Previously: Hank Waterson writes a story about woodland creatures with magical powers who have the names of Carrie’s friends. … Roll with it.

PART 3.20b: WOODLANDS DETOUR 2

“The others… are coming…” Carrie panted out as she skidded to a halt at the water’s edge. She reached out to splash a little water on her face. “Oh yes, didn’t even take the direct route, and I still win!"

“Some things never change?” Clarke said, swimming closer to the bank.

“Ooh, yes, you always seem to do it, Carrie!” Laurie said, having come closer herself. “You’re so cool, with the hopping and the bouncing and the dashing and it’s hard to say whether a bunny can tap into the magic better than we can or if you’re just naturally so athletic but either way you’re an inspiration to us all and I really wish I had some of your coordination because I can never seem to stand on my ball for very long without falling off of it though you know that stuff could be completely different from magical ability so forget I said anything about it and oooh, what’s that new thing you’ve got hanging around your neck??”

By the time Carrie had explained to Laurie about the charm Glen had given her, Frank, Luci and Chartreuse had all made their way to the lake. “I found, you know, most of the early sentients,” Chartreuse hooted at Clarke. “I figured we didn’t need Jeeves or Megan or especially Azure or…”

“This is fine,” Clarke assured. “Now, the reason for calling you all here is because of what I found while felling some saplings to the north.”

“Near the human settlement?” Corry said, arcing an eyebrow.

“Right,” Clarke answered. “See, there’s this place that’s kinda glowy and tingly which does not feel good and… well, you have to see it for yourself. I ran into Lee up there and he’s keeping an eye on things.”

“Freaky,” Luci said at last. None of the others had spoken since arriving at the outskirts of the small clearing. “So,” the squirrel continued, “any ideas on what’s causing the weird green glow? Or any of the other effects, like the dying trees?”

“Nope, but I wouldn’t suggest going in there to find out,” Lee said. “I tried shuffling closer to that tree in the clearing’s centre and nearly sank right into the bog.”

“It must have freaked you out,” Corry observed. “You’ve let your quills do a shredding job on your jacket again.”

Lee shrugged. “Life of a porcupine is never easy.”

“Well, I could totally fly out to that tree,” Chartreuse offered.  “Except, you know, I’m more of a water bird and the thing looks like it’s dying so might not support my weight…”

“You see now why I thought we should check this out though, right?” Clarke noted.

“Yes,” Julie replied, frowning. “The question is what does this mean?”

“Ooh! Ooh, wait,” Laurie broke in. “I know this clearing! I used to play around here a couple years ago - in fact didn’t we all have that big forest glade party here? It was around the same time a number of us were getting that whole self awareness thing!” She began nodding vigorously. “Yeah, yeah, we were celebrating that, and I’m pretty sure the party was here, because it was shortly thereafter that I first conjured my clothes and my ball! Am I right or am I right??”

“I think you’re right,” Frank realized. “Except this clearing didn’t look the same, not back then. It wasn’t marshy, there was more grass, less of an odour…”

“And less general eerieness,” Corry agreed. “But we stopped coming here shortly thereafter. When the human settlement expanded.”

“Bah, you’re imagining things, I haven’t been here before,” Carrie countered. She had moved to a position a little ways around the perimeter. “Now c’mere and check this out, I’ve found some partially submerged human looking barrels!”

Everyone headed over to see what Carrie was looking at. “Um, hate to tell you this Carrie, but those barrels don’t look like humans at all,” Chartreuse noted.

“Thank you Miss Literal,” Carrie countered. “Sheesh, why couldn’t we have magically learned a language that was less ambiguous than English?”

“Barrels of human origin, I understood you,” Luci said. “Moreover, that has to be the source of the ground acting like some wacky bioengineered sports drink.”

“Say, I think that’s a label out there,” Lee said, pointing. “Fell off a barrel. Anyone want to get close enough to read it?”

“Allow me,” Clarke offered, pulling out his magic lacrosse stick and extending it into the clearing. He used the mesh to snare the paper and pull it back in to the group.

“Okay, um, it says… ‘Linquist’s Dribs and Drabs’,” Frank mused, after smoothing out the sheet. He looked up. “What’s a Linquist?”

“Whatever it is, it sounds really evil,” Luci decided.

“Look, guys… I really don’t think we should hang around here any longer,” Julie decided. “And when someone as fearless as me is saying that, I’d pay attention!”

“Much as I hate to admit it, Julie has a point," Corry chimed in. “After all, what if we’re exposing ourselves to the very source of the recent magical drain? We could be getting dumber and less powerful without realizing it.”

“Hold on a minute,” Carrie said, having again moved a short distance away. Her ears twitched in the air. “I’ve found a wide path back here and… do you hear that? There’s some sort of engine approaching.”

There was a pause as everyone listened for the noise.  Then Lee’s eyes went wide. “Truck!” the porcupine announced.

“Humans?” Laurie gasped.

“Scatter!” Clarke shouted.

The 4x4 backed carefully down the trail, up to the edge of the clearing, after which both driver and passenger exited the vehicle. The red haired driver turned to regard her companion, who kept his hat pulled down low over his eyes. “Hey, Shady,” she ventured as he climbed into the rear of the truck. “You SURE we should be dumping this stuff so close to our town?”

The man in the hat gave an irritated grunt as he undid the rope that was holding two new barrels in place. “It has to be here, Mindy,” he affirmed. “It’s the only way to deal with our little sentient animal problem.”

“Right. I know. But what we’re doing, it won’t harm anyone, right?” Mindy pressed.

“You say that like we’re blowing up a hospital or something,” Shady grumbled. “Trust me, all this glop will do is shut down a crazy ecosystem that should never have existed in the first place.” He threw the rope aside. “In a couple months, this whole area will be clear for more development, more businesses, more jobs, and better living conditions.” He pulled the top off of one barrel of green slime, and then kicked it out the back hatch of the truck. It fell into the edge of the bog.

“Ah. Good points, I guess…”

“Besides. Even if what we’re doing here comes to light, and people object, I’m reworking things so that Linquist takes the fall,” Shady added, his grin visible beneath his hat. “We have a bright future ahead of us, Mindy, mark my words!”

“Yes, well, I want to believe that,” Mindy sighed. “But then there are other times when I get to thinking about the animals, and I wonder…”

Shady cut Mindy off with a growl as he rolled the second barrel out the back. “First concern for humans, now animals?” he rasped. “For gosh sakes, Mindy, pick a damn side!”

“Can’t I be on both sides?” Mindy protested.

Shady mumbled something under his breath. “Look, I can guarantee to you that what we’re doing here is perfectly fine for the animals. Okay?!”

“Oh? And how can you do that?”

“Because I’ve been in contact with one of them sentient beasts for weeks now,” Shady said with a grin. “In fact, that’s the thing that assured me any so-called magical effects around here will dry up after another week or so of dumping. So don’t cry for the animals, Mindy. Because they want to be rid of their mistakenly acquired human-like sentience as much as we want it too!”

That said, Shady closed up the back of the truck and returned to the passenger seat. He only looked back out when he realized Mindy wasn’t following him. “Aw, what is it NOW?” he sighed.

Mindy blinked and shook her head. “Oh, sorry. It was the weirdest thing… but when you spoke of the animals that way, I could have sworn I heard a collective gasp coming from all around us.”

Shaking her head, she returned to the cabin of the truck, started the ignition, and drove away.

-Shady’s back! Kind of. Not really. Are you enjoying this? Care to vote for T&T, or otherwise let me know?

-Incidentally, at less than 1500 words and only 9 kB in a text file, this marks the shortest entry in the series… ever. Even Part 47 (Respite) was over 1500, and having completed edits on Book 4 last weekend, I can say all future parts are longer than this.

PART 47: RESPITE

“Ten seconds. Sorry guys, I guess Carrie’s gonna, like, fry us after all,” Chartreuse said glumly. The three teenagers were all sitting on their hands now, Shady standing far enough away from the wall to shoot them - probably even if they all moved at once.

“I should have jumped him,” Lee murmured. “Damn it, I’m not going to get to say goodbye to my sisters.”

“You’re a real bastard, you know that?” Corry shouted at their captor.

“I will die for our cause,” was his only reply.

Chartreuse wondered if it would be better to have her eyes open or closed when the bomb detonated. Which was when a gust of wind blew through the area, as if a freight train were rushing by, and then Carrie was standing there with them. The blonde with the golden eyes raised her palm to the bomb timer.

“Or not," Carrie remarked.

“NO!” Shady shrieked.

The gun fired, even as Carrie’s other palm went up facing him. Chartreuse could now see the bullet moving through the air towards the blonde with all the speed of a paper airplane. Which was clearly impossible. As impossible as Carrie sidestepping it, yet she was doing that too.

And then Carrie flicked her index and middle fingers off her thumb, and Shady’s head snapped back. The fingers of his gun hand twitched again, but this time his weapon fired at the ceiling - because Lee was there, pushing his arm up. Corry joined him, and it occurred to Chartreuse that maybe she should get off her ass too.

She didn’t go for Shady. Lee and Corry were subduing him. Instead, she stepped over to Carrie, who now had both palms facing the bomb. The timer seemed to be oscillating back and forth between five and four seconds. Sweat was pouring down Carrie’s face as if she were running a marathon.

“What kind… of fail-safe… IS this…?"

“How can I help?” Chartreuse asked.

Carrie grimaced. “Catch me.”

And the timer clicked down, to three seconds, then two… where it froze, even as Carrie crumpled towards the floor. Chartreuse let out a gasp, supporting the blonde and guiding her carefully down into a prone position.

“Okay. That’ll hold for a while,” Carrie murmured weakly. “Only one more thing to take care of.” She looked up at Chartreuse. “Farewell, everyone.”

The blonde closed her eyes, and a wave of energy seemed to spread out from her position. It passed through everyone in the room, then out through the walls and up through the ceiling until it had encompassed the entire building… the entire town…

Carrie was released from hospital a week later, having been treated for a case of severe exhaustion. Her eyes were their normal blue colour as she trudged through the new fallen snow, following the path in the ravine behind her house that went up into the park. She continued over to the swing set, brushing it off and then sitting down.

“Kinda hoped you’d be here," she murmured to the boy in the swing next to her.

“Was it hope?” Frank wondered. “Or your powers?"

Carrie shuddered. “Please, Frank, PLEASE, no talking about my powers. Somehow, I managed to suppress them, but I can still feel them as this dull ache inside me. Even now, I’m not sure if I was controlling them, or if they were controlling me. Trying to use them again… would be dangerous. Hell, I thought I’d die after what I did.”

“Right, okay, no powers talk then,” Frank reassured. “Better question, will you coming back to school tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” Carrie said. “Have I missed much?”

“You mean in terms of what teachers like Fisk think is important, or in terms of what’s actually important?”

Carrie smirked. “The latter, naturally.”

Frank grinned back at her. “The social situation is completely warped. Julie’s been the target of a lot of hostility since the flyer, not to mention her disappearance, and yet she refuses to let the information about her parental situation become common knowledge. So she’s not getting much in the way of sympathy. But guess who’s started looking out for her welfare - Corry Veniti.”

“What? No!” Carrie laughed. “Oh, boy. That must be confusing the daylights out of everybody.” She kicked her legs a little to start the swing moving. “How is Julie holding up?”

“She’s started her counselling," Frank said. “Tim’s alibi plan, putting her in the cafe when you were shot, has her in the clear for that. The information about Holly Rhodes, we gave to Jeeves. He was able to track the domestic down, and armed with the information, he has started acting as Julie’s de facto father. He seems to really care about her. And while Julie’s parents are putting up a bit of a fight, they’ve stopped short of any direct action, probably to avoid the potential publicity.”

“I think they’d lose a custody battle anyway," Carrie said, making a face. “Good. I mean, Julie may have done some terrible things to people, but it must have been a special kind of hell for her growing up.”

“Speaking of parents,” Frank said slowly. “Dare I ask about you and your father…?”

Carrie let the swing stop its motion. “Unh. Yeah. Me and dad are doing all right,” she replied after a moment. “He doesn’t remember being frozen, of course. Seeing as that last blast of mine somehow wiped all my temporal actions from the memories of everyone in the vicinity of the hospital building - time travellers excluded.”

She extended her leg, pointing the toe of her boot. “Dad still knows I was shot, of course, and I think that has him trying to make up for lost time. He offered to take me to a hockey game next weekend."

She lowered her foot. “Hockey. Sheesh. At the same time, he’s trying.” She bit her lip. “In fact, I think maybe he’s been trying for a long while. Which is… nice.” A small smile graced her face.

There was an extended silence. “By the way, me and Luci are dating,” Frank blurted.

Carrie turned her swing sideways. “Seriously?” He nodded, and her grin grew wider. “It’s about damn time. You want some dating advice then, as one friend to another?”

Frank became busy staring at a spot in the sky. It was hard to say if his red cheeks were due to the cold. “Um, yes? But maybe not right now? That is, I… we’re puzzling through it together for the moment.”

“Well, good for you. Don’t screw up the Christmas gift.”

His eyes widened. “Oh no, Christmas!”

Carrie fought back the urge to laugh. “Calm down. You two will be fine together. Here, change of subject. Elephant in the room, actually.” She took in a deep breath, turning away again. “What became of the time traveler who wanted me dead?”

“What? Oh, well, Shady was arrested of course,” Frank assured. “Blowing up buildings being against the law. In fact, the police on scene ended up thinking they were there because of him, not you. He’s also become the lead suspect for shooting you in the first place - which he did, in a roundabout way - so I wager he’ll be going to prison. The only surprise is that is he didn’t manage to talk his way out of it using his future ability.”

Carrie rubbed her nose. “Yeah, uh, along the lines of messing with people’s memories… I think was able to block Shady’s personal history for how to do his - what did Lee call it? Jedi trick? - but I’m not positive whether my tampering was permanent.”

She let out a long breath, visible in the cool air. “Damn this power of temporal paradox that I have. Or whatever you want to call it. It’s going to be an attractive weapon for everyone who knows about it.”

“Don’t worry. We’re not going to tell anyone,” Frank assured her. “We won’t be using the time machine again either - namely because, in a few weeks’ time we’ll have no coins to return us to the present.”

“The future, Frank. They know in the future. And they’ve now tried to get at me once, so I’m going to need to keep my guard up.”

He stared, then frowned. “You mean… this isn’t the end of it."

“No,” Carrie sighed. “No, I fear this is only the beginning.” She jumped up off of the swing. “But, hell with it. Until anything else happens, I’ve got a life to live in the present.” With that, she reached out and smacked Frank lightly in the back of his head.

“Ouch! Hey, what the heck was that for?!” Frank protested.

“Retribution. You hit me in the hospital.”

Frank crossed his arms. “You told me I was allowed to hit you. You even encouraged it, in this very park!”

Carrie pursed her lips. “Oh, right.” She shrugged, then winked at him. “Fine, then consider it my way of telling you everything is back to normal.”

“Except I’m not taking it lying down this time,” Frank countered, springing up off his own swing, and extending his gloved hands as if to tickle her.

Carrie let out a little yelp of astonishment, before athletically sidestepping him. “Catch me if you can!” she declared, breaking into a sprint. Frank could only shake his head in resignation as the smiling blonde teenager disappeared back down into the ravine.

END... FOR NOW

See the accompanying Commentary Post for ARC 2.4 or Funny Arc 2.4 Outtakes.

More was written back in the early 2000s, but I'm going back to "Epsilon Project" for a bit. You can vote on that.

UPDATE: Book 3 is now running, the above link is active.

PART 46: OUT OF TIME

Lee joined the others at the hospital. He’d already been tracking Shady in the vicinity, so it had been easy enough to hook up with the group after hearing from Clarke about the latest development.

“So, you’re saying future guy is gonna make a play for the track tease again, and that this act is what will make her explode?” he confirmed.

Chartreuse nodded vigorously, then frowned. “Okay, we aren’t totally sure,” she admitted. “But probably.”

“The new problem,” Corry mused, “Is whether we should try to stop this Shady - or merely warn him that Carrie knows he’s coming.”

“Warn him?” Lee asked, doing a double take. “Why?”

“To let him try something that would be more effective.”

“WHAT? Are you, like, SERIOUS?”

Corry reached up to pull the pink haired girl’s fingers off his shirt. “Chartreuse, Carrie seems bent on killing everybody no matter what,” Corry countered. “How does that old saying go, ‘The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the one’?”

“Corry,” Laurie said quietly. “Didn’t you tell me two days ago that you would never, ever do something that would kill a person? Was that a lie, for my benefit?”

“Laurie, no! But we’ve been told Carrie isn’t really a person, she’s more of a…" Corry’s voice trailed off as he saw his sister’s expression. He gulped. “Okay. Thanks for the conscience check, sis. My bad. So, we stop Shady then. The question is how?"

“Maybe the track tease knows a way,” Lee suggested. “She seems to know about everything else going on.”

“You think she’d tell us?” Chartreuse wondered.

Lee shrugged. “Can’t hurt to ask.”

“You might be surprised,” Laurie said, wincing.

Lee pulled on the lapels of his jacket. “I’ll go anyway. She hasn’t vented at me yet, so maybe I’ll get lucky.”

He turned away from the group and proceeded down the hallway. Hospital staff had been working for the last half hour to remove patients from the area; it was now mostly deserted.

About two paces from the door to Carrie’s room, Lee stopped. He turned, a puzzled expression on his face. Then he walked all the way back. “Hey, why was I going to that room again?” he inquired.

The others exchanged a glance. “You were, you know, going to ask Carrie if she knew more about the crazy guy from the future who’s out to kill her,” Chartreuse reminded him.

“Oh yeah,” Lee said. “Sorry, memory glitch.” Again, he went back down the hall to Carrie’s room. Again he paused about two steps away, and then returned, mind spinning. “Hey, why was I going to that room again?” he repeated.

“Never mind,” Corry said, waving his hand dismissively.

“She is getting more powerful, isn’t she,” Laurie said, shivering.

“Hey!” came a new voice. A security guard approached them in the opposite direction from Carrie’s room. “What are you kids still doing here? Get downstairs, all of you. This whole floor’s being evacuated.”

“Um, right, we’re on our way!” Lee assured him.

“Oh no,” Chartreuse moaned. “I hope that Luci and Frank devised a more cunning plan. At this point, that may be all we’ve got left."

Out in his backyard, Frank flipped open the time machine and inspected the pocketwatch inside. “Great timing,” he said. “We’re back a minute before we even left.”

Luci nodded beside him, belatedly realizing she had a bit of soot on her face. Yet as she attempted to wipe it off with her fingers, she only succeeded in smearing it even more. She sighed.

“Anyway, so I have the name Holly Rhodes,” she concluded. “As the only female domestic listed for exactly three years, beginning ten years ago, dismissed for no given reason. There was an address listed. Think it’s enough?”

“Hopefully,” Frank said, eyeing her.

“We’d better get to the hospital then,” Luci concluded. “To tell the others and help them deal with the Shady situation.” She stood and started walking off, only to see Frank wasn’t following. “Something else?”

He blinked. “No. Yes. Just, ah, thinking about what you must have gone through there to help Carrie and Julie out. Not only on that trip itself, but in dealing with a missing day for that long.” He cleared his throat. “You really are amazing, Luci.”

