Photos

I turn on my TV as my photos developed. I had what many considered an odd hobby for a teenage boy to have. I don't know why taking artistic polaroids was considered weird for a teenage boy to have as a hobby, but it just was. I then snap out of my thoughts and turn my attention back to the TV as the 4 o'clock news came on. It was always the same, but it always sucked me in for some reason. It started with the date, year, month, and day of the week, today's is Saturday, January 22, 2077. Then the leading, most important story came on, this is the part the always enthralled me.

"Gas is now up to five dollars a gallon in most places in the United States. This is because of the Syrian-Afghan War taking place over the last remaining oil reserves on the border. Scientists predict that once this last big gas reserve is tapped into that we will have 5 years until we are out. Many have predicted that this day will hold the greatest war in history. The last drops will herald a new age of civilization. A new age of either an age clean energy or an age of recovery, whether that be from the greatest war or from energy deprivation our civilization will surely suffer. With news on the war that is going on now from the front lines is Scott."

"Thanks Jenn. The United States has recently joined the war on the Syrian side. This is a last second attempt to keep Syria's democracy intact and not get overrun by the Afghan dictatorship. Ever since America started helping the Syrians with their government back in 2033 the United States and the Syrians have been great allies. After becoming great allies with Syria the price of gas dropped in the United States, and cause the United States to stop buying gas from Russia entirely causing a further drop in the Russia's currency, the Ruble. Joining the war accidentally backfired on the Americans though, due to Russia joining the Afghan side in an attempt to get their currency to come back up and buy what is left of their barreled oil. After about a week after the United States joined the war they have pushed back the Afghan and Russian armies back about one hundred miles. One of the main weapons that helped to do this is sitting right behind me," Scott says as he gestures to the desert camouflaged vehicle behind him, "This is the new L-121, a compact, close combat, fighter tank that uses the latest in laser technology to take down aircraft, tanks, and wipe out whole lines of troops. Back to you Jenn for the weather."

"Thanks Scott," Jenn said as I turned off the TV. I went to go check on the developing photos and saw that they are done. I started to look at the dry photos on my couch. All of the pictures of the park turned out nice, well almost all of them. In some of them there was a blue aura around a person in the photograph. Taking a closer look at the photographs I saw that it was all the same person, more specifically a male teen. I decide to look for this teenager, for I was sure I could find him, and I wanted to know why there was a blue aura around him. I walked to the first place I found him, picture in hand, the park that was two blocks from my house. I sat down on an old, wooden bench and started to scanning the park for the teen in the grey sweatshirt with a picture of a beaver and the word 'Roots' on the front in blue felt to contrast the grey. Then I saw what I thought was him sitting on the ledge of the fountain playing with the water. I walk up to the fountain area and sit down on a bench. Holding up the photo of the teen earlier and confirm that it is him. I approach him saying,

"Hey, what is your name?" He jumps at my voice, splashing water on me. He looks away from the water to look me in the eye and say with anger,

"Go away."

"No, there is something different, something special about you. I want to know it, because I know that you know," I say with conviction. He clenches his fist and says again,

"Go away, you will never know." Contemplating showing the photo I say,

"Oh, so you admit that there is something special about you." He looked down into the water, I could sense his mood changing and said,

"I never said that, you are simply twisting my words, so I ask again, go away."

"I will go away when you tell me."

"I have nothing to tell."

"I believe you do."

"If I did have something to tell you, why should I?"

"Because of this," I say as a show him my ace in the hole, the photo.

"How, how did you get this, my aura isn't supposed to show up in photos. That’s what they told me!"

"Slowdown, who is they?"

"I have said too much already, I must go." I am suddenly hit with a lot of water that he must have grabbed from the fountain. After regaining my sight I grab my photo which had fallen to the ground and chased after the teenager. The kid was headed off into the government section of the town away from my house. The tall buildings loomed closer as I chased after the kid. He was faster than me so I decided to use technology to my advantage. I pressed a silver button that I had attached to my chest, by pressing the button I called my hoverboard to my position. I keep running toward the teenager, who keeps getting further away with each step. Then I hear a familiar whir behind me, I speed up my run knowing that I will not have to run for much longer. As I am running my board comes up beside me. I time my jump between steps and hop on to my hoverboard. I lean to my target, the teen, to tell the board where to go. I finally start to gain ground on the teen, but now we are in the government district now, the most urban of the districts and the busiest. I step down with my back foot, making my board careen upwards into the sky. I had almost lost the teen but I spotted him from high up due to his contrast of everyone else's suits. I aim to cut him off by seeing which building he is headed for. To me it looks like he is headed for the only deli in the government district, which was conveniently for its business located next to the biggest government building and the biggest hospital. I press my front foot down causing a steep, fast, forward decline towards the deli. It was going to be close, but I managed to spin in front of the door just in time to cut him off.

"Hey! Get out of my way! You don't know what you're messing with!" the teen yelled at me. I looked around and noticed the crowd was starting to back away as if this had happened before. Suddenly an explosion happened to the left of me throwing me into the wall and away from my hoverboard. I tried to get up to stop the teen from getting away, as he was still standing firm on his feet, but I couldn't move. As I watched from the sidelines as a man did what I tried to do, block the teen's path. I could see that the man was saying something but I couldn't seem to hear him anymore. The man then distracted the teen as another man snuck up from behind him and picked him up. Then the man came over to me and was now close enough for me to read his lips which said,

"Thanks for your help kid. You created the distraction we needed, but you've seen too much so we have to bring you to our place. We will fix you up." The man then picked me up causing almost enough pain to make me blackout. Out of the corner of my eye I see the man motion for someone to get my hoverboard. The man then walked over to a helicopter that was hovering a foot above the ground. Placing me on the floor of the helicopter he and then the guy with my hoverboard jumped in. The world started to go black. I was just conscious enough to feel the helicopter take off. The last thing I saw before the world went dark was a medic standing over me. 

The Prophecy

Great, now I am stuck here with them. I thought as my uncle walked out the door to his important government job. I was stuck here with his kids on a Wednesday because it was a snow day at my school. I t wasn't even an inch predicted, but because it was the south everything non-essential must be shutdown. Government jobs did not fall into this but school did. My rant to myself is interrupted by one of the two kids coming down stairs and saying, "I'm hungry!" I turn around to see which of his seven year old twins had come downstairs. It was Kenna. My uncle had left a list of what the kids usually ate for breakfast and lunch. Therefore I said, "Just wait and watch TV and I will make you breakfast." I hear the TV turn on as I walk towards the kitchen I look at the list and it says that Kenna usually has cereal and Kenny usually has toaster strudel. I decide to put the streusel in the toaster oven and then in the microwave to keep it warm because I assume that if one is up the other will come soon. I pour the cereal into a bowl and then brought out the milk to pour into the cereal. I watch the milk cascade over the shredded wheat. Then I walk over to the drawer of utensils and pull out a spoon and dip it into the bowl of cereal. As I brought the bowl of cereal out to the table I called for Kenna to eat. I was about to sit down with her but then the toaster went off so I got the strudel out and put on the icing on it. Kenny, as I was putting on the icing, came down so I brought the strudel out to him. I then asked, “Is there anything either of you two need?"

"Yes," Kenny said, "Can we play outside, we don't get snow much?"

"Sure, Kenny, after we are all done with breakfast," I responded. I had already eaten breakfast at my house, because I didn't know that school had been canceled, but that was at 6:15 now it was 9:30. I was a hungry teenage male, it was time to food. I went back into the kitchen and saw that there was a loaf of banana bread sitting out, so I cut a slice off the already cut end and took a bite out of it and walked back to the table and saw that they were almost done so I asked them, "What does your dad do?" Kenna spoke first,

"He is trying to find the four the prophecy talks about."

