RFY - Chapter 4 - Resetting For Me

Amelia trotted around her high school with a smile feeling better than ever. It had been two weeks since her incident. She'd taken another week off to try and fully calm her nerves. Ina graciously let her stay at her apartment alone during this time. Soon she'd be moving back into her own home.

The visits to her brother's hospital room had become less frequent. The times she did go, she tried to keep them short and sweet. It was better this way. When he woke up, Amelia was going to be the big sister he needed.

Gura had come over a few more times to "help study". Just like the first time, not a lot of studying actually happened, but Amelia didn't care. It has been nice to be around Gura so much.

Ina and Gura had become quite chummy as well. She'd seen them a few times in the hallways together. Apparently they had a few classes together. She was a little jealous of that.

Soon enough, the school day ended. Her first day back at school had been a resounding success by her standards. No random breakdowns from stress. Her teachers had all been very kind and understanding about her situation. Most of them had already emailed her about the missing work and had planned for her make ups.

However, her last teacher of the day asked her to stay a bit later to schedule some things. This turned into a complete academic overview of what Amelia had to accomplish to get all her work done. It took a few hours, but Amelia sat through it all.

She arrived back at Ina's apartment fairly late. That unplanned stay had been a slight nuisance, but Amelia considered it necessary. Hopefully she wouldn't need to do it again, though.

Ina wasn't home at this time. Amelia had seen a text earlier that explained her absence as, "going out to get some things." Ina had been doing that a lot lately. Amelia was going to be leaving soon, so she didn't understand why she kept buying more food along with other things.

The police had contacted her, saying that she could move back into her house at any time after tomorrow. She was nervous about going back to her empty house, but maybe it would let her feel more at peace with everything that had happened. The plan was to move back around Wednesday or Thursday.

Amelia pulled out her phone to distract herself. Her finger hovered over her text messages. She'd sent Gura a message a while ago, whenever she'd been staying late at school, but it had gone unanswered so far. It was a little odd, normally Gura was very active with texts. She shrugged it off as being busy actually studying or something like that.

An image of Gura attempting and failing to study popped into her head. Yeah, maybe not studying. Amelia chuckled a little and proceeded to sit down on the couch. What should she do to pass the time?

"A walk," she said quietly to herself. Recently, she had begun to develop a habit of talking to herself when she was alone. It helped to quell her nerves and think through things in a more coherent way.

"Or should I just go for a run?" Amelia hopped off the couch and made her way into her room. School clothes were definitely not going to cut it, as it was pretty hot out right now. She slipped into some more athletic clothes she had and headed out the door.

Her normal route was just around the blocks near Ina's apartment. But this time, she felt the need to do something nice. Ina had been very kind, basically providing her with everything she needed, so Amelia wanted to pay her back a little bit. Her new route would take her to the downtown area where she could shop around at all the stores there. She had a few ideas on what she should get, but that could be figured out along the run there.

Ina's phone buzzed in her pocket as she walked through the downtown streets. She took it out and saw a text from Amelia.

"What's going on?" the short girl asked next to her. Ina moved the phone so that she could see, too.

"Ame said she's going for a run."

"She has been going on a lot of those. It seems to make her happy."

"Yeah, I'm glad she's feeling a lot better now," Ina sighed with a bit of relief, remembering how disheveled and emotionally broken Amelia was a couple weeks ago. A pair of blue eyes looked at her.

"You think she is ready to know then?" They asked her. A small soft hand reached out and grabbed Ina's.

"Definitely soon. Maybe the next time you come over?"

"Sounds like a plan!" Their hands interlaced and Ina felt a tug as the other girl ran ahead. "Now come on, the store is closing soon!" Ina quickened her own pace and watched her new girlfriend pull her into a store.

The heat slowly began to fade from the air as the sun lowered in the sky. Amelia walked at a fairly speedy pace toward the center of town. Ina's apartment was fairly close, but still a good distance away on foot. She picked up her speed until she was in a light jog. The wind rushing over her skin made it feel colder. It was only a few more minutes until she reached downtown.

Soon after she got into the downtown area, she slowed back down to a walking pace. The sun was behind the buildings around her, so it felt much cooler than before. It was extremely pleasant. She took in the sights of the buildings around her and began to think about what she should get Ina.

After passing by a few stores a poster in the window caught her attention. It was for a new blockbuster movie. Maybe she should rent a movie. That wouldn't be all she would get Ina, she decided. Ina deserved a lot more for her hospitality.

However, it would be nice to watch one with Ina and maybe even Gura. If Gura was there she would prefer it to be a more romantic movie. Definitely another genre, too though. Amelia furrowed her brow in all of the terrible romantic movies she'd seen as a kid. A romcom would probably be her best bet.

She walked into a small convenience store she knew sold movies, noting how they were about to close. She would be quick about this to not annoy the workers too badly.

