“It’s rare for you to invite us over for dinner, Tessa. You seem to be in a much lighter mood too, did you win the lottery or something.”
“Oh, you noticed? Nothing like that Steven dear, but something extremely exciting did happen! Oh, here they come now.”
Walking down the stairs, I could see Steven, Tim and Mum sitting at the diner table, the smell of dinner being cooked enveloped the house. Rebecca nervously walked beside me as we stepped off the stairs.
“You didn’t mention hiding a couple of beauties, Tessa. Are they relatives?”
“It’s rather complicated. Girls, come on, don’t dilly dally around.” Mum stands and grabs our wrists, pulling us over, practically pushing us into chairs next to each other. “Right, who is starting?” She looks at us as both Steven and Tim look confused.
Looking at Steven, I couldn’t help but be a bit shocked. Similar to mum, it looked like he had aged by a decade, his originally black hair had all greyed. He had heavy bags under his eyes and the expression he wore was one of someone pretending to be fine but really wasn’t. Tim on the other hand looked like any other seventeen year old, but he was frowning at us, his eyes swimming suspiciously.
“I-I-I…”
“Sorry, she’s stuck in a loop.” As I apologise to the two, I turn to Rebecca and poke her cheek. “Oi, reboot already.”
Rebecca throws me a helpless look, wordlessly mouthing the word ‘help’. Pursing my lips, I shake my head before looking at Steven.
“She’s a nervous wreck, I apologise. How are you, Mr Howard?”
“I’ve seen better days young miss. May I ask who you are?”
Looking at Rebecca, who hasn’t recovered yet, I decide to rip the bandaid off.
“Mr Howard, this is going to sound completely insane, but please remain calm for a moment while I explain in the place of the speechless fool. I -”
“You’re Ruby and Rebecca, aren’t you?” Snapping my eyes to Tim who had spoken, this time I became speechless as Steven turned to his son.
“Tim, what the hell did you just say? It’s not funny to joke about that!”
“It’s not a joke, dad! The way they look at each other grosses me out, it’s exactly like Ruby and Rebec-”
“Tim, you apologise to them right now! I am so sorry, young miss. My son can be rather eccentric.”
“No no, it’s fine. He’s right after all.”
“Thank you for forgiving hi-Sorry, can you repeat that?” Steven stopped talking and looked at me with a ‘wait what’ kind of face.
“Mr Howard, as I said, this will sound completely insane, but I’m Ruby. The speechless idiot is Rebecca and I know what you want to say.” Seeing Steven look at me like I’m insane, I continued. “There is a lot to it that we will explain.” Turning to Rebecca and poking her side this time. “Come on, talk!”
“I-I-I-”
“This is ridiculous. My daughter is dead yet you claim to be them? Is this some sort of prank? Tim, Tessa are you two in on this? It’s not funny, I’m leav-”
“I took the puddings, you know.” Tim spoke, my eyes snapping to him once more. “I lied each time, saying it was dad and dad, being tired, mistakenly thought he might’ve eaten them instead.” Saying an incredibly dangerous sentence, Tim held eye contact with Rebecca. “I’m also the one that ripped the head off that dumb plushy, it always scared me.”
“YOU DID THAT TO MR FLUFFLES AND ATE MY SNACKS!? YOU’RE DEAD!” Rebecca stands and slams her fist down, breaking the table easily as mum laughs. Tim and Steven froze up at the sight of Rebecca, as if rabbits caught in headlights. It took a second for her to realise what she did before turning completely red.
She turns her head to me, grabbing my shoulders. “I messed up!” Whispering this to me, I sigh and shake my head.
“If you didn’t get stuck in a reboot loop, it would’ve worked out!”
“S-Shut up! I-I can do this now!”
“See, dad? Even the way they ‘secretly’ talk in front of us is exactly the same.”
“Tim, shut up or I’ll beat your arse with my keyboard!”
“Even her threats are the same.” Mum chuckles then turns to Steven. “I called you here because they came here yesterday. I’m not deluded either before you say anything and I haven’t been duped. Let them speak and they’ll tell you the truth.”
