The Designs Of Change

~chapter 8~

          I sped along, probably breaking several road laws as I rushed to Copia's house.

          When I burst into the apartment without knocking, I saw Mrs. mendalave look up with a startled expression from her sewing machine in the front room.

          "Oh. hello, dear." the woman said, visibly relaxing when she recognized the redhead with her hand still clenching the front door handle. I slowly let go, and walked further inside, examining all the paintings on the walls as I did.

          "Please knock next time, but Copia and your mangled friend harrison are hanging out in the kitchen, poor boy." she lifted her hand from the desk it was resting on, and waved in the direction of the next room over.

          "Thank you, ma'm." I nodded appreciatively, before walking further inside to see a somewhat surprised copia, and a mostly tired harrison.

          "What did you need?" copia said somewhat sarcastically, though I could tell she was genuinely curious.

          "I was reading the hidden journal messages after I got home, and there's something very... strange." I said slowly.

          "Well are you just going to stand there then? Come and show me then." copia said. I plopped down next to her, obligingly pulled out the journal, and flipped to the last few entries, where the person writing seemed like they completely changed.

          "This is what I was curious about." I said in a low voice. "It seemes like these two entries are cypher locked or something."

          Copia took a close look, and pushed up her glasses at she peered down at it.

          "Do you perhaps know what kind of cypher it could be? Caesar cipher, substitution cipher?" copia asked.

          I narrowed my eyes at her question. "You know I can't know this stuff off the top of my head like some people."

          "Well then let's check through the journal. The cipher key must be in here somewhere if she ever hoped for anyone to read it." copia said while flipping through the journal, dangling the UV light I had taken out over the pages as she flipped.

          After what felt like ten minutes, I jerked from my zoned out state when she yelled "here!".

          My eyes strayed to the page, where a cypher key was scrawled out on the paper.

          "Now that we have this, we can translate."

          I sat, zoned out again, this time for what felt longer, just watching copia writing letters slowly underneath the entry, until she just stopped, and flicked my ear to gain my attention.

           As I read the new letters on the page from both entries, my breath constricted as I felt an overwhelming sense of dread suddenly wash over me.

           If it clears anything up, I am not Abbi. at least... not anymore. Sometimes I feel like her, but in the end all I see are my memories from before this whole mess, before the moth known as Sight ruined my life.

           I'll be fine though, this is very much a problem I can solve if I try hard enough, but there are bigger issues as far as I can tell.

          First issue being:

          The world is about to end.

          I don't have a concrete timeline, the blood memories must have faded there, or perhaps it's part of the things my ancestors deliberately forgot. All I know is that one day very soon, the world we know will end and all of humanity will end with it. The beings from far off in the galaxies are making sure it will result in the absolute destruction of the human species.