Runaway

Chapter 1

"We're finished. Thank you for today."

You shut your computer and packed all your stuff in your backpack. It was only 2pm, but it felt like you got up an eternity ago.

You left the auditorium and proceeded to the Faculty of Science. You didn't study there; but your aunt was a professor of chemistry and it was her pause now, pause that you were going to spend together. You opened the lab's door and coughed; grey smoke filled the room.

"Hi there!"

She mustn't have heard you; when she took her head off where it was, she bumped it. You ran next to her; "Oh my, are you ok?"

She looked at you with wide eyes, ran her hands through her messy hair and laughed.

"Yeah don't worry! And you?"

"Oh, the same. Class, class, class..."

You handed her the sandwich you took from your backpack. She smiled at you and empathetically took a bite of it.

You watched her with a smile. She was the only person who was there for you, when you thought about it. You lived with her, you spent most of your free time with her... "y/n, I love your t-shirt by the way." ...you listened to music with her. It was maybe what linked you the most; rock music. It's her who made all your musical culture, and lord you were grateful.

You winked when she pointed at your Van Halen t-shirt and took your phone to connect it to the speaker to put some music. The first notes of Pour Some Sugar On Me started.

Both of you sat on the ground and started chatting about everything and nothing. In the background, other glam rock masterpieces started playing. The atmosphere made you think about your favourite daydream; living in the 80s. Imagine going to concerts of your favourite bands when they were at the top, listening to them on the radio, not having people looking weirdly at you when you expressed your musical tastes... You left your thoughts with difficulty and noticed your aunt watching you. Shit did she asked something? She then smiled and got up.

"I have to show you something."

She disappeared for some seconds and came back with two strange watches. You frowned.

"What is it?"

"Those, y/n, are machines to travel in time."

You stopped your movements and looked at her with wide eyes. After some seconds where your brain went completely blank, all you managed to do was whispering a "What?"

"Just get up, listen to me, look and don't say anything."

She then took an apple that was on her desk, tied the watch around it, and clipped a timer on the fruit. She put the fruit on a metallic plate, and went back next to you with another timer in her hand and a remote.

"Look. I'm going to send this fruit one minute in the past, and make it come back when it left now in the present."

She looked at you with a big smile on her face, and you nodded, because anyway, what were you going to say?

She activated both timers, and pushed several buttons on her remote. A big flash went and blinded both of you for some seconds. When your eyes started seeing again correctly, you saw... that the apple was still there. "Wait... It didn't work?"

"Yes it did! Look the timers. The one on the apple shows 2.31pm, and mine shows 2.30pm. That means that the fruit went one minute in the past, to come back in the present as it never left!"

You swore you saw stars in her eyes. She looked so happy you didn't dare to say anything.

"If someone uses it, no need of a remote of course, you can control it on you."