Young Writers Society

The beeping was so loud, and Charlie was yelling quite a bit. I didn't care much, I didn't care much about anything, but I did give a half-hearted "Yes," When Charlie asked if I could hear him.

I felt like all of this had happened before, like the most intense deja-vu I'd ever experienced. None of this was a surprise or even particularly interesting. It would all end up in the same place anyway, so why intervene. It was like I was on a train, and everyone was yelling about trying to turn a colossal machine, even though I knew it was just on tracks, but none of them seemed to grasp that.

Soon, the helmet was removed from my head by a woman in white scrubs. She and a man lifted me onto a rolling hospital bed, and they rolled me out of the Room of Ra. My hands were twitching and shaking, and I felt sore all over, like the one day I tried CrossFit.

The chair they had put me in stabbed me with every part of its texture and every piece of information it radiated. I knew everything about it, the atomic structure of the materials, that the steel which made its frame was made in china, and that the man who'd driven the truck that delivered these blankets was a struggling alcoholic.

The lights passing above me were so bright, I considered squinting away from them, but it wouldn't matter. The light was everywhere. And anyway, I knew I wouldn't. None of this was new.

I looked over at the woman who was pushing the cart, I knew her name and that she had a dog named Scruffles she'd been allowed to keep even in Athena for her anxiety, I knew tomorrow she'd meet a man she'd later marry, and that, he'd die of lung cancer, and that her grandchildren would love her dearly, and upon her death her granddaughter would name an essential discovery in the field of biology after her.

If I'm being a hundred percent honest, trying to remember this part is not very much fun and gives me headaches, so I'll just give you the basic overview.

In the hospital room, they tried to talk to me, and I gave very few helpful responses, and then, they stuck a needle in my arm, which hurt, but didn't care too much, and as the drug entered my body, the feeling of intense brain splitting awareness faded, and I lost consciousness.

I awoke in a deep bed, covered in heavy blankets. I opened my eyes and stared up at the cracked white plaster ceiling. In my peripheral vision, I saw four wooden, intricately carved bed posters. The room was warm but not stiflingly and smelled of freshly cut grass and old books. I sat up. Sunlight was streaming in through the open window, as well as a slight breeze. I was back in my room in the chateau. Lillian, my phycolgist, was sitting on a chair in the corner of the room, eyes on a book. Next to the window, Myke was standing, leg tapping impatiently.

He let out a sigh of relief as I looked at him, "Good Morning, sir. How do you feel?"

I smiled, and slowly, memories of the past couple of days wandered back into my head. "Good…" I said.

The Caribbean neuroscientist stood up, stretched, yawned, and then glanced at me. "Sounds like my work is done, for now. Good day, Mr. Meyers." She said unconcernedly and then walked out. I felt a pang of anger at the disrespect, and then I remembered I was the one who reprimanded her for warning me of this. What had she warned me of? What is this? I wondered as I smacked my lips.

"Would you like your breakfast?" Myke asked. I nodded, realizing I was quite hungry. Myke called Margret, who brought in a tray with some pastries, eggs, and black sausage. I began to eat.

"What happened?" I asked, still a bit foggy.

"You went under destiny's Touch, and it completely overwhelmed you. The Ethos overloaded you, and you almost had a seizure. Charlie was able to shut it off, but you were still in a bad state. It was like you were somehow still pulling the particles through, and even when that the connection was broken, Ethos was still cycling around in your mind. It was almost like you were still in the Touch. The doctors think you were too aware of reality itself, and it was over stimulating your brain. So, they gave you a ton of oxymorphone and put you to sleep. You've been sleeping ever since, and your brain activity leveled out a little bit after 2 in the morning."

"What day is it?"

"It's the morning of April Third."

The date sounded like the toll of a funeral bell. The words brought back the weight of the inevitably.

So, of course, I scooped a mouthful of scrambled eggs because no amount of fate can stop me from having a good meal.

"Your family arrived this morning, sir. If you are feeling well, we thought you could spend the day with them," Myke said. "Josh decided that after yesterday you should get a day off and a week off from the Touch. So all you have tomorrow are meetings."

I nodded, barely listening. The inevitable couldn't be real. It had to be from my mental state breaking down from destiny'sTouch. Some time off will fix it. It's irrational, really.

Oooh chocolate baguette.

"Why am I back in the chateau?" I asked around a mouthful of the baguette.

"We thought it would probably be a good idea for you to get some time off from Athena as a whole. Just to relax and let your mind recover. Charlie theorized that among the other stresses, Athena still might not have a perfect seal. You were being exposed to Ethos 24/7. He says the amount you were exposed to in the Room of Ra might have made you like a lightning rod for the stray particles around the project, but maybe at this distance, you'd be safer."

Safer.

A funny word. If they wanted me to be safest, they'd call this whole thing off and start testing Ethos more slowly and scientifically. They don't want me to be safe. They want me to be just healthy and happy enough they could keep using me.

They were just trying not to break the weapon they were building. I had kinda known that before, but now I was realizing I wasn't just building a weapon for them, I was their weapon, but I still wasn't sure how they planned to use me.

After breakfast, Myke left me to get ready, Avery was going to come to pick me up at noon, and then I'd go spend the day with my family.

See, you'll be with Adam, so there's no way you could be in that car. If I am in a car, Avery will be driving it. Why would he run into a truck? I told myself.

I stared at my wardrobe, which now was much more extensive than just the clothes moved from Charlotte.

I could wear my most expensive suit, with my Rolex, and very nice leather shoes. Then Adam would really know I was successful.

But what kinda uncle would that make me? Nobody wants their uncle dressed like an Orchestra director.

I pulled on a nice pair of jeans, a button-up, my favorite leather belt, and a pair of comfortable yet expensive tennis shoes.

