CLIPPED_Another Time Travel Tale

by Angela R. Hart

  Carson's color already started looking better once Dad finished compressing the suture patches. Those Blood Dots were like, magical. "How are you feeling now, brother?" Dad asked. "Like a dumbass, but I'll live." he said, forcing himself into an upright position. "You'll need to sleep it off and stay still for 24 hours, so that the Blood Dot can complete the cell replication process. It always works better while you rest." said Aunt Allie.

  "You also don't want to jar those suture patches, they'll help close the wound much faster than normal, if you're careful. Put this on your arm, over the muscle." said Auntie, holding out one of the antibiotic patches. "Give me your good arm." she said. She was being really bossy, but she was scared for him, so she was being a mother hen. He held out his good arm and she smacked a tetanus patch onto his vein, a little too forcefully, and he winced. "Serves you right, bringing that stupid gun in there, TWICE." she said. "Shot your damn self, pitiful shame. Dumbass." she mumbled. Auntie was in a nasty mood.

  Carson didn't have any smart ass remarks. He was probably exhausted though, so he finally got up and stumbled his way into his room to go to bed. Callie went to her room to change her clothes, the ones she had one were covered in her brother's blood. She came back into the living room a few minutes later with fresh clothes on and plopped down on the couch.

  "We're sorry that we weren't able to get the journal guys. We can try again if you want us to, once the moron heals up." she said. "We can find another way." said Dad. "Yeah, Aunt Callie, it's okay. I'll come up with a new plan. If at first you don't succeed, try, try again, right?" I said. "That's right Lovebug." she said, closing her eyes. We would come up with another idea, it was only a matter of time, I thought, as I closed my eyes too. It was only the middle of the day, but we were all exhausted. "Naptime." I thought, as I drifted off into the Land of Nod.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Months went by quickly, after the incident with Carson, and no more phone calls came to us. "It's weird, they were coming more and more frequently by this time, what could have happened? Do you think we spooked them?" I asked everybody one night. "I don't think those men are easily spooked, Lovebug. I don't know what could have happened to them. Maybe they've created a new plan now that things have changed." said Aunt Allie. "Who knows." said Chloe. "Maybe they had a fight and broke up." said Carson, joking around.

  We decided not to try to go after the journal again. At first I suggested that we try the same plan over again, only using one person and popping in directly next to the desk and then popping back out, but the family took a vote and decided that it was just too risky, especially with Other Carson being armed. Plus, Ugly Don and The Scot had been nearby the whole time and we just never knew it. "It's just not safe, love, the journal isn't worth one of us getting ourselves killed a little sooner than July 9th." said Aunt Allie. "You're right." said Dad. "We will find it again one day, I'm sure it will turn up eventually." said Callie.

  Everybody was on edge by the time the end of June rolled around. Still, no phone calls had come through and we were really scared about what was going to happen on July 9th. "It's just around the corner and we have absolutely nothing." I said, getting upset. "The past is weird like that, it likes to toy with you." said Aunt Allie. "The first time around for me, I didn't know what to expect. I thought that I had saved my family, just by telling your Granny not to change her medicine. I didn't know that the house was going to catch on fire because we didn't leave it that night." said Callie. "Anything could happen, and that's why we have to be ready for anything, weather, fire, robbers, whatever." said Allie.

  "That freak storm that took out our old house was insane." said Carson. "I've never seen anything like it. We were all hiding in the shed waiting for Callie to drag Allie and herself to safety and it sounded like the Gates of Hell opening up. We swore that we would stay there though, even if we heard screams, and we did hear them screaming. It was the scariest day of my life, guaranteed." said Dad. "I would say it was the scariest day of mine too, but I barely remember anything." said Callie. "Ditto, plus, we were impaled at the time." said Aunt Allie. "We just have to be ready for anything, and we have to be very careful with how we move around that day. It doesn't matter if you stay in the house or go somewhere, something happens no matter where you are." said Callie. That made us nervous, there was just no way to prepare whatsoever.

