Young Writers Society

Elias continued to confirm Levi's suspicion that this was going to be a long night.

...And probably more than just a night.

He was silent for a moment before speaking. He had to pick his words carefully. It was clear that Elias hadn't fully registered the weight of this situation just yet. He didn't realize that this wasn't another sector. Levi was sure that he would panic the moment he told him he was outside of his little dystopian comfort zone.

But Levi didn't have anyone else to turn to. There weren't any libraries. There weren't any gods to steal information from. It was just him and his hodgepodge of theories that he had slowly been building up over the years. He could only come up with one way to get Elias home.

And it was very much a long shot.

"You're in Addington," he said. "Addington, Massachusetts. I think you can go back to your world, but it...might not be easy. Traveling between worlds takes time."

"Addington," Elias echoed, scrunching his brows to think. "Nope, no idea where that is. Is it close to Sector 2?"

He only heard some of what K said afterwards, but it didn't sink in. Not yet.

After all, how could the phrase "traveling between worlds" be something to absorb so easily when Earth was the only world he ever knew?

He ran his fingers through his hair. Maybe it was self-preservation. Maybe it was just a lack of attention. Levi didn't know. But he hoped Elias would get the big picture soon because he was running out of ways he could say this.

...And he was starting to get irritated.

"I don't know," Levi said. "I'm not from your Earth. I'm from a time before whatever nightmare happened that made Earth need sectors instead of cities. No matter how you look at it, this isn't Earth as you know it."

Elias was suddenly understanding now. It hit him all at once, and now he knew why K seemed so wary of him.

Of course. The answer was so simple.

"Wait," he said, eyes widening. "You're telling me... I time traveled to the past?!"

It was a wild concept, but not outlandish. He was just surprised he had this ability. And how long ago did he travel? Clearly, he traveled more than 10 minutes in the past.

Levi opened his mouth.

He was sure that Elias was from a completely different world. He couldn't see this Earth suddenly spiraling into a dystopia. Even if it had, Elias would know who he was. His plans were too big to be lost to time.

(Assuming, of course, people on Earth ever learned of them.)

But Elias seemed to latch onto the first thing he heard. And Levi really wasn't feeling up to explaining why he was so certain Elias wasn't from his Earth.

He let out a sigh.

Teenagers, he bitterly thought. Why were their attention spans so terrible?

"Yes," he relented. "You time-traveled to the past."

Speaking of time...

If he didn't get home soon, Juniper was going to get worried. He hadn't thought about what place he wanted to go to before he grabbed onto Elias earlier, but his brain had thankfully dropped him off exactly where he needed to be. If he checked behind the dumpster in the nearby alleyway, he would be able to find what he needed.

He headed towards the alleyway.

"Stay there," he said. "I need to go do something."

Once he stepped inside, he made a beeline for the bag he had hidden his spare clothes in. With a conveniently-placed curtain of darkness (that looked almost identical to the alley's natural shadows) to shield him from any prying eyes, Levi quickly got changed into the outfit that Juniper had seen him wearing before he left: a collared white shirt, neat black pants, his glasses and a noticeable lack of eyeliner. For good measure, he made his eyes return to their usual green.

A minute later, he returned to Elias.

Hmm. So Elias traveled to the past. He was technically a time traveler, then.

Cool.

Suddenly K ordered him to stay there while he went down the alley. Elias shrugged and went up-and-down on the balls of his feet, looking around. The plushie was still in his arms, but he was too distracted to notice.

How he time traveled, he had no idea. Maybe he had time powers that he didn't know about? A bit strange since he came from a lineage of healers, to his knowledge, but hey, anything was possible. How was he going to get back, he had no idea.

Suddenly a man approached him, and Elias stepped off to the side, trying to let him pass.

"Go ahead," he said casually when he stopped in front of him. He looked suave and put-together. "I'm waiting for my friend."

Levi crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow.

