...
Jon saw the text while he was in the check-out line. “Dammit Tim, how many times have I-”. cursed under his breath till he noticed it wasn’t Tim. The message was from Martin. It wasn’t like him to refer to Jon that way, least not to him directly. The ‘no rush’ added to his concern. His grip on the book in his hand tightened.
The third book, he’d found in a used book section of a thrift store. It was a children’s book designed to create a burning city out of dreams. Too much like Mr.Spider. It wouldn’t fall into some poor human’s hands. Once he is done with it, it will never see light again.
The cashier made small talk with Jon, seeing as he only had a single child’s book, but he ended up barely being aware he had responded to her something along the lines of it being for a dog to rip to shreds so he wanted something thick. She didn’t ask him to elaborate and wished him a pleasant day.
Soon as he exited the store he called Martin.
Martin picked up after the 4th ring, his voice didn’t sound like it wasn’t a rush at all. It was steady enough, but that message had Jon on edge. “Hey Jon.”
“Martin, what’s the matter? Are you alright?”
“I’m fine, you sound anxious, are you alright?”
“It’s just in the text...”
“Oh -Oh! Yeah, I’m fine. I- I’ve been better sure, but this is just a slightly weird kinda thing. Nothing like being attacked by sentient worms or anything.“ Jon froze in place, causing someone else on the street to bump him. The person let out a ‘hey watch it’ but Jon didn’t hear it. Jon’d never mentioned any of the future things, and Georgie wouldn’t have slipped up would she have? Prentiss hadn’t even shown up in statements yet, not enough for Martin to pull that very specific reference.
“Martin…”
“Sorry to worry you, It was -Had a bad dream is all. Well, several. It’s fine, silly even now that I’ve said it.”
“It’s not silly at all. It’d be better to not keep that sort of thing in, I’m sorry I should’ve warned you that-” Jon has paid extra attention to not Know anything without permission, but could he have missed something. Was Martin already being assaulted by another Entity? The Eye wouldn’t attack one of it’s own.
“No, it’s fine. Not your fault. Even if you did something, not like I can have nightmares where you only stare at me after all.” There was a little bit of light-hearted tone to that. Trying to pass fear off as a joke.
“Well, my attention is all on you if you’d like to talk about it. I just finished up with my last errand. Would you, would meeting up to talk be better?”
“I- You don’t need to do that, I just had a question, should be an easy answer. Probably? It’s just so I know it’s all in my head. I’m probably just scaring myself over nothing.”
“Ah- alright. What do you want to know about?”Jon started walking again. No reason to stand in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Have you heard of the Unknowing before?”
The question was answered with silence.
“Jon, are you there? J-Jon?”
“Oh Martin.” Jon sounded like the world just fell on his shoulders. “Where did you hear about that?”
“Like I said, I had a dream where i-it was mentioned. It’s bad, isn’t it?” Martin sounded, not good.
“No, No it’s nothing bad. Well I mean it is bad and rather annoying yes. But not something we need to worry about. It’s the name of one of the Rituals. Of the Stranger. “ Jon was certain he didn’t mention the Unknowing. How could Martin know of it? He was only going to bring it up after Tim opened up about Danny, or it got close to the time it would take place. Let Tim blow up some mannequins.
“Oh. Um, this is going to-...is it a dance? Where s-strangers wear...?” Jon could taste Martin's fear over the phone as he asked.
“Yes.”
“Christ Jon. Why would you not tell us about something like that- Great.” Martin started to sound worked up. “I guess my dreams are full of information then? Every-”
“You’ve had more dreams? What is happening in them?” Jon’s pace picked up making his way back to the train. “Are you at your flat?”
“I’m at home, yes. It might be easier to talk about not over the phone... You don’t need to rush, I’m not in any danger. Just, how far away are you right now? ”
“Not far. I can be at your flat in an hour or so. I can stay on the phone with you till I get there if you don't want to be alone.”
“Okay...that would be nice. Um...how about you tell me about you’ve been up to? You’ve probably seen something interesting?”
“I have. There was this cat-” Jon started talking about a cat that was in a carrier in the seat next to him. He told Martin everything from the cat's breed, to how the lady was taking the cat with her to visit her nephew in London, and how Jon was sad he had to get off at his stop to pick up the book.
--
Jon was sitting at Martin’s table while Martin was making tea. He stared down at a notebook Martin showed him when he came in. It’d been Tim’s idea to write the dreams down, but now Martin was regretting sharing it. He couldn’t remember everything he’d written out. Well he could remember what he’d written, just not the how. Like if it was all facts, or if there were emotions too. He couldn’t remember if he’d mentioned his feeling’s for Jon at all.
Martin hoped there weren’t emotions as he finished up what he was doing. Least Jon only read the first page before closing it. Either meant Jon saw enough, or he Knew what was on the rest of the pages as he did sometimes with books.
Placing a mug in front of Jon, Martin smiled nervously. “Well?”
“I don’t know. It’s-”
“I know it’s a lot...but I’m not making it up.”
“N-No. I’m not saying you are making it up. I would never- not for something like this.” Jon took the mug and stared into the tea. Jon was making the look again that Sasha had dubbed “Jon 404’d” since none of them could figure out what the heck was going on in his head when he would go silent without notice. It was as though he was so far away they wouldn’t be able to connect with him.
They’d asked Georgie about it one of the times they were out, and she’d simply said Jon had been through some things he didn’t have words for. That and she’d mentioned that emotions had always been hard for Jon, and to be gentle with him if he seemed flooded like this.
It’d confused Martin at the time that she had called it ‘flooded’, cause the expression always seemed like no one was home. But seeing Jon sitting at his table, he got it. Jon seemed to have so many thoughts going through his mind, it was like words didn’t even fit into the equation of his thoughts.
