Chapter Text
Annabel Lee opens her eyes, expecting to see what had been in front of her seconds before. Of Will shooting that poor girl, but instead she was back at.. Ms. Poppet's classroom?
What?
She knows she was in the bathroom, and not in the classroom that had ended minutes before she got there.
But, besides her confusion, she was also in shock that Will had the guts to do that. To shoot someone.
Or could it be that she had fallen asleep in class? That was a possibility. One that she would rather, almost desperate, lean towards on it not being real. However, it had felt so, so real.
Trying her best to focus on what Ms. Poppet was lecturing about, Annabel soon realizes that she has heard it before.
Before she had decided to take her photograph, she distinctly remembered Ada's phone ring for some reason. So, concluding that, if Annabel were to hear Ada's phone ring about now, then that means.. that she had lived this before. Right?
That what had happened earlier was actually real, but that wouldn't explain why she was here again.
The buzz that comes from Ada's phone truly startles Annabel as she flinches from her chair, unfortunately, swiping her camera off her table and onto the ground. Destroying it into pieces.
Her father was going to give her one bloody hell of a lecture when he would found out she had destroyed this camera.
"Shit," she muttered under her breath and was about to go pick up all the pieces when she remembered exactly what she had done in the bathroom. How she had messed with time, somehow.
She had extended her hand, like she was reaching out for someone, but there was this force that went through her that she had not felt before. She wasn't sure how to explain it, it was unlike anything she had experienced (and it all happened so fast and slow at the same time, like time was glitching around her), but she wouldn't know for sure that it wasn't all in her head if she didn't give it a try to test it out.
Taking in a deep breath, she extends one hand out, and focuses on the force in her hand.
And like she had seen before, she could see everything rewind. Such a phenomenon feeling went through her as she pushed forward to go backwards on when her camera was not turned into smithereens.
Seeing her camera repair itself, like it had not just been broken onto the ground, and place itself onto her table was enough to know that this was real. Like really happening, and she lets her hand go, feeling the force on her hand dwindle down as she lets go.
Instead of being happy that it worked, Annabel Lee was frankly more flabbergasted that it did happen. That it had worked like.. like...
Does this mean she was a time traveler now? Though she was only able to rewind for mere seconds, it still meant that she had rewinded time.
Something she definitely knows she could not do before.
Disbelief does not begin to cover what she was feeling right now, and it appeared that she needed to do one more thing to confirm that what she had done was indeed real.
To take a selfie.
That could very well determine if she was hallucinating or not. Since, she remembers Ms. Poppet asking her a question when she did.
Turning her polaroid camera towards her, Annabel shakily smiles as she presses down on the button when, once again, a flash blinds her eyes for a second before disappearing. The photograph began to pop out when Ms. Poppet's attention turns towards her.
"Ah! It seems Ms. Whitlock here has taken a.. 'selfie' as you younglings would say!" Ms. Poppet exclaims excitedly, "However, 'selfies' have been around for a much longer time period than you may think. With..."
Okay, fine. That confirms everything she needed to know. She tried to keep a calm, cool head because she knows the moment she will not, she will likely send herself to an unneeded panic.
Focusing on her breathing -to keep it even- and to distract her mind, she goes immediately to think towards the individual Will had shot in cold blood.
Could it be possible that Annabel could even save her?
Perhaps, she shouldn't get involved at all, and save herself the trouble. But...
Had that been her in that situation, well, had it been her, she would have absolutely not continued to antagonize someone like Will. But if she wasn't able to get out of it with words, she would be grateful to have someone in her corner. Especially if it meant saving her life.
"Annabel, dear, are you listening?" Ms. Poppet cocked her head to the side, appearing concerned for one of her students.
"S-sorry, I think I need to leave the class. I don't feel well."
Ms. Poppet's eyes narrow slightly, analyzing Annabel's words which made her nervous until she said, "Ms. Whitlock, I did not expect this sort of behavior from you. We can talk more after class."
That was precisely not what she wanted. What was that?
She needs to do something to get out of talking to Ms. Poppet after class. She doesn't have the time before Will and the other person meet up and the unavoidable happens again.
