One of Xan's eyes had crinkled in confoundment, like her mind was malfunctioning for a moment trying to process the impossible. The story felt eerily familiar, when Erin showed her the phone Xan's hand went to her own in her pocket. They were the same model.
The pang returned, Xan wincing and reaching to apply pressure to her temples to suppress the pain. Erin was dead, that much was certain. A sense of some sort of dread, some aberration, had been following Xan since she woke up on that church bench all those days ago.
"You uh...Don't happen to someone know someone with the name Nixie. - "
Xan was struggling to much to keep herself relatively composed to perk up at the name, but every drop of doubt drained from her in that moment. She'd spend days of these fleeting thoughts, always chased off by sporadic migraines - but here was the truth staring her in the face. Xan shook her head slowly, burying herself into her hands to block the light in an attempt to curb the pain. She sighed heavily, peeking out from behind her fingers. Cycling through the millions of impossibilities that could lead to this, struggling with where to start. She inhaled deeply, preparing to speak - interrupted by the shuffles of Harold as he carried over her cheeseburger and milkshake.
"Here you are," He said after what seemed like an eternity, the two patrons watching him with a tense silence as he approached. Xan gave a weak smile of thanks. When he remained at the table, Xan looked back to Erin then back to Harold. She opened her mouth to speak, Harold cutting in before she could. "Anything else I can get you? Ketchup, hot sauce?"
"No - no thank you," Xan's lips pressed into a fine line, giving Harold a nod. He seemed to be frozen for a moment, searching her face. Xan looked back to Erin, eyes widened.
"Alright then, just let me know if you need anything!" He finally said, giving them both a smile and a nod and returning behind the counter.
"Okay," Xan waited until he was out of earshot, turning back to Erin. Her vision had adjusted, her head still aching but now a dull throb instead of a sharp pang. She had pulled out her keys and phone out of her pocket, slapping them onto the table next to Erin's.
"Your name is Erin Monaghan. We are in Widow's Peak, the town where we grew up...." Xan could feel this block in her mind giving way, weakening to give way to a stream of consciousness. “Your best friends are Soren and Markus. My name is Xan Cole. My sister's name is Phoenix Cole....Nixie, who you dated."
She could see the light of recognition in Erin’s eyes.Suddenly rushed with a sense of clarity, the dull throb in her temples lifted. Xan had been trying so hard to connect the dots but they were already connected, she had just been unable to see it. Her hands had developed a strange tingling sensation, Xan looking down at them for a moment before continuing.
"You don't date anymore though, because....you died - and I'm pretty sure I did too." Xan stretched her arms across the table, reaching for Erin's hands - her fingers passing right through them. “I don’t know what the hell is going on, but I know it is not possible.”