Kenny, as soon as the word prophecy came out of her mouth said, "Kenna! SHUT UP, you know that we aren't supposed to talk about that!" I then witnessed something that I had not seen nor done since I was living with my brother moved out. They were having a discussion using the eye and body language of a locked stare. This one was the most intense locked stare that I had ever seen. I decided to break the stare by saying, “Who wants to go outside?" I see the discussion break and Kenny turn to me saying half happy and half defeated,

"Sure, I would love to!"

"Alright, go get changed, and then we can go outside to play, ok?" I reply.

"Ok!" he says as he runs up the stairs to his and Kenna's room. I went to the coat room at the front to borrow one of his coats when I see one of mine. I think to myself about how that coat could have gotten there. I think back to the last time I was here, I didn't think that it was cold, but I could be wrong about the last time I was here. Anyways I grabbed it and slipped my hands into the pockets. In them where gloves and a beanie. I put one glove on and put my beanie on. I turn around from the closet and see that Kenny is standing at the door waiting to go outside. I walk up to the door and take off the deadbolt with my non gloved hand and pull open the door. The cold rushes to meet my face and the warm air from inside. I step to the side to let Kenny rush by out into the cold and snow. I shut the door behind us to keep the warmth in the house. I see that Kenny starting to build a snow man. Though I wanted to help, I didn't I just had too much to think about. What is this prophecy? Why would the government cover it up? Why did the twins know? I had a lot of questions and no answers, I looked down the rows of bland white houses that all looked the same scanning ever closer until a finished snowman came into focus. The chill of the cold was starting to get to me so I said,

"That is a nice snowman you have there Kenny, but I am getting a little cold, can we get back inside?"

"Sure," Kenny said in a semi depressed way. I opened the door again allowing Kenny to get back inside. Kenny, once inside, immediately runs up the stairs to his and Kenna's room. I can sense that they are having an argument but I decide to let them work it out between themselves and stay down stairs. I hear the door to the kid's room open and then footsteps on the stairs. I turn around from the TV and see that they are carrying a brown, scared, tattered, wooden box. Kenny then said,

"She already told you about it so here look at it." Realizing what must be in it I took it gingerly and opened it. I saw one cream colored old paper and at the bottom it was ripped off.

2nd Grade Love

Boi: Hey, I know that you have been hitting on me because you're sharing your fruit snacks with me during snack-time.  #lol

Gurl:*giggles girlishly* Thank god you noticed! I was beginning to think that you didn't even know I existed! #pleasebebae

Boi: Well, I did notice, and you’ re one fine piece of first grader so like, do you want to go out with me?!?!?!

Gurl: *screams excitedly* OF COURSE I DO!!!!!!!!!!! #baeisbaenow

Narrator: Four hours later

Boi: *while swaying hips* I know that we've been together for ages now…

Gurl: Yassssssssss…  #whitegurl

Boi: And I think that after all this time, that I love you! #truelove

Gurl: *squeals and does little jumps* I love you TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

Boi: *thinks to self* I like it when she jumps ;)…

Together: I love you!

Boi: Let’s get married during Recess under the monkeybars!

Gurl: I'll wear my best Dora themed skirt!

Boi: I’ll not rub mud all over myself!

Narrator: At Recess…

Boi’s friend: I now pronounce you, Pre-Pubescent, high voiced husband and flatchested, first grade wife.

Gurl’s friend: You may now hug the bride!

Gurl: Wait, wait, wait, wait. I’m not ready for this!!!

Boi: But it’s been like a whole four hours together! *stomps foot*  

Gurl: But what if a teacher sees us?!?!?! They could take away recess time!

Boi: Good point, you know I like my recess like a #whitegurl loves her starbucks!

Narrator: One Snacktime later…

Boi: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN’ BELIEVE YOU'D DO THIS TO ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gurl: *confused* Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???????

Boi: *in fury*  I. SAW. YOU. SHARING YOUR FRUIT SNACKS WITH BILLY!!!!

Gurl: Oh Shiitake Mushrooms! You weren't supposed to see that!!!!!

Boi: I thought we had something special!!!!! #betrayed

Gurl: I’m sorry, but Billy, fulfils my needs like you never could… he has goldfish! #satisfied

Boi: Fine, Go have your Goldfish with Billy! I hope your fruit snacks taste bad and you color outside the lines!!!!! I'm breaking up with you!!!!

Gurl: Fine!

Boi: Fine! And I’m keeping your dino-gummies! #dinosaurs

Narrator: Boi and Gurl’s relationship lasted roughly two snack times and a recess. During which, one hug was thought of and one marriage had.

Last Day of School

I was looking at an almost empty locker with almost no one around me on the last day of school. With no idea of what to do next I stared blankly at the almost empty locker. I suddenly heard fast footsteps headed toward me. I turn to look at the sound and see my friend running towards me at full speed. As he approached he said,
"You have to come with me right now. It is a matter of life and death. "I start to interject, but my friend says,
"No time, come with me." I start running with him back to where he came from, which was the cafeteria, and soon I saw what he was talking about. There were fruits and vegetables everywhere. Not inanimate ones either, these were running everywhere, they were alive.
"How did this happen?" I ask my friend.
"I don't know. I just saw a bright flash from this direction and then ran to get you," my friend responded.
"Does it smell like sulfur and potatoes to you?" I ask.
"No, it must be your heightened sense of smell," he responds. How could this have happened? I wondered to myself. Then I remembered something.
"Hey, do you think that this is the work of the Animator?" I ask my friend.
"It could be, but what does he want with the school?" my friend responds back.
"I have no idea but we have to stop him," I say.
"Ok, that sounds great and all, but the fruits and vegetables seem to be organizing," my concerned friend said. I look at where my friend was pointing and I saw two lines start to form as if a giant battle was about to happen between the fruits and vegetables. Just then a dark figure appeared in the back of the cafeteria and held up what seemed to be a staff. At the top of the staff there was an object that caught the light right every once in a while, but I could not tell what it was from such a distance. The dark figure then raise his empty hand and his staff and a bright flash filled the room and my friend fell to the ground. My friend slowly got up and turned to me saying,
"I am running away, sorry." He then started to run off, but I called after him saying,
"Find all of the others and take them with you." I knew that there would be only two or three other students in the school and about fifteen teachers. I then looked back to the armies and saw that they were no longer organizing to fight each other, but instead were turning to face me. I then a choice to make, delay for my friend or follow him. I had little time to think and only one thing ran through my mind, what did the figure want? Just then the wall next to me fell blocking my path. I guess he wanted me. I decided that if I was going to die I was going to die fighting. I ran toward the amassing army of fruits and vegetables with a sense of recklessness. It didn't really do much to impede me, all I had to do to kill the beings annoyingly hitting my ankles was to step on them. I was about halfway to the figure went he raised his hands again, but I just keep running. What would he do this time? I thought to myself. A bright flash came and I could feel my body get lifted off the ground and sent flying backwards. I felt my head hit the wall. My body slumped against the wall that I first started at. I barely had the strength to open my eyes, but what I saw was amazing, the fruits and the vegetables were arranging themselves into humanoid shaped bodies. Just as my eyes were closing I saw the cafeteria doors that are locked on both sides blown off their hinges and a team of people flood in. Then my eyes closed and I fell into the unconscious darkness.

