Your Friend from Afar

Author's note: This story contains injuries, traumatic events, and mental insanity.

10/14/1911

Dear Jon Cannington,

How are you? This is Jacques Leroux, from Bordeaux in France. It has been a long time since we played as children, and I reminisce of our good times. Granted, you did have a hard life in that desert, along with your father and mother conducting their "business", but I prayed that your life has gotten better now that you are an adult. There is so much to share with you, ever since my family moved back to France before we could celebrate the new century in your country. How was 1900? How are your parents doing, nowadays? Did you make new friends?

Votre ami de loin,

Jacques Leroux

11/01/1911

Dear Jacques Leroux,

Things here are going alright, for a change. Speaking of which, we are building machines the size of buildings over here, to do the work of a hundred men or more. Can you believe that? I'll tell you a secret; this will lead to a revolution where machines will do so much work, yet we will make them smaller and maybe, just maybe, more mobile. For now, we're stuck with these titans of development. Speaking of development, the "business" of my parents will be coming to an end soon, and yes, my life as an adult has gotten better. I made a new friend recently. He's from Europe as well, and he showed me ways on getting what I need, including a wife (her name is Celine). All I had to do was tell him that I wanted to know the future so that my present can be prepared. Yes sir, I am a married man now, and things are looking great!

Sincerely,

Jon Cannington

12/13/1911

Dear Jon Cannington,

A little late on my part, but congratulations on your marriage! I am so happy that you found your significant other. It would seem that good things really do come to those who wait. Who knows? Maybe when I and my wife, Tala, come to visit America again, we'll get together, yes? Regardless, I am sorry to hear about your parents; justice was bound to come for them sooner or later, but I know that you still loved them even at the worst of times.

A little early on my part but have a good Christmas!

Votre ami de loin,

Jacques Leroux

02/07/1912

Dear Jacques Leroux,

How are things nowadays? Any troubling news, especially abroad? You mentioned coming over to visit America, and I was just concerned. There was an attack on an Ottoman port, with two ships destroying the harbor and almost a hundred lives were lost. Or, at least, that is what will happen. Please, you and your family be safe out there. Let me know when you might come over.

Sincerely,

Jon Cannington

02/28/1912

Dear Jon Cannington,

I received your last letter, and it concerned me. The even you described just happened four days ago, in Beruit! Two Italian ships launched an assault upon the port, and yes, there were ninety-seven casualties reported. But your letter was written on the seventh?

I don't want to jump to conclusions. Maybe you had a dream of the event. I will talk to you later.

Votre ami de loin,

Jacques Leroux

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03/11/1912

Dear Jon Cannington,

I hope that my last letter wasn't rude nor implying anything accusatory. I do have good news; my wife and I will be coming over to America! There is an ocean liner that a friend of mine told me would be completed and ready to sail in April. We'll be amongst the first to come aboard and taken to New York City. We might see that statue that my country gave yours! My wife sends her love, as do I. We will see you soon!

Votre ami de loin,

Jacques Leroux

03/29/1912

To Jacques Leroux,

Cancel the voyage! Please hear me out! Something terrible is going to happen seventeen days from the first! I can't explain it now, the experience has left me in shock!

Hurry!

Jon Cannington

04/16/1912

Dear Jon Cannington,

I don't know how you knew, but your warning came to fruition. The ship that I was planning to board, the one you told me to not take, has been reported as having struck an iceberg and sinking into the Atlantic Ocean! What scared me so much was that I and my family could have been aboard the ocean liner on our way to America, and we would have suffered as those survivors did. Even my own wife couldn't believe what has happened, despite her earlier protest to the cancellation of the trip. She and I have the same thought, though, that something about all of this seems connected with you.

My friend, can you see the future?

Votre ami de loin,

Jacques Leroux

04/30/1912

Dear Jacques Leroux,

I can only tell you this much; everything that has happened already happened before it actually happened. I don't know if you will believe this, but I know more than what I have seen in the future.

I was there.

I laid my head down the day before I wrote my last letter to you, and the vision played out as such that I thought it was a dream. The cold air, the waves crashing against the hull, the deck underneath my feet. The funny thing was that it felt real, as if I was there. Then the warning bell sounded, and the ship lurched as if it crashed into something!, I fell and scraped my hands, and the pain surprised even me! I can still feel the cold night air upon my wounded palms, as panic started seizing not only me, but everyone else around me! Boats were being filled to the brim, husbands stayed as wives and children left them on board the ship, and I could feel the ship rising out of the water. Suddenly, it shattered in half! I found myself plummeting to the waters below, and I hit the floor of my home!