A tiny, tiny part of him had the strongest urge to tease Elias about not recognizing him. It was a feeling he hadn't had in a long time; the only person he messed with these days was Juniper, and even that was a rarity now.

But he couldn't give into temptation. He had to make sure Elias didn't draw attention to either one of them. The last thing he wanted was to cause some kind of scene.

"I am your friend," he replied. He glanced around to make sure no one was nearby, felt around for any kind of magic besides what was clinging to Elias, and then teleported to right behind Elias.

"I just needed to get changed," he said from right near his ear.

Elias nearly slapped the man.

"WHOA!" he yelled out as he jumped out of his skin. He whirled around while also taking a step back in the opposite direction, his hands swinging and nearly pelting the man who claimed to be his friend.

"How the..."

He looked him up and down. How did he move like that?! Did he blink?

But more importantly...

"I don't think I know you, but we can be friends," he said, easing his suspicion. "How'd you move that fast, anyways?"

Levi gave him a long, searching look.

And then he groaned. Either his last outfit was better at hiding his identity than his current one was, or Elias was more oblivious than he thought. Considering how long it took to explain Elias had ended up in a completely different time, Levi had a sneaking suspicion it was the second option.

"I am your friend," he repeated, this time a little slower. Levi placed a hand on his chest for emphasis. "I'm K. If you don't still believe me, you can go back in the alleyway I was just in and look for a bag of clothes. And I didn't move fast - I teleported. You could call it...magic."

Elias should have heard the words 'teleported' and 'magic' and demanded an explanation. But after the realization that the man—err, boy, since they were the same age—was indeed K, he latched on to one thing he said and couldn't wait to blurt it out.

"Awww," he cooed, relaxing his body and looking up at him with big puppy eyes. "You called me your friend!"

He shifted uncomfortably.

"You called me your friend first," he replied. He could feel his cheeks heating up at the comment. He didn't do friends. He couldn't bring himself to trust someone that much. But it admittedly felt kind of good to have someone like him enough to be touched by being called his friend.

He couldn't remember the last time that had happened.

Elias grinned and poked his chest a few times.

"Yeah, but you called me your friend back," he teased. He could tell K was a grumpy type, and he had always found it so fun to tease grumpies.

"I didn't want to confuse you," Levi protested. "You were already getting confused about who I was, so I just wanted to say what you had-"

He glanced back at Elias and sighed. This is why I hate being stuck with teenagers.

"Never mind," he said. It wasn't worth arguing over something like that. They were on a time crunch. If he didn't get home soon, Juniper was going to start frantically texting him. The short call earlier was going to make her wary. Add in him not being home on time? It was a disaster waiting to happen.

He readjusted his glasses out of habit.

"You don't have anywhere to go right now," he said, starting what he was sure would be an incredibly long and frustrating lecture, "and I'm the only person here who can help you find a way to get back home. You can stay with me in the meantime. But you have to do exactly what I tell you to."

He looked Elias over.

"Got it?" he asked.

Elias grinning the entire time K was talking, but it naturally started to fade with time. He was glad that K called him his friend, but it did dawn on him that he still had no idea who K was, where he really was, and how he got here. He knew he shouldn't trust strangers, but K seemed to understand his situation. Wouldn't it be the best decision to trust him?

"Sure," he said with a shrug. "Easy enough. Does that mean I get one of those phones, then?"

Levi sighed.

He was sure Elias just wanted a phone because it looked cool, but he did have a point. Phones were useful. If Elias was going to be here for a long, extended period of time, he would need one to fit in and communicate with Levi if they ever got separated.

"Eventually," he said. He could try useful some of the money he had been saving up in his bank account for...well, whatever he was supposed to use it for. He hadn't entirely thought that far in his plan yet. He doubted most human technology could seriously hurt a god.

Levi looked him over again.

"To start," he said, "the name I go by isn't really K. It's Levi. Levi Quinn. If you're going to be staying with me and my family, you need to call me that instead."