Steven had stood there, silent since seeing the table explode, not saying a word about anything around him nor in response to mum speaking to him. Gingerly, he sat back in his seat before sighing a long, tired sigh.
“Fine, I’ll hear them out. Tess, if a cameraman walks out saying I’ve been pranked I swear to God I’ll punch him on the way out.”
We sat back down as Rebecca calmed down and collected herself. While doing so, I smiled towards Steven.
“Mr Howard?”
“What is it?”
“You once told me something, and I’ve always remembered it, word for word, for the two years since you told me.” Breathing in, I looked at him seriously. “‘When I asked for Rebecca’s hand in marriage, you said; ‘She’s hopeless, you know! Each time I found her crying, I thought you had rejected her or something, but it turns out the idiot didn’t even attempt to talk to you, just got lost in the thought of you blowing her off! You can marry the crybaby, Ruby, but I only ask you of this. Love her, care for her, always, okay? I can’t even describe the happiness I feel when I see you two cuddled up on the couch, I can’t see you two ever separating, love her always, promise me that and you can have her hand in marriage.’”
Opening his mouth in shock, Rebecca followed up instantly.
“I came home one day, crying my heart out. You didn’t know what to do, I’d been living with Ruby and Mrs Piper for a year at this point, so me coming home crying so hard worried you. You thought I had broken up with her, but when I told you I made a mess of Ruby’s proposal and what I said to you, you laughed the hardest you ever had, causing me to cry even more. I th-”
“Then you calmed down when Ruby sent you a picture of a ring in a pizza box, asking you if that’s what you were asking for. You went from crying to laughing to crying then both, at the same time, somehow…Rebecca never even told Ruby that story because of how dumb she felt afterwards. And I know Ruby would’ve never spoken my words to anyone…Wait, it’s really you two? Ruby, Rebecca, you’re alive?!”
“Finally catching up, dad? Jeez.”
“”””Shut up Tim!””” Seeing Tim pale, he quickly reached for his phone before realising it was on the ground and decided to forget about it.
“Ah…let me ex-eep!” Steven stepped over the remains of the table and just hugged Rebecca without a word. I could see from my point of view that Steven had started to tremble, tears running down his face.
“This better not be a damned prank show…” In a quiet, trembling voice, Steven hugged her tighter as Rebecca started to cry as well.
“I missed you, dad.” Rebecca starts crying, hugging him back. I watched them, extremely happy for Rebecca as she cried. After a few minutes, Steven pulled away, looking at her as if he couldn’t believe his eyes.
“How are you two alive? Reincarnation? Why didn’t you come see us sooner?”
“About that, Mr Howard, we have one hell of a story for you. Mum?”
“Yes, dear?”
“You don’t happen to have a spare table, do you?”
“Ruby, does it look like I keep a table spare in the cupboard?! We’ll eat in the living room while you two tell Steven and Tim everything!”
With those words, we moved to the living room, with Steven sitting close to Rebecca while Tim looked confused and upon asking him why he just looked at us again.
“I only joked before, are you really Ruby and Rebecca?”
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Leaning forward, my cheeky side came up. “Say Tim, how is Jessica going?”
Tim’s eyes popped open quickly as he stood and pointed at me. “You promised not to say anything!”
“Tim, who is Jessica?”
“His crush, he asked me for advice before and swore me to secrecy.”
“Don’t tell him!” Tim looked panicked before looking at Rebecca. “So it’s true?”
“Mm, it’s really me, Tim. Come and give me a hug, I promise not to crush your ribs for taking my puddings.” Rebecca stood as Tim backed off, trying to hide behind mum who pushed him out in front.
“I ain’t your shield, Tim. You better apologise and buy her the best pudding you can find!”
Before he could escape, Rebecca pulled him into a hug, holding him tightly as she started to cry again.
“I missed you, Tim.”
Tim, who looked unsure, simply hugged her back before crumbling himself. “I missed you too, sis.”
With mum serving dinner, we told Steven and Tim about everything, starting once again from that night.
“You’re only here for a month? Why? Why did they force you two to protect this so-called ‘world’?! By the sounds of it it's already dead!” Understandably, Steven became mad after we finished telling him the story. “You said that it’s not only you, but the million that died that night?! We should get this story out!”
