TIME: A Call For Help

Chapter 1: Oblivion

I didn't know whether to scream in endless fear, or to wait it out and prepare to die.

I guess I'm better off with option two, not wanting to waste any of my breath, now conscious that if I'm going to die, I might as well say whatever I had ever intended to just to feel like I lived a life, if any.

The vigorous whirlpool of black-hole-second-space seemed to sputter to a halt as I found myself, instead, lingering in a still void, an abyss of inevitable oblivion.

"H-hello? Anybody there? PLEASE? PLEASE?! What did I do to get into this? Future-me, tomorrow-me? All of this, I—" I began to sob as I floated in the matrix, but something or someone interrupted me mid-sentence and I swiveled around to face tomorrow-if-I-somehow-made-it me and she looked fierce and determined, mirroring my passion towards sports and school maybe.

"You okay?" She asked, concerned and offered a hand which I gingerly took. I couldn't exactly construct any answer that would make any sense, so I instead made a very slight nod while mouthing the word 'yes'.

"Well, lemme introduce myself then! My name is Nicole, but you can call me Nikki. I'm sure you know me?" I rolled my eyes, but let out my first chuckle ever since my near demise—even at such a confusing and tragic time like this, I'm still able to make anybody (even myself) crack up, even just a little.

"I guess you'd like to know what the heck happened and probably have a gazillion questions, so expect the unexpected!" she quite cheerfully proclaimed.

"Do I ever." she grinned in spite of my genius-savage remarks.

She explained how I grew up, married Derek, had a kid (the name is a surprise) but how I was never the same at basketball ever since we lost to the falcons in the championship game. Feeling as if the lost game was taboo to my entire ability and dream to get into the WNBA, I later created a time machine (apparently in addition to losing my game, I grew a big desire to excel in academics and got a degree as a neurosurgeon who also modeled for Victoria's Secret (I can't even) but really missed my balling pro skills and used that big future brain of mine to concoct a functioning time machine to where I rewinded to tomorrow, a day ahead, but when I had tried to skip back one more day, I threw off the space time continuum, and about a billion other me's would be making the same mistake (which explains the other me, or this one, or an—are multiplying every second as we speak) and it how it would never stop until me and well, I fast forward to adult me and prevented myself from inventing a time machine. The thing is, it might not even work and I'll be stuck here in the void for eternity while a billion other me's would end up here as well and like she had said, would never end for God's word.

All because of a stupid final championship game. Wait, make that all because of stupid, stubborn Me with a capital 'M'.

But at the same time, I paused to marvel at such a bright future that I won't even get to live to. A world where I married Derek, had a child and basically could forget about one single lost game. How could I? Just NO. If I have that much to look forward to, I must make it my priority to assist future-me in an attempt that'll probably not work to fix whatever I've gotten myself into.

I grimaced, but nodded towards future-me; "I started this. It's time I end it."

~~~

We continued along the great oblivion while I tried to comprehend the confusing mess of 'time travel' future-me somehow made sense of (not).

"So.....what now?" I sighed. Should I trust her? I mean, what other option did I have? Waiting for the unexpected? Then I thought, "If I couldn't trust myself, who could I trust?" Then again, future-me could be an evil clone, android, demon etc, or maybe tomorrow-me who was milliseconds away from whisking me someplace else was the good guy while I was in the hands of a sinister version of myself. Once more, what other choice did I have?

"We are going to explore a bit of this...space just so I know that ending up here we didn't miss anything that could lead to the discovery of origin and all of that, you know? Then as soon as I think there's virtually nothing in this abyss, I'll launch a black hole programmed to take us back to when I was about to invent a time machine, and prevent that from happening. Right now though, let's focus at the task at hand: finding anything in the void of nothingness." She instructed with an air of determined leadership, making me think of being the captain of my team.

We meandered through the nearly pitch-black purgatory in lieu of scanning our surroundings—nothing much if you don't count the miniscule particles and space debris in the distance. I deeply wondered how we were able to stand ground on invisible floor despite the fact that it would appear that we would be long gone and floating away by now, not that I was complaining.

"Ugh I'm so hungry! Any chance you have something that's even partially edible?" I groaned, and she slung her backpack off of her shoulder and pulled out a huge paper bag of food from McDonald's.

"I'm guessing you want a Big Mac?" She intoned and I peered over at the fresh fast-food burger and wolfed it down faster than I could make a three-pointer against the Falcons any day of the week.

"Thank you. You know, you're not that bad of a person." I remarked, the joke screaming to be turned into a future-me pun.

"And you are?" We both turned red from hard laughter. At the same time, it felt a little pathetic that my only friends right now were me, myself and I, but it was better than having a branded volleyball as company, at least being alive much less human.

"I'm sorry for asking again, but what now?" I questioned and she peered over at the entire space, and shook her head firmly.

"Seems like nothing we can ever investigate, or even gather for that matter, so off to year 2034, when you and I were—will be 34 years old." Future-me ordered.

"Aww, but I'm gonna really miss this place!" I sarcastically whined.

"Well, too late and too bad." That's the last time before with no heads-up future-me miraculously summoned a force stronger than life itself which whisked us with winds speeding well over 10,000 mph to the steps of a luxurious modern mansion with sweeping features, a bright green lawn and three to four stories of whatever mansions are made of. I was surprised that I hadn't hurled yet, but I guess I spoke too soon.

"Wow." I gawked as I peered at the towering multi-million home while I tried to rid my mouth of the disgusting, but familiar taste of vomit.

"Tell me about it. Believe me, I wasn't kidding when I said our future's looking bright." She noted, an awe in her voice even though she probably already visited the place once or twice.

"Come on! There's no time to waste. We have to get to adult-me before she makes the time machine thingamajigger whatever-it-is." I insisted and dragged future-me through the glass panel door of the mansion if she hadn't stopped me.

"No, we need to plan this carefully. According to previous experiences, anybody could see us right now including adult-me and who knows what she would think and do if she caught us." She warned. I guess she was kind of right—an encounter with adult-me is nothing but surprises and a grand reopening of Pandora's Box, if future-me taking me on this risky crusade of the impossible wasn't enough.

But did we really want to completely avoid contact with adult-me? Would she understand our situation and join us on our mission to save the world and restore order, or will she hold us captive, maybe preventing her discovery of time travel, but generate a bigger problem invisible to the naked eye future, past or present?