The Supernatural Case of an Accidental Time Traveler

[Paul_Tromba]

(Moments earlier.)

"So, Sela?" I asked with a stereotypically curious tone.

"Yes?" Sela replied, still annoyed, from where they were pouting. To me, it felt as if they had been pouting for twenty minutes. It must have really bothered them that I disrupted their plans.

"Could you, maybe, let me go? I think I have been locked in the Realm of Stars for long enough," I requested in a nonchalant manner. I was pretty sure that wouldn't annoy them.

"I guess you did stay a few days… Fine, you may go," Sela said with a loud groan. Rubbing the back of their head, Sela gave me an even more annoyed expression, though I didn't sense any hostility. Instead, their reply seemed more apologetic, despite Sela's expression.

"Oh, before I forget. Why did you even want to do any of that philosophical bullshit where I have some kind of revelation? All I feel now is depression and pain," I asked in an attempt at some humour. Though, my humour may have missed its mark. I really need to speak with some normal people after this.

"I read it in a book where the hero has to fight himself under the guise of the one they fear the most as a way to promote character growth," Sela replied as if it were an obvious decision.

"I could see how that might work in a book, but again, I'm way too dense for that. And plus, if anyone is the protagonist, it's Scott, or Mordred," I replied as if I were a bit proud of my denseness. Maybe I was a little proud of it; don't ask me why.

"If you say so. Now get out of here," Sela snapped their fingers with a devious smirk. The watery pool making up the floor gave out from beneath me. As usual, I experienced the same falling sensation, before realizing that I was back in my own body. It felt nice, but my body felt heavy. Looking around, I saw that I was in the middle of the city at night. The cold, moist air felt awkward against my skin, and beside me was a woman's corpse.

I was clutching my head as if I were in pain, but there was none, then I started to feel it. Everything that had happened while I was away, came to me like a flurry of lost memories. I couldn't believe that my logical self had managed to travel through time. At the same time, though, I feel like my logical self was judging me, even though we were the same person. I guess I always have been one to loathe my own being, so it wasn't much different than before.

"Lou, I need you to help me get the cuffs on him. Snap out of it," Scott yelled angrily as he held the Changeling still. Finally noticing the Changeling, I drew my knife on instinct. I wanted him dead for handing me over to that masked freak. Three weeks of torture nearly made me go mad. In fact, I probably had gone mad; but right now, I was furious and desired retribution.

"Don't stop me, Scott," I stated with a hateful glare toward the Changeling.

"No, this is not the time to lose it. I get it. I really do, but that can be done later when—" Scott started to say, before I interrupted him with a furious shout.

"When, what?! After we hand him over to the Table? I don't care about him. He isn't the one who needs to suffer. I just want to know where his masked friend is. If I can't find him soon, then I may never find him again," I snapped. All I felt was hatred for this man and his masked compatriot but that didn't mean I was blinded by rage. He knew where he was, or at the very least, knew where he was going. I had no intention of killing this one. That said, the other one was a different story.

"Okay, fine. But only after you help me cuff him," Scott reasoned with an angry spat. The Changeling, desperate for air, flailed about in an attempt to wriggle free. Its appearance shifted bit by bit into various forms in an attempt to expand Scott's grip before shrinking down. Sadly for it, Scott shifted with its changes.

"Fine," I said, putting the knife away and stepping up to him. The Changeling kept attempting to struggle by swinging his free fist at me, despite barely being able to breathe. A swift punch to the gut, however, solved that issue and it was cuffed within a few seconds.

"Now you can ask him," Scott said with a sigh of relief as we set him on the ground against the building.

"Okay." Drawing my knife, I turned to the Changeling and held it out toward its face. "Where is the masked one?"

"I don't know. He said that he was going to help me get some of the ingredients I need to perform another ritual," the Changeling answered fearfully, eyeing the knife in front of his face.

"And what are those ingredients?" I asked with a disturbingly menacing voice. The Changeling shuddered as it backed slowly against the wall to get away from the knife blade. The moonlight glinted off the silvery blade as I slid it closer.

