Rewind
Well, I wrote a story. I am having an editor look at it for consideration in a literary magazine at my school, so I hope it gets there. Also, it's just kind of cool it's design.
With that, I heard a small clank, which told me that it was ready. I hit a button on the side which rendered the whirring and static that only proved my observation. With the chamber idle, I encircled it to admire my work.
I could have cried out of joy, but there was no time to waste, as I anticipated curiously testing my machine. The center was glowing an odd pink with a core of purple, yet the wall behind me glowed with a pure white I haven't the pleasure to notice before.
With my feet on the platform now, I spread out my arms in pride. The machine hoisted them and shackled them into place with beams. The headpiece came down slowly followed by another pair of pink and purple cuffs for my ankles. The machine made a short siren indicating that everything was in place.
I took one more look at the basement ensuring that everything was in place. The room made itself a place in my mind as i attempted to memorize it's contents and their places. I then took a deep breath as i closed my eyes and let my head fall onto the back of the headpiece. As I slipped into a void between my reality and my mind, a feeling of uncertainty passed over me, but before I could force myself to wake again, a flash fell upon me and I disappeared from that machine.
When I finally woke up again, I sat up and realized that I was on a concrete floor. The floor had no gaps or frills in it, and it felt much more like foam than concrete. The room was dark with barely a light from a window built into the foundation, and I had no idea where in it I was. All I could make out was that i was next to a wall, and that the wall seemed to be made of a similar material.
Panicked, I reached to take my phone out of my pocket. When I tried to turn it on, it wouldn't. "Well, I thought I had this stupid thing charged before I left." I said in anger almost. I took the cover off of the back, and the battery fell out of it and turned into dust on the floor.
"Well. That's just great. Now I don't have a way to get back." In fury, I chucked the phone into the wall and it bounced around hitting things in it's path. With a thud, everything the phone knocked over shook the home and after a moment, the phone landed back at my side. It was still intact.
I heard a door open, and a light made it's way down the steps. "Who's down here? You have 2 seconds to get out of my house before I come down there!" I was on the opposite side of the basement, and the light ended just before my feet. His shadow landed in front of me, and it filled me with fear.
This was not a human's shadow, in fact I have no idea what this shadow could be from. This being however spoke very fluent english and he wanted me out. I made my way to the wall left from the shadow. At that, whatever he was made his way down the stairs. I crept along the wall to the other edge in the room.
Finally, he was standing directly in the light and I caught a glimpse of his figure. He was taller than I was, and he had large hind legs and a very long and bushy tail. Through the parting in his bangs, a flare bounced off of his circular glasses and he turned my way. From the middle of his his thick hair, two ears sprang up, and I knew now that he was a wolf.
He flicked his ears about, and naturally, I stopped breathing in fear he would hear me. When he heard nothing, he lowered them and I let out a very light sigh. Walking about, he made his way toward the edge of the light from the doorway above, and stopped just before he made it there.
He knelt down and picked up my phone. "Ooh, I remember these. What's in this a battery?" He attempted to remove the cover when he realized it was already missing, then he looked down again. He saw that the battery was dust upon the floor, and that the cover was neatly rested on top of it.
"I know you are going to want your phone back. You should come out. You're safe here." He then dropped the phone and it bounced back up into his hand. He did this quite a few times, and it hardly made any noise. He then took the phone, and laid it beneath his nose.
After a moment, he began sniffing the air, and sure enough he started coming towards me. Frightened, I called out to him. "Stand back! I don't want any trouble, just let me go, and I won't come back here again." My hands were raised to my chest level in defense, and there was silence.
He stared my way confused, and then he started to chuckle a bit. After a second or two, his chuckled escalated into a chaotic laughter. I was confused, but I lowered my arms. When he was finished, he straightened his posture and and regained his composure.
"Oh, you are one of the originals! I never would have dreamed to meet one of you! It's a pleasure, and...oh! My name is Marcus!" He extended his arm to me, and as he did so, the room lit up, and feet were upon the stairs again. I shook his hand, or paw rather, and at that a woman and two children were behind him.
