For My Nieces - Cambrie Hart and Railyn Hall
Auntie Loves You! I hope to see you both really soon!
This one is for you! Thank you for being my Chloe and Riley.
PROLOGUE
I am running. Men trail behind us, guns in hand. I run harder, as hard as I can, but they are faster. They haven't seen me yet. I reach for my pocket and feel inside. They are still there, they are safe. I hear a sound, but I don't care. I must stay silent and I must stay still. The hammer of a gun echoes through the garage. "CLICK!" I duck behind a car and I start to crawl. Nobody can see me, nobody can hear me. Nobody will find me. I am safe. I am nobody and I am nowhere.
I look around for my father, but I can't see him. I hide underneath the nearest car. I see my Auntie, she's under another car. She is safe too. She lifts her finger to her lips, urging me to be silent. She is very brave. Where is my Dad? Where could he be? Is he okay? I want to call out, but I must stay down, or I will die. I am invisible. The men want us dead. We have something that they want. They can't have it.
I hear another gun, it cocks and echoes in the distance. Suddenly, through the silence comes a resounding, "BANG!" and I hear someone crumple and fall. I am afraid. I look under the cars, and I see him there. My father, he has been shot. Blood pools and spreads all around him, but he doesn't move. His eyes are wide open, staring blankly into the nothingness of sudden death.
I start to panic and I cover my mouth, to hide the scream that is building up inside of me. My Auntie runs after them, she is violently angry. Then, "BANG!" Another gunshot echoes through the silent garage. My heart drops and I see my Auntie collapse, right on top of my Dad, they have killed her too. The men look around and then they check my family's pockets. They think that they have us all. They are angry, they can't find what they are looking for, because I have them. I am scared, but I stay silent. They don't know that I am here. I reach behind me to feel for the book. It is still there too, it is safe. I know what I need to do.
I reach into my pocket and grasp what is hidden inside. I attach them quickly and hurriedly change the date. I have to escape. I have to change this all. This can't be happening! I close my eyes tight, tears streaming down my face and click. The infinite darkness suddenly consumes me, and I disappear into the night, I am nobody and I am no one. I will change this, if it is the last thing that I do.
CHAPTER ONE
I arrived inside of the same parking garage that I just left. The nausea overwhelmed my system immediately and I started to swallow, to try and keep it at bay. "Okay, Chloe, you got this." I mumbled. There was no car parked in the spot where I was just hidden in the future. I didn't know what else to do, so I decided to leave, it was the only way to keep myself and the links safe. I was scared that the garage wasn't going to be there whenever I reappeared. A lot of the things from 2045 hadn't been built yet in 2023. "I can't believe that they're dead! SHIT! DAMNIT!" I thought to myself, as I started to cry for my family. It took me a few minutes to get control of myself and then I decided that it was time to get a move on.
I stood up and checked around the parking garage. Nobody was around, and the garage was silent and dark. Old style cameras were placed in different corners of the garage, but none of them were facing in my direction. "I have to find Aunt Allie, right now!" I told myself. She would know what to do. She had done all of this before. My Dad told me when I was younger, about how she saved all of the Harmons from a tragic death.
My Dad, Andrew Harmon and my Aunt Allie Harmon were the strongest people that I had ever known. I started to cry again, thinking about her and my Dad lying there dead, like they were nothing. They were both in their early 60's, but they were so fierce and so brave and they were never afraid of a damn thing. "This is bullshit." I couldn't wrap my head around it and I knew that Aunt Allie would be the one to be able to help me fix it all. My Dad always told me about how amazing she was and how she fought the past to save everyone. I didn't believe him at first, until I got her journal and the links.
Auntie Allie was 34 the first time that she used the links, at least that was what it said in her journal. "She was older that I am now, I'll be turning 34 in September." I thought. I wasn't planning on using the links and the clip today, but I had to do it. I knew where my Auntie would be today, in 2023. Today was the day before her 40th birthday, March 12th, and it was late at night, so she had to be at her house. We went out to eat for her 40th birthday a little early that year when I was a little girl, and I remembered that she got really embarrassed when PawPaw told them that it was her special day and she said that she was leaving afterwards and going home to rest. She always had a touch of the social anxiety.
