Chapter Text
Melissa opened the door and closed the door behind her. She had just entered a strange theater, some kind of flowing grey fog floated just above the floor and it was filled with still people.
Her steps made an echoing rhythmic thuds against the ground but none of the theater goers reacted. She does not know how she got here, but she does know her objective. Save her brother.
When she finally came halfway down, halfway to the front, out of the corner of her eyes she saw a familiar face. It was Klein Moretti, he stood out against the faceless crowd like a beautiful rose against a yellowing grassland. She could not help but change her directory. Instead changing her pace to go to her brother instead.
His head was in his hands. And from the distance he looked as if he was crying.
She shuffled through crowd, there was enough space for her to move quite easily and it helped that none of the other goers did not move. The center of the row, was lit up by a spotlight.
He shone out brighter than the show going on the stage itself. Something was wrong, a thing she just couldn't place.
As she got closer she realized something. He was wearing a weird cloak, his face was half obscured by a plain mask and he held a star encrusted in his right hand covered In a black black cloak. Her hands reached out unconsciously.
"Klein, let's go home. Please, I dont like it here" he did not move in the slightest, as if not even hearing her. But instead his gaze was sharply pointed elsewhere, to the performance still playing on the stage.
As she couldn't help Klein in this state, she mused that the play down there had a beyonder element to it that kept his eyes on it, kept everyone in this theater's focus held on it.
She did not want to also get stuck here, but seeing no other option she focused her attention on the play.
The actors all looked wrong, she didn't understand why at first but then a horrifying realization bled into her mind. They all looked familiar, like her, like that officer that delivered the news, and like her brother. But it was not as if they were wearing a costume, their bodies were horribly misshapen.
To play Melissa Moretti, the actor's body was crushed, some parts cut out, some parts molded.
To play that green eyed officer, the actor's body was stretched out of proportion, his eyes dug out to be replaced with glass beads, to his arms and legs were more flesh stitched to make him fit the character.
Out of everyone, the only normal one was her brother. The character of Klein Moretti.
Something vile and sour came back up her throat staining the back of her tongue. But she kept the liquid down, trying whatever she could to keep her eyes on the show itself. Not to avert it.
It seemed that the story of the performance was set a few months before his. . . death. No he shouldn't be dead? He is sitting right next to her. No no he died. Shaking away her confusion she focused on the story again.
"Klein Moretti" walked out to the stage. His body moving much more naturally than the others.
Along side him were eight other people. Five of them stood out to her. One because she knew him, how she can never forget that face again. But the other four. . . it was because of how clearly defined their faces were. Yes their bodies were mangled and twisted, but their faces. Their faces were clear and well defined, as if someone had carefully carved them out of marble. The only weirdness being that their faces did not move no matter what the actor's did.
She shook her head to clear everything out, the actor's faces and bodies did not matter. Rather the story is the thing she should be more focused on.
And she did.
As the group moved and solved various events, and after the third one she vaguely realized that they were a group of nighthawks. Her gaze quickly flickered to the Klein next to her. Was he- Everything made sense. The salary, the training . . . the death
Unconsciously a dry chuckle escaped her lips, it seemed that she wasn't the first nor the only beyonder in the family.
One by one each actor died off, Some seemed to have lost control, some died at the hands of criminals and the only one left was Klein. But that-
"That's not right" at the sudden sound, Melissa quickly turned to the sound. It was Klein.
"That's not how it went" and everything went in reverse, the "dead" actors rose up and it all went to the first state she saw them in.
The play went on twice more then. With each iteration, different people died and survived. With the only constant being Klein Moretti.
She mused that in real life something similar had happened. Seeing that nothing was changing Melissa got up from Klein’s side.
She walked to towards the stage, maybe if she could just stop the play, maybe this nightmare would be done and over with.
The grey mists consumed her.
---
Melissa Moretti woke up in a familiar bedroom. She blinked a few times, her eyes adjusting to the sudden light.
She was back here again. She was just finishing the last enhancements to her year end project. She had no other memory.
And . . . the ticket.
The ticket. . .
'He asked me if I wanted to change fate'
Another fate.
Change in fate.
She looked around to see their old home, a little dingy place the three siblings used to call home.
She got up with a startle. Klein!
'I need to check on Klein!' She jumped up from her bed, running to Klein's room. Uncaring about knocking and the like, she pushed the door open. She just had to see him alive again!