  Things had already changed this time around, because we didn't have to swap the links and clip out with each other anymore. Since the phone calls stopped, we also never started being followed. We never noticed anybody trailing Dad or Aunt Allie. None of the rest of us noticed anyone following us either. We kept the links and clip in the safe in our house, instead of Aunt Allie's house. We knew that they already knew about her place and since they tore it up when they were there abducting her, they knew the layout of everything, including where her safe was located. "That would be the first place that they would look if they show back up over there. They couldn't get into it the last time, because I was there with the bat, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they might try it again." said Aunt Allie.

  "You're probably right Auntie." I said, and everybody agreed. On the first of July, we decided that I should carry the links with me until the 9th. If something were to happen, I needed to have them readily available to poof to my real time and then poof right back and reset things. We all decided that I needed to journey back to my original timeline one last time, and stay there for a while, that way, maybe I could do some investigating after the incident to find the men.

  Our suspicion was that maybe the men would turn up afterwards looking for the links, and that sounded like a good plan to me. Callie and Carson decided to go with me, so I wouldn't be alone, and if the cops came, they would sneak off somewhere else, out of sight. I figured that was as good a plan as any, because we needed to find where these people were and then stop them in the past, that was imperative to our success. Regardless of how long we were actually gone, we could always return to the exact time that we left, like nothing ever happened.

  We could wear the Contacts constantly, to keep in touch with the rest of the family while we were away. None of us were sure how we had been able to do that before, when we went to the past, but it worked and we wanted to keep doing it, just in case we spotted anybody following us in the future. Maybe they worked properly because we hadn't actually done a reset at that time. We weren't scientists though, so nobody thought too hard about it, we were just glad that they would work. The only time we would need to remove them was when we slept, so they had time to recharge in their ElectroFluid. We did a test run before we all sat down, to make sure all three feeds were going to come through clearly. "Everything looks good, guys." said Dad, nodding. "Good." I said.

  Callie, Carson and I were going to be leaving the living room with everyone looking on. "It'll be fine guys, we will be back in no time, like we weren't even gone." I said. "Yes, we need to make sure that everything is in order for when the 9th comes along. It could happen at anytime that day." said Aunt Allie. We all sat down on the couch, side by side and set the links for July 9th at 11:45 PM. The cops had left a couple of hours before that, so they would've been long gone by the time we got there. We were just going to stay in the house for a while and I was going to move around as I normally would, since the cops weren't technically looking for me. My handprint matched Chloe, not Zoey and Zoey was who they were trying to find.

  Everybody dropped their meds and then the three of us sat down, side by side on the couch and set the links and clip. July 9th, 2045, 11:45 PM. We double-checked and then linked arms. "Ready to do this?" said Callie. "Ugh, no, but let's do it." I said. "Okay, let's do it." said Carson, as he clicked the link, shooting us forward in time once again.

  We landed easily in the same spot that we had just left, except this time, it was just the three of us, the other three were long gone. "Geez, the house is a wreck." said Aunt Callie. "Well, it wasn't me, it was Chloe." I explained. We got up and started c
leaning up everything. "Harmons, can you hear me?" said Dad. "Loud and clear brother, all good." said Carson, bending down to pick up a pile of clothes off of the floor. "Turn on your Screen." he said.

  "Why?" said Carson. "Just do it, man, and go into the app." "SCREEN" said Callie, bringing it down and snapping to activate the sensor. "You're real good at that now, Aunt Callie." I said, smiling. "Hush." she said, switching through the different apps until she got to the one we needed. She opened it up and waited. "Okay Andrew, we're in, now what?" she asked, waiting impatiently. Suddenly, the images started changing by themselves until a feed of the living room came up, then Aunt Allie stepped into the picture. "WHAT!" screamed Carson. "Allie!" said Callie. "Can you see and hear me guys?" she said, waving. "We see you! Holy shit!" said Carson. "That is awesome. We can keep in touch completely now." I said, shaking my head in disbelief. "How are you doing it?" Carson asked.

  "Use the Snaps, I have a Snap sitting on the table right there, directly under the Screen facing the couch. Just set it up and open the app, from there, go into the folder marked Live Stream with Voice Recog and put in the password alliecat83 and hit 'PAIR', it will connect us all together and we can see each other the whole time as long as we are in the Snap's view.