Luci shrugged. “It had already happened. I couldn’t avoid it.”

“That doesn’t negate the sacrifice.” He coughed. “So, I was thinking, if we survive, you want to get a soda together tomorrow? At the cafe? Maybe even… make it a regular thing?”

“Regular thing? What do you…” Luci stopped, seeing his expression. She felt her knees go weak. “Now? NOW of all times you bring this up?”

“Well if we DON’T survive, I’d hate for you to have thought that… that I didn’t care.”

“Frank, if you’re only saying this because you think we might die, you better realize that I am SO holding you to any promise you make here!”

He smiled. “I would expect nothing less of you. Sodas then?”

Luci felt like her heart was going to burst out of her chest. She ran back to him, throwing her arms around his neck. He grabbed her back, pulling her close. “Heck yeah, sodas,” she said in delight.

She savoured the moment, the hug, the way Frank’s arms were running up and down her back, the safety of his embrace, for as long as she could. Ultimately, she sighed. “And I think that’s our extra minute gone.”

“Mmm hmm. Apocalypse prevention time?”

“Apocalypse prevention time,” she agreed. “Let’s get to it.”

“Clarke,” Tim said quietly.

Clarke looked up from his magazine. He’d been hoping that the distraction might help his subconscious come up with some sort of plan. “What is it, Tim?” he asked, smiling encouragingly at his friend.

“W-Well… I was just thinking,” Tim began. “The police think Julie shot Carrie. We don’t want them to think that. Right?” Clarke nodded. “So, why not give Julie an alibi?"

Clarke frowned. “I’m not sure lying to the police is the best plan.”

“Oh, I don’t mean lie,” Tim protested. “I mean, well - time machine alibi.”

Clarke stared. Then he sat bolt upright. “Of course. We can take Julie back to the evening of November the twelfth, and be somewhere in public during the shooting. With an alibi on her birthday, the police would have to close the investigation. Great thinking, Tim!”

“Y-You think so?” Tim said with a partial smile.

“Definitely,” Clarke said, clapping his friend on the shoulder. “Let’s see if Julie can handle another trip, then I’ll give Frank another call.”

“I don’t like this,” Chartreuse murmured, looking around the hospital lobby. Several police officers had now arrived. Granted, they seemed to be ignoring the teens, more interested in what was happening upstairs with Carrie than the earlier investigations at school surrounding Julie.

“Well, look on the bright side,” Corry remarked. “With all this added security, Shady will find it almost impossible to get upstairs.”

Chartreuse frowned. “Except I’m sensing from a lot of people here that they’re going to die. Only they don’t know it, so I can’t put my finger on when or how.”

“Y-You think Shady’s going to shoot his way up to her?” Laurie gasped.

Chartreuse slowly shook her head. “No? It’s not… I can’t figure it out,” she said, frustrated. “I’d try for a vision, but interfacing with Carrie has really tapped me out.”

“You know, we’re missing something,” Lee realized. “To save Carrie, you might have to be close to her - but do you have to be close in order to destroy her?”

Corry blinked. “No, of course not,” he agreed. “In fact, you’d be foolish to do it that way. She’d see you coming.”

“Plus I’ve seen future cult guy in this hospital before,” Lee continued. “He could have been scouting the place out. After all, say you wanted to destroy someone that you couldn’t approach directly, yet you still knew where they’d be - how would you do it?”

“More specifically, how would you do it if you didn’t care about any additional casualties?” Corry finished.

“Oh no,” Chartreuse said, feeling her blood run cold. “That’s it. That fits with what I’m sensing.”

“Do you know where it would be?" Corry said, grabbing Lee’s arm.

“Basement,” Lee said. “Bombs are always in the basement."

“Luci?” Clarke said in surprise. “Where’s Frank?”

“By now? He’ll be at the hospital,” Luci said, marching into the LaMille house with the time machine. “Your alibi plan is great, but we’re short on time. Since Frank is maybe the only one Carrie will listen to any more, I told him to keep going.”

She continued into the sitting room, stopping only once she’d reached the couch where both Tim and Julie were sitting.

“Luci?” Julie murmured, looking a bit dazed as she tilted her head up. “Do you have soot on your face?”

“I do,” Luci admitted. “And it’s your fault. But that’s a long story, and you need an alibi. So we have a time trip to take.”

The rest would be up to Frank.

A police officer questioned Frank’s arrival at the hospital, but the teenager managed to fake stomach cramps in order to gain access. Inside it was a bit of a madhouse… officers milling about, circulating around doctors and orderlies who were attempting to deal with both any incoming patients, and the ones being shuffled around inside the building due to the impromptu quarantine on Carrie’s floor.

“We can’t get close,” Frank heard someone say. “People tend to come back with no memory of their assigned task to negotiate. When they come back at all.”

‘That could be a problem for me,’ Frank realized. He soon discovered the stairwell was under guard, and that there was an officer in both elevators as well. ‘Assuming I even get up there…'

“Frank!”

He turned in time to see Laurie Veniti push her way past a couple of people to reach his side. “Thank goodness you’re here,” she whispered. “Chartreuse, Lee and my brother think that the time fanatic set an explosive charge somewhere in the basement. They’ve gone to check it out, it might be connected to Carrie’s plan for ending the world.”

“Laurie,” Frank said, taking her by the shoulders. “I’m glad to see you. I have to get up to Carrie’s room.” He pointed. “Can you distract that police officer over there? The one guarding the stairwell?”

Laurie shrank back at first, but then she clenched her jaw. “Golly, I’ll try,” she asserted. “I’ll babble at that cop so much he’ll have no choice but to escort me elsewhere.”

She turned to move in that direction - only to pause and look back at him one last time. “Frank… you be careful, all right?” she requested. “I… I really don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

“Of course,” Frank said. He smiled at Laurie reassuringly, attempting to project a confidence he didn’t really feel.

“See anything?” Chartreuse called out.

“Yeah, the need for better lighting,” Lee remarked. “I can’t believe there’s so much stuff down here.”

“Hold on guys, I think I’ve found something,” came Corry’s voice. “There’s a digital readout connected to a bunch of wires and… oh hell!”

Chartreuse hurried towards where she’d heard his voice. As she turned the corner, she heard the voice say “Stop moving” - and then she couldn’t move. Her eyes went wide.

Shady was standing there, next to Corry, who was partly bent over what could only be the bomb, given all the wiring with what Chartreuse decided were high explosives underneath. “Stop moving,” Shady said again.

“Thinking no,” Lee retorted, stepping past Chartreuse.

Shady pulled out a gun, and directed the barrel directly at her. “Stop or your friend dies.”

Lee stopped. Which is when it occurred to Chartreuse that the guy hadn’t said ‘don’t talk’. “Stop him, Lee,” she pleaded. “Or EVERYONE dies.”

“I can also shoot Lee,” Shady pointed out. “And I’d say bleeding out is more painful than vaporization.”

“Maybe I die lifting the whammy you’ve put on my friends,” Lee observed.

“Or maybe you use the next five minutes and forty seconds of your lives thinking of a better plan,” Shady reasoned.

Chartreuse couldn’t see the timer from where she was, so she could only assume that was a reference to the countdown to detonation.

“I hate stalemates,” Corry interjected. “Though it does seem like you’re running out of time to get clear yourself, buddy.”

“Yeah,” Shady granted, sounding annoyed. “The timer’s been giving me problems. Cruddy present day merchandise. Seems like I may die down here with the rest of you.” He shrugged. “Oh well. It’s not like I could ever go home again. My future currency was stolen.”

He waggled his gun. “Lee, go sit against the wall. Pink hair, you join him. Redhead, you too.”

Chartreuse found her feet pacing over towards Lee. “It won’t work,” she blurted out. “Carrie, like, knows what you’re doing. She… she can stop you.”

“Then she’d better try,” Shady said. He grinned. “Because at this point, I have nothing to lose. I’m perfectly willing to die, knowing that I brought down our greatest temporal adversary.”

The three teenagers exchanged horrified looks, as behind Shady, the clock on the bomb ticked down past five minutes.

Frank stared into the hospital room. A golden-eyed blonde stared back at him. “You should not have come,” Carrie said at last.

Frank eyed all the frozen people surrounding them. “I get the impression you could have stopped me,” he observed. “Why didn’t you?”

“There was no point,” Carrie admitted. She turned away from him. “You’re going to be dead in exactly four minutes and twenty six seconds either way.”

Frank felt a chill run through him. “What?”

“There is a bomb in the basement that will go off then,” Carrie explained. She sounded fatigued. “When it detonates, I will channel its destructive energy through me, into the rivers of time. The future will explode, and the past will implode right along with it. Should make for a fun little light show… a pity that no one will be alive to see it.”

“You can’t be serious.”

“I’ve never been more serious in my life,” Carrie said calmly. She turned back. “That fool with the explosives, he has no understanding of the true powers at my command.” She grinned. “Since focussing in on the bomb, I’ve been messing with him, making his timer run fast, slow, even backwards one time.”

Her expression shifted, becoming more wistful. “My only regret is that I’ll never get to experience a normal teenage life. No mother, no boyfriend, no one who could possibly understand the real me–”

“So we’re back to Selfish Carrie then.”

Her lips thinned. “Pardon?”

Frank decided it was all or nothing. “I mean, you have to be pretty full of yourself now, yeah? To not notice what PAINS the rest have been going through to FIX it all for you? I can see now that it didn’t matter. Sorry we were giving a damn.”

“You think YOU’RE in pain?” she shouted back. “My life never should have been! Right now, Julie’s past, Julie’s future, they hinge on me, a girl who should never have been born in the first place.” She pointed at her head. “And no matter what you do, with her or anybody else, I will still FEEL that inside me. A dull, throbbing ache that will never go away!”

Carrie slumped. “It was always meant to come to this. Destruction is my very reason for existence. It’s simply happening sooner than expected.”

“This from the girl who believes in temporal theories allowing free will.”

“I didn’t KNOW,” Carrie screamed back. “I was too naive, too stupid to understand the role I had to play!”

“So you’re giving up.” Frank found that it wasn’t hard to sound disgusted. “Carrie Waterson is giving up, and blowing up the universe.”

“Don’t exaggerate, Frank. I’m not destroying the universe, the effect will be localized to our solar system.”

“Oh, pardon me, big difference. What would your mother have to say about all this, I wonder?”

Carrie lifted her arm, pointing at him. “Oh no. Don’t you dare, don’t you DARE bring her into this.”

“Why not? It occurs to me that if you have all of time at your disposal now, you might have looked her up.”

Carrie was next to him in two strides, arm raised as if to strike him. “My MOTHER…” She stood still, then brought her arm down. “Was a time traveler,” she admitted. “Brought back from the future, she was left at an orphanage when she was very young. Adopted, and brought inconspicuously into society, she eventually met and married my father. They then had me. In this timeline. Which is, in a nutshell, the reason why I’ve become what I am. My hands are tied.”

A tear trickled from Carrie’s eye, but Frank forced down his instinct to apologize. He had to keep pushing her. Hell, maybe every time she’d pushed at him, he should have been pushing back. “So?” he demanded.

“So?” She reached up to wipe off her cheek. “Given that the decades long presence of my mother had always been a strain on the new timeline, my existence made the problem worse. She had to disappear. I know that now. We can never co-exist again. Which leaves me, a motherless girl, out of time and out of place.” Her hands clenched. “Is it any wonder I’m feeling a little… OUT OF MY MIND?”

“Who says she had to disappear?”

“I… I don’t know.” Carrie swallowed. “I can’t see where or when she disappeared to.”

“And now Carrie Waterson has lost her curiosity.”

“I didn’t say I wasn’t curious.”

“Oh no, you’re just blowing up the solar system instead of investigating…”

“I can’t help it, Frank,” Carrie choked out. “I’m sorry, but this explosive force, this pain inside me, it’s too damn strong to resist.”

That was getting closer to the Carrie who had opened up to him in the park, weeks ago. The Carrie that he cared about, in spite of everything. “If it’s inside you, it’s only as strong as you make it,” Frank insisted. “So here’s the real question. Do you want to destroy everything now? Rendering everyone’s actions on your behalf completely meaningless?”

“Stop.”

“Or will you push on, letting me and the rest of your FRIENDS help you through this?”

“Stop it, Frank…”

“Do you WANT answers to the questions that remain unanswered?”

“Frank don’t DO this to me.”

“Damn it, Carrie, will you DESTROY or will you ACCEPT OUR HELP?”

Her body shook, her scream was incoherent, and her palm came flying at his face. But he had half expected that reaction.

He ducked.

Then he sprang back up, his own palm out, and scarcely believing that he was doing it, he slapped it hard against the cheek of the girl who could destroy them all. “DO YOU WANT TO CHOOSE US OR NOT, CARRIE?”

“I DO!” she shrieked back.

Her look became one of astonishment, though whether it was at being struck, or at her own words, it was hard for Frank to say. But for a second, when she blinked, her eyes flickered back and forth between gold and their more normal blue.

“I… I choose the unending pain,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry,” Frank apologized at last. “But on behalf of the world, thank you.” He shook out his hand, then extended it towards her. “Thank you, Carrie.”

“Problem though.”

Frank frowned. His hand fell back to his side. “What?”

“Bomb in the basement, exploding in about twenty seconds, still taking out this whole building and everyone in it.”

“Oh… uh…”

Carrie cracked her knuckles. “So, here’s perhaps the last thing I will ever do. Show ‘Shady’ what a temporal weapon is REALLY capable of.” She flashed her fellow time traveller a sad smile.

“Thank you, Frank. For everything. And goodbye.” No sooner had she said it, then she seemed to wink out of existence, leaving a gust of wind in her wake.

PART 43: DESPERATE TIMES

***PAST: ILLINOIS

A figure stirred within the quiet, suburban home. Hazel eyes blinked open and a brunette teenager slowly picked herself up off the ground. She looked around, spotting a calendar hanging on the wall. Her mouth quirked up into an odd smile, and she tapped the barrel of her gun on her chin.

“It worked,” she murmured. “It worked, and now I’m… home.” She began to laugh hysterically.

Fingers drummed nervously on the floor. Having decided a short time ago that her situation wasn’t actually funny at all - certainly nothing to laugh about - Julie had moved on to taking stock of her current situation. So, she had traveled back to the year of her birth. The time machine had worked, as described to her by Carrie that time in her former associate’s bedroom.

It was a stroke of luck that Julie had apparently ended up on November 9th. Almost as if the machine had already been set for that day, merely requiring Frank’s coin to provide the year. She looked down at the notes she had grabbed. Should she risk reprogramming the thing, to try and jump a little closer? No… she didn’t have the right tools, or the confidence. Better to destroy the device instead. To prevent pursuit.

Julie proceeded to rip out what seemed to be the most important microchips, tossing them into the backyard. She put the notes into the garbage, and took the black box down into the basement, cramming it into one of the many half empty cardboard storage boxes she found. Her parents rarely decluttered, so there wasn’t much chance of it turning up - though even if it did, without the chips or the notes, it would be practically useless.

So, what was she supposed to do for the next three days? Devise a plan, of course. A plan to kill a baby. Julie felt her stomach lurch, but then again, she was already a murderer, right? She’d killed Carrie, and probably Frank too with her second shot. So what was one more death? Particularly when it would be her own. Merely one more death…

Something didn’t make sense. Her mind detoured.

Why had she shot Carrie? What exactly had brought her to Frank’s place that evening? Julie remembered being at the mansion. Then that man had called, asking to meet her at the park. The thirty-something guy had given her the gun, and told her what she had to do. It had made so much sense at the time! Up until the point of seeing Carrie bleeding on the floor…

‘None of it will have happened once I cease to exist,’ Julie rationalized, blocking the memory. One of SO many memories that she didn’t want any more. Okay, planning time. She had to figure out where the hospital was, that sort of thing. Pausing only long enough to find a bag to slip her gun into, Julie left the house.

Phil was here.

Barely an hour out of her house, and Julie found herself being confronted by impossible setbacks. She squeezed her eyes shut and counted to ten before peering back around the street corner.

Phil was still there.

If he was a hallucination, as he had been in the basement of her house, he’d become a more persistent one. Then again, this Phil could simply be a look-alike. Maybe an ancestor. Except why had Julie been left with the impression he was looking for someone?

Was he looking for her?

She felt her heart getting squeezed. Part of Julie wanted to run out to Phil and tell him everything, about what her parents had done to her, and about what she had done to Carrie. But another part of her urged caution. Could even Phil forgive her for what had happened? Worse, what if this was some kind of trap?

“Excuse me… you wouldn’t happen to have any spare change, would you?” said a nearby voice.

Julie tensed. She turned. This homeless woman was about her height, with hair of approximately the same length and colour. The similarity ended there, but daylight was fading, so with the right clothes…

“I’ll give you twenty dollars if you do something for me,” Julie answered. Almost as an afterthought, she moved closer to the woman and slipped the gun out from it’s concealment. “And if you don’t do it right, I’ll kill you too.”

***PRESENT: ONTARIO

Jeeves re-entered the sitting room to find Luci pacing, Chartreuse fidgeting with some crystals, and Lee leaning over the couch where the fourth house “guest” remained tied up.

The LaMille butler was starting to regret having let them in. In doing so, he wagered that he had become an accessory to kidnapping, or harbouring a fugitive. He didn’t know which. He didn’t want to know. That way, he wouldn’t have to deny anything later.

The one thing Jeeves DID know was that Julie was in some sort of trouble. Furthermore, ever since he had been hired three years ago to take care of this place, and thus indirectly to care for her, he’d felt a certain obligation towards the young girl. She was obviously very troubled, but she was also smart, strong, and more driven than any other teenager he knew. He couldn’t understand why her parents didn’t spend more time with her.

Indeed, it had been after leaving her alone with her parents for the one night that she had disappeared. Perhaps he shouldn’t have reported Julie’s actions at school to her mother and father. Or perhaps he shouldn’t have agreed to take that night off. Yet they often released him that way shortly after coming home, and as a simple butler, had he really had any other choice?

Perhaps not. However, he did have a choice now. Namely whether to offer more information to these children, or whether to put a stop to things before they got out of hand.

“Pardon me,” Jeeves stated archly. “But could one of you please enlighten me as to the current situation regarding Miss LaMille?”

Luci turned towards him. “Situation?” she said tiredly.

“You indicated to me earlier that by allowing you in here, it might ultimately clear her name,” Jeeves reminded them.

“Oh. Yes.” Jeeves noticed that the young girl’s eyes drifted over to the man on the couch, before she resumed her pacing. Perhaps this mystery man had been the actual culprit? “It’s complicated,” she continued. “I’m sorry, but we need more time.”

“The thing is,” Jeeves continued pointedly, “I just got off the phone with Miss LaMille’s father.” That got all of their attention.

“I have been trying to reach her parents all afternoon,” he elaborated. “Ever since I learned that their daughter was being implicated in the recent shooting. I finally succeeded not ten minutes ago, only to be told by Mr. LaMille that he had no daughter. At first I thought that he was trying to disown her, however, it soon became apparent to me that he also had no recollection of even owning this house.”

