Epilogue

The following Monday, when everyone was still hungover from the school festival, my class for the first period was canceled because, well, the professor was really hungover. It wasn’t outright canceled since he showed up and gave us some assignments to be submitted when we meet next, but for the rest of the period, we were free to go.

However, since it was only the first period, both Naomi and I didn’t feel like going anywhere else so we stayed and chatted. That was also the time I decided to fulfill the promise I made with the Naomi from that other timeline, but the Naomi in front of me stopped me when she realized I was talking about the supernatural.

“I hate topics like that”, she said, contrary to what the other Naomi had said.

Then, she hurriedly led me away from the room to hang out somewhere else.

“It’s possible that she grew a dislike for stories about the supernatural because of Ken and Marie”, the speaker said.

It was the ghost girl.

When my classes were done for the day, I went to the former Horror Society clubroom to talk to her. I was able to speak to her since I borrowed the voice changer that Ken and Marie used during that matchmaking game and hooked it up to a speaker. This was easier than using notes.

“What do you mean?” I asked her.

“Well, history is a myriad series of cause and effect. In this timeline, you met that couple, which led to you hearing ghost stories, which led to you retelling them to Naomi, which led to her seeing some ghost in the back of the room because you two stayed to chat. Plus, because you met those two, they arranged a matchmaking contest for you, which she was invited to take part of, which also took place in this room, which I happened to haunt, which led to me to talk like I’m doing now, which led to me scaring all of you away.”

“Huh, have I ever told you about that first one?”

“Uh…” she hemmed, cleared her ghost throat and said, “Yeah, you did.”

“Did I now?”

I don’t recall.

I was more interested whether she had phlegm or it was ectoplasm, but, not to get off-topic, I said, “Anyway, what were you getting at?”

“Right, so those things happened in this timeline. But, on the other, Ken and Marie didn’t become lovers, so you weren’t able to meet them, which meant you and Naomi didn’t get to experience the same things you did in this timeline.”

“So, how does that relate to that other Naomi saying she would love to hear about the topic and my Naomi saying the opposite?”

“My theory is that she developed a dislike for the supernatural in this timeline because of those experiences. But, in the other timeline, she wasn’t able to develop it because she wasn’t able to have those experiences because you weren’t able to become friends with Ken and Marie because they didn’t become lovers.”

“I see, that was unexpectedly easy to understand.”

“It would also explain why the world changed when you returned to the present time.”

“I’m more interested in why simply talking to Ken changed their fates, though. He already seemed sure of his feelings when he was a kid. I probably only gave him a light push at best, so why did he fail?”

“Well, if you push someone who’s already running at top speed, there’s a decent chance they will lose balance and fall over. ”

“Huh, I didn’t think of it that way.”

“Although, I have another theory.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Perhaps, you telling him to not give up was the reason he was able to get together with Marie.”

“That makes sense as well.”

“But, that poses one problem. Who was the first one to tell him that?”

“Huh? It’s me, isn’t it?”

“Right, but how? The prerequisite of you going back to the past is you meeting Ken and Marie as lovers. But, if that condition isn’t met, why would you return to the past to encourage Ken? You haven’t even met them. If you never encouraged Ken, how did this chain of you traveling through time and interfering with the past started?”

“Let’s just try to not think about it”, I said because it made my head hurt.

“Speaking of which, do you subscribe to the multiverse theory?”

“What’s that?”

“Well, it would be too long to explain, but, in short, there are other universes where a different you is simultaneously living a different life.”

“I think I’ve heard of that. Why do you ask?”

“Have you ever thought you went to a parallel world? What if that other timeline is actually a different world with its own history and continuity and you just interfered with it?”

“I’ll just leave it to the me in that parallel world.”

“But, that’s the interesting part! Do we know what happened to the ‘you’ from that parallel world?”

“What do you mean?”

“When you went to that parallel world, there was only one ‘you’, right? Where did the ‘you’ from that other world go? Was she also on her own parallel world adventure? Did she manage to get back?”

“If she’s me, then I’m sure she got back”, I said off-handedly.

“But, what if she didn’t? You’ve seen how some of your friends acted differently than the ones you knew, right? What’s to say the ‘you’ over there is an exact copy of you? If she wasn’t as determined to get back to her own timeline as you, is she stuck between space and time, forever jumping from windows? You know the story of that girl who kept jumping from the window, right? What if that was her?”

“Wait, that story takes place in the Central Building.”

“Yes, but you jumped from a different window the second time, right? Who's to say there aren't more of those portals?”

It was a little difficult to swallow, but her argument didn’t sound implausible.

“Parallel universes aside, that story started because of you”, she continued.

“Me?” I exclaimed, surprised.

“That’s right. I know what you’re thinking, you jumped from a different building. But, since they didn’t find a body, they didn’t file a report. The news didn’t even pick it up. There are no written records of the event. All it became was a legend passed on through word of mouth, and, because of that, it became a huge game of telephone where the details slowly changed each time the story was told until it became the tale you were familiar with.”

“I see…”

I got her explanation, but it was still unsettling that I was the subject of a ghost story.

“Anyway, back to that other ‘you’”, she said, but I cut her off.

“Let’s just say she returned safely and those jumpers are from other parallel worlds”, I said. “That way, it’s a happy ending for each and every version of me.”

“I see, sounds good”, she agreed.

“I’m more curious about you, though. How come you have memories from both timelines?”

“Maybe I’m a being that transcends space-time, maybe I’m a ghost who follows you around. What do you think?”

“I think you’re a weird supernatural being for trying to explain everything with sci-fi concepts.”

The ghost girl then laughed, albeit sounding robotic due to the voice changer.

“Just because horror and mystery are my favorites doesn’t mean I dislike sci-fi”, she commented.

Our talk ended there. I was killing time until Ken and Marie’s classes were over because those two invited me to play after school. I was the only one going with them so there was a decent chance I’ll be refereeing, too.

Speaking of those two, now that I’m aware that time travel is possible, I just hope I don’t get to find out the end of their long-standing bet by accidentally jumping into the future.