"Klein!" Her smile faltered instantly after looking at what was inside the room. Klein sat at his desk, flipping through his diary. Just like usual, just like a scene from that time. But what truly shocked her was the wound on his temple, a gruesome thing slowly filling up with flesh and brain matter.
She froze.
"Klein?" the owner of that name seemed to finally seemed to regain his composure.
"Melissa? Close your eyes!" his hand moved to desperately cover the wound up. But what she saw couldn't be fake. What? Wasn't this a second chance? Why- Why was his brother like that?
"What happened?" Klein seemed to be panicking too.
"I don't- I don't know. It's okay Melissa, it doesn't hurt." Melissa hurried to grab her brother, hugging him close to her.
"Please, what happened? Who did this to you?" over his shoulders, she saw a revolver on the desk, an expensive looking one. Uncontrollably her hand moved to grasp the revolver in hand, feeling it's warmth, she could tell this was the culprit.
A murder attempt?
But who would even want to kill him? They were a normal family, with no connections to anyone who would want this at all.
"I- Melissa, I don't know- Just " She didn't know what to do.
"Klein, just stay here. Just- I'll go get a-" She ran out, why has the timeline changed so much, this early. She ran off, into her own room and got a small box of old ratty bandages they had prepared years ago.
She ran back, stumbling, knocking over things in his way. Klein was still sitting there.
"Melissa don't waste the bandages" She froze.
"What?" Melissa looked at him again, the wound-
"It's gone, I don't know why but it's gone. So don't waste the bandages" It was true, not even a scar was left. "Melissa, go to school. I- I think I can figure it out. We can figure it out in the evening. "
"What in the world are you saying-"
"Melissa, even if we go to the doctor now, who would believe me if I said a gruesome wound on my temple just magically vanished? Stop worrying and go to school. "
"I- fine. But be careful, okay?" Klein smiled
"I'll be careful Melissa, now come on you'll be late"
The next few days followed the script exactly. Melissa saw as Klein got a job and became more and more confident.
She would always try and follow him but everytime she did so, he would somehow find her and say that she should go to school instead.
She already went to school! She was in college.
She sighed in contempt, one of the things she hated the most in this second chance was that she still had to go to school. She wanted nothing more than to skip school but she still needed the certificate of graduation for her future college career.
Maybe she should just become a child prodigy and get a lot of money.
It was getting closer and closer to the end date. And she could not get a new lead at all, she cursed her old self for not looking into his work more.
And- and when did Klein get so good at lying? Klein could easily steer away any conversations she made and it was becoming more and more frustrating and hard to get straight answers from him now.
Melissa huffed, September 9th was fast approaching. And she was not a smidge closer to the truth. Maybe she should just force Klein to stay home that day. If he survives, she'll have a lifetime to get the truth out of him.
She skipped out of her room, and going across the hall to come in front of her brother's room. Pushing down all the sad memories this house drew in her time and time again, she cheerfully knocked on the door.
"Melissa?" taking in a deep breath.
"Klein, on September 9th there is going to be a parent conference. Could you come?" Klein froze for a moment and smiled brightly.
"Of course! I'll ask for a leave right away" Melissa smiled. Joyfully thinking of her plan
She was still smiling as she dragged her poor older brother around the festival. Going in and out of stalls.
"What about your parents conference. Did you lie to get me to come to you to the festival?" He asked indecorously. She laughed.
"Yeah, I'm really sorry. But it's just that recently you've been more and more distant. And I thought it would do you good" Klein huffed out a chuckle. Then froze as his face turned to shock and fear.
"Melissa, go straight home alright? I need to do something important" she froze, what was going on? Even if there was an emergency he shouldn't have known.
"But- but"
"Melissa, listen to me. Go home, and stay there alright? Don't go out until- You know what it's better if you escape Tingen. Go to the nearest train station and escape Tingen. Bring Benson with you alright"
"What? Klein!" But Klein was already running, running faster than she ever saw before. She followed in vain. Through the streets, to a little building named 'Blackthorn security company' but by the time she arrived, a police blockade had already been constructed.
She stood by as they dragged three cloth covered bodies out, she stood by as Klein was dragged out by several men. She stood by as a guttural scream tore out from her brother's throat and then
And then everything became indistinct.
A giant wall of grey fog rolled in and the world seemed weirder than ever. The colors burgeoned and the world around them trembled.
She had a dream of a theater bathed in grey mists, of the still crowd, of a play she could not remember.
And she woke up.
She woke up in a familiar bedroom, to a familiar ceiling.