Trees moved abnormally, pulled close together yet far apart by a force with no name to man. Wind picked up, too. Debris swirled in the air like a vortex of dirty dreams.
Claribel saw this every Friday afternoon—the trees, the wind, the tiny tornado. And it first, it was crazy but interesting. She'd been fascinated by the unknown since birth, her mother told her so every day. So, her watching the enigma that warped the park behind her apartment complex was normal.
What wasn't normal... was that her boyfriend of nine months walked out from the trees once the abnormalities stopped. She'd first noticed three weeks prior, eagerly waiting for the ice cream date they'd planned. But when she saw him appear from a ship he'd hidden within the bushes, she ran. And didn't speak to him for days.
She'd always thought it was weird he'd only call on Tuesdays, text on Wednesdays, and take her out for food on Friday evenings. But they were teenagers and she'd summed it up to strict parents. Never had she thought the electrical pull just a block away from her home was his magical entrance.
Claribel knew she couldn't run from him forever. Deep down, she loved him, even if she hadn't said it yet. And this Friday, of all Fridays, she thought she could tell him.
After she confronted him and got all the answers to her questions.
With a deep breath, Claribel stood straight against the tree across the street and waited for his "arrival" to end. She'd texted him on Wednesday, apologizing for not showing up for their dates the past few weeks. He had responded that he'd forgiven her, he couldn't wait to see her.
But she knew he hadn't anticipated her waiting so close, just nearby. Because when he appeared out from the trees, he saw her and froze. The gift bag in his hands fell to his feet.
Claribel pushed her brown curls behind her ear and smiled. "Hey, Emmet," she said.
Emmet, with his dark eyes and matching brown skin, was always beautiful to her. Like a statue carved out of polished stone. Yet, in this moment, he looked terrified. The smile he gave was everything but happy. Nervously scooping down for the present he meant to give her, he couldn't look her in the eye. "Clari," he whispered before lifting his head.
Claribel slowly approached, tip-toeing from the opposite end of the street with a smile on her face. Her hazel eyes locked onto his, and when she was right in front of him, a foot under his head, she peered up at his shocked expression and scrunched her nose. "What's in the trees?" she asked, straight to the point.
Emmet stammered for a minute, stumbling noises leaving him in an array of gasps and grumbles. He slid his hand over his waves, fingers scratching forward. And he too lifted his nose, scrunching it up towards his eyes as he tried to figure out how to answer her.
Because he'd already broken too many rules to be in front of her. But telling her the truth of his hidden "secret" would be the biggest error he could ever do.
Turning his face up towards the skies, he looked away from her.
Claribel grabbed onto the bottom of his shirt with both hands. "Emmet." She tugged at the fabric. "Emmet, I need you to look at me."
Without moving his head, Emmet dropped his gaze to look into her eyes.
Claribel smiled. "What's in the trees?" she asked again. "And don't lie to me."
Emmet's mouth opened, then closed. He looked away for only a moment to watch a car drive down the street behind her.
She tugged at his shirt again. "Emmet, I know something weird is going on—"
His eyes shot back to her, wider than before.
"—I've been watching the trees move for a while now. I thought it was pretty, so I'd linger around and stuff. But then, the other week, you..." She bit her lip. "You came out of the trees and I didn't know what to do."
The bag fell from his hands again. It toppled over onto their feet and an orange stuffed bunny hit the side of Claribel's leg. She waited a moment before looking down at it, but when she saw the fuzzy stuffed animal with bright, blue eyes, she giggled and lifted it up into her arms.
Emmet took it as a chance to step back and away from her. "That's... that's for you," he said, nervously. "I know you like orange—"
Claribel hugged the bunny. "I do."
"—and I saw it at the... um... a shop near my house, so I just had to grab it for you. But, um, I didn't think that—"
"You didn't think I'd see you come to my house in a spaceship?" Claribel pressed the bunny against her cheek, unbothered by his nervousness or her own questions. Her curiosity had taken over. "I have nothing against your ship, Emmet. I just want to know what planet you're from."
