Save Us

Chapter 7 : Maya?

Hope knew she was back to the present but what was she doing. She knew she was standing. Her hearing was coming back slowly as well as her vision. Her body felt imbalanced and she placed a hand on the nearest wall trying to stabilise herself.

Hope soon was able to see and she looked up. The witch was in front of her.

"So?" asked the witch.

"Give me a break," said Hope. She stood upright properly. The witch magically brought a bottle out of thin air and gave it to Hope.

"Have some water," said the witch. Hope reached for the bottle and drank it.

"Th-thank you," said Hope.

"Are you going to answer my question?"

"Oh give me a few minutes," said Hope. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around what happened."

"Fine ... one minute," said the witch. They stood in silence. Hope emptied the bottle of water. She looked at the witch.

"You ready to talk?" asked the witch. Hope only nodded. "So ... how was it?"

"Weird ... I guess ...," said Hope.

"How?"

"I ... thought it would be ... harder to save them. I didn't ... expect that going to the deck made a difference."

"Haha ... you thought you would time travel to moment the ferry is sinking?" laughed the witch. "Don't make me laugh."

"I thought it would be harder. I thought my friends would just wait in the room. Not follow me," said Hope. "I thought I would have to rush and save them."

"But you don't have to. That's the beauty of time travel. You can go back in time before their deaths not during their deaths."

Hope stood there silent. She looked at the watch on her wrist.

"I also felt different," she said.

"Different how?" asked the witch.

"Before this I felt as though I was tumbling back and then I would feel like I'm crashing through glass. Now ... I feltlike I was continuously crashing through layers and layers of glass."

The witch laughed. "You don't understand do you?"

Hope shook her head. "I have no clue about time travel actually."

"Before this your conscious was sent back in time. You will feel like your falling and the glass you felt was like layer to the past. You break through it to enter your younger self's body. You can see and hear from your point of view but you have no power to change the course of time.

"But this time its different," said the witch.

"How?"

"You said it yourself. You felt as though you were crashing through layers of glass. Well this time your entire body was going back in time."

"Hold on ... so you were waiting here staring at where I'm standing?"

"For me its one minute. For you .... it's a while," said the witch. "Now let me continue.

"With each layer you crashed through, you aged backwards. And the final layer of glass was when you finally take your younger self's place. Giving you the ability to change time."

"Then what happens to my younger self?" asked Hope.

"Your younger self? Well in this new timeline, your younger self remembers the event differently. You probably just say you have a bad feeling in your stomach because of the food."

"Then how come I still remember the original events?" asked Hope.

"That was your new younger self. You are still the same Hope who witnessed their deaths. You still held the memories of the original timeline but ... eventually after a while ... I think your memories would change."

"So basically ... I can save my friends ... but I have no memories of the new memories we made?" asked Hope.

"Sort of," said the witch. "Don't worry you will get new memories soon ... maybe."

Hope only stood there quiet. "How do I know if I really did change Maya's faith? Is she even alive?"

"How about you check it yourself?" replied the witch. Hope was about to take her phone when she gripped her head. She felt as though she was having a headache.

Images of the new altered timeline flashed. It started with the event of going to the beach. All of her friends were there. Next it switched to an image of Maya, Mallory, Ena and her at Ember's funeral. Few more images flashed. The picnic memory now had Maya in it.

It took few minutes before Hope felt the headache went away.

"I assume you got the new memories?" asked the witch. Hope nodded.

"But why do I have the other memories?" asked Hope. "The one about Maya's death?"

"If you don't have that memory, you wouldn't go to the grave, you don't go to the grave, you don't meet me, you don't meet me, you don't get this watch."

"But I have two other dead friends," said Hope.

"You wouldn't soon. I know you will use that watch save them all. But none of the memories of before will go away," said the witch. "The way I think can erase your old memories is if you change one part of the event that leads to you meeting me."

"I don't understand," said Hope.

"To be honest me neither," said the witch. "I just have a clear idea."

"I hate this ... it's confusing," said Hope.

"I know ... this is why it's forbidden magic," said the witch.

Hope was about to say something when her phone rang. She pulled it of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. Maya. "She's ... alive."

"Of course ... didn't you save her," said the witch. "Now. I believe the two of you would want to speak to each other." The witch backed away into the shadows and disappeared.

Hope slide to answer the call. "Hello?"

"Hope!" shouted Maya through the phone. "You said to meet up at your apartment. I've been waiting here for like ... thirty minutes."

Hope was silent for a moment and then the new memory of the day before hit her. Maya called saying she was coming to visit.

"Oh yea ... sorry I was out," said Hope quickly coming up with an excuse. "Can we meet up at the park instead?"

"Hmm ... sure," said Maya through the phone. "Meet you then in 15 minutes."

Hope hung up the call and was walking out of the alley. She made her way to the park she agreed to meet her alive friend, Maya. She reached there early and sat at a bench. She check the time on her new watch.

"I can save them all ... ," she said to herself. Suddenly she felt someone tap her shoulder. She looked behind and saw with her own eyes, her friend who was alive.

"M-Maya," stuttered Hope. She was still surprised to see it worked. She saved Maya and now she was alive and well.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Maya.

"Nothing," said Hope.

Hope and Maya chatted for a while. For the first time, Hope was feeling very hopeful. She could save all of them or at least most of them. Ena was a problem. Ena disappeared and was not seen again. She don't even have a clue to where to find her.

After like an hour of chatting, the two parted ways. Hope made her way back to her apartment. When she entered, she noticed her room was the same way as she had left to see the witch.

"I just don't understand time travel." She walked over to her computer. She picked up an old notebook and started trying to remember how the events of her other friends' death.

"I will save all of you."