Time Ripper

"If you are reading this I have gone too far. This has been the biggest tragedy that I could ever imagine. I have become a cold case that will never be solved. It shouldn't be if I can help it." My apartment felt strange this evening. The warm sunset was beaming in the bay window. The warmth on my neck was new after the franticly drastic hair cut from the morning. The day became a week then back to the beginning of today and I am still trying to focus on it. Running all morning. Pain in my mind from all of the looping. Strain in my heart from the deaths I have caused. "The autopsy of the child's body will begin today." The tv whispers in the other room as Gina reads from the small black book she found on top of the huge bag filled with hundreds.

"This is my handwriting but I don't remember writing this. The Ciaffone's child being kidnapped only happened a few days ago. How would I have written this?" Gina says as she runs her fingers over the swirls and ink dots in the small black book. Wait! A shock went through Gina as she searched her dirty pants pockets. "The black book that I found in the Cadilac of the Ciaffone's driver. Gina flips back to the second book, where her writing was, finding the same address and drop off the drop-off details as the first book. She keeps reading her handwritten notes then flips the page, "You are the reason the boy is dead." Ah! Gina throws the books on top of the bag of money. "No. No, it wasn't me! It is mine! This is what they owe me!" Gina stands screaming in the small room. An aching cold freeze in Gina's neck had been slowly building into a block of ice now piercing her spine. "Halona did this." Digging her nails into her spine.

Gina hears footsteps to her apartment door. Jingling of keys. Twist of the knob then a step in. An almost mirror image of Gina steps in. Blacken eye, muddier clothes, and knuckles red from a hard time. "Before you say anything I know you can time travel. Obviously, because I'm here. So we have, well, I have made a huge mistake." Gina says with her hand straight out keeping a distance from the bewildered present self. "Wait!" The present Gina says. "No, no talking. The pain that you are feeling in your spine is because I'm here. I am feeling it too and I know what I have to do." The ardent future Gina brings a handgun with a silencer from behind her back, pointing it at the present Gina, " I have to erase this timeline." A quick pop from the gun aimed at the present Gina with a splat of red behind her head ended the conversation before it began. A single Gina stood in the room with all the elements of a crime scene. Money, secret notes, and a bag full of money. Before leaving Gina walked over to the two black books and picked them up. Gripping them tightly she whispered, " I don't think $20,000 is worth this." She turns walking out of the apartment then closing the door.

Stand in the hall of the apartment, with the breeze around her Gina relaxed her shoulders slightly. The ice was easing slowly. She had a clear image in her conscious, the lobby at the casino three days ago. She turns and runs full speed into a swirling haze in front of her. Ripping her body through the haze then spitting her out into…A PARKING LOT. The casino parking lot in the rain, "Well I was close." She says looking around. "This must be before I came to meet with Halona. Before the Ciaffone boy was snatched." Scanning the parking lot she sees her past self sitting in her car. Gina ducks and creeps to get a closer look. Her past self is pouring two small bags on a mirror then sniffing them up. A shiver runs through her body, "The things I did to do for this job", she shakes her head. Crouched down whizzing through the cars to the dark tree line, Gina stands in the darkness. She watches herself head into the casino then sees a few of the bodyguards leave from a back exit. She runs over to her car to follows the guards. Knowing her past self gets tied up and thrown into the woods so she won't miss the car. Gina follows the men for a few hours to watch the devastating attack, the murder of the caretaker, and the kidnapping of the local Italian mob's first son Rocco. One of the saddest days of Gina's life is watching from afar and there is absolutely nothing she can do. Changing the timeline anymore can shatter the world in an instant. All the sci-fi movies that she has watched taught her just enough.

"So Halona was the reason for the kidnapping." Gina says soaking wet in her car, "They must have framed me for the killing that's why I was all over the tv. When they dumped me in the woods they took my gun. That is the only evidence the police found with the body and the jumper cables." She clicks on the radio, "Breaking News! The twelve-year-old Rocco Ciaffone has been kidnapped. A violent scene outside of a local.." Gina trails off in her mind. "I need to stop his killing and from being setup. The Ciaffone's promised me money but they don't deserve what is going to happen. No one does. I have been in this business too long."

She takes her gun out, checks the magazine, then jams it back. "Three bullets left, I better make it count," Gina says into the darkness of the night. She gets out then sets in her conscious, the warehouse where she found the money. A fizz in her body and a jet in her run to the swirling haze in the world. Ripped through and spat out once again into a setting she has already seen. Landed in the right spot this time, outside of Warehouse 27. No lights on yet so that must mean no one has come. Wait there is a car parked in the front. A guard gets out of the car then snatches a little boy out of the back seat. "It's them," Gina says as she crouches then follow them swiftly. Quietly taking her cell phone from her pocket and dialing 911.

“911. What’s your emergency?”

“This is Gina Bain. I have found Rocco Ciaffone he is alive being held captive. I will leave my phone on and follow the armed guard holding him.” Gina whispers as she sets her phone down on the floor of a rusted doorway. Gina can see car light arrive through a window. “That’s me coming with the money.” Gina kneeling in the shadow of the room that is flooding her head with memories that have already been made. She can hear the whimpering of the boy in the distance of the building. She can not save him until she stops this cycle of lies from her former self. A door creaks open and in walks Gina, the present self now holding the massive duffle of money. The ransom money. She can see the bruises and the rope marks on her. She is tired and hurting but hasn’t experienced a loop yet. The present Gina drops the bag but doesn’t leave. Future Gina knows what she is thinking, “I could just take the bag and start over. Clean myself up and just live.” Present Gina bends down running her hands over the money and grabs the handles again.

Future Gina steps out the shadow gun deadset on her past self. “Stop. You kill the boy by stealing this money. You don’t get to live in peace after you…Well, I steal the money. The torture they put this kid through is not worth $20,000.” I say in a small echo to myself. The present Gina is still running off the high so she isn’t sure if this is even real.

“I just need a break-“

“No stop talking. You’ll never understand because I do. You are done. I’m done. It’s over!” Future Gina says sharply waving off any thoughts that they could be right. Present Gina starts backing slowly into the dark doorway then pop. Again with the shot that sweeps into the empty corridors. Now the Future Gina is the only present act left in this timeline. The guard must have heard in the distance because Gina can hear running footsteps coming towards the room she is in. A bulky Native American man rushes into the room spotting the bag and body but it is too late. Gina is behind him with a quick pop from her weapon. One left, no shoot out tonight I guess Gina thinks as she backs away out of the room. Out of the warehouse. Out of the life she lives then relived now will leave behind. She will not let this cold case be solved with the truth.