Two Items

Two objects are before you: a golden hammer and a cup of what seems to be water. A note on the wall says: 'Go ahead, Make your choice. The outcome will decide whether you are ready or not.' Ready for what? What is this place? Why those objects? Which will you choose? What will each do? Why are you of all people here? How did you get here? You decided that after twenty minutes of waiting a thinking that it was time to make a choice. The water looking substance was the more peaceful, but what if they are looking for war? The water also shows that you are not greedy as it is plain while the hammer is golden and greedy. The hammer show that you might be crafty with tools and your mind. After much thought you decide to choose the humbling water substance. You approach the objects in the center of the room and look around for a camera, because you know you are watched from the note. You cannot decide on a clear cut camera so you look into the mirror in front of you and pick up the glass of water-like substance. You look at it for a second and then you move it towards your mouth and start to tip it up to drink it but then you smell something slightly vinegary and you realize that it is not water. You decide to make sure you are right by pouring a little on your hand. You pour a little bit of the liquid on to your hand and as the liquid sits there it starts to bubble and you know you were right, it is hydrogen peroxide. You realize that it was a test to determine to the extent of your sense of smell. You have always had a heightened sense of smell since you were small and could smell things others couldn't. How did that, though, do anything for these people? You had mad you decision but no one had come to get you and nothing changed. You place the hydrogen peroxide down and come up with a scheme to get them to notice you. You pick up the hammer and attack the mirror causing many cracks but not breaking it. You start to look through the cracks and notice that there is a backing to the mirror that was made of a clear bendable material that seemed to be made of polyester. You then start to give up and then you faintly remember a chemistry class where you learned that hydrogen peroxide weakens polyester. You return to the center of the room and grab the cup of hydrogen peroxide. You approach the most broken part of the mirror and pour the hydrogen peroxide on the backside of the mirror and wait for the sound of bubbles to stop. As the bubble noises stop you start to raise the hammer in preparation. Then you swing downwards suddenly on the spot where you poured the peroxide. Your hammer broke through the other side with a great shattering sound. You look inside the hole you just made and see a camera. Wary of the broken edges of the mirror you reach through to grab the camera. You, again wary of the edges, pull the camera out from behind the mirror and pull on the cords. Careful not to cut the cords on the back of the camera you place it on the center table and surprisingly the camera's wires still have slack. You then hear a knock on the wall, but you do not know where it is coming from since there is not an outline of a door on the wall. Then a piece of the wall pushes itself toward you a then move up into the ceiling. A women walks in through the hole in the wall and says to you,

"You are the one we have been looking for." She then looks around and continues saying, "And I guess I should have walked faster."

Prank

"Perfect," I mutter to myself as I close the door to my boss's office. I always loved pranking people especially bosses, and this one was the best one yet. I walk back to my cubicle glowing and past my best friend at work, Bill, and give him the 'I just set a prank' look and he just smiles right back in the same radiant fashion as he copies papers. I sit down in my cubicle's chair and giddily spin it once and then get back to work. I start typing up the report that is due at the end of the work day when out of my peripheral vision I see my boss headed toward his office and my smile on my face grew bigger. I set back to work waiting for the prank to take place. Then the blaring sound of the air horn cut through the office workplace and solid thump followed. I loved that rig and it gave me great satisfaction to see that it worked. I had duct taped an air horn to the back of my boss's door so that when it was opened it would be pressed down and it worked! Now to get back to work because I did have work to do, but it was worth the lunch break. I settled down and got back to work. Today, pushing aside the prank, was pretty uneventful, I thought in my head as I printed out my report on the week. While the slow printer was printing I saw my friend come over to me on his way out and said to me while giving me a high five,
"That was a great prank man, but I think that the boss is pretty mad."
"Ok, thanks for the heads up man, have a good weekend," I respond.
"Thanks, I will," he says as he leaves. I then turn around and see the report, all twenty pages, has printed. I then turn towards the boss's office, dreading what will come next, dreading what will happen when I step inside the doors of the office. I approach the door and then knock not knowing what would come next.
"Come in," I hear from the other side of the door. I push the latch down and then push it gently in careful not to trip the trap. Then I hand the report to my boss and he looks over it for a few minutes and then says,
"You did a good job on this." A wave of relief washes over me and then I hear,
"But do not be relieved yet because I never really liked you and today your action is enough for a reasonable reason to dismiss you."
"It will not happen again, I promise," I say knowing that I am pleading for my job.
"You have said that before Jason and I don't trust you, so to prove I can trust you I ask for your report to be in by Wednesday," my boss states in a matter of fact way.
"I can't bec-," my boss interrupts me,
"I don't want to hear that, you're fired!" I thought to myself with those words, what will I tell my wife?

George

George, a strong athletic kid, ran around the track. His feet soared with little effort. This year he would be champion, or so he believes I thought to myself as I watched George finish.  His run and stated to walk it off. I waited in the wings so not to show George what I can really do and what real running is. My best mile time last year was 10:41 his was 6:32. No one thought that I could make that gap up except for me. With track starting next month and my average time was 5:12, but George's best time was 4:50. This was a lot to make up in a month I thought, but I think that it was just a lucky spike because his average was 5:06, which was do able in one month. The only reason I had made such a difference in time is because I had goals, and one of the major goals that drove me was to beat George in a race. I hated George. I hate him because he is always stuck up and always thinking he is the best, and well that was true, but it will not be for much longer. This is my year. This is my time. I was going to surprise everyone on the first day of practice. They had seen me since last track season, and sure they had seen my legs getting longer and sure they had seen my body get less fatty and more muscular but none of them thought my time could jump like that. The coaches that tried to predict our times at the beginning of the season thought that my time would be 9:21, they underestimated me. They thought that I would only shave only 1:20 off my time, boy are they off! On the other hand they predicted George's time at 4:30, so unless George works till he dies like I have then the coaches will be underwhelmed. I look around the track for George and I see him walking away from the black, asphalt track. I prime my timer to time me as I rush down the hill to rush around the track. I come to a stop at the entrance of the track and look around to make sure that no one sees me. I walking to the fence ring that surrounds the track after knowing that no one watches me. I press the time on the timer and drop it taking off to be free, to feel the air rush through my hair. Lap one passes in a flash and my legs feel like they are flying and the burn has not come yet, very good. Lap two doesn't slow one bit if anything I just get faster, no burn yet either. Lap three passes the same but the burn starts to rise up my legs. I can see the end of lap four, the burn is powerful but I push through because this too will pass. I cross the line, running through it and then stop. I turn around and pick up my stop watch and take three seconds off the time and that gets me 5:04. Victory so far, but we both still have a month.

Therapy

At group problem therapy-

"I feel used. Actually, I feel more than used, I feel, I feel overused. I feel like people use me for everything they do and say. Me this me that. I feel attached to everything that people do," The pound symbol announced.
"It's ok, I am a trained to help you with your problem. Also, all of these people here today are here to sympathize with you and your experience," the leader of group therapy told pound symbol.
"And that's not the worst of it they gave my some new name. Some random, made up, slang name. My name is pound, not hashtag! My name is not hashtag! Why would people call me some made up name? How would you like it if I just changed your name? You wouldn't would you? That's what I thought."
"Alright, alright calm down. I am sure that another person in the circle will be able to sympathize with hash- I mean pound symbol," The therapist said.
"Great, just great, here I am trying to get sympathy and understanding and all I get is mocked and misunderstood. People used to use me as a button to make a decision with but now I am just a prequel to increasingly stupid phrases like Y.O.L.O and swag. I can do nothing to stop the stupidity. If you are to call be a 'hashtag' at least attach me to something appropriately, and by this I mean do not attach me to every word like the, and, so, or any other filler word. Please, and I beg, just call and use me as the pound sign," The pound sign said.
"I am sorry that I messed your name up," The therapist tried to apologize.
"It is fine. I guess that today's teens just get me fired up. I mean can't they just use their incorrectness wisely and not invent stupid new words. Also, can't they just put me were the incorrectness is needed? I hate today's teens. They are always making up stupid trends and slang. I know that other people have to go, but I am just very passionate about this subject, if you couldn't tell. I am sorry for going off but I have never had anyone sympathize with me," pound sign said.
"Ok, well is there anyone who sympathizes with pound sign over here?" The therapist asked.
"No, ok, well I guess I will be going then. This is what happens every time," pound sign said as he went out on his sad little way.