Ms. Poppet's attention shifted from Annabel to the class as she asked, "Does anyone here know what he was known for?"
Then to the left of Annabel's table (she was at the back of the class), a classmate of hers responded with, "He was the first American who did the daguerreotype self-portrait."
Ms. Poppet goes to praise for Ada's correct answer, and that was when Annabel decided to give her newfound supernatural power a try again.
Since, if she were to give the correct answer to Ms. Poppet, that will surely avoid the talk that she will need to do after class.
Reaching her hand out and putting all her focus on her hand again, she sees how everything rewinds around her, the voices that go backwards, movements reversed until she felt that it was enough. She ignores the slight headache that appears.
"Annabel, dear, are you listening?" Ms. Poppet cocked her head to the side, appearing concerned for one of her students.
Like she had done the first time, Annabel apologizes and then proceeded to ask the teacher to repeat the question again.
"Don't worry, it happens even to those with great talents such as yourself.. As I was saying, what is Robert Cornelius known for?"
"..I believe he was the first American that had done the daguerreotype self-portrait."
With a smile on her lips, Ms. Poppet went to say, "And you would be correct, Ms. Whitlock. It seems someone has done her homework!"
Glancing around, Annabel notices Ada purse her lips into a thin line as Ms. Poppet continues to praise her for being ahead of everyone in the class and then finally continuing on explaining more on the subject.
When the bell rang, and Ms. Poppet went to dismiss everyone like she had done before, Annabel was glad that it was over. And though she knows that everything that was happening, she had lived through it before, she felt uneasy.
"Hey Morella," she said softly, although her tone was off and hoped that Morella wouldn't take notice when Annabel had gone to her table.
"Hey.. are you feeling well? You're looking a little pale."
Annabel unconsciously goes to lightly touch her face and asks, "The stress of schoolwork may be getting to me. Morella, have we talked today?"
Morella shakes her head, "No, this is the first time we've talked. Are you sure you're okay? I can take you to the nurse's office if you're feeling unwell."
"There's no need for that, love. Like I have told you, I'm fine. I'll let you go back to your homework now."
Annabel decides not to wait for Morella's reply as she turns and walks away quickly, heading towards the door when she curses under her breath when Ms. Poppet calls out for her.
And like before, Annabel gives out the same answer she did last time, and Ms. Poppet gives the same responses. However, the stare from Ms. Poppet soon made her feel uneasy as their conversation came to an end, especially when she noted that something looked off about her and asked if she was okay.
"Are you feeling well, Ms. Whitlock?"
"I might be a little under the weather, but I am fine."
Ms. Poppet didn't say anything else regarding that as she ended their conversation with once again encouraging her to submit her photo.
The moment she left the classroom, Annabel felt like could finally breath, but she soon remembered that time was running out until Will came into the bathroom.. and what happened, happens.
In a fast pace, she made her way over there, dodging the people around her until she did. Once inside the bathroom, Annabel did the same thing she did before, ripping the polaroid and throwing it onto the ground, walking towards the sink to wash her face...
When a gorgeous blue butterfly made its way inside the bathroom.
As she walked behind the stall to find the butterfly sitting at the edge of the bucket, she takes a quick glance to the glass-case emergency button, and an idea popped into her head. However, she'll look further into it after she takes a picture of the butterfly.
Click!
The shutter and flash of the camera scares the butterfly from the bucket, and flies away for safety. After shaking and pocketing the photograph, she starts to look around to smash the glass case with to press on the emergency button. The janitor's cart was filled with a broom and mop, and cleaning bottles, Annabel supposed the broom could work, but when she had gone to take it off of the cart, she realized it wouldn't budged. For God's s-
The door for the bathroom opens.
Now she only had seconds until the other person arrives.. she can do this, she can. Breathe Annabel, remember to breathe.
Annabel notices something underneath the cart, she kneels down to grab it from under, but of course it is stuck. Marvelous.
Standing up, her new tactic was to lift and push the actually heavy cart (why was it heavy?), and notices that it was a wooden mallet. By this point, the other person arrives, and she goes to pick it up. With the mallet in her hand, while hiding in behind the stall, she listens to the conversation just like in her vision. Even though it actually happene-
She listens to how the other person taunts Will with, "-to the disapproval on their faces already?"
