Forever
Arthur sat back onto his bed, listening with satisfaction to the almost surreal hum of the time machine. How many years had he tried and failed to get this thing to work? Ten? Longer? He didn't even know. All he knew was that his life's work was finally done, every last minute he'd dedicated to it has paid off, and he was staring at the world's latest scientific breakthrough, a miracle in itself.
He was bursting with excitement and curiosity about the worlds that has just opened up in front of him, but with it came a sort of fear. It had been his dream for as long as he could remember to traverse the timeline, challenge the history books on their accuracy, and see wonders of engineering in a way that science fiction would never be able to replicate. But it had always been just a dream, and now that it was here, it was overwhelming, mind blowing, downright terrifying.
He decided to take a break, rest a bit; something he couldn't recall ever really doing, not since he'd started working on this vision of his. He would have a decent meal, call a friend, watch a movie, have a good night's rest. He would stall, until morning, before taking the giant leap into the past, the first place he wanted to visit.
He did everything on his list, but only half-heartedly, his mind still on his work and the nerves that he was starting to collect in the pit of his stomach, and by dawn the following day he was up, wearing his least conspicuous outfit in which he would travel to the past. He stood in front of the time machine, and shivers ran down his spine. This was it, he told himself, it was do or die.
He stepped into his shiny creation, turned the knobs, pressed the buttons, and with a buzz and a blur the machine started shaking and humming, and then suddenly he heard a crash, and it switched off. When he slowly opened the door, it had worked. He was in the past!
When he returned to his present time, very little time had elapsed; an hour and a half, maybe a little more, if he had bothered to take note of the time before disappearing. This was wonderful news! His head was filled with the wonders of what he had seen, the images ingrained forever in his memory, and the scents of the past still clinging to his clothes.
He decided to sit down and create a timeline, taking careful note of everything he wanted to see, and the ways in which he could see it without causing much disturbance and interference with the inhabitants of that time. Before long he'd set up an itinerary of sorts, and he decided he would travel once a day.
The next day he was ready for his first planned trip. He dialed the numbers, turned the knobs, and travelled with speed to a time when horses and carts were still used and villages sprung up around castles and forts, or around rivers. He breathed the unpolluted air, heard the sound of hooves in the distance. He walked towards the village, a huge castle lying on the horizon. When he reached it, he walked across some tilled land, staring in amazement at the rock walls towering up above him. Suddenly iron clad guards on horses were charging towards him, surrounding, and holding him at the edge of the swords in no time. He dropped his bag and held his hands up, terrified.
“These are the king's lands,” the guard shouted at him, “you are trespassing and will be hanged.”
Fear rippled through him. Was this how it was going to end for him? Was he going to die in a strange land for a crime he didn't know he was committing?
As the guards marched him through the village, his hands tied behind his back, the villagers throwing rotten fruit and vegetables at him, a commotion drew the guards' attention. They were momentarily distracted, and while everyone looked at what was causing the problem, a young woman grabbed him by the arm and pulled him away. They were in between the trees within a few paces, and she pulled him into a patch up undergrowth, commanding him to keep quiet and stay down. They heard the angry sounds of the guards float to them on the wind as his absence was realized. They stayed there for a long time, until they were sure everything was clear. Then they got up.
Arthur took a better look at the woman who'd saved him. She was beautiful, the fairest skin and hair he'd seen, and eyes as deep and blue as the ocean. She smiled at him, and he felt instantly attracted to her.
“Go home, stranger,” she urged him, “while your life still belongs to you.”
He thanked her, and she disappeared among the trees. He looked at the spot where she'd disappeared for a while, her soft melodious voice still reverberating in his ears, but he knew that going after her would be foolish; this was not his time. He followed her advice and went home.
Another day later he decided to visit the future. He landed in a city of steel, with a strange unnatural light reflected off every wall, and the people wore the most vivid colors he'd ever seen. It was such a strong contrast to their surroundings, all in monochrome, that the splashes of color were welcome to the eyes and the soul. He made his way to a nearby shop and bought something in wild neon, understanding that his dull clothing would draw unnecessary attention. In this retro outfit he went unnoticed. In the city square he stood, admiring the sheer size of everything around him, when a figure in bright orange floated past him, the soft fabric almost gliding on the wind in her wake. Her blond hair was cut in an angular style, and she wore shades of gray around her eyes, making her a reflection of the city itself, but her face made him gasp. Could it be? This woman, so many years into the future from his last visit, was identical to the woman who had saved him the previous day. He blinked, and blinked again, squinting against the bright glare, but he was sure his eyes didn't deceive him. This was a genetic miracle, an exact replica of someone that had to be in her bloodline. Excited, he went back home and revisited his studies and theories of genetics.
A few days later he was visiting another time, and he bumped into a woman that again looked like his heroine from the past. The rate at which she was appearing became suspicious to him, his knowledge of genetics telling him that this wasn't as it should be. He followed her, and when she went into a house, he knocked on the door.
She opened door herself, and when she looked at him, recognition flickered across her face, followed by a frown of confusion.
“Can I help you?” she asked carefully.
“Yes, I just want to ask, do you know who I am?”
She hesitated a moment before shaking her head, but he pressed on, and eventually she admitted that he was the man she'd saved in the village.
“How can this be that you're here?”
She invited him in, and over a cup of something he didn't recognize, but tasted delicious, she explained to him that she was immortal. Her name was Rebecca.