Cafe

"I feel like some coffee," I thought under my breath, "It is a good thing that I work near a coffee shop." I start to walk toward the coffee shop, which is about two blocks to the south of my office building.  I start to think about what I want to get. I arrived at the coffee shop and notice that the line is unusually short. I am walking to the front to order and then the door ringer goes off as the regulars pour in to get there three o'clock coffee. I approach the counter with my order,
"Welcome to Jim's Coffee Shop! Making your delicious cup of joe since 1914! Can I take your order?" The very cheery and energetic cashier said. That is why I always came to this coffee shop, not because of the proximity, nor because off the coffee, though it was good, but because of the customer service.
"I will have one coffee, a little cream and a little honey. Thank you," I reply.
"Alright tell me if this is right, one coffee, a little cream and a little honey?" The cashier makes sure.
"Yes, that is right," I assure her.
"Ok, we will get it out soon! Your number is 143! Thank you for choosing us!" The cashier said, always cheery.
"Ok, thank you," I said as I dropped some change into the tip jar. I walked away to an empty seat to admire the space in which I would be drinking my coffee. I had sat down at one of those tables that have two chairs at them but if the two people have more that a drink then it is too small. My table was slightly to the left of the cahier and faced toward the door. I had be here many times before and could be considered a regular, but every time I came it something was different as if they wanted me to look around every time. One thing, though, was always the same, the coffee brown color of the walls upon which everything hung. The color of the walls was just part of the atmosphere and the also seemed to add to the taste of the coffee. One of the cooler things about the coffee shop was that the wall to the left of me was covered in picture of all of the celebrities that had bought something at the shop. It was just cool to think that I could have been in here to see these people, and that I could have met one of them if I had been here at the right time. I continued to scanned my eyes to the to the right and I come to the front wall which is pretty much just a wall of glass except for the fact that the door fell in the middle of it. On the left side of the door there hung a sign that read OPEN in flashing red and blue colors. Then as I continued to scan to the right I say a temporary paper sign that read 'Now hiring.' I predict the sign will not be there long based on the economy. As my eyes continue to drift to the right they pass over the door which have has a new sign hanging over it that reads 'Thank you for visiting Jim's Coffee Shop!' On the other side of the window the name of the coffee shop was written in elaborate, white, almost see through lettering that looked like they had been there since 1914 when the shop first opened. I continued to look across the small coffee shop and tried to look at the wall that was to the right of me through the crowd of people waiting in line to order. The wall was covered in yet another cool collage of photos. These photos were less cliché for a business to have, though not by much. The series of pictures depicts the employees of the coffee shop every New Year to commemorate another year of business. The last of the walls is taken up by the cashier and coffee makers. As I finish up looking around I hear,
"143." I get up and start to walk over to the coffee pick-up station on my way I dodge the wet floor sign and the coffee spill that it denotes and then I reach the coffee pick-up station and look for my coffee. I find it at the far left of the counter, I pick it up and turn around. I look towards my seat and see that someone is sitting in it and their back is facing me. I use to get mad at people who did this and then two things happened one, I did it to someone on accident and I realized how often this happens. I walked over to the seat in which I was sitting in completely calm, as I rounded the corner of the table my face filled with joy and I could feel the happiness lighting me up as I saw who it was. I knew when I saw the face that it was no accident that he was sitting at the table. It was my friend of a little over fifteen years and he must have seen me looking around. I sat down and said,
"Hey, Frank, what are you doing here?"
"Well I had a little time off and I thought that you would be here," Frank replied.
"That was a good guess and I feel really bad right now because I have been holding a secret back from you for a couple of years now," I said guiltily.
"I realized that something was up every time we talked because I can see it on your face, so go ahead, speak," Frank said. I forget that he is a shrink sometimes.
"Ok, here is my secret-

Time Period

After saving my neighbor who hated me and my guts from dying from a heart attack I worked on the watch whenever the other me wasn't working on his design. Though I got little time to work, I perfected it so that I could travel back to World War one. To prevent a time catastrophe I waited until the other me time traveled and wondered why I didn't see him the time that I traveled. That didn't matter now. I pressed the button I installed on the back and instantly I was covered in a veil of white light. When the light subsided I took a look around and saw that I was indeed in 1914, but I was not in the right place. I decided to walk to the coffee shop down the street from my house praying that it was open in 1914. As I started to walk toward the coffee shop I started to think how rice I could get by introducing technologies that I knew would come anyway. I would do that later, right now I had to at least try to do a decent act with my traveling ability. I arrived at where the coffee shop should have been, but instead there was a sandwich and drug store. I guess I didn't get coffee, but at least there were newspaper, which is all I really needed. I picked up the paper and put it on the counter.
"That will be five cents," The cashier said. I pulled out my wallet and looked at the cash, knowing good and well that my cards wouldn't work. I had two fifties and one twenty. I pulled out the twenty and handed it to cashier. I put my wallet away, looked up and saw the surprise on the cashier's face. He put the twenty away and gave me a ten, a five, four ones, and 95 cents. I then asked,
"Where is your manager?"
"I am him," the cashier responded.
"Ok, here is ten dollars, use it after 1929. Also turn this place into a coffee shop, it will do much better," I told him.
"Ok, thank you, what is your name?" The manager inquired.
"The name is Jim," I said.
"Have a good day sir," the manager said as I strolled out of his store. I looked for a bench to sit on as I continued to stroll down the walkway. I noticed that I was getting strange looks, and then I realized why, I was wearing clothes from what I considered modern. Those clothes were jeans and a vibrant graphic t-shirt with a cat in a taco on it. Both of which looked a lot out of place compared to the suits that most of the other men were wearing. I came to a stop at a bench in a park, not caring what people thought of the weirdly clad man that was sitting there. I then looked at the newspaper and the date read June 27, 1914. I had one day to save Archduke Ferdinand and I was going to try, whether or not people thought that I could.

