Sandra’s recollections set her adrift into the space between consciousness and nothingness like a rowboat caught in a change of tide. Her current thoughts intertwined with flashes of things she could not describe like portraits of people that moved as if by magic. She saw the faces of her friends in places she had never been. Sheldon was alive. He looked much older than herself. He looked wounded and helpless as he clutched the familiar, jagged slashes coating his upper arm and fingers with blood. The dark, empty room illuminated with some light source between the brightness of a full moon and autumn sunlight. Someone threw their arms around him and held him until his tears dried up. A comforted smile crept to his face and into those orange eyes. He was not the only one.79Please respect copyright.PENANAStar14VZ0b
79Please respect copyright.PENANAsiZ09qSSXb
Sandra glimpsed Hodari’s unmistakable figure looming like a mountain. He was not wearing his usual tunic and shorts. Hodari hummed sea shanties as he raked leaves off a manicured lawn into a pile on what she assumed was a road, but whatever material this road was made from it wasn’t as uneven as cobblestone. Lastly, she saw Maxwell. He was standing in the ocean. Every inch of his body, below his neck was covered in a material that was as waterproof as the flesh of a stingray.
Maxwell looked out into the sea with a twinkle in his blue eyes that Sandra had never seen before. As if he was no longer living a double life, with all the complications that caused. His contemplation was interrupted by the barking of a black and white puppy. It jumped up and down at the edge of the sand. The puppy had a white circle marking around one eye, one brown eye, one blue eye and one floppy ear while the other ear stood up in the air. The puppy wagged its tail excitedly. The puppy’s demeanour reminded her of Shepard’s son. Maxwell waded back to shore to scoop up the puppy, laughing as it licked his face. Sandra was struck with an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. As if she had experienced all of this before. That was impossible! Unless… She gasped.
Sandra bolted upright, clutching her chest through her well-worn, oversized yellow and red striped tee shirt. Her heart pounded. She had no idea what had startled her awake. She reached out and frantically unlocked her phone with the swipe of her fingers, but it took multiple attempts due to her clammy, trembling hands. It was 1am. She did not have any responsibilities until 9am. No alarms were set to wake her. This was not the first time she had flashes of bizarre things, but this was the most detailed. This time she saw a girl with short brown hair dressed as a maid. Not a maid from adult films, but a costume recreated based on historical documentation. A grinning gentleman stood on the deck of a sailing ship. His shaggy blonde hair billowed in the wind. Finally, a garden party with teas and cakes with the attendants adorned in historical fashion.
Sandra snatched up her backpack and made her way out of the dormitory towards the beach. There was no other way to communicate with a wise and powerful sea-witch. These ‘flashes’ were the kind of thing that happened in movies and books involving a time loop, but none of the Atlans that Sandra knew were powerful or malicious enough.
She raced through the basalt cave passages past the signs warning ordinary people that the caverns past that point were dangerously small for humans to traverse. The twenty-two-year-old plummeted to her hands and knees for the last few metres before bursting into a cavern through a crack in the basalt. The momentum caused her to fall down, but luckily, she landed face first into her backpack. She picked herself up before her father turned his head and noticed her, motioning to her mother and the sea-witch with his webbed hand. Her mother, father and the sea-witch were all sitting on the edge of the rockpools. They halted their conversation to greet Sandra. Her father’s seahorse, her mother’s sea dragon and the sea-witch’s shark tails glistened in the moonlight. Her mother was braiding her father’s long hair that was the same colour as Sandra’s own.79Please respect copyright.PENANAq3cMJSTGfU
“Sweetie, you look terrified. What happened?” Her mother crooned, pausing the braid.79Please respect copyright.PENANAageA0xUX7l
“Was it another nightmare?” The sea-witch asked. Miranda was Sandra’s godmother.79Please respect copyright.PENANApPwFLgIN2q
Sandra nodded. “Is it possible that…um…we’re stuck in some kind of time loop?”79Please respect copyright.PENANANhgPx00ibN
Her mother, father and godmother all looked at each other incredulously.79Please respect copyright.PENANAzckzn9sl6S
“It’s not impossible, but it is extremely unlikely…” Her godmother ran her fingers through her hair. Miranda’s species were supposed to be extinct for centuries, but here she was.79Please respect copyright.PENANAMWOiRjclda
“I can’t describe it.” Sandra admitted, “It’s a gut feeling…”79Please respect copyright.PENANAh19yP7bmTB
She staggered in place as pain stabbed her head like the aftermath of a gunshot wound. Her parents’ shouts of concern faded into muffled static like an old house radio.
When she opened her eyes, the cavern was gone. Replaced by the walls of a bedroom, lacey sheets and a large radio sitting on a table in the corner that she assumed was responsible for the static, until she realized there was no static. Myrtle was gaping at her with her brown eyes as large as saucers.79Please respect copyright.PENANABwmv0ptzAM
“S-Sandra?”79Please respect copyright.PENANAZs617QbkfN
Sandra groaned, sitting up. She reached up to rub the pain away, but her fingers were blocked by a heavy bandage.79Please respect copyright.PENANALRRb1xg46W
“M-Myrtle?”79Please respect copyright.PENANAwAAV1MMhwO
Myrtle nodded. “Are you okay?”79Please respect copyright.PENANAcIZduNH0Dd
She didn’t know, but Sandra didn’t want to frighten the already uneasy fourteen-year-old.79Please respect copyright.PENANAMOPF4gR83T
“Can you please bring me a calming, herbal tea while I grab my medicine?”79Please respect copyright.PENANANSW6MqevSw
Myrtle scrambled off the bed, racing away, tripping on her tentacles beneath her hem. Sandra threw back the comforter and sheets and stared into a full-length mirror. Was this a side effect from the combination of trauma and opium and hemlock medications? She was dressed in her sheer, pleated maxi-length nightgown with the ruffled collar. The only thing out of order was her unruly bed hair, pale complexion beaded with sweat and the new addition of the cotton bandage she wore at night while her head wound healed. Was the cavern, sea witch and ‘time loop’ a dream or was this the dream? Since she was shaking too much to sleep, the sixteen-year-old rummaged for a candle and crept to her Master’s library by the glow of the candle to find books explaining ‘time loop’s.