The Dark Jumper

Chapter 3 - Erasure

Chapter 3 - Erasure

Jace leaned against the frame of his bedroom door, looking at it for the last time. Most of the furniture and other items still remained, but now without anything to personify it - anything that left his mark in it. Wiped clean, just like his identity. Soon, the family they'd sold their house to would be residents there.

No, *they* decided to sell, there was no 'us' in that decision. He clarified his parents' role in his thoughts. It stirred the burn in the back of his eyes. The pain lingered longer than he'd wanted. He wasn't sure if it was just in his eyes anymore, as the thoughts inside him since his nerves prickling through his body.

He felt a hand clap on the shoulder. He saw Gramma smiling at him from over his shoulder. "You ready to go, kiddo?"

"No." He turned so Gramma couldn't see his eyes. He didn't want her reading him either.

"I figured as much. It's just like Prestion and Eridita to go off and do things on their own without saying anything. How do you think I found out they were married?"

Jace didn't know what to say to that. When he didn't respond or look at her, Gramma sighed and shook her head.

"Listen, Jaceynd. I knew this was bad news from the get go, but fate has a way of dealing with these things."

"I don't believe in fate."

Jace saw Gramma's brow narrow. "Well, why not?"

"Because it's not concrete. Things are always changing, and beings can manipulate it to achieve a different end, even when the end looks certain. It never is." He found it odd that he was using his own father's words for the argument.

"That might be true," Gramma admitted.

"Though there are limitations, just like observing and manipulating time threads," he said, trying to quell her doubt. "Some are severed and can't be tied back again, there's a point where you have to accept things as they are and find a way move on. You can only manipulate time and events up to a certain point. After a while, it becomes contained."

"And you're going to keep using that argument to justify going to the 21st century, leaving everything behind without a fight?"

"You have a better one?" Jace realized as the words left his mouth that they could be interpreted much more crudely. He started to speak, but Gramma raised her hand.

"I think you should answer that question yourself. We'll be in Femince soon enough."

Gramma walked away, leaving Jace to wonder what she meant.

***

"What do you mean I can't take my music files?" Jace asked, surprised when his mother took the music data and wiped it from his adapted music player. He was even more surprised when she took the whole device and tossed it in the Schizer - a virtual shredder of things big and small.

Jace didn't want to recall how many times he heard Abby screaming when some of her things went through it. But out of all of the things of his he'd seen tossed there, that was one of a few things he'd wanted to take with him. Good thing he'd hidden Lazara's mindmap. He could always reconstruct her basic framework.

"While we are taking some items from this century, we can't take everything," his mother answered, folding her arms across her chest.

"I know, but you didn't say why."

His mother sighed. "Frost Upon Dark Wings exists in the 21st century, around the same time we're traveling to. You don't need to bring their music with you when you can buy it on the mediums when we're there. And you have to realize that some of the music that you have may cause a shift if you have songs they haven't made yet. If they fell into the wrong hands...well..."