The Mystery

She leaned in for a kiss. After nearly a decade of doubt that this would ever happen, it finally was happening. My heart was racing as I stared into her exhilarating eyes. Her lips touched mine; I could just barely feel the touch of her skin when my eyes open. For a moment, I merely lay here in a stupor as my eyes soak in all the information reminding me that I'm single and that she's not just taken...she's married; to a real piece of work at that, but that's not any of my business. My lungs finally remember how they function and I take in a long breath and let out an exasperated sigh. I forgot to turn off the alarm. It's a Saturday morning and here I am...awake at 7:30AM. I consider going back to sleep only long enough to remember that the last dream ruined any possible rest I may have had. Instead, I get up and head to the bathroom. I go through the morning ritual of using the toilet, washing my hands and face, brushing my teeth, and staring into my own eyes for a not insignificant amount of time. I'm not sure what I expect to see; I never am, but I suppose I'm hoping to see...well, maybe hope. Maybe some glimpse of luck or some reflection of good things to come for the day like a horoscope. When that fails to yield the expected results, I head to the living room. The windows are open to let the light in. I drop to the ground to do my daily push-ups. Before I finish, there's a thud at the door. I wait, but there's no other sound...so no one had knocked. I get up and go to the door opening it and peeking out. There's no one around, but there is a package on the doorstep. I step outside and look around. I see a drone flying away about fifty feet away. I take the opportunity to grab the mail from the box and pick up the package bringing them in and putting them on the coffee table. Speaking of coffee, it's a good time to get breakfast. I get dressed and then head to the kitchen. At first I feel like cereal, but I go with a couple pieces of avocado toast with fried eggs on top instead and finish it in the living room while watching a show. The mail catches my eye and I grab the letters first; bills, trash ads, more trash ads. I move on to the package and notice there's no return address, though it's definitely addressed to the correct person and location...weird. I open the package and look inside, but I'm even more confused when I don't find anything at all. Literally, it is just an empty box. I take another look around the outside of the box expecting I missed something, but there really isn't anything else. Suddenly, I notice a bit of writing on the inside of the box. It's written on one of the inner sides but the angle makes the lighting weird and the words hard to read, so I rip the box apart to better see the text. It's an outline of something:

07:30 – Alarm Wakes You

07:42 – Head to Bathroom

08:05 – Head to Living Room for Push-ups

08:07 – Package Arrives

08:08 – Package Put in Living Room

08:09 – Get Dressed and Start Making Breakfast

08:19 – Finish Making Eggs and Toast Instead of Cereal

08:20 - Watch TV While Eating

08:43 – Check Mail

08:44 – Open Package

08:48 – Find Schedule

08:55 – Agent Arrives

08:59 – Agent Knocks at Door

09:00 – You Answer Door and Agent Kills You

I finish reading, but my brain is still processing what I read. I read it again more carefully. It's outlining my morning so far, but this last part. I look down at my watch. 8:54. I look back at the message on the cardboard as the time changes to 8:55. I turn towards the window and my heart sinks as an old looking car suddenly slows to a stop on the street in front of my house. I'm frozen in place and forget how to breath, but the shock lifts long enough for me to look back at the message and see that the Agent knocks at the door in four minutes. So he spends three minutes in the car for some reason. I look back at the car and see a man looking down and fiddling with something. I look back at my watch...8:57. Suddenly, my body remembers how to breath and adrenaline finds its way into my bloodstream as my heart starts beating as if I just ran a marathon. The car door opens. My legs spring into action lifting me off the couch. I grab my phone and rip the section of the package with the schedule off and sprint through the house to the back door. I suddenly realize that I have no idea how long I'll be gone, so I run to my room and grab a jacket throwing it on. There's a knock at the door. I don't bother to look at the watch as I sprint out of the back door and bolt through the back yard jumping over the fence into the neighbor's yard and keep running through it out to the next street. No one notices, but I continue to sprint down the street. It occurs to me that I have nowhere in particular to go, but I can't risk being caught. That guy...the agent might already be in his car coming to this street where he'll find me running down it like a fool. No. I need to get off the grid. I need to go somewhere unexpected. I know of a park nearby, which may be a bit conspicuous, but I can at least catch my breath there. I turn through another yard and make a beeline towards the park. It means a bit of trespassing, but really, whose going to notice me anyway. I don't know these neighbors and they've probably never even considered my existence in the ten years I've lived in this neighborhood. I jump a few more fences and eventually make it to the park fence. I jump that and land in a baseball field; I fall to the ground as the adrenaline fades and the wheezing starts. I groan as I try to catch my breath. It's an open space; I can't stay here. I roll to my knees and stand hobbling towards the nearby public restroom.

