Categories > Original > Sci-Fi
The Time Traveler's Chronicle
0 reviewsHalle Hightower is a nineteen year old shut in, whose ambitions are to make time travel a reality. After receiving mysterious messages, she discovers time travel. While traveling in time with her f...
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Halle Hightower was an incredibly clever girl. Her mother instilled the importance of education and her father introduced her to the world of science fiction. Halle’s favorite aspect of science fiction was time travel. Ever since her dad read her H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, Halle wanted to be the one to make time travel possible. As a child her parents thought her ambitions were cute and indulged her by buying her “parts” for her time machine for birthdays and Christmases. However, the older she got the more her ambitions grew and the less her parents found it cute and began thinking she was mentally unstable.
Halle didn’t let that bring her down though. She didn’t let anything crush her dreams; Halle kept straight A’s in school, and spent all her spare time trying to figure out the conundrum that was time travel which mostly involved watching Doctor Who, Back to the Future and various other time travel related media. She knew that it held no answers but it gave her perspective. Also the fact that she didn’t have friends to bounce ideas off of was a bit of a drawback. She didn’t mind being alone though, in fact she preferred it. She felt no one understood her and would only hinder her research. It wasn’t until one day that, that all changed.
It was a bright sunny day when Halle’s mom walked into Halle’s room with a letter.
“Halle you have a letter! Also I think you should go outside for a bit.”
“What point would that serve? I’m basically trying to change reality. The whole idea of time and space changed forever. Going outside does not help with that.”
“I think you’re vitamin D deficient. You need to soak up the sun’s rays to get some vitamin D. I also want you to take B vitamins, D vitamins-“
“I know, you want me to consume all those vitamins that you have in the medicine cabinet,” Halle said writing notes in her notebook. Her mother threw the letter down on the desk and left the room. Halle couldn’t help but smile to herself, she enjoyed annoying her mother. It was her way of getting revenge on her mother for trying to come up with excuses for why she was the way she was. Yet Halle decided that just this once she would take a piece of her mother’s advice, and sit outside for a little bit. She went outside and sat on the porch and opened the letter. The message was confusing but something about the way it was written seemed familiar:
“Halle, Keep your chin up. Don’t listen to what they say. It’s not your fault.”
Halle sat there in confusion. None of it made any sense. When she looked up, she saw two people in trench coats and sun glasses staring at her from across the street. One of them was definitely female and the other was definitely male. When they saw Halle notice them they took off.
“Well that was odd,” Halle muttered to herself. Halle then heard the arguing voices of her parents.
“…it’s your fault she’s the way she is, Connor!” Her mother’s voice rang out, “All those times I told you all that sci-fi would warp her mind!”
“Give it a break Marian, at least the kid has ambition!” her father retorted.
“She’s setting herself up for failure! Time Travel!? It’s impossible! I think she needs help!”
“At one point travelling to the moon was considered impossible too, and look now, we sent men to the moon and back. Even if she doesn’t discover how to travel in time her work could possibly help lead others to the right path.”
“Do you hear yourself right now!? Space travel is one thing, but actually moving back and forth into different times? If it were possible then cave men would be given the technology we have today. Halle is brilliant, but she is weird. She spends all day locked up in her room watching Doctor Who writing nonsense in that journal,” Marian said, her voice was shaking with anger, “She’s nineteen! She has no friends! It’s pathetic!”
“That’s your daughter! Are you really bothered that she’s just a bit different?” Connor asked.
“A bit different?” Marian started laughing, “That’s the biggest understatement I have ever heard! She’s insane! She’s living in a world where Marty McFly is racing around in a time travelling DeLorean and Doctor Who is stealing young girls and taking them away in a flying phone booth.” Halle was suppressing her annoyance and hurt. She was annoyed that her mother had gotten the whole Doctor Who bit wrong, and hurt that she had such a problem with Halle’s dreams.
Halle decided that she’d go for a walk to get away from the bad energy that was filling the house. The neighborhood was alive with children skipping through sprinklers, ladies sitting on their porches gossiping, and guys cooking on the grill.