"The same things you have been trying to stop me from collecting," the Changeling answered as if it were obvious. However, the fear he had for what I might do kept him from being too sassy about it.

"So he left to kill another woman for you? Why would he help you do that, though? Wouldn't that attract too much attention?" Scott asked from behind me.

"He wanted to lure you out again…" the Changeling said as he gave me a frightened but calm look. "He was pretty pissed when you disappeared, and was even more pissed when your friends found our hideout."

"So… he still has it in his head that I can bring back his dead friend. I am not a necromancer, I am a time traveler who can't even properly change the past," I said angrily before stabbing him in the shoulder. He screamed as the skin and flesh around the knife sizzled similar to that of meat being cooked in oil. Since it wasn't a vital spot he didn't turn to dust, but it was probably pure torture, like a hot iron that never cooled no matter how long it was pressed.

"Now, you will tell me where he is or I will stab you a second time," I threatened. Scott grabbed my shoulder and pulled me back with a forceful tug. Removing the knife from the Changeling's shoulder as he did, much to its relief.

"What are you doing, Scott?" I asked with a confused and still vengeful tone from the street where I had fallen. Standing up, I strode back toward Scott with a determined swagger.

"You aren't going to torture the thing. We aren't monsters, Lou. We kill monsters, and I will not let you become one of them," Scott replied with a determined glare. He wouldn't back down no matter what I may try. The only things I could see in his eyes were regret and the desire to prevent me from feeling that same regret.

"We need to know where the masked man is so we can stop him," I stated logically. I knew that he was right morally, but if we didn't do anything then I would regret not killing him when I had the chance.

"We already know where he is going to be, Lou. You already told us, remember? This is just an excuse for you to torture this Changeling for what it has done. I know it deserves worse, but that is not how we work. We… you are not a monster," Scott stated as if it was an order. Despite his stern nature, Scott's lips quaked on the last sentence as if he were troubled by saying, "we".

"Then why haven't we sent someone?" I asked. The memories I had were all clammed together so I could barely navigate the memories I was only given a few minutes ago.

"Because I couldn't trust that you can go there without trying to get your revenge. When you were logical, I could trust you to do that, but your logical self told me that you were going to go crazy and attack the Changeling, so I didn't risk it." Scott said, trying to reason with me. It may have seemed safer to leave me behind, but more people were going to die because of it. Whether my actions were for revenge or otherwise did not matter here.

"Then who's going to stop him?" I questioned as I didn't understand why there wasn't someone watching Mitre Square. Just what had Scott and my logical self been thinking with a plan like this? Scott stood his ground, though he let out a regretful sigh before lowering his intensity.

"No one. We just have to take what we can get for now and bring the Changeling in," Scott said as he turned around. He froze for a moment upon turning back to the wall. The Changeling was gone!

"Oh… fuck," I said upon realizing it too. Scott turned back to me wide-eyed. The colour had drained from his face completely as if he had seen a ghost.

"We have to get to mitre square. If we can stop him then we can bring in at least one," Scott said, quickly changing his mind as he began running. I quickly followed him in a sprint.

"Why are we not going after the Changeling?" I asked as I tried to catch up with him. My body was not used to the cardio required for such a run, and I had not been in a real body for who knows how long. so I began wheezing. Sweat began to build up as I ran, warming me up until the cold London wind hit my skin. My coat may have been able to block the wind, but it wasn't very good for keeping warm, especially whilst running.

"Do you know which way he went?" Scott asked rhetorically. He was getting faster as he ran, causing me to fall behind him at an exponential rate.

"Fair point. Elysif, go after the Changeling," I yelled back as we passed by the alley that we had been hiding in before. She was still there, but rather than approving of my statement, she held up her index and middle finger in a V shape (the British equivalent of the middle finger, or "Fuck you") as I ran by.

"She can't, the familiars have put too much strain on her so she doesn't feel well. She'll rest there for a while and possibly make her way home. If she doesn't then we can take her back." Scott said as he had also seen her when running past the alley. Knowing that he had already asked a lot of her, he didn't want to ask any more right now.

