"Temporal Echoes"

About a month back I entered (and lost) a short story contest for one of my favorite magazines.

I've done some tweeking to it, made it a touch longer and am content with it (for the time being) so I thought I'd share it for my one follower (hello out there by the way) and for anyone else who stops by.

I hope you enjoy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The world’s violent twisting snapped to a halt and nausea washed over her as she tried to adjust to the now solid ground beneath her feet. The techs had said the jump would be rough; an understatement born of ignorance or an outright lie. Those smug little bastards in the pristine white lab coats have no idea she started to think before remembering what she had been told and how wasted her energy would be by dwelling on the lab techs. In what already felt like a lifetime ago she had walked down the corridor with the lead tech at her side. He was a nervous little gray haired man with darting eyes and clammy skin and he was nervously trying to explain to her the one downfall of the jump, there would be no coming back. “Unfortunately ma’am we’ve not yet been able to bring any of the jumpers back alive. In fact many times we are never able to even get a corpse back. We’re confident that the failures have more to do with other side than with anything happening on our end but the reality remains the same. My point is that whatever it is you are hoping to accomplish I want you to understand that you’ll likely die doing this.” Without looking at him she let a harsh laugh escape her lips and was amused by his startled leap away from her. They walked in silence the rest of the way there and she was certain the lead tech was a little afraid of her. She knew something none of these techs seemed to want to acknowledge; success or failure, she was a dead woman either way. Death was inevitable especially when you had what she had; she just didn’t want to die with the guilt she’d been haunted by since childhood. Jumping was her one chance was all she had to correct what happened that horrible day and to allow her to die in peace.

Shaking away the last of the nausea and tremors she staggered out of the alley and studied her surroundings. Nostalgia warmed her heart as she took in the city she had grown up in. It was so different from the blasted and scorched skeleton she had left behind, a mere ghost of the living thing presently surrounding her. She had forgotten how alive the city had been back before the world had torn apart and the revelation brought a pair of tears down her cheeks. Standing there wide-eyed and slack-jawed she ignored the people shooting her hateful glances as they parted around her. In another time she would have probably been humored by the thought of how crazy she must look standing there in a silver and blue jumpsuit like a nut-job pretending to be an astronaut or a space woman from the horrid Science Fiction movies she enjoyed in her youth. An image tried to flash in her mind, something about the colors silver and blue but the long lost beauty of the city had hypnotized her and she was more than happy to be distracted by its magic.

An obscenity hurled by an angry driver followed by the blast of his horn ripped her from her trance and she felt her cheeks warm in equal parts anger and embarrassment. There was work to do and she couldn’t be standing around like an awestruck moron. She spotted a newsstand on the corner and forced her wet-noodle legs to carry her to it. Grabbing the first paper she saw she checked the date, it read July 7th. Even as she blew out a sigh of relief her eyes moved to what she thought of as an old-fashioned digital clock mounted at the back of the stand. It would be happening in less than a half hour, she still had time but would have to get moving.

The newsstand sat on the corner of 8th and Main, It had happened on the corner where Main crosses 3rd. On a good day she had no doubt she could cover that distance with time to spare but after the drain of the jump she’d be pushing it. She struggled at first, fighting to produce a weak trot as she pushed through the crowd but as time grew short adrenaline allowed her to plow through the people at a decent clip. Silver and blue continued to haunt her thoughts as she ran but their significance continued to elude her. The closer she approached to the fateful corner the more the colors flashed in her mind yet she couldn’t place their importance. By the time she was within sight of the corner she was all but blinded by the flashes of color as they started tinting her vision.

She was unaware of the taxi’s approach until the impact threw her into an involuntary cartwheel. Landing in a heap on the asphalt she heard a child’s voice cry out, “Daddy that woman needs help!” Ignoring the pain that shot through her broken body she turned her head. There on the far side of the street she spotted a familiar girl running towards her. She was looking at herself and suddenly she felt like she was being ripped in half, a very odd yet real sense of duality gripping her very soul. As her eight year old self left the sidewalk into the street, she spotted her father break free of the gathered crowd on the far corner in pursuit. Seeing her father chasing after her child-self brought the memory rushing back and the realization hit her like a speeding train. More than anything she understood that the jump had been the worst decision of her life. That July day of her youth her and her father had been out shopping for a gift for her mother’s birthday. They were standing near the corner of Main and 3rd looking in the window displays when there had been a terrible accident. Wanting nothing more than to help she had run out into the street to help a woman in blue and silver who had been hurt and her dad had followed. He died because she wanted to help a stranger. NO she screamed inside her mind he died because you came back to a time you didn’t belong in. You killed him you stupid bitch! She tried to yell for the child to stay back; to say that she didn’t need help and would be okay but no words would come. Silent horror filled her as her father ran after his child unaware of the van speeding towards him down 3rd. Clinching her eyes she wept as the screeching brakes confirmed everything. She had spent her entire life wishing she could undo this day. Laying there on the merciless asphalt with her father crushed and dying not ten feet away she had time for one horrible thought as the world darkened around her. She had to face that she had caused it all along.