"Tell me again. Explain to me what happened." Charlotte sat with her arms crossed over her chest and one leg crossed over the other. She stared at Casey not in an angry way, but with a concentrated effort of control. This was Charlotte's go-to posture when she felt frustrated.
Casey paced back and forth across the room. "He told me not to do it. Said I should leave him alone." She turned and shrugged. "I don't know, Charlotte. What should I have done?"
"Healed his leg."
"He told me to get away from him."
"He's hurt."
"Yeah." Casey sighed. "It's not fatal. Luke will be fine. It's just that he's a Traveler, and with a hurt leg...he should have let me help him."
Charlotte ran her fingers through her hair and stood up. "I don't get it. Why didn't he want you to?"
Casey stopped pacing and turned to face Charlotte. "Oh, you know why. He doesn't want to be Aware. He needs those brief breaks, even if he doesn't realize that he's taking a break."
"No." Charlotte shook her head. "There's gotta be more than that." Now she started pacing the room. "I haven't talked to him in a while...over there...but I know him. Luke would be okay with knowing. He'd want to help, even over there."
"Well, he's your friend. Maybe you should go talk to him."
Charlotte scowled. "I wouldn't say we're friends."
"You grew up in the same neighborhood. Fine. Whatever." Casey pulled on her coat. "All I'm saying is, maybe he'll listen to you." She pulled her straight golden hair over the collar.
"Do you know where he is now?"
"He's staying downtown at the shelter. Needs to rest more while his leg is hurt."
"Okay."
"So are you going to go see him?"
Charlotte nodded. "I don't know that I can change his mind, but I'll talk to him."
"Good. If you need me, I'll be in the west end. Just send a message over."
"Thanks."
Casey left and Charlotte put on her coat. She pulled the zipper up all the way to her chin and tugged the hood over her head. She walked out into the street and plunged her hands into her pockets as freezing wind whipped about her.
Her stride was purposeful, one footstep firmly followed another. She stared straight ahead as she walked--not that many people were outside anyway.
The crossing over business annoyed Charlotte, probably because most everyone else had a choice. Since Charlotte could remember her dreams, she saw glimpses of this world. She never had a choice: she knew of one ordinary world and another world bursting with monsters. And she knew that soon the worlds would collide and blend together. Monsters here, monsters over there.
Luke thought he could find a way to stop it. That's why he joined the Travelers. He traveled the Earth looking for a way to keep the worlds separate. His personal mission. Luke spoke with wise men, old women, and young children. He listened to advice from the wealthy and memorized the proverbs of the poor. He has walked on every major land mass and found nothing. And now he was in a shelter resting a broken leg, refusing to let his counterpart know the whole story of what was going on. Luke had a good heart, but he was stubborn.
Charlotte tensed her shoulders against the cold. She pulled open the door to the shelter and stepped inside. She glanced around the room and her eyes settled on a young man in the corner with his foot propped up on a chair. Charlotte walked around the huddles of people over to Luke.
They were the same age, but their work made both of them look older. Charlotte had dark circles under her eyes from restless nights. Her face was often tense and slow to smile. Luke's dark brown beard matched his messy hair, and the beard made him look at least five years older. Clean shaven, he probably looked 15.
In the other world, Charlotte and Luke are graduating from high school this year. But on this side, their efforts to stay alive and do something to help humanity has taken a physical toll, and Charlotte knew they all suffered spiritually as well.
"Hi Luke." Charlotte pulled up a chair and sat across from Luke.
He glanced up from his notebook where he was scribbling notes. "Charlotte. Hey." Luke closed the notebook and sat up in his chair. He cleared his throat. "What brings you here?"
Charlotte looked at his propped-up leg. "What happened to your leg?"
"Accident. Bad fall when I coming back to the city."
Charlotte lightly tapped the cast. "Will you be wearing this for a while?"
Luke nodded. "The doctor said it'll be a few weeks."
"And you're okay with that?"
Luke shrugged. "Sure, what am I supposed to do?"
Charlotte looked around and then whispered. "I know Casey offered to help you."
"Ugh." Luke lipped his lips and responded, "I thought maybe she'd send you here."
Charlotte leaned back in her chair. "She didn't specifically send me, okay? But I don't get it. She could have you up and walking a few minutes. Why wait around with a cast on your leg?"
"The alternative is revealing everything to my counterpart. I don't want him to know about the nightmare over here."
Charlotte crossed her arms over her chest and crossed one leg over the other. "You know he probably has nightmares about it anyway. Might as well let him in on the whole thing."
Luke shook his head. "No. Let him have a normal life while he still can."
"The earlier he has this information, the better he'll be prepared for the Merge. You want to give him the best chance over there, don't you?"
"Yes, of course I do." Luke shook his head. "Look, I'm stuck either way. I'm afraid if he knows, he'll look for a way to stop what's going to happen. That's exactly what I did, and we're exactly the same person. But he can't just get up and look for a solution over there."
"And there's something else?"
Luke looked at Charlotte and nodded. "I don't want him to go looking when I know he won't find anything. I did all that work. I haven't found a single thing that could help us."
"Fair enough. But he's going to find out at some point."
"Then he'll find out when he's supposed to find out."
Charlotte took a deep breath. "I fear I'm going to be the one to tell him."
Luke jerked his head in surprise. "What?"
Charlotte shrugged, a look of confusion on her face. "Those words just came out, I'm sorry."
"Automatically."
Charlotte nodded.
"A prophecy. I thought they didn't come over you like that anymore."
"I don't know, I guess they do. Not like we have guides for how this works."
"Well." Luke opened up his notebook and sighed. "I guess we have our answer then. Casey isn't supposed to help me."
"Fine." Charlotte stood up. "I guess we're done. I knew I wasn't going to change your mind."
"That's why you're a Prophet."
Luke grinned at her.
"Yes, well. I'll leave you alone then." Charlotte took a step to walk away and then turned back to Luke. "Hey, if you need anything, I'll be in town, okay? You know how to reach me."
"Thank you, Charlotte."
"Take care, Luke."
Charlotte left the shelter to enter the icy winter air again. That was it, then. Casey wasn't meant to heal Luke. The other world's Luke would would stay in the dark--or the light, rather--for a little longer.