Octavia was walking through fire.

Fire had consumed Manehattan, it was burning every street, every house, but, this time, the children no longer played. They burned. Horrible screams filled up the air around the cellist, pleas for mercy and single gunshots that delivered said mercy to the select few.

“Wanna take a selfie?”

Octavia looked to her right and saw Vinyl, in those never-hot, never-cold jeans of hers, that ridiculous T-shirt, toying with a revolver. “It’s only one shot, and they go to sleep,” Vinyl said, pointing her gun at a pregnant woman crawling up to them, burning, screaming, her eyes bulging to the point that they would squeeze out of her face, falling onto the fiery ground. “Bam.” The DJ took the shot, watching the woman’s head hit the ground, blood splattering onto the flaming asphalt. “One shot, two people saved.” The blue-haired woman handed the revolver to Octavia. “This is the best selfie stick, Tavi. Wanna try it out? Together.”

Octavia backed down, her lungs filling with smoke, making her retch and cough. “V-vinyl, what’s going on?” she asked weakly, feeling the heat of fire licking at her bare feet. She pressed her back against the wall of an old building, a thought crossing her mind that this was just the outskirts, the real hell must be in the city centre.

“You are what’s going on.”

“Me?” Octavia tried to back down, but the wall was already at her back, and Vinyl was advancing. “I am not doing anything!” Looking at her hands, the woman saw flames in her palms, hot but not burning. “These are not mine!”

In a moment, there was nothing but whiteness all around, blinding whiteness - and Vinyl before her. “You’re in Limbo, Octavia,” Vinyl said, embracing the cellist by the waist. “Like Dante.” She pressed her chin against Octavia’s shoulder. “Both the writer and the video game character.” Locking their lips in a tight kiss, Vinyl mentally sent a message to her:

You’ll have to wake up eventually.

***

“Are you sure you’re not gonna melt in such heat with a cap on?” Octavia jested, shrugging off the remains of the bad dream, the details of which she could not remember, but which still lingered on her conscience.

Vinyl showed her friend her tongue, immediately prompting Octavia’s brain to wonder just how that tongue would feel- “It’s a kippah,” the spinner joked and went back from the mirror, admiring her look. “How do I look?”

“Gorgeous,” Octavia replied earnestly and went up to her friend. “But so much better without the cap.” With a giggle, she grabbed the woollen cap, taking it off - and immediately gasped. At the back of Vinyl’s head, the usually-blue hair gave way to silver grey, no, even pure white - when Octavia knew Vinyl was a natural brunette. That is, had been before she had started dying her hair. “Vinyl?..”

“That’s all right.” The spinner faked a smile. And put the cap back on. “I haven’t had the time to dye my hair yet.” At Octavia’s insistent gaze, she groaned. “Yes, I am getting white hairs. Ever since the truck accident. At least white is better than black.”

Octavia frowned. “Did you just make an indirect racist remark?”

“Hey, I have a tan friend.” Vinyl pointed her finger at Octavia’s light-brown face. “I can make racist remarks. Come on,” she urged, taking her phone up. “Let’s read the news real quick and then we’re off to adventures!”

“I don’t even know what you have planned for today!” Octavia moaned, just as her lovely brain supplied no less lovely images of what could be planned for today, if she, Octavia, had just accepted the kiss the previous night…

“Huh?” Vinyl’s voice came out really concerned. “Forest fires?”

Octavia’s mind immediately froze, providing a static, stative image of fire burning down streets, and her, and Vinyl… “Let me see.” The cellist grabbed the phone skilfully, despite Vinyl’s muffled protest, and skimmed through the news report.

“A dozen kilometres away from Manehattan?” The raven-haired woman looked at her friend in sheer disbelief. “The forests are burning, and the city is surrounded by forests. Has it happened before?” She hid the fear behind a rhetorical question. “I mean, on such a scale?”