The aisle that sold movies was near the back, so she headed over there. It was very empty, making Amelia feel a little uncomfortable. Going from the fairly busy streets to an empty store was jarring.

Rounding the corner to the aisle she wanted, a familiar bit of laughter caught her attention. That was Gura, Amelia immediately recognized. She became incredibly nervous. The entire point of her being here was to buy a movie that she wanted to see with her. Maybe Gura was here to buy a movie she wanted to see with Amelia? A million tiny thoughts swirled around in her head.

'Maybe I could just say hi?'

"Nah, I can't just do that."

'Then maybe I could just drop the surprise and enjoy some time with her here?'

"That could work, but I want to see what she's doin-" Amelia realized that she'd been mumbling to herself and stopped. The laughter had stopped as well, making her think that she'd been caught.

Thankfully, the laughter started up again. It was quieter, more of a giggle than a laugh, but it meant that Amelia hadn't been noticed yet. She wiped her brow and sighed in a slightly comedic fashion.

'I think I should just peak around the corner and see what she's doing…'

Amelia nodded to herself. She slowly crept up to the corner to get a better vantage point. Maybe Gura was here with another friend. Amelia didn't want to be rude and interrupt them.

A nervous laughter built up inside her as she thought of all the possible reasons why Gura wouldn't want to talk to her. She shook those thoughts out of her head, quite literally. She was just going to assess the situation and make a decision based on that.

Amelia poked her head around the corner so that just her eyes and a bit of her hair were visible. She felt her eyes trying to squeeze shut out of embarrassment, but she held them open. It was stupid what she was doing and if someone else saw her she would look just as stupid. But right now, it just made sense.

Until she actually took in the scene her eyes now presented to her.

Gura and Ina stood next to each other, gently holding each other's hand. Amelia's euphoria from before was shattered and alarms blared inside her head. She wanted to run, but found herself unable to turn away. What was going on here?

Ina held a movie in her hand, showing it to Gura who continued to giggle lightly. A few words were spoken that Amelia didn't bother to hear. The two of them turned and walked out the other end of the aisle.

Amelia followed them, unnoticed down the aisle towards the checkout. Anger bubbled inside of her, but she wouldn't assume anything yet. She pushed her anger down.

The two of them stood in line together with Amelia tailing them from a distance. They seemed so happy it made Amelia begin to feel sick. They got closer together and giggled when their hips touched. Ina bounced Gura away and Gura did the same when she came back.

After a few rounds, they stopped and just stared at each other. The edges of Amelia's vision became cloudy and dim as she focused on the two of them. Their faces drew closer and closer together, until they met in a small kiss. The small kiss turned into a bigger display of public affection.

The emotions and revelations hit her all at once. Ina's prolonged absences getting random things. Gura being unresponsive towards her. Ina lying as to what she'd been doing. The two of them getting along so well. All of this happening behind her back.

Anger turned to rage. Amelia felt the floodgates holding back her emotions open fully. Everything she had been pushing back and bottling up over the past two weeks washed over her in a tsunami. She was drowning in it.

Ina's eyes opened after the kiss, but because of the way she had tilted her head during it she could now see Amelia standing just a ways away. Her eyes became wide with surprise. She quickly pulled away from Gura who had also turned slightly to see what Ina had been looking at. Amelia didn't wait to see what would happen next.

She ran. Tearing out of the store, she booked it down the streets. There were definitely footsteps behind her, but it wouldn't matter if she wasn't caught. The feeling of terror running from the Priestess flickered in the back of her mind. Ina was chasing her, she knew it. Making a few quick turns into alleyways and down random streets, Amelia tried to lose the person on her tail.

That person behind her wasn't Ina, she wouldn't hurt Amelia this way. She had always been so kind and nice and caring and a good person. She wouldn't hurt her this way with lies. The image of Ina's face began to dissolve inside Amelia's mind. The sickening face of the Priestess began to replace it.

Amelia was tackled from behind, interrupting her thoughts. She had slowed slightly in thought. This allowed Ina to catch her.

"Ame, don't run away from me!" Ina screamed. Amelia rolled over on the ground and faced the person on top of her. She wasn't really pinned down, but it wouldn't be easy to get out of.

"Don't even try," Amelia retorted with disgust. Ina's face twisted into a very sad expression.

"We're not going out, even if it may look like it," she tried to reason.

"Oh really? Well you're close enough to dating that it's nearly *hic* indistinguishable!" Amelia spat back, not caring about her hiccuping. Ina needed to get through Amelia's rage.

"I'm not trying to hurt you," she said carefully. Amelia was less than impressed.

"Bullshit. You've been doing this kinda *hic* stuff for the past week. Disappearing off with Gura behind my back."

