August 21st

Teresa had just left her room after a prolonged reading session and was now looking for the Future, whom she was scheduled to depart with soon. She didn’t find her in her room, and when she turned around to peek into the living room, Teresa heard some loud rumbling in the basement. Immediately she ran towards the door leading downstairs, and after opening it, saw the Future collapsed in front of the daymaker.

Immediately, she loudly called Wisdom for help, then darted down the stairs. The Future was bleeding profusely. She had two gunshot wounds in her stomach, and had been stabbed in the chest a few times. An eye completely bloodshot, her lips torn and bleeding, a large laceration gracing her forehead, and one of her eyebrows completely missing above it, she looked as though she’d seen hell.

The Future returning home hurt wasn’t new. But Teresa hadn’t ever seen her in such a poor condition.

Finally Wisdom came running down. Without words she helped pull the Future up the stairs and carry her to her bed. A minute later, Teresa returned from the bathroom with medical supplies.

“Thanks,” Wisdom murmured and took care of the injuries as best she could, but even the thickest bandages were soaked blood red in a matter of seconds. She wiped her sweat off her forehead, accidentally replacing it with the Future’s blood. “I think we should get her to the hospital,” she said.

“Is she gonna…?”

“Live? Yes. She’s a robust girl. It just feels terrible to see her like this. She needs to be tended to.” She twisted her mouth. “Well, to be precise, I need her to be tended to. She might get angry with her for getting her to a doctor, but whatever.”

“Why would she be angry?”

“These scars are mementos to her. She doesn’t want to get rid of them.”

“Trust me,” Teresa said, “Those doctors won’t be able to get rid of any of these scars.”

“Either way, please call an ambulance while she’s still unconscious. That way she can’t protest. Oh, and get me a towel.”

Teresa nodded.

While she was dialling the number, she watched Wisdom dab the Future’s face with the wet towel, and much to her surprise, the wounds on her face actually just washed away. Wisdom cleaned the Future’s eye, her lips, wiped off the dirt and finally even got rid of the laceration, with her brow reappearing after a few more scrubs.

“Oh my god,” Teresa gasped when she saw that happen.

“It only works for her face, unfortunately,” Wisdom bemoaned.

When the paramedics came to take the Future with them, Teresa’s heart still pounded like crazy. She desperately looked at Wisdom, who returned her expression.

“Let’s go visit her in the hospital. We’ll be able to ask her whether she’s okay once she wakes up. But first, we need to put her spoils inside the basement.”

In saying that, Wisdom signified Teresa to come with her, and together they walked back down the stairs to where the Future had collapsed. After rummaging through her bag for a bit, Wisdom produced a big Erlenmeyer flask that was completely filled with a clear liquid.

“Don’t fucking tell me that’s all tears?” Teresa asked bewildered.

“Yeah,” Wisdom nodded. “She was gone for a while.”

“She was gone for a night! Where did she get all those tears!”

“She got them from her trip in the daymaker, obviously. Don’t you know what that thing does?”

Teresa, in wild disbelief about that question, threw her hands in the air. “How would I know!”

It seemed to dawn on Wisdom. “Sorry. Well, that thing was made by the Future’s mother. It does exactly what the name suggests; It’s used to make days.”

“So you're telling me this is some kind of time machine?”

“Uh, only in the most literal sense, but actually, no,” Wisdom replied. “Let’s just assume you have two consecutive days. Right? Then you can go inside of the daymaker and create as many days in between those consecutive days as you want, anywhere in the world. So, Sis enters it, has a bunch of days in there, and returns with a flask full of tears. It can even be used as a teleporter if you go in there, exit somewhere else but don’t make a new day with it. All clear?”

“No,” Teresa said, watching Wisdom pour the contents of the flask into the basin, then peeked back at the daymaker. “Wait so, she goes in there, spends weeks in some other plane of time?”

“Are you even listening to me? It’s not another plane. She just goes in there and comes out, no planes involved at all. She isn’t even flying. But yeah, sometimes she goes in and makes weeks. Sometimes just hours. Sometimes months.”

“Look at how many tears you just poured in,” Teresa said with a gloomy voice. “That’s not months. It’s years. She was in there for years.”

Wisdom looked at her beat. Then, nodded sadly. “Yeah, I think so, too.”

“And, I mean,” Teresa continued, “Where was she even? Like, some kind of war? It’s crazy. She goes in there, to a slaughter, all alone, for years?”

