The Tale of Two Lukes

The Heist

Ben knocks on a wooden door. He steps back a bit, and wait. The light from the porch light reflects off of his skin and hair. He's wearing a black shirt and black sweatpants. Miles opens the door.
     "Hey", he looks at him. Miles is also wearing all dark colors.
    "Hey, are you ready?" Ben asks.
    "Yeah, I am. I know where CJ's house is.
It's not that far from here. I also have a flashlight with spare batteries with me. We should leave our phones behind so that we can't be tracked", Miles speaks a bit quietly.
    "Sounds good."
     Ben and Miles set their phones and any smart watches they have on them onto a table in Mile's living room. They quietly exit the house, being careful not to wake anyone up. The air is stiff, and tension is high. They don't have any excuse to be going out this late, so if they're caught, they're done for. Miles grabs on to the door handle and carefully twists it. His movements are slow and purposeful. He slowly opens the door up with as little noise as possible. He holds the door open for Ben as Ben quietly and carefully walks out. Miles follows suit, closing the door super slowly. He locks the door back up with a house key incase his parents wake up. It'll cause less suspicion. They walk off of the porch, and the air suddenly lifts off of them. They chuckle in relief, and sigh.
    "That was stressful", Ben chuckles a bit while smiling widely.
    "Yeah, it was. Thank god we weren't caught", Miles shares the same mood.
    "Wait, how are we even going to get into CJ's house? Won't we be caught?" Ben looks at Miles with an arched eyebrow.
   "People often leave spare house keys on their porch. We'll use that. If there isn't one, I'll just pick the lock with the kit I bought", Miles continues walking.
   "You know how to pick locks? Cool!"
   "Yeah, I do it for fun sometimes."
   "What about CJ's parents? What if they catch us?"
   "CJ's parents are out. They mentioned it on GroupMe that they'll be gone for two days", Miles continues, "Now, if CJ catches us, we'll just run."
   "Oh, I see. What if the cops come?"
   "Same thing. Run." He says is nonchalantly. Ben wonders how he's so calm about it. Miles is keeping it together, while Ben can hear and feel his heart pounding. He takes a deep breath to calm nerves, and continues on.
   They finally arrive at CJ's house. The place is completely dark, and the drive way is empty.
   "Like I said, CJ's parents aren't home", Miles states as he begins looking for a house key. He finds one, and pockets it while he gets out two masks for him and Ben. They both put it on, the mask covering both their face and hair. Miles unlocks the door, and slowly opens the door.
    "I assumed the deadbolt wouldn't be on just in case their parents did come back, they wouldn't be locked out", Miles whispers quietly, "let's go. Be extremely quiet, and don't do anything stupid. If you see someone coming, even if it's as much as a sound, hide, and hide quickly", Miles looks at Ben.
   Ben nods, and enters the house with Miles. They slowly close the door. The air becomes stiff once again. It's like a sudden pressure came from above to crush them. They slowly go around, being careful not to make any noise. All of their steps are purposeful and exact. They suspect all of Ben's things are in CJ's room. They assume they're in there, so they go up stairs, and hide in the media room in a dark corner. They wait for CJ to leave their room. CJ finally does it, and goes downstairs. Miles and Ben enter the room and start searching. They find a myriad of objects stolen from Ben. It's as if CJ made a shrine for Ben's objects. Clothes, hats, phone, DS from 2010, yearbooks, and much more. Ben grabs what he can, and puts it to their hiding spot. They go back in. Miles keeps watch this time, and he hears CJ walk.
  "Hey", Miles whispers, "We need to hide."
   Ben hides in the closet, and Miles hides underneath the bed. Cj walks in with a drink and snack in hand. CJ sits on their bed, and goes on their phone.
   Ben looks around in the closet, kinda bored. He sees something in the floor. It looks like a trap door.
   "Is that where the basement is?" He thinks to himself silently. He's tempted to open it, but doesn't want to cause too much noise. While he's thinking, he hears a loud noise along with CJ's voice.
   "Miles?!"
    "Hey Cj..." Miles gets out from underneath the bed. His ears and face get warm, and his breathing is shallow.
   "What are you doing in my house?" CJ doesn't know how to react. They looks inside the closet and see Ben. CJ gasps. Ben drags Miles in and shuts the door, swiftly opening up the trap door. Him and Miles descend down the ladder as quickly as they can. It's extremely dark down there. The only thing they can hear is CJ's voice slowly starting to fade away, then they're just left with the slight sounds of their hands grasping the ladder along with their breaths. It starts getting colder, and the two could've sworn they felt water droplets drop onto them. They've been climbing down for what seems like forever, and there doesn't seem to be an end either. What feels like half an hour pass by, and they finally reach the bottom.
   Miles turns his flashlight on, and they try to look for a light source. The entire area is dark and dank. Even a flashlight doesn't help much due to it's very limited area of coverage. The only things that can be heard is water droplets splashing, the sounds of Ben's and Miles' shoes, and their breathing. Everything has an echo to it.
   "This is a long ways down. I wonder how far down we are", Ben looks up, his voice echoing and repeating what he said a couple milliseconds to a couple seconds later.
   Miles shines his light upwards. The lights slowly dims out as it travels up. Miles squints his eyes.
   "You can't even see the door from down here. Why does CJ have this deep of a basement?"
