A Knife In The Dark

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Scene Title A Knife In The Dark
Synopsis A secret is revealed.
Date December 20, 2018

El Jardín De Senderos Que Se Bifurcan


Somewhere, a record hisses, pops, and skips.

F— fly me to the moon

Let me play among the stars

Music drifts through the hedges. It isn't the first time Lynette has heard the song seeping down walkways; it has a way of sinking into her skin, that song she once loved but can barely stand to hear even now. Some nights, like tonight, she lingers at the corner that leads to that memory. She knows Mateo's memories are down that path, all that is left of him in any world is here in the garden of forking paths, tied to every other Mateo Ruiz possible. Kept alive in memories. But. There is one she would have to live through to get to him. Living through it once was enough.

"Go on," a woman's voice whispers between skips of the song, "show me all that power. Show me what he saw in you."

Let me see what spring is like

On Jupiter and Mars

That was new, the voice. And it was familiar. Lynette can't link it to a face, to a name, but hearing someone there— hearing the murderer there— draws her onto the path to her late husband. Her steps are unsure and unsteady. She doesn't want to see it, but she has to know. Who was it and why does she know that voice?

Lights flicker.

She can see the portal just reaching over the hedge, hear the roar of it drowning out the music. She turns a corner and—

Skip.

A knife is in her stomach. Looking down, she can see pale fingers tipped with red nails gripping the hilt. And then another is around her throat. She looks up as her attacker pushes her back against the balcony doors. She looks up. At Odessa.

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"There's no use, Hati."

Hati.

Hati.

The name echoes as Lynette tries to reorient herself. The pain is a memory, it isn't real. The face of his sister— her sister— as the portal shatters and the pair of them tumble onto the balcony, that indifferent face is what is real.

Metal presses into her back, the railing around the balcony.

"Too bad. If you'd done this the right way, it wouldn't have turned out like this." Odessa pulls the knife out and pain lances through Lynette. The next words are harder to hear as she reminds herself that this is just a memory. "What a waste of all that power. I'd have rather had you with us." Odessa leans back, but keeps her grip on Lynette, pushing her against the railing. "Oh well," she says dismissively. Then she shoves.

Skip.

She hits the roof of a car.

Skip.

She crawls up the stairs, dragging herself, forcing herself.

Skip.

She watches herself run into the apartment, dropping bags and looking horrified as she sinks to the floor. She feels her hands on her face. She feels both relief and despair at getting to see her one last time.

Skip.


The Library At The End Of The World


Snapping out of the memory, Lynette looks up from a book she was trying to read. Other denizens of the Library stare at her. Tears fall from her eyes and drip off her chin and she pushes back from the table, leaving the book behind as she runs from the room. She doesn't care about making a scene or about what the others must think, she only cares about finding a quiet place alone to curl up in.

The memory had dulled in the year since, but it's sharp now. And worse, because of the face she saw. Because of the hands on his throat. Because of a woman who let her care about her.

Her tears aren't sorrow today. They're anger.


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