>>3246289"N-no. That can't…you shouldn't be able to remember that. Even though the timeline just shifted, you should have shifted with it already."
The girl mumbles nonsense to herself, but you are too stricken with sadness to actually comprehend what she is saying even if it did make sense. Suddenly, she wheels around on her heel, her eyes widening.
"SHIT! Chrono-resistance. The odds are 75 billion to one of you having that! Wh-what do I do!?" She looks to you with a panicked expression, though it seems she is still talking more to herself. She dumps out the contents of her purse on the street, most of it appearing to be differently colored powders or small ampules of fluid. Sifting through them, she grabs a few, and then stares deeply into your eyes.
"I'm sorry. I'm sosososososo really really really REALLY sorry. I didn't want to cause you any pain, but luck wasn't on my side today. I messed up, but I can fix this. I WILL fix this. And then I'll make it up to you. First we need to stabilize your body so we can get you to my office, okay?"
Before you can ask a single clarifying question, you are suddenly wracked with inexplicable pain. Your vision blurs and your muscles spasm as blood begins spurting from your nose, which quickly becomes a fountain. Trying to remain conscious, you stare at your clenched hands and note a curious phenomenon. The bandaid on your hand from your injury in the kitchen, already seeming like a lifetime ago, appears to be…flickering. One moment you focus on it and see a bandage, slightly reddened with a small amount of blood that seeped through, the next you see your thumb naked to the night air with no wound in sight.
The girl starts mixing compounds together into a vial while she explains your condition in a rushed tone.
"Normally when a timeline gets altered, it pulls everyone with it, and their memories and bodies shift as things change. But some people have a talent for holding back those changes. That's Chrono-resistance. But it's a talent, and you don't have much experience with it, so both your body and your memories are hopping back and forth. You didn't have this-"
The girl freezes mid sentence, almost dropping the vial as she clutches her head. Despite this, she continues on a moment later.
"…Before, so there was no way for me to know until right now. Almost there, though. Almost." She hisses a series of breathless "c'mon"s as she frantically stirs her mixture with a small stick. Satisfied, she reaches to her upper thigh, where several pre-prepared syringes sit. Most of them are full, but she pulls out an empty one and pours the mixture inside before sealing it.
"This one will stop you from tearing yourself apart." She confidently states as she slides the needle into a vein on your neck. Almost immediately the crippling pain ceases as she steadily brings the plunger of the syringe lower and lower. You can tell exactly where the mixture is going, as the relief spreads out from its source in your neck. She then reaches to her side again and pulls another syringe, this one a full one, the sea blue substance glittering in the moonlight.
"You've lost way too much blood, so this will give it back to you and ease up the pain. My special concoction, though you know that already, right?"
You muse on what exactly she meant by that as she jabs you in the shoulder with the syringe. Though the first injection stopped the pain from worsening, this seems to silence your pain entirely. With the tension keeping you propped up removed, you can feel your consciousness waning. She tousles your hair affectionately as she collects her items and places them back in her bag.
"It's okay if you need to take a nap. I'll get you back to the office just fine. Good night!"
Eventually exhaustion wins out over confusion, and you let your body drift off into sleep.
