Short Story Excerpt: Next Thursday Morning - Ch4

Overview: https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/short-story-the-chronosians-pt-1

Previous: https://kaylinrosealexande.wixsite.com/kaylinalexanderbooks/post/short-story-excerpt-next-thursday-morning-ch3

I feel like I could've made this concept a million times more interesting.

Chapter Four

“Why did you come back?” I asked Kelli as she helped me inside. “I thought that you thought I was crazy.”

“I did,” Kelli admitted. “But then I realized that you are a smart and logical person, Tiff. Why would you make something up like that? Plus, it all checked out. I looked into Indigo’s records and she said that there was a time where there were two Tiffany Isaacs in the same room.”

I nodded as she helped me on the couch. “How’d you do that?”

“Piper,” Kel answered. “My father upgraded her so she could hack systems.”

I forgot Kel’s dad worked for a computer company. “That’s great, you believe me. I’m going to cause the apocalypse.”

Kel laughed. “Tiff, I said I believed that you saw your future self. I never said that you caused the apocalypse!”

“You didn’t hear what I heard, Kel! Or see it! She--I, I don’t know what to call her--looked terrible!”

Kel sat down next to me and sighed. “I’ll help you, okay? But I promised my parents I’ll be home by seven, so I gotta go.”

I turned to her. “But it’s only four!”

Kelli’s face turned to worry. “Tiff, it’s six-thirty.”

*****

Where had the day gone?

My eyes still hurt, so I waited until the sun went down to go back outside to train again.

Two hours later, I was back in the dome, fighting the holographic man, trying to get better at sword fighting. As I got better, and better, I upgraded his levels ever so slightly. I wasn’t really the best sword-fighter, but I had to keep practicing if I was going to get better.

Soon, I made Indigo display two fighters in slow- motion so I watched their technique. Then I would fight the man again, mimicking the moves the best I could.

I think I’d be ready for the apocalypse if it was sword- fighting, but I knew I’d probably need hand-to-hand combat. “Indigo. Karate white belt, please.” Better to start small. Besides, why not karate?

“Start.”

The white belt came to life, and started to fight. I had no idea how to do it, so again, I just dodged until I could pick up on a few moves. I soon started kicking, punching, chopping, et cetera, and I think I did pretty well for my first time. I was about to go again when a wave of exhaustion came over me and I stumbled, enough to let the white belt kick me in the gut. Even though he was a hologram, it hurt like heck and I collapsed on the ground.

“Indigo, stop.” The white belt disappeared mid-leap and I groaned and turned over onto my back to look up at the sky. But where I was expecting stars, was a pinkish- orange color.

Morning? Already? I was up all night?

I forced myself to my feet and stumbled inside.

I made my way to the kitchen to get some food and coffee. A person can last three months without sleep. And I was not going to rest until I found a way to prevent the end of the world.

I had to make a schedule.

I grabbed an apple and sat on the couch. I reached for my HoloPhone. I started to make the schedule.

7:00am-9:00am read up on apocalypse books

9:00am-11:00am read up on time travel

11:00am-1:00pm surf the internet for anything related to the topic

1:00pm-3:00pm train w/ swords

3:00pm-5:00pm train w/ guns

5:00pm-7:00pm hand-to-hand combat

Repeat

That would make me repeat everything every twelve hours. That means I would do everything twice a day. It was 7:10 now--I was behind schedule.

“Indigo,” I said. “Set a timer for 9am. Then set another one every two hours.”

I went on the reading app on the HoloPhone. As it switched apps, I caught my reflection on the holographic screen.

My eyes were still bloodshot, but now, there was another feature added to them.

Bags. Under the eyes. Just like Future Tiffany.

Not sure if you've figured it out already, but what's gonna happen is that Tiffany attempting to stop the apocalypse is what causes the apocalypse in a typical causal loop paradox. However, I didn't really have much of an idea other than that. I didn't know what the apocalypse would entail nor how Tiffany would cause it.

There's one more chapter I never finished. I'll post it tomorrow.

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