tired. Older than before.
“I kissed you to unlock what was already inside you. But Nova—he plays a different game.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s not from this loop. He’s from a corrupted thread. One that was never supposed to survive. He should’ve disintegrated when it collapsed—but he remembered himself into existence.”
Aria blinked. “That’s not possible.”
Elior stepped closer. “It wasn’t. Until you.”
She backed away.
“I don’t understand.”
“Yes, you do,” he said softly. “You always do. Eventually.”
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a silver disc.
“Take this. It’s an anchor. If you get pulled again—use it to come back. To this version. To me.”
Their hands touched. The pulse between them was still electric—but dimmer now. Quieter.
Then Elior did something unexpected.
He leaned in—not to kiss her, but to whisper.
“One day, you’ll have to choose between saving everyone… and saving yourself.”
“And the wrong choice will cost the world.”
Back at home, Aria stared at herself in the mirror again.
No ripple this time. Just the haunted girl who looked back at her.
The fifth.
The gifted.
The storm.
Her phone buzzed again.
Nova: “You’re starting to unravel, aren’t you?”
Aria: “What am I, Nova? Who am I to all of this?”
Nova:
“You’re the echo.
The origin.
The weapon.”
That night, Isabel discovered something that chilled them all.
She’d cross-referenced every name from the 1983 newspaper article. One of them stood out: Noah Kai.
Wendy gasped. “Nova Kai.”
Isabel nodded. “His father. Or maybe himself.”
“But he said he’s from a broken timeline,” Harper whispered.
Aria spoke the fear that no one else dared say out loud.
“Then maybe he’s not from the future at all.”
They turned to her.
“What are you saying?” Isabel asked.
“I’m saying… Nova might not be a time traveler,” Aria whispered. “He might be a time loop. A person who’s lived this moment so many times… he’s no longer entirely human.”
The next morning, Aria opened her window to find Nova standing in her backyard.
He wasn’t smiling.
“I remember something,” he said. “Something I’ve never told you in any timeline.”
She stepped onto the grass, barefoot and shaking.
“What?”
Nova held out a photo.
It was her.
Lying in a hospital bed.
Surrounded by machines.
Eyes closed.
A coma.
Aria’s world tilted.
“That’s… that’s me.”
Nova nodded slowly. “In the original timeline, you never woke up after the explosion. None of this happened. No powers. No echoes. Just silence.”
She covered her mouth.
Nova stepped forward, voice quiet and steady.
“This version of you? The one asking questions, touching timelines, falling in love with Elior, with me—she only exists because I broke time to find her.”
“You were never meant to wake up, Aria.”
“But now that you have… you might be the only one who can stop what’s coming.”
- Writer
