The air hung heavy with diesel fumes and wet earth, engines idling like a low growl. Rachel brushed her hair out of her face as she gazed at the parked SUV's boxing Elijah's car into Emily's driveway. Her breathing sharpened as her heart thumped in her chest. She reached into her windbreaker, clutching Emily's notebook. The strings loosen and tighten, reflecting sunlight as the closet SUV doors swing open, and Elijah stands beside Rachel.
"Play along," Elijah whispered as he shoved Rachel to the mud and unholstered his Desert Eagle. "Don't move!" He barked as he aimed the gun barrel at Rachel's head. His grip on the Desert Eagle trembled slightly, sweat beading at his temple.
Rachel's eyes widened as she wiped her face of mud. She glared at Elijah, but her face softened when she looked him in the eyes. Her chest tightened, mud cold against her palms, as his fear-flecked eyes begged her trust. Her attention drifted towards Dezerea as she stepped out of the SUV, wielding her pistol. Dezerea's black standard issue P.I.A. jacket fluttered in the wind. She took a moment to remove her sunglasses, handing them to one of her lackeys.
Rachel spat at Elijah as Dezerea approached with a stoic expression.
"Agent Carter, I see you took my words to heart. Though I must admit I had my doubts when I heard that you left the High School with one of the students," Dezerea said as she glanced down at Rachel before meeting Elijah's gaze. "I take it this is the girl I've been hunting for?"
"This won't work," Rachel thought as she gazed up at Elijah, who met her gaze.
"I think so, I plan to send her to HQ," Elijah replied as he reached for Rachel's arm.
Dezerea placed her arm on Elijah's shoulder. "I think we went over this, Agent Carter. HQ wants this handled differently," she interjected as she gripped his hand. "Tell HQ I have it covered, you can leave now."
"Just hear me out for a moment."
Dezerea's eyes narrowed. "I understand your moral dilemma, Agent Carter, which is why I haven't blown your brains out already," she flatly replied. "Go home, this is not your battle anymore."
Rachel shook her head at Elijah, then stared at Dezerea, who aimed her pistol at her. A sigh escaped her lips as Rachel's eyes glowed. The Oak Trees scattered across Emily's Trailer Park slowly stopped swaying in the wind. Birds paused mid-flight in the stagnant air. The strings tightened around everyone except for Rachel as she stood up. The world went silent- no wind, no hum from the nearby Reactor, just Rachel's sharp breaths. She gazed at Dezerea and Elijah's frozen bodies as her right hand tingled with static electricity.
Static crackled up her arm, sharp and biting, as she fought the corruption's pull. A flicker of a grin crossed her face briefly.
"Great just fucking great," Rachel barked to herself as she walked over to Dezerea. "I guess they will learn the hard way," she muttered as she emptied Dezerea's pistol magazine. She threw the bullets into the treeline and then walked over to the other SUVs, taking all weapons and ammo from Dezerea's bodyguards.
Rachel then walked back, firmly planting herself in the exact position in the mud where Elijah had pushed her. She blinked heavily, rubbing her arm as it pulsed and throbbed, as her eyes stopped glowing. Dezerea's pistol clicked, but nothing fired. Dezerea and Elijah's eyes widened as she pulled the trigger once more.
"What the," Dezerea muttered as she checked her pistol magazine. She snarled with a death stare at Rachel. "What did you do?"
"Not much, could have done much more," Rachel replied as she stood up and smiled. She glanced at Elijah, who stepped back, eyes blinking slowly. She then kicked Elijah in the nuts. "That's for fucking pushing me in the mud!" She yelled as Elijah clutched his groin while cursing incoherently as he collapsed to the ground.
"You think this is a game!?" Dezerea screamed as she swung her pistol at Rachel's head. "How the?" She muttered as she glanced around, only to find Rachel was no longer there. "I will fucking kill you!" She screamed, her words echoed in the treeline.
Rachel stood in the treeline as she gazed down at Dezerea from the hillside. She sat down and clutched her arm, which sizzled like burning oil. She breathed out of her mouth and closed her eyes as the adrenaline wore off.
"As long as I don't rewind time, I can do this. This has to be the last loop, I can't keep doing this," she muttered out loud as she watched Dezerea help Elijah up to his feet. "Well, at least he is safe," Rachel muttered as the SUV's engines hummed to life. They left the trailer park, and Elijah was in tow.
