So last night, I had a dream that I just had to turn into a short story. Enjoy and let me know if you guys liked it.
As, I was visiting at an excluded lunch bench, far away from the café; I looked upon a very interesting scene. Three people just dropped to the ground from the air. One of them looked vaguely familiar.
“I’m going to kill you, Tom!” the woman yelled at one of her comrades.
“No, you’re not,” Tom replied, “you’re going to thank me because now you know that your machine works.”
“So, guys?” the second guy asked. “Where exactly are we?”
“By my watch, we went back in time of twenty years,” the woman replied.
“Nice one, Amber,” Tom whistled. “See that, Zack? We get to see a glimpse of the small past.
I quickly finished my salad and was working on my drink because I figured that one of them was bound to find me staring at them. Seconds after the last of the soda went down the pipes, Tom noticed me and pointed quite rudely at me.
Amber turned around and eyed me with fear.
I took my bag, motioned her to follow and walked away.
Ten minutes later, I swiped my key card at the door to the lab and leaned against a table.
Amber walked in first. Zack and Tom followed in.
“How do you have access to my lab?” Amber asked.
“Guess, I didn’t make much of an impression while working for you,” I replied bitterly. “My name is Crystal and if I remember correctly, I’m your third assistant. Tell me what got me fired.”
Amber looked like she’d seen a ghost.
“Right,” she replied. “I apologize. It just so sudden that we ended up here.”
I eyed my watch. “Listen, your ‘past’ self will be here in an hour. You have an hour to figure out how to finish a copy of your machine and go back where you came from.”
I took my purse and started walking towards the door, only to be stopped by Zack’s hand on my shoulder. I felt an electric current move through me from his touch.
“Why are you helping us?” He asked.
“Because having people from the future here is not a good thing. Though, you’re right. I shouldn’t care considering that now I know that Amber will fire me.” I turned around and glared at my ‘future’ ex-boss. “So why did you fire me?”
“You left paperwork on my desk in plain view. If someone had an access to it, my project could have never gotten realized,” Amber replied.
“That doesn’t sound like me,” I replied. “Remember, now you have less than hour.”
“We’ll need to hide somewhere for the night,” Tom said from his place by the bookcase.
“We need money for a hotel,” Amber said looking at her old desk.
“If you take money, I’ll get fired sooner,” I growled and pulled out sixty dollars. “There’s a cheap hotel around the corner.”
“Thank you,” Zack said and smiled.
I smiled back and left. The hard metal door closed behind me and I leaned against it. Knowing my future did not help my mood because I couldn’t even search for a new job, not knowing when Amber would sack me precisely. I put in my earpiece and decided to listen in to the conversation inside.
“When we get back to our time, you will need to find Crystal and hire her back,” Tom said.
“I can’t,” Amber replied.
“Why?” Zack asked.
“I didn’t fire her,” Amber replied.
“What?” the two men asked in unison.
“I killed her,” Amber said.
My heart sped up and I gripped my shirt from shock.
“I was working hard on one of the components. The portal was open and I kept looking back-and-forth between the portal and my computer. Crystal came up with coffee for me and I, without much thought, hit the coffee from her hand from anger for the interruption. Crystal’s foot got caught on one of the wires and she slipped. I turned off the portal too late. Her body was cut in half. Half disappeared through the portal and half was bleeding on the ground. I turned on the portal again and pushed her body in. Soon after, I reported her missing and no one has ever found her.”
“Shit,” Zack cursed.
I ran as fast as I could out of there.
An hour later, I was drinking hot chocolate and looking at my three visitors. Amber looked embarrassed, which was new. The men looked like they wanted to be anywhere but at my apartment.
“Did I not give enough money for a hotel?” I asked.
“You’ve given plenty, but I need someplace quite to work and it may take more than one day,” Amber explained.
I wanted to slam the door in their faces. I wanted to forget what I’ve overheard and just forget that anything had happened, but knowing that I would die soon, did nothing to my mood.
“You get twenty-four hours,” I growled and allowed them inside. “There’s food in the fridge and I’ll make coffee for you guys.”
“Thank you,” Amber accepted.
I looked down at my nightdress and was thankful that I remembered to wear my matching robe. Then, I walked into the kitchen and started working on the coffee.
“Tom and I will be back. I’ll use the money you gave me to buy a couple of tools.” Amber followed me in.