"Well, that doesn't help us any. Wait, what if she gets attacked by the Changeling?" I asked with fair concern. By this point, I had only run six blocks but I was already getting tired. Scott, on the other hand, was perfectly fine running at a faster speed than I could possibly manage.

"She'll be fine. Even in a sickly state, she can hold her own," Scott stated as if she were unkillable. Although I didn't doubt it, I was still worried. With how cruel they had been to me, I doubt the Changeling would be any kinder to her. She was also a viable target so I didn't understand how he could not be worried. I bet he had his reasons, though.

"That is true," I agreed right before Scott's body began to glow a faint blue under his clothes, just as it had back in Haringey forest. With a small burst, he sped off ahead of me at an insane speed that could only be followed by the blue light emanating from Scott's body.

Running all the way to Mitre Square, I was unable to catch my breath. Scott, on the other hand, wasn't affected in the slightest despite getting here at an insane speed. In fact, he got to the square so quickly that when I did arrive, he had already searched half of the square for the invisible space. Rather than being found, the masked man emerged from the invisible space only three meters from Scott, as if to greet us. He bowed like we were guests of some regal ball, just to add to his mocking actions. I wanted to stab him, but he was on the other complete side of the square, so that was out of the question. I could try throwing my knife, or I could use my revolver. Was it a good idea to draw either just yet?

"Welcome! I am so glad that you have come to meet me. It makes this so much easier for me," the masked figure said in a mockingly haughty voice. Under the mask, I assumed that he was smiling from ear to ear, but the thought made me even more resentful. Parading around without a care in order to mock us, to show that we weren't a threat. It was humiliating. That didn't matter, though. I would kill him no matter what.

"I would agree. Killing you is going to be so much easier now that you have revealed yourself," I replied in a way that sounded cockier than threatening. He just shifted his vipers gaze toward me as if he questioned whether I had the gall to speak to him in such a way. Though, without missing a beat, the masked figure spoke with a relaxed voice.

"Now, now. I didn't come here to fight. I came to make a deal." There was an unassuming but mischievous aura about him. I couldn't trust it, not willingly at least. Was he still mocking us or was he just desperate to appeal to us?

"What kind of deal?" Scott asked, cautiously. He stood alert on the opposite side of the masked figure with a distrustful look. Scott didn't trust him any more than I did. However, he was a lot more willing to listen than I was at the moment.

"I will hand over myself as well as the Changeling to you, on the condition that you bring back a special person of mine from the past using the Time Lord's power. How does that sound?" The masked figure asked, like some sketchy businessman. However, he seemed genuine. It was ultimately the same request that he had given me. I couldn't do it whether he wanted me to or not. It just wasn't possible.

"And if we don't?" I asked. He wasn't going to listen to reason, not if it wasn't what he wanted to hear. My hand sat resting under my coat flap on the wood grip of my revolver like some kind of quick-draw cowboy. Even if I didn't need to draw it yet, it calmed me down ever so slightly.

"Well…" he said, clasping his hands together as if he was hoping that I wouldn't ask that. "Then I would continue to aid the Changeling in his mission. The Changeling is nothing more than a means to an end for me, so whether I continue to aid him or not is up to you."

"I thought you were the one that was paying him to do it," Scott inquired, trying to understand his motives.

"Haven't you been paying attention at all? I just want one thing, so I came up with this scheme in order to force you to do it," the masked figure asked, mockingly. His demeanor proved that he saw us as beings that were far beneath him. The disturbingly vile nature of his massive ego spilled out with every word he uttered and every bodily expression that he made.

"Sounds a bit over the top just to bring someone back from the dead, don't you think? I mean, you could have just asked us nicely before doing all of this," Scott said as if he now understood everything about the masked figure. Though, he did point out a major flaw in the masked man's plan.

"Your friend had yet to even unlock his abilities. I had become tired of waiting for some opportunity such as this to show itself, so I had to take action," the masked figure said with a disheartened sigh that sounded almost pitiable. Though, his tone gave a hint of malicious intent behind his words.