The butler watched as the three teenagers exchanged a glance. “He doesn’t remember Julie?” Chartreuse said, biting her lower lip. “Uh oh. Um, you don’t think that means she, like, actually succeeded in… in the past, do you?”

Luci yanked a piece of paper from her pocket. “How could she have?” the young asian protested, scanning over it. She slapped at the page with her hand. “We know what happened back then. Look, girl hit by ambulance, three days before Julie was born. That hasn’t changed.”

“Unless…” The man on the couch struggled to stand. “She is more powerful than I realized. We have to stop her, now!”

“Stop Julie?” Chartreuse said, confused. “No, that’s what, like, Frank and them are doing.”

“Whoa, okay, time out,” Lee said, raising his hands in the traditional gesture. “I’m not sure I follow ANY of what’s going on here, so back the bus up… if Julie’s parents don’t remember her now because of some change to the past - how come WE haven’t forgotten her too?”

“The–“ Their captive cut himself off. “Your Carrie Waterson. I told you she had powers! Being in this town, right now, has put us in the eye of her time storm. We are not safe so long as she is around. Can you not see how time itself is beginning to destabilize? We must act fast. Someone help me up.”

Jeeves automatically felt himself take a step closer to assist, only to have the boy named Lee step between them. “Sorry, I’m thinking we keep Shady on the couch for now,” the teenager asserted.

“Yes!” Luci said, and when Jeeves turned to her, he saw that a light had come back into her eyes. She met his gaze. “Okay, Jeeves, thanks for the information but I bet none of this is making any sense to you, and we don’t have time to explain. So, I know it’s a lot to ask, but unless you seriously object, can you leave us alone again? It’ll avoid you getting any more involved than you have to.”

Jeeves raised an eyebrow as Luci voiced his earlier concern - yet he also sensed a hard edge to Luci’s voice. Was helping Miss LaMille really worth potentially putting these other teenagers in jeopardy?

“I will allow you another few minutes to discuss the situation,” Jeeves decided. “Should you need me, I will be in the hall.” He turned and left the room once again, hoping that he was doing the right thing.

Then again, according to his employers, he didn’t seem to work here anyway.

After Jeeves had departed, Luci turned back to Shady. “You don’t KNOW,” she asserted, grinning.

“What don’t I know?”

“You don’t know what Carrie’s capable of,” she concluded. “Not really. Your description of her powers has been vague, you didn’t know if Frank’s admission would save her, and you sure as heck weren’t aware of whatever this ‘time storm’ was until Jeeves pointed it out. So how could you possibly know whether Carrie’s irredeemably insane or not?”

Luci drew in a deep breath. “The answer is, you don’t. Meaning we might still be able to save her.”

Shady shook his head. “Don’t be foolish. I know she’s dangerous.”

“Dangerous why?” Luci demanded. She moved in next to him, placing her hand on the couch next to his head. “Tell us, why exactly is Carrie Waterson dead in your future, Shady? Why did you have to come back to this time period to get her? Why, exactly, is SHE the one tied to time?”

Their captor’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t have to answer to you.”

Luci’s smile vanished. “Perhaps not, but it occurs to me now that you were WAY too calm for someone who claimed to have lost an entire future war because of us.”

“Well, I’m not calm any more,” he snapped.

“No, you’re not,” Luci acknowledged. “So what is it about Carrie that has you so riled up? Tell us. ALL of it.”

“Go beat your head against a wall.”

Luci turned and marched over towards the nearest wall, drawing her head back - only to be grabbed from behind by Lee. She blinked, then snapped her gaze back over to the couch.

“That’s dirty pool,” Chartreuse said, horrified.

“You children, you have no idea, NO idea of what you’ve gotten yourself mixed up in,” Shady said, a bitterness to his tone. “Enough of free will. Isn’t it time to leave this situation in the hands of your elders?”

“Okay, that’s it,” Luci decided. “I’ve had it.” She began to push a chair over to the side of the room. “Lee? Chartreuse? You can leave now, if you don’t want to see this.”

“Um, pretty sure I should stick around,” Lee pointed out.

“Why, what are you, like, going to do?” Chartreuse asked.

“Something I might regret later,” Luci admitted. She climbed onto the chair, and reached up to grasp the ornamental rapier hanging on the wall.

“Whoa, uh, hold on short stuff… what are you doing?”

Truth be told, Luci was asking herself that same question. She wasn’t really sure any more. All she knew was that were were still gaps, huge gaps in her knowledge that had to be filled. It had become more than a need, it was a necessity. How else could she solve this puzzle?

“The problem,” she reasoned aloud, hopping back down onto the floor, “is that I’ve been basing all my decisions to this point on the scattered half picture we’ve had available.” She brandished the rapier and pointed it at their captive. “Time to get the rest of the data. By any means necessary.”

“Luci,” Chartreuse gasped, reaching out to take her by the shoulder.

“No,” Luci protested, shrugging off Chartreuse. “It’s not us, it’s HIM, it’s his secrets that have doomed Julie and Frank and the rest of them.” She took a step closer to the couch. “So, you want to talk war? Fine, here’s your war. You will tell us about Carrie’s fate in your timeline, or suffer the consequences.”

The man met Luci’s gaze, sizing her up. “You have more willpower than I thought,” he said at last. “But no. I’ve told you too much already.”

“Don’t test me,” Luci cautioned, waving the blade around - to try and disguise how much her hand was starting to shake.

He smirked. “Please. You talk big, but you won’t use that. Put it away before you hurt yourself.”

Luci stared at him for another few seconds, realizing with growing frustration that he wasn’t going to stop treating this like a bluff on her part. ‘Hurt him!’ a part of her cried out. ‘He’s hurting you, so you can hurt him back!' Except… there was a big difference between cutting someone down with words, and doing it with a blade.

She grasped the hilt with both hands. Tears started stinging at her eyes. “Talk!”

Talk, Shady. Just talk. This was so easy in the movies. Why not now? Why, oh why couldn’t things be going her way? As Shady smirked, Luci felt Chartreuse’s arm encircle her shoulders. This time she didn’t pull away. Instead she let out a choked sob, finally letting the blade fall from her grip. It bounced on the carpet.

“Okay buddy, now you’ve made a young girl cry,” Lee observed. He cracked his knuckles. “We’ve reached my line in the sand.”

Luci looked back up, barely in time to see Lee backhand the man across the face. “Now say you’re sorry,” he admonished. He looked angrier than Luci had ever seen him.

“What… what the hell are you doing?!” their captive spat back, apparently as surprised as any of them.

“At present? I’m trying to figure out how a supposed adult has the audacity to put the whammy on girls less than half his age,” Lee said. “You also seem to be trying to kill another one of my friends, without telling us the reason, and to cap it all off - you’re making me late for dinner.”

Lee backhanded him again. “I’m ESPECIALLY annoyed about that last one, because I don’t want my sisters to have new reasons to cry either. So let’s get to it, okay ‘Shady’? Apologize to Luci, and then TELL her WHAT SHE WANTS TO KNOW.”

Lee’s victim glowered at him for a moment, before uttering a curt, “Sorry,” in Luci’s direction.

“Progress,” Lee said, glaring.

Shady grit his teeth. “If you weren’t somehow immune to me…”

“What’s the problem, not comfortable enough to answer questions?” Lee asked. “Well then, I’ll fluff your pillow here and… oh, I’m sorry, is that your foot? Dear me, I’d get your feet up out of the way but it is hard when they’re tied like this… oh, sorry, was that your stomach? You know, you’d make this a lot easier by talking. Though I guess it is a little difficult with me holding the pillow over your face. There, that better?”

“Are you INSANE?”

“Sounds like you need more time to think. How about this, I’ve heard it can help, having all your blood rush to your head. Over we go… oops, sorry. Oh, hey, mind that rapier down there…"

As Lee continued to contort the man’s body, Luci was reminded of the conversation she’d had with Clarke in the hospital. Sometimes, you had to pass the ball to your teammates. “Remind me never to cross Lee,” she whispered to Chartreuse.

Chartreuse didn’t respond, her eyes wide and her jaw slack.

“All right, I’ll talk,” Shady shrieked, once Lee had twisted his head away from the upholstery. “Bloody hell, I never expected you teenagers to be such a thorn in my side!”

“And our little dog too,” Lee remarked as he straightened back up and adjusted his jacket. He looked back over at the two girls, seeming a bit taken aback by their expressions. “Um, what can I say? I hate being late for dinner.”

“You want the truth about your ‘friend’, Carrie Waterson?” The temporal refugee spat out, even as he struggled to sit back up. “Fine. She is NOT dead in my future. Rather, she is on THEIR side.” He fixed his gaze upon Luci. “She’s a temporal bomb, who can destroy the entire world, because THAT’S what they designed her to do. Which is, if you haven’t figured it out, why we couldn’t very well recruit her to fight on behalf of the humans, could we?”

It was Chartreuse who managed to speak first. “Um, Carrie’s a human. Not some time bomb.”

“Well, she’s sort of both,” Shady countered. “Call her a sleeper agent, if you like, planted in the past. Except now that I’ve changed things? Now that she’s exerting her influence on this town, consciously or unconsciously preserving the memory of Julie? She’s armed. She has to be.”

“So you did come back in time to destroy Carrie,” Luci concluded.

He shook his head. “No, I came back to recruit that– thing, I swear. We had hoped to learn how to control the power, and to unleash it back upon her own people… but regrettably, if Carrie went psychotic, there would be no choice but to eliminate her. Because if she explodes? She will not only take this town, but this entire planet along with her. Make no mistake.”

He paused to let his words sink in. “So," he concluded, “will you finally release me, and let me destroy that shell of a girl before she does the same to all of humanity? Or shall we sit here chatting for what may well be the last hour of our lives?”

***PAST: ILLINOIS

They had to be destroyed. If they got in her way, she would have to destroy them. It seemed harsh, but being a murderer three times over now, Julie had made up her mind.

Three times… Carrie, Frank, and then that homeless woman… it had been so horrible, to see her die. Julie grabbed at her chest, feeling her borrowed clothing.

She should have been the one. The one lying dead in the road. In fact, a strange part of her felt like it HAD BEEN HER. Or would have been her. Before she’d noticed Phil on the street, and switched clothing. Now it wasn’t her. But could it still become her?

Tenses were getting muddled in her brain. No, more than tenses, it was all a muddle. Perhaps a side effect of the time travel. Or, you know, the fact that she was flirting with paradox, trying to prevent her own birth. Maybe something out there didn’t want her to do that.

What had even led to this line of thought? Right, she had to kill Phil, Frank and Corry… if they got in her way. Frank, dead for a second time. That was weird.

Never mind. Julie knew she needed a plan. A plan that she could execute quickly, for if Phil had actually been able to follow her through time, recruiting assistance from Corry of all people, there were sure to be more traps in store. Julie supposed that she should not have destroyed the potential advantage of her own time machine.

Too late to worry about that now. She couldn’t wait another three days for her actual birth. Not any more. It was time for action.

Still clutching the gun, Julie marched off for the hospital. If the others tried to stop her now, well… well, then they would suffer the consequences. The very deadly consequences.

PART 42: TIED IN NAUGHTS

***PAST: ILLINOIS

“You know,” Corry said as he wheeled his bike along the sidewalk. “If I ever decide to take another trip through time with you guys? Stop me. I don’t think I could take another day of this traveling through unknown territory, sharing cramped quarters and dishwashing for money and food.”

“I know there’s something I can’t take much more of,” Clarke murmured.

“My previous time trips haven’t been like this," Frank said, half slumped over his own bike. “But here, we had to allow extra time to find Julie, and we lacked enough currency for this time period. You knew all that before you came.”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t know this would be a one way trip,” Corry argued.

“It won’t be,” Frank assured. “Remember, all we have to do is figure out what Julie did with the circuitry she removed. With that, I can repair our version of the time machine, and get us back.”

“Oh, and I’m sure Julie will be very forthcoming with that information," Corry groused.

“Don’t mind Corry,” Clarke suggested to Frank. “Complaining seems to be his way of coping. We’ll manage, somehow.”

“Phil Clarke. Always the optimist,” Corry grumbled. “Oh well, at least this ordeal is almost over. How much time until… uh, the big event we’ll need to stop?” Even now, he couldn’t bring himself to say ‘death’.

Frank checked his watch. “If our newspaper was to be believed, we’re over two hours out. And we’re…” He glanced up at the nearby road sign. “Now five blocks away. So time to spare."

“How about change to spare?” came a hopeful voice.

Corry turned with the others, to see a young homeless woman. Or, if she wasn’t homeless, the early twenty something was at least down on her luck. Her clothes were ragged, her long curly brown hair was frayed, and she was carrying her possessions in a small, tattered bag.

“Well…” Frank began slowly.

Before Frank could say more, Clarke fished a couple of bills out of his pocket. “Here you go,” he said. “It’s not much, but it’s all we have to spare.”

“Bless you,” the woman said with a small smile as she took the handout.

“Oh, brilliant, Clarke,” Corry said once the woman was out of earshot. “That’s brilliant. Sure, let’s give away the rest of our money. It’s not like we might NEED it or anything! Gods, sometimes I can’t figure out what’s going through your heads."

“She’ll be around to use it tomorrow, unlike us,” Clarke rationalized.

“Only assuming we get through to Julie, remember?”

“Look,” Frank cut back in. “It’s fine, what’s done is done. Though for future reference, Clarke? We want to minimize our impact here in the past. Not call attention to it that way.”

“Right. Sorry.”

They were within a block of the hospital when Clarke cleared his throat. “So Corry, based on whatever Julie did with you that day in January - what are the chances she’ll be throwing herself into the path of this ambulance on purpose?”

Corry grimaced as he was forced to consider the possibility. “Hard to say. Why, do you think she’d be in a low mental state based on whatever talk she had with you after my flyers went out?”

“And here’s another thing,” Frank interjected. “You two need to stop being so… passive-aggressive with your whatevers.”

“Whatever do you mean?” Corry asked dryly.

Frank turned to face them, visibly frustrated. “Look, apparently you each have secrets about Julie. And while I commend your ethics, in that you both don’t seem to want to reveal them to each other without her approval, after four days, those conversations are getting REAL annoying.”

Corry tried to protest, but Frank kept talking.

“More to the point, the Julie I saw right before she time travelled didn’t seem to be in complete control of her faculties. Which for all we know, is going to be ten minutes before she shows up here. So, if you don’t want to reveal secrets about Julie, fine. But will you both stop fishing for information from the other guy about those past encounters? It’s time to focus on the Julie in our present.”

Corry wondered if Clarke’s look of surprise was mirrored on his own face. He hoped not - but he never would have figured on Frank having an outburst like that. “Fine,” he said. “Sorry if it felt like I was fishing, Clarke.”

“Yeah, me too,” Clarke said, looking sheepish.

“Okay.” Corry eyed Frank. “With that out of the way, what are your next orders for us, oh glorious leader?”

Frank merely sighed.

***PRESENT: ONTARIO

Lee sighed, as he looked at the text message from Judy. Apparently the new books hadn’t come in yet - so no extra hours today. In fact, since he wasn’t scheduled for work, that meant no need to go to the library at all. Oh well.

His original plan had been to use tonight to catch up on homework, so he supposed he might as well head home to do that. However, he found his footsteps were taking him towards the hospital instead.

Whatever events were happening between Clarke, Tim, and the rest of them? They had escalated. Not only into absences at school, but now the local constabulary was hanging around. The hospital wasn’t very far out of his way - it couldn’t hurt to check in on Carrie, right? Maybe one of the others would be around too, and he could do something more to help.

Lee absentmindedly scanned the building as he approached. As such, he was able to spot the figure darting out of one of the emergency exits. Was there a fire? No one else seemed to be evacuating.

Then another person ran out the door, apparently in pursuit of the first individual - and even at this distance, Lee recognized the profile, what with the bows in her hair. The two of them were heading more or less in his direction, so Lee decided to intercede on Chartreuse’s behalf.

He moved to box in the running man, who, upon realizing that he was caught between Lee, Chartreuse, and the building itself, headed for his one remaining option.  The shrubbery and fence surrounding the hospital area. Breaking into a sprint, Lee managed to catch the mysterious figure and haul him down before he could make good his escape.

In the process Lee made a startling discovery: this person, the one wearing the uniform of a hospital orderly, was the same guy who’d been loitering around the hospital on Saturday. The one who had been looking for information on the LaMilles previously. With a bit of leverage, Lee managed to get the guy face down onto the ground, arms pinned behind him.

“Thanks… thanks Lee…” Chartreuse wheezed as she caught up to them, sweat running down her face. She paused for a second to rest her hands on her knees and catch her breath before bending down to stare their captive in the face. “Now, why were you trying to kill Carrie Waterson?” she demanded, jabbing out a finger.

Lee blinked at Chartreuse. “Kill Carrie?”

Chartreuse nodded sombrely. “Well?” the pink haired girl demanded again, off the man’s silence. “Tell me, or I’ll… I’ll do something mystical and unpleasant to you. Don’t think I won’t!”

Their captive attempted to flex his arms, but Lee held him down. “You have no idea what you’re doing,” the man said at last. “That ‘girl’ will destroy us all. I must be allowed to complete this mission.”

“Uhm, if your mission involves harming a hair on Carrie’s head, I so don’t think so," Chartreuse countered. She pursed her lips in thought. “All right, here’s what we’re gonna do. Lee, keep this guy here while I get Luci. Then the four of us can, like, go find someplace nice and private to have a good, long talk.”

“Er, you don’t think this is a matter to leave to the police…?” Lee protested.

Chartreuse shook her head. “No, the police might be kinda looking for me and Luci. Please, just, you know, hold Shady here - I’ll be right back.”

With that, the pink haired girl jumped up and ran back in the direction of the hospital. Lee was left in the shrubbery with his captive. “Guess this is what I get for not asking enough questions on the weekend,” he mused.

“Lee, you are going to do something for me now,” the man on the ground articulated. “Listen carefully. You are going to get off of me and let me go on my way unmolested. Do you understand?”

“Yeah,” Lee answered. “But I think we’ll stay here anyway.”

The man smacked his forehead down. “Oh well,” he muttered. “It was worth a shot.”

“Miss Primrose, I’m afraid I don’t have authorization to allow any of you to enter.”

“Jeeves, it’s important,” Luci insisted. “We can’t risk going to any of our homes, while this is probably the last place anyone will think to look for us. Besides, what we discover here today may well save Carrie - as well as clear Julie’s name.”

She watched his eyebrow arch. Good, he knew Julie was a suspect now, that saved explanations. “The police don’t have it quite right, Jeeves,” she added. “Please, if you care about what happens to Julie, you’ll let us in.”

It felt like an eternity, but the LaMille butler finally swung the front door of the mansion open wider. “See that I don’t regret this,” he cautioned them.

The four of them filed past Jeeves into the foyer: Luci, Chartreuse, Lee, and the man with his hands tied behind his back, aka Shady.

After closing the door, Jeeves headed for the telephone.

“All right,” Luci said once they were in the LaMille sitting room, having tossed their captive onto the couch. “Start talking. Who are you, what are you doing here, and why did you try to kill Carrie?”

Shady remained silent.