"We've only been going out a couple of days-"

"So you do admit to going out!" Amelia justified her own anger. Ina continued to try and deescalate the situation.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you before, but you were just too emotional to handle something like this," Ina tried to explain herself.

"Too emotional? You're just trying to cover your *hic* ass for hiding something like this from your friend." That wasn't going to work either.

"I-I was going to tell you! I just didn't want to hurt you more…" her voice trailed off. Her reasoning falling apart in her own head.

"You didn't want to hurt me? That's fucking bullshit Ina! Do I *hic* need to repeat myself?!" Amelia screamed at her.

"Just try and understand where I'm coming from!" Ina started to lose control of her own emotions.

"It never crossed your mind that maybe it *hic* would be a bad idea to hook up with your friend's crush?!" This started to turn into a screaming match.

"Just because you have a crush on her doesn't make her yours! I like her too! I'm just better at hiding it than you are!" Amelia became unreasonably angry in that moment. Ina was looking down on her, giving her pity for not getting the girl she liked. For having her parents die.

She punched Ina hard in the stomach. Every negative emotion she had was used to hit as hard as she could. Ina fell off of her to the side, struggling to breathe. Amelia got up and looked down at her.

"I'm sorry," was all she could muster before turning and running away again.

"W-wait!" Ina wheezed out. She attempted to chase after her friend, but her body gave out under her. Amelia didn't even bother looking back.

There was no destination in her mind. She just ran and ran until she ended up in a familiar place. A few pieces of police tape remained in place, as she wasn't supposed to be here until later in the week.

Her house stood in the darkness as an empty shell of its former self. Amelia could feel the lonely walls calling out to her. She accepted their calls and went inside.

Gura eventually found Ina leaning against a nearby building for support. Amelia's punch had hurt a lot. That small amount of working out had paid off.

"What happened?" Gura asked as she caught her breath. Ina turned and looked at her with a very sad expression.

"Ame f-found out." She was still struggling to breathe a little bit.

"Yeah obviously. She saw us out on a date," Gura responded.

"Gura, a-are we in the wrong here? S-should we have told her r-right when we decided to go o-out?" Ina seemed so defeated. Gura made her way over and grabbed one of her hands.

"Maybe we were, but we can't change that. We need to find Ame again."

"Where would she have gone?"

"Her house." The answer was an obvious one. Amelia wasn't one to hide under a bridge. She needed to be in some place familiar to her or around people she trusted when she was emotionally vulnerable. "B-but why-y would we e-even do that? She h-hates us now."

"If we don't go after her, then she'll just keep running from her problems. Same with us. None of us can afford to keep doing that now."

"We s-sound like such assholes. A c-couple of hypocrites who o-only think of thems-selves…" Ina began walking with a slight limp in the direction of Amelia's house. Gura clinged to her harder to comfort her.

"And that can only be changed if we try to fix it."

The house's emptiness really began to weigh on Amelia when she stepped into it. There were obvious signs of the police searching around. They hadn't found anything obviously. There was no trace of her parents anywhere. That was all left in the past.

Why did this timeline hate her so much?

A third arm emerged from her again. It held the time watch out in front of her. It glowed an ominous purple in the dark of her house. She knew what she was uncertain of.

Should she just leave this timeline?

Everything was falling down around her. Her parents were dead, her brother was in a coma that he might not wake up from, she had just pushed her best friend out of her life, and Gura definitely didn't want to have anything to do with her now. All of these realities began to pile up on Amelia's already fragile mind.

And like a glass table with too much weight on it, it shattered.

Amelia's real arm materialized where the third one was. She was now certain of what she wanted to do. Nothing here mattered now, she wasn't ever going to return anyways. If she never returned here, the new timeline she created would just be her's. No one needed to know about this timeline. She turned the watches hands to a few hours before her family left on their last trip.

With a click of the watch, the world around Amelia turned to a purple blur.

Author's Note: And now we are into the think of it. I was actually inspired to write this when I heard Amelia sing, 'Gura doesn't know I exist' during one of her kareoke streams. I also saw an animatic using that song which gave me the visual idea for this scene. Something about it just resonated with me, so I decided to right a massive story with that event being the true catalyst.

Speaking of massive stories, I never actually said how long this story is going to be. I'm planning on writing five parts and have finished the first two with the third in progress. Honestly, I would not be surprised if this took a couple years to finish and be over 200k words by the end. All of it is planned out and I am very happy with what I have planned, it is just going to be a serious undertaking for myself. I'll try to announce breaks/hiatuses in advance and give a rough time frame of when I'll be back with a new chapter, but I am very bad with writer's block. I'll try my best!

Something I forgot to mention in the previous note: All of the OCs (which there aren't many of tbh) are named after someone surrounding Sherlock Holmes or detective pop culture. See if you can find them all!

Next Chapter: Going Back

Any feedback/criticism is appreciated!