At Time's End

Chapter 6 - Stolen

"Have a nice day, Ms. Teras!" I said to the customer right as she was leaving the Center. She didn't acknowledge me, apart from slightly nodding. The doors to the Center closed, and I turned back to Ignus. "I still wonder what the address thing was about.. Why did she give us that information?" And more importantly, why does she live in the same apartment complex where I used to - HC 1415? 

"Well, let's get back to it." He turned around, scowled, and shook his hand, which usually meant he bumped into something. Not being able to see much must be hard. Then again, I shouldn't have to even realize that - of course it's hard. "Where did you put the serpent tears?"

"Uh, right here." I grabbed them off the counter where I left them, except for actually grabbing the jar of the substance, because it wasn't there. "Wait, hm..?" I turned around and the jar was gone. In its place was a note. 

"Catch me if you can! - The customer who just left. Seeya! - Cynthia Teras" I read out loud. "Ugh! That- That thief!"

"Calm down." Ignus said from behind me, and it was sort of ironic - I could hear from his tone that he did not want to calm down either. "We can get new serpent tears, right?" He attempted to de-escalate the situation, but...

"Yes! But we can also get the old jar back!" I was already halfway out the door. "I'll try not to crash your trave!" Trave stands for travel vehicle. It used to be called space travel vehicle, but it was unanimously decided that strave is harder to say than trave. Nobody knows why.

"Jaiden- YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE A LICENS-" His yelling was muted by the closing doors. I turned back, smiled and waved, and didn't look back again.

After fumbling a bit with the vehicle, I got it to move, somehow - it had been a while, and his controls were WEIRD. I may also have stolen Ignus' license and slapped a picture of me on it. It was already coming apart at the corners. Sticker glue still sucks, even if all other technology is advanced. 

I turned on the radio, maximum volume. It wasn't on max on purpose - I mainly just turned it on and blasted my eardrums. Thanks, Ignus... Why does he have it so loud anyways? 

Despite never getting a license, I still knew how to drive, thanks to Eterna not listening to my complaints about not having a license and still sending me on errands. I should probably have gotten a license then, but they'd ask where I went to school, I'd answer I didn't, and they'd laugh in my face. Which would obviously lead in me not getting my license.

"Just lie!" everyone yells, but that's not something to lie about. I'd lose that license quicker than I'd got it. They'd know. One way or another. 

The radio blared some unspecified trendy music - I wasn't focusing enough to know. My thoughts were somewhere else entirely, until-

"Hey!" I slammed the brakes of the trave. "Where the hell did that idiot get his license?" I realized the sudden irony of my comment, and decided to let the guy be.

I looked at the "road" - which is arbitrary here, because you can go anywhere, long as you're not in anyone's way unlike Douchebag Dude - in front of me, and recognized the garish electric blue of the Housing Center. My old home. "Welcome back, me," I sighed quietly, parked the trave and went on my way.

The clerk seemed to be kind of out of it, not really focusing on anything. Mood, I thought, and walked up to her. "Hi, did you see someone with long, brown hair and a green jacket walk past here recently?"

"Yeah, just go upstairs. She's probably somewhere over there. I think she used the elevator to get up to like, 6, maybe. But it jammed after that." I had always hated the elevator here, because of it jamming every two rides, and also climbing up the stairs of 1514 - and I still do hate the stairs, apparently. I always looked up, when I was a child, hoping to see floor number 5 or something, and I never did! After what felt like an hour of climbing, I was always at like floor 2. 

After a month - probably not, but that sure is what it felt like - I finally reached floor 6. I saw something next to a door in the hallway. It looked like a note. "Great, more wild goose hunting," I scoffed, and picked it up. 

Before I could read it, however, the door opened. A tall, slim figure overshadowed me. "Ah. Mrs. Hawks. How could I forget." I tried to at least sound like I was confident, but the building fear in my voice probably showed. Mrs. Hawks, my mother, smiled.

"Ms. Hawks," she scolded, like I would've been a child. "Don't make that mistake again." After the warning, she returned to smiling. "What brings you here?" 

"I don't know, probably you sending one of your little 'friends' to steal stuff," I sighed. "Give it back. What did I even do?" 

"Nothing."

"Exactly. Give it back."

"...For a price." She pointed to my wrist. "Maybe that time-travel watch of yours..?"

"No? Why would I give you that?" I questioned. It was no doubt she wanted it to become even more overpowered. "I mean, it isn't like you'd need it for ruling over the entire criminal base of this empire, is it?" Rhetorical question.

"It kind of is. Now hand it over." 

"...How about this? You hand me the serpent tears, I hand you the watch, okay?" She looked at me suspiciously. "Come on. I'm not a liar." She placed the jar into my hand, and I pocketed it. 

"Now, the watch."

"Okay, let me just take it off -" I turned the watch in my wrist, time-traveling to a couple minutes in the future. "HA! You thought!" were my final words to her before I traveled.

When I reached my destination, she had already closed the door. I sneaked off, jar in pocket and watch still in my hand. The clerk yelled at me, but I ignored it. No doubt my mom had tried to set up something else to get the watch from me.

I got in the trave, and headed home.