The Real Time Turner

Chapter 3: Luke

"Where are we?" Luke could sense the fear in Ashley's voice.

He looked around. There were just trees everywhere. They were surrounded by big trees and occasional chirps of birds. The ground they were standing on was hard and rigid. There were footsteps here and there.

"Where are we?" Luke asked her back

"I asked you that"

"I asked you that"

"Shut up!"

"Shut up!"

Ashley gave him a death glare and Luke decided to stop.

"But seriously, where are we?" Ashley asked again. 

"I don't know" Luke replied.

He was starting to get afraid too. It was eerily silent. Even though it was broad daylight, Luke could hear his heart hammering in his throat out of fear.

A sudden rustle from behind a large bush almost made his heart stop. Luke gasped as Ashley yelped and slipped her hand into his.

Under normal circumstances, this would've embarrassed Luke to death. But now, he could relate to Ashley and was actually thankful for what she did. He at least had assurance that he was not alone. But that didn't stop his face from heating up and his ears turning red.

"HA!" someone shouted. Now this made Luke grab Ashley's shoulders and steered her to the front of him while he hid behind her, peeking over her head. "CAUGHT YA!", It was a little boy from behind the bush. It seemed as if he was waiting for someone to scare them. 

"Oh," the boy looked at the bewildered pair. "Sorry I thought you were someone else" and he ran off.

Luke and Ashley, still bewildered, stood where they are, staring after the boy.

"Ahem" Ashley cleared her throat after a while. Luke realised he was still standing behind her. He came to the front. Ashley pointedly looked down at their hands with raised eyebrows. Luke looked down and realised he was clutching her hand. "Sorry" he let go and looked away sheepishly.

"It's okay" Ashley replied rubbing her hand with a slight pink tinge on her cheeks. There was an awkward silence since both of them didn't say anything.

"Well," Ashley started to clear the uncomfortable silence.

"Yeah, um, so, uh, where are we anyway?" Luke returned to their conversation. 

Ashley hmmed and started walking towards the way the little boy had run off earlier. "Hey wait!" Luke went after her.

They went further and saw a surprising view. "Oh," Ashley said.

It was City Park, which was in their house neighbourhood. Luke turned back to the forest and realised it was the small woods behind the Park. They faced right and saw their school.

Luke felt kind of foolish that they were scared of these small woods.

"We were afraid of this?" Ashley scoffed.

"I know, right?" Luke rolled his eyes.

"Okay, so here we are, but how did we get here? Last I remember, we were in school, and..." Ashley's eyes widened. "We were in school! How the hell did we get here?"

As Ashley said it, Luke realised that they were in a totally different place than before.

Luke sensed a panic attack coming on so he decided to keep his cool and make sure Ashley didn't lose her shit in front of everyone in the City Park. Luke noticed the sun setting and that the park was closing.