No Time for Sorrow

If There's No Such Thing as Time

Snowflakes fell on a perpetually untouched lawn in a world suspended in time. A boy sits in his bedroom with someone he was beginning to believe was his soul mate. In every sense of the word. "We could go practically anywhere in the world, you know." His eyebrows crumpled as he looked down at his companion, his nervousness getting the best of him.

She smirked, fiddling with his hair. "Yeah, I do know that, John!" They sat against the wall of his room, leaning against one another. Vriska Serket felt the warmth of the boy she was beginning to believe could transcend simple matespritship, if such a childish notion was even possible.

"And this is all you want to do?" John asked.

"All?!" She shot the boy a look. "Are you saying that this isn't anything? Does my opinion mean nothing to you?" Her voice was thick with false anger.

John held up his hands and smiled. "Aha, no way man." His pale white eyes seemed to shine despite their meaning. "This is going to be totally rad."

"The most fun we can have dead." Vriska added. "Not that I didn't enjoy your tour before. It was cool seeing all the human crap for the first time. And seeing what your side of this stupid game was like. I mean, this is all humans do anyways, right? Normally, when the world isn't ending? Sit around and watch bad movies?" She shifted closer to him, nudging his shoulder with her head.

"Excuse me, what was that?" He held his curled hand over his ear. "I couldn't hear you over the sound of all that bullshit."

"John!" She laughed, punching playfully him in the side.

"It's not... a bad… movie!" John said, chopping his hands down with every word. "I don't care how great your dumb troll movies are, this one is far superior. Hands down. No more discussion."

"I bet it's going to be so bad." She whispered to herself, and burst into hysterical laughter when John turned to her, shouting, "All right, that's enough!" He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pushed her down, pulling the blanket from his bed over her hair.

"Stop, you're going to mess up your sheets with my stupid horns!" She laughed, but he kept on until she was completely wrapped up in blankets. John stuck his face up to hers, somehow keeping a deadpan expression. "Are you done?" His glasses slid down his nose as he spoke.

She pursed her lips into a playful smile and shook her head, giggling. When was the last time she had enjoyed herself like this? Truly enjoyed the company of a friend? It felt like an entire lifetime…

"Do I need to punish you?" He waved a finger in her face. She wasn't sure if he was actually trying to be intimidating. With him, it could go either way.

"Oh, please do!" Vriska stuck out her tongue. "I'd like to even see you try and punish a god." She half expected him to snap back about how he was one as well…But that was from another life, lost and forgotten.

John scoffed. "You are so not even a God, Vriska. You are just a troll with pajamas."

A pit grew in the depths of her stomach. "A dead troll with pajamas." She whispered, looking down. "You're right, I am no god." Vriska had seen true power once. A true god. And if you could call Jack a god as well…She shivered at the memory. Did that version of herself make it there as well? Did she regret dying for her friends? Did she know about the alternative, about the path that was taken?

"Some alpha timeline." Vriska muttered to herself.

John was quiet, staring at her fallen expression feeling paralyzed. "Ah…I'm sorry, Vris." He pulled the blanket away from her face. "I didn't mean to…"

She lifted a hand. "It's ok. I didn't mean to kill the mood."

John scooted towards her, lying closer to the girl and pulling the blanket partly over himself. "It's not your fault. Sorry I'm pretty much complete shit at cheering you up." He carefully moved a piece of her hair from her face. "You can tell me about whatever it is, I mean we practically know everything about each other at this point. What has it been, like a freaking month?"

"Two and a half." She answered, a bit too quickly than she'd hoped to show. "Time sure flies when you're dead."

"Are you wishing you didn't, you know…die?" John asked, scratching at his face.

Vriska looked up at him and gave him a nervous smile. "Funnily enough, no. I mean that sounds so ridiculously dumb and sappy and sissy but even though I died like a total loser, I'm still pretty okay with it." She winced at the word 'okay', Aradia's robotic stare burned into her mind. "I didn't really think you'd get to hang out with your favorite people after you died."

