The Muse

Coffee

We walk through the park and only now I realized how much the weather had changed. Gloomy, angry clouds covered the sky and small droplets of rain had already painted the cement pathways. I search around the emptying park, as people hurry to go under shelter. I couldn't put my finger on it, but those people looked different.

Before I know it, I'm sitting in a vintage diner. The contrast of blue and red lightning against the white interior made it so inviting. Neon lights glowing against the wet fogged windows. Waitresses moving around in rollerskates were off-putting, but I just couldn't figure out why.

"It's not the rollerskates, trust me," he commented, chuckling to himself.

"It's pretty cold, don't you think?" I change the subject, not understanding what he was talking about.

"Have my coat," he offers without hesitation.

"Thanks." I reach from across the table as he hands it to me. Draping it over my shoulders, I notice there's no scent on it. No sweat or cologne. Which was weird because we've been walking around for a good while?

"I didn't catch your name," I say.

"Ezra." He smiles softly at me.

"Ezra who?" I inquire.

"Uh, Ezra is enough. Trust me."

"You keep saying that, but each time you're just regressing," I mutter, leaning forward and narrowing my eyes.

"Can you please tell me your order?" He rolls his eyes and picks up the menu.

"Fine," I grunt.

I list a lot more than I expected, feeling surprisingly starved.

"Oh, take the fudge pie too. I remember you like chocolate, you'll love this one." He beams at me with a smile that fades as soon as he meets my confused eyes. "Shiitphwff" he bites his knuckles in regret.

I would've classified this as a lucky guess too, cause let's be honest who doesn't love chocolate, but his reaction made it impossible. I narrow my eyes and open my mouth, but he interrupts me.

"Wait, I'll tell you. You get to make your questions after I talk." he stops me with a pointing finger.

I groan and sit back. This is so stupid. I still can't understand why I'm playing along with this. I should've run away while we were still at the park.

"You better not," he argued with a threatening arched brow from behind the menu.

"Get out of my head!" I snarl. This is getting too real for me to handle.

"I'll show you how to do that. But for a while you're gonna have to stick with me."

"You- " I start a chain of not so graceful words but a waitress approaches.

"Good evening fellas'. What can I get for ya?" A perky blonde, with swoon-worthy curves and a blinding smile, greets us.

"Hey, how are you. Uh, we'd want a- " Ezra's voice fades in the background as I keep staring shamelessly at the woman with a gaping mouth. I had so little energy I could barely activate basic manners. The woman looks back and forth between me and Ezra, her smile breaking into a scared grimace each time she meets my gaze. But there's nothing I can do about it. Every second that goes it gets harder for me to keep my composure and at this point, I wouldn't be surprised if I was drooling.

I can't stop staring at this stunning masterpiece of a woman, and I can't decide if it's because she looks like she jumped right from a comic book or that she seems eerily familiar.

"-and as much coffee as we can get," Ezra finishes with the nicest smile that crashes as soon as he peers back at me. Yep, there's definitely drool coming out of my mouth. "Please make that fast," he adds, worried, but the waitress had already rolled away on her roller skates, looking over her shoulders as if I'm gonna attack her from behind.

The coffee comes first and Ezra hurriedly fills a cup for me. Even though he spilt most of it, he doesn't pay it a mind and pushes the cup in my hands.

"Shush. Drink." He kept his sentences short. I don't understand why, though.

"Don't tell me do," I slur. Frowning, I take a second to re-evaluate my last statement. "Yep, good go to!" I raise my cup a bit too fast, spilling most of what's left.

"Keep drinking," Ezra instructs carefully, watching my every move. As soon as I put the cup down, he fills me another one, with more precision this time, and encourages me to drink it.

After my third cup and a lot of bickering back and forth with Ezra, I have proper sentences forming in my mind.

"Thank you," I say to the waitress who had her arms filled with piled plates of food. Phew, just in time.

"Okay, I'm gonna get busy with this food and you," I point to Ezra with the knife in my hand, "better get busy talking."

"Fair," he agrees and leans back with a cup of coffee in his hand. "So Anna, do you believe in life after death?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"And G-uhm," he stops to think, "a superior power?"

"Yeah," I answer with a mouth full of pancakes.

"So you believe in entities as angels or demons that do his work?"

"Maybe. Are you trying to convert me? Because you lost your credibility a long time ago." I add, but he just brushes me off, shaking his hand dismissively.

"So beings like grim reapers aren't completely out of question?" he carefully words his question. I stay quiet. The only sound I make is my tongue brushing against my teeth as I clean off the food.

"Get to the point. I wanna hear you say it." I challenge him to spell the words.

"I can prove it to you." he says "as long as you don't-"

"Have a nice life Ezra," I greet already walking away.

"Anna, please," he begs, following me.

"Leave me alone."

"Anna," he calls again, but I just wave at him. "ANNABELLE!" he calls with a loud, animalistic voice that sends shivers up my spine.

I turn around to look at him, but instead of the electric blue eyes, I see dark orbs staring down on me. Black veins covering his face one by one. A gulp makes its way through my dry throat, but it takes much more effort than it should.

"E-Ezra?"

"Sit back down." He growls threateningly, but his face slowly fading back to normal. Around me, a black haze blurs everything. However, I could see that nothing was in motion. Not even the fly right by my head. It's just frozen. Mid-air.

