CHAPTER FOUR | " LIVING ON BORROWED TIME "

"IT'S A COSPLAY REPLICA."

The bazaar owner adjusted his glasses, full of curiosity as soon as the police entered his humble business. The Eye of Agamotto was well displayed, however, it needed a check, therefore the kids were forced to come to the bazaar crowded with all kinds of toy figurines and comics. If weren't Stevie's dad, the necklace would be part of someone's costume for AvengerCon. 

Stevie was standing next to a door, its bell resounded every time someone walked in. She was biting the chipped nails, she rock back and forth, quietly questioning her decisions and conscience.

"Are you sure, officer? I don't want to give away stuff for free, especially since he looks like a Doctor Strange cosplayer," the man pointed out at the boy who stepped closer to the counter and put on the golden necklet.

"You'd be surprised but I get that a lot."

"It's because they both do magic," Taehyun explained in whispers to the man.

"A-ha!"

Nicholas exhaled to erase thoughts from his mind and let himself focus. He made a gesture, and his ring and middle fingers touched, re-creating the shape of the Eye of Agamotto. Moving his hands apart in the opposite directions made the golden medallion open. He closed his eyes. A green beam as well as a mystic disc wrapped around his wrist. His hand turned, however, nothing in the bazaar, nor the surroundings happened.

"So I've been selling it underpriced this whole time? Hell no!"

A loud clasp shut the necklace close.

Stevie was punching the mattress and screaming at the pillow. The memory of Nicholas being scared of his boyfriend, his loved one, haunted her and made her cry. She was upset with herself, for not being trustworthy, even confident enough to tell him the truth. She knew that she was overreacting, no wonder, she almost threw up.

She wanted to hide away her obvious crush on him. She wanted proof of his happiness with another person, a proof that would validate that she frankly isn't right for him romantically. Obviously, she knew that before in view of their four-year age gap. On top of that, she wasn't right for him even platonically.

The door to her room creaked open.

"I'm not in the mood, Ronnie!" Stevie automatically raised her voice. Feeling someone's presence blindly throw a pillow in the door's direction, "I said I am not in the mood!"

The pillow in the shape of Captain America's shield flew right through the boy's waist and hit the wall. Stevie was startled as she heard the rumble. She wiped her tears and looked at Nicholas whose body materialized back after the pillow skimmed through him.

"I'm so sorry I should've knocked before I entered," Nicholas uttered anxiously. He brought her a cup of coffee, she was begging him before, since he was once bragging about being skilled at latté art.

Definitely, he was smiling before, now the beam was nowhere to be found, because of Stevie's behavior.

"No! I'm sorry! I-I thought that you're my sister," she sobbed again, now because of her thoughtlessness, "hope you didn't spill it."

She expected him to leave after her tantrum but he stayed.

"What's wrong?" he questioned her softly, coming closer to her.

"N-Nothing," she shook her head, reaching toward the ornamented box of tissues on her nightstand, "it's just..."

Nicholas carefully placed the cup next to the tissues and sat next to her. Stevie's eyes sparkled with tears, after noticing the little heart on the latté's surface. It was perfect, which made her cry even more.

She didn't deserve it.

He was looking at her compassionately, patiently waiting. She didn't deserve him either.

It took her a while to find the right words, "It's just... My dad was joking about asking me for a dance on my birthday, at my uncle's wedding, in front of my whole family. And the funniest part about it is that I will probably embarrass myself because I can't dance. Like at all! I can't do anything! I'm literally the worst!"

Nick listened to her exaggerated monologue. She didn't want him to feel sorry about her. It was her way to state the things on her mind differently. She talked about the graveyard encounter, although dancing wasn't for her at all. She knew some of the easy k-pop choreographies but that was where her dance knowledge ended.

"What are you talking about? I think you're amazing!"

"Huh?"

"You are amazing, Stevie," Nicholas repeated one more time.

"No! No— You don't know what are you talking about," she shook her head again, refusing to believe such nonsense. Her face flushed. Nick didn't know what he was talking about and that hurt her even more.

"I do," he tried to prove his point, "I— I kind of know what you did at the graveyard. And although the execution wasn't so good since you're still learning. You knew exactly where you should stop and draw a line."

Stevie expected a different kind of pep talk, "I panicked because he hurt you. It wasn't my intention! I didn't write that—"

"I know. You should be a little more descriptive in the future when it comes to scripting. I still do think that you did great. You handled it pretty well," Nick praised her with constructive criticism, surely, he wasn't okay with her putting his life in danger but that didn't stop him from debunking her assumptions.