“All right then, I’ll start talking,” Luci decided. “You can correct me if I say anything wrong, all right?” She leaned against the back of a chair, staring at him.

“The first question we have to ask ourselves is why someone who once professed to be Carrie’s ‘Guardian Angel’ would attempt to kill her. Answer? It was, in fact, your goal all along. But you had to wait for the right moment. For the point of maximum entropy. You had to protect Carrie until then.”

Luci drummed her fingers on the fabric in front of her. “It explains why you got Julie to shoot Carrie in a non-fatal way. Putting your target into the hospital, you could indirectly get some preliminary readings on her.” Chartreuse let out a little gasp. “And don’t even try to deny being involved with the shooting,” Luci added. “Because even setting aside your call to Frank, I remember now that when I returned to his house on that night? Someone was sitting in a car less than a block away. Foolishly, I didn’t give it much thought, but seeing you here? It was you. And Julie had to get the gun from someone.”

Luci paused to give Shady a chance to speak. When he said nothing, she continued on.

“So, Carrie has been your guinea pig. Time travel - it’s not a fine science for you future guys, I guess? Sure, you used it to get back here, but prolonged exposure, that’s what Carrie was for. For some reason, you believed that all of her time trips would grant her special abilities, and once she got them…” Luci snapped her fingers in the air. “Dissection time.”

She turned away, as Chartreuse’s increasingly ill look was becoming too much of a contrast to Shady’s inscrutable expression. “But Julie running off with the time machine, that threw off your timetable,” Luci reasoned. “You had to delay, leading to checking on Julie’s past, contacting Frank, and generally messing with us to ensure we were looking anywhere BUT at Carrie. But now we are. And since we know your intentions, we’re not going to let you get away with it.”

She whirled back, folding her arms across her chest. “Well? How’s that, am I close?”

“And don’t even think about, you know, lying,” Chartreuse added, shaking a crystal at him. “Or I’ll totally know.”

Their captive frowned, as if trying to come to a decision.

“Look man,” Lee offered. “If you tell ‘em what they want to know, they’ll get off your back, and we can all walk away from this roller coaster ride of science fiction. Right?”

Shady sighed. “You are very observant, young Luci,” he said at last. “But largely incorrect. For instance, none of you need to fear developing any powers yourselves - Carrie’s abilities are not because of her time travel. They have always been within her. They are tied to her, bound to her by fate.” He smirked. “Which is the very reason I came back to this time to recruit her.”

“Recruit?” Luci blurted, before she could stop herself. She glanced sidelong at Chartreuse. The pink haired girl shrugged, meaning either she couldn’t detect any trace of betrayal, or she’d been bluffing about the lie detection thing. Lee merely looked nonplussed.

Luci decided she needed to sit down. Moving into the chair she’d previously been leaning against, she steepled her fingers, continuing to stare at their captive. “By all means then,” she said. “Explain to us how you can recruit someone by KILLING them.”

Shady inclined his head slightly. “If I do, will you let me go?”

“No,” Luci said, sourly. “But we’re definitively keeping you here until you do, so start talking.”

The man glanced at Lee. “Oh, very well. The crux of the matter is that there is a war going on in the future. One which we humans are losing very badly, I might add. But then, at the point when many of us were about to give up all hope, we discovered the identity of a woman. A woman with extraordinary powers. Powers which could extend into the very fabric of space and time itself - the problem being, she was already dead to us. So, with great effort, we managed to obtain a time travel device, and I was chosen to come back in time to find this woman. Back when she was a mere girl.”

“Okay,” Lee said, as Shady paused. “So far this sounds like a reverse plot from those Terminator films. Did the robots send someone back after you, dude?”

“No. We’re not fighting robots,” Shady said in an annoyed tone. “Can I finish my story?”

Lee gestured magnanimously.

“As such,” he continued, “I have been in sync with your time period now for close to three years, working at verifying this woman’s identity in her youth. Not as difficult a task as I originally thought, given how I picked up a temporal disruption in Algonquin Park a couple years back, and had to personally rescue her. Still, I wanted to be sure, so it was only a couple of months ago that I left my time machine out for Carrie Waterson to find.”

“Then your time machine is what became our time machine,” Luci affirmed.

He nodded. “It’s not like I brought a spare. The things ARE damned hard to get your hands on.”

Meaning Shady couldn’t escape through time. Good to know. “Still waiting on the whole death equals recruitment thing,” Luci pointed out.

“Did you want context for it or not?”

“Context is helpful,” Chartreuse said brightly.

“Fine. So, experiencing time travel was the first step towards awakening this obj- er, wom- this girl’s powers. She had to learn what she could accomplish, in a practical sense. She then had to learn how to put her own life into the cosmic perspective.” He paused briefly before muttering, “That second phase required a near death experience.”

Luci stood. “Then I WAS right, and you ARE responsible for influencing Julie.”

Shady sighed. “Being displaced from time, I did not think it wise to act as the trigger myself. An ex-friend, who had been targeted at school that day? That seemed plausible. Anyway, you yourself noted how Julie’s shot was intended to miss any vital organs.”

“Okay, but, like, hold on,” Chartreuse protested. “This power awakening stuff, it seems to have gone wrong. Carrie’s not doing so hot."

“Oh, no kidding?” Shady said contemptuously. “Apparently you teenagers have an interesting way of keeping things ‘safe’.”

“Julie’s time trip,” Luci realized. “It did throw things off. Merely not how I thought.”

Shady nodded. “That part is as I said to your friend Frank. Carrie could not reconcile Julie’s death with how history proceeded prior to her powers awakening. But instead of following my advice, you all devised some asinine plan of your own! I finally used my own power to get the police involved this morning. Unfortunately, checking on Carrie’s condition afterwards, I found it was too late.” He folded his hands together. “Carrie is now irredeemably insane, and my mission has failed, thus killing her… well, at this point, it’s a form of mercy."

Luci shuddered, as she realized how wrong she had been. And Carrie was paying the price. She reached out for the chair again, using it to keep her from sliding down to her knees. “But there must be some way to still save her,” Luci asserted. “Something more we can do.”

Shady scoffed. “Don’t you think you’ve done enough already? You have doomed most of your friends, as well as an entire war going on in your future. I ask you, how many more people must pay the price for your bad decisions?”

***PAST: ILLINOIS

“How much time?” Corry hissed.

“At a guess? Five minutes, give or take,” Frank answered quietly. He peered out of the alleyway to look up and down the street.

Clarke stood there, surrounded by some of the locals who were going about their business in the early evening. Upon spying Frank, the tall boy raised his arms, palms up, indicating he hadn’t seen any sign of Julie yet. Frank slumped back against the wall; the group had locked their bikes up at the nearby library half an hour ago.

Corry sighed. “I hate us splitting up like this,” he groused. “I mean, I agree Clarke’s the best choice to reason with her, but Julie probably still has that gun, right? The one she used to shoot Carrie? What if she simply kills him, then picks us off, one by one, before jumping in front of the ambulance? I mean, maybe that’s what my sister is reading in the newspaper in the future at this very moment.”

“Corry, now is not the time,” Frank said tersely.

“But… ah, you’re right," came a grudging admission, much to Frank’s surprise. “Look, sorry if I’m a little hard on you and Clarke, Frank,” the redhead continued. “I’m accustomed to knowing a lot more about my surroundings. This whole trip has put me out of my element.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “But I guess you don’t need both me AND Julie going after your jugular, huh?”

Before Frank could reply to that, they heard Clarke call out “Julie!” in a loud and clear voice.

The two teenagers poked their heads back out of the alley to see what Clarke was up to. He had crossed the street, and was hurrying after someone. A girl with long brown hair, who was wearing a dark green sweater with a blue pleated skirt. She was moving in the direction of the hospital.

“Julie! Jewels!” Clarke called out again.

The girl seemed to half turn before quickening her pace. Frank emerged from the alley and headed down his side of the street. He wasn’t quite sure how to help, but he didn’t want to lose sight of them.

What happened next occurred so fast that, upon later recollection, Frank would be forced to admit that there was nothing he could have done.

Having almost reached her, Clarke reached out to grab Julie by the shoulder. Sensing she was about to be caught, the girl twisted away, stumbling as she did so. It was then that Frank finally noticed the ambulance, which had not bothered to turn it’s siren on, as there weren’t any other cars on the street.

“Look out!” he screamed, even as Julie, off balance, staggered backwards. Right into the path of the oncoming vehicle. There was no time for anyone to run and push her out of the way, no time for the driver to brake - the ambulance simply hit her, head on.

“No…” Frank gasped as he saw Julie fly several feet through the air.

“NO!” he screamed. She had been their only hope of rescuing Carrie. Their only hope of getting back home. Four days, FOUR DAYS they had spent in the past, knowing that this would happen. And yet they had failed!

But maybe, just maybe, Julie wasn’t dead yet. So she could tell them where the time circuits were, and they could somehow try again, try to fix this… a crowd was already gathering, and Frank moved to push his way through them. He was restrained by a hand on his shoulder.

Frank turned to see Clarke, his face ashen, his body shaking slightly. “Clarke,” he gasped. “We have to–”

“It’s not her, Frank,” the tall boy said quietly.

It took a few seconds for Clarke’s words to sink in. Even then, they didn’t make sense. “What?” Frank finally managed.

“It’s not Julie.” Clarke released him. “As that person twisted away from me, I got my first good look at her face. The person who was hit… it was that homeless woman we saw earlier today. For some reason, she had put on Julie’s clothes.”

That still didn’t make any sense. “How? Why?” Frank protested.

“Because Julie knows we’re here,” Corry said, having come up behind them in time to hear Clarke’s revelation. His lips thinned. “She must know we’re here to stop her from killing herself. And she sent that woman towards the hospital as a decoy."

Frank let Corry steer them both away from the crowd, his mind now completely in a whirl. Julie knew they were there? But how? What was even going through that poor girl’s mind? A shudder ran down Frank’s spine as he realized that there was no way of knowing. No way at all.

And for the first time since they’d landed in Illinois, Frank felt very, very scared.

See the accompanying Commentary Post for ARC 2.3

PART 41: RESCUE EFFORTS

The wind blew through the empty field, bending the long grass back. A few clouds floated by overhead as the sun approached its highest point in the sky. There was no one around for kilometers - miles, even.

Which is when, in the wink of an eye, three individuals appeared, along with a bunch of equipment. There was a brown haired boy with glasses, a tall blonde, and a redhead. Only the first of them was conscious. As such, only he was able to cry out in horror before all of them plummeted metres – feet, even – from the air down towards the ground.

***PAST: ILLINOIS

Clarke pressed a hand to his forehead. “Corry, that language isn’t going to improve the situation.”

“Falling bloody well HURT,” the redhead fumed. “Damn it Dijora, you didn’t say we’d arrive in free fall. Good thing I DIDN’T let my sister go on this trip, she’s liable to have ended up with a broken leg for gods' sake!”

“Clarke’s right, calm down," Frank said, taking deep breaths to try and steady his own nerves.

They were all regaining their bearings in the middle of the empty field where they’d fallen. “Obviously there was a little spatial problem with altitude that we didn’t account for,” Frank reasoned. “But the long grass cushioned us, and I get the impression no one sustained any injures above some bad bruises.”

“This from the guy who didn’t half land on a BIKE,” Corry fumed. He flexed his arm, then rubbed his shoulder. “Little altitude problem, my ass… I’ve half a mind to force you to take me back home right now.”

“You mean back home to Miami?” Clarke asked. “Since that is where you’re living at this time, right?”

That remark finally shut Corry up, as he turned to regard the black box which had facilitated their arrival. Frank picked it up, turning it so that Corry could see the digital readout.

“A week before Julie’s birth,” Frank observed. “Alternately, four days before she gets hit by an ambulance and dies. Let’s hope it’s enough time to track her down and prevent that."

“Son of a bitch,” Corry muttered at last. “It really has happened, hasn’t it. We’ve traveled through time.”

Frank nodded. “We have.”

Clarke turned away from the both of them, starting to sift through the rest of their supplies.

Corry rubbed his chin. “Damn. I’m not sure I truly believed it until now. Even after getting that letter."

“You thought you were lying to yourself?” Frank wondered.

“No, no,” Corry said, shaking his head. “Bringing up my history with Julie convinced me I was serious. It’s more that, writing the letter out myself, right after receiving it? Sort of took the edge off. Made it feel like it could be a prank.” He tugged his earlobe. “Why couldn’t we simply bring the original back in time with us again?”

“Because until you wrote it out, there was no original,” Frank reminded. “If the letter we have with us now had been the same one we received, it would have been created from nothing. And we couldn’t risk adding that kind of paradox, not on top of all the other temporal problems we’re dealing with at the moment.”

“Oh yeah, right,” Corry said, irritation creeping back into his tone. “Just like Tim had to obtain fresh copies of the required documentation on his end. I don’t know, it still sounds like a big waste of time to me.” He sighed. “And what was that other note Luci gave to you?”

“I don’t know,” Frank admitted, glancing towards his backpack. “I’m supposed to give it to Julie.” He frowned, remembering that conversation.

“I don’t understand,” Frank protested. “What’s the point of this?”

“The point,” Luci said, tapping the envelope edge first on his chest, “is that without Laurie going along, you’ve become an all male team.”

“So?”

The asian girl shifted to tapping the envelope on his forehead. “Think, Frank. Julie might be a little intimidated by that.”

“Julie? She’s in charge of half our school, Luci. Nothing intimidates that girl.”

“WAS in charge,” Luci reminded. She reached out for his arm, using it to pull out his palm before slapping the sealed letter down into it. “Humour me. Call it a feeling. Give this message to Julie.”

“Oh well,” Corry said, scattering Frank’s thoughts. “On the bright side, I can’t feel my writers' cramp any more - due to the pain in my shoulder!”

“You know, Corry,” Clarke said, moving close to them once more. “Me and Frank are here to save someone’s life. Someone who is very important to me. If you’re only tagging along because you didn’t want your sister to be here, maybe you should wait in a hostel somewhere for the next few days. We can circle back to pick you up again before we go.”

“Hmph,” Corry grumbled. “Thanks, but no thanks. At this point, I’m not letting either of you out of my sight.” He raised his hands defensively off Clarke’s expression. “Look, I AM here to help, okay? After all, as much as I dislike Julie, I know things. Plus the thought of her being in this twisted little suicide plan you’ve described… I can’t let that go. No one should end up like that. No one.”

“So, Clarke, how did our supplies fare?” Frank asked of the taller boy, hoping to change the subject.

“We got lucky,” Clarke replied, turning to him. “A dislodged chain and a couple bent spokes, nothing I can’t fix. The compass is also fine, and between that and the maps we have, we should be able to find shelter in a nearby town before sundown.” Clarke shifted his gaze to the black box. “What about the time machine, Frank?”

“Good question,” he realized, reaching out to grab the lever and pop the lid off. On the bright side, there was no smoke. On the down side…  “Clarke, get me the small toolkit out of my pack,” he requested worriedly, putting the machine down and crouching over it.

“Uh oh,” Corry said as Clarke complied. “Another little ‘calculation problem’?”

Frank didn’t reply right away, instead spending the next several minutes carefully poking around the wiring. When he finally looked up, he suspected his face was pale. “I’m sorry. I should have known,” Frank apologized. “I should have realized.”

“Realized what?” Clarke prompted. “What do you mean?”

Frank took in a deep breath. “Remember how we figured on the time machine only being good for two, maybe three trips? Well, a sixteen year trip alters the recharge time, and puts more strain on the whole assembly which in turn…”

“Cut to the chase,” Corry interrupted. “What’s the situation?”

Frank swallowed. “The time machine is broken again," Frank stated. “And I don’t have the right materials to fix it here. So even assuming we rescue Julie… there is no way for us to return.”

***PRESENT: ONTARIO

Luci sensed Laurie’s presence behind her even before the redheaded girl sat down next to her in the school library. She chose not to acknowledge the arrival. Not even after Laurie had cleared her throat twice.

“Okay,” Laurie said at last. “You want to be alone all lunch then.” She rose.

“Wait,” Luci sighed, reaching out for Laurie’s arm and missing. She looked up from the empty spot on the table where she’d been staring for the last half hour. “Stay.”

Laurie twisted her fingers together. “But if you’re upset…”

“Better you talk to me than Chartreuse,” Luci said, returning her attention to the tabletop. “I’m guessing she sent you over.”

“Chartreuse did figure the two of us had something in common right now, what with it being both my brother and my longtime crush on the trip with Frank,” Laurie admitted. She hesitated, then sat back down. “That’s what’s on your mind, right? Whether they’re okay?”

“What’s on my mind,” Luci began slowly, “Is that we’ve failed. Again. We doubled down on our bets, and we failed. AGAIN.” She reached up to grab her twin tails in her hands, yanking hard on her hair. “HOW? What did I miss? Why is this still happening? How do you normal people LIVE with the agony of knowing you can fail so SPECTACULARLY?”

“Whoa! C-Calm down, Luci,” Laurie pleaded, reaching out to touch her shoulder. “Sure, it’s Monday, but it was going to take the guys a few days to reach Julie in the past.”

“Yes. In the PAST,” Luci reiterated. She turned to fully face the redhead. “Laurie, I hate to be the one to break this to you, but if they were coming back… they would be here already. They left Sunday night. They were going to return on the same day, so that Frank could call the police if he had to. Except now it’s Monday! Over twelve hours later.” Luci clenched a fist. “They’re not coming back, Laurie, and it’s all my fault. I never should have let them leave.”

The redhead swallowed. “Maybe they set that machine wrong? They could come back tonight instead.”

“I don’t think so,” Luci countered. She pulled the creased paper out of her pocket, shoving it back at her companion.

Laurie unfolded the sheet. “It’s that article Clarke talked about,” she realized. “Describing Julie’s accident with the ambulance. So?”

“So don’t you see?” Luci said. “If the others had been successful, we would know right away. That article would never have been WRITTEN sixteen years ago. No, something has gone wrong.” She squeezed her eyes shut.  “Something has gone very, very wrong, and for all my supposed intellect, I can’t figure out what. Let alone what to do about it.”

There was another long pause. “You will,” Laurie decided.

“What?”

“You will figure it out,” Laurie concluded. “You’re smart, Luci, you’ll figure it all out. So don’t give up hope. Okay?”

“Laurie…”

“Please?” Laurie said more insistently. “Please, Luci? Because if this is beyond you, I don’t know where else to turn, and I… I want to stop thinking about it. Okay?”

As she continued, her voice started to become more desperate. “I have to think it will work out, so I want to stop thinking about it, but all I can see is Chartreuse wondering about what they might be doing, and you being so worried and upset, and Chartreuse also being worried not only about them but about you, and about me, and I only want Frank and Clarke and Corry to be okay, so please can’t we all go and have some french fries for lunch and not think about this for the next little while, please, please, PLEASE Luci can we stop thinking about this now??” The redhead began to choke on her words.

Luci looked up again. She was momentarily taken aback by the tears shimmering in the corners of Laurie’s eyes, instinctively reaching out to touch Laurie’s arm in imitation of the redhead’s earlier gesture.

“I…” Luci stopped, not sure what she could possibly say that was reassuring. Maybe an apology would be enough. “All right,” she decided. “I’m not giving up. Let’s go get some fries.”

