CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
I landed with a "CLINK" on the toilet in the same house. "Thank goodness, hello toilet." I said to myself. I looked around and was surprised to see some of my clothes on the floor. "Holy shit." I said out loud. I realized then, that we had changed something after all. I never lived in the house the last time. I had never gotten the chance to actually move in. But now, thanks to all of us being there, Chloe really did move in already. "Hello house, I guess I live here now!" I said as I walked out of the bathroom.
It was definitely my house, my shit was everywhere. I went to the master bedroom and saw all of my clothes still in there, hanging in the closet. My comforter was on the bed and it looked just like my old apartment. I went and checked the other rooms and saw Carson's things sitting there waiting for him to return. "I guess she just left them there, until we all returned." I still couldn't really wrap my head around it all, but Auntie was right, it was weird when things changed.
"Very strange." I thought to myself. It was weird being alone, I'd had so many people around me this whole year, I didn't know what to do with myself, so I made my way into the kitchen to see what kind of food we had. Suddenly, I heard a knock on the door. "I bet its my Mom or something. Maybe she's heard about what happened." I thought sadly, as I made my way to the door. I pulled down the Screen by the door to check the feed and I was surprised to see that it wasn't my Mom at all, it was two police officers.
"OH SHIT! THEY'VE FOUND THEIR BODIES!" I thought, scared. "Yes?" I said nervously through the door. They knocked again even louder, so I finally cracked open the door to them. "Hello Ma'am, are you Chloe Elaine Harmon?" said the first cop. "Yes sir, how may I help you?" I answered, trying to sound brave. "Ma'am, can we come inside?" said the second cop. "Sure, one moment, I have a latch on the door." I closed the door for one second, just long enough for me to take off the clip and the links and shove them into my pocket and then I opened the door to let them in. "Sorry about that, come on in. Is something wrong? How may I help you?" I asked, trying to be as polite and calm as possible.
"Chloe, is your Father's name Andrew Sebastian Harmon?" said Cop 1. "Yes sir." I replied. "Is your Aunt's name Allie Renee Harmon, and is she your next door neighbor ma'am?" "Yes, that's them? What is the world is going on? Why do you want to know about my Dad and Aunt?" I asked, pretending to be concerned. "Ma'am, I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but there has been an accident. We've found your Aunt and your Father, they were shot tonight, we're terribly sorry for your loss." said Cop 2. They didn't sound terribly sorry and they were looking at me suspiciously. "WHAT!" I screamed, pretending to be shocked. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHOT! They're DEAD!" I screamed and I made a couple of tears leak out of my eyes. I was scared so it wasn't that difficult. "Yes Ma'am. We're sorry to have to tell you like this, but we have a couple of questions for you ma'am, if you don't mind answering them." said Cop 2.
"Questions? What kind of questions? I don't know anything about this!" I hollered. Cop 1 pulled out a Handheld Screen and switched it on, then reverse gestured and pulled it up to 3D. "Ma'am, is this you?" asked Cop 1, zooming in on me hiding behind a car. You could barely make out my face in the feed. I looked at it and pretended like it was the craziest thing that I had ever seen and said, "NO, THAT ISN'T ME! Where is that?" I said, loudly. "This is the parking garage where your family members were found, and the facial recog says that, this person, right here behind this vehicle matches your description. So, how could it not be you, yet your family members were both shot in this location?" said Cop 2.
I thought fast, I had to. "Sir, I have a cousin, we are almost identical, are you sure that the tiny person behind that car isn't her? Have you even run the facial recog against her? That isn't me!" I explained. They both looked at me like I was nuts then Cop 2 said, "What is this cousin's name, if I may ask?" "You may, her name is Zoey Mae Larson, and I haven't seen her in a while either, I hope she's okay." I was getting good at this lying business, definitely better at it than Auntie Allie, I must have picked up that particular skill from my Dad.
They nodded and then quickly pulled up the facial recog database searching Zoey Mae Larson. When she loaded up, they pulled her holograph up and twisted it toward me, holding up the Screen by my face. "Holy shit." said Cop 1. "I'll be damned." said Cop 2. "You two are almost entirely identical! The recog program only shows a 0.0002% difference in your facial features. Unbelievable. That is the weirdest thing I think I've ever seen in all of my time being on the force." said Cop 1.