“I don’t know.” Vinyl rubbed her eyelids, then, with a smile, grabbed her phone back. “Not in a long while, at least. Let’s go back to the world that was thirty years ago,” she joked and spun in front of the mirror. Seeing Octavia’s quizzical expression, she merely sighed. “We really need to work on your musical habits, Classical-via.”

“First, that’s a horrible name, and you know it.” Octavia furrowed her brows at the grinning DJ and took a step towards her, feeling a sudden urge to both hit and kiss her friend on the lips. “And second, I listen to a lot of music. Classical, jazz, rock, even metal.” Angel Octavia shook her head disapprovingly. “When it’s not blasphemous,” she swiftly added.

“Hmm.” Vinyl rubbed her chin in mocking pretense. “Maybe you will appreciate this new tune of mine.” With that, the woman drifted towards the sound system in the corner, humming and running through the playlists.

“Oh, so you don’t just spin disks, you actually write music,” Octavia mocked while her heart fluttered at the idea of listening to one of Vinyl’s songs. If they could be called songs, that. Of course, EDM wasn’t her particular area of interest, but this was Vinyl’s music, so…

“Ah, here.” Octavia almost gasped as Vinyl turned to her with a smile, the same smile that she would have when she would fish out a new prog record for Octavia to listen, back in music school.

The cellist wanted to embrace her friend right there, on the spot, but was frozen in place as she heard the music. There was a gentle sound of the plucked double bass, not the midi crap that so many modern musicians were guilty of using, but the real deal, a double bass recorded just for her friend, just for Vinyl. The drums soon joined in, laying down a nu-jazz rhythm.

Octavia expected a sax, but, instead, there was a deep rumble of several synths, and the high pitch of the mellotron. It was the tune they had jokingly composed all those years ago, in music school, when they had been overtaken by the prog craze.

This was their melody. But there was something lacking. Of course there would be something lacking. “You remember?” Octavia said almost breathlessly, finally taking a step in the direction of her friend.

“Of course I remember, Octavia.” Vinyl smiled radiantly, setting Octavia’s world on fire. “I thought you have forgotten…” Vinyl took a step towards her childhood friend as well. “But you didn’t.”

“I…” Octavia opened her mouth. I want you, she wanted to say. I want you right now. Please let’s get away from the world, the forest fires, the orchestra and the clubs. Please let me love you, and I will teach you to love me in return. Let’s build a castle where the flags would forever flutter and the bread in the kitchen would be always warm. Let’s have our own world, a world for two.

Instead, she said, “I think it would benefit from a cello.” Angel Octavia and Devil Octavia groaned in unison. How we say the things that we don’t mean to say, the little angel lamented. Indeed, and omit the things we want to say, the little devil agreed from the other shoulder.

“Reading my mind, Cellotavia.” Vinyl nodded, apparently brought out of stupor as well.

What was she thinking? Octavia marvelled at how swiftly her friend had regained her composure. Was she thinking of embracing me too?.. Or, maybe, after she tried to kiss me yesterday… “Maybe some violins too?” Octavia suggested, trying to shape her semifake smile into a genuine one. Which was not that hard of a task, given that the mere image of Vinyl’s beautiful eyes was enough for the raven-haired woman to melt.

“No, no violence.” Vinyl shook her head and turned off the music, which had already changed to another song. “I am a pacifist.” With that, she blew Octavia a kiss, making the tan woman chuckle, then laugh, tears of happiness in her lavender eyes.

I’m so gonna kiss her someday, Octavia thought through laughter, gazing into Vinyl’s eyes lovingly. One day.

***

“You were right. The cap is a bit too much.” Vinyl huffed and took off the black cap, immediately letting out a deep, liberated sigh. “Aaaaah. Who cares if I have grey hair, I don’t wanna die from a heatstroke.”

“Exactly.” Octavia nodded, biting her tongue about how she herself had been considering a hoodie, just to look stylish in Vinyl’s company. “I mean, you’re wearing a shirt that practically shows your bra, and a cap at that. How does that even make sense?” The cellist chuckled as the two women walked up the street, facing very few pedestrians, but an awful lot of cars. Of course, Octavia lamented mentally. They’re air-conditioned.

