Perfect with You

Chapter 6 - Underlying Predicament

...so it only seems to work with pictures where my face is clearly visible or if I have a close connection to the image itself. Having a random photo of a friend or my home doesn't have any effect. It sort of works like merging into myself. From what I have gathered from crazy people online and by random hunches, I believe that I do not create separate timelines that work independently of each other; rather, I stop the original timeline, go back to a given spot on the line and rear it off course, making an alternative timeline, effectively stopping the original one. I don't think it is erased, however. This would mean that the people and animals– the whole world actually- doesn't continue on if I travel through an image. Sets my mind at ease honestly, since I have saved Chloe from injury, possibly even death by using this ability. If I am wrong, it would mean that I didn't actually save her, I would just have made a... copy of her and placed it back in time, while the original would still experience the things I tried to prevent. So shit, I hope I am right. Not that it matters much though, as, from this day of writing, I haven't used my powers in 5 months. I was stupid enough to try it out a month after the incident to prevent my mom from falling down the stairs and breaking an arm. Chloe was against it and even told me that she would "kick my shit" if she was with me. Luckily, nothing happened. I only did go back 2 seconds, so I didn't prevent her from falling, but there was no indication of time messing up or of any damage to my body. That damn nosebleed man. I don't know if what I should do with that information though. I know it's a bad idea to use my powers, I really do know, but I can't help but think that in a moment of desperation, it might be my only choice.

"I will kick your shit if you do it." Looking through the narrow hand-written text, Chloe made an effort to understand every sentence but still found it too trippy to really wrap her mind around it.

"Bleerg," was the sound coming from Chloe's bed, with a tired girl in it.

The sound was funny enough to make Chloe give off a small smile while keeping her eyes on the open notebook in her hands. The bright light in the room almost reflected off the lead the words were written with, given that both of them had failed to turn off Chloe's lamp when they went to sleep last night, and now with the daylight shining through the window they, fortunately, remembered to close, everything was a little too bright. It made Chloe recall why she was actually standing in the middle of her room, only wearing boxers and a black bra. Her priorities were originally: lamp off, pants on, wake up Max, get some food. However, spotting the grey notebook lying on her table had stopped her plans.

What weirds me out, though... is the difference between time-travel by magic hand and time-travel by photo. I can usually travel around a minute back, then stay in that timeline. However, if it's through a photo... I can travel all the way back to when I used a pacifier, but I can't stay in that timeline. But what annoys the shiiit out of me, is the lack of consistency! Say I travel through the photo of when I was in Canada: Yay! I get to experience maple syrup and mosses again! Oh, wait. I'm back already. But when I traveled through a photo to save Chloe's dad, I could be there for... some time, before I was brought back.

So what is up with that noise? Well, I always seem to be forced back, just after I'd done something important. Like, if I travel through a photo with a purpose in mind, I can stay in that timeline until my "goal" is accomplished. Which would explain why I couldn't time-travel to Canada for fun for more than a few seconds.

So you want some questions? OK!

What if I travel through a photo but don't know what my goal is exactly? Can I potentially stay all my life in a "photo world" if I never accomplish my goal? What if I die in the past? Will my body stay in that timeline forever because I didn't finish my goal? And apparently, I can combine photo travel. Like, I can travel through one photo to go to timeline B, then travel through another to go to timeline C, then do whateverthefuck, and go back to the original timeline A.
Want another question?
Do I strike you as a person who is confused about all this stuff?