Hexad: The Ward by Al K. Line

began to wobble.
    "Careful," warned Dale, as he stood and guided her over to the sofa. "Here, lie down, take it easy. That was some trick you played back there, honey."
    "Yeah, a little transparent though," quipped Peter. Dale gave him the daggers. "Sorry, that was in bad taste. I'll put the kettle on."
    The rain pattered against the glass. Amanda watched and noted again that the inside of the glass was all smudged. "I'm alive. I'm here aren't I? Whole?"
    "Yes, honey, you're fine. Although I think it was a close call."
    "God, my head's so weird, like I'm hardly even me, like I'm just a shell." Amanda slumped back. She could feel the sofa but that felt disconnected too, as if her nerves were sending the signals but her mind wasn't processing the sensations in quite the right way.
    "You'll be fine. It was just a little too much to take. I don't know what the hell is going on, but that shouldn't have happened, should it? I mean, if we jumped in the future then we would have known that there was a version of us down by the house. And I'm sure I saw us in the border. Nuts."
    "It's because we're in the wrong timeline, Dale, I told you this before. You feel it too, I know you do. Something's totally wrong. We should be there, where the other version of us came from. That was us, Dale, the real us. We're all mixed up."
    "Hush, it's okay, don't get in a panic. Just relax. Ah, here's Peter."
    Peter brought a steaming mug of coffee in from the kitchen, and he had his shoes on! Amanda stared at her own feet. So did she, Dale too. What about the carpet? She realized she didn't care — which confirmed she definitely wasn't herself. She watched as Peter slid a coaster toward the edge of the table and put her coffee down on it.
    "Bloody hell, Peter, I didn't realize things were that bad." Amanda tried to smile but it felt more like she was grimacing. Dale began to laugh.
    "What? What's the joke?" asked Peter, looking nonplussed.
    "Nothing, mate," said Dale. "Did you make one for me too?"
    "Yup, and for me. Be back in a jiffy." Peter headed to the kitchen, whistling like he usually did when he was helping himself to snacks from the fridge.
    "So, what now?" asked Dale.
    "Now?" asked Amanda, confused.
    "Yeah, did we bury the tin or not? I mean, um, I know they did, but did we?"
    "Dale, I have absolutely no idea. Right now I have to say I really don't care." Amanda sat up and slowly sipped at the coffee. The smell and the taste calmed her, brought her back to something familiar.
    "Don't suppose it matters either way anyway," said Dale.
    "What? Why?"
    "Because we only have one jump left, so if we did it we'd never get back."
    "Oh."
    "Yeah. Oh, indeed."
    "Fancy a HobNob?" asked Peter, as he held out a plate piled high with an assortment of sugar-laden snacks, crumbs already stuck to his beard — he clearly wasn't on his first one.
    "Why not," said Dale.
    "Yeah, why not?" Amanda grabbed one and dunked it into her coffee. "Bugger." She lifted out the HobNob, it had broken in two, half was still in the mug. "Perfect, just perfect. I can't even have a bloody HobNob without it all going wrong." Amanda began to cry. She felt like she was allowed to, and she wanted another biscuit too.
    "Hey, hey, it's okay. Here." Dale handed Amanda the plate; she just sat there with it in her lap.
    "Guys, I think this explains why you've been acting so weird lately. Weirder than normal, anyway."
    "What are you on about?" asked Dale. He sat down gently and put an arm around Amanda.
    "I think you're caught in some kind of universe loop or something. Ah, yes, that explains a lot." Peter scratched at his beard, the rasping putting Amanda off her snack.
    "Peter, please, what are you talking about?" This is going to make things worse, I know it is.
    "Well, remember last month when we had that dry weekend and we had the barbecue even though we had to wrap up warm?"
    Dale and Amanda stared at him blankly. Amanda assumed he was leading up to one of his bad jokes