Pants.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Click. I jump up out of my bed feeling refreshed. The day feels young, you know what they say, a new day, a new- wait a second! Where are my favorite pants? Crash, the sound came from another room. As I walked toward the sound my cat, Muffin, rushed past. As I enter a room I see a lamp, broken and on the floor. I continued on my quest carefully. As I turn the corner to go to the next room I see her standing in front of me, confused and scared. She just stands there slowly getting angrier and angrier, as if she thinks the pants are hers. I raise my hand in anger as if I was about to yell. The robber mimes my moves down to the point of the expression on my face. I start to walk toward the woman, the woman does the same, as I move closer I realize that there is glass in between the robber and me. The wall below the window has obscured my view of the pants. I stare into the eyes of the robber for a while.  I start to let my mind wander in the eyes of the robber and I start think why hasn't the robber run yet? I decide to scare her off by yelling at her. I raise my arm again; I ignore her pantomime of me and continue with my scaring process. I yell,

"Give me back my pants!" I see her copying my mouth movements, mocking me, but she still didn't run. This was the most daring and calm-headed robber ever and all it did to me was make me ever more annoyed. All the robber looked now was angry and annoyed, still probably copying my emotions. I just couldn't figure her out; she just stood there, copying me, not speaking. She must be a professional mime. This struck my last never with this robber who was full of herself. I bend down and grabbed a thick, wooden dowel and ran toward the window. Holding like I would a spear it hit the window, all of my weight behind it. The window cracked, but I was confused. The one robber was gone, but now there were many of her, each one confined to their crack of the window. Each one also mimed me and had my same expression of confusion. I then realized what I was seeing, what the drinks from last night had kept hidden for to long, I was looking into a mirror. I looked down to confirm this presumption and saw that I was indeed wearing my favorite pants. I walked back to my room and looked at my clock. The clock read six a.m. I crawled into my bed; because after recent events and definitely needed sleep more than work and it was Saturday wasn't it? It didn't matter as I slowly drifted off to sleep trying to avoid a hangover from all of the drinks I had last night.

The Fight

"We have to get out now!" I yelled at my team mate, while I looked at my dead comrade.
"Why?" my last team mate, Jim, asked in stupid response.
"Really, now Jim? We are about to die, well Brad already did, and your asking WHY! Do you not remember what happens because Brad hit that button? He called an airstrike! He was a TRATOR! We will die of an airstrike if we just stand here, if the sniper doesn't get us first! You are the last one I got, I am not losing you too. Even if you ask stupid questions that make me hate you," I yelled at my last team mate Jim.
"Ok, Debra! Gosh," Jim replied. We started to run toward the door, I turn just enough to look at the body. At the slight glimpse that I just risked my life for, I started to cry, he was my brother. I hear the planes take their first pass. I then push Jim into a room, hoping that our lives would live long enough to develop a plan. Turning to Jim I say,
"Listen to me we don't have long, is the hot air balloon ready?"
"Yes," He responds.
"Ok, good, our only chance is to run to it," I say.
"But, but that is dangerous," he says, obviously scared.
"I know, but it is our only chance," I say trying to comfort him. I hear the planes approaching again, a bullet whips past my shoulder.
"We have to go, NOW!" I yell. We start running toward the door again. The door is so near yet so far. I fell more bullets zip past us again. I start to take the lead on Jim, the adrenaline pumping through my veins pushing me on. I finally reach the door, grasping the cold metal handle I pull. The heavy wooden door swings open. I start to run from the house, disregarding were Jim was. I hear an explosion behind me. I am lifted off of my feet, the blast propelling upward, but also closer to the balloon. I guess I lost both of them now, I thought to myself, one to a sniper and one to a missile. I stood up, remembering all those who were lost in the fighting.

Debra brushed the sand from her shirt, took a last, sad look at the now burning house, and stepped into the hot air balloon.

One Week

The day,

                         Bright.

The sky,

                                 Cloud free.

Then the news came,

A devastating blow to my happiness

It came with a soul shattering sound
And a crash to the ground
The news hit hard on the heart
I called my wife saying
One week
Seven days
168 hours
10080 minutes
604800 seconds
To live
To breath
To know
To be
To know that the human experience was ending
Saddened the core of me
There was no comfort of what I found comforting before
Death shows you things no mortal knows
My possessions-
Worthless to me
My life work-
Not worth it to me
The way I live depressed me
To the point of death seeming small
I saw no worth in money
I saw no worth in a job
I only saw worth in friends and family
The on quality of life I was on the search for was
A decent relationship
I knew the stories
The stories about humans
Knowing when their death was to come
And how they all searched for something
And I never thought that life's cliché
Would happen to me
This is the fault of mortals
To live with out living
No one will remember them
Not for the pants they wear
Not for their popularity
For this is what morals worry about
This shall not be remembered by the immortal whole
The human race
The insights that Death has given me
Will be lost in so few days
The wisdom that I have
Is so hard imparted on mortals
Why do mortals want
What crumbles
Money when money only buys a nice coffin
Death is never prevented
Only delayed
To persevere the illusion
Money is a demon
Possessing those who touch it
Destroying those who abuse it
The exorcism-
Imminent death
Most mortals ignore this house call
This house call that Death makes
Most of those who notice
Try to bribe Death
To which Death laughs
And lets live on
For a while
For he has the same insights as me
For he was the one to give them to be
Everything must end
Life is like a ball throw into the air
And death is like the ground
What goes up
Must come down
This is the law of life
There is no escaping it
Because a law is a law
No matter how universal
So it pains me to see mortals
 Be shallow
Though the pockets are deep
Mortals walk by the poor
The dying, cold, sick poor
They walk by
Not giving any life saving money
Because they value the money over a life
I believe that they are afraid
Of the singular thought of
What if that were me?
This raises more questions with me
Mainly why don't we listen to the rules
The rules that we learned from kindergarten
The one that says to
Treat others
As
You would like to be treated
We all know how to do this
But we don't act it out
We teach it to the next mortal generation
But they learn not from words
But from actions
So why, mortals, do we do this?
Why do we choose not to live?
Is it so that we do not die?
We are scared by the inevitable
We like to control
We are always power hungry
So when Death comes knocking
We become powerless
To do anything but reflect
And see the insights
That we previously missed
So this is how we live the death
We want to live
And we live it-
Clueless

