"How could Cassie be on that video? That's from like, 30 years ago." I say. We're sitting in the living in Cassie's lake house. The video camera sits on the glass coffee table in between the two beige couches.
"Kat. Our parents are not that old." Tess says from behind her camera.
"Yes they are! Well, my parents are. They're like what, 45-46? Something like that. And in that video they're about 16-17."
"That still doesn't explain why Cassie was on that video." Andrea says.
"Maybe it's a glitch." Jessie says, shrugging.
"No, no that's not a glitch. Cassie actually says something in that video, it's not a glitch. Cassie was actually there."
"But maybe someone just like, I don't know, copied a video of Cassie saying that and like, edited it onto the camera, or-" Jessie goes strangely silent.
"Jess?" Andrea says.
"Oh. My. God." Jessie says, " I just realized something. The first time Cassie came to my house, my mom said Cassie look strangely familiar. She said Cassie looked like an old friend, a friend who had even dyed her hair like Cassie."
"Oh my god," I say, catching on, "Your mom thought she had seen Cassie before because she had. She knew Cassie when she was a teenager herself."
"Wait, I'm confused here. What do you mean Jessie's mom had seen Cassie before?" Tess says.
"Time travel" I say, looking straight at her camera.
"Time travel isn't possible guys." Andrea says, "If it was, people would have done it by now"
"It has been done though, by Cassie." Tess says.
"It was probably a glitch, time travel isn't possible." Andrea insists.
"Fine, let's just watch the rest of these. If Cassie isn't on any others then we'll know it's just a glitch. But if she is on more than one, she invented time travel." I say, pulling the old camera onto my lap. Everyone crowds around me again as I play the next few videos.
Most of the videos are about our parents at parties, some of them are about them doing crazy stuff, like jumping off bridges. But almost all of them include Cassie. Cassie is messing around with our parents. Cassie is friends with our parents.
Speaking of parents, I can hear the sound of my mom's car pulling up in the driveway.
"Kat!" my mom calls, "Kat are you in there?" I sigh and stand up.
"Guys, we're keeping this a secret for now right?" I say. Andrea and Jessie nod, but Tess looks confused.
"But wouldn't Cassie's parents want to know what happened to their daughter?" Tess asks.
"Tess, we don't know that this is the reason Cassie disappeared." Jessie explains.
"Kat!" my mom yells again.
"God! I'm coming I'm coming. There's no need to be so impatient." I yell back as pull on my jean jacket and walk out the door.
"Don't use that tone with me young lady!"my snaps. My mom can be very strict sometimes, especially when she's worried. And she's been worried a lit lately, ever since Cassie disappeared.
"Get in the car." my mom says, opening the door and motioning for me to get in.
"Mom, I brought my own car!" I say, confused. Mom puts a hand to her forehead.
"Oh, that's right. Then get your friends and you car, we're going home." she sighs. I run back up the steps and dash to the living room.
"Come on, we're leaving." I sat, grabbing the camera off the couch.
"But what do we do with the camera?" Tess asks. I hand it to her.
"Here, you take it. You have so many cameras no ones going to notice one more." I say.
"But this thing is like, ancient." Tess complains.
"Whatever, say you want to see how it works or something." I say before dashing back out the door.
My mom is leaning against the car, her expression serious.
"Good, you're all here. Now get in the car and follow me." Her words are sharp, like the blade of a knife. I climb into the car, Andrea, Jessie, and Tess follow. Now that we're alone again, I feel like we can talk again.
"Okay, guys. Let's meet up here again tomorrow at three so we can watch the rest of the videos." I say, turning around to look at Tess's camera. Tess points her camera at Andrea, then Jessie as they answer.
"There, now there's no turning back now. We all agrees on camera." Tess says. My phone buzzes, and I look down. My mom is calling me.I hit the accept call button and put the phone on speaker phone.
"Hello?" I say, motioning for everyone else to be quiet.
"Kat, you need to remember to follow me. Got that?"
"Yeah, mom I got that. But why? Where are we going?" I ask, pilling out of the driveway.
"Just trust me." my mom says. Not a very assuring answer.
"I do trust you, but why?"
"Stop asking questions, please." my mom sounds close to tears.
"Mom, what is it? What happened?" I'm demanding answer. My mom never cries, and if something is making her upset, it must be bad.
Kat," my takes a shaky breath, " you know how people were looking for Cassie? Well, they found her. But they didn't just find her. Kat, they found Cassie's body."
YOU ARE READING
Missing in time // {UNDER EDITING BEFORE CONTINUATION}//
Science Fiction"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us." Two years ago, Cassandra Low disappeared. Presumed dead, it's a shock to her friends to find her again, 30 years in the past. The old video camera in the attic of Cassie's lake house had...