The two of them met up with Chartreuse by the library doors. Their resident mystic had been fidgeting with some multicoloured crystals, but upon seeing Luci and Laurie approach, she quickly put them away and offered up a halfhearted smile. The three of them proceeded towards the cafeteria.

Before they could arrive, Tim rushed up to meet them. “L-Luci. L-Laurie. Chartreuse,” he said quickly, trying not to stumble over his own words, having become short of breath once more. “Thank g-goodness. We, we’ve got to get out of here!”

“Why, Tim?” Chartreuse prompted.

“P-P-Police,” Tim forced out. He took in a long breath. “I saw them going into the main office, and they were s-saying something about an anonymous t-tip concerning the attack on C-Carrie. They w-wanted to question Frank, p-plus any students who were close to Julie.”

The three girls exchanged a quick glance. “Perfect,” Luci murmured. “Just perfect.”

As expected, it wasn’t long before the disappearances of Frank, Clarke and Corry were remarked upon. The three time travellers had covered for themselves the previous night by leaving messages stating that the three boys were sleeping over at each others’ houses - just in case. But now?

Chartreuse figured it wouldn’t be long before an investigation traced their missing friends' whereabouts back to the same group of students who had met at Frank’s the previous day.

Thus, after Tim’s warning, the group had all fled to the local cafe. Skipping their afternoon classes. From there, there’d come up with a plan.

Tim had agreed to take Laurie to the library. Extra research couldn’t hurt, plus in all the excitement of Sunday, they hadn’t ever clued Lee in as to what was happening. As such, and assuming he was working there later on, he might be the only one left who could afford to be seen out in the open. Meanwhile, Chartreuse and Luci had elected to go to the hospital.

“It’s all about Carrie, after all,” Chartreuse concluded as she looked at the floor indicators inside the hospital elevator.

“Hm?” Luci said.

The elevator doors opened and the two girls stepped out onto the floor which housed Carrie’s room. “It’s all about Carrie,” Chartreuse repeated. “I mean, you know, she found the machine, she does paradoxes, she’s supposedly in trouble because of changes to the past… like, why her, anyway? There’s gotta be some answers with Carrie.”

“The thought did occur to me,” Luci admitted. “Unfortunately, unless Shady calls again, we’ve got no one around to ask. Carrie herself is in no condition to talk. Or at least no condition to make sense when she does talk.”

The two girls reached Carrie’s room, Luci giving a tentative knock on the open door. Mr. Waterson looked up from his bedside vigil and offered back a tired smile through his two week old beard. No police, Chartreuse noted. Good sign!

“Hello there, Luci and… Chartreuse, is it?” Carrie’s dad asked.

Chartreuse nodded back. “Totally. We thought we’d stop in right after school to, you know, see how Carrie was doing,” she said.

The older Waterson turned back to his daughter. “No improvement, I’m afraid,” he said sadly. “Still unresponsive, with the occasional period of incoherent babbling.”

“Sorry to hear that,” Luci said. “But it means she’s not getting any worse, right?”

Mr. Waterson rubbed his neck. “Yeah. But considering they still don’t know what the trouble is, it’s hard to take comfort in that. Though the police are still following some leads on the shooting - they were by earlier, and said that Carrie’s friend Julie might have had something to do with it. That maybe she’s run off somewhere now to hide out. Can you believe that? I don’t suppose either of you know anything about it?”

Crud. Chartreuse looked to Luci, who winced. “No,” Luci said slowly, almost painfully. “We can’t help you there.”

“Oh well,” Carrie’s father sighed. “Still, it’s fortunate you came by. I don’t want to leave Carrie alone, but I need to use the restroom… please stay with her until I get back, all right?”

“Of course,” Chartreuse assured him, stepping into the room.

Mr. Waterson gave his daughter’s hand a final squeeze before standing up and releasing his hold upon her. “I’ll be right back,” he said. The pink haired girl took his place in the chair, reaching out to take hold of Carrie’s hand herself.

“Chartreuse… do you think YOU can reach her? Mystically?” Luci asked, once Mr. Waterson had departed.

Chartreuse bit her lip. “Whenever I’m here, I always hope I’ll get an impression or something from her. But still nothing.”

“Can you force it?”

Chartreuse turned and blinked at the younger girl. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. Supposedly, she has powers. You have powers. Maybe you can… interface? I know, I’m grasping at straws here, but straws seem to be all we have left.”

Chartreuse looked back down at the blonde cheerleader. She was reminded of her classmate’s condition during the vision quests she’d done the previous week. There would come a point this week when Carrie would start twitching, convulsing, gasping for air, and then… then Chartreuse had pulled away, not wanting to know more. Unable to bear seeing more.

But Luci was right. They had to know more. For instance, was there some way of pinpointing exactly when Carrie’s condition would deteriorate? Would that give them another avenue to follow? “Carrie’s an Aries, right?”

“I don’t know,” Luci admitted.

Julie had thrown a birthday party for Carrie the past two years. “Pretty sure she’s an Aries,” Chartreuse concluded.

She reached back into her backpack, pulling out a small, smooth grey stone. She placed it into Carrie’s hand, wrapping the blonde’s fingers around it. Luci watched in silence as Chartreuse leaned over the bed, closing her hands over Carrie’s before shutting her eyes and concentrating.

“Ohm, ohm, oh my,” Chartreuse murmured quietly. “Spirits… tell me more about Carrie’s condition.” She swallowed. “Please.”

“Chartreuse!” Luci shouted. The asian girl was right up in her face, and Chartreuse flinched away out of reflex. Only to discover that Luci was holding her by the shoulders, having apparently yanked her away from Carrie’s body.

“Wow, what?” Chartreuse said, trying to regain her balance.

“I don’t know. You tell me,” Luci stated. “What was all that counting about?”

“Counting?” Chartreuse said in confusion. Wait, when had Luci moved close enough to grab her anyway?

“For the last minute and a half, you’ve been standing over Carrie with your eyes glazed over, counting backwards from 208 in one second decrements,” Luci stated. “It was REALLY starting to freak me out. When you wouldn’t answer me, I decided I didn’t want to let you hit zero.”

Chartreuse furrowed her brow, thinking back. She’d been leaning over Carrie, then… what? What had she even been thinking about? “I have no memory of counting,” Chartreuse admitted. “Are you sure?”

“Chartreuse - why would I lie about something like this??”

“I don’t know.” Chartreuse looked back towards the blonde lying comatose on the bed. “Carrie didn’t move or anything, did she?”

“No,” Luci replied. “In fact, the both of you were essentially motionless. Are you sure you don’t know what you were counting down to? Because it’s now about sixty seconds away.”

“No idea,” Chartreuse replied, reaching out to retrieve her stone from Carrie’s hand. Yet, no, that wasn’t exactly true… Chartreuse could now feel an overwhelming sense of impending doom. Somehow, Carrie’s deterioration was imminent. Yet how did she know that? And what was going to be the cause?

“Excuse me,” came a male voice. Chartreuse turned to see a hospital orderly. “I have to take another blood sample,” the man stated.

Luci moved aside with a sigh. “So, we’re back at square one then?” she asked.

Chartreuse was only half listening. Her attention was zeroing in on the thirtysomething orderly with the longish, dark hair as he readied his needle.

Lightning quick, her arm flashed out to grab him by the wrist and twist his arm away from the bed. He gasped and turned to her, a look of shock on his face.

As soon as their eyes locked, Chartreuse knew.

And Shady knew that she knew.

“Luci, get help,” Chartreuse ordered.

The man jerked himself out of Chartreuse’s grasp and sprang for the door. She launched herself after him, too late to grab hold, knocking the wind out of herself as she fell on the ground.

Quickly stumbling to her feet, Chartreuse dashed into the hallway in pursuit of the fake orderly. The one who had been about to kill Carrie Waterson.

***PAST: ILLINOIS

Some sixteen years before the attempt on Carrie’s life, two adults had been having a small difference of opinion. “I tell you, the baby’s coming,” the woman snapped.

“All I asked was ‘are you sure’,” the man countered, helping his wife put on her coat. “Because I don’t think your water broke.”

“Nnnnngh… look DEAR, if I need to have the child YOU want, YOU are going to drive me to the damn hospital when I damn well tell you to do it. Understood?!”

“Okay, okay,” her husband soothed. “Calm down, we’re off to the hospital.” He quickly moved to help his pregnant wife out the front door, locking it behind them.

Seconds later, a vortex opened in their home. It deposited a black box and an unconscious girl with long, naturally curly brown hair, which was still damp from a recent rainstorm. Their future daughter.

PART 36: QUESTION EVERYTHING

Clarke stood staring out the classroom window for several minutes. At last, he turned to face Frank again. “I see why you wanted to tell me that in person,” he remarked. The two of them had agreed to meet that morning before classes started.

“You believe me then?” Frank asked.

Clarke considered the question, and ultimately shrugged. “You have no reason to lie,” he said. “It also helps explain why I couldn’t reach Julie last night. I didn’t really buy her parents’ excuse that she was asleep.”

Frank nodded. “So, what do you think then? Is there any chance that Julie was, I don’t know, coerced or possessed or something?”

“That,” Clarke said slowly, “is a very good question.”

He thought for another long moment. What should he say? Julie had asked him - PLEADED with him - to keep quiet about her family situation. He couldn’t betray that. Not when Julie was no longer here to give permission.

“I can tell you this much,” Clarke yielded. “Julie had a lot riding on this talk with her parents last night. If it went badly… I’m not sure what mental state she’d have been in. However, Julie hasn’t even been thinking about Carrie since the two of them split, over a month ago. There was no reason to shoot her. Unless Carrie has done something to annoy Julie lately…?”

“Not as far as I know,” Frank said. “I mean, she did indirectly help Corry with research for his flyer.”

“Julie would have targeted Corry for that, and even then, non lethally,” Clarke countered. He tapped his foot on the ground. “No, I’m as puzzled by Julie’s actions as you are.”

Frank ran a hand back through his hair. “I see. Damn. I… I guess I thought this conversation was worth a shot. Thanks anyway.”

“You know, I’m glad you didn’t blame Julie out of spite,” Clarke added. “Most wouldn’t be half as kind right now.”

“Well, while I can’t forgive Julie for some of the things she’s apparently done - this doesn’t add up. And since you’ve always been advocating on her behalf, I figured that had to mean something.”

“Thank you.” A thought struck Clarke, and he leaned back against the wall. “Though, hold up a sec, you said that after Julie shot Carrie, she took your time machine to try and undo everything. Right?”

“By erasing her own existence, that’s correct,” Frank confirmed. “I am sorry, Clarke.”

“Thing is, I still remember her,” Clarke continued. “You still remember her. Carrie’s still in the hospital. If Julie wanted to wipe herself out, it didn’t work.”

“Which does fit with my timeline theory,” Frank noted. “It’s impossible for anyone to affect their prior self that way.”

“So if she can’t do it, why hasn’t she come back?” Clarke questioned.

Frank shrugged. “Maybe she hasn’t realized the problem yet. Or had no money to return. Or our machine’s random variance meant she’s stuck in the wrong time period. We have no way of knowing what happened.”

Clarke slowly shook his head. “But we HAVE to know, Frank. We’re in Julie’s future here. We should know what happened with her time traveling right away.”

“Er… okay, good point,” Frank yielded. “Well, it could be that the machine broke down… so she decided to take up residence in the past… and is currently living a new life somewhere else?”

“Even if that’s so, we should STILL be able to find out,” Clarke insisted. “Right? I mean, in historical records, newspapers, that sort of thing? Maybe Julie even left a message for us somewhere!”

“I… I suppose that’s logical,” Frank granted.

“That’s what I’m going to do then,” Clarke decided. “I’m going to research, and track Julie down. I’ll let you know if I find out anything.”

“Not a bad idea,” Frank admitted. “Okay… you can also talk with Luci, Chartreuse or Tim. They’re the other ones who know about the time machine.”

“Tim??”

“Sort of a long story. Chartreuse related. I’m sure he’d be more than happy to tell it to you himself.”

“He probably would,” Clarke agreed. “Okay. One more thing - could we maybe keep on keeping Julie’s name out of this? While I look? Things are bad enough for her already.”

“I…” The first bell rang, warning students to head to their homeroom classes. “Yeah, okay,” Frank agreed. “Talk to you this evening then?”

“Right, until then,” Clarke confirmed. With that, the two teenagers headed off to their first class.

Hank Waterson dropped his daughter’s hand and rose to his feet as the nurse entered the room. “She’s still unconscious. Why is she still unconscious?” he demanded of the man. “Is there something wrong? She’s been in recovery for over two days now!”

“Mr. Waterson, please, shouting at me is not going to do anyone any good,” the nurse said, moving to check on the instruments by Carrie’s bed.

“I’m not shouting!” Hank paused before sinking back down into the chair next to her bed. “Fine, maybe I’m raising my voice. The thing is, I’m starting to feel like you all know something I don’t.”

The nurse finished taking his reading and marked something down on a clipboard. “I assure you, Mr. Waterson, we are being quite transparent. Your daughter’s wounds have been treated and there’s every chance she will make a complete physical recovery.” He made some additional notes.

“Then why is she still asleep?” Hank protested. “Is she in some sort of coma? Are you giving her too much morphine??”

The nurse shook his head. “As far as we can tell, this deep sleep is exactly what it looks like. As to why she’s not waking up… I grant, that is a good question.”

“Is the fact that I don’t have a genetic history on her mother’s side of the family important? Is there anything there that might allow for Carrie’s current condition?”

The nurse sighed. “Possible, but unlikely. Mr. Waterson, why don’t you go home and get some sleep? I’m sure it’s simply a matter of time until…”

“TIME!”

The nurse physically recoiled as Carrie’s eyes snapped open. Hank barely registered the man’s shocked expression, attention already back on his daughter. “Carrie,” he said happily, grasping her hand again. “Carrie, it’s me, it’s your father! A-Are you all right?”

Carrie sat bolt upright on the hospital bed, her eyes wide, yet unfocussed. “Time,” she repeated. “Time, time… I can see it, oh God, why can I see the flow of time…”

Hank exchanged a brief glance with the hospital official. Now the man merely looked nervous. “Carrie, stay calm,” Hank continued slowly. “Lie back, you’ve been through a somewhat traumatic…”

Carrie’s unseeing gaze snapped over to him, bringing him up short.

“It’s all wrong,” Carrie continued. She started to shake. “This is the wrong timeline. You… you’ve got to fix it. Please, you’ve got to fix this for me.” Her heart machine began to beep faster.

“I’m going to get someone,” the nurse decided, hurrying away.

Hank Waterson squeezed Carrie’s hand a little harder. “Okay hon, don’t worry, whatever it is, I’ll fix it. First, please lie back down.”

“No, no, no,” Carrie said, shaking her head. Tears began to well up in her eyes. “It hurts, it hurts, you’ve got to fix it now, please, PLEASE someone’s got to fix it NOW.”

“Okay,” her father soothed, not sure what she meant, but hating to see his daughter in such pain. “We can give you stronger painkillers. Don’t worry, the doctors have assured me you’ll make a full…”

“No, no, it huuuuuuuuurts,” Carrie sobbed, yanking her hand free from her father’s grasp and pressing both palms against her temples. She began to rock back and forth. “Change it back, you’ve got to change time baaaaaaaack… please pleeeeeease someone change time baaa-aaa-aaack…”

“Change what time back?” her father asked. “Like Daylight Savings? Does your head hurt, dear, is that the problem?”

“Huuuuuurts,” Carrie sobbed. “They can’t change the past, they can’t change…” She threw back her head and began laughing hysterically.

“Carrie… Carrie, honey, what’s wrong? What’s so funny? How can I help you?” Hank asked desperately.

She didn’t even seem to hear him, she merely kept on laughing. He started to stand up, to try and get that nurse to come back.

Her hands had grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt before he realized it. Carrie now silently stared up at her father, tear streaks on her cheeks and a haunted look in her eyes. She spoke again. “There IS no NOW. But she’s NOT supposed to be DEAD. WE… MUST… CHANGE… TIME… BACK.”

And the glass of water next to Carrie’s bed inexplicably shattered into a hundred pieces. With its contents no longer confined, the liquid unceremoniously spilled out all over the tabletop and down onto the floor.

Hank Waterson jumped at the noise, and with his attention diverted, it took him a few seconds to realize that his daughter had fallen unconscious once more, her fingers still twisted in against his shirt.

“Dear God,” Hank whispered, gently lowering her body back down onto the hospital bed. “What… what was all that about?”

“It’s a mystery,” Frank decided.

“No, it’s not,” Luci countered. She reached out to point to the equations. “See, this chemical acts like a catalyst, that’s why we were able to observe the change.”

Frank blinked. “Oh, right. Uh, I knew that.”

“Yes, you did,” Luci agreed. “What’s wrong, Frank? You’ve never been this inattentive about your science homework before.”

He was unable to hold back a sigh. “I’m sorry, Luci. I suppose I can’t get my mind off of the whole time travel mess.”

Luci rested a hand on his shoulder. “Frank, there’s nothing more we can do about that. It’s been over a week since the shooting. Time to start thinking about living our normal lives again.”

Frank could scarcely believe she’d suggested it. “HOW?” he protested. “You know Carrie’s condition! The few times she’s been conscious, she’s been raving about time and disrupted timelines. And her physical state remains poor due to the apparent mental strain she’s under. Now, there’s got to be some connection between that and our time trips.”

“There probably is,” Luci acknowledged, her grip on him tightening. “But we have no way of knowing what it might be. Nor do we have the time machine, so telling anyone about our trips is liable to get us locked up in some psychiatric ward.”

“Along with Carrie, you mean,” Frank said dejectedly.

“No, Frank, I don’t mean that,” she asserted, pulling her hand away. “Carrie’s not there yet.”

“She probably will be soon.” Frank slammed his own hand down onto his sitting room table. “Damn it, Luci, if only I hadn’t left the time machine out. Hadn’t let Julie get her hands on it! If we had it now, we’d be in a position to DO something.”

“And maybe we wouldn’t. And maybe you’d be dead. Besides, you warned me Julie was headed for the basement, I’M the one who let her activate the damn thing. So it’s my fault than anything!”

“Don’t be silly, you…” Frank stopped as he looked over and finally registered the pain in Luci’s expression. “You’re feeling guilty too,” he realized.

“This surprises you? Don’t forget, I also suspected everything was too perfect with Julie. Yet I wasn’t able to determine what was really going on! Now look where we are because of it.”

“But Luci, you couldn’t have predicted this,” Frank protested. “No one could have predicted this!”

“Maybe, maybe not.” Luci’s expression became a wry smile. “For instance, Chartreuse thinks she could have. And Clarke’s upset he hasn’t found anything on Julie yet, and Tim wonders if he should have been more involved, and trust me, Frank, there’s enough guilt to go around our little group already. Too much, if you ask me. Which is why I wanted to work on chemistry. Why I wanted to avoid thinking about it for a change.”

Frank looked back down at the science questions. “I see your point.” He swallowed. “But I don’t think I can do this. Not yet. I’m sorry, Luci - could we give it another go tomorrow?”

