Time Loop

by Jill Cooper

  Rex reaches for me, “Come now, Lara. Say your goodbyes. It’s time to go back to your room. There’s a baby waiting to see you…”

  I tug my hand away and back up. He’s so gross and so disgusting. I can’t believe he would even begin to touch me.

  “What, you don’t want your happy ever after anymore?”

  “Not with him suffering. Not with everyone suffering.”

  Rex approaches me and I take a step backward, even farther. He holds his hands out. “Now Lara. Let’s be reasonable for just a moment. I know it’s not your strong suit.”

  I wish I had a way to fight him. I wish there was a way I could hurt him and get away. My mind drifts to my time in the lab.

  The golden pen.

  I don’t even complete my thought before I grab the pen from my pocket and jam it into Rex’s jugular vein. He screams and his hand goes to it as I yank it free and blood sprays out. I grab his shoulder, knee him in the crotch and he collapses.

  “You’re going to pay for this,” Rex snarls and struggles to get up.

  “No, she’s not,” Jax whispers, his voice hoarse and dry. He takes his chains and wraps them around Rex’s throat.

  My eyes widen and I stare at them as Rex starts to fight, his limbs flailing as blood gurgles inside of his scream.

  “Go, Lara.” Jax’s eyes meet mine and I freeze. “Find your mother and get her out of here before they realize what’s happened.”

  I can’t believe this. I go down on my knees and pull the keys on Rex’s belt free. I find the ones for Jax’s cuffs and undo them. “Get out of here as soon as you can.” I glance at Jax one last time before I sprint for the door.

  Slamming it shut, I pocket the keys and I walk through the hallway. I act as if everything is fine, my hand in my pocket. A few techs and nurses glance at me from the corner of their eyes, but no one seems alarmed.

  If Jax’s prison is under surveillance I don’t see signs of it. Thank God. If they knew what we had just done, I’d be in serious trouble. But since no one seems clued in, I continue to walk calmly back to my hospital room.

  The door closes and I lock it. I let out a deep, trembling breath and collapse on the bed. I put my head in my hands and I rock back and forth. I don’t know what to do. How to get everyone out of this mess. But I can’t stay here anymore. If they catch me, I might be plugged back into the system and I’ll never get back out.

  But if I leave now, with the chip still activated in my brain, Jax might be killed. Once they figure out what we did to Rex…

  If only I could try time travel, but what if they caught me? What would happen to my little sister and brother? If I fail, I would never forgive myself. But I have to try, don’t I? If I don’t try I will be a prisoner here...

  Forever.

  Or worse. I’ll be dead.

  I can’t let them plug me back in. I was supposed to wait for Marcus to send the authorities to our location to free us, but how long could I wait? How long could I resist Rex without him realizing I was up to no good?

  Glancing up, I wipe away my tears and on the mirror across the way my reflection is obscured by a sticky note. I go over and take it off.

  Donovan

  The handwriting isn’t mine so who left it for me? Was it a trap? A warning? Or something else?

  I’m not sure, but I want to see him so bad…

  When the door to my room unlocks I crumple the note up and stuff it in my pocket. I back away from whoever it is. Delilah enters and she checks the hallway before closing the door. “I’m supposed to hook you back up to the system.”

  “Who gave the order?” I ask and hold my breath. “Have you seen Rex?”

  She shakes her head. “He hasn’t been around in ten minutes, which is why we have to make this quick.”

  “Quick?” I lead her on as anxiety builds in the pit of my stomach.

  “I’m going to deactivate your chip, but we have to be fast. If they figure out what I’m up to, we’ll both be dead. And there’ll be no time traveling around that,” Delilah says.

  “Why are you helping me?”

  She takes my arm and helps me lay down on the bed. “This isn’t what we wanted. Me or your mother. Rex and Patricia have perverted everything. I need to help you.”

  I want to know more, but now isn’t the time to ask her. I lay my head back against the headrest. I study her face as she readies her tools and I don’t see any deception. All I see is purity. Someone who is being honest with me.

  I don’t remember what that’s really like, not in this place.

