The Prior
Chapter 37: 2001 and Stayin’ Alive

POV: Max Jameson

Stayin’ alive. Stayin’ alive. I-I… Cassidy repeats CPR as a group of bystanders sing. Is this it? Is this how he dies? I’m going to throw up. I run up the stairs of the subway. Smoke enters my lungs. I begin to cough. I can’t stop coughing, actually. I hack and hack, like many of the people around me. My first several coughs are dry. Until, finally, a load of vomit is unleashed. Oh, god.

The splatter hit the ground and my shoes. I cringe and look away. A plane. My eyes burn, watery, from the smoke of the first building. People run out of the second tower. The fire alarm screeches. I see the plane approaching. I squint, unsure whether to watch or close my eyes.

“Run!!” I scream at the top of my lungs. I stand, paralyzed, as the second plane hits the tower. It goes straight through, cleanly, almost. The building crumbles, instantly. Screams echo around me, only muffled by more police and EMS sirens. Press hovers right around where I stand. They all say “Breaking news: a second plane…” at the same time. The fire alarm of the building echos, for just another moment, until it finally grows silent. More smoke enters the area around me. I turn, about to run back down the stairs of the subway. Peter. I look around, calling his name over and over again. My throat hurts from the screaming. Other names are called around me. John. Lisa. Brittany. Dan. Brian. I scream ‘Peter’ one final time. I look around. He’s still not there.

A woman pats me on the back, “I can’t replace my son, either.”

I turn towards her. She’s at least 65. Wrinkles line her face. The severity of the situation hits me. Did her son die? Did Peter? Did Elliot? I pull her into a hug. She begins to sob. I hold her for an unknown amount of time.

Only when she begins to crouch, do I pull her down to the subway. I glance around once more for Peter. He’s no where to be seen. I bite the side of my cheek. Oh, no. The woman and I trot down the stairs, which are now packed with people.

I don’t see Cassidy or Elliot. I freeze. The woman holds onto my arm. I look around. They were right there. Did he get up? Did he die? Where is she?

I hold the woman in front of me. She’s shrieking. I want to shriek too.

The End

POV: Cassidy Belyayev

I wake up. In a bed. A white fluffy bed. I sit up immediately and look around the room. I’m in what is effectively a metal box. The walls, the floor, the ceiling are all made of a silver colored metal. Stainless steel?

My head hurts.

I see a door in front of the bed, I jump out and notice that my clothes have been changed. White, silk pajamas fit my body. I yank on the handle of the door, but it doesn’t open. I continue to pull and pull at it, hoping that if I yank hard enough, it will come loose. My hands burn, the grooved metal worn on my skin. My hands throb in sync with my head. I try beating on the door. My fist creates a successful bang that echoes through the room, but after minutes of banging and banging, no one comes to my rescue.

“Max!” I scream, “Elliot!!”

I continue to pound on the door. The bones in my hand begin to feel sore. I slide down the wall, falling onto the cold, metal floor. I bury my face in my knees. Something chokes me up. My eyes begin to water. Chills run through my body. I sob and sob. It won’t stop. I don’t even have a reason. Water pours out of my eyes. My chest heaves. I make an attempt to calm myself down.

Elliot’s alive. The CPR worked. Max is ok… I think. Max was ok, the last time you saw him. Elliot’s alive. Elliot is alive. Elliot and Max are probably in boxes just like this too. Maybe Peter, too. I hone in on my breathing. In. Out. In. Out.

The tears begin to slow, my eyes now burning. I use the sleeve of my pajama shirt to blow my nose. Ok. I have to get out of here now. New motivation. I lift up my head and scan the room. On the ceiling, there is a security camera. Maybe I can reach it. I stand up, moving towards the bed. I balance myself on the footboard of my bed to take a closer look at it… Can’t they see me?