The Chocolate Factory

I was scared, alone, and in a chocolate factory. This sounds odd I know, but let’s look back at the events that lead up to now. One, a Rellik Incorporated chocolate factory is built. Two, children started disappearing. Three, Rellik’s motto is changed to ‘Chocolate so good you’ll die for it!’ Those events lead up to today when I got out of school. I started what I thought would be short trip home, when as I walked in front of the comic book store and saw a flyer in the window among the countless others that read, ‘Free new and improved zombie tendon gummy taste testing on 10/25 at Rellik Chocolate Factory at 4:00 O’ Clock.’ I realized that I wanted to go and that the Rellik Factory was only a slight detour from my regular walking route. So instead of turning right at the next block I walked strait and continued that way for about two blocks more before arriving at the factory. I was suppressed that there were only four people, not including myself that had shown up by 3:55. Then I walked up to the paper work table, and surprisingly all I had to fill out was a liability form. No one else had shown up by 4:00. I was about to start talking to people when a woman came out of the factory and in an official way said,
“Come with me I will lead you to the testing room.”  All of the people who were sitting stand up and we all follow the woman into the back of the factory. As soon as we were in the room the woman left us. The five of us sat down at the table in the center of the room to await our taste testing experience, I sat down in the middle. Suddenly, a man from the left end of the table said,
“Well, while while we are waiting, why don’t we get to know each other? I am Gabriel.” Everyone looked around at each other considering taking up the offer, when someone from the right side of the table said,
“I’m Jude.” So it was decided that we would go around and say our names.
“I’m Jesse,” the man next to Jude said.
“Hi, I am Jamie,” the next person around the table said. I was next,
“I’m Carl.” Then last person said,
“I’m Emily.” Just then the wall that was in front of me started to open up. Then over the intercom we heard,
“Be prepared to die for our candy, zombies.” As I looked out over the maze I realized this wasn’t a taste test, it was how they got their candy. They used the taste test to lure people in and then liked to play with their victims. I snapped out of my thoughts and looked around, everyone else was stunned as well. Because I wanted no one to die I yelled,
“We have to run through the maze.” With that statement everyone snapped out of their stunned state. I started to run toward the right, remembering a random fact from somewhere on the internet that if you follow the right wall of any maze you will eventually find your way out. I decided that I was going to take a break now. I came to the realization that I was alone now, because we all split up. I was scared, alone, and in a chocolate factory. Then, the intercom buzzed to life, they voice saying,
“How about some music?” A local radio station then came on saying,
“This is Legna 101.3 radio station this one goes out to Jude.” The radio station then proceeds to play Hey Jude by the Beetles. I started to run again, I had yet to come to a dead end using my strategy. The song was coming to an ends to I wondered, what will come on next? The song came to an end, the lights went out, and I heard a scream. The light came back on and I stopped thinking, did Jude just die? Who’s next? I picked up the pace not wanting to be next. The radio station came on again saying,
“This one goes out to Jamie.” Jamie’s Crying by Van Halen started playing and I thought, poor Jamie. As I came to a four way intersection, something came from around the corner, I jumped back. I then realized it was Gabriel, so I yelled,
“Hey! Let’s stick together!” He heard me, turned toward me, and said,
“Sure, which way do you think we should go?” After thinking for a bit, and taking into consideration that he ran from the left, I replied,
“Let’s go straight.”
“Alright.” We started to run in that direction, when I asked,
“Why were you running so fast?” To which he replied,
“I saw Jude taken.” I wondered what he meant by ‘taken’, but I knew better than to ask. Jamie’s Crying was coming to a close, so I steeled myself. The radio stopped, the lights went off, and a scream curdled my blood. Gabriel and I looked at each other knowing our time was coming as the radio came on saying,
“Up next on Legna 101.3 we have Simon and Garfunkel’s For Emily Whenever I May Find Her. This one’s for Emily.”
“Hey, Carl, stop,” I heard Gabriel say. I looked up as I almost ran into a wall. I know stood staring at the wall that was inches from my face wondering to myself, what now? Looking at Gabriel I could tell he was thinking the same thing. I scanned the wall for another way. That when I noticed something odd. So, turning to Gabriel, I said,
“Why don’t we climb those metal rungs?”
“Agreed,” He replied. We climbed on top of the structure of the maze. As we started to look around on top of it the intercom buzzed to life saying,
“Our zombies are getting smart now, are they? What if we leave the lights on for you?” I realized that the song was ending. I saw how close the back exit was, less than 100 feet, but it seemed so far with all of the turns in our way. The song came to an end, the radio cut off, the lights stayed on. I witnessed a large claw, not unlike a claw machines, reach into the maze. It came out slowly, but its shape had changed into a trap then as it was being pulled out it looked like a spear pierced the heart, just like the scream rose through the air. All of this happened in an instant. I turned around and saw Gabriel had turned away. I realized we had to start running again if we were to make it. So, I said,
“We have to start running.” Getting what I was saying he started to run. The radio came back saying,
“This tune is for Jamie.” Jamie’s Girl by Rick Springfield blasted over the radio. 50 feet. The wall ended in 25 feet. The intercom interrupted the song,
“Not so fast zombies.” Blades started swinging through the air. The intercom voice laughed. Gabriel stopped suddenly. The wall had ended.
“Jump,” I said.
“No, he replied. Noticing the blade coming toward us I said,
“Just do it.” I ducked, but I still heard him say,
“N-” as the blade chopped his head off. I jumped. Landing on my feet I ran for the door. As I did so the song stopped playing, the lights didn’t go off, I didn’t look back knowing what I would see, and a scream cut the air. As the radio started to call out the next song, I exited. Scarred for life, I ran back home.

The Challenge

The pen-

                             His only weapon

One verse-

                His song

Sitting lonely

Thinking hard

Stuck in mental paralysis

Drifting mind, distracted

His verse hung in the air

The chorus not written

But the song was living

He might get up, leave

But he could never escape it

It hung, like a cloud

Reminding him, telling him

His greatest work, unwritten

On verse, never coming to fruition

The coffee cups, like notes from heaven

Reminded him of the piece,

But as he left he tried to forget

Tried, and failed

So the cloud still hung

Suppressed slightly by the dull, gray desk job

But the heart is blind

And that is where the verse came to rest

His creativity-

                  Sparked

His intellect-

                     Prospered

Yet,              

The verse still burdened

Every time he let the water drip

He was reminded,

The song lay unwritten

Untouched for years

But still alive and well

One verse floated

One pen, never touched paper

One masterpiece, never written

One more soul, suppressed

Songwriters, poets, and writers

The children that survived

The rest just, dream

In black and grey

They, the dead children,

Walk through life

Chained-                        

       To desks

Handcuffed-                  

                                   So as to not touch the pen

The pen that could free them

The pen that could unleash them

The pen that could resurrect them

The pen that could unite them

The media controls them

Feeding them lies

Convincing them they're free

Controlling them with strings

Strings made of fear

Fear of Terrorism

Fear of Murderers

Fear of Anarchy

Fear of Communism

Fear of Disease

Slowly turning this place to

Land of the controlled

Home of the scared

Once they faced fear with a closed fist

Now just cowering,

Letting it rule a once brave place

Nothing good comes from fear,

Just weapons to destroy the Earth,

Racism to help control,

And genocide to eradicate creativity

Fear at first seems to unite

Then it shows its divides

Slowly tearing the seams of society apart

Limiting creativity to its confines

If you are to stray,

Beware, be ready, be prepared

Be prepared to be rejected

Be prepared to be criticized

Be ready to stand and fight

Be ready to be trampled on

Beware the friends you choose

Beware Fear.

Hark-

                  His song

Heed-

                    His words

Make it your creed,
For the burden would lift
But is creativity unleashed,
Him, light as helium
His heart, heavy as stone
For, by design, when one creative drop drips
A flood comes
Burdening hearts with a rock
But, it is the rock that lifts you up
So he decides to be free
To be able to breath
To write
To sing
To live
To never stop
Even when stuck
To always be free
To never be chained by society
To never be hand cuffed by the media
To grow wings             
                        To fly,
All while staying grounded
Grounded to his pen-
                                 His only Weapon
One verse-
                    His song
Flying through the chorus
Touching the clouds
Without leaving the floor
So he writes his verse
And closes the books
Leaving a lasting note
Hanging in the air
Forever.