“Fine,” I replied without turning around. Seconds later the door closed once again and I heard Zack walk up to me.
“I’ll ask again,” he started, “why are you helping us? Especially since knowing that my friend fired you for something so small.”
I looked at him and noted his features. He was an attractive man around my age. If I would have lived, I would be much older than him. It hurt me to know that now there was no point in asking Brian out from my classes. There will be no relationships for me; there will be no PhD for me. There will be no future for me.
“To tell you the truth,” I started, “I overheard you guys speaking after I closed the door and I know that my life is coming to a stop.”
“How?” He asked shocked.
“Amber always gives earpieces to her assistants. That’s how we know when it’s safe to come in. From her ramblings, we would know on which equations to work on outside of the door and when she would notice the time, she would open the door and see what we worked on. Guess, she stopped doing that after my death or else she would have asked me to leave my earpiece at work.”
“Wow,” he replied. “I’m so sorry. I wish that we could do something.”
“You can’t change the past and now I can’t either. All I can do is get my things in order and wait for my end,” I told him with great sadness. “Coffee?”
Zack laid his hand on top of mine, sending another current through me. I blushed and poured us coffee. Guess a woman, even a dying woman, still feels attraction.
We walked back into the living room, sat down and talked for about two hours before they returned. I excused myself to my bedroom and went to my bed. Zack felt perfect to me, even more so than Brian. He made me laugh and he understood my bad jokes. We talked about so many things that somehow it helped me relax about my future.
Several times during the night, their arguments woke me up and I ended up watching from the doorway at the sparks flying, coffee being poured, and Amber yelling at Tom. Zack was Tom’s friend, not Amber’s and he came with them by mistake. Tom was actually the new assistant. Zack caught me looking at them and told them to shut up each time. They always apologized for waking me up and Amber could not bear to look at me.
When morning finally came, all three were sleeping on the floor. I walked over to the machine that Amber had built. It looked different from the prototype in the lab. Her ideas have gone a long way in twenty years. I scanned her notes and saw that all was sound. Amber finished the machine in less than twenty-four hours, which meant that they would leave after waking up.
I went into the kitchen and started on breakfast. I made pancakes, boiled eggs, and lots of coffee. Zack helped me carry the food into the living room after waking up and we conversed again about different things. He told me about the future. I laughed at the fashion he told me about, laughed at his summaries of the latest movies, and he was telling me about holo pads when Amber woke up and started yelling at him.
After Amber paused, Zack yelled back. “She knows that she wasn’t fired but was killed by you! It doesn’t matter if she knows about the future!”
Amber almost fainted.
I didn’t bother reminding her of her system, but Zack did.
Amber sat down on a chair and started crying. Tom looked around the scene and ate a pancake.
“Not bad,” Tom complimented my cooking.
“Thanks,” I muttered and then walked around to the machine. I turned it on.
Amber looked up and yelled, “don’t!”
I shook my head and opened the portal by Zack. He stumbled from shock right inside the portal. My heart hurt, but I couldn’t stand the fact that I have fallen in love with a man from the future and with whom I had no future. I couldn’t stand looking at my alive killer and her new assistant. I wanted to be alone and I was done being a nice host.
Tom pulled Amber to the portal. “You will destroy it, right?”
I nodded.
The started to walk in.
I whispered, “It was nice to know love before my end.”
The portal closed behind them and I destroyed the machine and all remains left behind.
Two months later
I walked towards Amber with coffee in hand as usual. She was eyeing the portal and the computer. Every time for the past week, I’ve been thinking about my day of death and if it would happen right then and there. Amber only a week ago, got to the point of where a portal would show up.
Amber pushed away the cup from my hands and I stumbled. Guess today is the day. I felt myself falling and then heard Amber cursing. I noticed that her button pressing wasn’t working and the portal wasn’t closing. A hand pulled me inside the portal then, and I heard Amber’s scream.
Seconds later, I was in a new office and staring into Zack’s brown eyes.
“But,” I stuttered, “why?”
“Everyone needs a future and I couldn’t bare to let you go,” Zack said.
I looked around to see Amber and Tom smiling. “To hell with the past. In the past you died, which means you can live in the future.”
I started to cry and felt Zack’s arms around me. “I’ll be there for you every step of the way for I fell in love with you in return.”
The End
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