I thought about finding my Dad, but I would get to that when I had to. He and Auntie Allie were always together, they were inseparable, for as long as I could remember. I was sure that he would turn up eventually. I had to find her and talk to her about our next steps. She was the only one who knew how to fight the past, and what better time than now, a few years after she had done it the first time around. She didn't even know about the clip yet, I found that later on, hidden away in some boxes in my grandparents' attic. I never told anybody about the clip, it was my secret treasure.
I dusted myself off and made my way out into the road. The parking garage was pretty far away, across town from Auntie's house, but I could get there eventually. I started to walk. "Maybe I could call a cab?" I thought, as I reached for the paper thin fiberglass Handheld in my pocket. I didn't know if it would work in this time, so I held it up to see. "No signal, of course, crap, I knew it." I said out loud. I didn't think that it would work, our technology was much newer, and the networks wouldn't have been the same. Our Handhelds didn't even use batteries anymore. They were completely solar charged and could hold that charge for weeks at a time. Not like the phones of 2023, they were ancient technology compared to what we had available.
As I was walking down the road, I glanced up at a clock blinking on a bank sign. It was 11:00 PM, March 12, 2023. The clip and links brought me to the time that I chose. I chose to land on this date at 10:30 PM. Not for any reason, just because that was as fast as I could get them set while hiding from the men that were trying to steal them, I really wanted to get to Auntie's house by around midnight on her birthday.
"Aunt Allie will be excited to know about the clip. I can't wait to explain it all to her, it makes the time travel a little bit different than just using the links." I thought. I wondered again where they all could've come from. Auntie never knew, she said so in her journal, she just said that my PawPaw Matt found the links hidden in an old, metal box upstairs at his parents' house, many years ago, when he was only a kid himself. He had never mentioned the clip either. "Maybe he didn't know about it?" I thought to myself again.
As I was walking, I spotted a cab passing by on the road. It was a busy road, even at night, and I was glad that I had noticed it. I waved it down and jumped inside. "9385 Grove Street." I told the driver, hoping that I had some money that would suffice. I reached into my back pocket to check, and luckily, I found an old $20 mixed up with my other, newer bills, old enough to pay for my ride in this time. "Whew! Hell yes." I whispered to myself. "I didn't really think any of this through." I thought, shaking my head. We used a microchip to pay for everything in our time. It contained all of our information, social security info, driver's license, as well as our money. We still used cash though, but the Chip was so much easier. It was implanted into the palm of our non-dominant hand, and all we had to do was wave to pay. It was legit, totally unhackable and could only be safely removed by a handful of professionals around the globe.
I looked around the cab, it was so weird having someon
e driving it. In my time, all of the public service vehicles were driverless and made their way from one destination to another with no human assistance, we even had the driverless option on our own cars, it could be very handy when you were tired or on a long trip. Even the most raggedy cars had that option in 2045, unless they were like classic cars or something. "It's kind of nice, having someone controlling the wheel." I thought, as the cab turned right onto Grove Street.
Aunt Allie had lived on that street her whole life and I had been over to her house countless times. PawPaw and Granny Harmon lived there too, next door to Auntie, in the house that she and my Dad grew up in. I glanced at my grandparents' house and saw a big, white Dodge truck and a blue Dodge Durango sitting there. The style of the cars was much different in my time, rounder, smaller and completely electric, but I could still recognize what they were in this time. There was a little travel trailer parked on the right side of the driveway. "I will have to go visit them, it has been a while since they passed away." I thought, excitedly. PawPaw and Granny died when I was a little bit younger, of old age, but I knew that they knew all about the links and the time travel because my Dad and Aunt Allie told me about it.