"Sounds like you're just bad at planning," I said, mocking my old captor before looking at Scott with an intense grin. "Can I kill him now?"

"I don't see why not," Scott replied with a shrug before charging the masked man.

"You do realize that I am going to keep killing people until you say yes, right?" the masked figure asked with a dumbfounded voice, but I had already thrown my knife at him. The blade spun in the air and curved towards his face as it got closer. Whilst the blade was flying between us, I pulled out my pistol from its holster and ran towards him as I aimed. Scott was nearly on top of the masked man, but as my knife got close to him, several blades covered in runes shot out of the ground like a wall. My knife slammed into them and bounced back with a loud clang.

Scott stopped and stared with an increasingly worried expression. I also stopped to stare, in awe, but was able to concentrate enough on my own blade to make it return to my hand. The wall of blades quickly returned to the ground, and the cobblestone they had emerged from looked untouched, as if nothing had just appeared from there. What was that? Magic? The Nordic style runes were similar to the ones on Scott's body, but I had never heard of anything capable of that from Iscariot.

"As you can probably tell, you can't beat me as you are now. So, what will it be? Do you go back and prevent an Elder One from dying, preventing several innocent women from dying to a horrid Changeling? Or you could try option three and fight this Elder One," the masked figure stated calmly, but his threatening aura remained. He did not falter or show any fear of us. Was his mockery earlier just to show how much of a gap there was between us? Even though my body wanted to freeze up in fear, I stood still, refusing to become like the part of my psyche I had killed.

"I already told you it's impossible," I stated with a look that said I was ready to fight. Even though I was terrified and sweat dripped from my brow in anticipation, I showed no sign of backing down. There wasn't an option to back down.

"That may be for the moment, but you will find a way. Or else," the masked figure said with an understanding but still threatening voice. He was completely open. Nothing about him seemed guarded. Even with Scott standing barely a meter away, the masked figure did not care. He wasn't afraid of us in the slightest, unlike us, who were scared shitless.

"Give us a week to figure it out," Scott eventually said, somewhat scared and desperate. As he said this, he was slowly backing away from the masked figure.

"Three days is all I'm going to give you," the masked figure said without giving any room for debate.

"That seems rather cliche," I said. Hoping that he might change his mind given the circumstances.

"If I gave you two any longer than that, you would be able to get reinforcements from the Table, so it would be wise to do it in three days. If you make me wait any longer, I'll have the Changeling go on a rampage," the masked man said with a threatening delivery that was nowhere near the calm and collected tone that he had held himself with before.

"I understand. Three days it is," Scott agreed, indignantly.

"Scott! We can't just do what he says. We have to kill him, now," I averred, trying to reason with him and let us fight him. He didn't seem that strong. Yeah, the blades were cool, but they were probably nothing more than a show.

"No, Lou. If we did that, then we would die within a matter of seconds. That is an Elder One's magic. In other words, we stand no chance. They're semi-immortal beings with powers beyond most, if not all, mortal beings," Scott warned with a serious look in his eyes, telling me not to do anything for fear of our lives. If Scott was this wary of him, then I stood no chance. But my hatred felt too overpowering to just give up.

"Your friend is right. You should listen to your superior," the masked figure said mockingly. His egotistical nature made me grit my teeth in rage as I had nothing to combat it. I didn't truly know how powerful this guy was, so my mind considered the possibilities. Scott may just be playing it safe by avoiding this fight. Even so…

"I can't just let you walk away from this," Scott eyed me again, emphasizing that I needed to calm down and shut up.

"Who said I was walking?" the masked man said smugly before teleporting to God knows where, leaving the deafening sound of a micro explosion where he stood.

"Damn it!" I yelled, before running over to the closest building and kicking it repeatedly while yelling. The racket I caused made some of the people living near the square to yell out their windows angrily but I didn't care. Scott, ignoring the people and myself, fell on his ass like he had just faced death itself. Reaching into his coat, he pulled out his flask and began to chug its contents.

