Complications

There and Back Again

"So, this is your time machine?"
"We call it the Machine."
Clessa looked over at Simon's face full of amazement. He looked like a nerd. A full on nerd.
"It's amazing."
"I know."
Clessa grinned at the Professor's cockiness.
"Professor! Change the look to a nerd type thing."
Simon looked expectantly at the Professor. The Professor grinned and flipped on a couple of switches.
"Wait until we get to Camilla's house. You'll be blown away."
"I highly doubt that I could be blown away by you."
The Professor jumped onto a golden ladder right next to him.
"Is that a challenge?"
"Sort of. I did imply that it 'twas."
"Alright. Challenge accepted."
The Professor picked up a small pen off of the control panel. He twirled it in his fingers, and then wrote a note. Before Simon could read the note, the Professor blew on the pen, and it disappeared.
"I think I won," said Simon, reading the note.
"He won by about eight points I'd say."
"I haven't even gone yet though!"
"Oh well," said the Professor.
Simon rolled his eyes, and then quickly glanced at Clessa. Her parents were missing, and without a trace, yet she could still sit there and laugh. No grief showed over her face. Clessa was acting like she did on a normal day.
And then his eyes lingered to her lips. The lips he kissed, and loved to kiss. Simon recalled the conversation they had in the elevator, and tried to hide his pain from looking back on the memory. Simon checked his watch, as if a way to distract himself.
"It's nearly 10:30! Wow!"
"Even though I am a time traveler, I do loose track or time easy."
The Professor looked up from the control panel.
"Here we are. Camilla Brown's house."
The Professor snapped his fingers to open the Machine's doors.
"I did not know they could do that," said Clessa with a smile lingering on her face.
"Well, I am trying to impress your...nerdy friend now."
"Mission accomplished," said Simon.
So they all walked out of the machine and to Camilla's porch. Again, Clessa went up the creaky steps and into the door that read 'KEEP OUT'.
"Never could resist a keep our sign."
She was the first inside. The house still felt the same, eerie and quiet. Clessa wanted to go upstairs and crawl into the soft, pink covers.
"Ok, this is creepy," said Simon with a smile.
Clessa tried to distract herself with Simon's side comments, but it did not work. Her parents were the only thing she could think about.
"Same as we left it," whispered the Professor as he dusted off his white converses.
"Yes, yes it is."
"So, if you have a time machine, why can't you just go back in time an see who did it?"
"Well, that would be breaking Shadow Searcher laws. This you see, is an even that leads up to something else, so we cannot even be seen by our criminal too early in the time line."
Simon nodded, keeping up with Professor's smart banter.
"Alright Professor, lets go back into the kitchen."
Clessa walked over in green converses to the door that lead into the kitchen. She slowly moved her hand to the handle, and ever so carefully twisted it. It was the same kitchen as before, but now Clessa felt scared of it.
The kitchen was the same as they had left it, glass on the floor, pot in the sink. Clessa felt stupid for being scared in the first place.
"Still looks the same, Professor!"
"Good."
The Professor came bustling through the door.
"Still eight big shards of glass."
"Yes, yes indeed," whispered the Professor.
Clessa walked around the kitchen. The glass looked menacing, and sharp. Clessa wanted to stomp on it and made it never exist, but she controlled herself and walked back into the parlor.
The couches were still the same, full of holes. Nothing looked different. Clessa was getting extremely bored, so she went upstairs. Clessa could hear the Professor and Simon talking in the kitchen.
As she tiptoed up the stairs, their voices started fading away. Soon Clessa was alone, standing in a pink bedroom.
"Wonder who this belonged to."
Clessa walked around the room, examining every last little detail.
"If her mother got taken, where is she?"
Clessa walked around the room, and decided to leave and go to Camilla's.
Camilla's room was the same as they had left it, but Clessa noticed a note on her desk. She decided to read it out loud.
"Dear Camilla, I have decided to leave. You have been a great stepmom. I need to go, thank you for all that you have done. From, Stacey."
Clessa started thinking out loud.
"So Camilla had a stepdaughter, who left before the attack."
The Professor appeared in the doorframe.
"Did you did anything?"
"Yes. The room belonged to her step daughter, Stacey, who ran away right before the attack."
"Really?"
Clessa handed the note to the Professor. He looked it over.
"Where did you find this?"
"On the nightstand. It was covered in a really thick layer of dust, so I really had to look."
"So this means she remarried...maybe her new husband was our criminal."
"I bet it was. Maybe that was who took my parents too."
"Yes, I'm going to go into the Machine and look up this 'Mr.Brown.'"
Clessa nodded and looked around the room a little more. There was a closet in the back of the room, two dressers, and a very old mirror.
"Very pretty bedroom."
Clessa looked over at the dressers, nothing interesting.
Clessa decided to go back downstairs, until she noticed another room at the end of the hallway.
Clessa slowly walked up the creaky wooden boards to the end of the hallway. The door looked warm and inviting, so she turned the rusty brass handle.
Inside the room was nothing. Cobwebs hung from the window, which was painted black. Chalk marks on the walls showed tallies.
"Like someone was kept in here," said Clessa to herself.
When Clessa got into the room, she accidentally got her purse caught on the handle. The door closed, revealing a note taped to the back.
"When Stacey is bad, she gets to be locked away. When Stacey is good, the doors will open."
Clessa curiously looked around the room some more. Someone had definitely been in here.
"Maybe this is why Stacey ran away, because her parents were mad. And if her note to her mom says she was a great stepmom, this must've been her dads work."
Clessa walked over to the door, and twisted the handle, but the door did not open. She gave it a push, but nothing budged.
"Professor? This is not funny! Let me out!"
Clessa was banging on the door.
"Let me out!"
The door did not budge.
"PROFESSOR! SIMON?"
She kept banging on the door.
"Clessa?"
It was the Professor's voice.
"PROFESSOR? IM AT THE END OF THE HALL!! IM TRAPPED!"
She could hear his footsteps coming closer. The Professor jingles the knob.
"You are sure stuck in there. How did this happen?"
"I was in here and my purse got caught on the handle, so when I yanked it off, the door shut. There's a note on the door."
"What does it say?"
"When Stacey is bad, she gets to be locked away. When Stacey is good, the doors will open."
"Okay, let me try a few things to get you out."
The Professor paced up and down the halls, and then found a solution.
"Do you have a bobby pin?"
"Yes."
"Slide it under the door."
"Are you going to pick the lock," asked Clessa as she slid it under.
"I'm going to try."
Clessa heard him messing with the door, and then she heard a *click*.
"Your welcome," said the Professor, smiling.
Clessa hugged the Professor, just as Simon came racing up the steps.
"Are you okay Clessa? I heard banging and calls for help-."
"The Professor saved me," said Clessa as she continued to hug.
"Oh....well then."
"Oh right!"
The Professor released Clessa.
"The man was named Elton Brown. No criminal record until a while back when he was filed for child abuse. Then, he supposedly disappeared. People found his body, today actually, about ten minutes after Clessa'a parents disappeared. So, we are going to where his body is."
"Where is that," asked Clessa.
"New Hope Church," said the Professor as he started running down the creaky steps.
Simon and Clessa followed.
"Alright mates, time to go to church."
And the Machine was gone with a flash, carrying the curious threesome in it.