Oh was exactly what Abigail didn’t want to hear.  She pulled clean-Liv towards the fountain, biting her lip, wishing she had a weapon, any sort of weapon, even a fork.  

How had Liv gotten so far away?  How had she let Liv get so far away?

This Liv didn’t listen to her, and the one whose hand she was holding was trying to get away, and – “I am not cut out to be the responsible friend,” Abigail muttered.  She shoved aside a clothing rack and hauled Liv in toward the fountain.

Dirty-Liv was naked, in the fountain, which was easily deep enough to serve as a bath, and she was staring at –

At Liv.

“Fuck.”

This Liv was a faun, or at the very least she had faun feet and little horns and furry legs, and Abigail could tell all of that because she was wearing a shirt that went past her butt and – well, and a cute scarf.  

“Fuck.”  Abigail looked between the three Livs.  “Well?”  She knew she sounded pissy.  She didn’t care.  She was pissy. No, no, she was pissed.  “What happened to your Abigail?”

“Trust me,” Dirty-Liv – who wasn’t dirty anymore but was as skinny as Liv-One had claimed – cut in.  “You probably don’t want to know.”

“What do I die in every universe?”

“Not ours,” her Liv pointed out.  “Why is there another me?  Why am I a faun?”

The faun-Liv looked up and between them. “Another one  – Abigail?”  She croaked it out as if she hadn’t spoken in a while. “Abby?  You’re – oh, no, no, get out of here, all of you.  Get out, while maybe you can.  Get out before it gets you.”

“It?” Abigail asked.  Skinny Liv was already stepping, buck-naked, out of the fountain.

“Give me those clothes.”  She snatched the clothes from Liv-one.  “Right, everyone change fast and we’re leaving.  Rule one.  If there’s a rule to this.  When someone says ‘get out,’ the first thing you do is leave.  So we’re putting on clean clothes and leaving.”

“Right.” Abigail stripped down and changed.  Liv had seen her naked before.  Well, one of them had.  “Where is the exit?”

“Five trees down on the left.  Hurry.  Hurry.”  The faun shoved a pack into Abigail’s hands while she was trying to button up a new shirt.  “I can’t go.  I can’t.  But if you see – well,  Go.  You two.  Keep her safe.  You don’t know-”

“I know.”  Skinny-Liv, with a shirt on, looked identical to clean-first-whatever Liv.  “Trust me, I know.  I’ll try to make sure they never do.  Come on.”

Liv-the-first could still be identified by her habit of doing whatever was the least convenient, in this case heading for the back door.  “Liv!” Abby called.  She hurried after her friend, hoping there wasn’t whatever might get them out the back door, Other-Liv right behind her

There was a door in the back room, and the space behind it was glowing, and Liv was just stepping through it.  Abigail grabbed the door a second before it closed and yanked it open in time to see Liv vanish into a bright light.

🌲🌳🌲

Want More?

• Part I