"We are fucked," Scott said with a sigh as he had picked up some of my dialogue habits.

 

[Paul_Tromba]

"So what are we going to do now?" I asked in annoyance. Trudging into the apartment with Elysif on my back, I felt tired and sick at the same time. Behind me, Scott drudged in, shaking his head. Our clothes were slightly damp, our bodies were worn, and we all had a chill from the cold air that wouldn't go away.

"I don't know," he replied before sitting on the couch. Sliding down, the currently pained Elysif got off my back. She slumped onto the empty spot on the couch next to Scott. As soon as I did, she leaned back and held her head with one hand. The other hand was given a bottle of rum by Scott, which she immediately started drinking. Mid-sip, she leaned forward with a coughing fit. Her hoarse coughing fit soon finished, and she drank some more. This continued on repeat for a few minutes.

I, on the other hand, strode over to the woodstove and started to get a fire going. The mixed emotions I was experiencing ate at me as I began stacking tinder under a small tower of kindling. My cold, damp fingers shook as I pulled the matchbox from beside the stove. It was so cold. Not just the apartment, but so were the emotions I was feeling. It all felt cold. Lighting the match, the small flame warmed my fingertip ever so slightly, making my skin feel as if it were cracking whilst lighting the tinder. The flames grew, consuming the kindling with a natural eagerness. Stacking some logs around it and above the flame, I left the wood stove door slightly ajar for the time being, before sitting at the desk.

Noticing that I was done with starting the fire, Scott looked back from the couch at my ragged slouch of a sitting position. "Could you do it if you tried?" We all knew exactly what he was referring to. My time travel ability and whether I could even alter the past.

I was too tired to consider anything properly, but I knew the answer, so there wasn't any point in staying quiet. "No, it is impossible. No matter how good I get at it, I cannot change the past if it affects me," I said with a hopeless slump against my chair. Lazily, I slowly removed my grey overcoat until it was no longer on me, but rather, resting on the chair.

"How does it affect you?" Scott asked curiously. I knew what he was thinking. As with everything, he was trying to figure out if there were any loopholes that could be exploited. He usually did this for market deals, or to get out of trouble with the police, who mostly hated him. It wasn't a bad idea, but I was too tired and emotionally exhausted to discuss this. The only reason I hadn't gone to bed yet was out of my desire to warm myself first. Elysif was probably feeling the same way, but she was too busy dealing with her headache to care.

Looking over at the couch, Elysif was holding out the bottle she had to me. She could tell I could use it too, so I took it, had a few sips, and handed it back. After doing so, I slumped back in the desk chair. Scott took his turn with the bottle, as he stared at the fire, before looking back at me, expecting me to answer his question. Returning to a comfortable position, I answered, "Once he captured me and began torturing me, it affected me. Because the masked figure would have never tortured me if this person that they want me to save hadn't died."

"Okay, then we trick him," Scott replied as if it were easy. He had already explained in detail that we would be dead if we crossed him.

Peering toward Scott in bewilderment and consideration, I lifted my brow and tilted my head back against the wooden chair. I knew he had just explained that we couldn't beat him, but the idea of tricking him sounded nice. Perhaps it could work? "How? As you said, we can't kill him in our current state."

"We find out who he is," Elysif piped in with a pained groan as she rubbed her head. We had already told her to use a potion or some painkillers, but she refused to use them because they were too potent and expensive to use on a simple migraine. However, the way she was acting made it sound like this was more than just a simple migraine. Drinking some more of the rum, she straightened herself as if ready to say something. I watched, eager to hear, but Elysif then stretched her arm with the bottle, and passed it to Scott. Upon him taking it, she slumped back against the armrest of the couch.

"Exactly. If we know which Elder One he is, or which one he is connected to, then we can use that against them," Scott added. I still didn't understand this whole Elder One thing, but I wasn't going to ask and sound stupid, so I just nodded. They would eventually explain it more. I just had to be patient.

