Timekeeper, Part Two
an excerpt

Kendel O’Conner sits at the edge of a cliff, legs dangling over, head bowed as she watches the ocean water lap at the jagged rocks at the bottom. It is peace and serenity at its finest, with clear blue skies dotted with specks of high clouds, like God had sneezed and his sneezes were somehow made out of marshmallow. The wind from the ocean whirls softly, pushing at Kendel’s back.

But all she can think of are the vibrations. The subtle, involuntary, rigid vibrations of a moment in time desperately wanting to move, pushing itself forward with the viscosity of molasses. She likes to feel it, wants to feel it—must feel it. It gives her extreme pride in knowing that she can feel these tense, thick vibrations in her hands, and her feet, and all around her. It lets her know that she can do it too.

Her thoughts run to the day she was released from her bonds in John Capro’s laboratory. She can’t help but think of it; every movement from the trees, every bend in the wind as it shifts from side to side. The ebb and flow of the tide crashing against the rocks, chipping away at his sitting ground. It all reminds her of the vibrations. And the vibrations remind her of Kyle.

Kyle’s name renders Kendel’s defenses useless. She shivers. She shivers and thinks of the day Kyle took that awful man, Ephesto, from this realm and from Capro’s labs, and into the realm of the Time Travelers, a place neither Ephesto, nor Kyle, nor Kendel herself, belong. He took the man that has started all of this nonsense. A good cause, Ephesto has, or had at one time, but now it has become a cause warped within his own maniacal ideals of personal gain.

The vibrations become stronger and faster as the future frantically clawed its ethereal hands at the present, trying to tear it away to secure its own spot in the line. Kendel’s forehead begins to throb and ache slightly. She reaches up and gently pushes against the red crystal jutting out of it, trying to subdue the aches and pains. After a moment, the vibrations began to slow down, and Kendel was able to put her thoughts back together.

Six months after Kyle took Ephesto with him through time, they reappeared just as Capro’s machine was being finished. It was a machine capable of implanting crystals into hundreds of people within the course of an hour. It was Capro’s solution to not only the War’s impenetrable field, but also to the War itself. It was Capro’s way of winning the War, when they got to it.

But Capro was mad at Ephesto, angry that such an outsider could interfere so quickly in his affairs. He had put a lot of faith into the man that killed a dozen soldiers on the field of battle, but not enough faith that he would have Ephesto himself courted away by his own progeny.

Kendel remembered that sixth month well. It was November, and it was the month of her birthday. She was going to be sixteen. John Capro had had a party for her, bringing in all of the people he had experimented on, all those poor kids with the green crystals leaking radiation into their own brains. He brought the scientists and the staff and the nurses and everyone. Daniel, the only other remaining person in the whole laboratory with a red crystal implanted in his forehead, was seated by her side, offering her encouragement that no one else in that room could’ve given.

When she blew out the candles, she knew it would all be downhill from there. Her wish was to travel to the edge of the War, just like Kyle and Daniel had been able to do. But she wished she could go farther, through the War and past it, into what has been long called Apocalypse Land, the place after the bomb exploded. She wished she could go there and live there, away from all these lying people and this time travel.

A week after her birthday, Kyle and Ephesto returned, and promptly took over the building. They killed many children and scientists. The codes that would bring the Crystal Machine to life were in Capro’s hands, so they didn’t murder him right away. But they forced him to use the machine on Ephesto, to make him as powerful as Kyle was. Capro wouldn’t do it, at first. She and Daniel, huddled in her room, listened as the two meglomaniacs berate and torture the poor Capro until he couldn’t fight any longer.

She and Daniel had crept into the storage room adjacent to the room where the machine was held, and watched through a narrow window as Kyle strapped his new friend into one of the metallic slabs. He kicked Capro and shouted at him to start the machine. And Capro did, with no other choice.

And ten minutes later it was over. But with a price. Capro had ingested a cyanide capsule shortly after sending Ephesto into the machine, and was dead. And when Ephesto came out, he found he now was the bearer of a time crystal in his forehead. But it wasn’t red, as he expected. It was green. It sent him into a rage beyond all rages, running around with wild in his eyes. He had even grabbed Capro’s dead body and shook it violently, nearly ripping the corpse apart.

In the end, Kyle transported him away, to finish whatever it was they were starting. Ephesto would have to fight the power of the radiation in the crystal trying to kill his brain. None of the previous test subjects were able to do it. A few of the stronger ones has been able to hang onto a thin thread of life before succumbing to the ultimate destructiveness of the radiation. However, most of them were also children. Perhaps Ephesto’s increased size would make him more resistant.

Kendel’s thoughts vaporize suddenly as the vibrations increase again, sending sharp shocks through her arms and chest. She gasps for breath and stands, holding her arms around her chest. She’s been here too long and she knows it. The vibrations are breaking her down. She needs to leave before the force of the War slowly tenderizes her body. As every second ticks ahead, she becomes closer and closer to the exact moment where time itself is warped and stretched into a frozen wall.

Kyle told her once that being at the end before the War felt like every cell in his body was shaking itself apart from the collective. But he still said that he could pinpoint the exact time when the “wall” started. He said the wall was probably a few years thick, and that with the right amount of force, he could pass through it. But he is gone now, stuck inbetween the seconds. The year has passed, people are still the way they are last year. There’s something different in the air, something ... revolutionary, almost. It’s a great time for time travel.

Kendel steps away from the cliff. Distance won’t keep her from the War, but her brain is still movement-centered, instead of time-centered. She believes that moving will keep her away. Ultimately, she will have to travel back to her own time.

The wind picks up, shaking the trees behind her and sending ripples through the tall grass. She runs a hand through her hair. She watches the ocean as the tide comes in, wishing she could swim out to the middle, to a deserted island, and just stay there forever. She could do it, too, if she really, desperately wanted to. Although her skills with the crystal aren’t as honed as Kyle or Daniel, she can still get around.

Finally, the vibrations are too much for her. They’ve permeated her brain, shaking her to the core. She reaches up, gently touches the crystal jutting out of her forehead, and in the blink of an eye, is gone.