“I'm everywhere, you see. In the past, and the present, and the future. I'll always be there. It doesn't usually happen that people are around long enough to realize this. Cities have become bigger, people have become less involved with each other, and my consistent presence remains unnoticed. I don't usually stumble across time travelers.”
“How did you know I was a time traveler, and not just immortal, like you?”
“You have the same hair as the first time I saw you, you would have changed it with the ages. You also have a would on your hand that hasn't healed, which it would have in a thousand years. In fact, you wouldn't have had it in the first place.”
He looked down at his hand, where he's cut himself slicing tomatoes a few days ago. They spent more time together, he asked her questions that his science would never be able to answer, and after hours of talking, reluctantly, he left.
From then on, whether it's by accident, or by sub-conscious design, Arthur ran into Rebecca nearly every time he traveled, whether it was to the future or to the past. If she found this odd, she didn't say anything. She spent a few hours talking to him, always keeping conversation formal and impersonal, but as time passed Arthur felt he didn't feel satisfied with a visit unless she was part of it.
One morning, when he couldn't find her a far distance into the future, he went home miserable and grumpy. After a while of wallowing in self-pity he started assessing his trips, and the moods that he ended up in after returning. He came to the conclusion that he felt happy and satisfied after seeing her, miserable and ill-tempered when he didn't and after arguing with himself about it for what felt like an eternity, he had to admit that he was in love. He argued some more, telling himself over and over again that it wouldn't work, that she wouldn't have him, that finding her in his own time would ruin the magic, but the more he fought with himself, the more he came to the conclusion that that was all there as left to do.
He slept fitfully that night, and the next morning he prepared a speech in his mind as he dressed to go to the past, a good place to find her, if he wanted to talk to her about it. It would be pointless doing it in the future, and then she knew nothing in his present time because it was still to come for her.
He travelled to a time just before he was born, and found her. He sat her down, and declared his undying love for her, telling her how he'd argued it out, and despite the odds he wanted to be with her, needed to be with her.
She looked at him for a long time without saying anything, and then, looking down at her hands, she spoke.
“I can't be with you, Arthur, you must understand that the few days I've seen you in my lifetime until now, and the few I will still see you in the future, aren't enough to create the same feelings for you that you have for you. You have seen me every day for months now, but I have seen you once every couple of hundred years.”
“I realize that, but if we are together in my time, that can change?”
“I can't afford to invest emotions in anyone. I can't ever spend my life with someone, because my life never ends. I've tried, and I just end up being the one that has to say goodbye, that stays behind with good memories and pain in my chest. I always have to let people go. I'm sorry Arthur, it won't work.”
He left, feeling more miserable than ever before. He didn't travel for a few days, her words echoing endlessly in his mind. He slept less, refused to eat, and dedicated all his time now to finding a solution. Then one morning, as the sun curled over the horizon, it hit him.
He didn't get in the machine. Instead, he went to find her in his present time. It was a risk, he knew. It was another dream that he was making real; he was bringing her into his real life. But he had to do it. Once again, it was do or die.
When he found her, she opened her mouth to speak, but he interrupted her.
“Just hear me out, okay? I've figured it out, and if you'll have me, this can work. Be with me, here in my present time, every day. Love me, and let me love you. I will travel every day, a month further into the past from a date in the future. That means that after I die, you will still see me once a month for as many days I was able to do it before my death. Compared to your never-ending life, it won't be a lot, but it will be more, and for a while, you'll have me. Please, Rebecca, consider it. I don't want to be in any time without you anymore. “
He agreed to think about it, and he left her with hope. Days passed, and he started growing anxious, but just as he gave up hope, his doorbell rang, and there she was on his doorstep, beautiful as ever, smiling at him. And he knew.
Chapters
Chapter 1
Arthur is a scientist and has worked his whole life to build a time machine. After years and years of struggling to get it right, he finally succeeds. He travels to the past where he visits some of his favorite historical landmarks, before he returns to the present.
Chapter 2
Arthur decides that the gateway to time travel should be used better, and he draws up a schedule of all the times he wants to visit and what he wants to see there. Upon his first visit to another time he runs into trouble and a beautiful woman saves him. Knowing that he can't be with someone outside his time, he ignores the attraction and carries on with his travels.
Chapter 3
Thousands of years down the timeline, but only the next day for him, he's taking note of how future things are set up when he sees the same woman again. This doesn't make sense to him because she shouldn't be still alive or look as young as thousands of years before. He approaches her, wondering at this genetic replica.
Chapter 4
In yet another time, Arthur sees her again, and this time he becomes suspicious. He manages to strike up a conversation, and she recognizes him because it's closer to the time she met him. He realizes it's the same woman, and immortal, and he starts looking her up every time he travels, unable to stay away from her.
Chapter 5
He has fallen in love with her, and can't hold out anymore, so he declares his love to her. Where he has spent days on end with her in different times, she has only seen him once every so-many-years and doesn't share his feelings. She also rejects him because she can't every spend `the rest of her life' with someone, she has to move on after she loses the ones she loves to old age or disease or accidents.
Chapter 6
He decides that if she's willing, he'll be with her every day in the present, and visit her every day, for one day a month in the future, so that after he dies in the present she will still see him until the days he has left from the start of their relationship until his death. She agrees.
Characters
Rebecca - Blond hair, blue eyes, flawless skin. Elegant and graceful, soft-spoken, knows a lot but thinks before she speaks.
Arthur - messy, absent-minded scientist. Windblown brown hair, brown eyes, jumbles speech when he gets excited about theories he develops.