I went to see the doctor. He said that everything about me was fine aside from the scrapes upon my palms, which he attributed to me landing on the wood of my floor.

I am afraid to fall asleep now. What has my new friend done to me?

Sincerely,

Jon Cannington

05/29/1911

Dear Jon Cannington,

You can confide in me; my wife is left in the dark ever since our cancelled trip, and I reassured her that there was no room left for us before the voyage. Could you tell me anything about your new friend? Who is this person? What did he promise you, exactly?

With great worry,

Jacques Leroux

06/20/1941

Dear Jacques Leroux,

I'll have to keep this short yet discreet; somehow, I ended up in France, and there are men with rifles and helmets running up and down the streets, wearing some sort of weird cross-square emblem. I pray that you and your wife are hiding safely somewhere.

My friend's name is Krone. He came from Greece, and he was interested in America like you. He inquired about my family, and when I asked him about his, he told me that his relationship with his kids was not good as they exiled him from home. I could have sworn venom was dripping from his words.

He wanted to share something with me, as he put it. There was a gift that he was wanting to share with his brothers before his children intervened, and now his brothers are imprisoned under suspicion of conspiring against the entire country. He didn't tell me, he showed me; a glimpse of the future. I saw my wife in that glimpse, Jacques! I saw my Celine. Krone saw her, too, and I could feel a great sadness come from him. He simply said to go to her before it was too late, that she was going to play an important part in not just my life, but in all the lives of humanity!

It is getting hard for me to speak.

Sincerely,

Jon Cannington

06/20/1912 (I think?)

Dear Jon,

Soldiers with rifles? I looked out my window, and I see no soldiers, especially with emblems. Has another dream pulled you in again? Are you back in the year of our Lord 1912? Please tell me you are all right!

My advice is to stop seeing this Krone character. Whatever he is doing, it is messing up your mind. Also, you need to see another doctor, perhaps a psychiatrist. My friend, you are scaring me, and my wife got a hold of your letter and practically panicked. For her sake, and mine, seek aid.

Votre ami de loin,

Jacques Leroux

07/31/1912, hopefully,

Dear Jacques,

How are things in present time? I would have gone to see the psychiatrist, but I needed a breather after I got stuck in a whirlwind, figuratively and literally. There were constant hurricanes along the coast, a couple volcanoes just erupted (in that time period that I "dreamed"), and even a couple man-made disasters. Mand!

Oh God, now my writing is doing it! First, my vocabulary started sounding strange, and now I can barely write ropeprly, I mean properly! I went to a few doctors as you asked, and they think that I might be coming down with dementia. Dementia, can you ibleeve that? Believe, I mean! These travels are coming in more and more, and I find that I am spending longer and longer in them. These returns to the present feel more like breaks before I am swept up back into this nightmare vacation. Hingts are going up in flames, and my wife Celine is worried sick.

I confronted Krone about all this. He told me that it was my sidere, desire (excuse me) to know my future, hence how I met my wife. The thing is that the events were selective, usually some of the most horrible pieces of history (or the future, depending on where you stand) and now I am becoming more a part of this endeavor.

Cinseyler,

Jon Cannington

07/14/1912

Dear Jon,

What is going on? Your letter makes little sense, especially the date! It's like you forgot what day you wrote your letter. I mean, writing on the 31st? Twenty-seven days from now? I am going insane here, and my wife thinks that I am cursed. She is having a couple doctors examine me, like your letters are affecting me? Why is this happening? What is going on?

................................................................................................................................

X/X/MMXX

Daer Fiendr Rexoul,

Twen wofrad nito eimt. Owt Hosandtu Yewntt. Hist cobeme ym slat teltre uont heet. Racsidfiec Celine. Delov rhe. Loduc tno vesa rhe. Nylo yaw. Too much pain! Too much sadness! Stum ptos! Looked ahead, now ahead! All a loop! Wasdbrack-worsfadr! Chronos! Chronos! Chronos! Stromne! Stromne! Stromne! Ximximximximximximximximximxim

I AM RELIC

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?/?/?

To whomever it may concern...

My name is Jacques Leroux of Bordeaux in France.

I lost my friend, Jon Cannington. He is not dead, he is gone. I know not where...or when.

I lost my freedom. Apparently, my own family had made a case to the courts of my apparent downfall into madness, which meant that I will be shut away in this mental institute of Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital.

At least I got to meet the new doctor. So far, he's been very friendly with me. He's even promised that he'll show me ways on getting what I needed, including a way out of here....