I gasped, as if I had just escaped from drowning. It took a few seconds to register I had woken up from the dream, my head was spinning and I felt like throwing up everything I had eaten that day. 

"Try breathing slowly, it might help the nausea." I heard Jude say, I could vaguely see her taking off the equipment from my head. Blinking twice, I finally saw what had been done. An infinity sign was tattooed onto my skin, on the wrist. It looked great but all I could think of at the moment was 'Mom's gonna kill me.'

"Did it work?" I croaked. 

"Hold on, we're waiting for the results to be registered in the report," Jude answered, as she peered at the scanner next to us that was connected to a printer that was jotting down whatever that was needed - it wasn't like any of this made sense. I my dry lips, and looked at her. 

"So, are you really a fortune teller?" I asked.

"I think you know that answer to that right now,"

"Then what are you? Where did you get all this equipment?" I said. "I may not be a science major, but I'm pretty sure none of this has anything to do with the mystic arts."

"Look, princess - I can't tell you everything and only that usually the predictions in here are accurate. And you're right when I don't believe in the 'mystic arts' kind of crap, but what you had just experienced was something beyond that. You wouldn't believe me if I said scientists had shut this project down long ago - but people found another way to make use of it. You get me?"

"What's it called then?"

"Dream synchronization," she declared. "Years ago, there was a study conducted by various scientists. And they proved that dreams have the possibility of predicting the future by jumping in between timelines during your subconscious, hence it's a butterfly effect and a loop is formed. By using the right formula and calculation, I can very much predict someone's future."

"So you were a scientist?"

"Hardly," she snorted. "But I know a thing or two to make money, try to be smart won't hurt." She held the paper in her hands, her eyebrows were scrunched together in attention. Once she was done she smiled. "Alright, time to call Yunyi over. Hey, Yun!"

Immediately, Yunyi came back to them. "So, how did it go?" she asked enthusiastically. "Ooh, nice tattoo." 

"Right, so according to the reports," Jude began. "Do you want me to add suspense - for the flair of the dramatic?"

"Er, sure why not?"

She cleared , "You'll meet three people in your life. According to the dream we just witnessed, it'll be someone from a forgotten past, a regretted timeline and last but not least, one from an uncertain future."

I frowned, "You know that sounds like a line every fortune teller would tell, right?"

Jude shrugged, "The cliches are usually true, and the reports prove it."

I stood up, "How do you even find something like that in a fricking report? And how do you know my dreams better than I do?"

"I've been doing this for years, and dreams like yours have that pattern I can be sure of - things like that fall into place perfectly. That's the prediction of your love life."

I stood up, already convinced this was fake. "Okay, then what if I don't want that? Tell me how to change my fate then?"

"You can't." Jude answered. "That's how time and space works, no matter how you want to alter the process it won't change the butterfly effect - the ending will always be the same."

I snorted, "Then what's the point of knowing if I can't change what's going to happen?" and I got up before turning on my heel. 

"Emma, wait!" I heard Yunyi call after me, but I was already out of the shop.

Thanks for wasting my time and a useless tattoo, I grumbled, on a school night.

---

---

"Let her be," Jude said just as Yunyi was about to run after Emma. She didn't seem to care, and was already igniting a cigarette. "By the way, that'll be twenty bucks."

Yunyi sighed, "I should have known this would happen. Now I'll have to face her sulking over her broken heart - when she's not even admitting she's finding it hard letting go. And she won't even tell me what made her to feel that way."

But all Jude did was smirk, "She'll pull through, with an arrangement like hers. And cut her some slack, only the right person can make her open up at the right time."

Yunyi narrowed her eyes, "What exactly did you see in her dreams?"

"Can't tell, my friend - confidential information of the client."

"I'm paying you the money."

"It's still her dreams and future, none of your business. Besides, it's nothing you can change."

Yunyi sighed again, "That's what I don't understand, Jude. Emma's got a point, why pay to look at something you can't change?"

Jude finished smoking her cigarette and extinguished the bud, "That's the problem with people, they just don't understand enough."