  Carson reached for his Snap in his back pocket and followed her instructions, it took 2 minutes and we had our feed linked to theirs. "Can you see us?" Callie said, as we all sat down in a line on the couch, waving. Chloe and Andrew appeared in the background and everybody sat in the same places. "We see you all! HI!" said Callie excitedly. "This is the coolest thing ever!" I said. "We miss you already!" I said. "We miss you too!" said Chloe, smiling.

  "Well, we are just going to clean the house, but we are going to leave the connection open, so you guys can go on and do what you need to do also." said Callie. "Sounds good. We can click the Screens off for now, and if we need to have a meeting, we can get you through your Contacts. We will see everyone later, have a good night Harmons." said Dad, snapping his fingers. The Screen went dark. I snapped my fingers and ours went dark also. I gestured to mute on the Contacts and we went along with our evening of cleaning up Chloe's mess. Callie and Carson gestured to mute as well.

  "They don't always have to hear everything we all say all the time." I said. "Right, we need some privacy too." said Callie. "I like how Andrew just calls us 'Harmons'. It's weird and Dad-like." said Carson. We all laughed. He was right, but it was cute and that's what we were, a whole hell of a lot of Harmons. "Come on Harmons, let's clean this mess and go to bed." I said, laughing.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  The Screen in the living room was playing the ring tune really early the next morning. "Oh crap, who could that be?" I thought to myself, as I got up and ran to catch the call. "WHAT IS THAT! HUH?" screamed Carson grumpily from his bedroom. "Screen call, I got it, you two stay out of sight." I said, running to snap the Screen on. I gestured to the Call App and flicked my hand to open it. "Chloe, thank God, you're there." It was my Mom, son of a biscuit, she knew.

  She had been crying, obviously, she could barely catch her breath. "Mom, it's okay, I'm here. Are you okay?" I said, looking at her with concern. "Poor Mom." I thought. "Chloe, something terrible has happened, I need you to sit down, she said, stifling a sob." I knew what she wanted to tell me, but I feigned ignorance and went to sit on the couch where she could still see me. "What's wrong Mom, are you alright? You're crying!" I said. "It's your Dad, Chloe, and your Auntie, something unimaginable has happened." she said, breaking out into more sobs. It was making my heart break and I started to cry too, I hated lying to her. "What Mom? What about Dad and Auntie?" I lied.

  She got control of herself and said, "The police were just here, they've found your Dad and Auntie dead in a parking garage, both of them, shot." she said, barely getting the words out. "I know, Mom." I said. I couldn't lie, there was no point. If the police were there, then they would've asked her about Zoey Larson, and she knew damn well that I was also Zoey Larson. "They asked about Zoey, right?" I said. "YES! And I know that you are Zoey, so what in the hell happened! I saw you there, on their Screen, in the garage! They showed it to me and asked me how long it had been since I'd last seen your cousin!" she screamed. I started to cry harder. "I'm sorry Mom, I'm trying to fix this all. We will fix it Mom, all of us, I swear." I cried. "You need to come here, Mom, we need to talk face to face." I said. "Okay, I'll be there in 15 minutes, be ready for me." she said and gestured the call away.

  Callie and Carson peeked around the doorway. "We heard, crap." said Callie. "She knows about everything, Dad told me that he was going home to tell her the whole story, when I first showed up. I don't know if he told her that they were going to die though, she seemed surprised and completely shocked." I said. "I don't know, but we all need to sit her down and have a talk with her, she is part of this too. Andrew kept her away so that she wouldn't be in the middle of it, but now she knows everything, including the fact that you are Zoey, so if the police are sniffing around there, she needs the whole story." said Carson. "You're right, she doesn't need to be kept in the dark. She will be here in about ten minutes and we are all going to talk to her together." I said.

