Chapter Text
I would like to preface this by saying, the flight that my mom, my sister and I took to and from France was fine. I don't even remember there being any turbulence. That being said, let's get started.
The captain came over the loud speaker, in both English and French, saying to secure all belongings, turn off all devices and strap in, we were about to hit bad turbulence…And we did, I thought for sure the oxygen masks would drop but they never did. After the worst 5 minutes (it felt longer, but that was the amount we were told, we were in that storm) of shaking I had ever experienced, we broke through the clouds into the warm sunlight.
That was when things got odd. All our electronics were confiscated. When we landed in the United States, we had to wait on the plane for a long time before finally debarking and being scuffled into a military base. No one would answer any of our questions as we moved. Most of our luggage were waiting for us, having obviously been searched. I was so worried about not having my phone, about not being able to message Valy, that I must have looked like a phone addict… I am a phone addict…but that was not the point, Valy would be so worried if I didn’t message, but I couldn’t because we still didn’t have our phones back!! Mom has a blood sugar monitor connected to her phone. There were also medications that people needed… major events or treatments that were essential to some of the people that were being missed.
But no matter how many times we brought this up with the people running this, how we had lives to get back to, they would not budge. After endless interviews, and signing NDAs, everyone was told what happened in the sky.
It was not a covid outbreak or anything to do with an illness… No, we were told, somehow inside that storm, we crossed into a future timeline. Almost everything was the same until that point in the sky. It wasn’t Oct 2024, it was Jan 2025… everyone we knew, everything we knew was now altered… I felt terrible for all the pain, worry and sorrow we would cause everyone we knew in our timeline, since our plane just disappeared from there leaving behind a mystery to go unsolved… just the thought of the worry Valy and my family/friends would be in and, if (when) they heard the news, the pain it would cause…I wanted to scream and cry and break something… but of course I couldn’t do that, I couldn’t break here… I asked if there was anyway to go back, but was told, “if there was, no one has found it yet.”
Not enough time had passed for that all to sink in, before the people in charge were having doubles meet. It was weird meeting myself, not in a mirror. In the grand scheme of things, 3 months was not a long time…however, we missed 2 fairs, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve… three months were a lot to me. After meeting our doubles, the government told us our options. If I had traveled alone, my decision would have different…but I was traveling with my mom and my sister. That changed what I did. My sister and I followed mom’s lead.
Mom took the twin option, with a backstory of grandma not knowing she was having twins and a nurse stealing mom, only for about 50 years later discovering she has a twin, my sister and I became our own cousins. With fabricated backstories in place. Anything that linked us to our old lives were taken from us. We were given new names, my sister and I got new birthdays to reflect the 3 months age gap we now shared. We were given new driver’s licenses, social security cards, and birth certificates.
The government does not do things by halves when it comes to hiding secrets. My sister got any surgeries she wanted, they paid for my Lasix, and three reliable cars for us. They also gave us some money to start over with. They paid for a full spa day. We got our body hair dealt with, nails done, head hair done, and we had our colors checked, afterwards a personal shopper helped us with getting one week's worth of clothes with those color palettes. We also had to have our tattoos altered or covered or removed as well. Talking of tattoos, each set get a matching set. My sister got Phil and Lil, my mom got at thing one and thing two, and me? We got Jade and Floyd.
My sister moved in with herself and her wife, and started over from there. We still talk, and see each other. My sister and herself made a deal, one week one would go do the needs while the other did anything she wanted, then they would trade the next week. So for example, one would go to work the other stay home and read.
Mom and I moved in with ourselves, until I could buy the house next door. It took me a bit to go outside, I would get hit with random crying fits, if I saw someone I knew, I would have to breath and get somewhere quiet to cry for a bit before pasting on a neutral or vaguely positive face on. People as more questions if you look negative or overly positive.
But there was a lot to do. We got phones and new numbers from a carrier that we never been with, a bank that was international that we had never banked with, a credit card through a company we never used before, and a new email with a never used provider. While we lived with ourselves, we helped out where and when we could. I took refresher courses on CNA and CMA at the community college. Afterwards, I put in applications and was hired…I was really just going through the motions of living.