Annabel gets the mallet ready with both hands when Will responds, and immediately goes to break the glass with great force. She listens to the shaky voice of the other's voice that were not Will's, and she presses the button. Not caring if her hand were to get cut in the process.
The sound of the alarm is sudden and blaring. And, when Annabel goes to peek her head from behind the stall to see, she sees Will being knocked into ground, his head hitting the floor, and just barely sees how the person had left the bathroom in a hurry.
A whine, almost like a whimper, comes from Will as he rolls over to get up and off the ground. But not before grabbing onto the gun that had fallen just inches from him. He held onto the gun loosely as his other hand held onto the back of his head in a soothing manner, and then left the bathroom.
Annabel blinked once, twice, as realization overcame her. She slides down against the bathroom stall until she's on the floor as she tries to process on what happened. That she had saved a life. A life that she very clearly saw die in front of her.
She takes a deep, well-deserved breath. She hadn't realized until then that her heart had been racing, making her aware that the situation was real. Her hand that was not on the mallet was shaking slightly, and she lets go off the mallet to soothe her hand to stop. This was all insane, insanity.
There were plenty, plenty of questions in her mind. On what this meant for her, on what she was supposed to do now. Perhaps it was her overthinking it, but it wasn't every day that you wake up with weird supernatural powers that save someone's life. Reversing time, actual time, although by accident, since you didn't even know you had powers to begin with. Normal people, as far as Annabel was aware, did not have such powers.
She couldn't help but feel terrify by it. Some would find it thrilling, perhaps even phenomenal, to be given (was she even given the power?) or to have such powers, but to Annabel Lee, it meant that she was no longer normal.
The entire situation was- is so unreal.
When she made her way out of the bathroom, no one else was in the hallway but herself and Dean Merry, who stood outside his office. Noticing her presence as she glanced at him, he gives her a questioning look before motioning her to talk to him.
She would rather not talk right now, and just go to her dorm, but she supposed there was no way around it.
Then, came what she should do. Should she be honest and tell him what happened? Or, should she lies?
He inquired her while he smiled, though it felt hollow, "How are you doing, Annabel Lee?"
"I am..." What were the chances on the dean doing anything on punishing Will for having a gun on school premises. For almost murdering someone, but she cannot mention that to him, she couldn't.
"You are..? You can be honest with me, Ms. Whitlock."
"I am not doing well. I saw Will with a gun out, talking strangely to himself in the girl's restroom."
Confusion flashed through Merry's face as he asked, "Who?"
"William Wilson?"
Merry looked away from her as he muttered the name "Wilson" over and over, as if trying to recall who he was.
"Ah yes, him. And you are sure that you saw him?"
She decided to be more forward, "I was behind the stall when he came in. He didn't see me, but I wasn't about to make myself be known when he had a gun on him, sir."
He didn't question why she had been at a stall, thankfully. "What did he do next?"
"He left."
"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. As you know, Nevermore Academy prohibits any kind of firearms on school grounds, just as any other school would for the safety of their students. I will need you to come into my office later on to address on the matter once I figure out more about the situation."
She held her tongue, thinking that what she had told him was enough to immediately get Will, at least, suspended. "Of course, sir."
"You may run along now. Everyone is outside, as you know for situations like this. Good day, Annabel Lee."
.
.
.
Walking out of the girl's dorm, Annabel sends a quick text to Prospero that she is heading her way over to give him the USB he had lent her for the chemistry homework. And, that she swore she didn't tamper with any existing file in a peculiar folder labeled "Funny Rat Videos." But, that she may have added some of her own on there as a heads up.
He sent a fast reply that read out,
"I did not know I had put that folder on there. I will see what you added on there later and send my reactions by text. I am still waiting in the parking lot.
-Prospero S."
She typed back, "You know you don't have to sign your name after every text, right? Also, be there soon."
Annabel was about to pocket her phone away when a new text came. It was from Prospero that read,
"It's a habit.
-Prospero S."
Once she was close to the parking lot, she noticed Prospero looking down at his phone, resting against his dark green Subaru Outback.
