Send Me Home
Henry wound his car window up and got out, swinging his briefcase behind him as he slammed the door shut and locked the car. He walked into the unwelcoming corridor and scanned his ID tag. He knew these cold walls better than his own living room. He took the elevator up to the 6th floor and nodded at the secretary held a phone against her ear with her shoulder and handed him a note. “See Mike in his office immediately” it read.
He sighed as the secretary motioned him through. He was bored of it all. He'd been working at Nu-World for years now, he was one of the highest paid employees, and still he felt like his life was going nowhere. Whether he slept at home or in his office didn't matter because he had no one to go home to, and he knew everything there was to know in his field.
When he pushed the glass doors open to Mike's office he started at how the man looked. His usually neat hair was dirty and ruffled, and he had stubble on his chin of about a week old, even though Henry had seen him clean shaved just the day before. His clothes were dirty and torn, and he wasn't wearing shoes.
“Henry, come on in,” he said when he saw him. “Sit down, we need to talk. I've made a breakthrough!”
He told Henry how he'd finally gotten his time machine to work. At first Henry couldn't believe what he was hearing. In theory, time travel was scientifically very possible, but he had been working with Mike for years and practically it just didn't add up.
As Mike explained it started to make sense, and just as Henry got excited about the possibilities of what they'd created Mike hit him with the bad news. He'd gone back in time, and he'd left something there that would shake the future as they knew it. Worse was that the machine hadn't survived the trip too well, and was on it's last. He wanted Henry to go back and retrieve the object, with him, Mike, waiting on the other side, ready to pull him back at the very last moment before the machine gave in. Of course, with nothing to lose, Henry agreed.
The trip was painful and strange, and Henry ended up in a forest somewhere in the 15th century. Mike was stupid enough to leave a gun behind, something that would change the leadership of the world forever if it landed in the wrong hands. Why Mike took a gun back was beyond him.
He found the gun right where Mike explained to him, and with a grin of relief he stuck it in the back of his pants. He was wearing clothes of that time, and felt a bit uncomfortable.
Suddenly an army trampled through the trees, their horses' nostrils flaring and their metal armor clanging as they charged on. At first they seemed to looking for something, but when they saw Henry their attention was turned to him immediately, and Henry knew he had to run for his life. He cut through the trees, but they were on his heels. When he thought it was the end of him, they came so close, he was suddenly yanked into dense shrubbery, and they mulled about on the spot where he disappeared, not knowing which way to go. After a moment's conferring they chose a direction and sped off.
Henry looked at his savior and fell into the deepest darkest eyes he'd ever seen. She didn't give him much chance to stare though. She grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him with her, her strength unusual for a girl. Her name was Nicole, and she lived off the forest. She knew an enormous amount about plants and trees, and if it weren't for her Henry wouldn't have survived the night. She knew what to eat, and where to go to stay unnoticed.
Henry waited for Mike to pull him back, but as time went on he became worried that the machine might have broken already. Surely Mike wouldn't have left him there that long? He started to think of ways to make a living for himself in this wild place, until Mike came back to fetch him. He had to. Henry started paying attention to Nicole and how she lived in the woods. In the next couple of days she taught him a lot of things about surviving without all the modern things he was used to, and he fell hopelessly and desperately in love with her.
As time progressed and Henry gave up hope of every returning, he felt that a life with Nicole was one he would be able to live. He'd never had someone that he cared for in this way before, and it felt good to have someone to talk to, even if I was difficult to communicate sometimes because they were literally worlds apart.
One evening, Henry decided it's now or never, and he took Nicole by her two hands. He started with telling her how much she taught him, how much he enjoyed spending time with her, how she had changed his life. He told her what a good friend she had become to him. And then, just as he wanted to tell her he loved her, Mike pulled him back.
Henry screamed in agony, begging Mike to send him back, but the machine was broken and there was no way to return. The pain Henry felt at the idea of never seeing Nicole again was unbearable. He starts looking for ways to get back to her, but it seems to be all in vain.
As days turn into weeks Henry falls into depression. He can't get Nicole off his mind and he can't bear the idea that he'll never see her again. She's the only person he's ever loved. To ease his pain he starts looking for her in the history books, starts looking for anything of her that he can hold on to. One day he comes across something that greatly upsets him; he finds her name in the history books because she was executed. A new sense of desperation floods him, and he finds Mike, insisting that he sends him back.
Mike tells him that the machine can be fixed, but only enough for one trip and nothing more. Henry will sacrifice everything, his career, his lifelong research the luxuries of modern day, and he will be forced to live centuries in the past for the rest of his life. Henry contemplates this only for a second. Nothing in his life here is worth what Nicole means to him. He'll give everything and more in the blink of an eye if it means to get her back.
Together they fix the time machine, and when he's about to go he says goodbye to Mike, thanking him for everything. With one more disorientating, painful trip he's back in the forest he'd come to know and love. The journey to find Nicole starts and it's a few days before he finds her, but when he does it's just in time to pull her away from the army the same way she saved him. He declares his love for her, and lives in the past with her for the rest of his days.
Chapters
Chapter 1
Henry works for a scientific research company that deals with new projects. It turns out his boss invented a time machine and traveled back in time, but left something of the current time there that could mess up the while space-time continuum. The world is already starting to deteriorate.
Chapter 2
Henry has to go back into the past because something is wrong with the time machine and his boss is the only one that knows how to identify the problem. He will let Henry stay there as long as he can to let him find the object, pulling him back at the last possible moment before the machine crashes.
Chapter 3
Henry is sent to the past to find the object and runs into all sorts of trouble, including a girl he falls madly in love with when she helps him out of danger. He finds the object, but he's pulled back into the future before he can tell her how he feels about her.
Chapter 4
Henry begs his boss to send him back, but the machine is at its last and his boss says that if he goes back he'll never be able to return. There's even a chance he won't make it at all with how fragile it has all become.
Chapter 5
Henry can't forget about the woman he met and starts looking her up in history books, only to find out that she dies a horrible death at an unfair trial. He resolves to go back and save her, even if it means he can never return.
Chapter 6
Henry sacrifices all the luxuries of his modern time, returns and saves her from danger, declares his love for her and they live together until the end of their time, in the past.
Characters
Henry - average height, not particularly built, bit of a stomach, sandy hair, light brown eyes. Clever, good at what he does (scientific research) not amused by much, feels he knows too much about how the science works to still wonder at the world.
Nicole - small, thin, long dark brown tangled hair, dark liquid eyes, fine features. Agile and taut, fit for survival, knowledge of trees and plants. Quick to help.