The cycle change was at midnight.

I realized something very dire at ten thirty.

Settling onto one of the couches in the upstairs hall felt like something out of an old childhood dream. I curled my back into the curve of the soft red fabric, a linen sheet from the penthouse acting as my blanket, and I stared at the TV. I was doing better, but I couldn't fall asleep.

One of the channels was covering the news, the unrest outside, the demands of the public for answers. Alexander had changed things.

The worry was no longer if the angelic community could be appeased with a fancy enough funeral- the risk of a riot was at hand. Alexander said Michael would come back. Where was he? What else was the government hiding?

Alexander, long a hated figure whose suicide was celebrated, had suddenly become a figure of worship. He returned from the dead and brought me with me message of potential salvation. What wasn't to be loved about that?

His spectacle hadn't rung with most of the angels, but the more Michaelian ones- the ones who believed all of the old legends Michael had taught them- had taken Alexander as their new idol.

Deaths had been reported. Not many, but there mere fact there had been at least one suicide and one homicide had set people off. Cpholiel Spoon, one of the primary news anchors, was especially distressed, pleading in angelic to the camera before his co-anchor asked him to take a break.

It was not good material to sleep on. I flicked between the other fourteen channels. Twelve of them were off. The community channel had a rerun of a man reading a book to the camera. Channel two switched between various Earth broadcasts, waiting for the cycle to begin to change. I had heard it was quite something to watch.

Everything would go back. Everyone would recall who they used to be. The world would spin through the years and end on the average day that was May the fifth.

Here, straining my eyes and watching the TV switch between major cities and dinky local news in the dark, two things came to mind in a certain order.

First, Mannie blamed herself for my death. My previous death, which was from the previous cycle change. Humans left on Earth always reset.

Second, humans left on Earth always reset. Shit. I knew humans. I knew a lot of humans who would never be the same come two hours.

I bolted upright. Despite the constant fuss over the cycles, the continuous reminders of what a soft reset of the Earth meant, I had somehow failed to realize this scope of 'everything' included my family.

My sisters, Bianca and Nadia, would stop existing at midnight. The younger, ten year old Bianca, would be born again in nine years. I wouldn't be around, they wouldn't know me. They would be completely different people, unknown to me.

My adopted sisters would be worse off. They were orphans, living in a run down house. The old matron, Ms. Robles, had died shortly after I had arrived. I was their legal guardian until my own death. Now they had someone from the state looking after them until Adeline turned eighteen.

Without me, I wasn't sure what would happen. I didn't like to seem particularly egotistical, but I didn't like the idea of them living without my influence.

It was like my younger siblings were strapped to a ticking time bomb I was helpless to prevent. Bianca and Nadia were back home, across the country. There was nothing I could do. Absolutely nothing.

I probably started crying at this point. I do that.

I watched the TV screen like I expected it to offer a solution. Then I turned it off and stared meaninglessly at my hands.

Then I remembered my phone. Amazingly, I had service. I dialed home.

Home was my aunt's house, and it must have been dinner time. The phone rang until it hit the answering machine. I tried again to the same result. On the third try, Bianca answered with a tired "Hello."

"Hi." I said. I hadn't spoken to her in three years. "It's Blake."

"Blake?"

"Yes." My throat was dry. I didn't know what to say.

She knew I had died.

"Are..." She trailed off. I could imagine her face twist in confusion.

"I'm not dead."

She exhaled.

"I'm not dead. I just had to... go."

"But! There was a funeral, and your body, and you were dead." She whispered.

"I had to go." I watched the clock on the TV. "Listen, it doesn't matter. I just need to say- I love you, right? You and Nadia are, uh, the best." I had never been good at vocalizing my feelings.

"Then why did you go? You left, and then you died. That's not very helpful!"

"I had to go! I was in college, and then mom died and I had to go and... God." Was I honestly trying to justify this? "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. I should have been there for you. I should never have left. I love you."

