Viola Organista

“Are you ready?”

Kensington looked around awkwardly as Beau closed the door behind them and went towards a machine in the corner. Beau inserted the card into a small crevice on the door and then entered a sixteen digit code using a small circular metal knob.

With a click that echoed across the room the doors began to slide inwards, the silver metal glinting in the dark room as the doors disappeared behind a dark curtain to reveal a compartment with a single cold metal stool on top a large raised platform.

It was not what Kensington was expecting at all and she looked utterly bewildered. It was just a lone metal stool below an aged painting of a woman holding what looked like... an ermine?

Kensington looked over at Beau who appeared unfazed.

“Put this on,” he murmured handing her a mask.

Kensington took it immediately. She didn't ask any questions.

Kensington felt hot, cold and warm all at once and although there was nothing that seemed out of the ordinary, there was certainly an unnatural eerie feel to the entire place. It put her hair on edge immediately.

“Is that the machine?” she whispered through her mask pointing at the stool. “Is that where you sit to go backwards in time?”

Beau ignored her for a moment, taking several step forwards till he was hovering under the painting of the woman and the ermine. Around the womans neck was a silver heart shaped locket that glimmered beneath the blinding lights of Viola Organista. The lone light above them glinted against his shiny dark hair as he bent over to glance somewhere beneath the painting. His fingers danced along the bottom and Kensington realized he was searching for something.

Below the painting emerged a panel of buttons and joysticks along with another hologram of several more buttons directly above it. It was incredible.

“We are already inside the machine,” Beau murmured. “Don’t move too much. You’ll disrupt the air particles.”

Kensington was already frozen but she tensed even more at the comment. Perhaps that was the feeling she was experiencing? Old particles mixed with new ones--creeping into her lungs to mingle with the remnants of air that had long since been inhaled and exhaled many times before.

“The minute you step into the room you are within Viola Organista. Even if you are unseated on the chair you can still travel as long as you are physically within the doors. The purpose of the chair is for the primary traveller. They navigate what time period they want to go back and visit and from there, they can venture forward. Remember, the machine can only travel back in time and as forward as we are currently. It cannot go into a future further than the present. Not yet at least. The Count hopes to find a way to do this by the end of this year.”

Kensington caught sight of a little finger print mechanism on the holographic keyboard that had extended alongside the panel beside the makeshift arm rests near the stool. She knew the fingerprint was probably what allowed for the physical time travel but she still wanted to brush her thumb against it.

As she waited for Beau to finish- Kensington brushed her thumb against the fingerprint allowing the scan to go through. The light flickered up and down her thumb at a rapid speed and she expected nothing more from the action. Quite suddenly there was a rumble from the panel and the lights turned blinding and a sudden vacuum began to erupt from around them in a whirl of crushing wind and whooshing air. A soft sound filtered through the air and Kensington recognized the song at once. It was an old traditional song she had heard many times at Operas and events. The famous Con Te Partirò. The music was deafening and Kensington screamed when the floor vanished beneath her feet and her entire stomach turned weightless- the only sound pounding through her brain that of the air rushing down to her lungs.

***

Kensington hit the ground hard, her palms flattening against clean polished granite. She groaned as dizziness swirled in her mind and she struggled to regain her bearings. Beau was passed out beside her and she scrambled towards him.

What had she done? God what had she done?

“Beau?” she whispered pulling off the black face mask from her mouth. “Beau? Beau are you okay? Shit.”

He groaned and Kensington sighed in relief.

“Oh my god Beau. What even…I don’t know what happened.”

Beau suddenly blinked and pushed himself to his feet faster than Kensington would have thought and she froze when he clutched her arm in a steel grasp.

“Don’t fucking move.”

His tone was cold and terrifying and Kensington acquiesced at once.

Everything was the same as it had been moments before. The painting was above the stool -- the panel somehow back in the wall -- the cold granite walls around them.

But there was something totally... off.

“What? What was that?”

Beau seemed stricken and Kensington felt dread pool in her stomach. Had she doomed them all? Her thoughts wandered to the guy who had gotten himself stuck in 1885 and her heart beat thumped unevenly in her chest.

Beau turned and pressed the button beneath the painting of the woman with the ermine and the heart shaped locket to reveal the panel.

He swore when the empty space next to the letters YEAR appeared.

“Fuck. Fuck.”

“What? What is it?”

Kensington couldn’t help the panic that seeped into her voice and she tensed as Beau turned to look at her – her fear mirrored in his own gaze.

“It’s not letting me go forward in time,” he said in frustration. It’s only allowing us to travel backwards.”

“What?” Kensington whispered.

“We must have travelled back in time,” he whipped out.

“No…that’s impossible,” Kensington whispered. She stepped forward, ignoring the protests of Beau and looked around the room she had been in only moments ago. She stood still and silent taking in any apparent differences that her sharp eyes could catch. There were fingerprints on the metal now…the polished granite was dull…the lights casting a warm yellow glow instead of the blinding white that it was when Beau had turned them on. “If we travelled back in time…the room wouldn’t look like this. It was re-done with granite only eight months ago…this granite is…aged.”

Beau made a choked noise in the back of his throat but Kensington ignored him. There was only one way to find out whether her hunch was true.

“Come on,” she muttered clutching her mask in her hand. “Keep this with you.”

