Time ✔️

Chapter Thirty Four

Word Count: 1571

~Time

I'm not sure how long I lay there.

Whatever poison she mustered, it's punishing. Days must have passed, and yet here I am, still lying upon her chair, bandages strewn across my bare chest. Not once, has this crazed lunatic returned, even to check on me. She's lucky I could lay here for centuries and not once even lose consciousness. But I'm bored...painfully bored. And angry.

Footsteps echo throughout the basement, light and quick. Raising my head, ignoring the way my neck aches in protest. Jennifer walks into the room, dressed neatly, hair pulled back into a bun. The rest I hardly pay attention to; she's hardly worthy of more than a brief glance.

"Apologies about leaving you so long. I had business to attend to, people to correspond with," she comments, dumping a pile of paper on the bench near me.

I don't say anything.

"This is turning out to be more difficult than I intended. Here I was, thinking one of my professors would know how to return your powers. But no. So, you'll stay here, until I can figure how to return them, and take them as my own," she says, pressing her fingers into her temples, clearly bothered.

She only came down here to vent, or maybe have me slip up and give her an idea. It's a shame I don't know how to return my powers either. Which means, my past self is still with Rosie, doing who knows what with her. Just the thought...he could have hurt her, or worse, seduced her, and she will want to stay in that realm. It will destroy everything in the future, including me.

"You reallythink you can take my powers from me, even if you find a way to get them back?" I question, honestly more amused than angry.

She glares at me.

"You don't think my creator thought of foolish souls like you? I'm the only person on this very land who will ever be able to handle my powers without dying. Now take this bandages off me, and maybe I won't kill you," I say, hoping she will accept my offer without a second thought. Every word I say is true, but that doesn't mean she would believe me.

She steps forward, carrying that cloying scent I despise so much with her. Leaning over me, I ignore the brush of a few stray hairs against my face, even if I want to flinch. "I'll figure it out, even if it takes years, decades...centuries."

"Your mistake," I comment.

Jennifer rolls her eyes back, freezing on the spot. For a moment, I compare to every time I've been around her, experiencing that persistently irritable eye roll. Accept her eyes don't return, as she reaches up, digging into her hair. I'm stunned, as she screams, blood spilling from her nose and ears, before she collapses onto the ground in a heap.

As she falls, her murderer is revealed from behind her. Thought. He stands there, staring at the girl, no weapon in his hand, except black gloves clenched into a fist.

I eye him. "Classy, brother. How often do you use your mind powers to kill an innocent girl?"

His chest deflates, as he wipes his brow with the back of his hand. I know he's from the future, my era. He has those unkempt curls and doesn't pay mind to the fact he is wearing a shirt that shows his arms, which once we thin and sickly. A lot has changed. But that is hardly on my mind, considering the fact that he really shouldn't be here, thousands of years from where he should reside.

"She would have talked. I have to preserve my powers," he mutters. Stepping forward, he pulls the bandages from my body, and slowly, feeling returns to my body. I go to thank him, but I'm wary of his presence.