Rewriting Time

Chapter 5

A/N: Part 3 of Round 3 - Write three chapters with a total word count of 4.5K (1.5K/chapter)

Word Count: 1.5K

Total WC for Chapters 3-5: 4.5k

***************************************************************************************

Sebastian slumped back in his chair, unable to wrap his head around everything he'd heard. They were back in Solomon's office, sipping coffee while Solomon delivered his monologue. Things couldn't really be that complicated, could they? Well, considering that he'd been drugged, kidnapped, and forced to listen to the most outlandish story he'd ever heard, everything could really be as complicated as the old man's tale. He looked at the picture of the machine in his hand again. He couldn't believe that he had helped design something like that. What kind of man was he before? From the bits and pieces he was able to pluck out of his, at present, superbly unreliable brain, he had concluded that he was a writer.

"I'm still taking everything you told me with a grain of salt, scratch that, a huge bucketful of salt, Solomon, because you haven't provided me with any proof to your claims," Sebastian said. "Honestly, I just can't see myself as the scientist you say I am...or was. From what little I can recall about myself, I'm pretty sure that I was a writer, not some quantum physicist or whatever."

Solomon smiled, pulled out something from his drawer and placed it in front of Sebastian. It was a scientific journal, 'The Modern Scientist'. On the cover, printed in bold letters below a picture of someone who looked eerily like him were the words, 'Dr. Sebastian Chase, Revolutionary Concepts on Time and Space'. 

"You wrote a lot of articles for that journal, so in a way, you really were a writer, too," Solomon said. 

What the effing hell?

These people are really serious prankers, Seb.

Shut up and let me think!

"Still not convinced?" Solomon said, depositing a large, brown box before Sebastian. He removed the cover to expose its contents. Sebastian found himself reaching for the items in spite of himself. Images instantly flashed before his mind's eye - of him typing on an old Remington, sketching on a drawing board, laughing with Solomon and Tobias, dancing with a beautiful woman, kissing her.

"Elizabeth," he whispered.

Images were still flashing inside his brain like an old movie reel. Was that really his life before? Was he truly who they say he was - a renowned physicist?

"You're starting to remember, aren't you?" asked Solomon.

Sebastian's heart was pounding. Was he actually remembering? Or was his mind being manipulated into believing what they wanted him to. Were those images in his mind even real?

"Who was Elizabeth to me?" he said, turning to Solomon. He heard Tobias grunt behind him so he braced himself for the blow that was surely moments away. It didn't come. When he glanced back, he saw Tobias sitting on a chair, head held in his hands.

Solomon's voice was shaking when he replied. "She...my daughter...was your fianceѐ."

Sebastian felt like he was hit with a sledgehammer. Somehow, he had anticipated that answer. But why couldn't he remember her? Why couldn't he remember the woman he apparently loved enough to propose marriage to? Did that make him a monster?

"You still can't remember her, can you?" Tobias' voice had an edge to it. "You really are a piece of work, Chase. How can you forget the woman who gave you a new life?"