"You used to get mad at me and Nadia for being too loud."

"I miss you guys terribly, and I hope... it never seemed otherwise. You know. I hope you never thought I left because of you."

"Are you going to come home?"

"Yes." I said. "I'm on my way."

"Blake, are you crying?"

"I'm in the airport right now. My flight leaves in a few minutes."

"Blake? Are you okay?" Bianca sounded alarmed. "You're crying!"

"You'll see me tomorrow morning."

"Blake?"

"I have to go. My flight's leaving."

I hung up.

The next couple minutes were worthy of skipping, consisting primarily of self-loathing, misery, and a hearty swish of other pessimistic attitudes.

After laying on the couch for a while, eyes wide open and evaluating the carpet, I decided to stop. I stood up, got dressed, and left. I had my cell phone in my jacket, but otherwise was unprepared for nearly everything. Oh well. I could always turn into a giant dog when needed.

As I stepped outside, the night air woke me up, filling me with bizarre energy. Suddenly, I knew what I was doing and where I was going.

I walked. The night was full of sounds as always, but there seemed to be an air of unease as I traversed the city streets. I heard no evidence of this, no gunshots or screams, but the very knowledge that things were unwell put me on edge. Hell was a fairly safe city, remarkable efficient in its policing, but I started to fear being followed, debating if it would be safer to stay in the shadows or the light.

At the edge of the domed city, I took the elevator down to Wrath. Usually there was some sort of security in place, a small ID checking booth to ensure no one left Hell who wasn't allowed to. Though I figured I had a good chance of being let through, as I was cleared for it and famous, the checkpoint was empty.

I continued to the cycling Earth.

It was eleven twenty when I entered town. Not much later when I came to the Oak Ridge Orphanage. Ria and Adeline still lived here, overseen by a kind neighbor and weekly visits. It would surprise them to see me alive, I guess, but I figured we'd get over it. Hell was near, and I would take them there.

I knocked on the door at first, and after a few seconds of waiting, ran to the back and slammed the weak hinged door open. There was only one floor in the house, and both girls probably heard me the moment I entered. I went to Ria's room first, and as I turned the corner in a hurry, collided with her.

We both fell to the floor. As I scurried to stand, I heard something click. When I rolled onto my back, Ria was aiming a pistol towards me. The moment she saw my face she lowered the gun, shocked.

"Blake?"

"Yeah." I said, breathless.

She started to say something, perhaps a 'you're', but it was cut off by a sharp inhale. Her brow furrowed, her mouth was slightly open. This might've been too much for her.

I guess if I was to see my mother after her death, I'd be uncomfortable as well. Ria had always been a sceptic, shooting down whatever Adeline found interesting with reasonable thought. I don't think she liked seeing a ghost in her house.

"There's no time to explain." I said, feeling cliché, "Or there is, but we'll have to be walking when we get to it. I have a time limit."

I stood up. Ria gently placed her pistol on the ground and followed me to Adeline's room. I knocked softly, and went in. She was laying in bed, asleep. At seventeen, she was two years older than Ria. Despite this, she still seemed like a child.

"Ade? Adeline?" I called. "Wake up."

She slowly was roused from her sleep. "Hm?" Was her first response. Then, catching sight of me, the sound became more of a "Hm!"

"We have to go, Ade. Right now. Get dressed."

"Are you dead?" She asked.

"No. Not anymore."

She nodded, and I left the room.

I sat on the couch waiting for Adeline. Ria, on my advice, was gathering belongings. Every so often she'd pass by me and stare uncomfortably. I must have looked terrible, dull skinned and weary eyed, shirt half buttoned and wrinkled.

Finally, once she had gathered a small suitcase of her and her sister's things, Ria confronted me with her hands on her hips. "What is this about?" She blurted after a quiet second of staring. "What's... all this?"

"I might have died, but I ended up living. I don't want to say this twice. Check on Ade. We only have fifteen minutes left."

