Time's Tragedies- The Books Of Beginning [2]

50. Nightmares

Eternity didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that she needed to find Lili. Whatever had gone wrong, and oh, how it had gone wrong, Lili could fix it. That, Eternity knew in her very bones, though how she knew it, she did not understand. 

Around her, the world burned. There was fire and screaming and flooding as well, there were fissures opening in the crust of the earth, and stars falling from the sky, and magic, so much magic that it made the air electric around Eternity, goosebumps prickling as her peculiarity picked up on all the power swirling and whirling and bringing ruin to everything it touched. 

This must be what the end of the world is, Eternity thought. 

Somehow the knowledge that everything was being torn to shreds didn't impact her as much as it should have. She didn't feel the deep, crushing panic most would experience upon hearing that doomsday had come. She didn't feel the need to run around like a chicken with her head cut off. She didn't start desperately trying to save the people she could hear screaming from the flames and the flooding, either. Eternity Time had never considered herself a hero and she wasn't about to change that just because of a little Armageddon. 

No, Eternity had one goal in mind and that one goal was all that mattered to her. She was sticking to it, no matter what happened. She was going to find her best friend, her Lili. Whatever happened after that, she did not know how to predict, but they would face it together. 

Eternity was the daughter of a man who had run away, not physically, but in spirit, when he was needed most. She refused to make the same choices now that it was someone she cared about who was in need during a desperate time. 

Alas, poor Eternity Time was not destined to find her best friend, nor to figure out why the world was ending just yet. Not when the ground beneath her feet was breaking apart faster than she could think, faster than she could move. Before she realized what was happening, she was slipping, slipping over the edge of a ledge, slipping to fall into the pitch black water, the calm but deadly flood that made her stomach recoil in terror when she looked into it.

Eternity's fingers scrabbled for the edge of the cliff, but she couldn't get a hold, her nails just scraping out rocks and dirt that were dragged downward with her, their sickening rattling noise making her heart beat with terror. She reached her other hand up, trying to grab something and desperately pull herself to safety. But instead, she slipped further, her feet kicking not at anything solid, but at empty air and the slight spray coming off of the water, her hands losing their hold. 

That last fingertip gave out. Eternity plummeted. 

"LILI!" She screamed as she fell, before hitting the water hard and sinking down into the blackness. 

The water was freezing, and dark, and seemed to swallow her. She kicked and kicked, holding her breath, pumping her arms, trying to break the surface, yet there was a heaviness to the liquid that kept dragging her back down. She needed air, she needed to breathe, yet there was none to be found. She would die suffocated and smothered, she would drown in this lake of night. 

Eternity's kicking became more frantic. She didn't want to die, not now, not like this. Not when she finally had something worth living and fighting for. Not even the thought of seeing her mother again could bring her comfort. 

Finally, her hold on her mouth broke and it opened with a gasp, the dark water rushing in, filling her as she tried to find the oxygen that just wasn't there. It tasted sweet and bitter at the same time, and was that... why yes, it was, the smell of alcohol, of wine and vodka and every horrible brew that filled Eternity's apartment when she still lived with her father.