The Vortex

Absolute Madness

I started to look around, as if anything was actually there. I contemplated shouting into the vacant void, again. "Agh. Hello?!" I decided to shout, for the mere hell of it. "I'm assuming there's nobody here." There was a way out. There had to be. I had gotten out in the past... "How did I escape, earlier..." I pondered, to nobody in particular. Mostly because there was nobody to say it to. Then I remembered. Last time, I had said that I wanted to go back to the morning. And I did. But where to, now... Going back to this morning only led me to here after I fixed my fuck up... I would say to go back to the present, but that's too fluid a term... Then again, what's the worst that could happen... "Take me back to the present." I said into the blank space, hoping it would work. And at first, it didn't. I paused, considering there was nothing else to do, until the space around me started changing. Just like it did, before. The next thing I knew, I was back at home. Grounded, and in a room that's been completely fucked up by the ray gun. The gun... I reached around me, looking for the ray gun. It was nowhere to be found. "Um... Andy?!" I shouted, hoping my brother would remember and know where the gun was. "What?" He yelled from down the hall. "Get in here. Now!" I could hear Andy's heavy footsteps race down the hall. "What do you want?" I got up and shut the door behind him. "Andy, do you have the gun?" He took a step back in confusion. "Um... Gun? What gun?" Something told me he was lying. "Come on. I know you have it. Give it!" I reached for Andy's arm, and he lunged himself backwards. "I don't know what you're talking about. Seriously." It was so hard to believe him; he was being so sketchy about it... "Fine." I decided to let it go, at least for the time being. Then, a thought occurred to me. "Um, empty void of space? I'd like to go somewhere..." All of a sudden, the room around me faded, again. "Holy shit, it worked! Okay, um... Take me back to the first day of school. This year." At the time, this all seemed like a good idea, going months into the past to change things. But before I had anytime at all to think about it, I was already spiraling backwards in time. It seemed to go by faster each attempt. Almost as if it were a skill or talent, and I was working towards mastering it. So before I knew it, I was back at day one of freshman year. "Let's try not to fuck things up too bad..." I mumbled, as I stepped into the chaos that was the first day, for the second time in my life.