“Nothing makes sense, Chilltavia. Say, you would like it if I were without a bra, wouldn’t you.” Vinyl cast such a swift look at her friend, that Octavia couldn’t hide her shock and thick blush. “Oh yes, you would.” The blue-haired woman laughed light-heartedly and stroked Octavia’s cheek. “Okay, I’ll take that into consideration.”

Okay, that’s enough. Octavia stopped, drawing Vinyl’s full attention. Not that there was anyone else in the street to divert the spinner’s attention from the blushing cellist, who had just decided to spill the beans of the events of the previous night, the events as they should have unfolded.

“Say…” Octavia said slowly, averting her eyes at Vinyl’s mindful gaze. “if you were, um, to kiss me, like, kiss me really passionately, and then I would freak out and rewind…” Octavia shut her eyes tight. “Would you be mad at me for not telling you?”

She didn’t dare open her eyes, not until she felt Vinyl’s hand on her cheek. Opening her eyes at once, the woman saw her friend at a remarkably close distance, smiling at her. “Of course I would be mad at you, Octavia.” The DJ leant in and breathed on the cellist’s ear. “Because I like you and I would never want to miss a kiss with you.”

Octavia closed her eyes again as Vinyl’s lips slowly traced the path from the ear, through the cheek, approaching the soft, eager lips…

“Neon says hi.”

The gunshot wasn’t very loud. If anything, the murderer might have been using a silencer. Definitely a silencer, Octavia thought as she felt the bullet hit her in the abdomen. Her eyes fell on Vinyl, who had a small neat hole in her body, oozing blood. The life in Vinyl’s eyes flickered off almost immediately, but the muscles in her hands were still tight around Octavia’s waist and head so, when falling, she, dead, was still grabbing her friend, almost-girlfriend, who fell on top of her.

Octavia didn’t feel any pain, concluding that her body must have gone into shock. But even if it was not the case, she couldn’t feel anything, anything but a void at the mere image of her to-be-lover dead, so stupidly, such a dull, aching void filled only with… music? Because when musicians die, they hear music.

Octavia closed her eyes and concentrated on the music, an exact replica of Vinyl’s tune from the morning. The music grew distant as she felt she was dozing off to an eternal sleep, but then suddenly grew louder and louder and was right to her left-

“No, no violence. I am a pacifist.”

The song was through. Vinyl was there. She, Octavia was also there, ‘there’ being Vinyl’s flat. In the morning. With Vinyl in front of her. Alive, grinning at her stupid pun. Octavia wanted to cry, to laugh, to run to the woman.

Instead, overcome with sudden fatigue, she fainted.

***

“I don’t understand.” Vinyl slammed her fist against the table in irritation. “Why the hell cannot I understand?” She looked at Octavia, evidently trying to find an answer in the lavender eyes, but the cellist remained silent, her head still spinning both metaphorically and literally. “You were only able to move time back five minutes? And now you- ARGH!” Again, the fist came down on the tabletop. “And I cannot even say anything because for me NOTHING HAPPENED!” She glanced at Octavia. “Maybe you have just gone insane? Maybe I’ve gone insane? Maybe we have both gone insane?”

“I don’t know.” Octavia let out a sigh and closed her eyes, wishing she could lean back on the uncomfortable kitchen stool. “Nothing makes sense anymore. I am just telling you what I saw. What I did.”

“You saved me.” Vinyl closed her eyes and started rocking on her stool. “You saved me again. I owe you my life, twice. Octavia, I don’t know what to say.” When Vinyl raised her head, there were tears in her eyes. “Thank you, Tavi. If… If everything… If all of this is what truly happened - and I believe you somehow - then thank you.”

Octavia stood up, filled with sudden determination, her head spinning a little from the recent events. Without thinking much, the cellist took a step in, and, lifting her head, pressed her lips against her friend’s lips, but, instead of the deep, thoughtful kiss she’d been expecting, Vinyl withdrew, wide-eyed. “Tavi… What are you doing?”