Quickly, Ria walked to Adeline's room, soon guiding the girl by her hand. "Here." She declared.

"Great." I said, getting up. "Let's go. Fast."

Much to Ria's frustration, I tried not to speak until we were on the streets.

"Hell is real." Was the first thing I said. Adeline nearly gasped. She was mostly nonvocal, but I had gotten very skilled at understanding the sounds she made. "I sold my soul, I went to Hell, and I come to you from it. It's not like, biblical Hell. It's just sort of a place. Oh, and obviously demons are things too. And I'm one of them?"

Saying this out loud was difficult. I felt like I was describing a particularly embarrassing TV show to someone in a coffee shop.

"What did you sell your soul for?" Ria asked.

I skipped the question very artfully by fully ignoring it. "The world is going to end and then reset in a few minutes. It does this every nineteen years. This whole planet's been loping for over a hundred years. It's weird, no one understands it, but if I don't take you to Hell you'll reset too."

"Are you... joking?" Ria said, still sounding unnerved.

"This would be a lot for one prank." I checked the time. Eleven fifty-five.

"It sounds like one. It sounds like you're insane. But even if you are insane, you're also dead, which still raises a few questions."

We entered the woods. "We're really pushing this time wise." I sped up my pace.

"I don't think there's anything to worry about." Ria was still following, but at a walking pace.

I groaned. I made sure to face Ria first, letting her see my weariness. Then I did the whole shebang of taking my hellhound shape. I circled around Ria and Adeline once. The former tensed up. The latter reached a hand out, letting her fingers catch in my black fur.

With another circle, I changed back. "Come on." I said.

"You're a wolf?" Adeline asked.

"Hellhound. I collect damned souls. But, uh, it's really not that bad. Hell's pretty nice. I just don't want to... lose you."

"That's nice." Ria said. Her voice was strained and dry. "I think I need to- it sounds dumb to say, but I need to say it out loud: Okay. I will accept this. Hell is real. Okay."

"You get used to the idiotically actually after a while." I said.

"Okay."

It was a minute to midnight. The cycle change wasn't necessarily on the dot, but I ran the last bit of the woods to the Hellmouth.

"Here. We climb down."

"This is the entrance to Hell?" Ria said, following me down the hole. "Why is it so nearby?"

"It just is. Hell's not that big. It's like a local business."

"It's Hell!"

I called for the elevator. Ria stared at it with a dumbstruck expression. "The heck is this? An elevator?"

"To be fair, we did pass through a rift to get here."

"A rift?"

I pointed outside. "Right at the entrance, when we jumped down. There's two Earths, and Hell is in the static one. To get from the cycling to the still Earth, you pass through a small rift right in the entrance of the Hellmouth. It isn't even noticeable."

"What?"

"I'll... try to explain when we're in the elevator. It might take a bit."

When the elevator arrived, I looked back and realized Adeline wasn't with us. I hadn't forgotten her, but she was a very quiet girl. I had simply assumed.

Ria noticed too, and a sharp panic overwhelmed her. She started shouting her sister's name, and climbed out of the Hellmouth. A second later, she fell back in, horrorstruck.

"We're on the other Earth. How do we get back?"

The thought hadn't occurred to me at first. A feeling of dread settled in my heart to match her expression. "At the bottom of the elevator, there's a pit..." I shook my head. "But it'll take at least ten minutes. There's no time."

I walked into the elevator. I had already lost two sisters tonight. A third one fit into the general odds I had given myself.

Ria joined me.

We stood in the elevator in silence for the first minute. Ria eventually asked me, "You said the world was going to be lost forever, right?"

"Yeah," I answered.

It was another minute before I decided enough was enough, and started to explain Hell to her. She listened, she asked questions, and overall it was a quite constructive time.

Occasionally, the both of us paused to clear our throats, or wipe the tears from our eyes.