The mother placed a hand on Cassidy’s cheek. “We made a promise to you—to keep you safe, even if it meant we couldn’t be here. But we also wanted you to know there’s a version of us still out there. And that you have the power to choose your own path.”
The mother’s face grew serious. “We left the device because we didn’t want to risk it falling into the wrong hands. But we also knew we might need to leave a way for you to find us, in case… in case we never came back.”
“Ready?” Cassidy asked, her breath fogging in the cold.
“Do you think they’ll ever come back?” Cassidy asked, voice trembling.
The attic window looked out onto the old oak tree in the backyard, the one their parents used to carve initials into when they were kids. Sawyer remembered the initials: , their grandparents. He ran his thumb over the bark, feeling the shallow groove they’d left decades ago. “What if the device wants us to be under the tree at exactly noon?”
The RealitySis device on the table pulsed, sending a gentle vibration through the floorboards. A holographic projection sprang to life, displaying a map of multiple branching timelines. Each branch was labeled with a date and a brief description: , 07‑22‑12 – The Public Reveal , 12‑01‑06 – The Family Reunion .
Above the attic, the sky darkened, and a thin ribbon of aurora began to unfurl across the horizon—purple, gold, and blue, just as they had seen in the other branch. It was a reminder that realities are infinite, but the bonds that hold them together are not. In the months that followed, Sawyer and Cassidy kept the RealitySis hidden beneath the floorboards of their attic, the silver disk safely tucked inside a lockbox. They studied the notebook, learning enough to understand the basic principles of the device without ever attempting to replicate it. They also built a small, secret laboratory in the shed behind the house, where they could experiment with harmless simulations of parallel realities—just enough to keep their minds sharp and to honor the promise their parents had made.