She woke up to her phone ringing loudly beside her. Still sleepy, she gave it a pass. Whatever it is, it could wait till tomorrow. About three minutes later she woke up again. This time not to her phone but to hands, shaking her out of bed. Numb out of shock and instinctive defense, she picked up the home-phone on the desk beside her and whacked the man’s head with it. He loosened his grip on her for a second and she slithered out.
“Ariana! It’s me!” said the man. She stopped half way from whacking him again and said “Dave..? What? Why are you here!? How did you get in??”
“That’s not important. Quick. Get dressed, we need you at the office.” he said.
“At two in the MORNING?”
“Yes! Now, quick!”
She got dresses in under two minutes and they drove down to the laboratory building. When she asked him why they were here instead of the office, he didn’t answer. He just kept driving. When they reached he took her straight to a part of the lab she never knew existed. She was baffled by the looks of it. Everything was sleek and minimalistic. Nothing stained and nothing out of place. Of course, she also knew the nitty-gritties of all the equipment she passed by. All of a sudden, it seemed like she didn’t know the place at all.
They walked into a very posh room, filled with men and women whispering in anxiety. She only started to wonder why, when her boss got onto the podium and announced it was time. The room became silent almost instantly. Suddenly, everyone seemed to be looking around for a particular person and after a few seconds everyone’s eyes had rested on her. That’s when she realized that some of the biggest, most valued persons were here in the room with her. Presidents of all the major countries, ministers and other very, very rich people. Probably sponsors of some sort.
Her boss walked up to her and said “Ariana, we are on the verge of a major turning point in quantum physics. What you see here at the centre of the room is.. well.. a Time Machine.”
She looked at the metallic body at the center of the hall. It was majestic.
“A time machine?” she asked, shocked and in awe.
“Yes, and we want you-as the best physicist we have- to be the first person to use it.” He said.
She couldn’t believe her ears.
“Sir, we must hurry. We only have an hour.” Said another man with an middle-eastern accent, to her boss.
“Yes. Ariana are you willing to do so?” he asked her.
She had no more accessible energy than to just nod her head. No sooner than she accepted his request, did she realize she was walking towards this machine. Everything was a blur to her. She sat in it and immediately she felt like she was spinning and being stretched to a painful degree, at the same time. Suddenly the spinning stopped and she found herself sitting on her bed. Not her present bed, but the bed she used to sleep on as a teenager. She was back in her old house, her parents house. She looked around.. she looked at herself.. She was fifteen again. She spent most of her time looking around her room and almost forgot her task. When there were ten minutes left, she realized she didn’t have much time at all and she looked around for a paper. She scribbled “It works.” on it and her present address as well-along with the date it needs to be posted on. As soon as she ran to the letterbox and dropped the blue envelope in it she felt the same spinning and stretching sensation again.
She was in her bed, her present bed. In her 27 year old body. She was sitting in her night clothes and felt like she just woke up from deep sleep. She looked around and there were no signs of breaking in, her phone had no record of any incoming calls that night.
It was only a dream.. she sighed. She felt little disappointed.. but thankful. It was a crazy dream, to say the least. She laughed to herself and went back to sleep.
About a week later, she was getting ready to go to work. She was running a little late so she was rushing through breakfast. She ran out of her house and flimsily locked her door. She picked up the letters and magazines from her letterbox and was about to shut it, when she saw something odd. An envelope, a blue one. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It must some sort of a coincidence. She slowly opened it, pulled out the paper and read.. “It works.”
Suddenly, she realized it wasn’t a dream. Suddenly, the world had changed. Suddenly, she became the first person to travel through time.