“Wha-” Octavia closed her mouth immediately, the touch of Vinyl’s sweet lips still fresh on hers. “I thought!” She pressed a hand to her mouth. Wait. I didn’t- I didn’t just- “I- I thought you said you liked me…” she mumbled, taking a step back, disoriented, thoughts rushing through her head. Wait. Did I- Dammit, of course I reversed back then and then I reversed when I told her, and forgot that she forgot and now- shit!

“I never told you I liked you… I do like you, Tavi, but I meant to- Vinyl began slowly, but, upon seeing the cellist’s dismay, a realisation dawned upon her, her face lighting up in clarity and anger. “Wait. I said that I liked you, and you freaked out and reverted time and now you- Octavia!” The DJ pointed an accusing finger at the flustered woman, trying to find a place to hide, to steal and conceal herself. “This whole reversing time thing has become like a drug. You need to lay off, you hear me?” Anger boiled in Vinyl’s voice as she formed the accusation, the real reason behind her ragged breath, her trembling fingers, her rich, hastened heartbeat. “You promised you would share all those alternate universes with me when it concerned me!” Vinyl stood up and advanced on the poor cellist, her feet almost pressing into the floor next to Octavia’s soles. “You promised and you-”

Suddenly, Vinyl froze. Octavia still looked scared, but now her lavender eyes held some other emotion: was she… sad? Solemn? Lugubrious? Then the spinner saw the little blue flame. “No, no, don’t you dare! Don’t you fucking da-”

“-And I believe you somehow - then thank you.”

Octavia shut her eyes tight, shaking. It’s better that way. Easier. “You’re welcome, Vinyl.” The cellist offered her best smile. “I’m sorry, my mind is still reeling. I, uh, I think I need a drink.”

Vinyl squinted her eyes, then sighed in defeat. “Tavi, I can’t tell you what to do, but A, it’s morning, and B, you’ve just had your pills. They don’t mix well with alcohol. Instead,” she prompted, “I suggest we go out for a walk.”

“No!” Octavia yelled, her eyes widening in fear as she clutched her abdomen where the bullet had accommodated itself some time ago. Only then did she realise that there was nothing to fear, that she was in Vinyl’s apartment, that Vinyl was by her side… and that she could, apparently, cheat even death by rewinding time. “But even if I can cheat death, I can’t cheat experience,” she mumbled aloud.

“Okay, we stay in.” Vinyl nodded, sad understanding welling in her eyes. “But we can’t stay holed up in my apartment forever. Eventually, we’ll have to go out.” The spinner got up and put on the kettle. “I know… I mean, I don’t know,” she quickly amended with a shake of her head. “I cannot begin to imagine. But I understand that you have actually seen - no, felt - us dying… I get it that it’s hard. But we’ll overcome this.” She poured some tea into the guest mug - which was, apparently, now Octavia’s mug. “Together.”

Octavia smiled softly, guilt killing her. If only one of us could confess normally and we’d be really ‘together’... “Of course, Vinyl. But let’s spend at least today inside. We can watch a sappy movie.”

“Oh!” Vinyl laughed, putting the mug on the table and pouring herself some tea as well. “We can, but then I’d have to kiss you. You know,” she grinned, “the unspoken rule of watching sappy movies.”

Octavia didn’t even blush as a stunning realisation crept upon her. “Vinyl… When I fainted. It wasn’t because of the mental shock. I really don’t feel that good…” Finally, she shared her assumption: “I think it’s because of the rewind. Because of all of the rewinds.”

The spinner fell silent, her smile vanishing, before she took the stool and put it next to the cellist, sitting down and taking Octavia’s hand in hers. “Tavi. If all the rewinds are making you sick, you should stop.”

“Oh yes?” Octavia snapped, the pain and the guilt washing over her, finding their ultimate release in Vinyl’s worried face. “Right, I should stop. And maybe let you die the next time you are shot? Or let you die under a truck? Right, that would be so much better for my health!”