"What is going on?" I ask, much slower than intended. I gasp, but the air merely crawls down my throat.

"You're mortal, the time shifts affect you. Even if I try to exclude u, it eventually catches up," he reported in a normal pace.

"M-" I try to muster the words to beg him to stop, but I can barely even purse my lips. He lifts his hand and snaps his fingers.

Suddenly my body falls loose and the deafening silence is broken by the noises of people enjoying their evening. Their normal evenings. Normal meals. Normal companions.

While I on the other hand just had my entire perception of reality broken.

"So grim reapers can manipulate time?" I say after what felt like hours of staring. We're back at our booth, sitting in silence. And, as much as I'd rather, not the comfortable kind.

"Any entity with a more important, uh, job as you humans say, can manipulate time. Some, if they have contact with mortals, can manipulate their minds as well," Ezra explains.

"Ah, so you're a big shot up there," I joke, laughing dryly. "Can I count on you to put in a good word for me if I, you know, pffft" I point my thumb down sticking my tongue out. Ezra curls his lips in digust as he watches me. Of course my coping mechanism would be humour. Of-f*****g-course.

"Anna" he snarls grabbing my forearm from across the table "If you don't stop being such a thick-headed, ignorant i***t about this we're both going pllff" he angrily whispers, pointing his thumb down, and blowing his tongue so aggressively he gets spit on my face.

"Alright chill," I wipe off my cheek. I wouldn't be as nice about his tone, but the image of him from minutes ago pops in my mind.

"Don't worry, I wouldn't hurt you," he assures me. But the fact that he could read my mind does the exact opposite.

"Stop doing that!" I scold.

"I'm sorry. As long as you ask, you can block me out."

"As long as I ask?" I chuckle dryly. This is getting more ridiculous as it goes.

"It'll start making more sense the more coffee you drink." He pushes a cup of coffee my way.

"See, that statement didn't help. At all." I grab the cup either way.

"Its similar to, uh, jet lag. You just travelled through time lapses."

"Ugh," I groan, almost choking on my coffee. "So why am I here? In the uh," I can't finish the sentence. It feels too idiotic to say it out loud.

"It's not idiotic."

"Stay out of my head."

"You're here because," he hesitates, "because there's been a glitch."

"And I'm the one who needs to fix it?" I ask in disbelief.

"Not really. It's a win-win. You fix the mistake by uhm," he bites his lip, "meeting your soulmate." he says and glances up to me.

"Huh?" I lean back, thinking about it. "And what do I have to do to them?"

"Meet them. The rest we will figure out later, but most of it will roll out by itself. The only thing we have to plan is your first interaction."

"Wait, so am I stuck here forever now?"

"No, no. You're only here for 99 days."

"What?! That's over three months. What happens to me in future?"

"If we do this correctly, it stays the same. Don't worry"

"So if I mess this up, my entire life changes?"

"Yes. And because I want to be transparent with you, you might uhm, even end up dead," he informs carefully.

"Oh." That hit me. That hit me hard. I might die? Like just disappear from everyone's life?

'Not only am I going to die, but when I do, I'm taking the express train to hell.' I remind myself.

"Listen, I understand this seems delicate, but the rest will be fine. We only need to be careful of our first impression. If that goes well everything will roll out well."

"If? My life depends on a weak, fragile if?" I exclaim, exasperated.

"It will be fine. I promise," he assures. I see no point in fighting him off any more, so I just give up.

"Okay, so first things first. Where are we going after this?"

"Your present time."

"No, I mean after this." I say pointing to the ground.

"Oh yeah. You heaven, me back to my job."

"No! I mean after this. Right after we leave this damned diner!" I shout.

"To your apartment," Ezra says, patting my hand, signalling me to calm down.

"My apartment?" I ask carefully.

"You're gonna take over the life of a girl who was supposed to die the very second you arrived on this time lapse."

"What? What do you mean? What about them?"

"They're gonna be living the last three months of your life," he tells "but don't worry, they'll feel as if they're in a dream. It'll go by as fast as one, too."

"If you can do all that, why not just fix the damn thing yourself?"

"I'm sticking my neck out, doing everything in my power. However, this one is up to," he points his thumb up, "and if he finds out I'm over."

"You mean G-" I ask, but he clamps my mouth shut with his hand, nodding and sitting back on his seat.

"Good to know. I'm going behind G-" but he jumps at me again, this time pinching my lips together.

"Clearly, I've been wanting you to avoid those words," he tells me, with an infuriated expression on his face. "Avoid any word related to that, actually. We need no more attention than we get."

"How the f**k am I supposed to do that?"

"Listen, you're gonna enjoy this," he ignores my question. "You get to meet your freaking soulmate! That must sound exciting, right? So let's go get you some sleep and I'll explain it further in the morning."

I peek outside the window and notice that a thick darkness has set and it must be well past 9 pm.

"So I guess first thing tomorrow, we find who my soulmate is?"

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. I know already," he brushes me off.

"Well? Who?" I jump to the edge of my seat. I've never been more curious in my life.

"You know them, don't worry," he reassures, obviously avoiding answering.

"I sure hope I don't," I answer, worried. "Everyone I know that lived through the 90s is old and gross."

"Yea, you don't know them like that," he clarifies tapping fingers on the table while we wait for the check.

"Just tell me," I demand, exhausted from all the lack of information.

"Okay fine," he raises his hand in the air. "It's Lucas."