“Halle didn’t you just walk past here?” old Mrs. Fannigan, Halle’s mom sometimes forced Halle to help the old woman out, but Halle didn’t mind. Mrs. Fannigan was a sweet old lady, but her mind was beginning to go.
“No Mrs. Fannigan. It must have been someone else,” Halle said.
“Are you sure? Because I could have sworn I saw you walking with a boy.”
“Oh Mrs. Fannigan you know that’s impossible!”
“No, no, I said ‘Hi Halle who is your friend?’ and you said ‘Hello Mrs. Fannigan, this is Kieran.’ We talked for a good five minutes and then you walked off with that boy, and now you’re right here in front of me!”
“Calm down, let me take you inside Mrs. Fannigan, I think you need to lie down.” Halle went to the old woman and took her arm, leading her into the house. “This heat is pretty bad; you must have just thought you saw me.”
“Don’t patronize me Halle Hightower! I may be old but I know who I am talking to when engaged in conversation! My mind isn’t that far gone!”
“I apologize. But honestly, how could I be in two places at once? It’s impossible.”
“Well I don’t know, I just know that I saw you!” Halle helped Mrs. Fannigan into her bed.
“I’ll figure it out, would you like me to get you anything?”
“Would you mind getting me a glass of iced tea sweetie?”
“No problem,” Halle said smiling. Halle walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. She grabbed the pitcher of iced tea and a glass from the nearby cupboard, when an idea struck her. Halle’s cousin, Lorelei looked rather similar to Halle and would probably jump on the chance to mess with the mind of an old lady. “Here’s your tea Mrs. Fannigan, I think I figured out who you saw. My cousin Lorelei looks like me and she’s…a prankster for lack of a kinder word.”
“Oh really? Well that’s good. I was getting pretty scared.”
“Don’t worry, if anyone is crazy it’s me,” Halle said, fluffing up Mrs. Fannigan’s pillows.
“Oh no dear, you’re a bit eccentric but all the best people are. You’ll go far in life Halle, I know that.”
“Thank you, well I’ll be going now, you try and stay cool and if you need anything just call.”
“Oh you are sweet! Thank you Halle dear.”
“See you later,” Halle said leaving. Halle didn’t quite feel like going home, so decided to keep on walking. She got into town and saw her cousin Lorelei in the ice cream shop with a boy. Halle was going to tell her off for impersonating Halle.
Halle walked into the shop and nearly every table she passed caused the customer to break a plate or spit out whatever they were consuming. Halle paid no attention to the strangeness that was happening and walked right up to Lorelei’s table. Lorelei’s back was turned toward Halle, but the boy who she figured was Kieran, looked stunned and scared.
“Hey Lorelei what’s the deal with screwing with Mrs. Fannigan’s head!?” Halle demanded.
“Damn I forgot about this…” Lorelei said in a low voice.
“Well? What do you have to say?”
“You’re right Halle, it was wrong of me, I’ll never do it again I’m sorry,” Lorelei said in a weird voice. Lorelei was also lowering her head away from Halle.
“What’s wrong with you!? Why are you hiding your face?” Halle yanked Lorelei’s arm and whipped her around. Immediately seeing her face Halle let go and stared in awe. Lorelei looked similar to Halle, and bad eye sight or a quick glance would probably make Lorelei look like Halle, but this wasn’t Lorelei. It was almost like Halle was looking in a mirror.
“Now don’t freak out,” the look alike said.
“Halle we should go somewhere private…” Kieran said, but he was looking at the look alike.
“Yeah, let’s go…” the look alike said getting up and walking out. Kieran guided Halle out. They went to the park and Halle just stared at the look alike. The look alike just stared back.
“Alright so it looks like I’ll be the one to explain things, first off Halle I’m Kieran. You haven’t met me yet,” Kieran said, “Secondly, yes the girl next to you is your future self.”
“How is that possible!?” Halle asked. Future Halle scoffed.
“Really? You’re really going to ask how that’s possible.”
“Well you’re me from the future so you should know,” Halle said.
