Time Will Tell

Chapter 2

A glimpse of the past…

“Cut!” The loud volume of the director's megaphone shouts causes everyone else, including the performers on the set to jerk.

“Kane! This is the 8th time. THE 8TH TIME! You keep messing this up!”

The romantic movie filmmaker Sean Brown was one of the worst in the business, at least in terms of personality. His films have achieved international fame, and everyone has seen the worst of him as a director of Hollywood blockbusters. However, dealing with him was not a simple process. His ability doesn't always match his demeanor, particularly when working with actors and actresses who constantly make mistakes on the set, which is quite a contrast to the type of movies he's been directing.

Today has been Kane’s day. He has just finalized a deal to play the protagonist in this future movie. But he was preoccupied that day. The girl would not leave his thoughts.

How long has it been since she disappeared?

Days? Weeks? Months? Kane couldn’t keep track of time.

He made his way towards the angry director, subtly rubbing his hands together in an attempt to keep them warm since they had been perspiring since the day started.

“I-I’m so sorry Mr. Brown. I just didn’t sleep well last night. If I could only take a few hours break, I’d be back on track,” Kane pleaded, trying to lower his voice so it was out of earshot of everybody else.

Sean comically raised a brow at him and it held no humor at all.

“So, you expect me to go and postpone all the production that all these people and I worked so hard for so you can take your stupid break? That’s the ‘bullshitiest’ of all the bullshit things I have ever encountered in the last 10 years of my career, since 1993. I’ve never met an actor like you who considers himself very special to ask and postpone production for your excuses,” Sean’s voice was amplified enough for the whole people inside the set that they could feel the walls vibrating. Everyone fell quiet. They are subtly ogling through whatever they were doing to prevent themselves from getting caught in the middle of it.

“I have been nice and patient long enough for you, Adler, and I’m using the last bit of my patience to finish this goddamn project so you can pay all your pimps and be the cool guy in everybody’s eyes, so GET.BACK.TO.WORK,” Sean said this in a low tone, intensifying the fear he radiates to everybody else.

Kane didn’t have enough choice but to go back and, with one final take, he finally nailed it this time.

***

He stood on the balcony of his apartment complex. His eyes settled on the messy city lights, a sight that calmed him while he had a beer in hand. He took one huge gulp from the bottle when a glimpse of the beautiful girl’s smile flashed back to his memory, torturing him. The beer must’ve lost its way in his throat, causing him to flinch and cough off the bitter liquid.

He spat bitterly on the edge of the balcony and hurled his beer bottle a little forcefully; it didn't break but rolled off the ground instead. He gripped the railing with both hands and bent down in exasperation. To make sure he wasn't losing his mind at that precise moment, he made an attempt to kick a foot against the stone floor.

“That was a pretty rough stunt you pulled earlier on the set.”

Somebody said from behind Kane that surprised him. He jolted right up from his place to turn and saw his good friend and manager, Nick, who was leaning on the door frame that led to the balcony with his arms crossed across his chest.

“Jesus, how’d you get in?” Kane says, out of breath.

“Not my name, though. But to answer your question, the door’s unlocked; open for everybody to come in and ask you, ‘what the hell were you thinking?’”

As Kane sighed, flashes of the earlier happenings of the day flooded his consciousness. He knew exactly what Nick was talking about.

“Not my fault when he was born an asshole,” he responds, bitterness lacing his voice.

“So, it’s Brown’s fault then? You mess up your line, it’s the director’s fault. You get caught up in a mess, drunk driving, it’s the fan’s fault for giving you alcohol. You, messing your life up, it’s everybody’s fault. What happened to you? Is it because of that girl again? What's her name? Cheyenne?”

The mention of her name caused Kane's jaw to clench, but he remained silent. Nick, though, was convinced he had accidentally pulled a string and chose to push his pal even farther by refusing to let it go.

“Oh, so is it? It’s because of her,” Nick challenged. He starts to circle Kane like a detective questioning a suspect in a crime, waiting for him to confess.

“This is not you, Kane. You don’t screw things up for yourself just because a girl decides to dump you.”

“I told you, she didn’t just dump me, and you know that,” Kane retaliates, venom lacing his voice.

“Oh, so what is it, then? What’d she do?”

“You knew her, Nick. You met her,” Kane sounded a little bit desperate for Nick to understand where he was coming from.

“I did! And then what, she decides that it’s not gonna work out for either of you. She leaves. And that’s it. You don’t screw your f*****g life over because one girl left!”

“She didn’t leave,” Kane sounded defeated. His head hung low, thinking of ways on how to make Nick understand and believe him, when he himself is confused and doesn’t understand a thing that has happened.