  Ten minutes later, she knocked on the door quietly and I got up to let her in. I swung open the door and Callie and Carson were waiting on the couch for her. She was going to be incredibly shocked to see them. She was still crying as I let her in. "Mom, don't be alarmed, but they are here." I said. "Who is here?" she asked, sniffling. We got into the living room and she stopped and almost fainted. Carson jumped up to grab her before she hit the floor. "There we go, hey Alyssa, it's okay, you're alright." he said sweetly. Callie got up to help him take her to the couch to sit down. "Hey Lyss, it's us, it's okay." she said calmly. "Oh my God, Andrew! Allie! Thank goodness you're both here, even if you're just babies." she cried. I had to stifle a giggle at that, now was not the time for snickering. I quickly fixed my face and turned to her.

  "Mom, we are here for a while, from the past, so that we can investigate the men who did this." I explained. "Okay?" she said, not understanding. "The logistics of it aren't important, Lyss, but it is important that we track them now, so that we have a way to find them in the past, you understand, right?" said Andrew. She hugged him tight and said "Yes, I understand, we HAVE to fix this. You...they... can't be d...ead." as she started to cry again.

  "Why couldn't you just bring your Auntie and your Dad here from the past, from a week ago?" asked Mom. "We already thought about that, but the police move too quickly because of the Screens everywhere, we would never have been able to do anything with their bodies. So, we have to actually change everything, Mom. I'm sorry." I explained. "We have been over every plan Lyss, and finding these men and stopping them was the only feasible one." said Carson. Callie nodded.

  "We are doing everything in our power to fix this, we swear, we have been for over a year." said Callie. "Don't worry Mom, it's going to be okay. They won't be dead for long." I said, hugging her shoulders. "Okay, I trust you all. Fix this problem." said Mom. All three of us replied with, "We will." She finally really looked at the two of them then and said, "Wow, look at you two, you're so young! I remember when we were all that young." They both smiled and Carson said, "The good old days, baby."

  "Chloe, why don't you take your Mom to lie down and sleep some of this off for a little while, she doesn't need to be alone. Let her rest in your bedroom." said Callie. "Okay, Auntie." I said, and helped my Mom to bed. "I'll bring you some of Auntie's tea, it'll knock you right out Mom. I'm sorry that this happened." I said. "I know baby, but it can change, so I'm a bit more hopeful now." she said, closing her eyes and snuggling into the pillow. She was out as soon as she finished the tea and I went back into the living room.

  "We need to tell the Others. They need to know that she's here and what she knows." I said. "You're right, let me get them on the Contacts." said Carson, as he gestured the mute back off. "Harmons, click on the Snap, we have a small situation." sa
id Carson. We both snickered at him when he said 'Harmons'. I stood up and snapped the Screen back on and flipped to the app to show the feed again. Everybody was walking into the living room to sit down. We all sat on our couch and waited.

  "What's up, brother?" said Dad. "Alyssa is here, and she's very upset. The police went by to tell her about your deaths." said Carson, seriously. "We've calmed her down and put her in bed, but we thought that you needed to know." Callie said. "Shit, I didn't tell her what was going to happen exactly, I only told her that Chloe was here to help us with a situation." said Dad. "God, Dad, now she's shocked and devastated. You should've told her everything." I said. "Yeah Dad." said Chloe. "You need to get her up and bring her into the room and I'll talk to her from here. I'll explain everything, everybody else can just wait in the other rooms." he said, sadly. "Okay. I'll go get her now." I said, getting up.

  The rest of the family went into the other rooms to wait and I grabbed Mom and warned her that she was about to get another surprise. "Be prepared, Mama, it's a big one." I said. "Okay?" she said, walking slowly into the living room. Nobody was on the Screen when we got in there, just a view of the empty couch. "Sit down on the couch there, Mom." I pointed to the place. "Now watch the Screen." I said. She looked up and then my Dad walked back into the frame. "Hey Lyss." he said, and she almost fainted again. "Mom's got the vapors." I thought. "Poor Mom."

  I walked out of the room then too, they needed to have a private conversation. Me and Carson and Callie waited on the bed until she finally came back and got us. "Thank you for that guys. It helped. I talked to Allie and Chloe too. I trust that, between the six of you, you can make this thing disappear." she said, much more calm than she was before. "Yes, we can." I said. Callie and Carson nodded in agreement.