Life Continues
“Oh— Gods— K-Kindle?!”
Kindle buried her face in her hands, shaking uncontrollably.
“Kindle— hey, Kindle!”
She muttered to herself between tears.
“Dude. DUDE.”
Kindle was grabbed by the shoulders and shaken.
She opened her eyes, slowly turning her head to whoever was yelling at her.
“What the fuck?!” Vera glared at her, though the worry on his face was evident. “What was that?!”
…
…oh!
Oh!
Kindle’s face contorted into all sorts of shapes. She grew a large grin.
“H—oh—“
“You okay? Ugh— take off… all that…” Vera waved a hand around Kindle, then took her left hand.
She was still wearing her bracelet.
Paired with a little needle, connected to an IV drip.
Vera gently took it out, then stood up from where he was— sitting next to Kindle’s bed— and found a little circle bandaid after rummaging through a cabinet far from the bed.
“…here. I dunno how this shit works, but I think you put a bandaid on places where needles have been stuck in you and crap.”
Kindle, with teary eyes and extreme brain fog, watched Vera peel the bandaid out of the wrapping and stick it on the underpart of her wrist.
“Uhhhmm… there…” Vera looked at her with a blank face. “…all better…”
They stared at each other for a while.
“I— I don’t know why I did that… maybe it was better for you to stay safe and… have an IV… in bed…”
Kindle sighed with relief, then laid back down, closing her eyes.
“…no, that was fine… I feel fine…”
“Really?”
“Mhm… I feel… so good…”
He acted like QD— QD, who had died— but also himself. And that was good.
The door trembled, then busted open.
“HEY! WE’RE BACK!!” Zachary pointed at Kindle with a proud grin.
Kindle jolted her eyes open, then stared straight into Zachary’s soul.
“Don’t look at me like that!” He raised an eyebrow, putting his hands on his hips. “Look— lemme explain everything.”
***
Three weeks later.
Three weeks felt like ages.
Three weeks ago, Kindle wasn’t even fully conscious.
Until she woke up.
She was painting Hira’s nails for him, with tiny bottles of kid’s nail polish, full of glitter and translucent like jelly without the pulp. It came in an assortment of colors with corresponding scents.
They were quiet.
Feeling uncomfortable, Hira spoke up.
“…can my right hand match yours?”
Kindle nodded slowly.
“…why’re we being so quiet?” Hira smiled at her, giggling.
“I dunno!” Kindle shrugged, looking back up at him with her own grin. “‘Guess I was just concentrating?”
“Ohh, okay… makes sense. Hey, can I have a glitter topcoat?”
“Sure!”
Hira smiled as he watched Kindle meticulously paint his nails.
This entire time… to think it had only been around one month. One month of… a loop that lasted 1,255 years and more. One messy, messy, confusing loop… half of it made no sense, even now. Even when Kindle pretended she knew. In the end, Kindle tried to make light of the situation and pretend it was her hero story— but now that she was out of the loop, that didn’t apply anymore.
It sucked. She could safely say that while holding up a middle finger to the medbay bed and the time loop, wherever the hell that ended up.
BUT SHE WAS FINALLY OUT. AND THANK GOD FOR THAT!!!
***
“How do you feel today?” Rhine sat next to Kindle on her bed as she tried on some sparkly tennis shoes.
“Good! Just like yesterday. Honestly— I’m just glad I’m… not stuck anymore…”
Rhine smiled. “That’s nice.” She put a hand on Kindle’s head. “I just want to know if there’s any… any side effects? I’ve never really dealt with comas before, and I’m not sure how to help you moving forward…”
Kindle shrugged. “Not any side effects I can think of. I’m just glad to be living in reality, able to do whatever I want, and wake up in a new day. That’s all.” She smiled. That was really all.
“Okay. It’s good, too— usually, some patients would die after around a month of being unconscious. But… I guess it’s because of what QD did for you that made you come back so healthy.”
“Oh, yeah.” Kindle nodded. That was an absolute— of course, Kindle would trade 1,255 years of a time loop over actually dying. At least… if she knew what she knew now. Plus, all those years felt like she had been dreaming, anyways. That was the quality that it seemed to have had. Something like a dream.
Strange, still, how it all really happened.
And how she could clearly remember it all.
And how Zachary… uhm… now, that was the strangest.
Especially the fact that she could still see the others from the loop.