We pulled into the driveway of Aunt Allie's house and I quickly paid the cab driver. I told him to keep the change, glanced at his clock which said that it was now 11:58 PM and then started to make my way toward the front door. I was nervous as hell. "What is she going to think?" I wondered. I was only 8 years old on her birthday in 2023. "She's going to shit bricks." I thought, nervously. I knew that she would be awake, because my Aunt Allie always stayed up late. "Here goes nothing, you can do this, Chloe, don't puss out now." I said to myself, as I raised my arm to knock.
"What should I say?" I thought. "Knock! Knock! Knock!" "Oh my God, I'm so nervous!" I hoped that she could hear me, I knocked kind of quietly, I guess because I was so nervous. My stomach started doing flip-flops waiting on her to come to the door. "Did she even hear it? Was she asleep? What was she going to say? Would she believe me? Holy shit, I'm about to throw up." All the questions started buzzing around in my head all at once. I could hear cats meowing at the door. I pulled her journal from the back of my pants and held it in my hand. "If she didn't recognize me, she would recognize this, for damn sure." I thought.
Suddenly, the door cracked open and I heard her say, "Yes, may I help you?" "SHIT!" I thought, excitedly. It was my Aunt Allie alright, I would recognize her voice anywhere, even though she definitely sounded younger. "Oh my God, we're almost the same age right now!" I realized. I was still nervous as hell but I replied, "Is your name Allie Harmon?" Her eyes went wide as I said those words and she said, "Yes, how may I help you?" as she pulled the door open a little more, to check me out further. She looked me up and down and then got to my face and suddenly gasped, loudly. "She recognizes me! Holy crapola!" I thought.
She started looking all around at me after that and I saw her notice the links, still attached to my sleeves, blinking and sparkling in the glow of the porch light above the front door. "She's sure now, I can tell by the look on her face." I thought, just as I said, "My name is Chloe Elaine Harmon. I'm your niece, and I think that we need to talk." I said. Her mouth dropped to the floor and then she yelled, "HOLY SHITBALLS!" and opened the door for me. "Here we go!" I thought, as I giggled at her reaction and made my way into her house. "Holy shitballs." I thought, shaking my head and smiling, that was hilarious.
CHAPTER TWO
"Come in, Chloe, come in! Oh my God, look at you! My goodness, you're so tall, you're taller than me! Holy crap! Is it really you, my little Chloe Bear?" she asked, excitedly, as she ushered me into the house. "It's really me Aunt Allie, are you alright, you look a little shaken." I asked. She was looking a bit pale as she made her way into the kitchen, probably to make some tea. Auntie always had hot tea and it was the best shit ever. I didn't know what she did to it, but it was freaking delicious. She started puttering around the kitchen and took down two coffee mugs from the cabinet. "Can I get you some tea, love?" she asked. "Sure Auntie, your tea has always been one of my favorite things. I take it the same as you." I replied. That made her smile as she turned around and got to steeping.
"Auntie, it's cute that you still call me that. Little Allie and Andrew stopped calling me Auntie by the time Allie was 6 and Andrew was about 3. They thought they were too cool to call me that anymore, it was always just 'Aunt Callie' after that." she said, babbling, as we made our way into the living room to sit on the couch. Kitties were passed out everywhere. Aunt Allie had a bit of a cat obsession, but she was also a super clean freak, so everything was always tidy and relatively hair-free (though not completely). "Oh my God, Auntie's cats! What will happen to them if I can't fix this? Oh crap! She loves those damn cats! Maybe I'll just take care of them, I love them too." I thought, sadly.
I decided to just jump right in and find out what we would need to do to get started, but she interrupted my train of thought before I could even begin. "Chloe, first of all, it's wonderful to meet you, as an adult I mean. I have one question though, what in the hell is that thing attached to your shirt? I can't stop looking at it, and I need to know. It glimmers, just like the links, but it couldn't be like them, could it?" she asked. I looked down at the front of my shirt. The clip was attached in between my 2nd and 3rd buttons. She needed to know about it, so we could figure out what our next step was.