I became obsessed with anything about alternate universe or timelines, non-fiction or fiction. I devoured them at an alarming pace. Though eventually, I stopped trying to get home and started living in this one, working to make it my home. I realized that as time passed, if I found a way back home that we would be different, and all the work they and I did to be ok would be ripped up again… I couldn’t do that to them or to myself. So I got to work, having Tabitha introduced me to my library friends and my gaming friends as her cousin. I also, met with my mom’s side of the family. Most accepted our story but some were skeptical, but still accepted us.
When I was just existing I would agree to stay later at work, if I was not there, and they called to ask if I would come in, I would say no. But if I was already at work…I would say always yes…. My co-workers caught on to this very quickly. I was doing max hours they can legally have me work each week. I needed to build my money back up, I would at some point have a house and all the bills that go with it to deal with, most of my life and health related insurances and retirement funds came from my work. But I needed car insurance and eventually house insurance. Starting over was hard, adulating was harder.
When I started settling, on the days that I met with friends or family I made sure to say no to staying late, no matter if I needed the money or not, I would eventually drive myself crazy only working…I would make sure to leave work around 2pm when all my tasks are completed, on family and friends’ days.
Valy was an exception to this. Tabitha told her the cover story immediately… it was hard for her to not blurt out the truth, but she managed. All the “originals” had to sign NDAs too. This was between writing a story together. (How an actual conversation between Valy and I looks)
T: (you would not believe what just happened!)
Trein:...Holly, please this is not helping the situation. Let's all calm down.
Crowely:....
Ruhaan: I have heard you will need to share. The student that the tail bit, is quite smitten.
Crowely: what?!
V: (what happened?)
Rune: hm what? But...I broke his arm...
T: (I just met my mom’s twin sister for the first time!)
(He is done with his routine?)
V: (…how, have you never met her?!)
(Oh I forgot ahah ^^' so more like)
Ace: uh...as long as it's not cheating I am fine with sharing...
Deuce: Rune talked about "harmony" ...apparently that's how goblins calls couples...or trouple... Or any relationship whatever how many are in...
T: (this is the insane part! So grandma didn’t know she was having twins (after my mom, she had twins and until they were taking out the second baby she had been told she was having one boy, so it wasn’t that odd) the nurse told my grandma that she had developed two placentas… a rare pregnancy thing. And stole the other baby!! She grew up normally just never knowing, had two kids, 3 months difference from my sister and I!)
Anoki: sounds like a harem.
Mystic: we also do something like that in the ocean.
Crowely:...but but baby-
Crewel: Dire, this is normal for goblins, we all must follow the pup's lead on this.
V: (wow that is insane!)
Crowely: he's too young!
Ace:...He said some stay with only two...like his parents....
T: (right?! I told one of my new cousins about you and she said to say Bonjour, and that she will check your stuff out.)
Ruhaan: do you think he would be happy like that? Knowing others love him too?
V: (well tell her hello, and hope she likes them.)
Ace (glance at Crowley, but decide to be honest): I am sure he would and he need it...
So I re-read and re-watched all of Valy’s works. This was not a hardship and I know that Tabitha does it all the time. I liked and commented on each one. I laughed and cried because in her fairy tales collection, there was a new pauper and the prince with some Rapunzel sprinkled in type of story… that was so like Valy, mixing fiction with real life, and I love her for it. She was the first person from my old life, that I got the courage to message on discord to, starting to rebuild a relationship with. We talk every day. But not like Tabitha and her do, but I still count her in my friend group.
When the house next door was for sale, mom and I walked through it, negotiating price to include everything inside too, as the son didn’t want anything in it. I bought the property and contacted our government agent. Asking for help to get the place up to code. Later that day, government contractors were there seeing what they could do or not do to the property. It took a few months but mom and I were able to move into a builder’s white house. Both moms were very excited to have a project while their daughters worked.
It took a while to get back into writing because I felt like I was just stealing all of Tabitha’s ideas but eventually I settled into my own identity and started writing again. I will always miss my original timeline… but the three of us are doing fine and are happy.