“Hello? Can you let me out please?” I say to the camera. Seconds go by to no rescue. I knock on the glass of the camera. Nothing. I sit down on the bed, defeated. Maybe the doors unlock after a certain amount of time. I’ll try again in a few minutes. I stare anxiously at the door and security camera. What if some of the changes we made killed or unexisted the person who’s supposed to be letting us out? We, hopefully, ruined the Congressionalsits. Was a Congressionalist supposed to let me out?

After what felt like hours, the metal door swings open. A young woman smiles and opens the door for me. Her face feels wrong to me, just looking into her eyes makes me shudder.

“Hello, Cassidy,” she says, flatly. I smile at her, but her face bears no response. I walk out of my metal box into a much larger metal box. The woman walks over to another door. Her steps are oddly even. Upon typing in some sort of code, the door opens and Max walks out. His pajamas are also white. His hair seems to have been freshly washed too. It suddenly lighted several shades. I almost forgot that he was blonde. I touch my own hair, perhaps mine has also been washed. Max hurries over to me and gives me a soft hug. I sigh, thankful to know he’s ok. The woman crosses to the opposite side of the larger room to a third door. The door opens and no one comes out. Max and I separate from our hug, waiting for Elliot to appear. The woman motions her hand outwards, as she did for Max and I. Max sucks in his breath. Max probably doesn’t know that I resuscitated Elliot, successfully. I turn to him, about to share what happened.

“Hello, Belle,” she says. I freeze and immediately look at Max, who stares with the same confusion that I do. He inhales sharply. The woman closes the door and walks to the next one. My heart sinks.

“What the fuck,” Max whispers.

“I really thought she would just come bounding out,” I whisper back. He nods, solemnly. The woman opens the fourth door.

“Hello, Elliot,” she says. Her intonation is wrong. Elliot steps out of the room, looking at the woman. After a second, he sees us standing in the corner of the room. He runs over to us. He nearly knocks me over in a hug. The sensation of his arms around my back burns into my skin. He sighs, pulling me into him. His hand pushes my head into his chest. At this moment, I realize we made it. Elliot reaches his arm out to Max. The three of us hug tightly. The clicking of the woman’s heels distract me. We all pull away from the hug and stare right at her.

“Welcome back Cassidy, Max, Belle and Elliot,” she says. Elliot looks at us upon her saying Belle’s name.

“Is she here?” he whispers hopefully.

Max shakes his head as I whisper, “No.”

The woman continues to speak, “We are currently in a non-dimensional room. This is a temporary space between dimensions. As you know, when you change history, you change the present too. What you have done is created a new dimension.”

I feel Elliot’s arm softly pull me into him. I look up at him and he just smiles at me.

“When a new dimension is created, the old dimension becomes obsolete. Over the next decade, the entire dimension will begin to crumble. First, infertility will rage for both animals and humans. No new lives will be created in this new dimension. Eventually, food will become sparse without animals and ecosystems will fail. Within approximately one to two decades of the new dimension being created, most lives in the original dimension will cease to exist. After exactly one century, any remaining survivors will have died and the dimension will close permanently,” The woman says. She does not blink the entire time that she speaks.

“Wow,” Max mutters. I look over at him. His hand is over his mouth and his skin has gone pale.

“The new dimension will continue to be the primary dimension, unless, of course, leadership chooses to send out an additional mission.”

I look between Max and Elliot who shake their heads.

“Leadership?” Elliot whispers, harshly. Upon Elliot’s comment the woman stops speaking and turns her head towards us.

“I think she doesn’t have the right information,” Max whispers.

“It’s not a person. It’s a robot. it’s not blinking. It completely ignored the fact that Belle never came out of that room. It’s programmed with some speech and it completely ignores what actually happened,” I say.

“I hope so,” Elliot says.

After a moment of silence, the robot continues, “You four have the opportunity to choose between the old dimension and the new dimension. If you choose the new dimension, leadership will be waiting to greet you with open arms. Advancement opportunities will be provided for you, as well. But, ultimately it is up to you.”

Elliot turns a soft glance at me. I take a deep breath. He just shakes his head at me, silently, as the speaker continues to talk.

