The weirdest thing about it all was how normal everything looked.
Agatha couldn’t sleep that night. She didn’t want to let Demi go,
to be alone, for even a single second. For all their talk of changing
the world, changing the future, their present, the future they now
possessed felt strange and alien.
It wasn’t as though humanity was now obsessed with
these two deities. Man cannot live through God alone; they still had
time to work, to play, to eat, love. If Agatha had taken a Polaroid
of the city one day before they ever traveled back in time, and
spirited it to this new world
to compare it as the world looked like now,
you would have to try very
hard to see any of the
actual differences.
Agatha
sat up and rubbed her eyes. She put a hand to her heart. It was
barely beating. Her tongue
was dry. The air was chilly, and the weather was cold. But the warmth
of the blanket wasn’t enough. It was lonely and suffocating. If
only she…
Agatha sighed. She wished Demi were
here. Even at school, they
hadn’t the opportunity to truly be alone with one another and
discuss their new place in this world, and they wouldn’t have it at
least until the weekend. Two
days in sequence, named “Demuraday” and “Garaday”. The other
days of the week had undergone their own transformations, such as
Monday now being called Selenaday or Friday being called Venday.
However Demuraday and Garaday were the only days of the week named
directly for them.
Graciously, the months had
been the same, though the holidays had all been shuffled around.
Currently, this month of October was considered the holiest of
months, for during it, the anniversary of most of the Earth’s
visits by its twin goddesses occurred.
Demi would like that, Agatha thought. She loved October even back before this had all happened.
Agatha squirmed to her side and
grabbed her phone from the nightstand. The light hurt her eyes, but
gradually Agatha adjusted. She drafted a quick “Are you awake?”
text to Demi before violently scrolling back to the news app,
something she had been checking every few minutes arguably since
their return to this timeline.
Everything was so… peaceful.
There weren’t any particularly major conflicts. Nations had small
squabbles, and of course murder and petty crime were impossible to
breed out of humanity. But just as she was watching, the president of
the Russian Empire was being given a medal by the Queen for his work
in environmental protection. Persia now was the leading producer of
clean renewable energy. The entire region of the Mediterranean and
Middle East hadn’t seen a large armed conflict in literally
centuries.
And at the beginning and ending of every interaction between two
people, individuals would clasp their hands together, look up
slightly, and recite, “To the Twins.” This would be responded to
in kind. Everything anyone in this world did, it would be done in the
name of Demi and Agatha.
Of course it’s understood the pair
were not literally twins. They were wives, equal to one another in
their dominion of the facilities of this Earth. They shared
everything, and the strength of their love for one another was second
to nothing. Second to it, however, was the strength they had to level
everything on the Earth should they be displeased. They had done so
several times, and while there are small pockets here and there of
those with differing theological beliefs, by and large most
of humanity across every continent and region conducted themselves in
such a way to avoid becoming the target of their ire. Even those who
didn’t believe so – outspoken anti-Duo activist
Sal Tucker comes to mind – maintained the affects to their speech,
voice, and conduct in polite society. Not saying “To the Twins”
before any sort of formal address or public speech is considered to
be the very height of rudeness.
Agatha scoured Wikipedia for more and more shreds and tidbits of the
world they now inhabited until a banner dropped down from the top of
her phone.
“Yeah.”
Agatha’s heart lifted. Here in her cramped, unkempt, lonely room, a
bit of the sting had been taken off. Knowing her friend was alive and
awake elsewhere in the world, but had Agatha’s full attention,
meant the world to her.
Agatha tapped her thumbs on the screen. “Can’t sleep.”
“Same. Isn’t it incredible?”
Agatha smiled a half smile. “It
sure is.”
“I love it!” Demi responded with
an excited emoji. “I cannot wait until tomorrow so we can really
see what it’s like out there! A whole way of life dedicated to us!”
“Aren’t you, like,” Agatha replied, now sitting up in her bed
and planting the phone in a nest of fabric between her legs, “scared
though? Worried?”
“Hell no! Why would I be?”
“Well… even if we’re the new goddesses, here, we’re still
just regular teenagers. They have no reason to believe we’re
special.”
“Ha! That’s a good point! You do know what day it is, don’t
you?”