The woman was more humanoid than Marcus, and all I could notice were fox-like ears hidden within her hair. As for their children, one of them was an adolescent son with hind legs and a tail. He was mostly a wolf, and his sister standing next to him was younger, and had a mixed fur pattern, but resembled a wolf with a fox's coloring.
"This is incredible." I said as I walked around the basement, observing it. I walked around in awe at the walls and their decorations. I noted a few pictures of a man and two little children. It was a picture of Marcus as a human, but with a tail There were also medals and awards on shelves and in frames.
Some things were under a tarp, and a few of the contents under the tarp were knocked over earlier and were in view. I got closer to inspect them, and the boy came my way. "Dad says this stuff belonged to the previous owner, so you may not want to touch it." I looked down at a portrait, and I almost stumbled backwards.
"Well, it would seem that I am the previous owner of the home. " I held up a dusty portrait, where inside of it's frame was a photo of myself repairing a radio in the dashboard of a car. Marcus came over to it and held it. "Claude, you should apologize to him, that was rude for you to say." Claude, Marcus's son crossed his arms and after a moment he fled up the stairs. Marcus sighed. "Kids." We both looked at one another again.
"So, you must then be Emmille then. I have been searching decades for a little bit of information on you since your stuff was left here. I haven't come upon anything." I thought about things for a moment. I must have come quite a ways into the future. I wanted to ask him about it but I was interrupted by what seemed to be a siren.
"Oh, I am sorry! That's my phone." I let him a moment to look down at it as I entered thought again. Before I could let myself think he shouted. "Oh yes!!! I am going to fallout!!! He got the tickets!" I was slightly annoyed, but then I thought back to where I have heard that phrase before. "Fallout?" I asked him with uncertainty.
"Oh, sorry for yelling, but yeah! it's a concert by this awesome fad group! Just what was their name? Who are they again? Ah, that's gonna drive me nuts to think of their name." I got into thinking about his question a bit. Then some lyrics popped into my head. "Who are you? Who, who?" I had it, and we turned to each other at the same time in realization.
"Its the Who!" We said collectively, and naturally we raised our arms and high-fived. It was cool, but it was also a little awkward to me. "But Fallout was in 1973, is it a tribute tour? I'm surprised that this far forward anyone would know about The Who." He replied a little surprised. "Nope. man, you were the one with the machine! Shouldn't you know that this is '73?
"Oh no." I replied in a bit of shock. "There is no way that this can be 1973. You have a smartphone, the floor is a freaking trampoline and...this can't be '73!" Marcus looked at me with a bit of understanding, yet with a bit of uncertainty as well. "You know, I have been searching around a bit. According to my study, nobody ever found the first inventor of the time machine. They estimate it was created somewhere in 2015."
I sat up from my trance, and I looked at him. I wasn't exactly too pleased but I wasn't angry, but in my voice, there was a little bit of agitation. "2015? That is where I came from, but I only traveled once. There was no time setting on the machine, it was user based. I wanted to go forward in time, not back!" Marcus looked out the window in foundation, and the sun was just beginning to rise.
"If you want, we'll both go to Fallout, I know a guy there that may be able to help you. he's a tech dork for the bands that play here, and he's the one that told me what the machine parts under the tarp do. maybe you can give him the scoop."
I considered his offer, and I had nothing better to do, so I gladly accepted the offer. "I guess if I get to see The Who, and possibly meet this guy backstage with them, then yeah, I'm in!" He replied with a smile, and he got to his feet. "I got coffee on upstairs, care to come along." After all of this I couldn't pass it up. "Yeah, sure. I guess I need it now."
We both chuckled as we left the basement, traveling the stairs and into the kitchen. The sun came through the window and it caught the photo of me in it's path. The photo was still on the floor, and as the door shut behind us, it turned into dust, the blew away with the draft.