When and where (Fruk)

20

I grabbed onto Francis as he began screaming from the fall. He clung to my torso for dear life when I put my arms around him. "Please, go somewhere comfortable..."I spoke. The portal opened, and we fell through it. The color of the time dimension was more of a pink color, and I was lucky enough to grab something as we descended through the dimension and through another portal.

"WHAAAA!"

"UGH!"

Francis landed on my stomach, knocking the air out of my lungs. "You suck," I gasped. Francis slowly got off me, and I lay there defeated. We landed on a bed...thank god. "What do you have there?" Francis asked. I looked at him, then to where he pointed. It was my hand; I was holding onto the item I accidentally grabbed. "Oh, I'm not sure," I spoke. I held the weird paper up and noticed it was a photo. I turned it over to look at it, and it was the one I saw a while ago...only now, I could see what it was.

"It's us..." was all I could say. Francis looked at me, confused, and I handed him the picture to look at. "That's creepy," he spoke. The photo was us looking older, with two children. Who I assumed were Matthew and Alfred.

"Okay, whose house are we in?" He asked.

"No clue, but we need to leave. They are tracking us, so it's a matter of time before they catch up with us," I spoke. We both stood up, and I gathered myself, putting the photo in my bag. "Where will we go now? Why were they both trying to get us? Even Matthew?" Francis asked. I shrugged my shoulders, and we began to walk out of the house. "No clue, but we need to figure out what they want," I spoke.

I opened the door and was surprised they were already standing there, waiting for us.

"Ah! Figured the two of you were here!"

"What!? How do you do that so fast?!" I asked. The two of them looked at us, annoyed. No way, there was more to it than I realized. How?

"Just come with us, and we will get this settled out," Alfred spoke. I glared at the two of them, grabbing Francis' hand. "You will have to catch us first!" I yelled. I opened another portal, and Matthew looked shocked. I pushed Francis in first and followed behind.

"Whoa! this feels really weird to run on!"

"Come one! We need to lose them! If they are tracking us, and we move around fast enough, the tracker could malfunction," I spoke. I opened another portal, and it was like we were stepping into the nineteen-twenties.

"What if people see us?" he asked. I looked back at him, still pulling him, and opened another portal. "They won't care," I spoke. We ran through another outlet, and it was like we were in an area not even built yet. "How many times do we have to do this?" He asked. "My guess....maybe a few dozen times..."

"WHAT?!"

I kept my grip on his wrist so he would not let go of me, and portal after portal, we went through. I could tell a little bit about the time period we ran through when I looked around. It always amazed me how different every decade was from the last. When people think of the Early two-thousands, it is not the same as two thousand and ten and is definitely different from the year twenty-twenty-two.

We continued running and would stop for a minute or two between a few portals to watch and see if they were still following us, which happened.

"Stay down!" I demanded. I pushed Francis down to hide him, and I peeked my head over a bush to watch as Alfred and Matthew looked around from us. "Let's keep going," I spoke. I looked down at Francis, who was nearly under me. He nodded at me, and I pressed the button again. A portal opened beside us, and I held onto him, rolling into the next time period.

Francis rolled on top of me as we rolled into the next place and time. "This is so sudden, Arthur...take me on a date first," he teased. I rolled my eyes at him, pushing him away from me. "Oh, Shut up!" I spoke. I began to pull us up and pointed across from us. "We can't stop now! We have to keep going! This time, to the future!" I spoke. I gently grabbed his wrist once more and pulled him through the portal again.

As we continued to run through more and more periods, I noticed that the future was becoming more recognizable as we traveled. If we go back to our original year, we will go back to the lab. There had to be something I could do that would help us get them back. Maybe I could knock them out with something! Yes! I could do that! That way, I don't have to fight my own sons, and they will stop trying to do stuff to us.

"What will we do now?" Francis asked as he followed me in and out of portals. "We will go to the future; I think I might know what to do," I spoke. He nodded at me, and I opened one last portal. We went through it and could see that we were in the time we were supposed to be. "Come on," I spoke.

"Wait! let's wait a minute or two to see if they followed us," He spoke.

"Good idea!" I spoke. We stood beside each other, and I was catching my breath. "God, that was a lot of running," Francis laughed. I nodded at him, exhausted, and we continued to wait. But nothing happened. "I think it worked," I spoke. I smiled at Francis, and he began to pat my back gently. "That is a relief," he spoke. I gestured for him to follow me, and we began to walk side-by-side. "Where are we going again?" He asked.

"We are going to the lab at my work..."