by Ashlyn Ross
and sometimes people like you figure it out on their own and slip through the system. I just hate it when that happens.”
“Hey don’t beat yourself up. This will only be my…” Scott counted quickly, “fifth jump.”
Emily was taken aback and the look on her face was absolute shock. “Fifth? You said you only did the bank robbery and the bus.”
“Oh, I did, but it took me a little while before I figured out how it worked and how to get to the right time to save them. The first time I went to the actual scene of the accident which I really hated. When I got angry at how I had missed the whole thing, I was sent back home. Then I tried to go to an article that was in the paper before that and found myself on the wrong side of town two whole weeks before the accident,” he said sheepishly.
“Did anyone see you either of those two times?” She still didn't look convinced that there wasn't more to everything.
“No. There was no one around to see me. Both times I disappeared almost as fast as I appeared.” He tried to reassure her.
Emily finally relaxed a bit. “Well, that’s one good thing that we won’t have to worry about. The only thing I could see being a problem is getting a car.”
“The party was really close to where the accident took place. I was only gone for fifteen minutes or so, then I brought the car back before going to my time. That was about it.”
“Alright, so we should be able to get there after you took the car. Then….”
“Wait, but once I read that the kids haven’t been saved, how will we keep my other self from trying to save the kids?” interrupted Scott.
“You’re right about that. Where in the headline did you touch?” She handed him the paper.
Scott looked at it not sure he if he could remember. Then something dawned on him. “It’s the word Hand.”
“That’s great. We can go in before that and wait for you in the car. We’ll have to have a little chat and talk you out of continuing with this. Do you think you would believe yourself?” She watched him.
“We can do that? I thought it would mess some type of time continuum. You know, make the whole world ending because I meet myself or something. Or what about meeting myself, making it so that I will never be born?”
Emily rolled her eyes. “Again, you are immortal, but also that isn’t how it works for us. Heck you can go back and have a meeting with multiples of yourself and the sun will still rise with you in it. So don’t worry about that. The question is, will you believe yourself?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, I think so.”
“Ok I guess that’s the best I’m going to get. You ready?”
“Now?” Scott said a little shocked.
“Why not? This has to be fixed. We have to take care of it. Yeah we can at any point, but it will be better to get it done sooner rather than later,” she said nonchalantly.
“Fine.” Scott still wasn’t thrilled with this at all.
“Good, now take my hand. This way we won’t get separated when we jump.” She held out her hand to him across the coffee table.
Scott took her hand. “I’ll just follow your lead.”
Emily placed her index finger on the first letter of the word Party at the beginning of the headline. The next thing they knew, they were there, standing just a little off of where the cars were parked. They walked over to the cars and quickly located Scott’s. He pulled out his keys from his pocket and opened up the passenger side back door. Scott held it open while Emily got in then followed behind her.
“Now we wait for you to show up,” Emily said as she looked out the window.
“Then we get to have a little talk. That should be fun,” he said sarcastically.
Emily glared at him. “Listen, I understand how you feel. I really do. But this is for the best. You saw what will happen and what won’t happen if this isn’t made, right?”
“I know! Okay I just really hate it.”
Just then Scott saw movement outside of the car. He quickly pulled Emily down as his other self opened the drivers car door. Once the car was moving, Emily sat back up, causing the car to swerve as she had scared the driver.
“What the hell?” said Driving Scott.
“Dude, don’t wreck the car. You're going to want to pull over,” Scott from the backseat said.
Emily hit the Scott sitting next to her. “Scott stop, he’s already freaked out.”
The car pulled over, suddenly coming to a stop. The Scott who was driving turned around to gape at Emily and Scott. A look of total fear crossed his face as he recognized himself.
The Scott in the backseat read his past self’s face and said, “The world is fine and we won’t cease to be, even if we touch, please relax. We came to talk to you. It's very important.”
“Okay… so who is she?” He pointed at Emily.
“My name is Emily Segal. I’m like you and that’s all that is important right now,” she said.
“So you guys aren’t on a date showing one of my great accomplishments, I take it.” He looked just a bit hopeful at the two in the backseat.
“You wish,” Scott from the future said under his breath.
That got a quick glance from Emily who quickly recovered and turned back to the front seat and the other Scott. “We know what you are about to do, but we have to ask you to stop and go back without doing anything.”
Enraged Scott who sat in front. “What?! No. Those kids will die otherwise.”
“I know and it sucks, but there's more to this than you can even imagine.”
“Come on, their just kids. They have their whole lives a head of them. You're telling me that we should not use this ability to save these innocent kids? Do you know how wrong this sounds?” Scott said emphatically looking at the two in the back seat.
“Yes, I know exactly how bad this whole thing seems to you because I’m you. Don’t you think I would have a very good reason to come here to stop you?” said Scott in the backseat.
“I have no idea at this moment. Since I don’t even know when you're from,” he paused, running his hand through his hair. “Though I do know that shirt pretty well, so it can’t be too far in the future.”
“Scott, listen I know that this is all hard but do you really need to know the facts? Can’t you understand why you would go back to stop yourself from saving a bus full of kids?” asked Emily.
Scott from the past looked from one to the other, wondering what to believe. It would have been something big that would have sent himself back to stop him from saving kids. It had to be. There was no other explanation.
“You have to tell me. I know that you guys want me to believe myself, but I just have to know why wouldn't I stop this?”
“Do you want the really bad or the not so bad?” asked Emily.
“Really bad,” said both Scotts at the same time. They both looked at one another a little warily. The Scott sitting next to Emily nodded for her to go on.
“Alright, so you know that kid, Alex that lives next door to you? Well, he becomes a serial killer. One of the first people he kills is Mrs. Sterling.”
The struck look on his face caused Emily to pause.
“So if I save these kids a whole bunch of people die because this kid goes psycho?”
“Yeah,” Emily continued in detail about the files that David had brought them. All the while she watching Scott's reaction.
Once she was finished Scott put his head on the steering wheel. He was completely conflicted with what he should do.
He looked up at them with pleading eyes, “Is there any way to save any of them?”
“I’m sorry to say no,” Emily said. She reached out to pat his hand, but Scott pulled away from her.
“Have you really looked at all the scenarios?” Tears of anger were now running down his face.
“Listen, it was checked and rechecked. There is nothing we can do but let this happen. Please understand we don’t want this anymore than you,” Emily said, pointing to both herself and future Scott who looked
just as upset as the past Scott. “But there's truly nothing that we can do except let it happen.”
Finally past Scott couldn’t argue with them. How much can you argue with yourself about something that must have been changed and he came back to make sure that it was changed back.
“What would you have me do?” he said, choking back a sob, sounding completely defeated.
“Just go back to your time. We can put the car back. Understand that things will be different going forward. You'll need to learn quite a bit but that this is only the beginning for you. There's so much to learn and so much more that your able to do. Just… we can’t change history. There's a lot more to the whole winners write the history. A whole lot more,” Emily said as she patted him on the shoulder.
“So there's no way around this, is there?”
“Nope,” was all future Scott said.
“Fine, I’ll go home. I just hope that this works out, and you're not just pulling my leg.” With that past Scott just disappeared.
There was no sound. Emily looked over at Scott. “How are you doing?”
“I still think this sucks, but at the same time, I understand it. I just don’t think that it's right. I don’t think there is anything that you can tell me that will change that.”
Emily looked a little worried. “So does this mean you're still going to come back and try and change this?”
There was a long pause, then Scott rubbed the back of his neck until it turned bright red. Finally he looked at her and the full depth of his despair riddled across his face.
“No. As much as I would like to change everything I see that there is no point in changing it. It