"Why don't we have Iscariot help us fight him? Isn't he an incredibly powerful sorcerer?" I asked curiously. Actually, why haven't we asked him to help us already? I assumed they had a reason. All he's done so far is help Elysif make more familiars.

"That would be helpful, but we still need to find out who this Elder One is. Elder Ones each have a distinct capability that is their own. For example, Titania, the Queen of the Fae, created her own dimension that transforms you into a Fae the longer you stay there. Another one is Merlin's ability, which he inherited from his mother, Helen of Troy, which can be used to summon an army of warriors from the earth," Scott explained. Were Elder Ones just gods of old pantheons? Perhaps, but there must have been more to it.

"But do they have weaknesses that we can find within these descriptions?" I asked to keep on the subject.

Scott thought for a second, took a few gulps of the rum, and then passed the bottle to me. "Well, we know of a few. Not all of them have been killed yet, and if they were slain by another Elder One in the war of the gods, then we have no idea if they ever truly existed."

So they were just old pantheon gods, I thought to myself. If that were true, then we were basically fighting a god.

"So, if they were killed by another Elder One, we would have no clue how to kill them," Elysif groaned before sitting upright again. I took my turn with the bottle, before handing it to her. She looked to be feeling better, but she was also bobbing her head slightly. Scott, noticing this, took the bottle from her. Taking another sip for himself, he corked it up and set the bottle on the floor beside the couch.

"Yes, and if one dies, they then pass their ability to someone else, but of a lesser quality," Scott added in agreement. By this point, the fire had begun to roar, so I closed the wood stove's door and let out a disappointed sigh. It was finally starting to warm up, but it felt so cold nonetheless. Scott just sat there, silently, pondering our options, whilst Elysif looked as if she were about to pass out.

With a loud yawn, Elysif began to speak. "So, if we have no clue…" She paused to silently yawn once more, before continuing, "... how the Elder One the masked man is derived from died, then we won't know their weakness?"

"Exactly. Even if we know how to beat them, though, it doesn't mean that we can win," Scott replied with a depressed demeanor. He continued to brood over the issue without moving.

"Basically, we're screwed," I added, before looking up at the ceiling with a sigh.

"Yep," Scott said with a pop from his mouth.

"Well, aren't you two just buckets of sunshine?" Elysif piped back in with a slight drunken slur of a groan. She was right, but we couldn't help but feel down about this whole situation.

Scott turned his head with a matter-of-fact look in his eyes. He knew we were all worn out in more ways than one. However, he was not in the mood for any smartass comments at the moment. "Well, you aren't exactly thrilled about this either," Scott replied.

Elysif gave him a smug look. It was easy to tell that her headache had gone away, or she was too intoxicated to care. With a tipsy mix of happy and smug tones, she replied, "Of course I'm not thrilled. Elder Ones are capable of God knows what, while we have nothing. Though I can at least act like I'm not lamenting life itself."

"I wouldn't say we have nothing," I said with a somewhat hopeful spirit. Personally, there wasn't much hope that I could find, but the thought that maybe we could do this was still barely present. That said, Elysif wasn't wrong about how we were acting. "Let's do a head count here. We have a witch with very little to any fighting experience, a drunk who can only fight at his best for nine minutes tops, a sorcerer capable of sending half the planet into the sun but doesn't because of ethics, and a useless time traveler with a magic flying knife."

"Don't forget you also have a gun," Elysif joked as she tried to push Scott off the couch, though he refused to budge.

"How is the gun going to make any difference?" I asked curiously. Guns were pretty useless against some of the forms of magic that I'd seen. Yeah, they could be used to kill a lot of supernatural beings, but magic was different as it could be used to protect oneself better than any armor of this century. It did infuriate me a tad. Why the hell was it so difficult for me to learn magic anyways?

"It won't, but I didn't want you to forget about it," Elysif said with a smirk. Finding her response humorous, Scott began chuckling to himself before picking the bottle back up from the floor and passing it to her as a show of pride.