"Planet?" Emmet gasped and covered the top of his head with both hands. With the wind blowing gently around them and his arms away from his sides, his open jacket moved, flapping as the air moved.
With him like that, standing just a few feet in front of her, Claribel though he was a superhero. His jacket like a cape, his strength and power masked by his cute, teen awkwardness. It made her giggle. "Yes," she said. "What planet? Are you like Superman? An alien superhero?"
Emmet hadn't the chance to close his mouth. It hung open, cool wind hitting his tongue. He took in the situation, debating on returning back to his "secret" or exposing it all. His smart senses told him to run, to go back. How many times had his sister warned him about his little adventures? How many warnings had he been giving on the effects on his travels and what they'd do in his world?
Yet... the look in Claribel's eyes pulled at his heart, his body. He'd known from the moment he first saw her that he wouldn't be able to escape her. According to Science, they should have never met, crossed paths, or even known of each other's existence. But Emmet had to take the ship, had to press buttons...
He had to break every rule in the book.
"Fuck it." Emmet let out the biggest huff Claribel had ever seen when he reached forward and grabbed her arm. She followed willingly even as she stumbled over the street's curb. Her eyes were glued on the back of his head as he mumbled to himself, leading her into the trees he'd emerged from.
But when they reached the small clearing before the neighborhood park, she saw nothing. Just grass and trees. "There's nothing here," Claribel said, holding the stuffed animal at her side.
Emmet didn't say a word at first. He looked at the empty grass with her, then turned his attention towards her. If she stared into his eyes, which her curiosity didn't allow her to do, she would've seen the wave of emotion pass over his gaze—so much internal conflict, so much regret.
Touching her skin broke those walls as he brushed his fingers along her cheek and pulled her eyes towards him. "Whatever I say or do, I need you to make me one promise," he said.
"Okay?" Claribel faced him, eyes wide and anxious. "I can breathe."
"Yeah, you are now, but..." He pulled his bottom lip up between his teeth. "In a minute, you'll probably give up on life."
"Why?" She took a step towards him, gently nudging his hand closer against her face. "It's just a ship, right? I believe in aliens. I like aliens. And... well, if you are one, that's cool. I think you're a beautiful alien who—"
"I'm not an alien, Clari," Emmet said as he laughed. "They exist, yeah, but that's not me."
"They are real..." Claribel's whisper wasn't meant to be said but thought, yet she couldn't help herself. The simple, innocent reaction made Emmet laugh, to which she shook her head and cleared her throat. "I mean, that's cool. But why do you have a ship?"
"It isn't a ship..." Emmet shrugged. "It's a machine."
"Ship, machine, same thing, right?" Claribel mocked his movement, shrugging just the same.
"No, Clari..." He let out a soft breath and turned towards the clearing. "What I have is a time machine..."
Now, this wasn't what she had expected. Aliens? Sure. Beings from another galaxy? Same thing. And just as amazing. Mainly because Claribel had done her own curious research, looking up at the stars with her telescope and reading the news articles updated each day. But people from the future? Topics unknown?
I guess it is a possibility, she thought as she turned to look where Emmet had moved his focus.
"I'm from the future," Emmet started to say as he reached from his back pocket for the tiny remote he always kept on his person. "And... I shouldn't have left it, but..."
Claribel gulped, watching Emmet place the small device into the palm of his left hand. It was grey and square, a tiny red light flashed in it's center. "But what?" she whispered.
Emmet pursed his lips, lifting his gaze to look at her face. "I'm a part of an essential team that flows through time, trying to correct the errors that destroyed the atmosphere in 2072—"
The wind blew once more. Weak. Barely present. Like Claribel's breaths.
"—But we've made little progress and, well... it kind of sucks because it's hard to live where I'm from." Emmet let out a nervous laugh, but the pain in each sound was evident. "Been doing this over a year and I've done nothing for the future except... maybe... make it worse."
