The Unmaking of June Farrow

by Adrienne Young

“The door won’t open to you if you don’t have the locket, and you can cross only three times. After that, it won’t appear to you anymore.”

The last time you were here, you were older. The younger you has only crossed once—when you were seven months old. You, in this body, have now gone through the door only twice. Then, and now. You have one more crossing left, a choice to make. The same choice every Farrow makes eventually.”

The second rule is that you may go only where you do not exist.” She pointed at the locket. “There’s only one of you, June, just like there’s only one of those lockets. That will never change. The locket around your neck disappeared when you crossed because it already lives here. It ceased to exist. Your mind can exist in two places at once, but your body cannot. So, if you walked through the door right now and went back to a time in which you already exist in the future—say, 2022—you, also…disappear.”

“The other thing you need to think about is what kind of information you’ve brought with you. No talking about what happens in the future to any of us. No warning us of danger or opportunity or anything else. There are too many risks. Too many things that could be affected.”

Technically, you went somewhere you don’t exist, but it was a place you had once been.

wut?