Rachel bit her nails as she stood and glanced around at her environment. She reached for the notebook tucked in her windbreaker. Her eyes drifted towards Emily's trailer, then back towards the road, and then the Reactor. She cautiously made her way out of the treeline, making her way back towards Emily's home.
She creaked the front door open and stepped into Emily's living room. Rachel gazed at Emily's childhood photos scattered across the entertainment center before returning to her room. Her shoes created splotches of mud across the dingy brown carpet. She swung open Emily's closet, grabbing a pair of jeans and a black hoodie. Afterwards, she went into the bathroom and stared into the mirror.
Her reflection stared back at her with the same worried expression stitched into her face. She scoffed and grabbed a box of black hair dye from the medicine cabinet. A sigh escaped her lips as she rubbed her long, strawberry blonde hair.
"Why won't you tell me what you want me to do?"
No reply.
"Is this some sort of test?"
Still no response.
"What did Emily Prime do?"
Silence.
Rachel shook her head as the Engine refused to reply. She reached back in the medicine cabinet and grabbed a pair of scissors, clutching them nervously against her hair. Locks of muddy blonde hair fell into the bathroom sink as she snipped away at her hair. Her eyes watered as she stared at her questionable handywork in the mirror.
"At least this might buy me some time," She muttered aloud as she dumped her hair into the trash. Rachel clutched the black hair dye with a sour expression before smearing it into her hair. She looked underneath the sink as she rubbed the dye into every hair strand.
"What is this?" Rachel said as she pulled out a pair of teal and pink hair dye boxes from underneath the sink. She tossed the teal box aside, then shrugged.
"This should piss her off," Rachel chuckled as she spread a thin strip of pink hair dye directly where Emily's teal highlights are in her hair.
She then got into the shower. Hot water tingled against Rachel's skin as the faucet turned on. Black and pink dye were mixed, then swirled down Rachel's back before being collected with the water down the drain. Rachel lingered in the shower much longer than was required. Her fingers started to prune as she stared absent-mindedly at the shower faucet.
She closed her eyes, focusing on the hum ringing in her head. Fixating on the rhythm, she began to sing.
Glitch in the mirror, shadow's not mine,
Echoes of a past that's crossed the line.
Bass drops heavy, like a heart out of time
In this fractured beat, I'm losing my mind.
Rachel turned off the shower, grabbed a towel, and continued singing.
Fractured frequency, can't tune it out,
Static in the silence, drowning out the shout.
Rewind the tape, but the end's the same,
In this cosmic game,
She got dressed, then looked at herself in the mirror. Rachel rubbed her black hair. The pink highlights bounced as she nodded to the rhythm in her head.
Whispers in the dark, secrets untold,
Bound by a thread that's starting to unfold.
Guitar strings weep, a melancholic cry,
In this endless loop, we are doomed to die.
Rachel played with her hair, attempting to create a mid-length hairstyle. Her eyes jolted open as she pondered the song she was singing.
"Endless loop?" Rachel muttered as her eyes narrowed. She walked out of the bathroom and then back into Emily's room. She grabbed the notebook from her muddy windbreaker and sat on Emily's bed.
She opened it and flipped over its contents for her name. Her eyebrows furrowed as she leaned forward and began to read.
"Rachel rewound time, and she has no idea. I wouldn't have known if it weren't for Emily Prime telling me so. I thought I was the only one with some weird powers, but now that I know I am not alone, there is a way to fix this. If she can rewind time, maybe I can save myself?"
Rachel rubbed her neck as she flipped the page.
"So Rachel rewound time, and I lost count of how many times she did it. Emily Prime has kept me up to speed mostly; she seems keen on trying to help Rachel. She told me she was close to Rachel in her universe but didn't want to get into specifics. I don't know how I feel about Rachel being able to mess with time. She is just an ordinary girl trying to live her life, randomly sending us back in time. I would probably be twenty years old if it weren't for Rachel. Probably should be happy, since it's delaying my death."
Rachel closed the notebook and then looked out the window. She bit her nails as she stared at the Reactor on the hillside. She pondered her fragmented memories, eyes darting back and forth as she recalled previous loops. No memory surfaced of being consciously aware of her time powers. Her eyes jolted wide in clarity as she stood up.
"It's not a loop. It's a spiral."