Before I could open my eyes, hands were clasped over my mouth. I began to flail when I realized they were able to grasp hold of the others too. It wasn’t long before we realized that no matter how we may struggle, they were going to get whatever they wanted out of us.
“Don’t panic, Erich. There’s only two people who would honestly think to come to this spot,” a voice calmly explained as the grip on my arms loosened. Unbelievably I turned around to see none other that the John I had known from my time lowering his cloak. The other two figures revealed themselves to be the Ariel and Lisa from my time, I assume. I hadn’t exactly kept in contact with them but this what I had imagined they would grow into.
“What the hell is going on?” Lisa moaned as she slumped down, clearly over stimulated by it all. Ariel couldn’t stop staring wide eyed are her older self.
John shoved the older Ariel off of him and came over to the older John behind me. “How is this even possible?”
“It’s a long and quite frankly embarrassing story. Just know that right now you’re in a spot in your life where things can go completely wrong or right. Don’t follow in my footsteps, John.” The older John looked truly remorseful as he sat down on our patented log and began to explain exactly what was going on.
As it turns out, John had been down on his luck and had gone to an electrical experiment. After he had taken a particularly long session in the electricity, he broke into my house and tried to rouse me from my sleep. This particular voltage only send my mind back in time while my body remained in the present, essentially brain dead. John guesses that since my mind had no body to host it, it overlapped my previous bodies mind. I think that means I killed my younger self in this time line?
Either way, back in my time John had called Ariel to help him figure out what to do. They both helped me for months as the doctors continued to insist I wouldn’t recover. It was after Lisa came back to town and reconnected that they thought to go back to the electrical experimenter.
From there, they decided that in order to save me from the fate in which I was slotted they had to restore my mind. Thus they underwent a strictly experimental process which could send them back in time. They had to estimate where I was since obviously there was no way to communicate with me. Using the information from his last charge, they landed roughly 8 months after I came here.
“So here we are, attempting to get you back to the electrical experimentation facility to get you home,” John finished. “They told us that in this time they had not dealt with time travel or mind travel so we’ll have to give them these specific numbers.”
Ariel looked sad as she said, “What will happen to Erich in this time?” The group got a bit solemn as the older Ariel came over to her younger counterpart.
“I don’t think he’ll be coming back. I think he’s passed away,” She said in as calm a voice as possible. The younger Ariel pushed her back in anger and quickly ran to my side.
“There’s no way I’ll let Erich leave this world. That’s just too unfair.”
“What about our Erich?” Lisa said suddenly. The group all turned to me and fell silent for a moment. Suddenly the real gravity of what we were dealing with hit me. Either I stayed here and lived out my childhood in a different timeline or went back to my own timeline. The one that I left behind would lose their version of Erich.
“You’re all adults, shouldn’t you be able to move on without him by now?” The younger Lisa said, a bit annoyed.
“Don’t act like life is so frivolous that you would be able to just decide something like that based on such a childish premise,” Her older counterpart retorted. This prompted the young Lisa to turn herself away from the group in anger and embarrassment.
The young Ariel looked my way for some sort of guidance or answer. The truth was I had no idea what exactly I was expecting to do. I had this heavy inner sense of responsibility to make up the trust I broke with Ariel here. The level of anguish she went through in order to forgive me was other worldly and to turn around and leave her entirely the next day would be a cruel hand of fate. That said, to leave behind the world I grew up in seems unnatural. I belong back home with my family, friends, and accomplishments of that time.
“This is far too much to ask. You’re telling me to condemn one version of myself to death,” I said, looking around the group. John’s older self in particular looked torn up.
“I killed you, man,” he whimpered as he dropped the ground. “My own failures have held you back at so many points in your life and now my stupid decisions have ended your life in at least one world. I wish I could take your place, Erich. I do.” I walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder.