“Selenaday?”
“What?”
Agatha sighed and briefly explained in text the different names of
the days of the week.
“Oh. Weird. Well, yeah, I guess. But also… ?” Clearly an
invitation for Agatha to respond.
“My great aunt’s birthday?”
“Oh come on,
Agatha, the science fair!”
Agatha stopped typing, and she
simply stared at the phone. That was
today. The very reason they were building the machine in the first
place. The impetus for this life-changing journey. The origin of
their desire for power and domination over humanity.
“OH YEAHHHH” Agatha texted, unable to convey just how hard it had
slipped her mind through text. “I FORGOT ABOUT THAT!!!”
“The perfect place to showcase to the world our divinity!” Agatha
could not see Demi’s face, but Agatha was unsure whether she would
be able to stop herself from just kissing Demi on the lips,
unsolicited, if she could.
And our lo… Agatha typed
out to begin, but she then erased it all and drafted a new message,
“That’s right. We’ll show them all.”
“I’ll bring the coach around to
pick up the machine in the
morning. Be ready!”
Agatha reacted with a smiling face emoji and put her phone to her
chest. Her heartbeat was fast and fluttery once again. Like a bolt of
lightning, Demi had recharged her, and she was finally ready to get
some rest.
******
The drive across town to retrieve the device and Agatha herself was
silent even as Juliet was driving with Demi. Her hands were on the
steering wheel, eyes locked on the road, unable to even fathom how
mesmerized Demi was watching it all go by. It was as though
everything in creation had been turned two degrees crosswise. Things
were the same but different. Houses of worship of all kinds had been
replaced with iconography meant to evoke the duality between light
and dark, as well as carvings and stained glass windows of Demi and
Agatha’s visages.
And then there was Juliet herself. She had insisted on watching the
presentation when the group all arrived at the school, a presentation
which even Demi was unsure of how it was going to go. And the
possibility that it could result in untold devastation for everyone
involved filled Demi with…
Uncontrollable excitement.
She peered at Juliet like a predator stalking its prey. She didn’t
have any ill will toward her sister, none at all. By all means, Demi
loved her sister. But Juliet here and now, in this automobile
capsule, represented the culmination of everything that Demi and
Agatha had worked for. They knew not where they would end up when
this adventure started, but this was always how it was going to be.
Humanity at their beck and call, worlds upon worlds that were theirs
for the taking. Finally being appreciated, loved, respected, and
deified like the gods they were always meant to be. And that
was something no time machine could take away.
Demi’s drool threatened to spill out of her mouth, and Juliet had
already turned into Agatha’s parking lot by the time she finally
addressed her sister with a bit of embarrassed consternation.
“Heh heh, uh, you okay?”
Demi licked her lips and responded, “I will be.”
She looked outside and saw Agatha waiting, waving. The time machine
was in tow, nestled in the carriage of a rusty red wagon, the chair
and energy pack having been disconnected from one another so they
could fit into the trunk. Agatha was wearing gray sweatpants and a
tank top, jacket, flip-flops, and she had finally combed out her hair
for once in her life, letting it fall around her shoulders in
wondrous curls.
Demi’s heart raced as she grinned uncontrollably, waving back to
her friend to help her load the machine into the car.
******
“Are you ready?” Demi turned to her partner. Her familiar black
eyeliner and dark jacket was a comforting sign. Around the group,
dozens, perhaps even hundreds were awaiting the pair’s
presentation. The clocks were striking fourteen. The aisle was free
and clear for them to proceed henceforth to the raised auditorium
stage where their machine sat, intact, waiting. It had been inspected
by the judges prior to assure its safety, a process which nearly gave
Agatha a heart attack, but on the whole nothing out of the ordinary
had occurred. The time was officially now.
“Now that we’re together,” Agatha said, taking Demi’s hand in
hers, “I’m ready for anything. When I’m with you, Demi, I feel
like I can fly. I feel like I can face any challenge. Take over the
world,” Agatha continued, now lowering her voice to a mere whisper
in the ear of the one she loved.
Demi’s eyes began to tear, but years of holding it in to keep her
makeup perfect had trained her for this moment. She swallowed her
emotions and hugged Agatha, who accepted the embrace and started to
giggle as soon as Demi’s electricity came in contact with hers.
