Anchor

Time Travel And Incorrect Calculations // Chapter 1

I told him the calculations weren't right. That something about them was off. I told him we needed to wait. But no. He wouldn't wait. All because his ego is to damn big to listen to me. The only person he's been with for the past forty five years. His partner, his only friend. But did he listen to me? No! Typical. 

And now here I am. Laying on the ground in a burnt building. Wait, burnt? I sat up quickly and looked around. "Five!" I yelled. No response. "Five goddamnit!" No response again. "Shit," I leaned forward and rested my elbows on my knees. So in the past five minutes I have gone through a lovely time travel-esque vortex (painfully may I add), fallen on my head, lost Five (the son of a bitch), and gotten stranded in the middle of a burnt building. 

I sighed and ran my fingers through my hair. Something feels off. I looked down at my hands. They were.... smaller? I looked at the rest of my body. "Double shit," I said with a small chuckle. We got the calculations really wrong. I fucking told him. All this time you would've thought he would learn to listen to me.

I pushed myself to my feet and looked around. There had to be a reason that I'm here and not with Five wherever he showed up. The floor creaked with every step I took and I hoped to God that it didn't give out under me, but kept walking. The house wasn't freshly burnt, I had seen enough arson to know that, but it was burnt badly. I couldn't see any indicators that told me why I was here.

Right on cue something crunched beneath my foot. I moved it slightly to the side to see a photo under broken glass that was slightly scorched around the edges. No. No, no, no, no. This can't be right. There has to be a mistake. I leaned down and picked up the photo. It showed two kids about five or six years old with forced smiles. But not just any kids, that was Collin, and me.

...............................................................................

I walked down the narrow driveway of the house, not knowing why there was a picture of me and my brother there. I've never lived here as long as I can remember, but if I was young, how would they have a picture of my brother and I when we were like six? It made no sense. None of this made sense. But I needed to get out of there, find someone who knew what was going on.

The end of the driveway approached a few feet later. I looked around the woody terrain for a sign of civilization, my eyes fell on a small house partially concealed behind a hill. Bingo. I started to the house and tried to brush off the ashy stains on my pants, you don't necessarily want to approach a stranger looking like you just came out of a burnt building. Even if you literally just did.

It's strange to see the world in one piece. I was used to ashes and places I shouldn't be. Places that I shouldn't be able to go to, but I did anyways. To hell with the laws of time and space. My feet touched the ground gently, one then the other, as I made my way to the house in front of me. It was grey with a hint of blue, strings of ivy grew up the side, but in a quaint maintained way. The world seemed to still in places like this, like there was a secret pocket held by the universe to keep its contents safe. Of course, nowhere was safe though. 

I rapped my knuckles on the wooden door and attempted to shake the look of a fifty eight year old, time-traveling assassin from my face. Although you would probably have to have met one of those before to recognize the look immediately. Faint footsteps trailed up to the door progressively getting louder with each step. I watched as the door handle turned and a young woman appeared in the doorway, maybe thirty years old, holding a baby in her arms. She had a smile on her face that quickly disappeared when she saw me standing on her doorstep.

"Oh my word! Are you lost? Where are your parents? Do you need me to call the cops?!"

"Oh no, no, I'm perfectly fine. I just came to ask a question about," I turned and pointed to the house I had just walked from, "that house and for some directions." She nodded, as if asking me to continue, but still looked concerned. "I was passing by and when I saw that, and I wondered what happened to the house, the family there."

She nodded again with a worried look and the baby in her arms started to twirl locks of her hair around their small fingers. "Well there was a small family that lived there, a young boy, girl and their father. The Michaels, I think the kids names were something like Rose and Collin. The authorities said that Rose was crazy, she set the house on fire so that the police were aware of her father, who was apparently abusive," she said this with disdain in her voice. As if she was afraid her own child would turn against her.

That's why there was a picture of me and Collin, he and Dad must have moved there after I went missing and set up this whole conundrum. "And where are they now? The family?" 

She turned back to face me, coming out of some trance, "The father is in jail, life sentence, the boy lives in the city, owns some record shop."

"And the girl?"

"She's been missing for seventeen years"

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

"You know you kind of look like her,"

"One of those faces I guess?"

I could tell she was starting to get suspicious, but she knew there was no way I could be her, she thinks that I'm like thirty now. Not fifty eight in a thirteen year olds body. 

"You needed directions?"

"Yes.." I thought for a moment, "Could you give me directions to the next town over? I was riding my bike to meet a friend but it got a flat then I got lost."

If she wasn't suspicious before, she is now. 

"Follow the road and it's about a twenty minute walk that way," she said quickly and pointed down the road.

But before I could say anything back, I was once again aquatinted with the wooden door. 

At this rate, I'm going to get myself killed.