"Miss Harmon, you say that you haven't seen your cousin either? How long do you think it has been since the last time you saw her?" asked Cop 2. I shook my head and said, "I'm not sure, maybe 3 weeks? Do you think she's dead too?" and then I started to fuss and blubber and make a fool of myself. "We will check it out ma'am and get back to you. Do you think you could let us into your Aunt's house? Just to see if there are any clues as to who could have done this to her? It would make things a lot easier for us."
I wiped away my fake tears and said, "Sure, officers, we need to find the people who did this! I don't know who would want to hurt my Dad and a sweet old lady! Come with me, I have Chip access to her house. I'll need to check on her kitties anyway, if shes...dead." I said, and we all went out the front door and toward the other house.
We got next door and I swiped my Chloe Chip to access Auntie's house. The cats were waiting at the door and I held them back so the officers could go inside. "Go ahead and look around, I'll be feeding the cats and taking care of their boxes and stuff, let me know when you finish." I told them, as I walked to the laundry room. "Thank you ma'am, you've been a big help." they said, and they went to dig through my sweet Auntie's stuff. "Poor Auntie Allie, I hope we can get this resolved soon, I hate this." I thought, as I scooped some more food into the cat bowls.
"Thank you again, ma'am, we didn't find anything here, but we will look for your cousin and we will keep you apprised of any new developments in the case." said Cop 1. "Thank you, again, we are so sorry for your loss. We will call if we have any further questions." said Cop 2, and they both left the house and went back to their car parked in front of my house. "I think they believed me." I told Boomer, scratching his head. "Well guys, I've left you some food and water. Auntie Kat will be by to check on you tomorrow, and me and Callie will be popping by later tonight to visit too, if I'm remembering correctly." I told all of the cats, and I bent down and scratched everybodys heads.
I walked back across the sideyard and went back into the other house. "Time to go." I told myself. I didn't want to hang around here any longer if there were cops sniffing around. I had to get back and start getting this shit all changed for good. I couldn't do the cops and they weren't ever going to find Zoey Larson, because I was Zoey Larson. I shook my head and went back into the bathroom to sit on the toilet. "Here goes nothing." I said, as I pulled the clip and links out of my pocket. I checked the clock and it was 2:00 AM, July 10th, 2045. That would be the time I would return to if I had to do a reset, and I'd need to write it down, just in case. I set them to 1:00 PM April 6, 2023 and didn't even hesitate before clicking the 'BACK' link and sending myself right back to where I just came from.
I landed with a hollow "CLINK" on the toilet and stood up and flushed. I got up and walked back out of the bathroom. "Thanks PawPaw! Auntie sent me the code! LOVE YOU!" I yelled. "Love you too, Chloe Bear!" said PawPaw, oblivious to everything, as I walked outside. I snuck through the fence into the backyard and followed the walkway back into the shed. Nobody was back yet so I went inside to wait. I peeped out the door and I saw Aunt Callie and Carson closing the gate and creeping through the backyard.
"You're late." I said, tapping my watch. "No we aren't, maybe 30 seconds. Everything go okay?" said Carson. "I'll tell you when we get back, I'm ready to be done with all of this bouncing around." I said. "Okay, Lovebug, change the date and let's go home." said Aunt Callie. "Yes, please." I said, as I switched the date on the clip to January 1st, 12:00 AM and h
anded it to her, then switched the 'FORWARD' link to 2045. We double-checked it and it was fine, so we linked arms and poofed back home. I was exhausted.
We landed fine that time, and dusted ourselves off. "Come on, I'm tired and I need to tell y'all what happened before I pass out for the next 24 hours." I said, as all three of us walked up the walkway toward the back door and went back inside. The house was empty tonight, since everybody went to stay with Aunt Allie for the night, that was good, because I wanted some peace and I was sure that Callie and Carson were tired too.
