Stuck in Time

Stuck In Time

CHAPTER 1: THE BEGINNING

The sound of the morning siren at 7 am quickly disturbed Otto's sleep. He had been working all night on the design specifications handed over to him by a contractor. He got up and immediately started staring at the odd-looking machine design he had been working on the previous night, desperately trying to make sense of it."Time to complete whatever this machine is right away, don't have much time", he thought to himself. He brushed his teeth simultaneously preparing his morning cuppa. Helena, his mother, a very devoted lady, called him up, "Did you have your breakfast honey, and why didn't you take my call last night?" questioned Helena with a worried tone. "Hey mum I was busy with work, I'm just done with breakfast now leaving for work, Can I call you back later?" he replied. Once the call was over, he quickly got ready for work with his usual attire on.

CHAPTER 2: SOULS COLLIDE

Hardly had Otto reached the subway station, which was as busy as it could get on a hot summer morning, when he bumped into someone. An unfamiliar yet magical wave of emotion swept past Otto's heart as he found himself locked eye to eye with a fair dame for a good few seconds. The soft brunette hair along her face like the autumn leaves playing with the rhythm of the wind, the subtle smile of the scorching sun that could burn your eyes if only you stared at it long enough, her glowing pale skin resembling the touch of an angel. Such was her beauty and Otto just like any other random guy in a pool of guys wanting to be with her, was no exception. With a nervous tone, Otto asked "Miss, are you okay?". "Yeah I'm fine" remarked the girl in a rather cold demeanor. Startled, Otto just gave a nervous smile and walked away. They parted ways, but he could not stop thinking about the girl on the subway. "Could she be the one?", "Am I falling this hard for the girl that I don't even know about?" were the thoughts that constantly kept his brain hostage.

Otto resumed his work of designing the machine. Several days had past since designing the machine parts and the machine still looked weird to him. It looked like circular rings combined to form a spherical object and there was a narrow opening at the center. Two small holes at either side of the opening on the inside and there were buttons with Roman numerations on the inside of the

globular object. "What in the devil's name is this thing?" Otto thought, as no contractor in the past had given him such a complex machine to fabricate and assemble. Once all the parts were individually produced, machined and assembled, the final product still didn't make much sense to him or what its ultimate purpose even was.

It had been a few days since Otto met the girl on the subway when he was scrolling through Filebook, a dating app. Suddenly, by the power of luck, he met the subway girl on the app. He thought this was a sign and, without a second thought, sent her a request. To his surprise, she matched up with him after a few days. Butterflies flew inside his belly. The girl introduced herself as Artemis. A simple 'Hi' went on to endless talks in the morning, then in the evening after work and even late at night. Then it happened, Otto started to slack from work, the machine he was working on didn't make the slightest progress. He was too much in love to prioritize his work and this led to him losing his work as the contractor got totally upset with Otto.

CHAPTER 3: TURNING POINT

Two years had passed since the two love birds had been dating and everything was going great for the couple. One fine Sunday, the couple decided to visit a place called Harbor Haven, several miles up north by car from MegaCity One, where they lived. They left early in the morning. On the way, they were enjoying the wild rain forests, the beautiful horizon with white cotton clouds sitting on top of the mountains, the green lakes and the wild beasts. The radio was on, and the news reporter was talking about the weather changes and how landslides had become so common in the northern part of the state.

Otto and Artemis had barely started to discuss their wedding day, the things they would buy and the guests they would invite when suddenly large rocks started to fall on the highway from above the hill. Artemis panicked as they realized the horror that they had gotten themselves into. Otto, in haste, hit the gas harder to evade the landslide. He was almost successful when suddenly a large rock hit their car as they both passed out for a while. When Otto's senses came back, he looked at Artemis to ask her if she was alright. He asked her again and tried to wake her up. A wave of horror and disbelief ran past him as he realized that Artemis had not made it.

