Ronnie and Nia paid a lot of money to leave Las Estrellas at the last minute, and the earliest they could arrive was 6 AM. Nia was serious when she said she would never get near the house and Ronnie was again left with only the magical blanket and book that were making him crazier by the second.
He slept in late because he came home late, and awoke at 1 PM feeling like he had been hit by a truck. After doing his daily routine, ignoring the angry blanket, and eating breakfast, he went to get some fresh air on the front porch.
He opened the door and promptly closed it because there was another strange person in Ace’s house.
Well, outside his house.
Ronnie squatted in front of the door on the kitchen tile and smoked from his strawberry-flavored vape desperately, trying to calm his nerves. He had quit for about a month, but the past four days were too much.
“It’s just another day. You’re imagining this shit,” Ronnie told himself. “Open the door again and he won’t be there.”
Ronnie stood to open the door, but instead, it unlocked from the outside. The door opened and the two men looked into the past and future simultaneously.
“Can I come in?”
Ronnie nodded yes and his eyes were glued to him as he walked through the house, knowing where everything was with ease. He opened the fridge and complained.
“No chocolate milk,” Ace said.
“No, there isn’t,” Ronnie replied. “You’re also missing an arm.”
Ronnie was breathing fast and heavy because Ace had returned home. He was older and more muscular, but his left forearm was missing. Ace was acting as if nothing had changed, and Ronnie was screaming inside his head because he knew this was it.
This was his breaking point.
“Ace, what the fuck,” Ronnie said quietly. “What the sweet fuck is going on?”
Ace shrugged.
He took off his tennis shoes adeptly without needing to use his hand and put them in the corner near the front door, where he always left them when he was too lazy to take them upstairs. The same behavior this Ace has to Ronnie's own made him even more uncomfortable. The older Ace looked in the fridge for another unhealthy drink, but there was none because Ronnie stocked it. He settled for a cup of water and seemed to sulk a little bit when he sat at the kitchen table.
“You’re not worried that you’re missing an arm,” Ronnie asked while pointing at his own arm.
“Sometimes I forget I lost it. Like I feel like I can still wiggle my fingers but when I look down, nothing there, y'know?”
“NO! I DON’T KNOW! BECAUSE I DON’T KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON!?!”
Ace took another sip of water and said nothing, trying to avoid the situation.
“I have a gun and I’m not afraid to use it,” Ronnie lied. “You’re one of those con artist shapeshifters I hear about all the time on the local news, aren’t you?”
“Can you not yell in my home, please? It’s quite rude.”
“ACE!”
“I’m sorry. I’m just scared. You’re not supposed to be here,” he said. “You’re supposed to be dead.”
Ronnie’s entire world spun, and he started laughing nervously. He sat at the table, across from another Ace, another problem, regretting getting out of bed.
“When I got here, I was on my front lawn. I always kept the key; in case I ever came back. Somehow,” Ace said. “It’s like nothing changed.”
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“How long were you gone,” Ronnie asked. “How did you get here?”
“I don’t want to talk about how I got here right now.”
“Sorry.”
It was awkward and quiet, and Ronnie decided that maybe it was not a shapeshifter. How could he have the key? He knew where everything in the house was. He was even wearing some of Ace’s clothes from his room.
“Are you hungry,” Ronnie asked. “You’re pretty old. You must have traveled a long way to get here.”
“I’m not old! I am twenty-eight, okay,” Ace replied.
“Okay, old man. What do you want to eat?”
“I..I’ve been too nervous to call Fenton. I miss the food he and his mom make. Can I have some?”
“Fenton’s not here right now-“
The look of horror on his face made Ronnie pause and assure him that everything was okay.
“He’s alive! HE IS ALIVE,” Ronnie shouted. “He’s at Atlaan!”
“Good. Good. So..is Auntie’s business still open?”
“Of course it is,” Ronnie replied. “I go there now and then. I’ll get some right now.”
