"This Hypothetical Adventure"

James was having an average day. He was walking down the moderately busy city street in his new coat. Technically it was an old coat, but it was newly in his possession. He’d just bought it from the local second hand store, and honestly, it was the most exciting thing he’d done all week. He was quite pleased with himself about the purchase. A very soft, warm fleece lining inside a worn denim exterior. A cool, vintage look. And for only $40. Perfect for this time of year as Autumn was starting to put a chill on the wind. He was still testing all the buttons and feeling around inside the pockets, when he felt something in the breast pocket. He pulled it out and it looked like a folded up piece of paper. Upon unfolding it he realised that it was a polaroid photo. His face sunk though when he saw what the polaroid captured. It was a photo of an unconscious young man, tall and chubby, with messy brown hair. He was slumped over, tied to a chair, with a large, thin man holding a knife against his throat.

James pulled out his phone to call the police, when something in the photo caught his eye. In the corner of the polaroid, there was a date written. 18/09/08. James re-examined the photo with this new information and slowly came to the realisation that the teenager in the photo was him. ‘God’, he thought, ‘was I really that fat back then? I would have been, what? 17 at the time?’. He kept looking and it was definitely him from 11 years ago. But he had no memory of anything like this ever happening to him. What the hell was going on? Perplexed, he searched for more details and on the other side of the polaroid was a message. ’Corner of Gilroy and Mapleton Street. 4pm. 9/10/19’. That was today’s date. Shit, he realised, that was in only 42 minutes. He checked his phone and used Maps to find out that the corner of Gilroy Street and Mapleton Street was a 34 minute walk.

On the walk to the location in the note, James wracked his brain, trying to think of literally anything that could be waiting for him at that location. He couldn’t think of anything, but he knew that whatever it was, wasn’t going to be good. He bought a to-go coffee at a café on the way to calm his nerves. The caffeine only made him more anxious. He wasn’t thinking, he just needed something to take his mind off whatever was waiting for him. He reached Gilroy Street at about 3:54, so he did a lap of the block just before the corner of Gilroy and Mapleton just to stall. This wasn’t something he wanted to be early for. He arrived at the corner at 3:59. A man tall and broad man, wearing a steel grey suit with a black dress shirt underneath and sunglasses approached him. “Nice jacket”, he said with a smirk across his face. “Thanks”, muttered James, nervously, “It’s new. Well, not brand new, but I just…”. The man interrupted by nodding his head and responding, “I know. Why don’t you follow me inside. It’s getting a bit chilly out here”.

He strolled inside a large, featureless grey building.  The kind that you never really notice is there. James timidly walked in behind him. The lobby of this building was much more noteworthy than the outside. Immaculate tile floors with vibrant red carpets, gold chandeliers on the ceiling giving off bright light and in the far corner of the room were two red leather sofas, facing each other with two men sitting on the furthest couch, staring directly at James. The mysterious man lead James to the two other, equally mysterious men. One of the men was skinny and tall in a jet black suit, tie and hat. He knew he’d never met this man before but something seemed familiar about him. The sudden realisation sent a shockwave down James’ spine. He pulled the polaroid from his pocket and looked very closely at the man in the image. That man was the same person pointing a knife at him in the photo. He stared at the man in black with horror in his eyes. The man in black showed no emotion whatsoever in his face, but gave James a small nod of acknowledgement, putting any doubt to rest. To the left of him was old and gruff looking man, short with a shaved head and wearing a white suit with a red cravat. He gave off the impression that he was the leader. The man in grey gestured at James to sit on the empty sofa, which James proceeded to do. He then sat to the left of the man in white. All four of them sat in silence for almost a full minute, all three of the mysterious men staring directly at James. The man in black wasn’t even blinking.

“James Royce. Nice jacket”, exclaimed the man in white, mercifully ending the painful silence. “Th-thanks”, replied James, “So, if you don’t mind me asking, of course, who are you guys?”. The man in white responded without any hesitation which caught James off guard, “None of your concern if you play your cards right. You remember Jayda Campbell?”. “My friend from high school? Yeah, why?”. James leaned forward, now more intrigued than afraid. “In two hours, Jayda Campbell may or may not approach you on the street and say ‘I need your help. Come with me’, and you might say yes because you’re a loser with nothing better to do. She might explain to you some crazy conspiracy theory about time travel and some quite damning accusations about a certain corporation. All of which would be untrue, of course. You may or may not have some fun little adventure involving time travel, doing what she claims is the “right thing”. We’ve all seen Back to the Future. Now, my employer may have set various plans into motion and this hypothetical adventure seeks to jeopardize these hypothetical plans. A lot of time and resources could have possibly gone into these plans and to see them ruined might make my employer very unhappy. And when my employer is unhappy, I am unhappy. And when I’m unhappy, the gentleman to my right is unhappy”. The man in white gestured to the man in black, who furrowed his brow, the first time James had noticed any movement in the man’s face. “You’ve seen the photo we sent you, so you know what we’re capable of. Whether or not you believe any of this isn’t my business. What is my business is that you stay away from Jada Campbell. Capiche?”, explained the man in white.

James stared into the distance for a few seconds. “Are you kidding me?”, he yelled frustratedly, “I haven’t seen Jayda in, like, two years, and, what, she’s running these elaborate pranks now? Was it worth the heart attack you almost gave me? Jesus Christ”. The man in black sat up from the sofa and grabbed James by the collar with one hand and held a gun to his head in the other. “You can believe what you want, smart guy. If you don’t believe us I can just shoot you right here, right now and save us all some time”, said the man in black through gritted teeth. James felt a cold rush of fear through every fibre of his being. “That’s enough”, snapped the man in white as he waved his hand at the man in black, “I think he gets the gravity of the situation now, don’t you Mr Royce?”. “Yep. I 100% get it now. Crystal clear”, James rambled until the man in black released him. The man in white stood up and the man in grey followed suit. “Well, Mr Royce”, said the man in white, “If you do as we ask, you’ll never have to worry about us again. If you don’t, then you already have. Have a nice day”. The man in white began to walk away and the man in black followed him. The man in grey stopped for a moment. “I really do like that jacket, by the way”, he commented, “It looks really good on you”. He then followed the men in white and black and they all exited the lobby together.

James waited for several minutes before deciding to leave the lobby of the building. He decided to walk around the city for a bit just to clear his head and to process what the hell just happened. He walked for a while until it started to get dark, so he turned around to walk to the nearest train station to get home. As he turned around, he saw a familiar face just a couple of metres up the pathway. A woman with very tan skin and brown, messy hair. As soon as she saw his face, she ran up to him. “James”, she yelled excitedly, “I need your help. Come with me”. She paused for a second and looked him up and down. “Ooh. Nice jacket”.