Time no longer makes sense when you can see all possibilities. I stand in the shadow of a streetlamp, watching the third-floor apartment where my greatest mistake sleeps.
Marcus Reeves. Twenty-four years old, accountant, orphaned since he was fifteen. He sleeps peacefully in his single bed, unaware that upon waking, in exactly four hours and sixteen minutes, his real life will begin. And with it, the destruction of three entire universes.
I still bear the scars from that day. Not on my body - this one has been rebuilt so many times it's no longer truly mine, but in my soul. Every fragment of reality I shattered through pride, through love, through that stupid conviction that I could save everyone.
If only you knew, Marcus, I think while watching the sleeping silhouette behind the lit window. If only you knew what your desire to save Elena will cost the multiverse.
The memory returns, as sharp as if it were yesterday, Elena, dying in my arms after the accident. Her last breath. My rage. My decision to fracture reality itself to bring her back. The consequences...
Three dead universes. Billions of lives erased. All for a single woman.
And the worst part is that I succeeded. Elena lives, somewhere, in a fragment of reality I tore from nothingness. But she no longer knows me. How could she love the monster I've become?
I pull the knife from my jacket. The blade catches the streetlamp's light, reflecting a thousand possibilities. In some timelines, I succeed in killing him tonight. In others, he escapes me again. In a few, very rare ones, he understands and accepts his fate without resistance.
But in none, none, does he forgive me.
A movement at the window. He turns in his sleep, and for an instant, his face turns toward me. Even in the darkness, even through the glass, I can see his features. My face, forty years earlier. Before the scars. Before the guilt. Before power changed me into something that's no longer truly human.
Forgive me, I murmur, knowing he cannot hear me. Forgive me, but I cannot let you become me.
I put away the knife. Not tonight. Tonight, he must first discover what he is. He must meet Elena. He must begin his journey toward damnation, so that I can stop him at the crucial moment.
Because this time, this time, I have a plan. This time, I know exactly the moment when everything went wrong. This time, I might be able to save the three universes I destroyed... even if it means destroying the only one that remains.
In four hours and fifteen minutes now, Marcus Reeves will wake up with the memories of three different deaths. He will think it's the beginning of his story.
He doesn't know it's the end of mine.
I disappear into the shadow, leaving behind only the subtle scent of ozone that always accompanies time travel. Tomorrow, when he sees his visions, I'll be there. When Elena contacts him, I'll be watching. And when the moment comes that precise moment when love and pride unite to create catastrophe, I'll be ready.
This time, Marcus, I'm the one who will write the end of our story.