Taking a swig from the bottle, Elysif passed it to me with a proud expression. I could tell that she was trying to lighten the mood a bit, and it was working too. Scott seemed to look less stressed because of her, but all I could do was pretend. Drinking some of the bottle, I let out a depressed huff before handing the bottle over to Scott. "So we can't kill him and we can't do what he wants. That only leaves the option of him bringing back a nearly extinct race of dangerous monsters by killing innocent people."

"Well, that isn't an option," Scott said firmly as he took the bottle. Rather than drinking some more, he re-corked the bottle and set it down.

"We could try going to the future again," I offered, having realized that option was still available.

"That might narrow down our next move. What I don't get is that you went to the future already and asked me what was going to happen, so why didn't I say anything about this?" Scott asked with a rub of his chin. The fact that he could fail to inform me about something like this didn't sound like Scott at all, causing him to be concerned for various reasons.

"Maybe you had done something different?" Elysif suggested before taking the rum bottle from the floor, much to Scott's astonishment. However, she had already pulled the cork and was taking a large swig.

"I'm not entirely sure how the whole time travel thing works, so it may be a possibility," Scott said whilst taking the bottle back from Elysif with a judgemental look. She just gave him a proud smile to which he shook his head and re-corked the bottle. "Anyways, you could give it a try. Elysif and I will go to get Iscariot. While we're there we'll need to see if he can get word to the Table in time. Maybe then we'll have a fighting chance?"

"Alright," I said, before holding myself in a meditative position on the chair.

Standing up from the couch, Elysif meandered towards the door directly in front of her. "I'm not going anywhere except my bed. My head still hurts, and I am too tired from all that to be able to do anything but sleep," Elysif spouted with a tired huff as she opened the door, and staggered down the stairs to her apartment.

Scott sat in a state of discomforting bewilderment, before shaking his head. "Okay, I guess I am going to Iscariot's alone, then." Standing up from the couch, he plodded out the door after her. After doing so, he closed the door and all I could hear was the loud thumps of his shoes on the rotting wooden staircase, followed by the creaking of the front door opening and closing.

I had a few moments to focus before dissipating and reforming two weeks in the future. Same place, same spot, different time. I was thinking that I was starting to get the hang of this. This time, no one was in the apartment, just me, in an empty room. Looking around, I searched for something, anything that might indicate that all of us were at least alive. The apartment was as it always was. The creak of the floorboards didn't change. The various knife marks I had been leaving on the wall from knife throwing practice had grown in number, but strangely, there were surprisingly fewer rum bottles on the floor than before. Perhaps we cleaned up a bit?

Among some books on the desk was a note. It was covered in rum stains so I assumed it was Scott who had written it. Though, upon further inspection, I realized that it was my handwriting. It would make sense that I would have written this note for myself in the future. It read:

Dear Me from two weeks ago,

I would like to inform you that we succeed. Sadly, we are not the ones who defeat the Changeling and our captor. The plan we came up with starts with us telling the masked man that we will take him back to a time before the Elder One he wants to save is killed. He agrees, and you stab him in the back before he realizes it's a trap. Elysif gives you and Scott support. Iscariot will help you with trapping the masked man using his magic. As always, nothing goes as planned but somehow we succeed nonetheless. I can't tell you much else since it may alter the timeline just enough to screw us over. This note will still be written no matter what, as you were the one to do it. Good luck, and watch your head.

"Okay, so at least I know we survive and succeed," I said to myself. It took some weight off my chest, but I still didn't understand how this whole thing worked. Since I didn't have anything else that I needed to do, I sat down in the same position that I was in before and focused. My eyes shut as I imagined the room as it was before. When I finally opened them, I was back. The only reason I could tell was that it was all how it had been left before. Nothing was off. Rum bottles were still scattered in a now unsettling amount, and there were fewer knife marks on the wall. Somehow, though, there was more dust than in the future. We definitely cleaned.

Getting up, I meandered over to my room and fell onto my bed. It wasn't all that comfortable, but I had grown used to it, so I fell right asleep. My dreams brought me once again to the Realm of Stars.