"It is just like the links, Aunt Allie, I have been over and over your journal and I have never seen any entries that refer to the clip at all. That's what it is, I am fairly certain that it is a tie clip, and it matches the links. They're made to work together, in tandem or whatever. You've never seen it before?" I started. Her mouth dropped when I said that, she was intrigued. "No, I've never seen that before at all. Together? What do you mean together? What does it do? How does it work?" she asked, excitedly.
"It works with them, basically. You set your year that you want to travel to with the links, you know that already, but with the clip, you can set the EXACT date that you want to travel to. You don't have to arrive on January 1st, you can choose a date and a time and go, POOF, just like that, you're right where you want to be. That's why I am here now, on your birthday. I knew exactly where you would be today, because we had gone out to eat earlier in the evening and I remembered that." I explained. I handed her the clip so she could test it out herself and then took off the links and placed them safely back into my front pocket.
"No shit?" she said, still a little dumbfounded, flipping it over and around in her hands. "No shit, Auntie." I said, laughing at her. My Dad did always tell me that she cursed like a sailor when she was younger. She toned it down a little bit once she got older, but every now and then she could throw out some pretty good ones, such as, 'Holy Shitballs'. "That was so funny." I thought again, smiling. I was pretty sure that it ran in the family, because I had a bit of a mouth on me too, my Dad said that I was always a little shit talker, even when I was like, 3. "So, you're telling me, that if I had put this clip on my shirt, when I went back in time to save your Dad and your grandparents, I could have picked that exact, horrible date and been there immediately?" she asked, excitedly. "Yes ma'am, that would be correct." I said, nodding.
"Woah! That's freaking awesome! Where in the hell did you find it, anyway? Why didn't I ever find it? It wasn't in my Dad's coin collection box from when I first found the links." she said. "I don't know Auntie, it was in a box at PawPaw Matt's house, up in the attic. I went up there to dig around when I was younger and I found the box up there, the clip was buried way down in the bottom, all by itself, not in any type of jewelry box or anything, just sort of thrown in, underneath a bunch of old junk. Maybe it got put there by accident and lost or something. PawPaw didn't know about it did he?" I asked. She shook her head and said, "No, he would have told me about it and he never mentioned it, even when we were working on deciphering his terrible handwriting in that journal all of those years ago, back in the 80's."
"T
here's more, Auntie." I started. "More? It does more? What else could it possibly do?" she asked. "Well, not only can you set the exact date and time, it also allows you to take someone with you, when you travel." I said. "No fucking way! Shit, I sure as hell could've used a bit of assistance back in the day!" she said, shaking her head and staring at it with a drool face. "You're drooling, Auntie, are you sure that you're okay?" I said, laughing. "My bad." she said sarcastically, finally pushing her mouth shut dramatically, with a finger to the chin. "How do you know that you can take someone with you. I don't know if you know this, but after one of my resets, I tried to take your Dad along with me, back to the past. All we had were the links, but we weren't able to go together, nothing happened when I clicked. He wouldn't have remembered that, since I changed things again. You must have tested it all out, huh?" she asked.
"Yes, me and my sister tried it one day. We shouldn't have tried anything because we didn't know what it was going to do, but I decided that I wanted to use the links and check things out a couple of years before, so she said that she wanted to go to. I remember reading in your journal that you couldn't take anybody, but she wanted to try it anyway, just to see. You know how Riley can be, well, maybe you don't, but she wanted to try, so I attached everything and she held onto my arm and we jumped back to 2 years before. We didn't think that we were actually going to be able to go together, but sure enough, we both popped away and ended up in the middle of my bedroom floor puking our guts out." I said.
"I love Riley to death, but she's 7 years older than me and that was a big difference when we were a little younger. She always treated me like a damn child, even when we were in our 20's, but she has grown out of it since we got older, thank God. Maybe she just didn't want me to get hurt going alone, and then we both ended up getting sick anyway. The first trip was so weird. Nobody was home though, but we went outside and we saw our parents' older cars and we knew that it had worked. Then we hurried inside and cleaned up all of the vomit and went back to our time, right away. We didn't want to chance running into our Others." I explained.
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