“Dad? Do you want to be labelled as a crazy person world wide?” Tim looks at his father with concern.
“Tim, those million people are alive, their families should know!”
“Steven, if you go marching up to a journalist and rant about how your dead daughter and her fiance are alive again and trapped in another world with different bodies you’ll be laughed at.”
Steven frowned and crossed his arms before looking at Rebecca and I once again.
“Mr Howard, we used to laugh at the crazies who spoke to their ‘loved ones beyond the grave’ remember?”
“We did, didn’t we? I’d become one of those crazies if I did that…” Steven shook his head. “Why you two? Why did this world take you two away from us…it’s not fair.”
We had avoided telling them about the System saying we could bring people back. We didn’t want them to make an emotional decision like coming with us, after all we weren’t confident in surviving ourselves, our situation over there isn’t solidified, we have numerous problems that can’t be fixed just by coming here. We could get the best guns, bullets and more before heading back, but I felt like things over there are going to get a lot worse. After all, over 400,00 iterations have tried to save this world and failed.
“Oh don’t get all depressed, Steven. We have a month with our daughters, we have to go all out and celebrate! Stop being all gloomy.”
“Mrs Piper?”
“What is it, Timothy?”
“Wouldn’t we look weird if we went around parading unknown girls in the neighbourhood?”
“Bah, who cares about them?! They’re nothing but nosey bastards anyway!”
“I forgot, Mum? Deven is coming over tomorrow with Diana.”
“Deven? Oh, the one you call Sheep? Is he coming for lunch or dinner?”
“Lunch.”
“Then we’ll order lunch. Tomorrow we’re going to go and get you girls more clothing!”
“Mum! We got too much today!”
“And you need more!”
With that, the five of us chatted throughout the night, Steven and Tim becoming completely convinced of who we are from the stories of our past. With Steven asking to stay the night in the guest room, they eventually went to bed while Rebecca and I stayed up due to our lack of need for sleep.
Spending the night with a bit of idle chatter while either browsing the internet for things we needed or listening to music, soon enough we heard the sounds of people waking up.
“Rubes?”
“Mm?”
“I’m glad we came back and all, but how are we meant to say goodbye? I-I don’t want to go back to that world…”
Both of us remained quiet. This had been the elephant in the room for us, we both knew our time is limited here and that at some point we would have to return to the Prime World. Neither of us wanted to go, we wanted to stay here. Mum, Steven and Tim seemed to have accepted the time limit, but we had noticed they avoided bringing it up other than once or twice, they seem to also have feelings towards it.
“If we came here once then maybe we can visit again?”
“We’ll have to do crazy things to achieve another world visit, I'd imagine. It’s also likely this is a one and done so we can get closure.”
“Then…let’s forget about everything while we’re with them after tonight and just enjoy the time we get with them. Of course, we’ll still need to find items to bring back with us and get machinery to dismantle.”
“Mm. Bek, come here.”
Without asking why, she came over and laid next to me, snuggling up, the only sounds in the room were us breathing. We just found comfort in each other, and just as I felt like remaining here, the door slammed open.
“GIRLS! IT’S 10AM, STOP CUDDLING AND HAVE A SHOWER!” Hearing mum's voice yelling, we both jumped out of the bed and rushed to the shower. One thing we absolutely had to obtain is a hot shower.
“Oh, Bek!”
“I know, water tanks! It just came to my mind!”
We were in the midst of drying ourselves and laughing ourselves silly at sharing the same thought, causing mum to once again shout a reminder to hurry up. Finding ourselves a good outfit of jeans and shirts, we headed downstairs to see mum and Steven on their tablets. Looking up at us, they quickly went back to their tablets.
“Ordering food?”
“I am, Steven is looking into something. What do you girls want?”
“Oh, I’d love some Italian. No no, Korean!”
“You have plenty of time to have them all. Bek, what do you want dear?”
We ordered food before sitting down and once again talking to the two of them. Tim had left to attend university, having graduated from school several months prior. After a few minutes the doorbell sounded and mum quickly dashed to the door before any of us could react.
“Diana! It’s been far too long, you look so well!”
“Huh? Mum knows Diana?” Taken aback by this news, Steven looked up from his tablet.