With a moan, Nick expressed his tiredness and shock while simultaneously conveying his dissatisfaction and frustration. He then dropped his hand.

“Oh, Kane! Here we are again with the delusions. ‘ She didn’t leave, she disappeared!’ Kane, I don’t know what’s up with you. Why you’re pulling this stunt right now. I don’t know if you’ve been taking drugs lately or is this some kind of fantasy you’re playing as a coping mechanism, but brother, she is gone! And none of these tactics will help you! Get a f*****g grip!”

Nick is practically shouting at Kane’s face at this moment. The veins in his neck are becoming more prominent each time his voice rises a notch to talk some sense into his friend.

Hearing Nick speak such words infuriated Kane to the point of rage. He convinces himself that Nick is unaware of what is happening and that he has been facing his own internal conflict for the previous few days.

“You will never believe or understand what it is because you never went through what I went through! I saw it with my own f*****g eyes. She glowed. She f*****g glowed right in front of my f*****g face and disappeared. If you think I’m making this up and I wish… I wish that I was just making all this bullshit up, then maybe I wouldn’t be f*****g my life up right now if I was in my f*****g right mind. So you go, if you need to, f*****g call off the whole entire thing. I will quit if I have to.”

Without missing a syllable, Kane spoke clearly. He was practically spitting in Nick's face to make his point, with every syllable he spoke holding intensity the entire time. He then slowly moved away from Nick as he struggled for breath, took a step backward, and turned to face the city.

“You’ve lost it, Kane. You had your whole career ahead of you,” Speaking with a forlorn tone, Nick said from behind him. He didn't seem very motivated to engage in combat.

Kane chuckles while shaking his head in disdain from where he is standing. He sat on the edge of the balcony, leaning back and placing his hands on his knees.

“You know me, Nick. This has been my life and you know I wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize this. You were with me from the bottom until now.”

“That’s the question I‘ve been wanting to ask you. You’ve worked so hard to get here, and you’re throwing it all away because of a girl. Kane, you’re so much better than this.”

“If only I’m making it up, Nick. I think I’m going insane. At first, I didn’t believe her. I thought she was just some mad fan who tried to fool me but… she told me things that would happen in the future and it all happened, Nick. She told me I’d be getting this part I’m playing now way before you even knew this existed, before telling me that I’m up for the casting audition,” his voice was so much calmer now, still desperate for Nick to hear him.

“You’re telling me this again, that Cheyenne came from the future and told you about all the things that were about to happen, and you’re saying they all happened?”

Kane turned his head to look at his friend.

“That’s what I’ve been telling you the whole time. We met her mom and we met her… do you know how young she was at that time? Three,” Kane snickered at his own words, shaking his head like he was not ready to believe himself any minute.

“So, you’re saying that if you were to seek Cheyenne at this time, she would’ve been three?”

“She is three.”

“You’re sick, Kane.”

Kane could only shrug his shoulders. A slight hope rose from somewhere within his chest and he started to quiz himself internally.

What if, though?

What if he could just wait for Cheyenne to grow up to reach a certain age and he goes and shows himself up?

2 years later

The visit from the shrink did not work out as it was supposed to.

Kane was pulling up in the driveway, annoyed and frustrated all at the same time. He backed his car up on the curb and stayed inside the car even after the engine was already off. He could still feel his chest constricted while standing back and just staring.

It was two years since he tried to tell everyone and nobody believed him. Two years since, he decided to get a grip and tried to move on and live the life the girl told him to do, and he soared high. His career skyrocketed from there and everything went the way it was. The way she told him he'd be like.

He even met the woman. The girl told him that he’d marry someday, but she was still existing in the back of his mind.

He continued to believe that there was still a remote possibility that he would run into the girl. Even after two years had gone, he could still clearly recall her brown hair falling down her shoulders and her hazel-brown eyes glistening in the dusk light.

His self-resentment had caused him to hit his hand on the stirring wheels at least four times before deciding to get out and get inside his apartment, where his pal, Nick, was waiting.

“You don’t look so good,” Nick greeted him, putting down the newspaper he was holding on the coffee table and leaning his back on the couch.

“I’ve seen better days,” Kane replied, grabbing the scotch bottle and pouring himself a drink before settling himself on the love chair across from where Nick was sitting.

“So how’d it go?”

“Abortive, like I always said.”

“You just gotta try harder, Kane.”

Kane pounds the glass a little too aggressively on the coffee table and swallows the liquid from his mouth before retaliating against his friend.

“I tried following your every instruction, Nick. But, nothing’s gonna help. Nothing.”

Nick crosses his legs and observes his friend from a distance.

