John didn't have much time left with his shift, so Dave and I ate our meal and waited for it to end. I could tell Dave was nervous because he kept readjusting his glasses. Usually this little habit would bother me, but if he was half as nervous as I was, he was fairly nervous. The two of us didn't talk much, instead finding things to stare at and hold our attention. Countless times I found myself watching John scurry around, carrying overfilled trays from table to table. After a while, the crowd began to thin out, and in almost no time John was at our table, his previously tidy hair now in a mess over his bright eyes.
"Ready?" he asked with a goofy grin. With that, we were headed out, John getting into Dave's car along with us. Apparently, John commuted to work since him and Rose had no money to spare for a car.
John directed us along small side roads and through rather shady neighborhoods. I watched out of the back window as we quickly grove past kids playing basketball in their driveway and hooded figures spray-painting darkened buildings. It didn't take long to get to wherever John was taking us. Not long after our departure from the restaurant, we were parked in the driveway of a rundown home. To the left was a small parking lot and a building that seemed to connect to the home in front of us. John quickly got out of the car and headed towards the door, key in hand.
"Now, just a warning, the house is a bit messy. Rose likes to keep it that way as some sort of passive-aggressive rebellion towards her mother. I don't really understand it, but then again, I really didn't ask," John explained as he pushed open the front door with ease. Dave and I walked close together, our hands lightly brushing, but neither of us made a move to grab the other like we usually did, most likely due to nerves.
The inside was dark even with the lights on. There were neatly stacked piles of books and knickknacks everywhere. Papers were scattered on the floor, but that mess stayed contained to a restricted area. There was a couch in my line of sight and sitting on it was a small blond woman, who I assume to be Rose. In her hands she held a thick black book. I couldn't see the title, due to the poor lighting, but it must've been good since our entrance had not disturbed her.
"Rose, dear, you really shouldn't get so engrossed! You didn't even notice the extra pairs of feet with me!" John pointed out with a laugh. Rose gave a small smile but did not stop reading. We stood in silence for a few minutes, watching Rose's strangely purple eyes skim over the words on the page. Finally, she closed the book.
"You know I don't like being interrupted in the middle of a chapter," she said quietly. "It's lucky for you that I was just about finished. Now, who might these two be?"
John's face brightened when he was acknowledged and he started towards her, speaking in a rapid, childlike way. "Well the blond is Dave, but I bet you already knew that from all those pictures I showed you. Well, the girl is Dave's girlfriend, Jade. They're having the same problem as us, just like you thought. I just had to bring them by right away so you could explain all of this." By the time he was finished explaining, he was sitting beside Rose, an arm thrown tightly and possessively around her shoulders. Rose had nodded as he spoke with a look on her face that seemed to suggest that she was absorbing and processing every that word that escaped his lips.
"Well, you always have such perfect timing. It's almost that time of year again."
"What time of year?" Dave asked rather loudly, finally breaking the wall between us and them.
"Every year, on April 13th, a star up in space explodes. It's usually unnoticed, but John and I have always seen it, ever since we were kids."
"What does an exploding star have to do with our weird vision things?" I found myself asking without a second thought.
"They aren't really stars," John explained. "They're planets being destroyed."
"Destroyed by what exactly?" It was Dave's turn to ask.
"We aren't sure," answered Rose. "But whatever it is, it's getting closer. And by closer I mean that the Earth is it's next target." My eyes widened in surprise. The Earth was next?
"But what can we do about it?"
"That's where our visions have come from. When I was younger, I had this old IM account called Pesterchum. Well, I stopped using it after this strange girl began chatting me. After this thing with John and I, I had a strange feeling that I should log on once more. Well, as it turns out, this wasn't a girl at all but an alien. Once we got to talking, she told me about her planet, Alternia. I'll skip over those details, mostly because they don't matter.
"A long time ago, when we were about thirteen or so, this game called Sburb came into circulations. Well, her and her friends decided to play it, which released the thing that's after the Earth. It ended up destroying her entire planet.
"But how could this be possible, you may wonder. It turns out that the four of us have previously participated in this game. We were all dead, except for Dave. He had the power to control time, so it wasn't the first time he had witnessed our deaths. He went back in time, but something must've snapped in that Dave. He went far enough back to stop us from ever playing, but that couldn't stop those aliens.
"Without our help, they were slowly killed off. Even when they worked together, they were no match for the dangers that challenged them. But since Dave made it so we didn't play Sburb, there was no one to stop the monster from advancing and attacking other planets that harbored Sburb players. Like it or not, we're still involved, and we're next on the list."
Dave and I were silent. How could we react to such information? To learn that you were involved in something that had been happening for years, it wasn't something taken lightly.
"So it's after us," Dave finally whispered hoarsely.
"More or less, yes," Rose responded calmly. I covered my open mouth, unable to close ir or make any words. Dave was still beside me, as if in a trance. He began to sweat and I knew that he was having a flashback. I watched as his body tensed and sweat dripped down his face. John and Rose watched calmly, most likely used to things like this.
Dave gasped as he snapped back to us. "It's my fault," he practically mouthed. "This whole thing is my fault. That thing is going to make its way down here and kill us." Dave clenched his fists and in a sudden angry outburst, he knocked over a pile of books, causing Rose to gasp. "We're going to die because I was too fucking selfish. I wanted us all to live normal lives and I never thought that maybe this would all still happen. Now I can't even think about saving us or even the world!" There were tears rolling down his flushed face, the first time I had ever seen him cry. "We're all going to die because of me."
"Now wait just a minute, Dave," I interrupted harshly. "No one said anything about dying. Dave, I may not have many memories of you and I haven't exactly known you for that long in this timeline, but I know you aren't a quitter. None of us are quitters." I stood up and put my hand gently on his shoulder. "We aren't going to die. Maybe there's a reason we're still in this game, and maybe it's to stop whatever that thing is. I don't know about you three, but I'm going to fight for my life. There's no point in standing around and dying when I can just die trying."