   "I don't think this is a basement, Miles", Ben is still looking up.
    They look around their soundings. Miles leads Ben as they do so. They see rows of mysterious looking doors.
   "Should we go through one?" Ben asks.
   "I'm not sure... it wouldn't hurt to try..." Miles opens one of the doors up. Inside was nothing but space and stars.
   "Woah", Ben looks in amazement. He decides to open another one. He yelps, and then quickly slams it shut.
   "What was in there?" Miles presses.
   "You don't want to know, man. I saw things. Things I didn't want to", Ben's voice is slightly shaken.
   Ben and Miles continue looking at the door they first opened, wondering where it leads to. They hold on tightly to the frame despite a hindered grip from sweaty hands, not wanting to fall. Suddenly, they're swept off of their feet and are pushed in, their hands slipping. They see CJ looking at them as they fall in, screaming. At first they fall fast, but then they start to slow down. They float in space, shocked at the fact they can breathe. They see a door, and try to float towards it by pushing their arms. They reach it, and open it up. They go through it, and fall into another dimension.
   "Where are we?" Ben looks around. It looks like an old Texan town, specifically the old building you'd see in areas with a lot of German settlers. It's day time time for them, so everyone is wearing long sleeves, hats, and/or bonnets.
    "Hopefully home, but I'm not sure", Miles takes his mask off, and Ben does the same. They wipe the sweat that's all over their face, and look around.
   "Are we able to transcend time?" Ben asks as he looks at 1880's style buildings.
   "I'm not sure", Miles replies, "We better figure it out though."
    They walk around the area, taking mental notes about what's around them. They see the old southern clothing people are wearing, and realize they've time traveled.
   "Well, at least we're still in Texas..." Ben says unsure.
   "I hope not. Old Texas isn't exactly a place I should be", Miles replies.
  Ben looks at him, "Oh shoot, you're right. We better get out of here as soon as possible then."
   "Wasn't that always the plan?" Miles looks at Ben.
  "Well, yeah, but now it definitely is. Come on!" Ben begins walking.
  "Where are we even going?" Miles follows him.
  "Not sure. Somewhere", Ben replies.
  "Well, if we got in here, perhaps there's a way out", he says as he pulls at his shirt, "It's hot here. Let's go inside. Maybe there'll be the slimmest chance of there being a doorway, or something."
   Miles and Ben see a pocket watch shop. They go inside. A man with a cowboy hat sits at the counter.
   "Hello there. Fancy anything here?" He asked the two.
   "No, we're just trying to escape the heat. These watches look neat though", Ben replied.
  "Ah, well thank you. Look around as much as you'd like. I take it you two are farmers with how you're dressed, what with the poor trousers and simple shirts", he looks at them.
  "Ah, sure. We are farmers", Miles replied, not wanting to seem too out of place.
   Ben and Miles look around the shop for a bit. Each pocket watch has a unique design to it. No watches are the same. Ben picks up a pocket watch and looks at it.
   "You like it?" The man looks at Ben. "That's no ordinary watch", he chuckles, "Some say it's magic. Many people have owned that watch right there. Some way it can control time, but only in times of great need. I don't believe that personally, but hey, if you want to try it out, it'll be seven dollars."
   "Miles, do you have money on you?" Ben turns to look at Miles.
   "Uhh, I think so. Hold on." He searches his pockets, and finds a 10 dollar bill. "Here."
    Ben gives it to the man who then gives him 3 dollars in change.
    "I believe all you have to do is adjust the time", the man said.
   Ben puts his hand on Miles' should. He then pulls out the crown of the watch, and starts twisting it so that the arms of the watch go clockwise, sending them through time. After a while of doing this, they find themselves in New Braunfels. They're just outside of the building they were once in, but it's now an antique shop. Ben puts the watch into his pocket, and him and Miles leave.
   "Where are we now?" Ben looks around. He realizes that the watch is no longer with him, "The watch is gone. I guess that's why it remained in that era. When you travel with it, it remains in that decade."
   "It looks like New Braunfels, and yeah, that would make sense", Miles replied.
    "Oh thank god. We actually know where we are", Ben states in a relieved tone.
    "Yeah, but how will we get back home?" Miles looks around with his hands on his hips.
   "We could call someone to pick us up. Not our parents though. I think they'd have too many questions. How far into the future did we travel exactly? Or are we right where we need to be?" Ben reaches for his phone, but then remembers that he doesn't have it.
     "I'm not sure. It's still night out, so we should be good."
    "Cibolo isn't too far. If we walk now, we should get home in a couple of hours. It beats having to wait all night."
   "Yeah, let's begin walking", Miles says as he starts the journey home. Ben follows suit
    The two walk for two hours. Luckily they knew the area well enough to get home, so it wasn't the worst, but it wasn't pleasant at all either. They arrive back to the Cibolo, and depart ways to get back home.
   "Goodbye", Ben waves at Miles.
    "Goodbye", Miles waves back. I'm sorry we couldn't get your things back.
    "It's fine. I stole 200 dollars from CJ"
    "Then why did you ask me for 7 dollars?" Miles looks at him with an arched eyebrow.
    "I'll pay you back. I didn't want to pay with a one hundred dollar bill..."
    "Makes sense. See ya", Miles walks away.
    "Yeah, see ya", Ben walks away as well.