Lost in Time ~ Five Hargreeves

Chapter 36

Rhea lay on her carpet.

She stared at the ceiling while the record player played a song by her favorite band.

But the girl couldn't concentrate on that; her thoughts kept wandering back to her parents.

Rhea already searched the archives for the case file– she wanted more information.

But she hadn't found it.

The file was kept elsewhere, and as long as the girl didn't know where–

Rhea sat up– Could it be?

She remembered that her mother liked to keep certain files handy at all times.

Checking her clock, Rhea stood up.

Her mother shouldn't be in her office right now.

She'd get into a lot of trouble if she got caught.

Was it really worth it?

Rhea quickly had the answer.

The ten-year-old turned the music up a bit and sneaked out of her room.

~~~~

"You two seem to be the sensitive one of the bunch," Reginald said after he, Five and Riley sat down at the bar.

"That's because we're the oldest," Five explained, casually leaving out that Riley was now older that him. "You know, technically, we're older than you right now."

The bartender placed a bottle in front of the three.

"Cognac?"

"No, thank you."

"Just a smidge."

"The other night you quoted Homer at me. Why?"

"You forced us all to learn it as kids. In the original Greek, no less," Riley replied as the bartender gave the men a cognac and them a water.

"This world ends in five days if we don't get out of the timeline."

"Worlds end. Paleozoic, Jurassic, and so on."

"We can do something about this one."

"Man's greatest flaw: the illusion of control."

"We need your help. All right? You're my last sane option. Otherwise, I gotta make a deal that I really don't want to make. What do you know about time travel?"

"In theory?"

"In practice."

"I know it's akin to descending blindly into the depths of freezing waters and reappearing–"

"– As an acorn. Yeah."

"We heard that one before," Riley muttered.

"What transpired when you tried traveling before?"

"I botched it."

"How?"

"We jumped too far forward, got stuck in the future for 45 years in an apocalypse. Then we jumped too far backwards… except this time I brought my entire family with me."

"Maybe your appetite is disproportionate to the size of your abilities," said Reginald. "Start small. Seconds, not decades."

That wasn't a bad idea, Riley thought.

Even as a child, Five wanted to skip two steps because he thought he was ready.

That's how he and Riley ended up in the apocalypse in the first place.