  “This is going to pinch, I’m sorry.”

  Signaling I’m okay with it, my leg bounces with a nervous rhythm. I grip my leg and squeeze my mouth shut and wait for it. The metal prongs clip my port and it sends a metallic vibration through my head. I gasp, mouth parted, and she jams the cable into my brain.

  “It’ll just be a second.” Her voice is distracted as she types on the keyboard. “It’s done.”

  I hold my breath as she yanks the cable out and I see stars. I really hope we don’t need to do this again anytime soon. She grips my hand and helps me sit up.

  “Find a way out of this mess, but when you return make sure it’s to this exact moment in time when we are talking. Go back too far and your chip will need to be turned off again. Go ahead too far and who knows what you’ll miss. If Rex catches you unaware about what’s going on, he’ll know,” Delilah says.

  The door opens and Mom enters. Delilah backs away like a kid caught with her hand in the cookie jar, but it’s as if Mom doesn’t see her assistant. Her eyes fall on me and they shine differently than before. My breath is silent, still, as she edges closer to me. “Pink streamers. A banner. It read Happy Birthday, Lara.” Her chin quivers and her hand reaches out to stroke my hair. She touches my ringlets and her face scrunches into a full on sob. “Oh, baby.”

  Mom.

  She’s back.

  “Mom,” I croak and I am in her arms crying against her shoulder, grabbing onto her like a life raft. I’m afraid she’ll be gone again—that Rex will rip her away from me in a heartbeat. I can’t let that happen. I won’t let that happen. All I can do is hold her.

  “Oh, Lara.” Mom strokes my hair with tender pressure. She kisses my cheek. “What they’ve put you through. What they’ve done to you.” She caresses my cheeks with both hands and her eyes search my face. “We have to get you out of here. They found Rex.”

  My voice warbles. “Rex?”

  “He’s dead and they think you did it. I was sent here to get you for Patricia. She wants to talk to you and it isn’t going to be pleasant. That’s when I knew I couldn’t. And that’s when I remembered why.”

  She grabs my hand, but I shake my head and stand firm, rooted to my spot. “We can’t. They’ll stop us.”

  “We’ll run. We’ll hide.” Mom’s eyebrows arch. “We’ll change our names. We can’t stay here, Lara.”

  “But Molly. Mike.” I take a deep, laborious breath. “We can’t leave them behind.”

  Mom covers her mouth with her hands. I can tell how she is feeling from the way she arches her eyebrows and the sheer amount of panic in her eyes. Her body rocks with a sob and she’s moments away from freaking out, from drawing more nurses and staff toward my room.

  We can’t be discovered having a moment together that goes beyond lab scientist and lab rat so I grip her arms. “It’s okay,” I whisper. “Take a deep breath, you have to stay calm.”

  “My babies.” She closes her eyes and tears drip from her lashes. She holds on to my arm for support, to bring her back down from the violent pain I know she must be feeling. “How could I forget my babies?”

  Her babies. For a split second, it’s as if I’ve been sucker punched. I’m no longer a kid, but aren’t I still one of her babies? Am I no longer worthy of a mother—a father?

  But then Mom caresses my hair. “All my babies.”

  “Mom…” My lip quivers, but I don’t let myself cry. I’m done being
a victim. It’s time to turn the tables on this entire place. “You can’t tell anyone you remember us. You have to pretend we’re nothing more than part of this experiment. If you can’t—”

  Mom’s eyes still and a sea of calm washes over her. We take a deep breath together. “What do we do?”

  “I time travel back to a point in time when I can fix this.” I study my mother’s eyes. “I go back to the point before we were kidnapped. When there was danger but no one had acted yet. I get the information I need, bring it to Senator Marcus O’Reily and have him bring the information to the authorities so they can shut Patricia down. Shut this whole place down.”

  Mom nods, but her eyes hold fear. “What if you can’t? What if you fail?”

  “Then I’ll try again. And again. I’ll do whatever I have to do to get us out of this situation. It’s my fault we’re in it, to begin with.” The weight of my words makes my heart ache.