Of course, she visited Danger Kindle and QD— or, as Kindle’s QD called her, KD (for Kyew Dee)— a ton! She was glad that they still remembered her… and that somehow, even when no one really knew how, QD was back.
Kindle figured it must’ve been that weird brain stuff that happened between hitting her head and waking up.
…also, it probably had to do with the fact that everyone but Danger Kindle seemed to be like an imaginary friend.
Yeah… Kindle didn’t like to think about it too much.
At least she wasn’t crazy, and everyone else could see them.
Whatever. That weird era of her life was over.
She hated it, it was crazy, it sucked, she never wanted to do it again…
But, hey. She got a ton of cool new outfits out of it, and at least she got to finally be free. Kindle now understood how it must’ve felt to be an American in 1776.
Freedom was, for lack of a better word, freeing.
Kindle looked down at her nails. Hira painted her left hand for her, and she loved how uneven it was.
Really, really… She was glad to be with everyone else again.
The time loop sucked. The coma sucked. Being in her own paracosm, twisted up into a big heap of meh… it was said before— it was terrible. But, still… an experience she wouldn’t trade away.
She had a weird relationship with what had just happened.
…she still thought it sucked and made no sense, though. Don’t get it twisted.
***
“Kindleeee. We played with them TWICE already. I. Don’t. Want. To. Play.”
Kindle frowned. “I got your favorite car this time!”
Vera lifted his face from his sad pillow, looking at his favorite car. “…okay, it’s a good car, but…”
“Fine. I get it.” Kindle grinned at him smugly, tossing his car at him. “You’re just scared because I kept winning.”
“What? No. I’m just tired of playing with your stupid toys. Plus— you can’t win in whatever story we were making.”
“But I was the villain! And my evil plan was working! So, I was winning. There’s that.”
Vera raised an eyebrow. “Really? You think you won?”
“Mhm. I know I did!”
“Don’t be so certain.” Vera immediately sat upright in his bed, taking his car and holding up like it was a beautiful gemstone. “Tony’s got new wheels, remember? When I traded them out at the auto center?”
Kindle’s eyes widened.
“Yeah. They’ve got special tracks on them— and he’s riding outta that crusher easy.”
“I knew you still wanted to play!”
“Uhhh, when did I say I didn’t? I was just thinking about what to do next.”
“I see.” Kindle nodded, pulling out her car. “Well, then, guess what I equipped the Crusher 3000 with?!”
***
Kindle swung her legs back and forth, chewing through her cake slowly, poking at it with her fork.
“How’s the cake?”
“Good.”
“Lost in thought again?”
Kindle nodded slowly, eyes glued to her cake.
“…hey, we made it out! That’s all that matters.”
She shrugged. “I dunno. Sometimes I still think about it… sometimes it feels unfair… I still wouldn’t have had it any other way, though.”
Zachary nodded. “That’s true… sorry I couldn’t tell you about it.”
“Nah, it’s fine. I understand! I mean— I wouldn’t have believed you anyways— but then again, I guess I might’ve? Things were all really weird back then, it wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’d heard.”
“Rhine just said it could accidentally… y’know… maybe make you spiral? Something like that.”
“I get it. It’s fine now!”
Zachary nodded, taking a sip from his freezing cold water.
“Still,” Kindle spoke, poking her fork into a bit of cake she had sliced off with the edge of her fork. “can’t believe how infuriating it must’ve been when Vera said you weren’t real…”
Zachary laughed, relishing in the memory. “Oh, yeah. That was insane…”
“Monsieur Descartes,” joked Kindle.
“Dude—!” Zachary laughed harder now. “Don’t rub it in!”
“Hehe~! That’s another little page in our story, isn’t it?”
“Yeah… I guess so!” He nodded, smiling as he looked off into the sunset. “…hmmmm… your next journey. The one we were talking about?”
Kindle blinked. She had nearly forgotten about her plans already. “Ohhh, yeah.”
“Still up for it?”
She smiled. “You know it. It doesn’t hurt to think about my destiny and origins and stuff anymore… y’know how it used to?”
“Mhm. I remember it like it was yesterday!”
“See? So— now, I can… I can go find it. Figure it out.” Kindle looked down at her piece of cake, lifting it to her mouth. “I want you to come with me when I do.”
Zachary looked at her with a quaint smile. “I will. Don’t worry.”
Kindle returned smile. She put the piece of cake in her mouth and chewed.
Her next journey would definitely be better than her last.