In a tone that is definitely hysterical, she says, “And you couldn’t have told me that the first time around?” “No one wants to die,” Modesty says. “Uh, yeah! No shit, Modesty! Me included!” “Unfortunately, you’re going to have to.” “I don’t want to! It hurts! A lot!” “If the world ends,” says Modesty in a perfectly reasonable tone, “it will hurt more.” “Why is this my responsibility?” Georgia demands. “You said - you’re the ones who made the loop? Why couldn’t you just have chosen someone else?” “That is not information you can be privy to at this time.” “I don’t want to die!” Georgia says. She’s certifiably yelling now. “I don’t want to exist to die! I want to live! I want to go to university and get a job and kiss a girl and move to another city that isn’t an arcane sanctuary that I’m living in to learn how to defeat a cosmic threat that’s managed multiple times to eat my reality!” “You don’t have that choice, Georgia,” Modesty says. Georgia throws her lemonade at him. The glass shatters against his shiny bald head and falls in equally shiny pieces on the grass underneath him. “So kill me again,” she says. He doesn’t. “Kill me,” Georgia repeats. “What’s wrong? Forgot your sword?” Modesty doesn’t respond. “Oh, shit,” she says, heart racing, gears turning. Now that she isn’t all worked up about being a six-time sacrificial lamb, she’s connecting the dots. “You can’t. You’re too far behind schedule.” With difficulty, Modesty says, “We are.” “So,” Georgia says. “What now?” The sun is in her eyes. She blinks the glare away, and Modesty disappears. A month later, he appears in step with her as she walks to school. Georgia’s heart kicks into overdrive. She really doesn’t want to die. She keeps her mouth shut. “The mathematics are difficult,” Modesty says. “The fairest solution, I think, would be to allow you one normal lifetime before you return to your destiny. But we cannot offer that, because the world is going to end in five years.” Georgia manages not to say Hate when that happens. She nods. “But think of it this way,” Modesty says. “You’re already stuck in the loop.
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