Time Stealers

2. Stephanie

TIME MACHINE #2

With curiosity and uncertainty, all of us except my old self who went to the kitchen followed old Harris.

We walked almost to the other side of the place and were brought to what looks like a door to the master bedroom. We were about to walk towards the door when the old Harris stopped and faced the wall adjacent to it.

"I want entry to it please." Harris said suddenly. The three of us looked at each other in confusion when I heard the faint sound of something like a robot moving.

It took me a while to see a small insect like thing on the wall.

"Shit, is that a spider?" I exclaimed. I took Harris by the shoulder and brought her in front of me for protection. Harris didn't say anything and just shook her head in annoyance. Tsk, should've grabbed Elle instead.

"This little thing is called Wander. I made this based on the deadliest spider in the world, the Phoneutria. It's my security detail for this room." Old Harris said. "Also, it helps in making sure the old Stephanie doesn't go lurking inside without my permission." I narrowed my eyes at her and both the young and the old Harris laughed at my expression.

"Madame, according to the data of your previous visits here, you should have wanted to come here about two days from now."

"Yes, I know. But I need to go inside with them." The little bug moved its mechanical head towards us and looked at each one of us.

"Okay but because of my program I am forced to have you unlock the basement manually and have the others have one time access to enter."

"I know, Wander." Old Harris sighed and then faced us. "Let's get it started shall we?"

Old Harris begun by pricking her own finger. When a drop of blood was on her fingertip, she wiped it on a small hole on the wall and the said wall visibly began to get transparent until a huge metallic door appeared. Old Harris explained that she kept the door hidden by having the door camouflaged as a wall. Then she went on with having her fingerprints checked, iris scanned, voice recognition, and a lot more other things I can't even understand.

The three of us just watched her unlock the basement door. Do we also need to do all that? Seems too much a bother.

Surprisingly, both Elle and I just needed to have to give a drop of blood. Harris didn't even need to prick her finger because of how the both of them were the same person and that the computer wouldn't question her presence.

Old Harris just input something into the computer then the metal door opened. Behind the door, there was nothing I could see because it was pitch black. The darkness gave me goosebumps, it's not that I'm scared of the dark but going in to a place unknown is creepy as hell.

When the old Harris entered the door, it took some time before a few lights turned on. The lights came from the steps of the stairs, this might be the stairs leading to the basement that they were talking about.

"Sorry about the dark. I think I went overboard with the security for the basement. This should've been lit if the program hasn't intervened." She and her younger self didn't have a problem going down the stairs but Elle and I were holding each other while we carefully treaded along the steps.

I saw that the moment old Harris stepped on the basement floor, all the lights turned on and a clean yet crammed basement greeted us.

"Why is there so much junk here?" I asked and picked an unsuspicious looking compact mirror. Upon opening it, I saw that it wasn't just a mirror but was also somewhat similar to a navigation system. I searched my house and double tapped the glass to maximize what is shown on the screen but to my surprise light ejected from the compact and a 3D holographic view came out. It showed my house was in ruins because of the armed men throwing explosives to the civilians.