TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.1 - With Chartreuse

PART 52b: TOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL 2

"SNAP OUT OF IT ALREADY,” Azure's voice screamed.

Chartreuse felt like she'd been pulled back into her body by an elastic band. She blinked her eyes a few times, only to realize she couldn't see. "Ohmigod, I'm, like, blind,” Chartreuse gasped out.

"Chartreuse??" Azure yanked the two jokers off of her sister's eyes.

"Ow! Oh, that's, you know, totally better," Chartreuse said. She glanced around only to find that she was seated in the middle of the coffee table back at their home, surrounded by several houses made of cards, arranged in a pentagram shape.

A lock of her hair was swinging in front of her face. Chartreuse reached out to grab it. "Say, when did I, like, dye my hair orange-violet-silver-fushia-green-taupe-candycane-cyan?"

"I did it! Oh thank goodness, I did it and it worked,” Azure said, reaching out to grab Chartreuse in a bear hug.

Chartreuse patted her sister uncertainly. "Um, yeah,” she agreed. "Though I think, I've, you know, missed something. What happened with, like, Tope Diamond?"

Azure pulled back. “Oh, that? I was able to get a reading of the past from the fedora that one gangster was wearing," she explained. "It was left behind in the camper. Seems he'd been recruited for the mission exactly one week ago by this con, Venient Plotwist. Mom got the location of Venient's warehouse from one of his recent victims, then Dad organized a strike force to retrieve Tope."

"Oh," Chartreuse said, nonplussed. "Then I was, like, no help at all. I totally messed up."

"Ayup," Azure affirmed. "That's what you get for mixing business with pleasure."

Chartreuse coughed. "Um, pleasure? Like, what pleasure?"

Azure rolled her eyes. "Sis, please. It’s taken me five days to restore your consciousness to the state it was in back in the past, before you zonked out. And the vibes between you and Tope were so strong that at first, I couldn't even isolate the two of you. Even now, I think there’s been some leakage... I mean, have you noticed you're talking like some valley girl here?”

"Like, what?" Chartreuse said in surprise. "Oh, that's, you know, totally ridiculous." She paused, reaching up to hold her throat. "Like, no way. I mean, like, no way. No, I said, like... ohmigod, I totally can't stop!"

"I am genuinely sorry," Azure said sadly. "But it was either that, or have my sister become a table centrepiece for the rest of her life."

Chartreuse tapped her throat again gently before letting out a sigh. "It's, like, okay. It wasn't, you know, your fault," she murmured. "Though, wait, did you say it's been five days?"

Azure nodded. "We've explained your disappearance by saying you're off with Mom at Aunt Fluffy's funeral. It's kinda tragic, she died saving this kid. Seems a tree was going to fall on him, but she pushed him out of the way."

"My vision," Chartreuse realized. "Oh, wow. You mean, if I'd tried to stop it, some innocent child would be, you know, dead instead? I never saw that part.”

"I guess. All I care about is that you're back,” Azure said, giving Chartreuse another quick hug before moving to retrieve some of the playing cards on the table. "I mean, without you, who would I have to annoy?"

"I'm, like, touched," the orange-violet-silver-fushia-green-taupe-candycane-cyan haired girl said. She paused to pull at a lock of her hair again. "Though seriously, what is it with all these shades??"

"Oh, I wasn't sure if your frequent hair colour changes would impair my abilities to home in on your past self," Azure said. “So I redyed it. I mean, if you WERE going to be a centrepiece, this way we'd at least have a colourful one."

Chartreuse frowned. "You know, I'd totally have a good retort for that, if it weren't for one thing."

“Oh? What?"

“The fact that this experience has, you know, turned my stomach inside out," Chartreuse said, lurching off the coffee table and sprinting for the nearest bathroom.

~~~

Carrie stared at her companion in silence for a short while.

“So, that's it?" Carrie said at last.

"Yup," Chartreuse confirmed back. "Understand now?"

Carrie passed a hand in front of her eyes. "Chartreuse," she began. "Couldn't you have summed up that WHOLE STORY by simply telling me, 'I once had a vision of my aunt's death, but it turned out that she was saving someone else in the process, so it's good that I didn't try to prevent it'?"

"Of course not. You, like, miss all the nuances that way.”

Carrie threw herself back onto her bed with a groan. “Chartreuse,” she repeated with exaggerated patience. "I have been lying here all weekend, unable to keep down any food, with my insides feeling like they're stuck in a vice, all because there is some part of me that now feels like it can twist free and display home movies of future death or destruction in my mind. Movies that I can't control, and that I can't shut off.

“The ONE HOPE I've been trying to hold onto, is that if I experience another vision, I can FORCE myself into doing something to change the outcome. And yet now you're telling me that, by making such a change, I could cause events to be even worse than they otherwise would be?"

There was another protracted silence.

"You didn't understand then," Chartreuse concluded.

"I understand that you have a weird family."

"No, listen," Chartreuse insisted. "You experienced an unsettling vision of the future. I get that. But now that you've, you know, worked through any physical discomfort, it’s time for us to deal with the mental side of things. Because even though you can’t always control your powers, you can’t let them control you either. If you do, you won't see something you could have seen, like me with Tope's kidnappers. Or you'll, like, push yourself until you see something you're not meant to see, as I did with Tope's wedding.”

"Gee, thanks Chartreuse. What other option IS there, aside from me being in control, or my powers being in control?"

"Isn't that obvious?" the mystic replied. "Find the balance. Life goes on, Carrie. You can’t obsess over everything these weird forces throw at you, or you’ll never be able to enjoy yourself. Trust me, I know. All too well.”

The pink haired girl smiled sadly, then began to back away, towards the bedroom door. “Anyway, I've probably overstayed my welcome. So I'm gonna, you know, head back home. But I hope you feel a bit better? I am looking forward to our next session. See you in school tomorrow, okay?”

With that, Chartreuse slipped back out of Carrie's bedroom.

***

Carrie listened as her guest headed downstairs, said goodbye to her father, and then left the house. She continued to lie quietly on her bed for several long minutes before finally standing and moving to look at herself in the mirror.

"Find the balance?"

Carrie dragged her hair back off her forehead and pursed her lips.

“Because I have been letting my fears of the future get the best of me," she realized. “Not only this weekend, but for months. No wonder it feels like my head is trapped in a washing machine stuck on spin. Thank you, Chartreuse.”

She turned away from her reflection. It was very clear what she had to do now. Namely get Frank to explain to her about setting the time machine, so that she could travel back to her last birthday. To have that talk with herself about Chartreuse. If nothing else, it would be one less future event for her to be concerned about.

Wait, hadn’t Frank already been by this weekend? Carrie marched out onto the upstairs landing. "Hey, Dad?" she called out.

"Yes, Carrie?" she heard him call from the bottom of the stairs. "Are you feeling better?"

"I think so. What's been happening this weekend, anyone leaving messages for me?"

“Someone named Glen called for you twice,” her father said. “And Frank and Luci dropped by. Actually, Frank seemed more nervous than usual, and when he heard you were ill, he asked me if any knives had been flying through the air. I’m not sure what he meant by that.”

Carrie's eyebrow twitched. “It means my first call today will be to Luci instead,” she decided, before spinning on her heel and heading back into her room.

It was time to get their time travel group back together.