"You remind me too much of him. I can't."

"You are a shame."

"Eloise, your emotions flit across your face like wars."

"You are painful. Painful to look at. Painful to see. Painful to have."

"Go away."

Eloise studied the little gold necklace in her fingers. All she had to do was turn it. Simply a few hundred times, and she would be free. Time would fix her life. She would be loved again. Her mother wouldn't have to worry about her anymore. She would be in the future, far away from the pain. She could do it. All she had to do was be brave. Eloise looked around, to see if anyone would bear witness to this. There was one. Oh, she couldn't possibly leave now. Not after seeing Allison. "Elo!" Allison yelled, smiling and ran to join her, sitting next to Eloise on the white picket fence. Allison kissed Eloise on the cheek, then studied her face. "Again?" She asked, concerned. Eloise nodded. Allison hugged Eloise, and kissed her, up and down her neck, over and over again, squeezing her lovingly. "It will be better my love," Allison said intimately and clasped Eloise's hands in hers. "What's this?" Allison asked, turning the golden necklace. "No, Ally don't!" Eloise screamed, but it was too late. The world turned into a rush, first of green than of white, then of red.

Then, the whole world solidified. But it stayed red. A blur of red coats, and blood, and red eyes, tired, hungry, done with killing. It was a war. And they were in the middle of it. A bullet scraped Eloise's pudgy stomach, continuing on past her, as a scream gurgled up in her throat. But that scream died. Just as Allison died. The bullet, rushing towards her. Allison not looking at the bullet, not looking around her, just looking at Eloise, into her eyes, and smiling, loving, not knowing that her demise was right in front of her. Shooting towards her. Hitting her heart. Blood spraying everywhere. And Eloise, gurgling, and coughing, and vomiting, blood, spit, bile, and who knows what else. Allison, Ally, Al, her love. Her only friend. The only person who had loved her. Dead. Gone. Eloise felt a pain in her heart. Not an ache, no not like in those sappy romance novels she and Ally had devoured last summer, during the drought. It was sharp. A pain so sharp, almost as if she was the one with a bullet in her heart. Eloise was kicked, or maybe she keeled over, she couldn't remember. The necklace glinted gold in Ally's hand, spinning as Eloise reached, not for it, but for Allison, ready to die with her. But the necklace spun, and Eloise was taken away. And Allison, she was left behind. And Eloise, maybe she could move, but inside, she was dead.

"What do we do with her?" Dumbledore questioned the headmaster. "She can't stay! She's from the past, she has to go back! It could affect our future." "You heard her," McGonagall argued. "She has no one to go back to. Her girlfriend, Allison, is dead, and her family hates her. I say we take her in." The headmaster sighed. "Okay, who votes to keep her?" Everyone raised their hand. Out of formality only, the headmaster asked: "Who votes we send her back?"

Eloise sat outside the headmaster's office, kicking her feet against the wall and feeling...nothing. She was numb. She didn't feel anything. Part of her knew that she should be ashamed that she was crying or broken up about Allison. It wasn't that she didn't care. It was that she cared too much. So much that her body couldn't handle the sadness. It went on overload and shut all her emotions down, so now she couldn't feel anything at all. The oldish man with the long beard came out. "We've decided to let you stay." Eloise almost snorted. As if they decided if she went back or not. They couldn't get her back there, even if they tried.