Novels2Search

Part 2

I got back to my dorm room, still shaken from the prophecy. Tyus wasn't there and I considered calling the cops about it, but was the woman really guilty? Even if she wasn't she would probably get arrested for a death threat. But then how did she know my name? Was it some twisted prank, or was it something else?

I decided to just keep it to myself, since I thought I would only scare people with it. Though I did analyze what she said. It said that Lucia was "destined to meet her end 6 hours past the turn of this afternoon." That would mean 6:00 p.m. Why were prophecies always worded so pretentiously? But the woman seemed so confident about what she said. Still, I wouldn't let Lucia die that young, not someone that loving.

Plus Tyus and his group were supposedly going to finish the time machine that night, he might have been hanging out with them at that time. It could help, if it actually worked.

There was still a little while until Lucia and I were going to meet though, so in the meantime I worked on some homework, trying to look forward to the date. I put some ointment and a new bandage on my leg's cut too. It didn't hurt as much.

Then at about 5:30 I put my suit on, looking in the wall mirror. I had trouble tying the tie, but got it together. I usually didn't care that much about my fashion, but I liked the suit. It was a black one with a white collared shirt and a black tie. In a good mood, I grabbed my car keys and walked down to the court yard where Lucia and I were supposed to meet.

At 5:45 she arrived, wearing an aqua dress.

"Hi Will!" she said.

"Hi," I said back. "I see you dried off," I tried to joke, still thinking a bit about the "prophecy."

"Yeah, I did and I text that I would have to show up late for the project. But I guess the group found out what happened because they started swarming me when I walked in, it nearly gave me a heart attack!" She laughed a bit. "But they were friendly about it too."

"That's good to hear," I said. "You look nice, too."

"Thanks, same to you."

We walked to my car in the school parking lot, and started driving to Denzel's. The drive was about 10 minutes, but I kept looking at the dashboard's clock on the way there.

"You okay?" Lucia asked.

"Yeah, I just... like to know that we're making good time, I guess."

We pulled up across the street from Denzel's Steakhouse, with it's big clock on the side of the top of the building.

"This is it, I've been looking forward to this for a while," I said.

"Me too, Will," Lucia replied.

We walked across the street and Lucia started skipping, a bit ahead of me as the clock bell rang loudly marking the 6 o'clock hour.

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That was when the truck hit her.

It came out of nowhere, a white and blue mass driving super fast and barely missing me. Then the driver stopped the semi-truck. I just stood there in shock in that moment. The prediction had come true. Lucia had been killed and I was looking at her body on the street.

Then the driver stepped out.

"I'm...so sorry," he said to me with a look of guilt and fear. "I was reckless."

"You, you killed her," I said, my voice cracking with every word. "You killed Lucia! Did you and that fortune teller plan this?!" I stomped up to him.

"No, I was just speeding." He seemed honest about that. I stepped back, but I still wouldn't forgive him that easily.. Did the fortune teller really predict the future? Either way Lucia just died and I had been told that she would, that sunk in. I should've made way more of an effort to save her.

Then I remembered the time machine. Tyus said they were finishing it that evening. I might've had a chance to undo this and save Lucia. I could get another chance, she could get another chance. So I ran to my car as fast as I could.

"Wait, look, I'm truly sorry. I'll turn myself in for this," said the truck driver, but I didn't respond. I was dead set on going back in time.

I drove back to Trayley and ran to room 17 on the second floor. The door was locked but I banged my fist on it. "Tyus, it's me!" I yelled. "I need help!" He opened it.

"Will, what happened?" he asked.

"Something bad, really bad." I walked into the room, the other members of the group were staring. In the middle of them was the time machine on a big table. "Did you guys finish this yet, I really need to go back in time," I told them desperately.

"Wait, you told him about this!?" someone asked angrily to Tyus.

"Well yeah, Darius, but he's my best friend and he promised to keep it a secret," said Tyus. Then he turned to me. "But yes, Will, we just made the finishing touches on this."

"Great, let me use it!" I walked over to the table, picking up the headset for it.

"Woah, slow down," said Darius. He was a strong-looking man who could intimidate if he wanted to. "You can't just barge in here and use our classified project. No one's even tested it yet."

"Well then I can be the first one," I said.

"Wait, why do you even want to go back in time Will?" Tyus said as he walked up to my side. "You seem devastated about something."

"It's because-" I didn't want to have to tell them out loud. I nearly started crying. "It's because Lucia just died! She got hit by a truck." The room went silent.

"Oh, I am so sorry Will." said Tyus, his voice cracking from it like mine did. "We can fix this though! This'll send you 3 hours into the past and hopefully you can-"

"We can't just use it right now," Darius interjected. "I'm sorry, guys, but we still don't know if this will even work. This is messing with time, and it could be catastrophic to everyone if it fails in the wrong way! We need to do days of constructed testing and analyzation to be safe."

"We don't have days to do that!" Tyus yelled. "We all know that this can only go back 3 hours! And we theorized that once it's been used, it can't be used again before that point in time. We couldn't stack those hours to go back days. It has to be now!"

"It's for Lucia, Darius," I pleaded. "She was kind, she was caring, she was the love of my life."

He considered that for a second.

"Well, don't put her on a pedestal," he said. Then one of the members spoke up.

"I'm on their side. We have to give him a chance."

Darius sighed.

"Fine," he said. "I'll start up the time machine." He walked over to the side of the table and pressed some buttons on the side of the wide machine. Tyus helped me put on the headset the right way.

"Thank you, everyone," I said.

"Yeah, just hope this works," Darius replied.

"I think it will," Tyus said.

"Alright, it's ready," Darius told us.

"So are the last 3 hours going to get overwritten?" I asked.

"Yeah, pretty much," Tyus told me. That meant this conversation was going to get erased, like it never happened. "But good luck, Will. Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"Then for Lucia," Tyus said.

"For Lucia."

As I looked up at the clock displaying the time 6:17, Tyus pressed a button. The machine shook, I felt weird and then, it happened.