"There were cops knocking on my door when I got back. Something did change already, I already lived in this house. I didn't live here before, I still lived in my apartment and I was taking my sweet time moving in here. When I got there though, all of my shit was already here, so at least a little something has changed, right?" I explained. "Right, I changed a bunch of little things. But that's good, every little bit is a step forward." said Callie.
"What did the cops say?" asked Carson. "They had me on the Screen, hiding behind the car in the parking garage after Dad and Auntie were shot. I lied and told them that it wasn't me and told them that they should run my cousin Zoey Larson through the facial recog. I let them know that I hadn't seen her in weeks. They pulled her up and they couldn't believe how identical we were. They said that they'd never seen anything like that before." I explained. "Damn, girl, that was good and quick thinking. I am a proud father right now." said Carson, nodding in approval. "Thanks, I was scared, but I think they believed me, and they'll never find Zoey Larson, because she doesn't technically exist there." I said. "Very clever, Lovebug, I'm proud of you." said Aunt Callie, patting my back. "Thanks guys." I said, sheepishly.
"I'm off to bed, I'm exhausted and I have a feeling the Others are going to be up early to come and make sure that we actually all made it back in one piece." I said, stretching. "That sounds about right, we are tired too. Let's all go to bed and we will tell them everything about the cops tomorrow." said Callie. "Good plan, sister." said Carson, yawning. We all went to our bedrooms and in 5 minutes I could hear Callie snoring in the distance. I drifted off shortly after and didn't wake up all night. I was really tired, but tomorrow we were starting fresh once again. It was a new year, after all.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
I was awakened early that morning, too early, by sounds of laughter and talking and too much noise. I stretched and yawned and decided to just get up, it would've been harder trying to keep myself asleep through my loud ass family's noise. I walked into the living room and everybody else was already up. "WAKEY WAKEY!" screamed Callie. "EGGS AND BACEY!" screamed every other person in the house, and then they all laughed their asses off. "Cute everybody, real cute." I said, as I stumbled into the kitchen for a nice cup of the Aunties' hot tea.
"Why is everybody here so freaking early?" I asked, as I sipped on my delicious tea, trying to wake myself up. "We just wanted to make sure that everybody made it back alright." said Dad. "Thanks Dad, appreciate it, but we were awfully tired. That was a LOT of trips in one day." I said and Callie and Carson nodded. "Zoey, tell them what happened when you went home." said Aunt Callie. "Yeah, we've been waiting for you to get up so that you could tell everyone." said Carson.
"Okay." as I started telling them about my visit from the police. "So now the cops are looking for you, 7 months from now?" Chloe said. "Yeah, pretty much, but they won't find me. I swear, we are going to change this and those cops won't remember anything about any of this." I said. "Has anybody checked the app today to see if we have found our mystery man?" said Aunt Allie. "Not yet, we were waiting on everybody to be here first." said Dad, looking over at me. "What? Well I'm up now, check it!" I said, annoyed and still a bit grumpy.
Dad gestured through the app, and to our surprise, there was a match. "Oh my God, it's found a match." said Callie. "Pull it up, pull it up!" Chloe screamed. "I'm trying, give me a sec." said Dad, rushing through the different files. "Here it is. Donald Eugene Sturvis." said Dad, whizzing through to the hologram. "Oh yes, that's definitely that asshole, he's an ugly mother fucker isn't he?" said Carson. "Does he have a record?" asked Callie. "Yes, kidnapping, assault, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, the list goes on and on. Doesn't look like the type of guy that we want following us, that's for sure." said Dad, pulling out the 3D and zooming in. "Definitely big enough to have been one of the assholes in your house, Allie." said Carson. "About the right build too, right Callie? Zoey?" he asked. "Definitely." said Callie.
"Does his file show anything about any known accomplises? Dad gestured through more bits until he found another page with more photos on it. "Yes, there's one other guy, looks like his name is Ian McTavish, what's that name, Scottish?" he said. "I don't know, Dad, pull him out to 3D, let's get a look at him." Chloe said. Dad pulled out the hologram and zoomed in. He was a big ass dude too. "That could definitely be our other friend, big enough to carry Allie easily." said Callie. "Yes, that could be him. Feckin' Scottish douche-bag." said Carson, flipping off the Screen.