[click]
“So. My dreams. Are they prophetic or something worse?”
Jon let out a laugh. “No. They aren’t prophetic, nor worse I think. I don’t Know what is causing them, but I know what they are. Is this everything, or there more?”
“There’s more. I just couldn’t keep writing cause Tim...Can you explain this to me if it’s not prophetic?”
Jon nodded. “Promise me you won't freak out?”
“Gunna be hard not to now since you are leading with that.”
“Martin…”
“Fine. I promise. I’ll save freaking out till you leave.”
“That's not much better.” Jon smiled. There was a jolt in Martin that screamed to protect Jon to keep that sad smile from ever being there again.
“It’s all I can offer for now.”
“Right.” after a deep in hale he continued. “Your dreams are memories. Somehow you’ve been remembering things we’ve, well things that haven’t happened now, but experiences that lead up to a very bad event I’ve been trying to prevent.“
“The way you’ve phrased that, you’ve got these memories too? Are they complete or just random like mine? Cause they aren’t in order while I’m dreaming them.”
“Mine are a complete record. It’s like a solid line from the bad event right back in Elias’s chair right after signing my humanity away.”
“Ah. So all those scars.” Martin didn’t mean to say it outloud but by the look of horror on Jon’s face, Martin was sure Jon remembers how he got every one of them without the confirmation. “I’m so sorry Jon. Why didn’t you tell us. We could’ve helped, or least, I dunno, done something?”
There was that damn sad smile again. “No, that timeline doesn’t exist anymore. Me being aware of it alone has already thrown off events from happening. So knowing it wouldn’t have been good for anyone to know.”
“One person having future vision shouldn’t be enough to throw off a timeline Jon. I’ve watched enough movies to know how fake they are.” Martin was freaking out. But he told Jon he would try to keep it cool, so he will. Jon clearly has a lot going on, so Martin wasn’t going to make it worse.
“It’s not just me. Elias remembers everything. He is also the one that is more affecting the timeline of events at the moment, least the ones that put you all in danger. Much as I hate to admit it, he and I are currently at a stalemate of sorts. I have the upper hand at the moment by pure favor as the Archive, but in terms of actually Doing something. I can’t relax yet on that fact alone. Not till we figure out a way to break his connection to you all that we’ve all been researching.”
“If we knew about the-”
“No, Elias was always one step ahead of us the first time around. Any knowledge of the future would be more harmful to it cause then there would be expectations on how Elias would act and we could fall into old habits. Elias was good at playing me in the past. Anything I share could still be affected by that time“
“That's awfully insightful.“
“I’ll tell Georgie you think so.”
“She’s in on it?”
“Only a little. I kinda had a breakdown on her couch a few days after I found myself back in 2015. She doesn’t remember, I just kinda info dumped on her while burying my face in the Admiral.”
“Oh. So what now?”
“Nothing changes? I’m happy to talk with you about it all of course, and look into why it’s happening, but it doesn’t change that Elias needs to be stopped.”
“Oh. I guess that sounds easy enough. Nothing changes.” Martin nodded to his tea more than to Jon. “So, then can we talk about some of the memories? You said that you don’t know why right? What will happen if I keep remembering, what will happen to me?”
“I assume they will continue to feel like dreams? There is a chance you might wake up one day with a full set of memories, like you were suddenly thrown into your younger self’s body like I did, but now that you are aware of it, it might not be as confusing when the two sets of memories merge? Think the worst outcome would be if your memories of the Lonely started to surface without- What is that look for? Martin, have you been remembering the Lonely?”
Martin nodded. So it was the Lonely that brought the chill in the morning. It seems obvious.
“When did you?”
“The day we transferred to the Archives?”
Jon bolted from his chair and over to Martin. For someone so much tinier than him, Jon knew exactly how to fit Martin in his arms.
“I’ve been so scared…” Martin returned the embrace and started to sob into Jon. It’s been confusing, but he’d been managing it, but the moment that Jon held him, Martin remembered he didn’t want to just manage. He was safe in these arms.
“I’m so sorry. I should’ve noticed. You shouldn’t have been alone through that. ” Jon started to run his hand through Martin’s hair. “I’m here now.”
[click]
It didn’t take all that long for Martin to get composed, and in the process of getting there, he and Jon had moved from the kitchen to the couch. Though Martin was calmer, he didn’t want to give up the closeness that Jon held him in. Not yet. Not before asking.
“I got more than a few questions about all this, but one thing I need to know now that I know they are memories, and not just my mind making stuff up.”
“Go for it. I’ve never looked into your mind, not now nor then, so can’t say I’ll have an answer.”
“In the dreams, not dreams. Memories...Hm...We should figure out a good way to word it...But were we, are we a couple in the future you came from?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still love me?”
“Yes, Always.”
“Even if I’m not your version of Martin? If I won't be him? Could you still love me if I never become him?”
“You are still Martin. There isn’t this whole you and him. Maybe some experiences will change along the way, sure, I’m not holding you to making the same choices as before, including how you feel about me. But you are still you. Same way I’m as much Jon from before transferring into the archives.”
“But you're not quite the same. You’re the Jon that is actually in his late 30s rather than a 20-something liar.“
Jon let out a laugh. “Oh hush mister masters in parapsychology.”
“Oh, what are you going to do? Are you going to fire me?” They both were chuckling until Marting stopped, but continued to hold Jon close.
“Say, why don’t we go on a date. Not that I have anything to base this on, but I have a feeling we never did that in the not future now junk.”
“That would be nice.” Jon snuggled. It was Martin, and Jon felt home.