He smiled at that and nodded. "Definitely a perk."

"But…" Vriska murmured.

"But?" John lifted an eyebrow.

"There's another John out there." Vriska sighed. She found herself avoiding his eyes, unsure if this was a touchy subject. "There's a John who knew me almost as much as you do and he's still alive and sooner or later he's going to find out I died. I just don't know how to feel about that."

"Do you miss him?" John asked quietly. Vriska rolled her eyes and nudged him again. "No, you doofus. You are way cooler. But still, I can't pretend he doesn't exist. I mean, what would he even think about this?" She waved between them. "That I've become so close with his dead past self!"

"I think he'd be pretty cool with it." John nodded.

Vriska laughed. "Oh, you think so?"

"Yeah! He'd probably give me a high five for scoring a super fine alien chick."

"John!" Vriska pushed his head away from hers. "You have not 'scored' me, whatever that means."

He wiggled an eyebrow, saying with empty infliction, "I think I have."

Vriska sighed and looked past him through the window where snow was still falling. The weather never changed, unless they willed it to, and it gave their months together a feeling of timelessness. Like it had only been minutes. Was two months even right? Could it have been longer? Shorter? She didn't care enough to decide. It's not like it would end any time soon.

Or that she wanted it to…

John's smile lost some of its charm and he swallowed his feelings of insecurity. "You could go look for him you know. Dying has made me realize some things and finding you here…there is a whole world out there. You could have an adventure! I know how much you love those!" John took his glasses off and fiddled with them. She had told him that he had no reason to wear them anymore, death had gifted him with perfect vision. But he wore them anyways and Vriska was silently thankful. They were a part of him, something she realized she never wanted to change.

"You could cross deadly terrain, beat up villains and get the girl…no wait…" He pretended to think. "Get the…alien? Alien boy?"

She smiled, but shook her head. "That's sweet, but no. I think I've had quite enough adventuring!" Vriska closed her eyes, remembering the life she led. The mistakes she made. "I'm fine staying here forever. Just pretending to be a normal girl and not the freaky weird alien ghost you thought I was at first."

"Let's be honest, you are totally still a freaky weird alien ghost." John smiled, nudging her. "But that's cool too. Maybe I didn't get to know you in the same, like, deadly conditions as alpha me, but it doesn't mean all those things aren't…the real you. And as far as I can tell the real you is pretty damn badass."

Suddenly, somewhere in the emptiness they heard rumbling. John was jerked from his speech, turning where he sat and casting a clueless eye to the window above them. "A storm?" It came again, but like a burst and terrifyingly loud, shaking the house to its foundations. Vriska's hand shot out and grabbed for John's and he smiled.

"Man, are you scared of thunderstorms?" His glowing eyes shut as he threw his head back and laughed. "I so did not expect that." John began patting her hair, trying and failing to comfort her.

Because she wasn't afraid of thunderstorms. Vriska wasn't the type of girl to fear a natural weather phenomenon, no way!

So why was she so, so afraid of what was coming? How could she possibly know it was something else?

The rumbling turned into a roaring wind and John pulled her closer. "I never remembered the wind sounding so…" He stared off into nothing and his eyebrows pulled together. In an instant Vriska forgot her fears and looked up at him. Had the simple thought of the wind awoken those impossible memories?

But recognition never crossed his face and he smiled, oblivious. "So powerful!"

The small glimmer of a final hope torn away from her, Vriska lifted a hand and touched his cheek. Her eyes began to shine and her fingers began to shake as the roaring grew louder and the vibrations of the ground became violent. Something was coming and John was finally beginning to understand.

And here they thought this paradise could last forever.

Her lips shivered as she held back tears. "Do you remember me yet?" She whispered.

He smiled, the lie on his lips. "Yes."

A white hot fire tore into the land. Without a second to understand why they were dying in a place where death had no substance, the shadows of souls began to disintegrate, always destined to be broken apart, leaving only dust and the shells of the memories they had shared. Their precious prisons of time and space, shattered with one question remaining.

Will you remember them?