Author's Note: If you haven't seen 'Run, Lola, Run' turn back now! This and the two sequels are major spoilers for that wonderful film, and also, the stories will make absolutely no sense unless you've seen it. The Universe series aren't really fanfics, per se, because that would imply a story using the characters of the film- but it isn't that, with the possible exception of Universe 3. These are just my little blurbs about what else could have been said in the red-washed bed scenes, what else might have been going on the minds of the characters at the close of each universe.
If you have read this far, I assumed you have seen the movie, so I can't be held responsible for ruining it for you right here. 'Run, Lola, Run' got me thinking about the differences between choice and fate, the chaos theory, and about how every little thing you do can affect something else totally, except of course, those events that are destined to happen. So if you were unhappy with the choices you made, could you do it again?
Legalities: Lola Rennt and all the characters and events therein belong to X Filme and a bunch of other people who aren't me. These stories were written for fun only and no infringement is intended. The Universe series is the property of Taryn "Jnco" Wander'r
Run, Lola, Run: Universe 1: Don't Want to Leave
A "Run, Lola, Run" fanfiction by Taryn "Jnco" Wander'r
Never, never, never Never letting go Never giving up Never saying no Just go go, never, never cease And do, do, do Do the right thing. -Running Two, Lola Rennt soundtrack."Are you thinking of leaving?"
Lola stared up at Manni, his face blurry, and squinted. She squinted at him in the bright light pouring in on her from the cloudless sky. She could've sworn she was just in bed, squinting at him in the red haze, trying to see him.
"Lola?" Manni said now.
"What?" Lola managed to croak out.
"Lola! Oh, please, Lola…" There it was again, that crease in his forehead. Lola sighed. He was going to get wrinkles before he was old. Manni was always doing that, pinching his eyebrows, pouting a little, when he was whining about something, cigarettes or something, when he wanted her to come to bed or get up or something. When he was worried. When he was worried about stupid things, like her father finding out about his work with Ronnie, or about some other guy that was bigger or stronger than him. It was adorable.
Lola remembered it now, all of it. Manni rarely ever yelled at her. Only when he was really upset, when he was really angry. Then she would yell back. Usually loud enough to break something.
The only other time Manni yelled was when he was scared. Really scared. The kind of scared that finds you shaking in a phone booth with a pistol tucked into your pants, yelling and screaming and going so fast the words blend together in a mantra of "agen" and "itzen".
Like he had yelled at her twenty minutes ago. "What happened? You're always on time!" She still heard it. Still saw it in his eyes as he stared at her now, holding her head, blood trickling slowly down the side of her mouth and mixing with her hair, the same shade of red.
If she had done it differently…she wouldn't have let him down. She would have run faster…if she had only run faster.
If things had only been different…that guy on the bike. Why didn't she take the bike? Fifty marks to save her life…to save Manni's life…like her life even mattered anymore, when Ronnie found Manni wasting away in a Berlin prison, and found out that the cops had the money stolen from a freaking grocery store. Lola'd die in vain.
Her father…oh why hadn't he just given her the money? The bastard couldn't open his heart for one day in his life. She yelled and she screamed and she cried, Jesus, she had cried- Lola never cried! She had stood there and cried and the bastard still couldn't love her. Like she was different from his other two children, that he was still leaving, because another man had fathered her. A man who hadn't lived to see her birth. You bastard! Lola had always carried around guilt wherever she went, wherever she ran, from her mother's alcoholism, Manni's impending death, now this?
"I'm leaving you guys and marrying another woman." Bastard! Throwing her, his own daughter, out of his precious bank after she yelled, demanded, begged, pleaded with him to save Manni's life. Maybe, physically, she was never his daughter, but he would always be Papa…sadly.
Not that it mattered now…lying on the streets of Berlin, an accidental bullet to the chest, outside a damned grocery store, staring up at Manni. Oh Manni…I'm sorry. I tried, I did. I ran as fast as I could. Manni, why didn't you wait for me?
Manni cradled her face in his hands, forehead creased, shaking. "Lola?" His voice cracked, he looked up. The Bolle bag fell to the ground, he hardly heard it. He didn't see the green-clad policemen closing in slowly on both sides. All he saw was red; he could only smell cigarette smoke. And blood. Precious Lola's blood.
He slowly looked back down at her, his beloved.
"Oh, Lola…" I'm sorry, Lola! I should've waited. I'm sorry. We could have run, Ronnie would never find us…I'm sorry.
"I love you."
Lola couldn't see him anymore. All she could see was red. She felt him, though, felt his arm around her, heard his breathing and the cracking of the cigarette. This was better- back in the bedroom, where none of this happened. Where she could be who she was supposed to be, not who she was.
"It's rather a stupid question, really," Manni was saying. "Of course I love you. You're the best. Why?" He turned and looked at her. "Are you thinking of leaving?"
"I don't know. I think I have a decision to make."
The bike. The bank. The bum…oh Jesus, the bum…
Of only she had made those other decisions.
Maybe in the next life, she would.