Dara, Page, and the Secrets of the Multiverse

▷ 10.1

The dining table witnessed almost everything important in Dara's life, and as he was about to have another core experience added to his litany, it bore witness to that too. A hulking shadow brought about by the light from the living room reminded him that he wasn't alone, and that someone expected an answer from him. An answer which he wasn't certain he could give without losing something.

He licked his parched lips, hands itching for his balm. His backpack was back in the living room, and walking out of the conversation now would lead to more problems. He was trapped, whether he liked it or not, and he wouldn't get the key to his cage until he blurted out what his interlocutor wanted to hear and not what was true...or necessary.

"Are you planning to bore a hole into the table?" a grating voice speared into Dara's ears. It sounded annoyed, angry, and desperate all at once. "Why can't you give me an answer?"

Dara's head snapped up, gaze resting on a man opposite him on the table. Unlike Dara, Sam stood. Had been standing, towering over Dara for the past thirty minutes or more of conversation and silence. "Why are you pressed for one?" Dara countered. "You can't just walk up here, tell me you want to throw away everything we share, and expect me to just nod my head and leave you alone. Do we mean nothing to you?"

Sam averted his eyes. "I won't trade everything we went through for shit. But this..." He gestured in the air between them. "This has stretched for too long. I need more, but you won't even think of what comes after. I'm just—I'm tired of it, honestly. I'm tired of this."

"It's because of the mark, isn't it?" Dara fired.

His throat clenched as his mind latched completely onto the idea. Of course, it had to be. Somewhere in Sam's narrow mind, he reached a conclusion that what they have wasn't ideal, that Dara's hesitance at performing legal rites to finalize their union was a signal that they weren't meant to be together. Worse, Sam got his confirmation when the mark fiasco exploded.

It happened a few months ago. The news flooded all media channels, talking about the strange marks appearing in people's bodies that seemed to match someone else's. After several research studies were conducted, the marks were understood as the "fate rune". People who got together with the others who matched their rune reported increased levels of happiness and satisfaction when it came to relationships.

When the phenomenon first appeared, Dara scoffed at the entire thing. It was a confirmation bias of some kind, and believing in their potency was no better than ascribing future events to the stars or subscribing to superstition. "The marks mean nothing," Dara said before with Sam in attendance. "It's just a bunch of nonsense. We can still choose who we will love, and not just because of whatever those marks are."

Sam used to disagree on Dara's position. "Fate has literally never stepped foot in our world as visibly as this," he argued. "It's not our place to argue with it. Or prove it wrong."

Dara should have seen it coming then. By the time the marks appeared in both of them, Sam was overjoyed and ecstatic about finding out what Dara got. That was why he didn't get to know it until Dara was ready to admit it. That they got differing symbols impressed on the left collarbone. And Dara tried his best to keep it to himself, to keep lying to Sam by assuring him they have the same mark.