“Your mother and I attended sessions with others who lost someone that night. We met a few people and Diana had been one of those. Those two hit it off because Deven had been on your team.”
“How many people from Melbourne were lost?” Rebecca looks at her father while asking what I had in mind.”
“52,389. Australia wide the number is 119,752, there was a massive outpouring of support from various agencies, one of those provided free care and the sessions were a part of those.”
“52,389? No way there were that many people in that town…We would’ve seen people everywhere.” Both of us had looks of shock as Deven’s voice sounded out behind us.
“Not that it matters now, we burnt most of the town to the ground so those who might’ve been there would’ve escaped.”
Turning our heads, we stood and greeted Deven and Diana, who looked rather refreshed compared to what we had seen on social media. Her short blonde hair looked neat and her green eyes had a lot of happiness to them as she approached me. Deven in turn had shaved his face and with a shower behind him he looked a lot better. From his hair I could tell he’s had a haircut as well.
“Ah, you must be Rebecca. It’s so good to know you’re alive too!” She embraces me tightly before letting go and turning to Rebecca. “And you must be Ruby!” Hugging her as well, Rebecca and I looked at each other before turning on Deven.
“Ah, wait, I can explain…”
“Hm? What’s wrong, you two?” Diana pulls away from Rebecca and tilts her head. With a sigh, I shake my head.
“Deven is messing with you, I’m Ruby and she’s Rebecca.”
Diana turns on Deven with her hands on her hips. “Oi! You’re back for two days and you’re already trying to prank me?!” She starts playfully slapping Deven as he pretends to be hurt.
“Ow, ow. I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it!”
“Oh stop pretending to be hurt, you already told me how amazingly strong you are!” Diana huffs and turns around with a smile. “Sorry about that.”
“Oh don’t be, dear. Come come, sit down and tell us your story!”
With Deven and Diana joining us, they told us of the other day when Deven had arrived at her house. Initially Diana had been spooked out. I couldn’t blame her, a man shows up to her house and claims to be her dead fiance, she’s right to be scared. But then he convinced her with one sentence.
“See, Deven and I always played these silly games. One of them had been from a few years ago, when we were still in high school. We had just watched an anime about people being sent to another world and returning to theirs. During that episode the group had failed to convince everyone they were who they said they were, instead being called imposters. That day Deven jokingly told me that if he died or went missing and came back, he would tell me ‘That your ears look like oranges.’ He jokingly said that such a sentence could never be faked! I had forgotten about it until the other day when he said it.
“After that, Deven told me more about private affairs we would never tell anyone, including the fact we were planning to uproot our lives and leave this city and my family behind, and start afresh in the countryside.”
“That’s romantic, isn't it?” Mum had a dreamy look on her face causing me to purse my lips at such a thought. The country sounded boring to me.
“Right? At least it would be better than heading to a world filled with dangerous enemies!”
Her words sound through my head as I look at her in surprise. “You’ve decided to join us? Isn’t that too quick?”
“It is, isn’t it? We both have discussed it at length and I’ve made a decision. When Deven ‘died’ that night, I had nothing left in this world. I had thought to only keep living for his sake and many times I nearly fell to the voices in my head, but I sort of just kept going. I thought I had been going crazy until you two called yesterday! If this was a delusion, you two would’ve just said you were Deven’s friends, instead you pretended to be an investment company!” Diana giggles before looking at us seriously. “So I’ll follow Deven, even if he isn’t in the same body I love him for him. So I’ll go with you guys.”
“You’re so brave, Diana! Well, food is nearly here, let’s dig in and celebrate you three visiting us, even if it’s temporary!” After the food arrived, we started eating while talking about random topics, avoiding discussion of the Prime World. Steven finally puts down his tablet before turning to us.
“Girls, Deven, I have arranged a gift for you guys.”
“What is it, dad?”
“Not much of a gift if I reveal it. It’ll be ready in a week.” We all became interested and mum had a ‘I know’ grin on her face. Knowing mum, trying to get her to talk would be like tearing a pillow in half so instead we continued talking throughout the day, thankfully distracting mum enough that we didn’t go shopping for clothing again.