“I mean, she’s not going to bring you along to a war. She takes you with her for the tame, pretty things,” Wisdom explained as she started walking back up to the bathroom.

“What in the world could be worth all of this. Why would she do any of it. I don’t get it.”

Wisdom cleaned her face with water, then she removed her bloody top and placed it into a pot that was filled with water. “To make it short,” she said, “There is a person living in our world who is deeply, deeply bored. Someone who is trapped here and thinks this place has too many flaws.”

“Okay,” Teresa responded to that ominous opening, while she followed Wisdom back to her room where she quickly picked out a new blouse.

“When the Future was born, she inherited a fate. A task. A task to get that person, who is so terribly bored, out of this world. But she’d been running away from that task. It was a task she was not ready to accomplish. So instead, the Future tried something else. She tried her damn hardest to remove those flaws, those blemishes, from the world, to make it a place where that bored person was happy to live in. And in doing so, she wanted to end an old conflict, a war, that is raging in her family.”

“Wanted? Past tense?”

“Yeah,” Wisdom replied bitterly while pulling a hat over her head and putting on shoes, as Teresa was wrapping a light scarf around her neck. “She failed. Or rather, she gave up. I don’t know exactly why, I just know it was a terrible thing that happened in January. I never asked her about it and she never told me. It was about some concert or so. Her will was broken, so now, instead of trying to make the world better, she is trying to complete that task. Well, stubborn as she is, she is actually trying to do both at the same time. And that’s why she’s gathering those tears.”

She opened the entrance door, took Teresa’s hand and went outside.

A few kilometres away, the Future opened her eyes. It was bright in the white hospital interior, so it took her a moment to see all the tubes extruding from her body.

She was in a post-anaesthesia care unit; green curtains had been drawn around her segment and beeping sounds emanated from around her. Pulling back her blanket, she examined the result of her treatment; her leg was wrapped in an orthopaedic cast, she was wearing a hospital gown and nothing underneath except for large amounts of bandages and compresses around her abdomen and chest, as well as one of her arms.

Raindrops were hitting against the small window next to her in the wall.

It took her a while to remove all bandages and tubes that impeded her movement. Every now and then, footsteps appeared from behind the curtain, and when she was done, and had waited for the appropriate moment, the Future slipped through the cloth, looked left and right, and immediately weaved through between the nurses and doctors in a moment when nobody paid attention. On her bed, she left behind a small heap of bloody binds.

Limping through the corridors of the hospital she finally reached a changing room for the nurses, and after making sure nobody was around, the Future headed inside, found a blue tunic to put on herself in a locker and with that, removed the rest of her remaining bandages from her arm as well as removing her leg from the cast and pulling out an infusion needle that had remained in one of her veins.

Right as she finished her shoddy transformation to a nurse, another nurse entered the room, but the Future passed her by with confidence and left through the corridor she had come from.

She took the stairs to walk down a few levels, then walked through a bridge of glass connecting this wing to another, and finally found her way to the apothecary. It took her a few minutes until she found a good timing to enter the compartment used to synthesize medication. First, she washed and disinfected her hands for several minutes, before entering the storage for medicinal ingredients. Two people passed her by at that point, but neither of them seemed to take note of her.

Bright lamps shone down on the cupboards containing all kinds of different substances. She opened several of them, one by one, looking for things she could use, until she had finally found everything she required and walked into the next small hall that looked like a sterile kitchen.

She poured powders and liquids from small white plastic cups into a mortar to grind them. After a while, she added that mixture into a small machine containing a metal plate with many small notches.

Half an hour, and a dozen steps later, she had finally finished her creation, and held in her hands a small cup filled with green pills, that she took with her as she left the apothecary. At that point, someone called after her, but she ignored him and took off her nurse gown in the staircase, going back to look like a patient. Then, over the next ten minutes, she made her way to the other side of the hospital, to a wing made for long-term care.

It wasn’t hard to imagine that the longer she had to stay in a hospital, the worse the Future was about to feel, due to some memories associated with these places that were hard for her to forget. Nevertheless, she pushed through, with a focus on her upcoming task in every gesture she undertook.

Finally, she arrived at a door to a patient’s room, and froze.

The ambient noise continued unopposed; the voice announcing things through the speakers, people passing by behind her, some faint mumbling in the distance; Although none of this seemed to get through to her at all, as she just stood there, in front of the door, holding her hand up, as if to knock.