Beau was rooted to the spot and Kensington could tell he was downright terrified.

“Kensington,” he whispered. “It could be dangerous. We should stay here and try to find a way to get back.”

“Before we do anything,” she said slowly. “We need to find out what year it is.”

The air was definitely different here…heavier – almost smoky and Kensington coughed.

She didn’t know how the dynamics changed so quickly – but suddenly she was the one calling the shots and Beau was the one acquiescing.

He shuffled quietly beside her. He slid his mask on and Kensington figured he must have noticed the difference.

They rode the elevator down from the 33rd floor to the main atrium in silence and Kensington cringed at the bleakness around them. Things seemed the same so far, yet felt so painstakingly different. It was so difficult to explain. There was a dark ominous ambiance-- like a heavy fog around them.

When the elevator doors opened to the main atrium, Kensington froze.

Everyone was in masks left, right, and centre as people in business suits walked to and from the main table.

There were lots of men and all of them were in charcoal grey. It was unnerving and she eyed Beau nervously who looked equally as stunned.

Where were the woman?

She had yet to see a single one – and she cringed as people turned to openly stare at them.

Her death grip on Beau didn’t release and she suddenly felt the primal fear to leave the Volta Corp building as quickly as possible..

She all but sprinted for the exit with Beau in tow – praying to see nature again and not walls of stainless steel, glass, granite or marble.

When they dashed outside into the courtyard Kensington felt a sob rip through her throat.

Before them was a statue surrounded by water that had replaced the beautiful waterfall that had previously been at the centre of the courtyard.

It was a statue of a man and a man only. In his hands was a book. The book had a single phrase on its cover: ORBIS TERRARUM

“What the fuck is going on?” Kensington whispered. Around the main headquarters of Volta Corp was a large expanse of uniform concrete buildings and desolate grey skies. Where were the gardens on the other side? Where were the apartment blocks by Hyde Park? In fact, Kensington couldn’t see a single tree in her line of sight nor a single blade of grass...not for miles. The cobbled streets of downtown London had been replaced with slick winding pavement that criss crossed into corridors of grey buildings that stood tall and monotone.

Kensington whirled around looking at how expansive Volta Corp had become.

What used to be a series of other buildings beside the high rise were now many buildings that served as extensions of Volta Corp.

Under a sign leading to another building was one word: PRODUCE

Kensington whirled around towards the other building on the opposite side of the headquarters they had emerged from, and saw another sign leading to another building of Volta Corp.

WATER

She kept turning her head, the blood pounding faster and louder through her head at each word her eyes met

WOMEN

REPRODUCTION

ENGINEERING

HEALTH

If Kensington didn’t know any better – she’d assume it was some sort of organized militant based system. Everyone was dressed the same, everyone masked, everyone silent.

“Beau,” she said nudging him. “We need to leave. Now.”

“Kensington,” he whispered turning to look at her for the first time since they had stepped outside into this new world. He leaned in, his lips brushing her ear. “Someone’s watching us.”

Kensington froze turning around to where a line of men in uniform were staring the two of them down. She could feel it now. The dozens of pairs of eyes that were trained on the two of them – the clothes they had worn which had fit in appropriately in this place years ago-- now stood out like a sore thumb.

“Kensington,” Beau said again. He was the one now tugging on her arm and she turned to look at him in fear.

He simply pointed up and Kensington felt her blood drain.

Above the statute where the Volta Corp sign was, lay a digital clock that had replaced the round clock that had been there previously. It was 13:00, only an hour past noon.

Beneath it were numbers. Numbers pertaining to the date. Kensington felt her blood run cold when she read it.

2060

“It’s supposed to be 2037,” Beau said worriedly checking his watch. “We’re twenty three years ahead.”

Kensington winced.

Had so much changed in the span of twenty three years? It couldn’t be. Could it?

“We’ve got to get back to the machine,” Kensington whispered. She noticed the uniformed men around the perimeter of the main building begin to slowly inch closer to them.

She grabbed Beau and began to sprint for the atrium.

“We need to take the stairs,” Beau whipped out pulling Kensington towards the back. At least the general layout hadn’t changed too much in twenty three years.

They dashed for the door leading to the staircase and began to sprint. They could hear the shouts ringing from behind them and Kensington didn’t want to think about the fact that they would be sprinting up to the 33rd floor.

Kensington assumed it must have been the adrenaline rushing through her veins that allowed her to complete such a feat so quickly and she all but retched for air as they slammed open the first door that would lead them to Viola Organista.

“Beau!” she yelled hearing the voices down the hallway grow gradually louder as boots slapping against granite filled their ears.

“Beau press the button. PRESS IT.”

“I’m fucking trying,” Beau snapped, his fingers trembling as he grasped beneath the painting of the ermine woman with frantic fingers. His fingers were searching for the button that would open the panel.

“Got it,” he hissed twirling the dial towards the appropriate date and slamming his fist on the button that would take them back in time.

Kensington wanted to prepare for it -but she found the feeling of weightlessness take her faster than the blink of an eye as the floor disappeared beneath her and her body floated into a chasm of darkness. The music pounded through her ears – that now almost tangible sound of Bocelli’s rich voice circling through the air as she closed her eyes tight and let the sound guide her back to reality.