Vinyl’s mouth fell agape as she saw the tears in her friend’s eyes. Maybe, at that moment, she realised just how much she meant to Octavia, and maybe, just maybe… “I’m sorry,” Vinyl whispered, pressing Octavia’s hand against her lips. “Tavi, I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me. You are my best- you are my only friend in the whole world. Please don’t be mad at me.”

Now that tears had appeared in Vinyl’s eyes as well, Octavia couldn’t hold hers in any longer. She cried and threw herself into her best friend’s embrace. “It’s too much, Vinyl.” Tears streamed down the beautiful tan face, curving the cheeks and ending up on the chin. “I can’t handle it. I am just a person! I don’t- I can’t-!” Octavia sniffed and sniffed and cried while Vinyl hugged her, patting her back uneasily. “Those powers! I just can’t!”

Vinyl just sat there in silence, letting Octavia cry it out, much like Octavia had let her cry her own eyes out some time ago. Apparently, Octavia thought as her sobbing ceased gradually, this was the only thing they could do for each other right now: be there for one another. Why can’t we just confess and live together and love each other? But then again, who would love such a freak? Mentally ill, physically not very fit, far from being shrewd, and now with such devilish powers… Hey, that’s racist! Devil Octavia remarked from her shoulder.

“Tavi.” Vinyl’s voice brought the raven-haired woman out of her reverie. “I need to see Neon. See how he is connected to this, if this wasn’t a set-up. If it isn’t a set-up. Hell, I am not even sure what tense I should use. It technically hasn’t happened yet, right?” Vinyl groaned, rubbing her forehead, simultaneously letting go of her friend.

“And it won’t happen,” Octavia said sternly, choking on her words. “Because you are not leaving home today. It’s dangerous.”

“I have to, Tavi,” Vinyl pleaded. “He is my brother. I need to see if he is somehow… I don’t know why he would do this…” The blue-haired woman gulped, closing her eyes shut. “I need to find out.”

Octavia wanted to protest, to remind her friend of the danger and the damage that had been done… or was about to be done… But, instead, she nodded resolutely, setting her fears aside. “Okay, I am going with you.”

Vinyl’s expression was quizzical, enquiring, disbelieving. But more so was it hopeful. And more than a little happy.

“Because,” Octavia answered the unspoken question, “I am the only one who can rewind and save your stupid ass again.”

“Octavia,” Vinyl said very earnestly. “If I could spend a forever with you, I would do so without thinking.” She placed her hand on Octavia’s hand again.

“Me too, Vinyl.” Octavia sighed, returning the gesture. “But I am not sure we have a forever.”

***

“Are you fucking insane?”

Vinyl advanced on her brother - and employer - with an evil look in her eyes, the look that scared Octavia so much. Instead, the cellist turned to the familiar black man who was standing in the corner on the office, paying no heed to the siblings’ quarrel.

“I could ask you the same, Nini! What the fuck did you do?!”

“So, um, Mr Catcher?” Octavia wondered quietly in the corner of the room, casting a glance at the polished mahogany desk, which was now a battlefield, and the rich blackwood cases, among other things. Hm, a record label owner who doesn’t have any music in his office. “What exactly are you doing here? Erm, were doing here?”

“I didn’t do shit! Are you insane? How in the world of living fuck could you assume I would have you killed?! And don’t ever call me ‘Nini’!”

Mr Catcher smiled at his prized cellist. “Well, I found someone who will sponsor our orchestra from now on.” He nodded towards Neon, who was now backing down from Vinyl’s significant advances. “No more low-class gigs for us, Octavia. Only playing at big venues now. I have really, really big plans for the future.”

“The future, huh,” Octavia reiterated dumbly. Somehow, the concept of the future didn’t seem to be particularly welcoming, especially now that she herself had prevented several futures from happening - rather, in this universe. “That’s… nice, I guess.”