“What’s funny?” Demi asked without letting go. From her
viewpoint, she could even see Juliet watch their embrace from an
aisle seat, her heart melting at the affection they appeared to
share.
“It’s just… I remember,” Agatha said, disconnecting and
looking into Demi’s eyes. “All our lives, it’s felt like I was
the one who was hugging you, taking you in my arms. Telling you it
would be okay, that we were going to make it out of it okay. Back
when school, life, family, the world, everything seemed so uncertain.
But now, Demi, I realize something. It was you.”
“Me?”
“You were the one who kept me sane, kept me grounded. When my
father left, when my mother was abusive, when our classmates were
awful. It’s always been you. You were my blessing.” Agatha
sniffed. “Y-you saved me.”
Demi felt hotness travel from her heart all the way up to her cheeks
and the top of her head, and all the way down to her stomach, crotch,
legs and toes as Agatha gripped Demi’s shoulders.
“I’m nothing without you,” Agatha said, claws now nearly
ripping into Demi’s fleece pauldrons. “I think I… I love
you, Demi.”
This was it.
This was the thing that told Demi that it was time.
The universe was telling her it was time.
A glazed look filled Demi’s eyes in the wake of Agatha’s
confession, and she now once again took Agatha’s hand into her own,
looking at Agatha glassy-eyed.
She loves me, Demi thought, as they traveled down the aisle together.
She loves me! she thought again, feeling the strength of the
audience as they watched the pair ascend the stage.
She loves me, she thought
once more, even as she recited her half-hearted presentation of the
machine’s time-tripping properties while omitting its more curious
effects.
“You know… when they stand
together like this,” Juliet pondered aloud, whispering, “Don’t
they… don’t they sorta… remind
you of…” she searched her brain for whatever the answer might be.
“Is it the Goddesses?” Ms. Jones replied from the seat beside
Juliet’s, clapping as Agatha stepped in to fill a word that Demi
forgot. “You know, that’s where her name came from? The Goddess
Agatha?”
“Is that a fact?” Juliet replied incredulously. “You know I was
there when she was born? Our mom said she wanted to name her child
after the most beautiful thing she could imagine. So she chose the
Goddess Demi?”
“Really?” Ms. Jones responded. Then, a half smile approached her
lips. “Must be a match made in heaven.”
Finally, Demi beseeched the grace of the Goddesses as the presentation drew to a close, allowing the chance for the demonstration to occur. She assured the audience that they weren’t going to bore
them to death to get the first place prize. Any machine this
fantastic requires a demonstration.
The machine whirred as the compartment opened to reveal the seat. It
buzzed and hummed vibrantly, as though it was alive and responding to
the pair’s own energy and life.
Lifting her skirt so it wouldn’t tear on the shell, Demi hopped
into the machine. She took Agatha’s hand as she followed Demi
inside, pulling the top closed.
Finally, for a moment, the two were alone.
“Five minutes oughta do,” Demi said, to which Agatha giggled.
“Be careful before you send us back five thousand years!” Agatha
joked. Demi stuck her tongue out as she finished inputting the
numbers.
“Perfect,” Demi said, letting
her finger linger on the Go button.
She turned to Agatha.
“Do you promise that whatever happens, you’ll never leave me?”
Agatha’s face became deathly serious.
“Demi. I promise that I will stay
by your side until the day we die. For all time. I swear it on us.”
Demi turned her head and saw Agatha’s conviction in her face. Her
rosy cheeks. Her wind-swept hair. Even the occasional grease stain on
her lapel. And Demi was overtaken once again by that universal need.
Pressing the “Go” button, Demi reached in and planted her lips
directly on Agatha’s mouth, as Agatha grabbed her. The electricity
whirring around them was nothing compared to the energy being created
by their combination, as every emotion they were bursting with was
released in their passionate love. They kissed one another, again and
again and again, until the fans and the wires made it nearly
impossible to hear each other, when all of a sudden, Demi stopped,
panting, and shouted,
“In case you couldn’t tell, I LOVE YOU TOO –”
FLASH!!!
They were gone.