  Her face clouds with confusion but she says, “Good luck. I hope we don’t meet again in this room.”

  That goes for both of us.

  I head back into the past, but this time I am armed with knowledge and information. This time I will be able to anticipate Rex and Patricia’s moves and they won’t know why.

  I’ll be able to stop them.

  One way or another, Patricia James will be found guilty.

  Chapter Thirteen

  My head clears and, around me, slowly everything pixilated back into place, forming the interior of the sprawling Galleria Mall. Everyone around me is frozen; their faces paused while in mid-laugh, packages in their hands, others with French fries nestled in salted fingers on the way to their open mouths.

  From behind the safety of a pole, my eyes scan over to the McDonald’s counter. My past self is there. Her palm is open as if she was counting change, the register in front flashes $4.97 and the lady waiting at the counter stares off with an impatient squint to her eyes.

  This is the day Molly gets kidnapped. This is the day everything spirals out of control.

  Rick is to my past self’s left, holding onto the counter and beside me, holding hands are the twins, Mike and Molly; their faces paused while in mid-laugh. It hurts so bad to see them happy, but I push past it and place my hand on past Lara’s shoulder to awaken her.

  Her eyes blink and she gazes around. I’m struck by how refreshed she looks. When I look in the mirror I see lines that shouldn’t be there. It’s only been two years, but it feels like a lifetime and I’m in desperate need of a facial.

  Her eyes widen with disbelief. “You,” she whispers as if she was waiting for me to show up all this time.

  “There’s not a lot of time to explain, but you need to go. I need to take your place.” I take a deep, laboring breath and I gaze down at Molly. “Something bad is going to happen today and I need to stop it.”

  Her eyes darken and take me in, traveling up and down my body. “I don’t know what happens today—”

  “—They take Molly.” I clench my jaw. “And we need to stop it. The men who have been following you are here. You have to trust me because I don’t know how much longer we have before time unfreezes.”

  Lara crosses her arms and it’s clear she’s angry. The look on her face makes me want to slap her and I can’t believe I go around looking like that.

  “No one is going to buy you’re me.” Lara touches my hair. “It’s too long and you're wearing white scrubs.”

  “Give me your jacket.” I extend my hand and I must have used my stern voice because Lara starts to peel off her denim jacket to hand it to me. “And your purse. You’re not going to need it anymore anyway.”

  Lara’s eyes narrow as I put on her jacket and I go through her purse. I find some bobby pins and use it to pin up my hair. “Are you her? The one who left me notes in the locker room?”

  “Yes.” My hair is secure, but there’s nothing I can do about the pants I’m wearing. I doubt I can convince Lara to get naked in the food court, even if time is frozen still.

  It’s a lie but Lara doesn’t need to know that. Right now I need her to go along with everything I say. “You have to go.”

  “Where?” Lara demands.

  “It doesn’t matter. If I’m successful, we’ll merge back together.” I watch the shock roll across her face. “There can’t be two of us going around out here. Pretty sure you know that.”

  “I don’t want to just”—tears rise in her eyes—“fade away. I want to stay. I don’t want to go.”

  I take her hands and glance at Molly. “For what we’re going to save, it’ll be worth it. We need to come together as one. And I’ll be waiting for you.” I force a gentle smile.

  Lara doesn’t smile back, but her eyes glint with acceptance. “Take care of her,” she says as she rounds the corner and I go down on bended knee in front of Molly.

  Oh, sweet girl. My heart breaks to see her laughing again, to see her smiling again. I am haunted by how badly she looked last I saw her in captivity, her brown eyes sad and sunken. This is the girl I need to preserve. This is the one I need to take care of above all others.

  I finger the locket around her neck and Molly gasps for air as she snaps back to life. Her lungs fill and her chest rises. “Lara?” she asks me with questions dancing in her eyes as she looks around the mall.

  People are frozen in mid-bite and others are bent over as to scold their children, but we’re the only ones moving. And Molly looks scared as her head whips around to me. But I hold a finger to my lips and the corners dance up in a playful smile.