“Ladies, ladies stop fighting. Halle after you meet me, we create a time machine. That’s all I can really tell you for now.”
“How?”
“You’ll figure it out. Halle come on let’s go.” Kieran and the future Halle left. It was at that point that Halle saw their trench coats and realized that Halle had given herself that note. She just shook her head and began to walk home, her mind was exhausted and she thought that she was actually, properly insane.
Halle didn’t let that bring her down though. She didn’t let anything crush her dreams; Halle kept straight A’s in school, and spent all her spare time trying to figure out the conundrum that was time travel which mostly involved watching Doctor Who, Back to the Future and various other time travel related media. She knew that it held no answers but it gave her perspective. Also the fact that she didn’t have friends to bounce ideas off of was a bit of a drawback. She didn’t mind being alone though, in fact she preferred it. She felt no one understood her and would only hinder her research. It wasn’t until one day that, that all changed.
It was a bright sunny day when Halle’s mom walked into Halle’s room with a letter.
“Halle you have a letter! Also I think you should go outside for a bit.”
“What point would that serve? I’m basically trying to change reality. The whole idea of time and space changed forever. Going outside does not help with that.”
“I think you’re vitamin D deficient. You need to soak up the sun’s rays to get some vitamin D. I also want you to take B vitamins, D vitamins-“
“I know, you want me to consume all those vitamins that you have in the medicine cabinet,” Halle said writing notes in her notebook. Her mother threw the letter down on the desk and left the room. Halle couldn’t help but smile to herself, she enjoyed annoying her mother. It was her way of getting revenge on her mother for trying to come up with excuses for why she was the way she was. Yet Halle decided that just this once she would take a piece of her mother’s advice, and sit outside for a little bit. She went outside and sat on the porch and opened the letter. The message was confusing but something about the way it was written seemed familiar:
“Halle, Keep your chin up. Don’t listen to what they say. It’s not your fault.”
Halle sat there in confusion. None of it made any sense. When she looked up, she saw two people in trench coats and sun glasses staring at her from across the street. One of them was definitely female and the other was definitely male. When they saw Halle notice them they took off.
“Well that was odd,” Halle muttered to herself. Halle then heard the arguing voices of her parents.
“…it’s your fault she’s the way she is, Connor!” Her mother’s voice rang out, “All those times I told you all that sci-fi would warp her mind!”
“Give it a break Marian, at least the kid has ambition!” her father retorted.
“She’s setting herself up for failure! Time Travel!? It’s impossible! I think she needs help!”
“At one point travelling to the moon was considered impossible too, and look now, we sent men to the moon and back. Even if she doesn’t discover how to travel in time her work could possibly help lead others to the right path.”
“Do you hear yourself right now!? Space travel is one thing, but actually moving back and forth into different times? If it were possible then cave men would be given the technology we have today. Halle is brilliant, but she is weird. She spends all day locked up in her room watching Doctor Who writing nonsense in that journal,” Marian said, her voice was shaking with anger, “She’s nineteen! She has no friends! It’s pathetic!”
“That’s your daughter! Are you really bothered that she’s just a bit different?” Connor asked.
“A bit different?” Marian started laughing, “That’s the biggest understatement I have ever heard! She’s insane! She’s living in a world where Marty McFly is racing around in a time travelling DeLorean and Doctor Who is stealing young girls and taking them away in a flying phone booth.” Halle was suppressing her annoyance and hurt. She was annoyed that her mother had gotten the whole Doctor Who bit wrong, and hurt that she had such a problem with Halle’s dreams.
Halle decided that she’d go for a walk to get away from the bad energy that was filling the house. The neighborhood was alive with children skipping through sprinklers, ladies sitting on their porches gossiping, and guys cooking on the grill.
“Halle didn’t you just walk past here?” old Mrs. Fannigan, Halle’s mom sometimes forced Halle to help the old woman out, but Halle didn’t mind. Mrs. Fannigan was a sweet old lady, but her mind was beginning to go.
“No Mrs. Fannigan. It must have been someone else,” Halle said.
“Are you sure? Because I could have sworn I saw you walking with a boy.”