“I suppose,” Luci agreed. She offered up a small smile. “Please, don’t think I’m unsympathetic. I really wish there was something more we could try. But with no time machine, no information about Julie’s whereabouts, and no way for us to understand, let alone treat Carrie’s condition, we HAVE to move on. If we obsess… I don’t know. Maybe we will all go nuts.”

“I hope not,” Frank sighed. “Give me one more night though. To reflect. Inspiration could strike.”

Luci rubbed her thumb and index finger in against her eyes, finishing by pinching the bridge of her nose. Then she reached out to close their textbook. “Sure. And if it does strike, or even if you simply want to talk - you know my number. I-I’m here for you, Frank. Yeah? You haven’t forgotten about how I feel about you, right?” she added more softly.

“I haven’t,” Frank assured. “Thanks, Luci.” He smiled back at her, and the two of them hugged. Unfortunately, his expression held up only as long as it took for Luci to pack up her things and leave the Dijora household.

Frank was still frowning after dinner, as he lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. “Okay,” he asserted. “Tomorrow, I am going to time travel back to NOW, so that I have a time machine NOW that I can use tomorrow to time travel back to NOW.”

And … nothing changed. He idly wondered if they needed Carrie to make something like that work. “I don’t even know when we’d need to start changing things for her, even assuming we could,” Frank groaned, rolling onto his side.

His phone rang. He grabbed for it, wondering who would be calling - and for some reason, there was no data available. “Hello?” he said, answering anyway.

“Frank Dijora?”

Frank frowned. It was an older male voice. Someone he didn’t recognize. “Yeah, speaking,” he confirmed.

“Frank, you need to tell the police about Julie LaMille.”

Frank was instantly sitting up. “Who is this? What do you know about Julie?” None of their group had said anything, and Carrie had never been lucid enough to give a statement. Officially, Julie was simply a missing person.

“If you don’t reveal the whole story about Julie, Carrie’s condition will continue to deteriorate.”

Frank’s grip tightened. “Y-You know something about Carrie’s condition too?!”

The voice sighed. “Listen, Frank - you and your friends are playing with forces you don’t understand. Only by revealing Julie’s part in this can we help set time back on its proper course.”

“Set time… proper course… are you from the future?”

“Immaterial. Are you even listening? I don’t want to force the issue here, but I will if I have to.”

“You’re not making any sense,” Frank protested.

“Frank, you will now scratch your nose,” the voice interrupted.

“I will now scratch my nose,” Frank agreed, doing so. “But how does that even–“ Frank froze. He looked down at his hand. Why… why had he done that?

“Again, I don’t WANT to force the issue here. But I WILL if I have to.”

Frank swallowed hard. “W-Who… Who are you?”

A pause. “Let’s call me Carrie’s Guardian Angel. After all, I did manage to save her once before, when she took a time trip out into the middle of Algonquin Park. Without coins. Did she ever mention that trip to you?”

Frank almost replied in the negative - only to have all the pieces fall into place. June, two years in the past, one of their first trips, when they’d both been trapped in the woods, and Carrie had run into the guy with the nickel who had said ‘Guard it’. Was it possible? Could this be the same guy? “Maybe,” he realized.

“Fine. So, you will set the record straight concerning Julie?”

“ONLY if you answer a few questions first,” Frank retorted, hardly believing his own audacity.

Silence. Frank tensed. Had he blown it? But then, a response: “If I do that, you will do as I ask?”

Frank cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“Then I’ll allow three questions.”

“Three?!”

“I’ll be nice and not count that as one of them.”

Frank closed his eyes. He forced himself to slow down and think. He had an opportunity here. But with a question limit, there was no point in asking anything which he might now be able to deduce.

First, this guy - Carrie had referred to him as a ‘Shady’ guy back then, and it seemed a good enough moniker - knew too much. Odds were good that Shady was another time traveller. Or knew someone who was. So, were others changing the past too? Is that why Carrie had said something to her father about the wrong timeline? Or was it changes by Julie causing the problem?

Shady’s request implied the latter. Despite being suspicious of the messenger, he had to get more information about that first.

“First question,” Frank said. “What is it Julie changed in the past, which is causing Carrie to react in our present?”

“Julie died.”

Frank nearly dropped the phone, Shady’s response had been so cavalier. “I’ll need proof,” he demanded.

“Her teenaged self died on November 9th, precisely three days before she was even born. I thought you might ask, so I checked in the library. You can look it up in the newspaper published by her home town. Though of course, they didn’t know the person was Julie. She was simply listed as a Jane Doe.” The man chuckled. “Proof that time doesn’t like it when people attempt drastic alterations to their own histories. Ironic, in a way.”

Frank forced his emotions down. Two questions left, and he now had a lot of new information. New fact: Shady couldn’t time travel at will. If he could, why bother looking things up in old newspapers? Further, his “ironic” implied that what was on the surface here contrasted with what was really happening… to the point of being a complete opposite. Could that imply that Shady was also changing history, more subtly?

Shady coughed. “Are you still there?”

“I’m trying to parse the fact that you’re saying someone I know is DEAD,” Frank sniped. He got another sigh in response.

Okay, where to go with this? Well, if this guy could effect changes like making Frank scratch his nose, surely he could convince the police without Frank’s help. So why hadn’t he?

“Second question,” Frank said. “Since you can seemingly force your will onto people, why even give me the option here?”

“Mmph,” Shady grunted. Frank got the impression he didn’t like this question. “So, there are limits. Sure, I could make you tell the police yourself the next time you see them, but depending on how they react, you might end up coming across as a robot, or coerced or something. That would be bad. Besides, free will is important! It’s the whole reason I…” His voice trailed off.

“It’s the whole reason you what?”

“Is that your last question?”

Frank grimaced. “No.” Damn. Shady was getting canny.

So, Shady could influence individuals, but he didn’t necessarily have control over how things played out? Interesting. Not to mention a stronger case for him being behind all of this in the first place.

Frank decided his last question had to be about Carrie. Shady didn’t seem to care that Julie was dead - did this ‘Guardian Angel’ truly care about Carrie, or was she a means to an end?

“Third question.” Frank paused to frame it in his mind. “How do you know for sure that Carrie will be all right, once the truth about Julie’s role in her injury comes out?”

“I don’t.”

Frank stared at his phone, but there was no immediate follow-up. He clenched his jaw. “That’s not an acceptable answer.”

More grumbling. “Carrie Waterson is having trouble rationalizing the sequence of events surrounding the awakening of her powers,” Shady said at last. “Because Julie was the trigger this time, and–”

“THIS time?” Frank interrupted. His certainty about a fixed timeline was eroding fast.

“Because Julie was the trigger,” Shady amended swiftly, “And because Julie was temporally displaced so soon afterwards, Carrie is experiencing a disconnect between present and past. My most reasonable hypothesis is that she now believes herself to be in the past too. So if we construct a present where Julie is a fugitive rather than merely missing, Carrie will be more grounded, and her disconnect can be resolved.”

“But you don’t know.”

“I said that already. There are a number of uncertainties here, including how far that– how far your Carrie’s insanity has progressed.”

Frank bit down on his lip. “Seems like we should use time travel to prevent the shooting in the first place then.”

Shady grunted. “Okay, free information since it scares me to think that you might actually try something that STUPID.” He actually sounded worried. “You rewrite what has happened to this point? Carrie will be faced with simultaneous futures, one in which her powers are awakening, and one in which they are still dormant. The resulting temporal stress would destroy her mind. From the inside out. Likely taking this whole town along with it.”

“Oh…” Frank swallowed. “But what powers–”

“No more questions,” the man retorted. “Your turn to keep up your end of the bargain.”

Frank winced. “Fine, Shady, I-I’ll tell the police before next week.”

“Shady?” the guy yelped. “What is WITH you teenagers and your labels? And you want to wait until– Look, Frank, you bear THIS in mind! Every MINUTE you wait is one MORE minute for your precious Carrie to slip further away. Understood?”

And the line went dead.

Frank collapsed back onto his bed. That whole conversation had been… surreal. Beyond insane. He had to write this stuff down, before he forgot. No, wait - better idea. Frank reached back for his phone, dialling another number with a shaky hand.

“Hello… Luci?” Frank said as soon as he heard the familiar voice on the other end. “There’s been a new development.”

See the accompanying Commentary Post for ARC 2.2

PART 35: THE WOUNDED

His pencil tapped idly against the pages as he looked down at what he had written. There no longer seemed to be any clear cut way to extract his characters from the situation into which they had been placed.

“I hate it when that happens,” Hank Waterson grumbled. He finally tossed his pencil aside and left his novel behind in the study, figuring he could use something to drink. The phone rang on his way to the kitchen, so he stopped in the hall to answer.

“Hello? Yes, this is Hank Waterson,” he replied absently. His knuckles went white. “There was a what? Where is she?? Oh my God… okay, I-I’ll be right there!”

Slamming the phone back down, Hank turned and charged out of his house, coming back only long enough to grab his car keys.

“Where is she? Where is my daughter?" Hank Waterson demanded as he charged up to the front desk at the hospital, breathing hard.

“Take a moment to calm down, sir," the receptionist advised. “Then tell me your name."

“Mr. Waterson!”

Hank turned to see who had spoken. It was some teenage kid with glasses. No, wait a minute, he knew that guy. Nice kid, they’d met about a month ago. He came to see Carrie every so often, to help her with math. What was his name?

“Frank?” ventured Carrie’s father once he’d managed to catch his breath.

Frank nodded. “They… Carrie’s still in emergency. It’s supposedly not as bad as it looked to me, but…”

“You mean you were there when it happened?”

Frank bit down on his lip as he nodded again. “It all took place so quickly, sir. I-I’m sorry, there was nothing I could do."

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault,” Hank assured, resting what he hoped was a comforting hand on Frank’s shoulder. “If… if possible, I’d like to hear more. Once I’ve checked in with the appropriate people.”

“S-Sure, I’ll be over there,” Frank noted, gesturing to the nearby waiting area.

When Carrie’s father came over a little while later, Frank felt his body tense up. It was fine though, he told himself. He’d repeat the same story that he’d given to the police.

“Good news,” Mr. Waterson said. “They’re doing everything they can for Carrie.” He paused. “There’s every chance she’ll pull through."

“You don’t sound that confident,” Frank pointed out.

“I…" The tall man sighed, and sank down into an adjacent seat. “I guess I’m not,” he admitted. “I mean, they’re doing their best, of that I’m sure. It’s only, I heard similar things after my wife…” He stopped. “You don’t need to hear about that. What DID happen then? It was at your house, I’m told?”

Frank swallowed. Time to lie again. “It’s… all kind of hazy, actually,” he said. “It’s like I told the police, someone got into the house - I guess they were trying to rob us - and they surprised me and Carrie in the sitting room. A couple of shots were fired, the person escaped, and I called 911.”

Carrie’s father nodded, and reached out to touch Frank’s knee. “Thank you for doing that. I’m sure every second counted. Oh, and good to see that you weren’t hurt either," he added. “I suppose this was somewhat traumatic for you too… where are your parents?”

“Around,” Frank said. He’d made them drive him to the hospital, after making a preliminary report for the police. “But I told them I’d feel better without them hovering. I am here with another classmate.”

“Oh? Who’s that?”

“Me.” As Luci walked up and held out a can of juice from the vending machine towards Frank, Carrie’s father turned his gaze upon her.

Perhaps sensing the older man’s scrutiny, the ponytailed asian girl jerked her gaze back over at him. “Hello, YES?” she said pointedly. Mr. Waterson pulled back at her manner, and Frank belatedly realized they might not have ever met.

“Oh! Er, Luci, this is Carrie’s father… Mr. Waterson, this is, er, Luci Primrose, a mutual friend,” Frank said hastily. He took the proffered juice can from her.

“Luci…” Hank said slowly. “Oh, of course! You’re the young, intelligent one Carrie’s mentioned on occasion.”

“I suppose so,” Luci replied guardedly, still sizing him up.

Mr. Waterson lifted an eyebrow. “Um… Luci, is everything okay? Have I said something wrong?”

Luci shook her head. “No,” she vocalized at last. “It’s only that I’m a bit surprised to see you here.”

“Luci!”

Mr. Waterson raised a hand to forestall Frank’s protest. “Why do you say that?” he asked.

Luci glanced back in Frank’s direction only briefly before looking back at Carrie’s father. “I figured it would take you longer to arrive. After all, from what I’ve been able to learn through Carrie, you never took much of an interest in her.”

Frank stood, aghast. “Luci, maybe we should find my parents and go–”

“No, that’s all right,” Mr. Waterson interrupted with a sigh. “After all, she’s not wrong.”

Frank winced. “Oh, I don’t know…”

“If it takes a life or death situation for me to meet someone’s Carrie’s been spending a lot of her time with, I can hardly claim otherwise, can I?” he retorted wryly. He smiled at Luci. “You certainly share Carrie’s spirit and determination. The two of you must be close.”

The corner of Luci’s mouth twitched, but the elder Waterson missed it, having already looked at the floor. “I fear that ever since her mother left us, me and Carrie have been drifting further and further apart,” he admitted. “It’s on me. I have tried to be the best father I can, yet I seem to make all the wrong decisions at crucial times.”

“I’m sure you’ve always tried your best,” Frank assured, sitting back down. He placed his own hand back on Mr. Waterson’s knee.

“I can still remember back when we had it all worked out,” Carrie’s father continued, seemingly to himself. “My wife worked during the day, while I took care of Carrie and did periodic work on my novels. In the evenings, Elaine would take over at home, while I worked part time at a phone call-in centre. We only really saw each other on the weekends, but at the time, it was enough. It was only supposed to be until we’d raised enough money to give Carrie a good life anyway. The trip to Bermuda, that was going to be the turning point.” He paused. “I guess in a way it was.”

Frank and Luci exchanged looks. “I was sorry to hear about your wife’s disappearance down there,” Frank ventured.

“She TOLD you about that?” Mr. Waterson said, looking back at him with a measure of incredulity. Frank nodded. The adult continued to stare for another few seconds, then returned his gaze to the ground.

“I should have told her myself, back then,” he said. “I simply couldn’t believe it had happened.” He smiled sadly. “It’s funny, really. Before I met Elaine - Carrie’s mother - I’d never even considered marriage. Then after we met, I couldn’t imagine life without her. I always thought that somehow, that meant I’d know if she died… that I’d feel it somewhere. Yet I still haven’t, not to this day.”

Luci cocked her head to the side. “Have you ever expressed those feelings to Carrie?” she wondered.

Carrie’s father shrugged. “She won’t listen. I can’t blame her. For years, I had her convinced that her mother would be coming home. We didn’t even attend the memorial service. I was so sure that Elaine would be found…!” Hank briefly clenched his fist, then let it drop open. “Carrie’s never forgiven me for hiding the truth the way I did. And there’s no way I can make that up to her.”

There was an uncomfortable pause. “Well, I’m sorry to say this, but you’re probably right,” Luci said at last. “However, that’s no reason to pull away from Carrie. Avoiding her now isn’t helping matters.”

“Avoiding?” he frowned. “Have I been avoiding her? Hm. Perhaps I have been, at that. She’s been reminding me more and more of her mother of late… not only in appearance, but in her willpower, and her drive to shape the world the way she wants… how can one lone man even handle that?” His smile became genuine. “It reminds me of a story my wife once told me, from back when she was young herself. Elaine nearly brought a whole orphanage down to it’s knees.”

Frank sat up straighter, even as Luci blurted out, “Did you say ORPHANAGE?”

Mr. Waterson nodded. “Yes, Carrie’s mother spent the first several years of her life in one. She was left there as a baby, never knowing who her real parents were… a bit of a shame, really.” Hank stopped at the expression on Luci’s face. “I’m sorry Luci, now I HAVE said something wrong.”

“N-No,” Luci stammered out, shaking her head. “It’s nothing.”

“Luci doesn’t know who her real parents are either,” Frank offered up.

“Oh. Well, you seem to be dealing with it all right, that’s good to see,” Carrie’s father said. He paused as he caught sight of his watch. “But look at me, babbling on endlessly to the two of you when you should be getting back home. I can keep your families updated with information, so there’s no need for you to stay here personally. Dijora and… Primrose, was it?”

“Yeah,” Frank said. Still, it didn’t feel right to leave.

Mr. Waterson seemed to pick up on his hesitation. “They probably won’t even let you see Carrie, outside of visiting hours,” he pointed out. “Go. I’m sure everything will be fine.”

“How can you be so sure?” Luci challenged.

This time, Carrie’s father didn’t flinch back from Luci’s scrutiny. “Because after losing my wife - I’ll be damned before I let anyone take my daughter away from me too.”

Frank tossed the empty juice container into the trash receptacle. He and Luci had moved out of line of sight of the elder Waterson. “Okay Luci, what’s on your mind?” he asked. She’d had that partly thoughtful, partly annoyed look on her face for several minutes now.

“You want Issue A first, or Issue B?”

“Issue B,” Frank said. He was pretty sure he knew what “A” involved.

“Fine. The bit about Carrie’s mother being an orphan? It reminded me of Linquist,” Luci stated.

Frank adjusted his glasses. “Linquist did come to my mind too. Except Carrie’s mother disappeared over thirteen years ago. Even if Linquist was checking over adoptees back then, which seems unlikely given how his interest is more recent, what are the odds that his crazed ravings are in any way connected to fact, let alone to her? And could he really have made an entire plane vanish?”

“It’s unlikely,” Luci yielded. “You’re right, of course.” She frowned. “Just a funny feeling, that’s all.” She fell silent for another few moments. “Okay. So. Did you tell Mr. Waterson about Julie?”

Frank let out a long breath. Back to Issue A. “No,” he admitted. “Luci, we need to keep that quiet."

Luci shook her head. “Frank, WHY?” She paused to make sure there was no one in earshot before whispering, “Julie shot Carrie! Should we defend that simply because she escaped into the past with our time machine?”

“There’s more to it than that,” Frank protested. “It’s as I told you before the ambulance showed up. Julie was acting funny.”

“Frank, Julie’s never been normal. Remember the flyer?”

Frank shook his head. “No, listen, the whole incident didn’t make sense.” He slapped his index finger into his palm, deciding he had to justify this as much to himself as he did to her. “First, Julie arrived at my place totally calm and collected. Then she was shaking like a leaf. Why?” He added a second finger. “Second, she shot at Carrie knowing I was there and could I.D. her, yet she took no direct action against me - not until I provoked her. None of which sounds like a typical Julie plan.”

Luci opened her mouth as if to interject something, but Frank kept talking, adding a third finger to his tally. “Third, and most importantly, what on earth was her motive? Why shoot Carrie, and then decide to undo, well, everything? Why not simply avoid shooting anyone in the first place, meaning there’s nothing to undo?”

Luci stared, seemingly wondering if he was going to add another point. “So, what, you think Julie was set up?” she asked at last.

“I don’t know,” Frank admitted, spreading his arms out, wondering if he sounded as frustrated as he felt. “So until we DO know something, we keep Julie’s name out of it. There was a robber. You didn’t get to my house in time to see anything, and then you came here to the hospital. End of story.”

Luci rubbed her nose. “For THIS, you don’t compromise,” he heard her mumble. She looked back up at him before he could think to comment. “Okay, look. You HAVE to realize that as soon as Carrie regains consciousness, Julie’s name is going to come up.”