They greeted each other, as one of the few people Annabel knew that she could trust, she debated on telling him about what had happened as they talked about a video of a rat clenching their first in anger.
However, when she finally made up her mind on telling her, she heard her name being called out. The one calling her name out was none other than Montresor. What would he want?
"I believe you owe my 'buddy' over there an explanation on what you told the dean." He said out loud, and made a head gesture that pointed to Will who was on the other side of the parking lot. He walked with purpose, with knowing how this conversation was going to go, somehow.
Annabel was not going to back down, but she knows that she wasn't going to tell Montresor of all people on what she saw. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He smirked at her, "Like shit you don't."
"Don't talk to her that way," Prospero replied, already positioning himself between the two.
It seemed like Montresor was eager for a fight, getting up on his face and pushing Prospero's shoulder with his hand as he said, "What are you going to do about it, pretty boy?"
"Montresor," Annabel began, "enough of this. What do you want to know?"
Moving away from Prospero, he takes a closer step to Annabel, but not as close as he had been to Prospero, and asked, "Tell me what you told the dean and I'll be on my way."
"Will that be all?"
Montresor crossed his heart with one hand and raised the other, "You have my word."
"I doubt your 'word' means much."
She saw his face change slightly, his hand raised in anger, "Listen here, you don't know who you're-"
Prospero reacted by pulling Montresor's raised hand toward him, making Montresor lose his balance and falling onto the ground as Prospero side-stepped away.
It was at this moment when Will decided to make his way across the parking lot, yelling out for Montresor, who was currently getting up from the ground before trying to get back at Prospero.
"Annabel, get out of here," was what she heard from Prospero, but couldn't get a look at him as she almost saw Will get run over by a truck that blocked his path from getting to them. The door that opened the passenger's side soon revealed... it can't be.
The person from the bathroom, the one who confronted Will, the one who got shot and died, was the one and the same,"Lenore?!"
Her best friend (who she had not seen in years; it's complicated) motioned her to get inside. "Annabel, get in! Quickly!"
Prospero lost his grip on Montresor as soon as Annabel got inside the car, and instead of attacking Prospero, Montresor goes to kick the passenger door of Lenore's truck as he yelled, "I am not done talking to you! Get. Ou-"
Lenore speeds away as she flips him off. Annabel barely braces herself for the change in speed as she grips onto the door handle as they speed away. Almost running over Will again.
.
.
.
As they drove away, and making a super sharp turn that makes Annabel believe that the car was about to flip, a notebook falls onto the floor of the car. She goes to pick it up before Lenore could stop her.
In her defense, the notebook had fallen already opened, and so when she flipped the notebook around, it was to a great surprise to her that on the top of a page, cut out letters from magazines spelled out "ANNIE," which was followed by many words. Some crossed out or underlined for emphasis.
Before she could actually read what followed after her given nickname, the notebook was snatched away from her as Lenore loudly said, "Don't read that!"
"I wasn't," she tried to explain herself, "the notebook was already open, and it-"
"I believe you, relax. Just.. it's, it's really personal, okay?"
Looking at her, she noticed how much Lenore had changed. For starters, her hair was cut short, unevenly, and she had dyed only a strand (from where should could tell since she wore a beanie) of her black and white hair, a light blue. And, from how her sleeves were rolled up from her black shirt, she also had a tattoo on one arm. How strange that this was the very person she shared everything about herself once before, "Of course, pet."
The nickname slipped out of her in such familiarity that it made Lenore swerve the car for a hot second. It got quiet in the car afterward. But not the kind of quiet that was comfortable, and that neither party had to say anything to feel and be known that the other's presence makes you feel comfortable, no. This quiet was filled with tension, of unsaid words and...
"Welcome back to Nevermore, Annabel Lee."
Click. Click. Click.
"Hmm, I could do better than that." A step is heard getting closer.
A groan is heard from someone that was laid down on the floor.
"Shhh." A finger goes over the person's lips quickly before placing their hand back onto the camera. "You'll make me lose my focus. Remember to stay still, okay? It'll be over soon."
However, the person on the floor begin to shuffle around.
"Argh! What did I just say?" A quick step was made as if the person went to hover the other on the ground to position them right. "Don't. Move. You will ruin the shot."