“Once you make a decision, you will not be able to change your mind. So, please, think about your decisions,” The robot says before going silent.

I glance around the room. This is surreal. Max inquires about Peter. Elliot and I both shake our heads. Did he die? Did they drop him in the present?

“That sucks,” Max whispers.

“He probably died,” Elliot says, “It’s a miracle the three of us survived.” I nod in agreement. We wait in silence. A moment of silence for Peter. For Belle. For all those we lost along the way.

“What are we doing?” I whisper after a moment. Elliot squeezes me; Max glances at me.

“I don’t know,” Elliot says, before being silent for a moment. My brain whirls.

“Elliot?” I squeak.

“I have to go back to the old dimension. I can’t leave Ava. I have only missed, what, 2 or 3 hours? And I already feel so guilty about that. I can’t leave her,” he whispers at last.

“But, that world is going to fall apart…” I mutter, before even thinking.

“The last thing I want her to experience is losing her guardian after already losing so much to then be left alone in a dying universe. I’ll go down with her,” he says, more definitely this time.

“Then, I have to come with you. You’re not leaving her. I’m not leaving you.” I say, nerves running through my body. He shakes his head.

“There’s nothing left for you there. You’re not going back for me,” he says. My heart sinks. There isn’t anything left for me. Except for him.

“But, I love you, Elliot,” I mumble, looking straight into his eyes.

“I love you enough to know that you can’t come with me. You have to go there. You have to make sure that dimension is okay. You might have to save the world again, Cassidy,” he says, now cupping my face in his hands.

“You think it’ll be bad?” I ask. He plants a kiss on my forehead.

“I don’t know, Cassidy. But, I know that you need to go there. You’re the person who needs to rescue that dimension. It’s you,” he whispers, pulling me into a hug. I squeeze him, then I pull away from, just enough to look into his eyes. His brown eyes are glossed, watery. My vision starts to go blurry as I process what this means.

“We’re never going to see each other again, are we?” I whisper. He just shakes his head. I touch his cheek just as a tear falls. He yanks me back into a hug, squeezing me the hardest that I have ever been squeezed. My cheeks are completely wet from tears. I feel his chest heaving, up and down.

“We promised each other…” I mutter.

“Shhhh…” he hushes, holding me.

—-----

20 minutes later.

“Reminder: the portals will close in 30 minutes. If you don’t exit the building in time, you will die,” The bot mentions to us. Max stands across from us, just staring at Elliot and I.

“Which one of you is going back?” he asks, gently.

“Elliot,” I croak. He just nods softly.

“Your niece. That’s right,” Max mumbles. He walks closer to us and spreads his arms wide. Elliot pulls him into a hug and they hold it for longer than expected. Finally, they separate and I see a slight water in Max’s eyes.

“I’m gonna miss you, man,” Max mutters, patting Elliot’s back.

“Alright. Group hug!” I shout. The three of us pile into a hug. Everyone’s crying.

“I’ll never forget you guys,” Elliot says.

“We’ll never forget you, Elliot,” Max says. The three of us slowly separate, after a 15 minute warning from the assistant. Elliot pulls Max to the side for a second and whispers something to him. Then, he comes back over to me.

He looks into my eyes, one last time before pulling me into the greatest kiss of my life. My entire body melts into his arms. I don’t ever want to move away from this kiss. Especially since I know it’s the last one that I will ever get. My very last Elliot kiss. I savor the feeling. The feeling of his breath on my lips. The feeling of his beard scruff against my chin. The feeling of his teeth grazing my lips. His hand strokes my hair, until finally he pulls away.

“I’ll love you forever and always,” he says, voice cracking.

“I will continue to love you until the day I die,” I reply. From his pocket, he pulls out a plastic bag. It is sealed with several small items inside: coins, the 2001 flip phone, Bonnie and Clyde’s telegraph number… He slips out a jacket pin from the bag and places it into my hand. I pull a similar bag from the pocket of my pajamas and remove my only keepsake, the pink hairtire I left on my wrist the night before this all happened. He accepts my offering, kissing my hand as I give it to him.