But she didn’t knock, and instead, her fist just trembled faintly. It looked as though she was going to turn around and walk away any second now. Her heartbeat was so strong it made her thin hospital gown quiver in front of her chest.

Finally, after what felt like a small eternity, she knocked on the door, and then entered the room without waiting for a response.

Inside was a single bed, surrounded by a gathering of all kinds of different medicinal devices, all connected by cables and tubes to a young man.

His respirator weighed on his face, with his eyes weary as they darted to the girl who had just entered his room. It was hard to focus on anything other than his pain, and yet, she caught his attention. She looked, for lack of a better word, roughed up.

His glimpse caught her oddly bent leg, which then immediately gave way and caused her to trip after her second step, dooming her to fall. Her head crashed against an iron cupboard, as its edge cut itself into her skill. Blood started oozing out.

In shock, his eyes lit up, as he took off his respirator by reflex to shout something, but instead he just let out a worn out cough.

July 28th, 2016

“Geez, Aaron, you look awful,” Chris — Aaron’s colleague and friend — shouted right after joining him. He had strong arms and a thick beard, wore glasses and looked a lot beefier than Aaron did, despite them being the same age. The site foreman had apparently tasked Chris to help Aaron with raising the murals on the west side, since that had to be done within the next two days.

Distracted by that, Aaron peeked out from behind the gigantic disc saw he used to cut a few bricks. He lifted the diamond wheel to get the latest brick out and then placed another one in position.

“Yeah, it’s because I’ve been up all night,” he said, grabbing the back of his sweat-drenched Shirt and flopping it back and forth a few times to let some air in. His eyes looked dangerously close to just falling shut and letting him fall asleep. “You can distribute the plaster onto them if you want,” he then said, absent-mindedly, “I’ll just finish cutting these.”

“You sure? I can do that if you’re not feeling well.” Chris had a slightly concerned look on his face.

“Man, stop worrying. It’s just cutting rocks. I’m not that terrible…,” he said, and before Chris could protest, he added: “Also, I’ve already been stacking bricks the entire day. So you do that, I do this.”

“Fine,” his colleague answered, turning around to his work, although he still ended up talking to Aaron during the moments the cutter wasn’t running. “What is it you ended up doing all night, then?”

“Oh well, you know what I did. My dad is drunk all day. So I told my brother he can move into my apartment. So, I gotta do more chores.”

Chris, who had just removed his muscle shirt as it was getting too hot, raised his eyebrows. “… And so what?”

Aaron scoffed. “And I have to help with homework and buy groceries. Don’t you get it?”

“You want to tell me you’re helping with homework and getting groceries all night?” Suddenly, Chris halted. “Wait, did you find someone? Are you in a relationship?”

“What? No, god damn it.” He looked frustrated. “I work at night, okay?”

“So, what do you work on at night?”

Aaron shook his head. Why did Chris have to be so damn nosey? “I ran the numbers okay? How much money I need to reopen my dad’s shop, so he can work again, and not feel miserable all day. And as things are, I might be able to save enough to even quit this job here.”

“Wait,” Chris said, as it dawned on him, “Are you telling me you’re working on your puppets at night?” It was a hobby he’d had since he was a teenager. All Chris had known was that he sometimes sold them off over the internet.

“Yeah.”

Chris sighed. “You’re clearly overexerting yourself, though. And stop worrying about your dad. Everything that happened to him, he did to himself, didn’t he? And made your brother suffer through it.”

“Sure, he made his mistakes, but…” Aaron sighed. His breathing became a bit shallow and unsteady. He clearly wasn’t doing well. “And the puppet stuff is going well. The only reason I’m not already quitting here is because it’s not as steady an income as I need, especially when taking care of a kid. Soon, I’ll have a contract with the local theatre… They want me to make some marionettes.”

Chris just shook his head. Part of him was probably annoyed with Aaron leaving the workplace they shared, but on the other hand, he was truly concerned for the well being of his friend.

Meanwhile, Aaron started the cutter again, and in that moment, the energy seemed to leave his body. Chris just saw him lose consciousness and fall forward, as the disc cutter immediately halted due to the safety mechanism, and then, Aaron fell to the ground, hitting his head on a rock; an impact that left a dent in his helmet.