“Someone wanted to kill me in the street with a bloody gun, and he said it was a present from you!”

Octavia scrunched her nose. Hate it when people misinterpret my words. Well, the assassin’s words. Ugh. Anyway.

“How the fuck does that make sense?” Neon finally straightened himself, standing almost toe-to-toe with his elder sister. “If someone had wanted to kill you with a gun, you wouldn’t be standing here right now!”

Vinyl opened her mouth, then looked at Octavia hopelessly. Only now did Octavia realise just how much their friendship (Just friendship?) meant to Vinyl, just how keen Vinyl was on keeping her secret, how she would never give her away.

“That’s because he didn’t, after all,” the cellist quickly supplied, receiving wondrous looks from all the three other people in the room. “Apparently, he couldn’t bring himself to kill a person, much less two people. Besides, there was a police patrol approaching. So he vanished.” Please buy it please buy it please buy it…

“What ever happened to hiring professionals?” Mr Catcher shook his head suddenly and smiled. “Good thing my musicians are not amateurs. See you at practice, Octavia, and your girlfriend, sometime. See you sooner, Neon.”

“See you, Catch.” Neon grinned, forgetting aught and all immediately. Watching the bald man leave, he sighed dreamily. “That’s one hell of a man. Ambitious, with a plan. He inspires me.” The host held a meaningful pause. “As for you, Vinyl, I have no idea what has really happened, but I assure you I have nothing to do with that. Now, get out of my office. And take your girlfriend with you.”

Octavia huffed, but Vinyl grabbed her by the waist and led towards the door. “Let’s go, Tavi. Oh, and Neon?” Suddenly, Vinyl took Octavia’s head in her hands and pressed her lips against the cellist’s. Octavia yelped in surprise, allowing Vinyl’s tongue inside. The kiss lasted for seconds, but to Octavia it seemed like hours. In reality, she didn’t even get to close her eyes, getting a weird angle of her friend’s face instead of blissful darkness. “You’re just jealous because you’re never getting this.”

Neon just shrugged and pointed at the door.

***

“I trust him.”

“What?” Octavia blinked, still trying to cope with what had just happened. “You…”

“He is my brother. I would see if he were lying.” Vinyl inhaled deeply and suddenly sneezed. “Damn, the air is so hot it burns my nose.”

“Vinyl, aren’t we going to talk about how you just kissed me?” Octavia wondered timidly, her heart beating faster. This is it. This is the time when we finally come clean. No reversals this time, she promised herself. Whatever happens.

“I don’t know, Tavi.” Vinyl sighed, but didn’t stop, only speeding up instead - which made the cellist quicken her pace. “I really don’t know anything, anymore. I know I like you, but I don’t know if I like you as a friend or- Fuck!” the DJ swore as her shoe literally got stuck in the ground. “What the fuck is wrong with this city?”

“Asphalt is melting,” Octavia remarked quietly, visions of her nightmare flooding her head. “Let me rewind a few seconds back…” She held out the hand with the little blue fire…

“Huh?”

The fire never grew redder. Instead, it lingered there in her hand, cold to the touch, then disappeared altogether, like a hoax, like a joke, like an impractical decoration. “What’s going on?” Octavia realised she was panicking now, for real. If her powers could fail her… Then what was stopping that assassin from effectively killing her? Worse even, killing Vinyl?..

“You must be burnt out, Tavi,” Vinyl assured the cellist with a smile, freeing her shoe from the charcoal putty. “You need to relax a bit, and your rewinds will be strong as ever.”

“I don’t know, Vinyl…” Octavia stopped by the TV shop as she read the subtitles to the news on-screen on display. “Forest fires advancing at an alarming rate…”

“Warnings of fires breaking out in the Manehattan park…” Vinyl read aloud as well, stunned in place. “What is this all about?”

“Not just the park,” Octavia whispered. “The whole city is gonna burn.” She looked at Vinyl with tears in her eyes.

“And I am the reason behind it.”