Locked In Time

My eyes open to darkness. My body shakes as I stand. I take a three-sixty of my surroundings. Darkness. Nothing but pure cold darkness. “Help!” I scream in terror. No one answers. Who put me here? Where is here? 

Lights come to life. My eyes flicker at the bright lights. I hear a scream from the opposite side. A woman’s scream. My body straightens at the sound. 

No doors. No windows. Just me and the dust in the air. The walls are bare, with not even a splotch of color. How did I end up here? I checked the time and place on the map on which I was to be placed. I look down at my wrist and the time reads…

Year: Nineteen thirty-three: 

Place: Paris, France. 

` I am one year from my chosen time. I know, I checked the watch twice before I pressed the final button. How did this happen? How could this happen? Better question, Why did I agree to that stupid bargain? Mr. Federline agreed that if I use this timepiece he would set me free. Free from him. Free from my debts. Free from her. 

The screams grow louder. My eardrums vibrate with every pitch. 

“Get me the hell out of this hell hole!” The woman speaks.

Her voice. Her voice. Her voice. It’s her! It’s her damn voice. The one that would sing on late-night drives. The voice that only an angel could possess. One so unforgettable. It warms your soul down to your core. I remember her gentle tone. I remember how stern it can be. Most of all I remember how it would say those three words that made up one big lie, I love you. Lies, all of it was lies. She deceived me with that same voice. Deceived me in a way no man can fathom. 

“Get me out!” She cries. I hear the sobs in her voice the same ones I heard that day she came home from school and cried in my arms. Once I would comfort her when she screamed, now I want to stuff her mouth with a piece of large fabric. Silence. I would hear pure silence. How lovely that would be… “You son of a devil-eating biscuit! I will-” She yells. Before she can finish I hear footsteps coming from the wall to my right. Followed by a man’s version of a five-year-old with a smoking problem.

“The little psycho bit me!” He calls out. 

“Serves you justice for hauling me out of my room, as if I am some caged circus rat.” There it is the sternness. The tone I heard while in our white silk sheets. The same one I taught her in those moments. I regret it. I regret buying those damned silk sheets for her. For us. She never cared about any of it. Pfft.. she only wanted me for my body. I guess two can play at that game. 

Out of nowhere the wall to my right splits in half and reveals two sentinels both in black leathers. The one on the left is armed with some sort of rifle from a time I do not know of. The other on the right holds a similar gun but with it held at his side. Then in between the two is the one I thought I loved. The one I thought would stay. Now she stands before me with sentinels on both her sides with firm grips around her frail arms. 

“You.” I spit out in a harsh deep tone.

“You.” She says the same. 

I never wanted to see her face again. I took that bargain with Mr. Federline in order to never see her again. He tricked me. My time has been taken from me.

“I see you have found the ring.” I nod to her hand. 

“I did.” She responds. 

I had the intention of marrying her from the moment I laid eyes on her. The way her golden tinted brown hair flowed just over her shoulders. The way her grey eyes locked with mine. She was sitting on a low branch of a tree in the park that sits just in the middle of London. Her dress was a dark shade of black and hung off the edge of the tree. She was reading a book as I started my climb up the tree to get free from an intense game of football with the lads. I had the ball in hand and single-handedly made my way up to the branch she was on. She laughed as I struggled to climb. Saying something like, 

“Try to do it in a dress.”

 So I said, “Only if the lady will give me a kiss for luck.” I remember a large smirk fell on my face just as her feather-light lips grazed my cheek. 

I knew she was the one so I hid the ring my grandmother had just given me an hour before, in the little slot just behind where she sat on that large oak. In hopes one day she would find it when the day came. 

I shake the memory off and put my stare back on her, “Why am I here?”

“I do you one better.” She pauses to take a breath, “Why am I here?” 

And in unison, we say to the guards, “Why are we here?”

They look at one another and the one on the right states, “You are hereby order of King Adonis for treason to the crown and the use of The Untamable Time Piece.”

“But why am I here?” She asks, Before the sentinel can open her mouth she speaks yet again, “I never used the timepiece. I only loved the beholder of it.” 

“You loved me?” I say under my breath just enough for her to hear.

“Of course I loved - love you. I will till the day I die. I know what I did was - is wrong. I will never be able to pay my debt to you. I found the ring even after you broke things off between us. I want to spend eternity with you. I want to do a million things with you.” 

I casually pull my hands together to fix the cufflinks of my shirt. The watch reads,

Year: Nineteen thirty-two

Place: Paris, France

In one swift motion, I pull her towards me and out of grip from the sentinels. Once I have her in my arms I push the button on the timepiece and a black void fills our place in the small room. 

Once the darkness recedes, I see a large structure beyond me. Its metal gradually gets smaller as it stands about a hundred or more feet on the ground.

 The Eiffel Tower. 

“It’s ok Moriah. You can open your eyes now.” I speak softly as I make it to where my height aligns with her’s.

“What year is it, Peter?”

I look down at the watch on my wrist. 

“Nineteen thirty-one. Paris, France.”

"Ah, yes. Home."