Part of me wanted to comfort John, but I just couldn’t. His own decisions should effect his life. Yet this time his absolutely terrible decisions is costing a lot of people more than they can ever hope to give. I’d be forcing my parents and family to suffer my loss in some universe and knowing I’m the decider of which one is only going to hurt more. I knew that people were watching so I went up to John and leaned in.
“Listen, John. I’ve invested a lot of time into getting where I am in life. This chance that I’ve been given was unexpected yet it is who I am now. As long as you stay here I’ll help you figure out a way to unscrew this mistake, but understand that I’m not going back. That would let you off the hook for this inexcusable decision.”
“So you’re going to punish us because of John’s mistakes?” older Ariel said in a stern voice. I turned to see her welling up as she stared me down.
“This isn’t a punishment. It’s a choice.”
“Tell that to your family as the unplug your body and let you pass away. You don’t understand how much is riding on you, Erich.” Ariel turned away and disappeared into the dark twilight of the early morning. The older Lisa sighed and rushed after her. John remained in a puddle on the ground.
“Come on, whatever these guys need to discuss is among themselves,” I said, taking the young Ariel by the hand and leading her away from the scene. John and Lisa quickly followed, leaving the older people to themselves.
The next few days passed by in what seemed like minutes. We didn’t hear a single word from the group as we went about our normal routine. Ariel was far more affectionate towards me, yet now that she felt my choice was for her sake, she acted far more guilty.
“You gave up your entire world for us, Erich. That’s a sacrifice I don’t know if anyone should have to make.”
“It was a forced decision in the end. John’s stupid choice forced me into this world. I’m not going to decide to hurt this world because of John’s incredibly awful choice.”
“Do you know for a fact it was him?” Ariel asked. This gave me pause. John did say he came into my house but how did he not come back in time with the electrical currents, too? Something wasn’t adding up and suddenly my rage melted into fervent curiosity. I knew that I had to be absolute in my certainty before I made a choice to end a version of my own life.
“I don’t. We have to find them before they go back.” I whispered, a bit astonished at Ariel’s willingness to help me.
“If you stay here, Erich, I don’t want you to ever have a doubt that your choice was made in absolute certainty. You’ll torture yourself forever if you don’t.” I couldn’t believe the maturity that oozed through her every word. I admit, I feel a bit adolescent sometimes when she finds ways to inspire my actions.
That night we took off into the night, hoping we would be able to find our interloping selves once more. John and Lisa had agreed to join the hunt in the hopes that they would be able to find out more about this mysterious set of circumstances. I would be lying if I told you that the younger John didn’t saddle some of the blame himself. I told him that just like the incident with Ariel in my past, it was nothing he himself did.
After a fruitless journey, we decided to look up any local electrical experimentation facilities. The only thing that came close was an old light bulb factory on the edge of town that had since been bought out by a mysteriously unnamed group. We decided this was our best chance.
I knew how to drive, I had been doing so far exactly close to seven years. We would never make it on foot so we all agreed to pile into my dad’s Camry. This old relic didn’t have many years left in it anyways. The risk was that if we got pulled over we would create a huge issue for our image. It was a risk that anyone who got in the car was willing to take. As we made our way across town we talked about what our plan was. John told us he’d quickly circle the building in case we weren’t able make our way through the front. Lisa and Ariel were going to lag behind me to make sure that I wasn’t ambushed. I would take the lead, going forward into the factory to attempt to get more clear answers out of our counterparts.
We arrived and I pulled the car up about half a mile out. John quickly left and the girls held each other tightly as I started to advance on the factory.
My entire life up to this point had been astonishingly unadventurous. I figured that once I got a good job I would be able to worry about the other things like love, happiness, and a family. This chance I was given can help me lay the foundation for a future where I would have all of those things. But a what cost? Was I willing to let myself die in my own timeline to keep my own future here secured?
As I approached the factory, there were no lights or signs of activity. It honestly seemed more like a ghost hunt than anything else. I held my breath and gave the girls one last confirmation nod before I pushed open the front doors of the facility, entering into the musty, foul area with a heavy heart.
Writing with Dezz 