Deep in the forest, fallen leaves blew along the ground.
Arthur stumbled to his feet, then fell over.
What?
He sat in still silence for a moment, then attempted to stand up again, but fell once more.
What was that? How did that… is that possible?
He stood up slowly and leaned against a tree, clutching onto one of its bare branches as he attempted to steady his breath.
I… was dead. But… I had a… dream? Was that a dream? No, it can't be… I should have woken up here the instant after I died. How was there something between my death and my waking up?
He cautiously attempted to take a step, still holding onto the branch.
But if it wasn't a dream… then what was it?
He steadied himself, and let go of the branch.
Should I ask Charlie?
He began walking towards the city, walking slowly and carefully.
No. I need to go straight to the museum. Whatever that was, it's not important. Gaining information is my top priority.
He entered the city, his walking slowly becoming more normal as he entered the alley and put on the clothes from the dumpster. He walked quickly towards the museum, taking every shortcut he could to make up for the time he lost regaining his composure in the woods.
He approached the building, only taking a brief moment to take in the architecture this time as he swiftly walked up to the door and stepped inside.
“Hello! How can I help you today?” The receptionist asked as Arthur walked up to him.
“I'm here to see Mr Shine.”
The receptionist frowned.
“I believe you may be in the wrong place.”
“I'm not.”
The door opened, and Mr Shine walked out.
“Hello.”
He noticed the expression on the receptionist's face.
“Is there a problem here?”
“No! There's not-”
“Hello Mr Shine. I'm here to talk to you.”
The bright expression disappeared from his face.
“Who are you?”
“My name is Arthur, and I’d like to talk to you about something.”
“What?”
“I can't tell you here.”
“Alright. Follow me.”
He led Arthur back to the room they talked in last time, and sat down.
“We're alone now. What do you want?”
“I am from the future.”
An annoyed look appeared on Mr Shine’s face and he began to stand up.
“You plan on throwing the receptionist a surprise party in two weeks.”
Mr Shine stopped.
“How do you know what?”
“You told me to tell you that. You said it would make you believe me.”
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Mr Shine sat back down.
“Alright. I'll hear you out for now.”
“Good.”
Arthur went on to explain what they had talked about together in his previous life.
Mr Shine rubbed his temple vigorously.
“Alright. Now that I believe you, why don't you continue from where you left off.”
“So, as I said before, I was killed by Mr Rain while I was eavesdropping on a meeting. And I was eavesdropping on that meeting because I had reason to believe the subject of that meeting was the organization of a dystopian government.”
Mr Shine stopped rubbing his forehead and looked up at Arthur with a serious look in his eyes.
“What?”
“Like I said before, I came from the future. And the reason I came back in the first place is because in just a few years, the world is taken over by a powerful authoritarian government. I came back to stop that from happening.”
“That's not possible. We would have stopped such a thing from happening.”
“Well, you didn't.”
Arthur stood up.
“It was nice to meet you, but I have to get going now.”
Mr Shine was silent until Arthur was about to open the door to leave.
“Wait. Let me help you.”
Arthur turned back towards him.
“Why should I?”
“I believe the prevention of the future you describe would fall under our organization's duties. I'll act as your middleman to the rest of the group. You give me information, and I’ll use the weather men’s influence to take the necessary steps to prevent that horrible future.”
Mr Shine extended his arm out.
“What do you say?”
Arthur walked back to him and stood in silence for a few seconds before grabbing Mr Shine's hand and shaking it.
“Deal.”
Mr Shine smiled.
“Very good. Do you have a place to stay?”
“Not yet.”
“If you'd like, I can provide you with an apartment.”
“That would be great.”
Mr Shine stood up.
“Come with me, I'll take you to a building we own.”
Mr Shine led Arthur out to the front of the building and brought him to a small yellow car.
They entered the car together, and Mr Shine turned on the radio.
“From now on, call me Andrew. It'd be bad if people heard you call me Mr Shine in public.”
“Okay Mr Andrew.”
Andrew laughed.
“No, just Andrew!”
“Oh, sorry.”
“You're allowed to be casual with me, kid. We’re equals from now on. Ah, before I forget.”
Andrew took a phone out of the glove compartment and handed it to Arthur.
“Keep this. It's one of my spares, and has my main phone already registered as a contact. Call me if you ever need anything.”
“Alright, thank you.”
“Of course.”
Andrew backed the car out of the parking lot as he typed an address into his GPS.
“The place is kinda far away, but it's in the most quiet part of the city so it's worth it.”
After about half an hour, they arrived at a small apartment complex. It wasn't run down, but it also wasn't in the best shape.
“This is the place!” Andrew said, leading Arthur inside. “There should be a vacancy on the third floor I believe.”
They climbed the stairs up to the third floor and walked up to door 317. Andrew took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door with it, walking inside.
“Come on in, I'll show you around.”
Arthur followed him inside.
The apartment was very small, barely having enough room for the few items of furniture that were already there. There was a small bed against the back corner of the apartment, facing towards the door. At the foot of the bed was a chair facing towards a small TV. In the opposite corner of the room from the bed was a desk and chair facing towards the wall. Directly across the room from the desk, there was a glass door leading to a small balcony.
“Where’s the bathroom?” Arthur asked.
“Right here.” Arthur closed the entrance door, revealing another door behind it leading to the bathroom. “And as you can see, the kitchen is right here.”
He gestured towards the other side of the small entrance hallway, where there was a small, open kitchen area. Much like the rest of the apartment, there wasn’t much room in it. Most of the countertop space was taken up by a microwave, a coffee maker, and the stove, leaving only a space that looked to be somewhere around two square feet.
“So, what do you think?” Andrew asked.
“It's… certainly compact.” Arthur answered with a slight chuckle.
Andrew laughed.
“It is, isn't it?”
He walked into the main room and looked around with nostalgia in his eyes.
“Ah… this reminds me of my early days in the organization. Good times.”
He walked back out into the entrance hallway and handed Arthur a key.
“This is the key to the apartment. I'll call you tomorrow and we can decide what to do, until then, get comfortable.”
“Alright, thank you.”
“Of course. Goodnight, Arthur.” Andrew said as he walked out of the apartment and closed the door behind him.
Arthur walked into the room and sat down on the bed, sighing.
Finally, time to get some rest.
He laid there for a few minutes, before getting up to take a shower.
After he got out of the shower, he walked back into his bedroom.
Ah, shit. I forgot to ask for a new pair of clothes.