A Second Chance

Henry

Beep

Beep

BEEP

"Ow!" William slams his head as he tries to get up, the impact reverberating around his head. "Fucking shit." He mumbles to himself grumpily as he gets up more slowly, only to be met again by the mysterious face force field. Drifting his eyes groggily upwards, he soon finds that his "force field" was a dumpster cover. His breath hitches and quickens, suddenly remembering The Void, the proposition, and... where he was. Not thinking, almost by instinct, William plunges his hand into his literal trash bed, and fishes out an alarm clock.

5:59

Before he can register the time, clock's hand turns to six and it begins to blare and shake in his hand. Letting out a startled cry, William kicks the garbage lid open and falls out of the dumpster in a pile of tangled limbs. After unscrambling himself, William sits up and takes in the sight before him.

Facing away from the dumpster, the land around him was miles and miles of red, shrubby desert. Complimenting the landscape behind it were cold, menacing, snow capped mountains and jutting plateaus. The massive rock forms stood out silhouetted in the early morning sun, its rays bursting past the peaks to begin the day. The sight almost made William sob, but instead just silently let the tears roll down his face, a nostalgic smile creeping onto his face. He remembered this sunrise. It was the first one he saw here.

He was in Hurricane, Utah. He was home.

Wiping the tears from his face, he let himself momentarily get lost in the beauty of the morning, unable to believe that he was reliving it again. However, one thing began to distract him as he stared eye to eye with the mountains. It was that beeping noise. It sounded like an alarm clock, yet that couldn't be right. Electric alarm clocks weren't really a thing in the 70's, at least not widespread. He wasn't sure why, but it made him feel... tense. Like something bad was gonna happen.

Beep, beep, beep...

Why did he get such a foreboding sense of deja vu from it? He knew who he was with, but he didn't think he'd see him that soo-

"Good morning, William."

He froze, ice cold fear washing down his veins. God, how could he have forgotten? How could he have forgotten that Henry was an early riser? Gulping as quietly as he could, William turned to face his old "partner". He was surprised to see that Henry didn't really look all that intimidating. He just looked really tired, to be honest.

"You holding up alright, Henry?" William asked first, trying to keep the fear out of his voice. "I am fine, William. I just didn't sleep well last night." Henry replied flatly, giving the sun a scrutinizing glare. Henry headed back to his tent- ("Of course he'd have the tent." William thought acerbically) and brought out a bag of coffee beans with a pot. Henry signals or more demands William to sit down with him. Right as William sits down with him, he notices that he already has the coffee ready. He's not sure if he should ask how the fuck he did that without a machine or not. He decides against it when Henry gives him a peculiar look.

"Are you alright, William? You're babbling less than usual this morning." Henry inquires, sipping his coffee loudly. "No? I'm fine, Henry. I just haven't woken up yet." Henry gives him a suspicious look from across the pot, slurping his coffee now while doing so. "That's funny... I would've sworn you would have been far more excited today than this." William pauses, giving the man a helpless stare. Why would he be excited for today... Wait a minute!

"Oh, oh!" William plays up his realization, waving his arms bouncing up and down; hoping it would appease the sociopath. "We're gonna start making the restaurant today, that's right!" This gets a toothy smile from Henry, meaning that it at least half worked. "That's the reaction I was looking for." Henry chuckled, sounding unnatural to William. "You must have slept worse than I did! You know, you can sleep in my tent if you need it." Henry offered, winking at him. William doesn't answer back, laughing with him. He knew Henry wouldn't really let him sleep in the tent. He was just pretending to show care for him. He only knows this because in the original timeline, he did say he wanted the tent. When he went to bed that night, the tent was on fire, so Henry made him sleep in the dumpster again. Asshole.