The Trouble with Time, Part 20 - Archive

Kevin has barely any time to flip the sign over when an earsplitting scream fills the air. He winces, stands up. She's still screaming, not as loud anymore, but still screaming, hugging herself. Her eyes are wide open, tears flowing freely out, saliva dripping from her open mouth. She's not sobbing, not bawling, just... tears.

He rounds the table carefully and approaches her. She's on her knees on the floor, rocking back and forth.

"You're okay," he says, trying to be firm, but gentle. "You're safe here, you're okay." He kneels next to her, reaches a slow hand towards her. She flinches and he retracts it. "It's okay, it's just me. It's just Kevin."

She yells.

He tries again, slowly, slowly reaching a hand towards her. She doesn't flinch this time, just keeps rocking. His fingers brush against her upper arm.

She stops screaming, breathes hard instead. The tears are still falling and she swallows thickly a few times. She looks up at him. There's snot and slobber all over her face.

"Kevin..." she croaks out.

Her eyes roll back in her head and she falls forwards. He's there to catch her.

"Oopsie daisy," he says, repositioning her so she's not face first in his shoulder. He pulls out his phone to shoot Sam a quick text before letting out a sigh. He pets her hair. "You've been passing out a lot lately, haven't you?" he asks her, though of course he doesn't expect an answer; she is unconscious.

Don't worry, you're fine.

He tenses. Glances around, tries to listen. Then he shakes his head, gathers her up in his arms and carries her back.

~x~

The Archive is a large, very large, room with rows and rows of shelves stretching from the door until what seems like infinity.  The shelves are filled with books of all different sizes and ages, organized in a cryptic manner. Between the shelves is the occasional table and chairs, most of their surfaces covered in piles of books and scrolls and loose paper. Kevin stands in front of one of the shelves, leafing through a book, not quite processing the letters into words. He came here to double check everything for the spell, but he can't quite make himself focus.

The door to the Archive opens and he glances over. Sam walks in and sighs.

"She's sleeping again," they say. They walk over to the nearest table and pull up a chair for themself. "Physically she's fine. Mentally... ehh." They wave their hand in a so-so motion. "We'll know for sure when she wakes up."

"I was expecting something like this, to be honest," he says, closing the book and pushing it back into the shelf. "The fear hadn't been in the vial very long, maybe a few hours? But it did seem like she was very scared to begin with."

"Yeah, well," they say, ruffling a hand through their hair. "I've never heard of a fatal case using a Vial of Phobos, aside from the ones who let the thing explode, so we should be just fine. She'll need to take a few days to recover though. So if you were thinking of starting your spell thingy as soon as she wakes up," they point a finger at him and squint their eyes, "don't."

"I won't, I won't," he says, raising his hands in defeat. They start to look through the books and stuff on the table as he continues, "She's been working herself down to the bone recently, I think it'll do her good to just chill for a day or two. We have time enough for that. Plus, I'll be prepping the spell, so there isn't even anything left for her to do." He pauses, looks away for a moment. "Huh. She really got all the ingredients. Impressive."

"Hey, so why do you have manuscripts of Guardians on the table?"

He looks over at Sam, who is shuffling through papers with a frown on their face.

"You know why," he says. They press their mouth into a thin line, but don't look up from the papers.

"And why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because I wanted to confirm it first. Didn't want to alarm you in case I was wrong.

"And did you? Confirm it?"

"I... Yeah, we did."

"And it's benevolent?" They press a hand on top of his and there is a hidden desperation in their eyes as they stare at him. "Please, Kev, tell me it's benevolent. She has been through so much..."

"It it," he assures them, but then, "It seems to be."

"Seems to be? What does that mean?"

"There was a bit of an... altercation yesterday. I showed her the Fountain and she saw it in the reflection, which was fine, but then her head started hurting and she apparently heard some kind of melody and then she passed out."

"She passed out?" Sam screeches and their chair screeches too as it scrapes against the floor when they jump up. "What the fuck, Kevin, why didn't you call me?!"

"It was fine!" he hurries to say, but they slam a fist to the table.

"How did you know that?" they shout and they are so angry, he hasn't seen them this angry in many years, he had quite forgotten how scary they are like this...

"It told me," he says and they freeze. He averts his eyes for a moment, but then looks back again. "The Guardian. I can... hear it's voice, sometimes. At first I thought it was her and she seems to think that they're her thoughts, but... it speaks, Sam. In full, coherent sentences. Only sometimes though, and never when I try to hear it. I don't even know if it knows I hear it."

They're still standing, leaning across the table. There's a blank expression on their face as they try to process the new information. He lets them, not saying anything else. Just sitting there.

"Wow," they say and drop back down onto the chair.

"Yeah, I know," he says. "I've never heard of anything like this happening. Guardians never interact directly with their charges, let alone someone completely different. It's weird."

"That is weird," they agree. "What... what does it say?"

"Mostly reassuring things. Like 'you're fine' and 'you can do it' and such. So it is very clearly attached to her. She also... She said she thinks she's had it for a while now."

"A while? Like longer than since you got back."

"Yeah, like over a year."

"That's..." He nods as they just stare.

"Since she lost her memory. Which makes me think... maybe Guardians aren't tied to the Garden... but to lost memories."

Sam stands up again, rubs their face.

"I'm too tired for this shit," they say and turn to leave. "I'm sleeping over tonight and tomorrow I'll check she's fine and then you can tell me all your crazy conspiracy theories."

"That's fair," he says as he stands up as well. "It is pretty late, isn't it. I'll see you in the morning. Good night."

"Night, Kev."

The door closes and they're gone. Kevin stands in the Archive and thinks for a moment. His fingers brush along the papers on the table, the word "Guardian" written on the top of the page.

He looks around and listens for a moment. Then he picks up his book again.

_____________________________________________________

Whooooo boy, that was a lot. A lot of dialogue this time, which is great bc (like Sam) I'm way too tired for this shit lmao prose is hard to write when you're tired but dialogue is fine.

Next topic issssssssssssssss fuck uhhhh can't think of anything. BLURT!

idk man, I panicked. Now I'm sleep

Pie out.