Stevie's tears dissipated, "Wait... How do you know about that?"

"I used the time stone," Nick blurted out as if that secret bothered his soul, "Well, I know it was bad of me and I won't do it again. But... I wanted to see what did you act so stressed all of a sudden. I felt left out a bit because I haven't checked on you, I didn't know why you weren't talking to me. I just wanted to help."

She understood. Her being silent gave the impression that he did something wrong.

"I haven't thought about that. I'm sorry. It was never in my intention to make you feel left out. I see you, okay?"

The corners of his mouth twitched. At that exact moment, a smile magically appeared on his lips he shyly looked at the cup, "Oh no, it's already messed up."

"It kinda looks like a duck," Stevie chuckled as he admired the ruffled milk foam. Her eyes were locked on Nicholas. He seemed so excited and precious as his hand wrapped around the cup to see the bird silhouette better. Bunch of curls slipped onto his forehead.

"Really? No! You're making that up. It certainly looks like a big blob," he laughed it off, "maybe a big blob with a head."

"It's a duck."

The chuckle faded into complete silence. They both realized bit by bit that this may be the last day of spending time with one another.

She rubbed her eye as her voice overflowed with honesty.

"And that is the exact reason why I shouldn't be the centre of attention. It gets awkward very quickly."

Maybe she was telling the truth, maybe she was making excuses. Although he wasn't her only friend, she appreciate him for being by her side.

"It's okay, I get awkward around people too."

They knew each other for barely a few months, and the connection was strong as if they had known each other for years.

"You know what? I'll stay for your birthday."

Stevie raised her eyebrows, her birthday was just in three days.

"We have a lot to catch up with. And by that I mean, you have to learn how to dance as soon as possible. Three days should be enough. My universe is still holding on, there's nothing that could go wrong. I have everything under control."

The universe that was endlessly splendid with chaos finally welcomed a blue-tinted sky on mother earth. Chaosverse wasn't tormented by open fractures and breaking, they sealed at least for now. The clock was still ticking, slowly counting seconds until the rift will re-open again. Tick Tock. It was a matter of time, however not the time that ran clockwise, nor the one that rushed counterclockwise. It was the matter of the flow of time that ran in a lady's veins.

"As far as my calculations go, I'm worried that you're a few days late, Mr. Strange."

"It's Doctor Strange."

Enigma looked behind her shoulder, "Titles never been my kind of thing."

Her ice-blue eyes flashed through the rustling leaves due to the spring's light breeze. Wearing a flowy white dress, she was standing in the middle of the blossomed backyard, taking care of the sprouting garden as the watering can splash.

"It's nice to see the town finally blooming," Stephen uttered, slightly leaning toward the fence that divided him from her property. Before the fracture and the resurrection of Morgan La Fey, he remembered the town sleeping calmly underneath the blanket of everlasting darkness. Now it was a place caressed by the sun's rays.

"Take a picture, it will last longer," Enigma responded dryly, heading to another flower bed.

His stare was locked at a blue suburban house across the road where Nicholas Strange, the boy who heedlessly jumped into the open rupture, used to live in. The blue facade was fading away, turning the building into a house that was once haunted. The tall grass was already wrapped around the mailbox and the sign stated the house was up for sale. Days turned into weeks and those into months. Six months passed faster than a thought that was stuck in Stephen's head from the day of the boy's disappearance. He saved his life and was ready to save all the lives of this town, this world, and this universe. His sacrifice (a term that was avoided for so long) sparked empathy in many, even in him.

Experiencing loss was kind of strange for Stephen. He was always over everyone so quickly but this felt different.

Stephen came back no matter what, even today. He came to pay Nicholas a tribute, although he deeply knew that here was alive, somewhere in the cosmos, trying his best to find a way how to fix the mess. At least that was something he wanted everyone to believe in.

Stephen Strange wanted to continue living blithely. By placing a bouquet on the stairs next to the withered flowers, he wanted to settle down the mayhem inside of his head. His life was saved by a power that was greater than his which brought a lot of questions.

He told himself not to visit it anymore but he couldn't, especially since he was accompanied by his adoptive daughter. River, a strong-willed redhead, was dusting off the dried petals and arranging those flowers that she and her dad brought. Unlike Stephen, she didn't have a hard time opening up to someone that claimed to be her brother from another universe. She liked having someone she could talk to when her mind was getting troubled, especially since she was dating the one and only Peter Parker. However, she never understood the fact that words and actions could hurt. River was the embodiment of a lionheart and bad temper which might end up unintentionally venting on him. Since Nicholas was gone for too long she started to lose hope for a chance to say sorry.