Frank nodded. “True. But this delay? Will give me enough time to talk with Clarke.”

“With…” Luci’s vexed look became thoughtful. “Hm. What do you think Clarke knows? How much are you planning on telling him about what happened? Are you going to mention the time machine?”

“Clarke gets the whole story.” Frank rubbed the back of his head. “So I’ll have to mention the time machine. But as you pointed out to Tim a few days ago, we’re pretty sure Clarke knows already.”

Luci nodded. “True enough.” The young girl rocked on her heels for a moment. “And the only person who might object is Carrie, and she can’t exactly vote right now. Thing is, if you’re right? If someone blackmailed Julie into what she did? Something big is going on. Maybe bigger than we can handle."

“Hey, if you have other options, I’m open to suggestion.”

Luci opened her mouth to respond, but ultimately shook her head. “Nothing comes to mind,” she sighed. “I’ll keep thinking though.”

“Okay,” Frank agreed. “I’ll let you know how it goes with Clarke.” He glanced over towards the clock. “So unless there’s anything else…?”

Luci started to shake her head in the negative, but then she grimaced. “Okay, yeah, one other thing I want to ask.”

“Sure, Luci, anything.”

The young girl pursed her lips. “Carrie and me, we’re not so alike, are we? I mean, we’re not ‘close’, like her father said, right? After all, she’s so… so… while I’m so… I mean, I’m not like her, am I?”

Frank felt at a loss as to what the actual question was there. “Not really. Why, does something about the comparison bother you?”

“It annoys me that her father said we were close, within minutes of my first meeting him,” Luci said. She crossed her arms. “I mean, you don’t think I’m going to be like Carrie two years down the road, right?”

Frank grinned, as he tried to picture Luci spinning her hair in her fingers and batting her eyelashes, trying to get random boys in the hall to carry her books for her. “Trust me, Luci,” he said reassuringly. “I don’t think you have anything to worry about.”

Lee whistled absently as he finished reshelving the last of the books. A quick glance at his watch told him he was just in time, the library would be closing in another two minutes. “Another day, another dollar,” he remarked aloud. He quickly wheeled the book trolley back to the rear of the building, resisting the urge to ride on it.

It was as he walked back to the stairs that some movement caught his eye back in the records section. “‘lo?  Anyone there?” Lee called out.

He saw the movement again and decided to check it out. “Hello?” he called out again. “Library’s closing in under a minute, get going while the getting going’s good.”

There seemed to be a figure standing in the shadow of the main shelves. “Time’s up today, buddy,” Lee continued. “Come back tomorrow.” The figure didn’t respond. “Look, I can totally see you,” Lee observed. “And the library is closed, so I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”

The figure finally stepped forwards. It was a person wearing a cowl which concealed their face; Lee couldn’t make out any features. “You are going to do something for me now,” he - it was a male voice - said. “Listen carefully. You will turn around, and forget that you ever saw me. Understand?”

“Uh huh,” Lee replied. “Sure, buddy. You been reading ‘Hypnotism for Dummies’? Come on, I’m serious, library’s closed.”

The figure stepped closer. “I SAID, you will turn around, and forget that you ever saw me,” he repeated. “Understand?"

Lee rolled his eyes. “Hey, Judy,” he shouted out, hoping the head librarian would hear. “We’ve got a stowaway back here. Looks to be part of some weird cult.”

Said stowaway quickly reached up and pushed back his hood, allowing Lee to take in the features of a nondescript thirtysomething male with longish, dark hair. “I am not part of a weird cult,” the man said in obvious irritation.

Lee grinned. “Customer’s always right, of course. I simply call ‘em as I see ‘em.”

The man glared. “You have a very closed mind, and little to no understanding of what’s really going on around you.”

“Yeah, that’s what my friends always say. Now, are you gonna leave the library or not? You can always come back tomorrow, you know. This is how libraries work.”

“Oh, very well,” came the grudging reply. “What time do you open?”

“Hours are posted out front,” Lee said automatically. The man let out another quiet grumble and began to move past him. “Oop, hold on,” Lee remarked, extending his hand to block the way. “That a book of bound newspapers in your hand? Those can’t leave the library, sorry.”

The man turned. “I need some of these articles.”

“Well, take a snapshot or photocopy them,” Lee replied. The man nodded and moved off towards the photocopier station. “But not now,” Lee added. “Seeing as the library closed five minutes ago.”

“You really are trying my patience.”

“Is there a problem here?” came a new, female voice.

Lee turned to see the head librarian approaching. “No problem, Judy,” he assured her. “Whatzizname here was looking to photocopy old newspaper clippings, except he left it a bit late.”

Judy nodded. “Right, the photocopiers will have powered down by now,” she stated. “Can you come back tomorrow, sir?”

“Oh, well, fine!” the thirtysomething said. He tossed the book of bound newspapers angrily into Lee’s arms, with enough force to make Lee stumble, then stalked off towards the stairwell.

‘Now there,’ Lee mused, ‘goes a guy accustomed to getting his own way.’

“I’ll follow him to make sure he gets out,” Judy said. “Can you possibly reshelve that volume before you leave yourself?”

Lee nodded. “No problemo,” he affirmed with a grin and a thumbs up. Judy smiled back and headed off, while Lee quickly tracked down the proper place for the records he was holding.

It was as he was sliding them in that he noticed a piece of paper sticking out. Likely a bookmark of sorts. Vaguely curious, Lee pulled the volume back out and flipped open to the page in question. He frowned.

The three year old headline referred to the recent purchase of their town’s biggest house, by a wealthy out-of-town family.

“Bizarre,” Lee murmured. “Why’s a creepy dude like that reading up on the LaMille history?” After a moment of thought, Lee shrugged, replaced the volume, and returned to the library’s front desk to sign out.

(How bad are the site stats? I've added an index page and I'll draw less, I guess?)

PART 34: SHOTS FIRED

Julie stared up the driveway to her house. Despite her earlier assurances to Clarke, she realized she was feeling more than a bit anxious. “I’m being silly,” she chastised herself. “Probably unsettled because of those storm clouds moving in.” Taking in a deep breath, she approached the front door and entered the mansion.

“I’m home,” Julie called out. “You’ll never guess what happened to me today.” Her father came around the nearest corner, heading for the front door. “Hi Dad,” Julie greeted. “Jeeves and Mimi already get the evening off?”

Her father didn’t immediately reply. Instead, he glanced outside, closed the front door, and allowed his gaze to fall upon Julie. He looked upset, but then, that was normal when it was only the two of them. Finally, he spoke. “So what in the hell have you been up to?”

Julie swallowed. “Wh-What do you mean?”

“Jeeves has been informing us of your principal’s calls to the house,” he clarified, crossing his arms. “Damn it girl, can’t you ever stay out of trouble at school? We’re running out of places to send you.”

“What did you expect, dear?” came a new voice. Julie’s mother entered the hall, idly filing her nails. “She’s your daughter, after all.”

“Juvenile delinquent,” her father spat out. “Well, you’ve forced the two of us to use your birthday as an excuse to come back here to handle things. I hope you’re happy.”

“N-Not exactly,” Julie said, her confidence eroding fast. “And it’s been over two years since you last heard from any school administration.”

“Meaning you haven’t been caught until now," her mother observed, blowing on her fingertips.

Julie swallowed. “I guess,” she yielded. She had done some rather terrible things. “But… but it’s fine now. I got everything resolved with the principal today.”

Her father turned. “Did you hear that, dear?” he remarked. “She got everything resolved. Everything. There was no need for us to come home after all, our daughter somehow accounted for every last little detail.”

“Your daughter,” Julie’s mother reminded. She finally put the nail file away and came closer, directing a look towards Julie for the first time. “But you’re right. It’s good that we came. She can’t have any idea just how complicated things are in the real world, after all.”

“No, I… I d-do,” Julie stammered. “I’ve been reading and learning and… and today, today I was running the whole school,” she blurted. “Look!” Julie fumbled within her sweater, pulling out the precious agreement. However, she was developing a case of the shakes, and it slipped through her fingers before she could hand it to her father.

He reached down and scooped it up off the floor before she had time to retrieve it, letting out a sigh of exasperation in the process. Julie bowed her head, biting her lip as he scanned over the paper.

This was it then, the moment of truth. The culmination of six - seven? eight? - years of effort. So many setbacks. But now - they had to understand. They had to see that she was capable, that she was worthy of being their child, that she deserved their love and attention…

“What damn fool stunt are you trying to pull?”

Julie snapped her gaze back up. “W-w-w-what?”

“Honey, have a look at this,” her father remarked, handing over the paper. “She actually believes she was running the school today because the principal signed some agreement. Assuming it’s not forged.”

“Lovely. Something even more troublesome than usual to clear up,” said Julie’s mother dryly, scanning the paper herself.

“N-No, it’s true,” Julie assured them. “Mr. Hunt asked me about every decision today. I also kept other students from committing any violent acts. I was handling it, I was handling it all!”

Her mother sighed and pressed a hand to her temples. “Dear, you deal with this today, all right? It’s going to give me a headache, I’m sure of it. I’ll see you back in the kitchen.” She returned Julie’s signed agreement to her husband and flashed him a smile, before spinning on her heel and stalking back down the hall.

Julie’s father returned the smile before resuming his severe expression. “Now see what you’ve done to your mother?” he accused of Julie. “I hope you have a VERY good explanation as to why you did something so idiotic.”

Julie felt herself getting lightheaded. Was this even really happening? “I did it for you,” she said quietly. “Don’t you remember? When I was young, you used to tell Mom that if I’d been a son, I would have been able to run an organization before even graduating from high school. So, even though I’m not a son, I… I did it. I ran the high school. So doesn’t that document prove to you that I’m every bit as good as a son would be?”

“What?” Her father shook his head. “Leave it to a girl to take things too literally,” he concluded. “I mean honestly, what WAS going through that empty head of yours?”

“I… I…” Julie swallowed, no longer sure what to say.

“Let me show you how important this little piece of paper is,” her father concluded. With that, he tore the document in half.

Julie felt like she was being torn in two. “Dad, no!” she choked out, reaching out towards him. Her father simply stepped back, out of reach, and then he tore again, and again.

Julie fell to her knees. The document she’d signed with the principal that morning was soon scattered on the floor like so much confetti. A tear ran down her cheek. “No…”

“I will deal with this situation now,” her father concluded. “Pray that it’s not as bad as it sounds. You will go to your room. Make sure I don’t see your face again tonight.” With that, he turned and walked away.

Julie was left behind, a crumpled mess on the floor.

The ‘play room’ was a shambles. Her maps had been torn from the walls, file cabinets had been tipped over, electronic gadgets had been thrown against the floor, a couple of legs had even been snapped off of the central table.

In the middle of the room stood Julie, breathing hard.

Interestingly, she didn’t feel angry. Or sad. If anything, she felt numb. And not the happy, lightheaded numbness from earlier today, it was… well, nothing. Emptiness. Complete and utter void.

Julie sank back down to the ground. Destroying this room, it had felt like the right thing to do. Perhaps she should start a fire too, to burn up all of the useless information she’d accumulated. But no, such a blaze could prove dangerous. Dangerous.

The thought of her doing something dangerous struck Julie as funny, so she laughed. Later, she stopped. Then she fell back onto the ground in a completely prone position.

“All for nothing. All of it,” the brunette whispered. She wondered if that was funny or not. Should she giggle? She couldn’t decide. Instead, she let her head fall to the side.

An item caught her eye, and she realized that during her destructive rampage, it must have fallen out of the lower drawer of the file cabinets. Julie crawled over towards it, then looked down upon the smiling faces of her mother and father. She traced her finger over the glass. A tear splashed down.

Then the glass covering the image cracked as the picture was thrown forcibly against the wall. “Should have stayed in that cabinet,” Julie shrieked at the object, hands clenching into fists. “We were both better off!”

She curled up into a ball on the floor for a while.

Gradually, she became conscious of something poking her in the side. It was starting to get annoying, so Julie decided to see what it was. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small neatly wrapped package. That’s right, Clarke had given it to her earlier that day.

“Happy birthday to me,” Julie murmured. She decided to stop staring at the package long enough to sit back up and remove the wrapping paper.

Inside she found a silver brooch in the shape of a rose. “So pretty,” Julie gasped. She pinned it onto her sweater. “He really shouldn’t have though,” she said sadly. “He’s too good to me…”

“You’re not half as bad as you think you are.”

Julie spun. “Phil?” she breathed. When did he get here?

“You are SO strong, Julie. Stronger than I realized.”

How could he be standing there behind her?! It didn’t matter. Julie stumbled to her feet. “Phil,” she repeated.

“This conversation isn’t over yet, okay?” Clarke continued. “In the meantime, here’s something to remember me by.”

Julie reached out for him, but the image of Clarke faded from view before she made contact. She stumbled and fell against the wall. “Wow. Now you’re hallucinating, you idiot,” she breathed. Her fingers traced over the silver brooch. Well, at least he was going to call her.

“He’ll call, that’s right,” Julie gasped, head snapping back up. What had she done with her phone?! She’d left it upstairs before sneaking down here, so as not to damage it, or get it confiscated. She was making so many bad decisions today! “I’ve got to make sure I can answer the phone,” she gasped.

Julie sprinted out of her play room, back upstairs. She didn’t know if talking to Phil Clarke would do any good. She didn’t even know if the phone had already rung that night - was it even night yet? It seemed to be raining outside. She found her phone. Less than two hours had passed. Clarke hadn’t phoned yet. Should she phone him? No. Too needy.

She waited, her finger over the button to accept the next call. Her hands were shaking. She made them stop. It was fine. He would call. He had to call. Please, he had to call. He had to know she was waiting for him now. Right? Please?

When the phone rang, Julie hit answer before seeing who it was. “Phil?” she breathed. “Phil, are you there?”

“Julie LaMille?”

It wasn’t him. It was an older male voice. Someone she didn’t recognize.

“Julie, don’t hang up,” the voice continued. “Okay?”

Julie bit her lip. “O-kay?” she said tentatively.

“You are going to do something for me now. Listen carefully. You are going to sneak out of your house, and meet me at the corner of Parkside and Erb. You will receive further instructions there. Do you understand?”

“I will receive further instructions at Parkside and Erb,” Julie acknowledged, feeling a curious fog in her brain. “What… what instructions? What’s going on?”

“You are not ready for answers yet. All in good… time.”

“I am not ready for answers yet. All in good time,” Julie repeated back.

“You will receive further instructions at Parkside and Erb.”

“I will receive further instructions at Parkside and Erb.”

“You will go there now.”

“I will go there now,” Julie confirmed, feeling her body swaying from side to side.

“Goodbye.”

“Goodbye.”

Julie obediently hung up the phone and went to find her jacket. Her parents didn’t notice when she left.

“Oh, shoot,” Luci muttered.

Chartreuse glanced over at her companion. “What’s wrong?”

“I took some music out of my bag to look over while waiting at Frank’s, and I never put it back in,” Luci sighed. “You go on ahead, I’m going to run back and get it.”

“You can always, like, look on with someone else,” Chartreuse pointed out.

“Yeah, but my music has all my little pencil markings on it,” Luci noted. “Anyway, it’s not raining that hard now, and it’ll only take me, what, ten extra minutes? I’ll meet back up with you at practice.”

Chartreuse shrugged.  “Okay, see you there then.”

Frank set the pencil back down. “So that’s the equation you come up with,” he concluded. “Understand?”

Carrie leaned against her hand. “No,” she admitted, eyeing the page. “What’s the x mean?”

“That’s the length of the ladder.”

“Uh huh. Remind me, why do we use x?”

Frank shrugged. “Why not x? Doesn’t matter. We have to solve for something.”

Carrie drummed the fingers of her free hand against the table. “If you ask me, using x is a stupid system. It always makes me think of multiplication.”

“Well, you can pick another letter if it makes you happy,” Frank said with a smile. The doorbell rang, diverting his attention. “One of the others must have forgotten something,” he remarked, glancing at the clock. “Be right back.”

“Okay,” Carrie decided. “While you do that, I’m going to trig this thing up again using h.”

“You do that,” Frank said as he walked out of the sitting room. The grin on his face faded as he opened the front door. “Julie?” Frank greeted.

“Carrie still here?” the brunette asked blankly.

“Er, well, yeah… Julie, your hair’s dripping wet, don’t you have an umbrella?”

“I must see Carrie,” Julie said. She pushed her way past Frank and advanced into the hall.

“Um, come in? Julie, what’s going on?” Frank wondered, closing the door and hurrying after her. Julie stopped at the entryway to the sitting room.

“Julie!” Carrie said, standing up as she caught sight of the visitor.

“Carrie Waterson,” Julie responded evenly.

The two girls stared at each other across the room. Frank hesitated, not sure whether to intercede or not.

“Look Julie,” Carrie said at last. “I hope you’re not coming to me with any thoughts of restarting our friendship. Because honestly, I think you got exactly what you deserved today. Heck, now that I’ve started to get my life back together, I couldn’t care less about you. So, know what? It’s probably in both of our best interests for you to turn around, and walk back out through that front door.”

Julie didn’t bat an eyelash. “Shut up,” she said calmly. She drew the gun out from underneath her jacket, aimed, and pulled the trigger.

Carrie stumbled back a step, reflexively bringing her hand up to her side. Her eyes dropped down to the redness that was starting to stain her shirt. “Then again, maybe we can negotiate,” she gurgled out, before collapsing down onto the floor.

“CARRIE!” Frank’s voice screamed. She heard him running into the room, and then he was pulling her back up into something of a seated position, leaning her against the table. “Carrie, are you all right? Speak to me!”

“I… I seem to be bleeding,” Carrie murmured, pulling up her shirt to see. She tried to apply pressure to the wound. The gunshot wound. Wow. They hadn’t covered this yet in health class…

“What? What happened?” someone gasped - Julie gasped?

“What HAPPENED? YOU JUST SHOT CARRIE, DAMN YOU!”

“Frank, don’t upset the crazy person,” Carrie suggested. Okay, talking hurt now. She squeezed her eyes shut.

“N-n-no,” Julie whimpered. Carrie reopened her eyes, in time to see that her former friend was now staring at the gun as if she was seeing it for the first time. That didn’t make much sense. However, when Carrie saw Frank rising to his feet out of the corner of her eye, Julie quickly cocked the weapon back up at him. “D-D-Don’t move,” Julie warned.

Unlike before, the gun was now wobbling all over the place. Then again, Carrie decided it was equally possible that her vision was wobbling all over the place. Should she call 911? Wow, yeah, someone should definitely do that…

As if reading her mind, Frank said, “Julie, let me get my phone out. Carrie needs medical attention.”

“This is not how my birthday was supposed to go,” Julie gasped. With that, Carrie decided that both of them were shaking. “This is NOT how my birthday was supposed to go. This IS NOT how…”

“Julie, put that gun down, so we can straighten all of this out,” Frank suggested.

“NO,” Julie shrieked. Her head snapped from side to side. “I’ll fix this,” she declared. “I’ll fix it all. Where’s your time machine?”

“Wh-What?”