"Why...?" Finally, Claribel found the strength to breathe. She focused on the emotions on his face, flooding over him like waves in the ocean. And with her in front of him, she felt the rush after, as though she were the seabank meant to take the push... even if she wasn't sure why. "I don't understand..."
Emmet bit his lip and pressed the device in his hand. As though it summoned the air around them, the trees rustled, warped, and twisted with what Claribel had always just summed up as magic.
But it wasn't magic. It wasn't Science. And one she didn't understand.
The orange bunny fell from her hands as she held her curls against her face to keep them from blowing against her face. "Okay, you're from the future, that's cool," she said loudly, trying to speak over the wind. "But I understand how that can be worse? Nothing's bad here!"
Emmet turned and watched his ship appear beside them. Draped in a barrier, it had been concealed and hidden, but never not there. It just took one press of his little device to remove the shield that confined his secret...
And with it exposed, Emmet knew there was no going back. "There is," he said weakly.
"Where?" Claribel turned in a circle. "Sure, global warming. And polar ice caps stuff. But what's so bad here, Emmet? What's so—"
Emmet reached out and grabbed her elbow. With one tug, he pulled her body against his and pressed one of his hands into her hair, link his fingers with hers as he helped her contain her hair. Her eyes peered up at him, covered with emotion much different than his, but he read them clearly. According to her gaze, she was flustered, confused, yet excited, and intrigued.
But Emmet couldn't contain his pain. It came out in his sigh as his eyes watered. "You're the bad, Clari..." he whispered.
Her hands dropped at her sides. The window pushed hair between her lips. "What..."
"You." Emmet brushed her hands over her cheeks. "My team is supposed to correct the past and I was sent back to... kill you."
In an instant, Claribel stopped breathing. She closed her mouth, pursed her lips, and let her mind race with thoughts as her lungs screamed for oxygen.
Emmet moved closer, feet between hers, body leaning down against her to close the height between them. "In 2070, you and your team at Oragnics Industries will create a device to control the weather," he whispered, inching closer to her lip. "But in the process, you destroy the world as you know it and leave... you leave the future a charcoaled mess with any human alive living underground."
This is a joke, Claribel thought as she shook her head, mouth still closed, I'm dreaming.
Emmet squeezed his eyes shut as he inched towards her lips with his own. "I accepted... the job. I was prepared to kill you... because you are the final key we needed to be removed to save our future."
Claribel pushed at his chest. Her hands balled up in fists, she tried to fight him.
But he held her and made her look deep into his eyes as the wind stopped moving. "But I saw you and... Clari, the pull I felt from you that day... that I feel right now... it's something I've never felt before. I thought... if I can befriend you, I can stop the course of the future. I didn't mean to love you, but I do..." He pressed his forehead against hers. "I love you and can't kill you. Instead, I go back to my time and lie to them, telling them I'm tricking you into submission. But I... I..."
Her lips finally parted at the sound of his words and air rushed into her lungs as though it was filled with life. "You're supposed to kill me... but instead... you love me," she whispered, panting as she sucked in another breath of air.
"Yes," Emmet said, nodding. "Clari, I can't go through with my mission. I just wanted to come back here and spend time with you... because you're honestly the only light I have in my world."
Claribel held Emmet's gaze as he inched closer again. "Emmet, I..."
"I know... this is weird, a lot, but I knew it wasn't going to come out eventually, I just..." He brushed his thumb against the corner of her lip. "Clari, the future can be... no, if you listen to me, the—"
"I love you, too." Claribel cut off his statement with one of her own. She knew his words would have importance, but she figured if there was any time to say what she'd been wanting to say for over a month, now would've been the right time.
Before he killed her.
Or before the world ended.
Emmet smiled and cupped her face in his hands. "The future is bulletproof. The aftermath is secondary."
Claribel dropped her gaze to his lips. "I don't... know what that means," she whispered.
"You will," he said, closing his eyes. "Just need a little more time..."
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Prompt entry written for PrettyInPunkBookClub Mini contest! Below is my selected prompt! :D
[On 9/30 -- placed 2nd in the Mini awards! ♡]