“……please, I don’t want my family to sing a requiem. Not yet”

That’s how the letter ended. No signature, no ‘sincerely’ nothing. I mean I guess it makes sense. You receive a letter written by yourself but from another world, what would you even expect to see as a signature? Anything other you writes would sound insane.

Anyway that’s aside the point, me is in danger. Wait that sounds weird… how would I…. nevermind. How do I help the other version of me? I mean, at least she was smart enough to send cross dimensional mail and I don’t even know how to address the situation. Is she even in the same dimension right now? It would catastrophic if we met. But as I read over the letter again, I know I have to do something.

‘Requiem’. She uses the word requiem instead of simply saying ‘mourn me’. Is that because it’s us or is it a hint to the world she lives in? I mean I’m not Catholic or any version of it. Is she?

No there’s got to be a more reasonable explanation. Is it a hint to her location? A church? No it’s kinda obvious. I wouldn’t have left that hint for something that obvious, I like rabbit holes and the less obvious things. I’m a fan of music… is it a song reference? It is a king of song, though typically used for funerals and wakes.

A graveyard! But what graveyard would I hide in? Any local ones are open area with no trees or shrubs. Wait, the one by my childhood church! It has a cornfield right next to it, and it shouldn’t be harvested for at least another week. How am I going to find myself in a cornfield?

———————————————

I get out of the car and start heading towards the field. I notice that the farmer had put in a man made lake. It wasn’t there when I was a kid. There’s a willow as well. I’ll get close to the edge of the field, near the willow.

Or would I think that’s to obvious because of the close distance from cover to cover. The less blatant option would be to hide in the lake, though I can’t swim. But maybe she can, it’s fairly close to the willow as well but you wouldn’t guess there because it would be harder to move and run to. It’s an open area it’s so easy to get a shot in, but in the water the bullet would slow once it gets deep enough, assuming they would even waste bullets or time checking there.

I head to the edge of the cornfield closest to the willow. It’s hard to see through the leaves but I pull the greenery aside just enough to see the handle end of a hunting knife coming at me.

“Woah!” I try to stay quiet but it’s quite the shocking experience. I look up and see myself.

“Not exactly how I thought I’d come to see myself” she says, still in a defensive posture.