Fate

Prolouge

January 9, 2015

The snow crunched under her feet as she walked along the sidewalk. Her hands in her pockets, her head towards the ground, and her headphones in her ears listening to the same songs she heard yesterday. Her teeth chattered as she brought her hand up to knock on her best friend's apartment door. She was hoping he had hot cocoa made and whipped cream-their favorite.

After a minute or so, no answer.

"Elijah!" She knocked a little louder, worried. Hearing rushed footsteps she was at ease.

Opening the door, Elijah was frantic. "Cocoa's on the counter!" He said, and skipped back through the door.

This wasn't out of the norm for Elijah. He always stayed awake at night working on a new experiment and drinking too many cups of coffee. Mia took off her coat and draped it over the arm of the couch, looking for the cocoa that wasn't on the counter.

Instead of interrupting him again, Mia made her own cup of cocoa and sat on the bar stool to drink it. She could hear Elijah cursing loudly and quietly chuckles to herself.

She thought back to when they first met. Elijah was sitting in the back of the class, tapping him pencil on the desk when she walked in. They were the only two people in there besides the Professor, who we called "Phil" instead of "Professor Bates". It was her first year at Washington State University, and it's safe to say she knew not one person. She was in need of a friend, even on her first day, and Elijah has done an amazing job at being her best friend.

She pulls out her cellphone while waiting for Elijah to come to a stopping point, and scrolls through the Instagram app.

"You can come back here if you want." She wheels around in the chair to see Elijah sticking his head out the door, wrench still in hand.

"O-okay," she stutters, in shock. She's never been in his "lab". Nobody was allowed in there.

She hops off the bar stool and follows close behind him.

It's much bigger than she imagined. This apartment is small, but walking in here makes it feel like he lives in a mansion. The walls have pencil marks on them, and the floor is nothing by wood. Tables covered with tubes filled with different colors of liquid and boxes of random junk. The three trash cans lined against the wall are overflowing with broken glass and trash. There's a slight stench of body odor and something Mia can't quite identify.

"Woah," she gawks with wide eyes and mouth dropped open.

"I want to show you something." He grabs her wrist and leads her to the back corner of the room. There's something covered with a once-white, stained sheet.

The room is so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

By the amount of hair on his face you can tell he hasn't shaved since the New Year's eve party. His clothes are stained with coffee and donuts sticks. He isn't wearing shoes, instead, he has on multiple pairs of socks.

"What is that?" Mia ask, pointing to the sheet.

"I'm building a time machine." He replies nonchalantly.

"W-what?" She wasn't in utter shock, just a little surprised. Elijah was always coming up with crazy experiments that Mia knew he didn't have the patience to actually finish.