"I saw you up there too many times to pretend that people like you visit deadsville mainly for the funsies," Enigma leered. Shutter lips and slight scowl proved that he won't deny nor confirm any accusations.

"Still, I'd never expect that it was the guilt that brought you back," she stated, breaking the silence. Observing lives was one of Enigma's duties, and watching over Stephen's was one of the few. She noticed the way he was examining the house that was once inhabited, every time he returned to Bloomsfield. He wasn't accepting the reality because something was wrong.

Stephen snorted and shook his head, "I'm here for answers, not for therapy."

"Right-o. I already know that you're planning to ask me about the Multiverse but go on, magic man, ask an omniscient lady a bunch of questions."

"What else do you know about the Multiverse?"

"Dreams reflect our lives in alternate universes," Enigma started explaining, quite surprised that the sorcerer supreme didn't know these facts, "since you dreamt yesterday about losing your family, it surely happened in one of them. In spite of that, the concept of Multiverse as a whole should stay a closed book."

"That doesn't sound reassuring," Stephen's tone was dipped in sarcasm, "nonetheless that doesn't exclude possible prediction of the future, am I correct?"

"Precisely. The glimpses are short, indirect, and cut right from the context. There is the slightest possibility that you're unknowingly heading to the lion's den which ends up with a collision, otherwise known as the déjà vu."

"Collision you say?" he mumbled under his nose and once again looked at the house that was now overcast by a faintly glittering shadow due to the fluttering leaves, "how much time is left until the Breach will re-open?

"Phew, it depends. The damage to time and reality is already done," Enigma admitted with an innocent shrug, "so if the Multiverse keeps on breaking, maybe in the following years, months, unless something goes wrong. It really depends on the circumstances."

"I'd welcome the exact date," Stephen appeared unamused by her theatrical act of play pretend. She knew too well about what he was talking about, "I dreamt about a way that fixed everything multiverse-wise."

"Oh really? If you're talking about the 'let's collectively forgot about the spider-man' spell, that was ill-considered nonsense," Enigma tried her best to mind her own business but his stubbornness wasn't making it easy for her, "I'll be speaking for many. Easier would be if the public forgot of Mysterio instead of Peter Parker."

Stephen's enthusiasm waned from him with a snap of his finger, "Okay, I admit. You've got a point. If that was my case I'd do it just like that, either way, that doesn't change the fact that I need your help to find the artifact. We can save everyone, in case Nicholas won't come back in time."

Enigma glazed into the deep purple hyacinths. Whilst the Breach did close, the lifelines deviated because they were exposed to an excessive amount of destructive forces. A new incision could wipe out the whole universe, not only the universe, everything.

He demanded her help, she couldn't interfere, not anymore.

"I don't think you understand the risk, mainly when you're pitching up an idea of looking for something that doesn't even exist. The Multiverse is in irrecoverable danger. Do you really  think that finding the Heart of Darkness could save a universe that is over? As I already said, Mr. Strange, the Multiverse should stay a closed book, and a man of power like you should respect that. And in the case with Nicholas, he always comes back whenever on time or not, so don't flip your wig yet," with an eyebrow raise she indicated that this conversation is over, inconspicuously peeking at the redhead that was slowly approaching them.

"Stephen, we have to go," River interrupted their conversation. Not only she was impatiently waiting next to a car because she had to pick up groceries, she saw from a distance how uncomfortable the lady in white was during their chatter.

"Since I married your mother, and we are technically a family, I'd highly appreciate if you call me da... you know, by the d-word, to make things easier, Riv," he mumbled toward the flame head.

"Okay, dingus, move your magic ass to the car or I'll set it on fire."

"Fine," he sighed due to the embarrassment, ready to look back at the time lady he was interrogating, "Anyways thank you for your help. I'll see you around—"

Stephen wasn't even able to finish the full sentence, as he found her turning her back toward him shaking in a spasm, "Enigma?"

Just like her, the facade of the house started to shred, crumbling to unrecognizable matter. The white on the walls darkened and rotted, similarly to the dress that she wore. Blonde lively tint disappeared from her hair in exchange for silver strands like cobwebs. The hyacinths blackened. Her bones cracked as a glass burst out of the windows. Stephen flinched and protected the redhead girl with his body, to avoid the shard explosion followed by an ear-piercing sound. River's hands quivered as she pressed her ears.

Stephen peered behind his shoulder to find Enigma's youthful face shrunken, covered with wrinkles and a black veil.

"Forget everything I said about having time. We have a lot to catch up with."