“Oh Mrs. Fannigan you know that’s impossible!”
“No, no, I said ‘Hi Halle who is your friend?’ and you said ‘Hello Mrs. Fannigan, this is Kieran.’ We talked for a good five minutes and then you walked off with that boy, and now you’re right here in front of me!”
“Calm down, let me take you inside Mrs. Fannigan, I think you need to lie down.” Halle went to the old woman and took her arm, leading her into the house. “This heat is pretty bad; you must have just thought you saw me.”
“Don’t patronize me Halle Hightower! I may be old but I know who I am talking to when engaged in conversation! My mind isn’t that far gone!”
“I apologize. But honestly, how could I be in two places at once? It’s impossible.”
“Well I don’t know, I just know that I saw you!” Halle helped Mrs. Fannigan into her bed.
“I’ll figure it out, would you like me to get you anything?”
“Would you mind getting me a glass of iced tea sweetie?”
“No problem,” Halle said smiling. Halle walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge. She grabbed the pitcher of iced tea and a glass from the nearby cupboard, when an idea struck her. Halle’s cousin, Lorelei looked rather similar to Halle and would probably jump on the chance to mess with the mind of an old lady. “Here’s your tea Mrs. Fannigan, I think I figured out who you saw. My cousin Lorelei looks like me and she’s…a prankster for lack of a kinder word.”
“Oh really? Well that’s good. I was getting pretty scared.”
“Don’t worry, if anyone is crazy it’s me,” Halle said, fluffing up Mrs. Fannigan’s pillows.
“Oh no dear, you’re a bit eccentric but all the best people are. You’ll go far in life Halle, I know that.”
“Thank you, well I’ll be going now, you try and stay cool and if you need anything just call.”
“Oh you are sweet! Thank you Halle dear.”
“See you later,” Halle said leaving. Halle didn’t quite feel like going home, so decided to keep on walking. She got into town and saw her cousin Lorelei in the ice cream shop with a boy. Halle was going to tell her off for impersonating Halle.
Halle walked into the shop and nearly every table she passed caused the customer to break a plate or spit out whatever they were consuming. Halle paid no attention to the strangeness that was happening and walked right up to Lorelei’s table. Lorelei’s back was turned toward Halle, but the boy who she figured was Kieran, looked stunned and scared.
“Hey Lorelei what’s the deal with screwing with Mrs. Fannigan’s head!?” Halle demanded.
“Damn I forgot about this…” Lorelei said in a low voice.
“Well? What do you have to say?”
“You’re right Halle, it was wrong of me, I’ll never do it again I’m sorry,” Lorelei said in a weird voice. Lorelei was also lowering her head away from Halle.
“What’s wrong with you!? Why are you hiding your face?” Halle yanked Lorelei’s arm and whipped her around. Immediately seeing her face Halle let go and stared in awe. Lorelei looked similar to Halle, and bad eye sight or a quick glance would probably make Lorelei look like Halle, but this wasn’t Lorelei. It was almost like Halle was looking in a mirror.
“Now don’t freak out,” the look alike said.
“Halle we should go somewhere private…” Kieran said, but he was looking at the look alike.
“Yeah, let’s go…” the look alike said getting up and walking out. Kieran guided Halle out. They went to the park and Halle just stared at the look alike. The look alike just stared back.
“Alright so it looks like I’ll be the one to explain things, first off Halle I’m Kieran. You haven’t met me yet,” Kieran said, “Secondly, yes the girl next to you is your future self.”
“How is that possible!?” Halle asked. Future Halle scoffed.
“Really? You’re really going to ask how that’s possible.”
“Well you’re me from the future so you should know,” Halle said.
“Ladies, ladies stop fighting. Halle after you meet me, we create a time machine. That’s all I can really tell you for now.”
“How?”
“You’ll figure it out. Halle come on let’s go.” Kieran and the future Halle left. It was at that point that Halle saw their trench coats and realized that Halle had given herself that note. She just shook her head and began to walk home, her mind was exhausted and she thought that she was actually, properly insane.
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