He takes a step backwards, “Forever and always, Cassidy.” I take another step too.

“Forever and always.”

I stay where I am as he turns around, presses the button and slips out the door. I watch his body vanish into the old world. Some kind of cry escapes my mouth. Max waves me over to where he stands, near the door to the new world. I walk over there, slowly, looking back at Elliot’s portal. He pulls me into a soft side hug.

“I changed my mind. I’m following him,” I say. Max’s grip tightens on me. He shakes his head.

“No, you’re not. Elliot instructed me to get you through this portal by whatever means necessary,” Max says back. He slams the button with his opposite hand and yanks me into the portal. And, at once, Max and I stand in a completely new world. One I definitely don’t recognize.

Epilogue

POV: Cass Belyayev

Over one year later.

The baby is crying. I glance over at Max, he nods and stands up. With my eyes, I follow him across the room. He scoops up the baby, Belle. Her cries die down a bit after he bobs her up and down. But, after a couple minutes, he brings her closer to me.

“I think she’s hungry,” he says. I nod and reach over, taking the warm bundle into my arms. I adjust her body and let her feed from my chest. Max sits back down across from me and stares off into space.

I interrupt his thoughts, “I’m hungry too. Should we order a pizza? Don’t feel like cooking.” he snaps out of his stare and nods.

“Yeah, I’ll call it in. Your favorite? White pizza?” he verifies. I smile at this recognition and nod. I’m so thankful for him to be here with me. In the other room, he orders the pizza on the phone while I wrap up the baby’s feeding. He takes Belle from me and holds her while I clean myself up. Just after I sit back down, I hear a knock on the door. Food. Thank god. I’m starving.

Turning down Max’s offer to get it, I stand up and walk to the door, my government issued food-card in hand. The new world is not unlike the old one. Max and I have gotten used to the little things: government provided housing, food, water, healthcare and a weird reliance on radios. Oh, and, the word ‘Congressionalist’ means absolutely nothing. Thank god. Unbolting the three deadbolts, I open the door, ready to swipe my food card for some pizza.

But, the man at my door has no pizza. I strain my eyes, ensuring that I recognize his face.

His eyes wide, he takes a deep breath, “Cassidy?”

I swallow hard, resisting the urge to slam the door in his face. I can’t manage anything from my lips. I glance at him, he just stares apprehensively back at me. Another voice echoes from behind me, Max.

“Cass?” he calls, but not even to Max can I respond. Footsteps become audible as Max approaches the door, holding my daughter.

“Max… in pajamas… with a baby,” The man at my door, Elliot, mutters. His eyes water a bit, as he swallows a couple of breaths. I’m paralyzed in the door frame. Max gently touches my shoulder, spurring me to move out of the way.

“Why don’t you come in and have a seat?” Max asks, gently. Elliot’s face is pale, but he walks past me, through the door frame. I stay mute as he sits down on my couch. I sit just across from him, staring. I have so many things to say, but nothing escapes my mouth. He is mute too.

After endless seconds of silence, I finally replace a string of words, “Where is your niece?”

He looks up at the ceiling for a moment, “She died.” I inhale sharply. I can’t replace the words to ask him how… she died or how he got here or how he could leave me for so long just to come right back. I’m angry and sad and confused and maybe even relieved.

Finally, he replaces a question of his own, “Are you guys together? Romantically?” His voice quivers with the question. I glance up at Max, who still gently cradles the baby. He nods at me to answer the question.

“Not romantically,” I mumble. Elliot glances from me to Max and back to me. Waiting for more. I inhale as much oxygen as I can, but don’t manage anything more.

Max answers for me, “Exclusively platonic. With benefits.”

Elliot raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything immediately. The baby giggles grabbing at Max’s shirt, as if to relieve the tension of the situation. Just like her namesake.

