Related Post (Part One of Stealing Time)

What now?  What now?  He’s going along right now but he will have questions and it won’t be long before he expects some answers.  I’ve got to keep him moving!

“Cassie, wait – where are we going?  What about the people back there?  Shouldn’t we help?  They may be hurt!”  Kell asked, tugging on her hand and dragging his feet.

“Kell if we go back, how are you going to explain why you called in this morning?  Don’t you think there will be questions?

“As a matter of fact I have a few myself.  Like how did you know that something would happen this morning? And why don’t you want me to go back?  Cassie you have to tell me what’s going on.”

“And I will – I promise, but we have to go now, Kell.  Come on!”  Cassie pulled him further.  She glanced at the sky and pulled Kell down a side street.  Kell noticed that she kept glancing at the sky from time to time.  Sometimes they would change direction after she looked up.

As they rounded the corner of an old brick building covered with graffitti, Kell saw that the sky above them was full of all kinds of birds, wheeling and squawking.  Cassie seemed to know exactly where she was going but it was really freaking Kell out.

Cassie looked around and seemed to see something that satisfied her.  “This is it.  We just need to wait a few minutes.”

“Cassie, wait for what? What are we here for?  There was a spot in the air directly under the birds where the air looked funny.  It kind of shimmered, Kell had never seen anything like it.

“Kell, please just trust me a little bit longer?” Cassie knew Kell might never forgive her but she had to get him to go with her.  If he stayed then there would be questions about why he wasn’t at work that morning and how would he explain?  If he lied they would figure it out and suspect that he had something to do with the explosion. If he told the truth?  What truth?  that his girl friend had some kind of premonition?  Then they would want to question her and what could she say?
“well you see officer, I am a time traveler and I had been to the future and came back to save my boyfriends life…. Uh, yea.  They would buy that.”

Cassie pulled Kell’s hand and headed straight for where the air looked funny.  The birds were right over their heads now and making so much noise he almost couldn’t hear her as she said “jump now!”

Before he knew what was happening it got ice cold and darker than any night he had ever known.  He was terrified but in seconds it was getting a little lighter and and the painful cold was backing off.  He was dimly aware that Cassie had a death grip on his hand the whole time.  He felt her squeeze his hand and realized he had his eyes slammed shut.  He tried to open them and felt sick to his stomach.

“What the heck was that, Cassie?”  He managed to stammer.  It was getting lighter and it looked like they were still in the alley but not precisely the same alley.  He looked around with wide eyes.

“A portal.  That’s what I call it.  This didn’t come with a ‘How To Travel Through Time For Dummies’ manual.  She tried to smile at him but as she watched his expression warily, the smile faltered and then disappeared altogether.  Kell was staring at her as though she had completely lost her mind.

“Are you telling me we’re in a different time?  I know what you told me but this is… I don’t know, I can’t wrap my mind around it”

“Kell, I don’t know how it all works but we’re in the same place – only it will be different because the time is different.  If we go to the same place your apartment was you will have somewhere to live here in this time.  We need to stay quiet and just try to get there without attracting too much attention until we figure out what this time is.”

They headed back the general direction they had just come and Kell tried not to stare, his mind reeling.  As they turned a corner onto a main street he realized with a shock that this was where he worked and where the explosion had happened just a little while ago.

“Cassie look!”  Kell started to point and Cassie grabbed his hand.  “We have to keep going and get off this street.  As soon as we are inside we can talk, okay?  Just a little farther!”  Cassie led him down the same street that she had raced down just a little while ago, terrified that he was dead.

They got to a door that looked sort of like his and Cassie turned the handle and the door swung open.  They stepped inside and closed the door.  Kell looked around at what was his home but at the same time wasn’t.

Cassie collapsed in a chair and waited for Kell to start talking.  She had no idea what he was going to say but she knew he was going to need some time to process.  She just hoped that when it was all out and he understood what she had done that they would be able to heal.  Would he be able to trust her after this?

“Cassie?”  Kell started quietly. “I need you to back up and start telling me everything.  I thought I knew you.  I thought we had something special, but this?  I have to slow down!  I’m trying to understand.  How do I get back?  What about our lives? ”

Cassie looked at him sadly. “I’m sorry that I lied to you at first.  How do you tell someone something like this?  I had to wait til you knew me enough to trust me and then I had to tell you something that could destroy that trust!  I love you Kell.  Whatever else has happened, I hope you believe that.”

Kell started to answer and as he turned, he saw something on the bookshelves and his mouth flew open.  Cassie turned to see what he was staring at as he strode to the shelves and picked up a picture of a young bride and groom.  “We got married??”