Benefactors

Chapter 22: When Are We?

Who knows??

"I'm gonna cut you like I did your father." We heard a man spit. We looked behind the tanks trying to find the voice. The tanks were an old-fashioned design. If I had to guess the year, I'd say around 1930's. There, an older man held a younger man by the neck, with a knife to him. The young man teared restlessly at his arms, trying to breathe. It hit me like a steel brick. That young man looked strikingly like my brother. I looked at them, turning back and forth. I think my brain kind of melted. 

We heard another voice, coming from an open window, a female's voice. "Hey! Skunk spray! Let dimbo go before anything gets too serious, will ya?" Now, it was Ben's turn to look at me awkwardly, she looked exactly like me!

The young man finally started to speak, the older man loosened his grip. "Angelina! I told you not to follow me. What's wrong with you, why'd you do this?"

"I can't let you have all the fun, Anton." she answered. Angelina and Anton, why do those names seem so familiar?

"Shut up!" The older man shouted. "Any movement from either of you and I will detonate this building with you and me in it!"

"You've got problems, Skunky." Angelina shouted at him. 

"Ben." I shook him out of his trance. "We've gotta get out of here." 

He nodded, not saying anything. I took his hand and sped out of there as quick as I could. Time seemed to slip away from me as this Angelina character threw a knife. The detonator sparked the tanks where we were only a split second ago and I continued racing. "Natasha, your powers! They aren't working!" Ben shouted. What? How is this even possible, I thought. 

I let go of Ben's hand and let him race ahead of me. The tanks let greenish gas that looked like Omnesium out. Note to self, Omnesium might be explosive. We still had a few feet to go to get to the door. I closed my eyes, breathing deeply. Opening them, I saw Manhattan, New York again. I was running through the water that lined it's shore. I looked around frantically for Ben and sure enough, there he was swimming back towards the city ahead of me. 

"What the heck just happened?" Ben called out to me. "I don't have a clue." I called back to him "While we were running, I was thinking and then that thought came up out of the blue, whatever it was. Then, it took is whenever that was." 

The sun was beginning to set, I looked at my normal watch. Frick, the water must've frozen it. The hands were frozen to seven thirty-five exactly. Which meant it was probably not too long after that. "Are we even at the right time period?" Ben asked me. "Let's hope so." I answered, unnerved. 

Maybe The Next Excerpt Will Tell Us

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I knocked on the door of apartment 2B. An old woman opened the door, her skin was wrinkly and frail. I let my eyes droop when I realized we really were at the wrong time. "Can I help you?" She said, not really looking at us. "I was wondering if you could tell us the date. You see, we sort of got kicked out of our house and now we're on the streets" I explained. I dreaded lying, but I knew she wouldn't believe the truth. 

"Why don't you come in? I don't really know myself." She smiled, turning to look at us. "I'm Wanda Burdan." She introduced, she had an odd look in her eye, as if she thought she knew us. But Burdan, why does that name seem familiar. I guess I read too many books and watch too many movies, I decided.

She walked slowly to her calendar, as she seemed to be about 90 years old. "Ah," she started. "Today's August 15." She pointed at the next unmarked box on the paper. "Would you look at that." She smiled. "I turn 92 tomorrow."