The Freezing Cold Night

10:21 pm
"Night-night, little one," I heard my wife say to our only child, our baby son, as I turned on my radio. All though I consider myself pretty tech savvy with my galaxy smart phone, I think that having and using old technology is important to appreciating the technology we have today. The radio slowly woke up, then, due to the fact that the radio was only producing static I turned the wooden knob slightly to the left. This action cause the radio to start spewing slightly static infused words from its speakers "*static* It has been *static* reported that *static* aliens have landed *static*," suddenly the reporter is turned completely into static as I hear three knocks on the door. Turning the radio off I walked over to the entrance to the house. I started thinking to myself during this small walk, 'Why are they doing another dramatic reading of War of the Worlds? Don't they remember what happened last time someone did that?'
Opening the door I saw a family of four, two parents, a son, and a daughter, all freezing in the coldest night on record for Rhode Island. Just then my wife calls down,
"Who is it honey?"
Responding to her question honestly I answer, "I don't know honey."
"S-s-sir?" The cold mother tried and failed to get my full attention.
"Ok, do what you want, but I am going to bed," She said.
"Ok," I called back.
"S-s-sir-r-r, c-c-could-d-d w-we c-c-come in-n?" The freezing mother said finally getting my full attention.
"Yes, yes, please do come in," I said in a hurried voice to get them inside as quick as possible, before they froze to death. As they started to file into my warm house I offered, "Would you like a warm beverage, like hot chocolate?" Closing the door I looked at the mother's face, the expression registered as confusion with me. Even though the expression hung there on her face like a deer in headlights, I looked at her expectantly. The expression must have been enough to convince her because she responded,
"S-sure" I walked toward the kitchen as the family laid down on the couches. I pulled out a pot, placed it under the facet, and continued to fill it about half way. Then turning the electric stove on, I placed the pot on the stove. I then started to walk towards the stairs thinking, a watched pot never boils, so why not kill time in the meantime. I then climbed up the stairs quietly, trying to disturb neither the baby, nor my wife. Then as I reach my wife and mines bedroom door, slowly opening the door and creeping toward the dresser, watching my wife at the same time to see that see doesn't wake. Opening the top dresser drawer, I pulled out four blankets. I carried them toward the stairs, careful not to trip while going down them. I reached the bottom and distributed them to each of the freezing people crashed on the couch.
"Th-th-thank you," turning to see where the weak response came from, I saw the daughter look at me. Walk back to the kitchen to gather the rest of the supplies need for the hot co-co, I thought, thank God that the daughter spoke, I was beginning to think that the mother was the only one who spoke English. I walked over to the cupboards and proceed to pull out four cups, clasping two of them in each hand. Turning around, I almost tripped over our cat Almond. I cursed under my breath at my brown, furry friend as I walk across the kitchen to grab the packets for the hot chocolate. I placed the mugs on the counter, so that I could stand on tip-toe to grab the co-co mix. Then ripped the packets open releasing a fine powder into the air. Then turning around I saw that the pot was about to boil over, I left the packets of powder on the counter and grabbed the mugs. I plunged the first mug into the steaming water, barely holding on to the handle. I repeated this three more time almost burning my hand off each time. Then after wrapping the cups in paper towel I brought the cups over to the packets. Then with the steam rolling off the tops of the mugs I dumped the packets of hot chocolate mix in. Then I grabbed four black coffee stirrers from a cup that sat near the coffee maker. As I was stirring the cups I realized how stupid I was not using the coffee maker to heat the water. I grab a tray from the drying rack, wipe it with a dry rag to clean up any access water and then place the cups of hot chocolate on it. Then as I turned around with the tray I realized I forgot to turn off the stove. So instead of walking to the guest and back to the kitchen again, I, instead, twisted the knob to off while balancing the tray in the other hand. As I turned around I again almost tripped over the cat, which almost made me drop the tray, which was still in one hand. "Thank god I was waiter before, and dang that cat seems to appear from nothing," I muttered under my breath. Then grabbing the tray with two hands started to walk over to the couches, all the while keeping my eyes on Almond. As I walked over to my guests I thought, 'I am going to bed after giving these drinks to them and making sure they are comfortable.' Arriving at the couches I said, "Here you go."
"Thank you, y'all are really nice people, we w're told to go away by e'eryone else," the father said through a thick southern drawl.
"You are welcome," I replied. Then looking at my tray I noticed that I still had one hot co-co and realized that it was for the daughter. So I asked, "Where is your daughter?"
"She is in the bath room," the mother replied.
"Ok, well as long as you guys are comfortable I am going to head to bed," I told them.
"We are good," The mother said. So with that I head upstairs to bed. Putting on an old pair of blue shorts and an old grey shirt I climbed into bed. My brain was unusually silent. As I was about to fall into sweet, sweet sleep my brain thought three things, one, I didn't ask their names, two, I did not tell them were the bathroom was, three, Almond died two years ago. I reconciled these with two thoughts, I will ask them tomorrow and it wouldn't have been to hard too find. Thought I did not have a response to the last one it did not prevent me from falling in to the abyss of sleep.

2:21 am
I hear the baby monitor go off. I lay in bed for a few minutes as it goes off not wanting to disturb the cat that was lying at my feet. Then, just as I was about to get up, the crying stopped. I turned my head, trying, again, not to disturb the cat, to see if my wife was still there. She was. Writing it off as our baby maturing, I drifted back to sleep.

11:13 am
I wake up to the sun filtering into the room; I turn over to see the clock. Seeing that it says my normal wake up time; I look around for my wife. I find that she is sitting in a chair petting Almond. She seems to think nothing of it. So I ask her,
"Didn't Almond die two years ago?"
She replies with a resounding, "No."
"Ok, then," I reply. After my response I feel outside memories trying to flood my brain. I then realize that I must be the only one who realizes what the aliens are doing here other then them. I decided that I had to try to stop the aliens before they possessed my wife. I figured that they had to possess things by touch. They blanket had cat hair on it, and they probably touch the baby. To confirm this I cracked the door to my room open a bit and looked down the hall. The door to the baby's room was open.
"Honey what are you doing?" She asked suspiciously.
"Nothing, just stay away from the guests," I said realizing that she would not understand.
"What do you mean?" She continued.
Not having the time to deal with this I said, "No time to explain." I then raced out of the room no plan in mind. The cat sprung out of my wife's hands racing me to the stairs, which spurred my wife to follow it. Luckily I beat both of them to the stairs. I raced down the stairs. Then when I was downstairs I approached the father and stopped. This caused my wife to almost tackle me and the cat to race by.
"Get out," I yelled at the father as I pointed to the door.
"Honey, what are you doing," my wife cried out from behind me.
"Saving us," I replied. Then the father laughed and said,
"Looks like you are too late." Then I saw a blinding white flash from behind me. Knowing that they got my wife, I decided that there was only one thing for me to do, run. I started to sprint, but the father soon caught up to me and tackled me.
"Nice try," he said as there was a blinding white light and the world faded to black.

2 Old Men

"Do you have any interesting stories?" I asked.
"No, not really. I mean I was just tollbooth operator," Mack responded.
"That sounds like it is the most boring job it the world," I asked.
"It was," Mack stated.
"Then why did you take it?" I said
"I don't remember, I think I just need the money, I always wanted to be a truck driver though. So, Jim what was interesting about your life that I haven't heard of yet?" I hear Mack say.
"Well, as you know, Mack, I was a police officer in my younger years. So, I am going to tell you an interesting story from those years," As I told him this I thought that this is such a sad story for such a bright beautiful day in the park, but I continued, "It was an ordinary day until I got an anonymous call in."
"Haven't I heard this before?" Mack said.
"No, it is different trust me," I replied and then continuing said, "It was just past lunch and the person said that they saw a middle aged woman digging what looked like a grave on top of the hill that overlooks the river."
"Yeah, I am pretty sure that I have heard this story before," Mack interrupted me.
"No, no, you haven't. I am telling you that. Now be silent," I replied.
"Fine," Mack stated while rolling his eyes.
"Continuing with my story, I thought that that sounded interesting and so I got into my car and I drove toward the hill. Then approaching the woman, who was mumbling something about her son be unhelpful, I saw that it looked like she was indeed digging a grave. She moved to put her shovel away in the trunk and I saw that it looked like she had an ax and a box in there as well," I interrupted the story to give Mack a warning, "It gets pretty gruesome here, so do you want to hear the rest of it?"
"Sure, bring it."
"Ok. Then I asked her what was in the box that was sitting next to the ax and she yelled no and defensively grabbed it. At which point I tried to take it from her and the box fell to the ground and a head rolled out. The head turned out to be the son she was mumbling about not being helpful. His body was found lying beheaded in the back seat."
"Well then."
"Yep, so how was the story?"
"I had heard it before."
"Really? Stupid old age."
"Yep, but did you really think that here was the best place to tell that story?"
"Probably not, but I am pretty sure that the people around us will think that we are just crazy old men."