  “It’ll be our secret. Okay?”

  Molly nods. “What happened to your hair?”

  “I pinned it up.” I unclasp her necklace and pocket it.

  “What are you doing?” Molly asks.

  “I need to keep it safe for now. Get it repaired at the jewelry store. All right?”

  She looks relieved. “I’ll get it back?”

  “I promise.” I smile at her. “Now remember, this is our secret. You can’t even tell Mike what you just saw, what just happened here.”

  Molly nods and her hairs bounce. On the count of three, life snaps back into place in the food court and I drop the money on the counter. Mike begins to chatter on about the latest movie he’s seen and Molly giggles at his story, but her eyes are on me.

  Rick places his hand on my shoulder and squeezes. I tense up, but I turn to him anyway. “How about you get us a table?”

  “Sure, if that’s what you want.” He leans in to kiss my forehead, but I turn to the twins as their tray of food arrives. Rick glances at me, but he doesn’t even notice my hair is different or that my eyes are older. He just doesn’t care about me enough to notice.

  I was a fool to fall for his lies and the anger builds deep inside me.

  I dodged that bullet. Now I’m left to dodge a few more.

  Just as before, we eat in the food court. I remember doing it, but it feels like a decade ago rather than just a few years. But I am older, wiser. I know so much more about the future so when Rick leans in to get close, I pull back.

  “Let’s head to the jewelry store.” I pick up the trays and dump the trash before returning to the table. Both kids take my hands and we head through the mall.

  Leaving Rick chasing after us. “Lara!”

  “I thought you liked him,” Molly says, her little eyes peering up at me.

  “I thought I did too.” I glance over my shoulder and see Rick is right behind us, scowling. . He appears cross.

  Good. He deserves it for everything he’s set into motion.

  I keep the kids close as we get to the jewelers, instead of letting them run off. We pick out the necklace we like and wait for the sales lady to grab a box from the back. I’m caught off guard when Rick takes my hand. His is clammy, just like before, but this time I don’t jump when he touches me.

  Instead, I glare. “You want to keep your hands to yourself?”

  Rick’s eyes widen with surprise. He bites his lip and his eyes
look like a wounded puppy’s. “I thought this is what you wanted. I thought that’s what we were doing here.”

  “Sorry if I led you on, but this is not what I want.” I pull my hand back and there’s no mistaking the disappointment on Rick’s face.

  He falls quiet and I pay for the necklace with my credit card. I manage a smile and drop the receipt into my purse.

  Molly talks about dresses and Mike talks about sports on our way through the mall, toward the entrance, off in the distance is a carrousel. My stomach tightens. This is it. This is the place where Molly is taken and everything changes.

  Where life as I we know explodes around us in conspiracy, lies, and secrets.

  They are so excited, giant grins on their faces, but my stomach only twists with nerves. “Please, Lara. Please?” Molly asks, bouncing up and down.

  I squat down in front of her. “Sorry, Molly, we don’t have time today, but I promise next time we’ll have plenty of time. Then I’ll let you ride it all you want.”

  Molly’s face puckers like she’s going to cry. Mike puts his arm around her shoulder. “It’s okay, Moll. We can watch your fav cartoon instead. If Lara lets us.”

  I smirk and gather my arms around them to usher them past the carrousel. “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

  The kids cheer, their arms overhead in excitement. Rick is left scratching his head in confusion. “Lara, if you could just take a second to talk to me. There’s something really important I want to say.”

  I instruct Molly and Mike to sit on the bench and then I go to Rick. I push my open palm against his chest. “There’s nothing you have to say that I want to hear. You get me?”

  Rick holds up his hands and his mouth falls open. “Where is this hostility coming from?”

  “How much are they paying you anyway to give me everything I want? A thousand? Two? What is my life worth to you, Rick?”

  His face rolls with shock. He stammers and stares at the floor. “It wasn’t like that. I … there… Listen…”

  “There’s nothing you can say, so just leave us alone. Come near us again and I’ll call the police and I don’t think you want them at your place, do you? After everything your brother did?”