“I KNOW you have one! Carrie told me all about it, you MUST have fixed it by now, so WHERE IS IT?”

The brunette was not longer whimpering but practically screaming, while holding the gun in both hands. Even that wasn’t helping to keep it steady. Heck, Julie’s whole form was starting to look blurry. Wait, no, Carrie realized everything was getting blurry…

“D-Downstairs,” Frank said.

“Downstairs,” Julie repeated. She swallowed. “I know how to make everything better. I never should have been born.”

“Julie…”

“NO!” Julie shrieked again. “I can’t LIVE like this any more.”

She fired the gun a second time. Frank stumbled back as the bullet slammed into the carpeting somewhere by his feet, and Julie took the opportunity to run out of the room.

It was as Carrie heard the new voice calling out from the front of the house that she discovered her unfocussed gaze was drifting up towards the ceiling.

“Frank??”

That was Luci’s voice! “In here,” Frank called out to her.

“Frank, I came in because I thought I heard a… holy geez!” Luci gasped out as she rounded the corner and spotted both him and Carrie.

“Julie’s gone crazy and she’s after the time machine,” Frank explained to her, fumbling with his phone. “See if you can tell what she’s doing as I call Carrie an ambulance, but BE CAREFUL. Julie got herself a gun from somewhere.”

Luci nodded wordlessly, and ducked back out of the room.

Frank finished dialling 911, requesting aid for a gunshot wound, and giving them his address. He winced, as he now recalled that their time machine was sitting out in plain view, on his lab bench.

“Frank?” he heard Carrie rasp. “Frank, it’s getting cold. Did your parents not pay the heating bill?”

Frank pulled the phone away from his mouth. “Yes, Carrie,” he replied, tears stinging at his eyes. “But we’ll get it fixed, so you make sure you stay conscious until then, okay? You promise me you’ll stay conscious!”

“Okay,” Carrie agreed quietly. “Okay, yeah… I’ll… try… that……”

“You won’t just try, you WILL,” Frank pleaded. He saw movement by the entranceway, and whirled towards the source.

“It’s me,” Luci said, raising her hands.

“Julie…?”

“She’s… gone,” Luci admitted quietly. “I saw her grab about half of our notes, take a coin for a particular year from your collection and then she activated the time machine. I’m not even sure what time period she selected.”

Frank ran a hand back through his hair. “From what she said, I’ve got a pretty good guess,” he admitted. “But… without the machine, we can’t follow her.”

“Right.” Luci swallowed. “So… so what do we do?”

Sirens began to wail outside. “I wish I knew,” Frank replied. “I really wish I knew.”

PART 6: WELCOME CHANGE

“Of all the… how could this… how could you have been so clumsy?” Carrie choked out, embracing the familiar anger as it swept back over her.

“Okay, wait,” Frank said quietly, fiddling with his broken glasses. “True, I have no depth perception. Still, maybe with your help–"

“My help? MY help? What are on about, Frank?” Carrie shouted. “All I’ve got is geography, I don’t know the first thing about the blinking lights and circuits in the time device!” She put her hands on her hips. “There, I admitted it. You happy now? So, while your temporal theories are keeping you all safe and alive in my past, if I die out here, it will all be YOUR fault.”

She regretted the words as soon as she’d spoken them. That was WAY over the top. But she was sick, and scared beyond belief, and that was such a foreign feeling - she preferred feeling the anger.

Except… pushing away the only guy who could help was really stupid. Damn it! And after everything with her mother they were at the point where she didn’t think she had any more tears left to shed…

Frank cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, Carrie. Truly I am. I did find a couple of sturdy twigs and some dry wood before I fell. How about we at least pick it back up and return to the lake?”

Carrie bit her lower lip, stifling another sneeze. She felt she couldn’t apologize, not again - he knew she hadn’t meant it, right? He had to know. “It’s fine. I have no intention of dying here, Frank,” she asserted.

“I know. Let’s go back to the device.” Frank struggled to stand up again, succeeding by favouring his right leg.

Carrie wondered what more she should or could say. Nothing came to mind. She would control her anger from now on, maybe that would be enough. She offered Frank a hand and supported him as best as she could they struggled back up the slope.

“This is so goddamn pointless,” Carrie cried out, throwing aside Frank’s swiss army knife.

“We’re managing okay,” Frank said reassuringly.

“Oh, shut– Frank, stop trying to make me feel better,” Carrie revised. Forcing herself to speak calmly, she began to count off on her fingers. “I have a headache, and a runny nose, and I’m possibly getting a temperature, and I’m hungry, and tired and goddamn it, you’re no better off, so why am I complaining to you?” She collapsed at that, putting her head between her knees. “It’s been over a DAY, and we’re no further ahead.”

”…time for a break."

Frank rubbed his temples. He was getting used to Carrie’s outbursts of emotionalism. They weren’t a bad thing, actually. Sometimes she could spot a futile effort early on, be it in time machine reparation or the poor shelter construction methods they had been attempting.

If only she was a bit more attentive and could verbalize things in a nicer way… but even there Frank was starting to realize something. Carrie wasn’t especially shallow or prone to violent outbursts. It was more that she preferred keeping a particular distance from people. Which translated into lashing out, keeping others from getting too close.

Was she even aware of it? He wondered why that was the case, and whether this experience was giving him any insight into her fourteen year old counterpart - his classmate.

Aloud, all he said was, “It’s clouding over anyway, maybe it’s time for a break."

Carrie let out a grumbling noise. There he was, acting all calm and congenial again. Saying nice things for no discernible reason, offering help without expecting any favours in return. How incredibly naive. The real world didn’t work that way - being pleasant for the sake of being pleasant only made you into an easy target. Or into a tool that could be exploited.

Under normal circumstances Carrie would personally show Frank the error of his ways… yet right now she was finding this quality of his oddly enviable. Of course, unlike her, he hadn’t spent a couple years in high school yet. She wondered absently whether the Frank of her time period had really managed to maintain this same outlook on life.

“I don’t know if a break will help,” Carrie said with a sigh and a cough. She lifted her head. “We can’t break into the device’s silver coin box. I’ve tried prying at that exterior slot with your knife, jimmying it with your bank card, we’ve pulled apart your mini camera for parts to try and activate circuits, we’ve even fed a whittled down wooden coin into the thing… dammit, I’m ready to just throw it into the fire we made.”

She took in a deep breath. “You were wrong, Frank. We should have struck out for civilization this morning. We’re getting nowhere."

“Again, even assuming I could walk well, we have no idea which direction to go," Frank reminded her as he squinted back at the machine through his broken glasses. “Plus we ARE further along - I believe we’ve managed to readjust the time machine’s month and day. Since we’re already in the correct year, we merely need to TRIGGER the thing."

Carrie pinched the bridge of her nose. “Yeah. That’s what you said three hours ago," she murmured.

Frank looked back over in her direction and saw Carrie’s eyes starting to brim with tears. He was surprised it had taken this long - he’d cried a bit last night himself, after she’d fallen asleep. No need to be brave for the both of them if she was unconscious, right?

For that matter, Frank wasn’t certain if his continued desire to project reassurance was due more to male stereotypes, or the curious temporal situation that seemed to have put her life in greater danger than his own. Since his future still existed in her past.

“I hurt, Frank," Carrie confessed at last. “Physically, mentally, emotionally - I’m not thinking straight any more. A lot of what you’re saying has started to go in one ear and out the other. Worse, those are storm clouds moving in, meaning it’s going to rain. I… I’m tired. Maybe… maybe we saved my mother in the past, so now we’re being punished. Maybe there’s no way out of this for me. Her life for my life. I should have expected as much."

Frank pursed his lips. Carrie was sounding so serious it was scary. “You told me yesterday you had no intention of dying."

“I don’t. But maybe it’s not my decision. Maybe you can’t fight fate. I can’t recall the last time I felt so helpless - unless it’s when I finally realized Mom wasn’t coming back. Which is probably not a coincidence.”

Carrie lowered her head again, coughing and sniffling at the same time. “God, why is everything coming back to her now… and why is this damn cold making my eyes water so damn much in front of you.”

Frank paused before reaching out to gently place a hand on Carrie’s shoulder. She didn’t shrug him off. “Here’s the thing,” he said. “I survive another two years relative to you, right? And I’m NOT going to leave you behind. So we must both get out of this somehow. Yeah?” He ventured a smile.

“You say that now,” Carrie fired back without even looking up. “But I’ve been thinking about it. If my mom’s alive in the present, and I don’t remember it, I may have changed history by picking you up too. All we’ve got to point to your survival is my swan - which could have been broken by someone ELSE originally, right? Meaning I’m changing everything, and my memory is wrong. So my curiosity and headstrong attitude will kill us BOTH here.”

Frank felt like someone had punched him in the gut. “Um. Okay, interesting theory,” he yielded, dropping his arm back to his side.

Carrie winced. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said it aloud,” she sighed. “Maybe there was some hope in what you said.”

“Maybe,” Frank said dubiously. He really didn’t want to think too hard about this though. Because her logic seemed sound. He really would need to do more time travel research. Again, assuming they ever got out of here.

Was there some way he could spin this, to keep her from giving up hope? To now keep HIMSELF from giving up hope?

“Okay, on the bright side,” Frank suggested, “the berries we’ve been eating haven’t been poisonous and no wild animals have attacked us. So it’s not like time is actively trying to kill us, it’s all been pretty passive-aggressive.”

Carrie laughed at that, though her laugh was hollow. “Don’t say it like that. You’ll jinx us,” she chided. She then slugged him in the arm, but without much force behind the blow. He wondered if that was intentional, or merely due to a lack of energy.

Thunder rumbled ominously in the distance.

Then the unthinkable happened.

“Did you hear that?” Carrie asked, snapping her head to the left.

“What?” Frank inquired, blinking nervously. “I was only kidding about wild animals…”

“No, shhh. I thought I heard a person!” The two teenagers both stopped and sat, listening, Carrie straining her ears. ‘Please tell me that wasn’t a hallucination,’ she thought desperately to herself. ‘Please, please… if… if we get out of this alive, I swear I’ll pay more attention to the things I do and say with respect to time and space and people and everything, okay? I mean, I’m not going to become a good little girl overnight, but I WILL try! Okay? So please… please let there be someone–’

There was the sound of a deep laugh, which Carrie judged to be less than a kilometre away.

“Check it out,” Frank breathed, eyes wide.

Carrie was already on her feet, running with whatever energy she had left, trying to home in on the new sound. She stumbled and almost fell, forcing herself to slow down. The sky was starting to become even more overcast, so it was getting harder to see in the underbrush.

“Hello?” she called out, the action sending her into a brief coughing fit. The sounds were closer. Two, maybe three people. People. Oh God, they had been saved, saved… “Helllloooo?” Carrie called out again, desperately.

There was a pause in whatever discussion had been going on. “Hello?” came a reply at least. “Who’s out there?”

Carrie didn’t waste her breath replying, she sprinted the remaining distance to emerge in a small clearing. There were three men there, along with two canoes and what looked like a bunch of camping equipment. They were setting out a large tarp.

“Oh God… oh thank God… help, you’ve got to help us,” Carrie gasped out, falling to her knees.

The others stared at her. It dawned on Carrie for the first time what a sight she must present after recent events. She hadn’t even bathed this morning. “Who’s ‘us’?” one of the men inquired in bewilderment.

“Me and a friend of mine,” Carrie replied. “He needs some medical attention, actually, we both do, so how did you get in here, and can we get back out the same way?”

The second guy lifted his arm, pointing away from the lake. “We’ve been hiking our way in since this morning,” he stated.

Inwardly, Carrie shuddered. That meant they probably wouldn’t get out by tonight, certainly not before the rain. However, she reminded herself, these guys had a tarp here, and supplies. There was hope. “But… who are you? How did you get out here??” the guy continued.

Carrie caught it out of reflex…

Carrie opened her mouth to respond. Before she could, the last man, standing the furthest away, stepped forwards, saying, “I have what you need.”

He tossed something small at her. Carrie caught it out of reflex and peered down at it in confusion. It was a nickel.

“What?” she asked. “I need this??”

“Yes. Use it to get back home almost immediately. Avoid the rain that way.”

The other two guys laughed. “What, she gonna call someone?” the first man inquired, seemingly asserting himself as the leader of the group. “Come on buddy, we said we didn’t mind you coming along, but don’t start acting crazy, okay?”

The second man made a comment also, but Carrie didn’t catch it. She’d noticed the date on the coin. It was from this year. Frank’s present. It wasn’t a quarter, but could they use… did he mean… Her head snapped back up. “You know?” she gasped.

The man who had tossed her the nickel turned away. She couldn’t pick out his features, as the hood of his jacket was up. But his voice was still audible. “I suspected. Look, it’s yours now. Do what you will with it. Just guard it. Don’t let anyone take it away from you.”

“Why? Who are you?” Carrie demanded, stepping forwards. He did not speak again. “Who ARE you?” Carrie repeated, reaching out to grab him by the shoulder - only to be seized by a sudden coughing fit, forcing her to double over.

“Whoa girlie, easy there,” said the person she’d conjectured as the leader, as he bent down next to her. “Don’t mind whatzizname, he’s just tagging along with us because he doesn’t know the trails. Guy seems a bit loopy if you ask me, I wouldn’t worry about guarding his loose change.”

He patted her on the back. “You said you have a friend out there, some way we can help the two of you? Can always cut our canoe trip short, particularly if the weather forecast isn’t going to hold up. After all, you’re looking pretty pale…”

Carrie heaved in a deep breath. “I’ll be fine. Once THIS guy gives me some answers,” she retorted, standing up straight again. She tried to summon up enough strength for a good rant.

“You’re not ready for answers,” the figure responded. “All in good… time.” A lightning strike lit up the whole area a split second before he spun.

Carrie found herself reflexively taking a step back, as with the hood, his posture did look rather foreboding. He immediately spoke again, with an unexpected edge to his tone. “Now run,” he stated. “Fast. Get back to where you belong.”

The heavens opened up and the rain began to pour down.

‘Why the hell am I running?’ Carrie asked herself. She wasn’t the type to simply obey anyone like that, let alone a stranger. Of course, she was hardly at her best right now… yet the way that mysterious guy had spoken to her, it had seemed so important to do what he’d said.

A branch whacked her in the forehead. Carrie pushed it aside and kept on going. She decided it would be futile to turn back at this point. She was cold, wet and miserable, with the rain literally pounding down around her, and moreover it sounded like one of the other well-meaning campers was calling out to her for an explanation. An explanation she couldn’t provide.

So let Mr. Enigmatic deal with him. Carrie decided she would be able to think more clearly about things in retrospect.

When Carrie arrived back at the place where she’d left Frank, she found him huddling with the device under the makeshift shelter they had constructed last night. He glanced up hopefully at her approach, looking about as awful as she felt.

“Well?” he inquired, raising his voice to be heard over the thunder and the driving rain.

“Well… we’re getting out of here,” Carrie stated, producing the nickel as she collapsed down next to him.

Frank blinked. “What? I… I don’t understand.”

“I don’t either,” Carrie admitted. She shoved the coin into the slot on the time machine. There was a rewarding humming noise. “For now, just grab the lever and pull with me. I think…” She paused to cough, then attempted a smile. “I think we’re going back to your present.”

Frank needed no second urging.

To Carrie, the feeling of being sucked into some sort of void was becoming familiar. And then the rain and thunder and lightning were all gone.

Carrie blinked her eyes open and looked around. At first she saw only trees, which gave her a second of panic, before she realized that they were simply part of the ravine which bordered her house and the park. They’d made it back! At least geographically. The time being either early morning, or late evening, according to the amount of available sunlight.

“It’s Saturday again,” came Frank’s awed voice beside her. She turned to meet his gaze, as he looked up from the device. “My Saturday. We did it, Carrie. We survived.”

Carrie felt a wave of relief wash over her. “Civilization. Thank Gah-ah-CHOO,” she responded, unable to stifle another sneeze.

“Bless you,” murmured Frank.

“Thanks.” Carrie hesitated, then offered Frank a wan smile. “For everything.” Before she was completely aware of it happening, one of them had initiated a quick hug.

Two hours later found Carrie attempting to tighten the belt she was wearing. She and Frank had returned to his place, at which point Frank had retrieved his spare glasses, tidied himself up marginally, reset the time machine, and then had his mother take him to the hospital to have his arm and head looked at – claiming he’d fallen while in the ravine.

Carrie knew she couldn’t go to the hospital herself, not in this time period, it would raise FAR too many questions. But aside from a few scrapes, her troubles were mainly flu related. So she was off to HER present, having found two quarters from her year of departure in her shoulder purse, which had been left down in Frank’s basement.

As Frank had tidied himself, there had been some brief discussion between them as to whether the time machine was still functional, because it seemed to be giving off the aroma of burned wood and pine needles. No doubt due to their improvisations.

Frank had offered to take more time to check it out, but Carrie had countered with, “As long as nothing’s visibly broken inside, go and get that arm looked at. Before I injure your other one.”

Once Frank and his mother had left (Carrie hiding in the basement), she taken the opportunity to tidy up a bit herself, and change out of her wet, dirty clothes, borrowing some old ones belonging to Frank’s mother. It felt prudent. On the off chance she turned up in her present, but in, well… who knew? Nome, Alaska? The only thing was, the pants were a bit big.

A sudden coughing fit reminded her that her health was still up for debate. Carrie finally gave up on the belt. She went to the time machine, brushing her hair back off her shoulders. “Right. Here goes nothing then,” Carrie murmured. One of the coins had already been dropped inside. She wiggled her fingers, then before she could change her mind, yanked down on the lever.

The sensations were now almost routine. Carrie didn’t even think she lost consciousness this time, but the disorientation was still tricky to work through. For a moment she wondered if she’d gone blind, only to realize that she was back in the familiar park, and it was merely dark out.

‘Why the park again?’, she wondered. She looked down at the device. She’d undershot by a day – they’d aimed for Friday, but it was still Thursday, the day of her departure. Would she have to lie low for twenty four hours?

That’s when a scream cut through the air, accompanied by a brief burst of light, originating down in the ravine. Something about it felt disturbingly familiar. Immediately on her feet and hefting the time machine, Carrie hurried to investigate. “Hello? Who’s there?” she called out, starting down the familiar path to her house. “Who’s–”

She stopped. Hold on. A scream, a light, a sound effect… that had been HER, hadn’t it. Her leaving on her first trip! Which meant it was late evening, and she’d only just managed to beat herself back before leaving in the first place. Could it have been possible for her to prevent her own departure?

Carrie’s head started to throb, and not merely because of that particular train of thought. She felt incredibly weak and tired. If that really had been her, her bed should be vacant now. Either way, she needed to lie down, and she decided she might as well do so in her room rather than some emergency room, which would only invite more damn questions. She had enough questions to deal with herself right now, chief among them where the time machine had come from initially, and who that mysterious figure in the woods had been two years ago.

Carrie made her way back through the ravine. Then, using the familiar tree in her backyard, she slowly pulled herself up to her window and crawled into her room. She stowed the time device under her bed, then collapsed on top of her sheets.

Asleep practically as soon as her head hit the pillow, Carrie didn’t wake up until the next morning… when her window re-opened and a future incarnation of herself also crawled into her room.