There, the nice shoes would be what would prove to him I had wealth. Oh, and the Rolex.

I stopped and looked in the mirror. The clothes looked nice. But it was still the same old Matt. The same one who'd never beat Adam at a physical contest, who didn't get into Duke, and who isn't a wealthy engineer with a large happy family.

I sighed, but I was going to be the first man to time travel.

I caught myself. No, some part of me had assumed that the Inevitability would occur. But it couldn't. It made no sense. Fate didn't exist. Charlie's theory had proved that. You could always choose where your line intersected the points. No points were set.

I made my way down the spiral staircase, keeping my hand on the rail for support. I wandered into the library, where I thought I could wait for Avery. I was surprised to find Maria in the library. In my time away from the Chateau, I'd almost forgotten about the British housekeeper.

She was sitting in a chair next to a window. She was staring out at the backyard, with its little church, the stone walls, and large trees. Maria had a book on her lap, but she was staring out at the grass lawn in front.

"Good morning," I said tentatively.

"Good morning Mr. Meyers. Glad to have you back in the Chateau," She said, still staring out the window. Her voice was rough, like she'd been crying.

I sat down on the couch, not knowing what else to do. "Glad to be back, much better than an ugly windowless apartment."

"Much better," Maria said quietly and then sniffed and seemed to begin crying quietly.

I blinked, my face going red. I was never good at dealing with people who were crying. On my first real date with Jenna, she'd cried during the movie we were watching, and I'd almost panicked before I realized I should probably just put my arm around her. That didn't feel like it would work in this context, though.

"Is everything okay, Maria?" I asked, standing up and stepping towards her.

She chuckled, "Yeah, sorry." She sniffed and wiped her eyes. "It's just that this place will be gone soon."

I stepped forward and sat in a chair next to her. Now I felt like crying, though I didn't particularly know why.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I got the email this morning. They'll be tearing the Chateau down next month and building a big facility here for employees to live in. It's much more modern and cost-efficient." She said but didn't sound so convinced.

"I'm sorry, that's terrible. The Chateau is beautiful." I responded, trying to say what I think a nice person would say.

"No, don't be sorry. It's no surprise. I watched them cut down the forest around here and clear out the other villages and houses. I know we'd be next eventually. And it's not even my house. It's my husband's, it has been in his family since the war, but it's become mine in the past couple of decades. I'd hope to raise my kids here, but that didn't happen either. But I'm rambling, the house will come down, they're paying me an awful lot for it, they'll build their housing facility, and I can go purchase a nice mansion in Paris or on the coast or in California or something."

I joined her in staring out at the grounds. "There were others here?"

"Yeah, whole villages, less than other places. But the government told them they had to move, and they did. They all got a lot of money, but I'm lucky really, I got to stay here longer than any of them. It's probably because Robert was one of the scientists, so they were nice to me and let me run this little hotel thing. So really, I should be grateful. I just don't know where I'll go after. My life was Robert, and when he died, it was this house, and this house will be gone soon too. It's silly, really. I'm just one old British woman, I can't expect them to stop the march of progress for me, but it's no fun to get marched on."

I nodded and looked at the stone church, which was probably older than my country. After the Chateau came down, I'd be moved to a new facility with a very expensive room and a housekeeper who talked less and wouldn't waste my time as much. The march would keep pushing me up, up closer and closer to fame and power.

"Are you religious, Maria?" I found myself asking, my throat now a little raw as well. I was surprised by the question, I generally avoided that topic, but I also generally avoided seizures, so it had been a weird week.

"Yes, I'm Jewish. My family was actually from France, but they left for England in the war, their house was taken and all. Robert wasn't anything when I married, but he died Jewish," Maria said, "Are you religious?"

"My dad was a Christain pastor. " I said, dodging the question, and then paused again, "Maria, do you believe in fate? Like do you think God sometimes makes it so no matter what we do something will happen to us?"

She paused, "I think He respects our choices completely. He's never going to force us to choose anything, but sometimes He will make things happen to us. Only ever for our good, so we come back to Him or grow. And he knows what's best for us, so he'll put things in our path. I didn't have to marry my husband, but The Almighty One knew that it'd be best for me, so he put Robert in my path, and even if I'd made a minor mistake and not noticed, he would put Robert there again and again, until I'd made a real decision."

"So sometimes, you think He'll put something there, so there is no way to avoid it? Even bad things?"

Maria paused to consider this, "Yeah, sometimes. But He never makes an Actually bad thing happen. We, and other people, in our brokenness, can do that to each other, but not him, but he might do things that appear to be bad. He wants to give us every chance to take the right path, so he'll put us in situations where we have to choose. Sometimes we can get stuck on paths that may seem good by worldly standards. They might bring wealth, power, or even amounts of happiness, but since they seem pretty good, we might not realize they are missing the most important things, so He, in His infinite wisdom, might do something that looks bad. That brings pain and hardship, but really He's just trying to get us to turn back to Him."

I opened my mouth. I had a million arguments against that. A million ways, I didn't want that to be true. But then I closed it. Maria would know those arguments better than anyone. Her family had been driven out of their country by Nazis. Her husband had died and left her alone. She was being kicked out of her home by an unquestionable government power yet again. Maria knew that what God dealt didn't always seem nice.

So instead, I asked, "Do you own a gun, by chance?"

She looked at me blankly, "Umm, yes, I have an old revolver, it was Roberts, why?"

Well, because there is a chance that tonight, I will be transported back 8 thousand years, and this strange prescience I had gained from breaking my brain is telling me that it was vitally important, I have a gun when that happens.

But I couldn't say that, so I said a slight fib.

"I'm going back to Paris again, to visit my brother, and last time I went, someone tried to kill me, so it would be really comforting to have a way to defend myself, so I was wondering if I could… borrow it?"