"Zoey, are either of those men the man who followed you into the bank in the future? Do either of them look familiar to you?" asked Dad. I looked really hard at the Scottish guy, but nothing seemed familiar, so I flipped back to Ugly Don, nothing stuck out about him either, except his forehead. "No, neither of these men look like that first man. The man in the bank was tall, slender, dressed very nicely in a suit and tie, dark hair, handsome. These guys look like thugs, the other guy didn't, he was pretty dapper." I explained. "I told y'all though, we could have just been being paranoid, we were having a lot of threatening calls by that time." I said. Everybody nodded.
"Well, there are no other accomplises in the file, Ugly Don and The Scot seem to be a two man team, but at least we have names to the faces now, we should be able to find and track them pretty easily from now on." said Dad. "They will start the phone calls back soon, I'm sure. If anyone gets a call, don't let on that we have discovered their identities, we need to continue accumulating our data for our own database and we need to be able to find where they are so we can track them again." said Aunt Allie. "Let's go through those snaps of the inside of the house again with a fine-toothed comb, all together, maybe we can spot anything in there to give us a clue as to how these losers have figured out the Harmons' little secret." said Callie.
We spent the morning going through each snap of the interior of the house until finally, Chloe actually saw something that we had all missed. "WAIT, STOP!" she said, "Go back one." She stood up in front of the Screen and manipulated the image around and then did some zooming into a corner where there was a small, rickety desk sitting, almost in the darkness. "Here, what is this?" she said, zooming in a little more and pulling the image out for us to see. "Adjust the contrast Lovebug, those Snaps have super high quality adjustment." said Aunt Allie. She did and then pulled the image out into 3D. "OH MY GOD!" screamed Allie and Callie. "Is that a journal?" said Callie, standing up and getting a closer look.
It was a journal, but it wasn't any of our journals. PawPaw's journal was old black leather with a string tie around it, and you could barely read his handwriting. Auntie had a purple journal filled with tiny, perfect printing and I had a blue journal with patterns on it, with my curly, girly cursive. This one was almost like an old book, a very old and expensive book and obviously aged, even older than PawPaw's journal. It had brown leather binding, gold edges, and it was flipped open to a page.
"Zoom more!" I said. "I think I see writing in it!" said Carson, excitedly. Chloe max-zoomed and then adjusted the lighting some more. We all gasped at the same time. It was OLD, and the handwriting was old too, like something you didn't see much anymore, beautiful script, and written in the journal, were names, OUR NAMES!
It started with Matthew Harmon, Lissa Sawyer Harmon, Allie Harmon, Andrew Harmon, then Chloe Harmon and even Riley Hill was there, but it was in parentheses right next to Alyssa Larson Harmon. All of our birthdays were written in next to each name
. We were all shocked into silence. "THAT'S ALL OF US!" screamed Chloe. "What the hell is going on here, it looks like a family tree." said Carson.
"This is old guys, really old and our names and birthdays are all in there. Where could this have come from? Has anyone ever seen that before?" I asked. Everybody answered no. "I have no idea what is going on here, but this might explain why these people are following us. They have all of our names, in a journal. Somehow, someone has found an old journal and the person who wrote it, knew that we all existed. What if its another time traveler? Another Harmon? A random?" said Allie. "It's possible. I've learned that anything is possible." said Callie.
"We need to find these assholes and find this mystery journal, that will be our next step." said Aunt Allie. "But to find them, they have to call us back, we need to make ourselves known, go out, move around, and do things so that if we are being watched, we will be seen." said Carter. "Good plan, brother, and great job Chloe for finding the needle in the haystack!" said Callie, and we all clapped. Chloe turned redder than the shirt I was wearing.
"Allie, Andrew and Chloe, the three of you need to start moving around now. We will keep the links and the clip with us, we can't be seen, because we will be in the background, doing all of the investigating and following. You three need to get moving though, we need some more phone calls so we can find this journal." said Callie. Everybody nodded and understood. We had a small plan, and nothing had happened to us yet, we just had to be extra careful and mindful of everything. The past, or the future, could be lurking around any corner.
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