“I can pop over right n-“
“NO!”
Ronnie jumped out of his seat, the chair toppled over and he thankfully stopped Ace before he went anywhere.
“You cannot leave this house. You can’t. People will have an existential crisis,” Ronnie said.
“You seem pretty okay, especially since I told you that you should be dead,” Ace replied.
“I’ve seen so much these past few days, this is kind of like a regular day now. I just want some Chinese food, man. Please don’t go anywhere.”
Ronnie left to drive to get some Chinese food, and the older Ace was left alone, in his house he had missed so much.
He knew he shouldn’t be there, but everything was so nice. People who should have been dead were alive. When he checked the morning news the Galactic Federation wasn’t at war, Earth was at peace, and everything was so…nice.
He went to the living room and picked up a picture from the side table next to the television. It was a picture of him and his father when he had just entered the academy.
It was strange, because he remembered the day it happened, taking the picture, but it was slightly different.
The Ace in the picture had darker red hair than the Ace looking at the picture, but he didn’t know. The Tyreceus in the picture had blue eyes, but his Tyreceus had brown, and he didn’t notice.
Yet he could tell something wasn’t quite right.
The couch in the living room was teal, but when he left it was green. There was a holo screen at his house but here had a television. The wooden door was replaced by a sliding glass door, and the furniture all seemed slightly more to the right.
He didn’t know if it was worse to be in a place that felt like home but was so slightly different everything always gave a sense of unease. He wondered if everything were drastically different, would he be able to accept living in a strange new world?
He looked at other pictures on the side table and saw two people he did not recognize. When Ronnie returned, he showed him the picture, because for some reason, this bothered him the most.
Ronnie was unpacking the food on the table when Ace asked him who his family was.
“Who is this woman and boy next to me in this picture,” Ace asked.
“That’s your mom and little brother,” Ronnie replied. “They’re not here.”
“Are they out at the town, or…?”
Ronnie shook his head, no, and this other Ace had gained and lost a family within thirty seconds.
“Is dad-“
Ronnie shook his head no again.
“What do I do,” he asked.
“Go back. Please. This isn’t right.”
“No. It’s where I belong,” Ace replied. “I mean what do I do in general? This place is weird.”
“How do you know you belong here? If you did, wouldn’t everything be as you left it,” Ronnie snapped.
Ace gave a devilish grin and Ronnie knew trouble was ahead.
“’Cause I would be dead the moment I arrived, silly. Two things in the same place can’t coexist. Or else, they try their hardest to make it right.”
“How do you know this?”
“When I went back the first time on purpose I-“
Ace stopped himself and tried to pretend he wasn’t talking about something he shouldn’t. He grabbed a plastic spoon and shoveled fried rice in his mouth as an excuse to keep it full, so he couldn’t talk.
“You’re gonna finish that food eventually. You can’t avoid this forever, Ace.”
Ace kept eating.
“Amazing how you haven’t changed.”
Ace coughed, turned red, and had to stop eating. He chugged water, and now his ego was bruised. He was mature! He was a soldier! He saw things! How dare this young man tell him things he doesn’t know!
The nerve.
“When I went back in time the first time, I met another me, and it was really freaky. When we got over it, we became friends, and then he died,” Ace said.
“Wait. What happened? How’d he die?”
“I hugged him. I hugged him and he just…”
Ace covered his mouth with his only hand and imitated the sound of static from a television quite well.
“He turned into static. He wasn’t part of the program anymore,” Ace whispered.
“You sound insane.”
“You weren’t there! This is why I didn’t want to talk about it! I was lucky I only decided to go a week back in time, so no one noticed I took his place,” Ace said.
“What happened the second time,” Ronnie asked with a smirk.
Ace’s eyes glazed over and Ronnie didn’t want to talk about it anymore. But Ace was ready. He figured that talking about it might make him feel better.
“The second time was an accident...so many people died... I did something stupid. The third time I got Levi killed because of it.”