“The baby?” Elliot asks, finally, “Produced by those benefits?”

I shake my head silently. Max walks around the furniture and adjusts the baby.

“Elliot, meet your daughter,” Max whispers, passing her to Elliot. A hint of a smile washes across Elliot’s face. The baby giggles, in his arms. Her giggle is infectious, bringing a full grin on his face. He gently strokes her cheek with his thumb. I feel myself smiling too, watching him with her. They look just alike.

“She’s so beautiful,” he mumbles. He looks up at me, his eyes still watery. Max clears his throat, which seems to awaken something in Elliot.

“The Congressionalists… did we do it?” he asks. I nod quietly.

Max sits down next to me, “We did.”

Wiping a small tear from his face, he sighs, “Thank god.”

Elliot glances up at me, “Wait…back to the baby, when did… I didn’t think that was possible. I thought we were careful,” he mutters. I shrug my shoulders.

Max chuckles, “Obviously not careful enough.” Elliot’s skin flushes red.

“I’m not sure. I think I was around 4 weeks when we got here, but I didn’t even know until three months. I thought she was Max’s, but the timeline didn’t make sense once we thought about it. And, once she was born, I knew she was yours. Just look at her eyes and her nose and her hair. She’s a little version of you…” I say, suddenly able to talk. I could talk about that baby forever. I clear my throat, “Max has been helping me a lot, anyway, since she was born. I’ve been struggling, um, mentally, postpartum and Max saved me. I never expected to see you,” I finally say, emotions escaping me. I feel my eyes water and Max gently rubs my back. Emotions get up with Elliot too. Tears fall from his face, a steady stream, each landing on the baby blanket.

Max clears his throat, after a moment, “I think that I should leave you two alone. Do you want me to take Belle with me?”

I shake my head, “We’ve got her, but thanks, Max. I’ll knock if I need anything.”

“Hey, Max?” Elliot whispers. Max freezes, turns his head and smiles at him. Elliot smiles back, tears still streaming down, “Thanks for taking care of our girls.”

Max nods, “We’re the prior, remember? We take care of each other. We’re all we have.”

I chuckle a bit. The Prior. What a stupid name. Max slips out the lock-out door of my apartment, into his own. Elliot stares blankly at me.

“Where do we even begin?” I ask.

Elliot smiles down at our baby, then at me, “Maybe with a hug.”

Author’s Note

I’ve been planning and writing and daydreaming this book since I was freshman in high school. I finish this as a college student, pursuing audiology. And while Creative Writing may not be my major or career path, I’m grateful for the lessons on writing I’ve learned in college. I hope that this book inspires other high school students to take their little writing hobby one step further.

And, in case the epilogue isn’t enough, I’ll share what I envision happening afterwards. I wanted the epilogue to be short and sweet and allow readers to imagine their own happy ending, but if you need my input proceed here.

I imagine that while at first Elliot was unsure, they all ultimately agreed that living in adjoined apartments is the best solution. Max gets Elliot a job in security at the forensic lab he works in. Max’s career shifted to a calmer, family-planning focused forensic lab. In the futuristic world I envision, couples almost always have ‘designer babies,’ and Max works with the genes to make that happen. Cass replaces a surprisingly fulfilling job in local politics. She originally intended to use the role in local politics to work her way up, but replaces her connection with their community too strong to lose. Elliot and Cassidy get married, of course. Max walks Cassidy down the aisle, and is also Elliot’s best man. And, just after their wedding, Donna visits. To the three’s surprise, she isn’t an aged old woman. By staying in the 1960s, Donna maintained the timetravel aging timeline, living years for just days in the prior’s time. But, Donna and her free spirit, with plenty of reflection time, is grateful for both the extra time and her freedom to travel. She’s visited nearly every country in the world. Max dates casually for years, as baby Belle grows. He settles down with a very normal, regular woman, just as Belle is a teenager. And, as much as he loved helping raise Belle, it solidified the fact that he never wanted children of his own. And… they all live happily ever after.