The few good things about her family being weirdly optimistic about everything, Allison realized, was when the fight started and buildings in the distance started falling, Ray was still smiling down at her as they swayed to the music from the radio, totally oblivious to the noise and mayhem. Claire sat at the coffee table coloring, also not paying any attention to anything except giving them a brief warm smile as they had started their dance.
Allison had woken up feeling complete dread that morning. Day seven. The very last day per normal routine of Derleth. She’d followed the conversation on the network, reading about where Derleth was, and rallying to get together to go underground and save it. She could have said something, grabbed a gun from the closet and went along to help the others.
But she was selfish. She was already feeling the regret and guilt for not joining them but smiling up at Ray’s face, she was able to push it all away. Until the noise started.
Until Claire mentioned it was a good time to nap right there with her head on the coffee table. Until Ray also started moving slower and slower.
“Ray,” she said, moving her hands to his face, along both sides of his jawline. So this is what was going to happen. The city powered the individuals not of Derleth and now its attention was split. “Ray? Are you still with me?”
“Always am,” he said, leaning over to touch their foreheads together, his smile never dropping.
She thought she’d have more time. She thought they’d be a “normal family” at least until midnight, although she was sure none of it would ever be enough, even if they had two weeks in this place. Or a whole month. A whole year. She would have preferred a lifetime.
“I love you, Raymond Chestnut,” she started, moving her head back slightly to look at him, painfully aware that these were also one of the last words verbatim that she had said to him before she had gone with her siblings back to their present. “I’ll love you no matter how many universes away I am from you.”
Would the real Raymond Chestnut ever hear those words and know? She wasn’t sure. She’d left him a written message in a book right before she had gone and she knew he would eventually read them and had to know. But she could also pretend for a little longer that he really was in front of her right now. She’d already pretended for a whole week.
The tears flowing freely down her eyes barely phased him. “I love you too, Allison Chestnut,” he said in that exact voice, the exact tone and cadence he always used when he told her this. “You’re home, Allison. This is your home.”
Allison returned his unwavering smile. She wanted to tell him it wasn’t, and that she was leaving again and this time, against her choice. But she couldn’t get those words out as emotion overtook her. Instead she pulled him closer into a tight hug, sobbing into his shoulder until she was exhausted herself.
Later, as his movements became more lethargic, Allison helped him to their bed to lay him down. She scooped up Claire afterwards and brought her upstairs as well. She was going to hold onto her lost family for as long as she could before the reset decided to take her away again.