Rising Shards

I whirled, expecting to see my parents enraged that I'd tamper with their device. I barely held in a scream, but it was Zeta wandering out in her pajamas, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh...hey," I whispered as she approached me for a hug. "Can't sleep?"

She nodded.

"Me either," I said. "Pretty scary storm. But we'll be alright. We can stay out here, we just have to be a bit quiet, OK?"

Zeta nodded. I pulled out a chair and sat down, hoisting Zeta up to sit on my lap. With her here, I felt a lot calmer about this. I knew it was probably stupid to even ask, but I pointed to the lightbulbs on the side of the device.

"I guess there's one of these for each of us," I said, my voice still the slightest whisper. "One for you, me, Mom, and Dad."

Zeta bit her nails as she watched me point. I wasn't expecting her to know any of it, but there was a hope deep within me that she'd have some kind of clue. In the incredibly unlikely best case scenario, she'd tell me some conversation she had with Mom where Mom explained the intricate number scheme she had for picking who got what. I wasn't really hoping for that.

"I don't know which is which," I said. "Do you know?"

Zeta thought about it for a second. She beckoned for me to hold her as she stood up on my legs and leaned over the device. I don't know how she knew this, but she slid up a panel just above the bulbs, revealing a screen and a little keyboard. It wasn't a very high tech display, but it lit up with four shapes. Frustratingly, it didn't say who had which one. But that didn't matter, because Zeta just showed me the key to saving us. At the top of the screen was a simple question.

REWRITE? Y/N

I promptly entered into it, and there was shown instructions to reconfigure the bulbs. I couldn't figure out how to take us out of it completely, but with a simple press of a finger for me and Zeta, I was able to set us as the third and fourth bulbs. It was possible we were there already, but now I was certain. It didn't delete Mom and Dad, so if this thing worked like they wanted it to, they'd still get their little trip. I unscrewed our bulbs just slightly, a fourth of a turn just like the instructions I'd found said.

"OK, we'd better get to bed," I whispered. Zeta was basically asleep already, having sat down while I worked. I picked her up and carried her to bed. Just as I got her tucked in, a particularly loud clap of thunder followed by intense pouring rain greeted me. My heart pounded as I tried to shove the thought away that we were about to be ripped apart, and this would be the last time I ever saw my sibling. In spite of the increasingly loud storm, Zeta slept through it. I didn't know what it would feel like if I got flung into the void during this storm, but I stayed by Zeta's side, whispering, "It'll be OK, it'll be OK," over and over, desperately hoping the storm would pass and we could stay.

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