There's no one inside. I wash my hands and face with water and stare into my face in the mirror and see...something. It's in my eyes. I can't put a finger on it, but there's something different...something there...and it's not just the dinginess on the mirror. Now isn't the time though. Time...I look at my watch...09:21. Wow. I've been running for almost thirty minutes. For an instant, I almost feel crazy for having fled my home. It's past 9AM and I'm still alive. That must mean that I was never in any danger to begin with, right? I lift the shred of the cardboard box at take a look at the message. It's different now:

08:55 – Agent Arrives

08:59 – You run to the park

09:22 – Check Schedule

09:24 – Ame calls

11:11 – Arrive at Specified Location

11:18 – Get Spell

11:19 – Check Schedule

12:90 – Arrive at Breach Point

A moment passes and my phone starts ringing. Unknown caller. I glance at the schedule briefly before answering and putting the phone to my ear. There is a moment of silence, but before I can speak, a woman on the other end breaks the silence.

“You understand now, right?”

“No,” I said emphatically.

“They've come to kill you.”

“Who?”

“I can't say. You can't know the name yet.”

“Like I said. I don't understand.”

“You will soon...and in a sense, you'll have already known.” I shake my head, but it seems she might sense my frustration through the radio waves as she continues. “We need to meet. I need you to come to a safe house. Do you trust me?”

“No...but at the same time...yes.”

“That's the most you can ask for.” Something about the phrase strikes me as odd, but she continues talking. “I'll send you the address. Call a car and come straight here. No detours or they might find you. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” I respond.

An instant later the call is ended and my phone vibrates with a message that is a location link. I open a transport app and key in the information. The car arrives maybe eight minutes later and I get in. The driver doesn't ask me any questions, which is great. I'm not sure I'd be able to answer if he pries even a little; I'm in kind of a fragile emotional state at the moment. The drive itself is pretty out of the way. Honestly, I'm more surprised that the driver accepted a fare two hours away, but at the same time, the cost is exorbitant, so it probably covers his expected fares for the day. Anyway, if he's not asking, I'm not complaining. I'm not sure when it happened, but I managed to fall asleep during the ride. As the car stops at the destination, I wake with a fright. “This is it.” The driver calls to the backseat. “Thank you,” I say getting out swiftly and without another comment to try and avoid suspicion. I think it works because the driver makes a U-turn and heads back onto the main road. A moment later he's out of sight. I look towards the warehouse. I check my watch...11:12. I start walking towards the building and spot someone walking out of a door; a young lady. She's got a bit of a gruff demeanor about her, like some cyberpunk gang member, but I get the feeling this is the same woman who called me. “It's an honor,” she says as she reaches out her hand to shake mine. I shake her hand, but I don't really know how to respond. I manage to squeeze out a sentence. “Why is this happening to me?” She nods solemnly. “Like I said, I can't tell you the name, but you are here to find out, so I won't beat any bushes. Let's get you inside and set you up with the spell,” she says turning immediately and walking towards the warehouse. I shake my head unsure if I just heard what I think I heard. “Spell? Like Hogwarts?” I ask while I jog to catch up to her quick steps. “It sounds funny, I know, but you'll understand when you get it. It really is the only way to describe it.” “And this will stop this guy from trying to kill me?” “This one,” she said emphasizing the 'this.' “It will make it so you're no longer powerless against whoever they send,” she followed up.