The Machine

"Finally, it's finished!" I exclaimed as I put the finishing touch on my machine, "There is only one thing to decide now, whether or not to share to this discovery. If I share it I call sell it, but everyone would be changing the past. I could keep it a secret, making no money, but I would become very powerful. I would be able to know what would happen; all I would have to do is not die. I would be the world's greatest hero, or the world's greatest villain. All of this from a small stopwatch is my pocket! Amazing!" Walking over to my calculations I thought about what to do next. "Yep, these are right. I can go back any time! Now to go back to stop World War I." I set the time back three months eight days, and 100 years. I pressed the the button I installed on the back and instantly I was covered in a veil of white light. I then passed out as an effect of the strain of time travel. When I awoke I realized that I could see myself tinkering at my workbench. I must not have gone back as far as thought I would take me. I wonder where my calculations went wrong. I have to sneak out of here before I am noticed, but first to take a picture of the calculations. CLICK. Crap, forgot to take the flash off.
"What was that?" I heard my other self mumble to himself without looking up from his work. I look around for a way out, I see that the garage door to my left. I start crawling toward the door, careful not to touch anything. I see my self get up, I stop dead in my tracks as he leaves. When he closes the door behind him I make a run for it. I make it out just as he re-enters the room. Taking out my phone to look at the picture to see where I went wrong to notice that I forgot to carry the one on the second equation. That means that I can only go back two days at a time. Now not knowing what to do I started to walk down the street.
"Hey, Jim," I hear my neighbor say to me, "I see that you gave up stupid idea that you could build a time machine." About to yell at him to say that he is wrong I remember that he is about to die of a heart attack.
"Hold on a sec, I have to call 911" I respond.
"Why?" He replies unaware.
"911, what is your emergency?" I hear through the phone.
"Could I have the medics? Someone is having a heart attack." I say calmly.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"Alright, the medics have been dispatched."
I look over to my neighbor I see him clutching his chest. 'Looks like I have done my part here,' I thought as I walked away briskly.

Under water

I surface, breathing fast and deeply.

"How long?" I ask my friend, who is a few feet away from me now, between gasps for breaths.

"47 seconds," he said.

"So close!" I said.

"I'm going to swim back to the shore."

"Ok, I will be out here." I said as he swam away. If I was wearing my glasses I am sure that I would look around and see the light sparkling off the water, the emerald green trees that ring this lake dance it the gentle autumn breeze, and the brilliant white mashed potato clouds hover in the air, all in a non- blurred way. Strapping my goggles on so that I can try to ignore the fact that I was half blind without my glasses, I dove under the water so that I could look around. I was floating over a large rock to which I anchored myself with a rope that I had in a bag as to not to drift away. There was a large submerged branch that was stuck on the rock; by this branch were some rock bass and some sheep head. The fish themselves were not that important, but the fact that they were swimming towards me was. By now my lungs were screaming at me to breathe so I came up breathing hard, as I was breathing I took my goggles off and scanned the way that the fish were coming from. I saw a large dark figure swimming at a modest speed coming toward me. Thinking that the figure might be my friend, I scan the shoreline; I see a blurry white speck getting out of the water. 'So what is it?' I as I think to myself as I dive under the water again to see the thing that is coming towards me to see it clearly. I try to swim towards it but I was still anchored to the rock. Taking the rope off of the rock and putting it into a bag I once again had to come up for air. I breathed deeply and dove back under because I wanted to see this thing. Swimming towards the thing I saw the silhouette of I start to question my logic about going toward this thing. All the fish were swimming away and it was pretty large. Right? I came up for air so that I could think, and then I thought I heard someone calling out from the shore.
"Swim, swim!" I hear them calling. Swimming as fast as I can for the shore I look back and see three claws on a green hand. Using the adrenaline from seeing the monster to my advantage I swam even faster.
"Faster, faster, it's gaining on you!" I heard from the shore over the splashing of my hands hitting the water. I felt something touch my leg, and then swiftly grab it. Suddenly I was under the water, holding my breath. I turned around to see what it looked like, but I realized that the water was all murky from the struggle. All I could catch were glimpses of the monster, only catching that it was green and had green claws. The grip was impossible to shake. I could feel the claws tearing into my leg and then it just let go. Quickly getting to the shore I took a deep breath and asked,
"What was that?"
"I don't know man! But I am never going into that lake again! I mean look at your leg! There is a ton of blood on your leg! We have to get you to the hospital!" He yelled.
"I think that I am going to pass out." I said as the world went black.

The Riddle Rooms

"Wow, Jim, your aunt's home is pretty nice," Carl said.
"I know Carl, I've been here before," I said.
"Too bad she is dead now."
"At least she was nice enough to leave this to me."
"True enough."
"Let's split up and see what is around."
"OK."
I walk to the right and Carl keeps going straight. I try the first room's door, locked. I come to the second, locked, the third, locked, the fifth, locked, the sixth, locked. I walk down to the last door on the hall and try the last door, open. "I wonder why all the other doors are locked," I thought to myself as I opened the door. As I looked around the room from the bright yellow curtains to the faded painting in the corner I noticed the stark white note on the black bed sheets. Sitting on the bed I read it.

The only reason I left this house to you

and not anyone else is because I believe that

 you are the one who can solve the Riddle Rooms.

 The first is behind the bed.

A map of the house is on the dresser.

Calling down the hallway, praying that he would hear, I yelled, "Carl, come here!" Hearing Carl running down the hallway I knew that he had heard.

"What?" he inquired as he entered.

"Help me move the bed."

"Ok?" As we lifted the bed I got quick glances at the riddle, which only stroked my excitement. I looked at Carl and by the look on his face I knew that he was catching glimpses of it too. After moving the bed I read the riddle out loud,

"This riddle's key is hidden in the room where the owner is almost always gone, but the key hides with the invention that allows you to look through walls."

"What does that mean?" Carl asked.

"I don't know yet, but this note did mention a map." I replied.

"Let's look at the map then."

"Ok." Grabbing the map off of the dresser I noticed that we were in the guest room and that every door had a color and that the guests room's was red.

"Hmm... I think that I know what 'the room where the owner is almost always gone' means," Carl said.

"Well tell me then!"

"It is the guest room, but I don't know what 'the invention that allows you to look through walls' means."

"I think it means a window."

"That is brilliant!" Carl exclaimed, "Well, why are you just standing there? Look for the key in the window!" I walk over to the window and reach into the window tray. I grab something cold and metallic and pull it out. After opening my hand once I had it out I noticed a piece of paper on the key and I read what was written on it out loud,

"The color of this door is merry indeed, though it is often seen."

"I think it is the color yellow," Carl said.

"I think it is green," I said.

"Why don't we try both? The closer one is yellow."

"Ok."

"Ok." We walked over to the second door that I tried and Carl put the key in. The key fit, but it would not turn.

"See told you it was green," I bragged.

"Do not get so confident just yet." He replied. While walking over to the hall that Carl explored a little I admired the houses architecture. It was a very ornate, new Gothic combined with modern look. The green door was the second door on this hallway as well. I stuck the key in and turned it. Opening the door I saw a chest with a note on it and I walked over and picked it up. It read,

In this chest is the fortune of a hundred men.

Though the prize may seem won.

Ones work is never done.

As the dresser knows,

one always needs his clothes.

"We are rich!" I exclaimed. Though I did not know what the last part meant I was sure to check the dresser later.