Wrong Time Right Place

3 - Percy

Despite how much I had come to dread my future, I had little doubt that there would be some sense of stability there. If I closed my eyes and imagined the years to come - even if they would undoubtedly be dull and tedious - I knew I would have a comfortable living. My family's fortune would assuredly see to that.

Except now, I was not sure if that would ever actually come to pass.

I was standing in the middle of the strangest room I'd ever been in before. It was bright - far too bright - and there was a contraption spitting out towels made out of paper, and some kind of sink that seemed to spray water on command. And there was a girl with a rather foul mouth standing in front of me, waving her hands around, that unusual little thing she called a cell phone clutched tight in her grasp.

Being here was disorientating enough, but the girl was most definitely not helping. Her vigorous hand gestures and shrill voice were rather grating. There was a dull throbbing at the base of my skull, this disgusting taste in my mouth, and my vision would not stop shifting in and out of focus. I thought I was going to vomit again.

There was no way this could be the year 2014. No possible way. This was a dream. That was it. It couldn't be anything else but a dream. Just a dream.

"Well, good luck to you, Percy. I've got planes to catch, boats to ride, that sort of thing."

I barely registered what the girl was saying before she turned on her heel and left the room. Somehow I managed to tear my gaze away from her bare legs - why, oh why was she showing so much skin? - and stumble after her.

"Madam, please, you can't - wait! Please! I need - "

I wasn't entirely aware of the words coming out of my mouth, only that I was speaking, trying to tell the girl that she couldn't leave me. She found me, had she not? She must have known how I wound up on the floor in the...the restroom, then.

She whipped around and converged on me so suddenly I stumbled backwards, taken aback by the angered look on her face. "Didn't I just say that my name is Callie?"

"Yes, I'm so sorry, Callie," I spluttered. "It's simply that I must - "

"Go home," Callie repeated, jabbing a finger into my chest. "Just go home, okay? This whole lost puppy thing is starting to get a little creepy."

"...but I'm not a lost puppy," I said, very confused. "I am, quite obviously, a man."

I had to admit to myself that Callie had very pretty green eyes, but they were not quite so attractive when they were narrowed at me. Never before had someone looked at me with such...revulsion. "Look, Percy. You seem like an... okay guy. But you're kind of just freaking me out, honestly, so... so go be creepy with someone else, okay?"

She did not give me the chance to respond, and disappeared quite suddenly into the mix of people milling about this place. This place...whatever it was. It was so loud and bright and full of an...an eclectic mixture of people.

My head was spinning and everything seemed to be blurred at the edges of my vision. I stumbled my way over to a nearby chair and sunk into it, tucking my head between my knees.

What kind of hellish dream was this? I could recall a few distinct nightmares I'd had once or twice that still sent a sliver of ice down my spine whenever I thought back to them, but never one quite as vivid as the scene currently playing out before my eyes. I briefly contemplated the merits of pinching myself, but decided I didn't need any further proof than the acidic aftertaste in my mouth left over from vomiting.

I hadn't the foggiest as to what the bloody hell was going on, but whatever this was...it wasn't going away.

I could not recall the last time I had ever shed a tear - as a child, surely - but I recognized the tight feeling in my throat and the burning in my eyes.