CHAPTER 4: THE DISCOVERY

A few months had past since the tragic event, Otto was sitting alone in his bedroom looking at their photos together. Thinking about her was the worst form of t*****e even after so many months. A devastated Otto was sitting at the corner of his room when his eyes momentarily went to the dusty blueprint of the complex project he had been working on several years ago. He picked it up, cleaned the dust and gave it another look. His eyes suddenly went to a small machine part highlighted in blue. "I never noticed this one before!" Otto said to himself. This unknown part of the machine was a detachable cylindrical component that was labeled as "The Capsules". There were two such capsules which could be fitted inside either side of the machine. After conducting thorough research about the capsule, it was a glass component that required special sand that would only be

found in a place called 'Radiant Ridge'. A new hope rejuvenated the eyes of Otto as this meant he had to travel to the other side of the city to collect the sand. It gave him a sense of purpose.

After traveling 250 miles in his car, he finally reached Radiant Ridge and collected the sand and then he quickly returned to his garage where the original machine had been left unattended for years. Once he fabricated the capsules, all he had to do was fill them with that special sand. He did exactly that and now he inserted the capsules inside the two holes of the machine. The machine lit up to life like a newborn baby. The gears started to move, and the machine was switched on. It was at that moment he realized that he had accidentally invented a 'Time Machine'.

CHAPTER 5: STUCK IN A LOOP

Once discovering the machine, he thought of returning the machine to the owner. After giving it much thought, he finally changed his mind and decided to do something even better. "What if I used this to go back in time?", he said to himself. A bleak of hope soon lit up Otto's heart as now he knew what he had to do to get his love back. The Roman numbers inside the machine had a specific function. It was used to manually enter the year you want to get transported to. As Otto slowly entered the machine he sat down and entered the year he wanted to go back to, which was 1 year before. "I will transport myself to the exact day when the accident took place", said Otto with an adamant tone, "This is the only way I will have Artemis back," he continued as he entered the day and year and pressed the 'Launch' button. Blue light illuminated the entire garage and, just like that Otto was gone.

He got transported to the exact day and year. It felt totally strange to Otto that he got the chance to relive that day. He entered his house, but one strange thing caught his attention. The placement of the furniture in his house was wrong. He brushed it off thinking maybe he didn't notice it earlier, but then he continuously started to encounter strange events in his house. The stairs leading to his room were in the opposite direction. The kitchen, the bathroom, everything was just like a mirror image. What Otto didn't realize was that, in the process of time travel, he had simultaneously created a parallel universe. The more the number of times one time travels, the more alternate universes are created in the process.

CHAPTER 6: MAKING PEACE



Suddenly, he got a call from Artemis and when she spoke, tears rolled down Otto's eyes. All the weird occurrences in his house swiftly slipped from his mind and he was only focused on canceling the trip with Artemis. "Hey babe, I love you so much" said Otto and Artemis was a bit surprised. "Yeah I get it and I love you back, ....is everything ok?" asked her curiously. "I'm okay, just, I wasn't feeling right" replied Otto. "Hey babe I was just thinking if we could cancel the trip" continued Otto. Artemis, surprised, replied"What? But we had been planning for this road trip for a long time. What's wrong..are you okay?". "Babe. I just don't think it's a good idea to go to that place. I just researched and found out that the area is prone to landslides. I don't want to put our lives in danger". Finally, Artemis agreed. Instead of the trip, they decided to organize a house party.

During the house party everyone seemed happy and having fun. Artemis and Otto were looking at each other lovingly. "I wish this moment would last forever" said Artemis, and Otto agreed with a smile. Suddenly, there was chaos downstairs. The couple ran downstairs and saw heavy smoke coming from the kitchen. "Fire!" screamed Helena as all the family members ran outside to take cover. Otto was making sure his parents were safe. Once he turned around to find Artemis, he saw that she was nowhere to be found. He saw that she ran back inside the house to save the cat that was stuck on the kitchen cabinet. "Artemis! babe!...get out of the house now!" screamed Otto while running back inside the house. A large wooden beam covered in flames fell on the door, almost hitting Otto's forehead. Artemis tried to run towards the exit but realized that it was too late as the entire house had slowly been engulfed in the fire. She threw the cat outside, through the window, but could not save herself in the process. The house exploded and with it took Artemis.

Anger and frustration took control over Otto's brain as he realized that he was not able to protect his lover yet again. He lay on the ground feeling helpless while his parents tried their best to console their son. After coming back to his senses, Otto slowly realized that no matter how many times he would travel back in time, he would never be able to get his lover back. The universe is much stronger than he had imagined.

Otto finally made peace with this realization and moved forward with his life, keeping his lover's memory in his heart forever.