Author’s Note: Here’s the next part! I start my new semester at TWU tomorrow! Luckily for you I’ve got this written from my winter break. Until next week!
“We’re still on the farm! We didn’t move at all…” I hear Randy across the room, presumably at the opening of the shelter. “I’m going to check it out. I need to see what the damage is and to see if any of the larger animals survived. That was a crazy storm.”
“I’ll go with you.” I hear Danny slipping on his boots. How long had we stayed down in the shelter? “Al, stay here and keep an eye on Rita I’ll be back soon.”
I open my eyes and the lights don’t hurt as much this time. “How long have I been out?” I push myself slowly into a sitting position.
Al is suddenly hugging me. “Oh! We were so worried! We had to fight with Rain and Robert to get them to sleep they were keeping a constant vigil.” I look over and see my two younger siblings asleep hand in hand. “Wait, if we haven’t moved why did it feel like we did?”
I look at my friend, wondering if what I dreamt was true. If who I saw was truly an older version of Robert, “I think I moved us through time. At least that’s what Someone claiming to be an adult Robert said in my dream.”
“Adult Robert!?” She looks over at my sleeping brother. “Wow, his powers must grow a lot.” Then she looks at me “Did you just say you moved us through time?” Excitement shows on her face, “That’s way cool! Imagine all the time-traveling you could do. All the history you could see first-person. OOOO! All the concerts you could go to.”
I shake my head, bad idea, “I don’t think it’ll work like that. There was something that adult Robert said. He mentioned that I used my newfound power too much when I discovered it and they lost me when he was young.” I try to rub the pain out of my forehead, my head still pounding. “We need to make sure that adult Robert is there when I do the jump through time every time. I will need to tell him about what happened in my dream.” I am scared of my new power and I allow myself to feel that. Fear is good. Fear means caution, “We can’t tell anyone outside of our group about my new power.”
“What about the Registry? Won’t they find out? Then they will probably want you to use it for their nefarious activities.” I sigh and frown she has a point. Although, the people in our government, specifically the Registry, are the last ones that I would want to know that I could travel through time.
“Why are we talking about the government? I thought this was a banned subject.” Danny walks up and hugs me. “Glad you’re awake and talking though, don’t get me wrong.”
Randy comes in behind him and barrels right into me. “Don’t scare us like that again, even if it did save us.” I can barely hear him because he’s talking into my shoulder and holding me too tight. He’s not one big on physical affection, usually. He must have really been worried. How long was I out? Al never answered my question, did she?
“Too tight Randy,” I manage to grunt out. He loosens his grip but still keeps me in his arms as if holding me would protect me. I brace myself for the reactions to what I’m about to tell them, “We were talking about the registry because I think I moved us through time.” I finally blurt out the words because I can’t keep the truth from my family. At least not about this. Not when it could put us on the Registry’s radar. We are a family and we must protect each other.
Randy sits up in a blur, “How do you figure that?” His face is now scrunched into a frown, pensive.
“Adult Robert told her.” Al spits out. All eyes were on me begging for explanations.
“It was someone claiming to be Robert. I don’t know if I believe that it was truly him. I’ll explain later when everyone is awake. We all need to talk about what happened.” Suddenly I feel a bit woozy, “I think I need to rest some more.” I hold my forehead the pain increasing. What is going on with these headaches? Usually, I feel a little fatigued but I don’t get headaches. Maybe it’s a side effect of moving time around? Or did I move us through time? How does that work I wonder? “Do we have any pain meds? My head is killing me.” I lay back down for a few minutes and someone hands me a pill and water. I drink all of the water, just now realizing how thirsty I was. “Thanks.” I close my eyes and drift off to sleep, hoping that I don’t have another nightmare.