August 21st, 2017

Shocked, Aaron looked at the girl on the floor and watched the pool of blood circle outward from her head. In total disarray, he searched for the panic button, but couldn’t find it, and then, he saw her twitch. Slowly, she stretched out one of her arms, then the other, and crawled across the ground towards the bathroom, smearing her blood over the floor in the process. She slowly dragged herself up the sink and washed her face. When she limped back out of the room, her head didn’t show any injuries anymore.

“Don’t… scare me like that… girl,” he whispered weakly. “Is it… Halloween…? I lost… track of time…” Taking another deep breath, he added: “Wrong room…?”

The Future moved a chair to the side of his bed and sat down. Then, she took an orange from the fruit basket Chris had brought 2 days ago.

Aaron gulped as he watched her peel a part of the fruit’s skin. She broke out a slice of the flesh and held it towards his lips, as if she tried to feed him. He took it in and started to chew on it slowly.

Finally, after swallowing it, he said: “It’s you.”

She closed her eyes and turned her head away. Now, he was certain.

“It is you. You’re… the one who took my dad… to his next life… I’ve been… wanting to thank you.” After a moment of hesitation, he continued, “That orange you placed… next to him… it must have meant a lot… On that cold winter night.” He showed a faint smile. “He loved oranges…”

He looked at the Future intently. “You must be an angel of death… Helping people as they die?”

The Future turned back towards him, her gaze darting around the tubes emanating from his body.

“They don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he mumbled. “They only know I’ll be dead soon… All this… just to treat symptoms and pain.”

He took a moment to collect his energy. “They have these gigantic devices… And years of experience. One of the tests they can make is called a full body scan. Imagine that…” He spoke these words carefully, in careful veneration. “They can do that, and an MRI, and stuff like that… Look at every part of you.”

He slowly raised his hand and pointed to the Future’s head, then downwards her body. “Every part, and yet, they might not find out what’s wrong… Funny, isn’t it?”

He rested for a few minutes, slowly breathing up and down, looking at a fixed point on the ceiling. “There was so much I still wanted to do… My father is dead, I’ll be dead, and my poor little brother will be the only one left. He needs someone… been stuck with a group of people for a while who weren’t good for him at all… I don’t even know where he’s at now.” He closed his eyes in defeat. “You know… You always think ‘It’ll go on. This will pass. There’s time.’ But, the truth is, nobody wants to admit it, but… at some point, you’ll see the end was in sight the entire time… and then, all of a sudden, it hits you, and you’ll know: Oh, this is it. This is the end.”

He shook his head, and with a weak gesture, whipped his fist onto his blanket. His voice was getting weaker, as if it was about to break any second now. “Can you do me a favour… and help my brother? Just a bit… So he can stand on his own two feet… So he won’t make as many mistakes…? Tiberio is his name… One last favour, please? A parting gift for me, as you had one… for my dad?”

As he said that, he started crying.

Meanwhile, the Future tried to peel the rest of the skin off the orange, but her fingers were too weak and tired to remove it — instead, they just spread blood all over it. Finally, she gave up, and just bit into the orange, chewing on its flesh and skin for a while. Then, she just threw back the rest of the orange into the basket where its juices oozed out.

After getting up with some peril, she took the cup with her newly made medication out of a small pocket on her patient gown and placed it on the small platform attached to Aaron’s bed. Then, she opened one of the drawers on the wall next to the bathroom and took out a small pipette from it, to gather one of Aaron’s tears that had already made its way down to his neck. Next, she opened the cup containing her medication, took out one of the pills, and placed it on his lips. He swallowed it.

With an emphasized gesture, she placed the other pills in front of him. It had a crooked label sticker slapped onto it, one that had apparently been scratched off from another container and then reattached, and on the label it says, in a nurse’s handwriting: “2 times per day.”

Aaron’s eyes turned wide. “This means…” he whispered, “You’re not going to take care of him for me… you’re saying… Do it yourself… Ahh… thank you so much…” Looking at the label, he made a weak, but genuine smile. As he was starting to get dizzy, he pushed his respirator back onto his mouth.

The Future left the room, closing the door behind her. Her hand remained on the handle for a few seconds longer. She exhaled, as if a weight had been lifted off her.

“Hey!” She suddenly heard a familiar voice. Turning around, she saw Wisdom waving at her at the end of the corridor. “There you are! We’ve been looking for you for ages…”

Then, the Future’s gaze found its way to Teresa, who, in relief, approached her with large steps. Her eyes seemed somewhat bloated and red. She was clearly about to start crying. The moment the Future was in reach, Teresa wrapped her into a careful but firm hug.