We enter into the warehouse, which I realize I expected to be full of machinery and some gang of misfits hanging around like in the Matrix, but the warehouse is mostly barren. There were some large beams and remnants of machinery, but mostly various piles of debris on the ground. We walk together to the center of the space where she reaches into her pocket and pulls out a piece of paper...or parchment. There is a vague image of a circle with a mix of symbols I've never seen before. “You're right. It does look like a spell,” I said. She places the parchment on the ground without responding and places her index and middle finger over one of the symbols. She traces her finger between them and then looks up at me. “That's the first half. You try,” she says anxiously. I place my fingers down over the first symbol and trace it across the others like she did. As I do, the impression of the word hits my mind and ears all at once speaking “AMYDNIKOUDTIOOTONEORWWH” I've never heard a word like that before. I can't even describe it. I can't move for a moment as the shock of the truth envelops me...well, from the inside out it seems. I feel almost...infinite. My mouth is agape, but I can't speak. I look at her. She seems unimpressed. Immediately, she looks back down at the parchment and traces her fingers over a different set of symbols, but this sequence is a bit more complex. “I'm sorry, can you do that one again?” I ask. She reaches down again and begins the sequence. Just before she finishes, a spurt of red splashes onto the parchment. I look at her face. She is staring at me with a look of horror. It takes me a moment, but I spot the growing red blotch the side of her shirt. “Take it. RUN!” she yells as a crack opens the side of her skull and she falls ungracefully to the ground. I stumble back in a daze, but somehow manage to grab the bloody parchment and roll to my feet and start running. I hear the sounds of breaking concrete and ricocheting, but I never hear the shot of a weapon. I reach a door at the other end of the warehouse and throw it open, but immediately regret that decision as I see a horde of people aiming at me; they all look the same. Again, there's no sound, but bits of the ground and walls start to burst and ring with little explosions. I turn back and start to run, but a sudden sharp and burning pain rips into my leg. I yell and fall over, but pull myself up and limp to the nearest pile of machinery and climb under it. I hear the door open at the other end of the warehouse. I pull out the schedule and use my phone light to look at it:

03:14– deaTh

15:92 – dEaTh

65:35 – DeATh

89:79 – dEaTH

32:38 – DEAtH

46:26 – dEath

43:38 – deaTH

32:79 – DeATh

Something has gone wrong, but somehow I understand. I place the parchment on the ground as the nearby door opens. I place my fingers over the first system ignoring the bloodstain and trace the first word and hold the last position. It speaks into my mind again and suddenly I see everything. I see myself waking in the morning, getting breakfast, fleeing the house, staring into the mirror at the park restroom; I stop there. I see it again, but now I know what it is I see. I'm looking at myself. Not a reflection...it's me now...there then. I hear the scurried footfalls closing in on my position in the warehouse. I begin tracing the second word. Someone crouches next to me pointing their weapon at me as my fingers slide towards the last character. I didn't hear the shot, but I felt the bullet enter my skull.

“WIYAOAHLEWVUTHLIEROUROYROEENTLWY”

I wasn't so much a movement, but most accurately a slide that happened next. Its weird to say that it happened because it was in the present, but at that moment when the second part of the word was spoken, that the present became non-existent, like the dream I woke from; a distant disappointment. I am instead staring into my own reflection in the restroom mirror. I look at my watch...09:21. I'd be surprised, but I understand now. I'm connected to every instance of me on the line of eternity. I see myself manipulating the timeline to send the messages; updating the schedule every time something changes. I take a look at the schedule:

??:?? – “HEVPIBTOWSSRKEWTNTMUEENRESDETORN”

Of course. I walk outside. The baseball field, which had been empty before, is now covered with the agent all pointing their erasers at me. A shot from any one of those would not only kill, but erase the variable in the existing timeline. Something that should only be done for variables. Ame is here. I turn and see her walk out of the restroom. I've known her longer than time and she knows my every atom. She walks to me and we embrace holding time perfectly still indefinitely. The agent, however, are determined to erase us even though, here, they are the variables. They almost succeeded, but then again, at the same time, they never could. They fire their weapons, but I slide into the space between and step out behind of each of them and speak the first word. They suddenly and silently disappear leaving no trace of their existence or the damage their weapons caused. Agents try to keep the word unknown; they believe that no one should have the knowledge of the word but themselves to use how they feel is most beneficial for what they call the greater good, and I suppose I can see why, but the irony is that we never found the word; and we were never given the word, but it is with us forever. We don't defend it. It defends us.

“It's time,” Ame says. I nod in agreement and respond “Let's go. The name can't protect them now.” We stare infinitely into each other's eyes and slide into everywhen.

The word came to us a long time ago in a moment soon to come, but of that day and hour no one knows.