“Are you still up for that plan on waiting for Cheyenne?” Nick posed the inquiry, and Kane wasn't sure if he was really being curious or if he was making fun of him.

“I shouldn’t have told you about that if I knew you were going to rub that on my face every time I f**k up according to your standards,” he cruelly grabs the glass from the table yet again and poured himself a drink way too much in proportion.

Nick ignores him and continues on challenging him.

“She’s probably five now, right?”

Kane didn’t bother to reply and continued chugging on his whiskey.

“Thirteen years from now, how’d you think she’d react knowing that the man who’s seeking her is an alcoholic?”

“f**k you,” Kane responds, the excess of whiskey flying off his lips.

“You gotta put yourself together, mate. Cole Hart from Spiral Media has been contacting me and sparing you a role in the casting. He’s been working on a project”

“Sure. Let’s celebrate,” Kane remarks, mocking Nick while being unenthusiastic.

“I’m serious. This could potentially redeem you. He’ll be sending me the script next week. Please, be at your best.”

“Don’t hold your breath.”

Kane takes the last chug out of the glass and grabs a remote and considers turning on the TV to block Nick's voice.

The T.V turns on and it plays a dark-themed animation movie with a corpse wearing a torn-up gown holding a pale man’s face by the cheek while tearfully saying the words in so much emotion, “I love you, Victor. But you’re not mine.”

Kane felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him, and before he knew what had happened, he had dropped the whiskey bottle, which smashed on the ground and caused a mess.“What the hell, Kane? You’re drunk.” Nick reached out to get the glass out of Kane’s grip.

“N-Nick? Can you tell me w-what movie this is?” his eyes were wide and he couldn't pry his eyes off the TV screen for once.

“It says on the left corner of the screen. That’s the least of your worries, Kane.”

Nick grabs a towel from the kitchen to help Kane fix his mess, who was still stunned on the couch, staring up at the screen, replaying the words again and again in his head, because apparently, one of Cheyenne’s last words to him were the exact words the corpse bride had told her Victor.

“What do you mean you had to go?” Kane’s heart almost beats out of his chest as he practically begs her to stay.

“I don’t know, Kane. I don’t know how, but I can feel it. The feeling is devouring me…” the girl tearfully held his hand to her chest.

Kane pulled her body towards him and connected both of their foreheads, closing their eyes.

“If you have to leave, can I go with you?” he pleaded, his voice breaking as he begged her in anguish.

“I don’t know… I can’t decide about that.”

“Take me with you, please.”

She shook her head in hopelessness. She herself did not know what to do. And as she moves, the glowing light coming from the inside of her chest starts to illuminate more and it slowly becomes obvious to Kane’s eyes.

“Y-your chest. W-what’s happening?”

The girl stared at him with warmth, reached her hand out, cupping the right side of his cheeks.

“I have to go. I can feel it,” she says breathily.

Kane held the hand that held his cheek, holding on to it for dear life.

“P-please, Cheyenne. Stay. Please,” Kane pleads, tears starting to roll down his face as he witnesses the light gradually glowing from her chest, casting its light down to her stomach and up to her face.

“If only I can, Kane. But time brought me here and time will take me away. I was brought here with a purpose, and I did it. Now it’s time to go back home,” her voice sounded at peace- like she knew that it was all fate that had set everything up and it was out of both of their control.

“T-there has to be some other way… I-I can do something to change it, right? If there’s another way, you’ll tell me, right?”

The suppressed tears from her eyes could no longer be held back. They kept rolling down her face, leaving stains of red in their wake as they came rolling down.

She held his face one more time and kissed his lips to reassure him of her love.

“I love you, Kane. But you’re not mine. You’ll hear that from a movie in the next few years and please… think of me if you do.”

“I will never, ever forget you, Cheyenne. I love you. I love you, please stay.”

"You will have children who will look up to you and you will have a beautiful family to wait for you..."

"Is it so wrong to want it with you?"

"You're not mine, Kane. Time decides for us, not otherwise. But always know that I'll love you in my time."

The light shines so bright and it covers her entire body as she looks at him one last time whilst saying the words, “I love you.”

She looked up with her eyes closed, accepting her fate, and the light reached its peak, making the deserted park look like it was in the morning when it was nearly midnight.

“I love you,” Kane said for the last time before the light burst in front of him like lightning which sent him flying a few feet away due to the impact. His eyes were almost blinded by the light and he was taking time to recover. With bits of blurry vision, he tried to make out the scenery in front of him. The bright light that shone no longer existed, only bits of falling, dying lights remained. With the disappearance of light came the absence of Cheyenne herself, no longer standing where she used to plant her feet.