The Man in the White Jacket

Journal Entry 8 (14)

I arrive at the hotel. It has a little roof where cars can drive in and a man in a cowboy hat and a name tag leaning against the wall. A little red carpet leads into the hotel room. It's nice. It's nothing special, but it will do for the night. The clouds darken and it looks like it's going to rain. I walk towards the door, wave to the cowboy guy and enter the hotel.

The bright chandelier gives a contrast to the darkness outside. It begins raining. Hard. Just pouring. Even in the hotel you can hear the drip, drip, drip of the rain. I walk up to the front desk, I speak softly, almost like I was singing a lullaby to a baby, "Hey, I had a reservation here. It's under Lance, Lance Armstrong."

The lady at the front desk blinks, long and slowly. Her eyes changing from a brown to a purple. She blinks  few times quickly again. The purply slowly fades back, as if it was a cloud covering the eye. She hands me a room key, "Thank you for staying with us. Room 413."

I walk into the elevator. It's metal is bright. Elevators are strange because they are always the same. You can be getting chased by a killer and the elevator will be exactly the same as if you weren't. Kind of funny, I guess.

I step out onto he carpeted room into the hallway. Wooden walls with an artificial sheen and confusing signs line the long way towards my room.

I put in the card, heating a satisfying click and a dark room. Blue and gray light from the rain illuminate the room from down the greeting hall. I walk into the main room, with a large bed and lamp.

I notice the silhouette of a man, the Man, looking out the window into the rain, from the back, there is no fuzz, just darkness. Neatly on top of his head sits his fedora. And his arm extends out with one hand on the window sill.

"Why are you everywhere I go?" I say slowly. He turns around, leaning against the desk, a flash of what seems to be a smiling glitch flashes across his face, "I could ask you the same."

"How do you know where I'm gonna be?" I say, slowly approaching, "You're kinda freaking me out, you know that right?"

"It's all very simple." He says. No sarcasm or anything. Not even the hint of an ironic statement. I want to give him a message. A message that I won't be having his condescending time traveller statements. I reach out with my hand, sending a barrage of telepathic energy his way.

He stands, reaching out with his long, slender and gloved hand, also in white, and seems to press against an invisible bubble. A ripple affect reaches out, passing by him and going out into the rain.

"Stop following me," I say calmly, "I will not be having this."

He laughs a harrowing laugh that seems to have eons of pain in it, which turns into the cough of an old dying man. Despite this, his voice is young, "You really think that will work on me. Let me show you true power."

He reaches out with his hand bindings his fingers and straining his arm outwards towards me. Out from under his sleeves purple tendrils and wisps of smoke cam out. I think back too the lunch room that feels like so long ago, and put out my arms, crossing them in front of my face. Instead of breaking apart the smoke, it just grabs my two arms, pulling them too my side. His gray wispy face turns fully purple for a second and I'm pushed to the ground.

I fight back, but it's like fighting against all of the ocean. It pushes me down on the ground until I'm gasping for air. I can't move upward and I feel like he's used most of the energy in my entire body. I reach out with my hand, gasping for air, and feel an enormous wait lifted. He puts his hands behind I'm and begins walking toward the exit. I put my hand out, trying to hold onto the end of his long jacket and pull him down to my size. Instead, something happens.

I feel myself moving, getting up, moving backwards. Quickly to. I see it all. Suddenly, I'm standing up again. However the entire time, the shivering body of the man stayed in the same place, as if surrounded by his own bubble. Another fuzzy smile from under that glitch of his, "Congratulations. You are the first human too break time. You must feel pretty proud of yourself."

"Did I just...?" I say, looking down at my hands in amazement. He stands, the permanent smile in the fuzz turn into a smirk. Spitefully, the words come out, "Yes, yes. You just time travelled. Aren't you happy? Now you can kill us all as much as you want."

I stare him down. He's right. I can kill him over and over again.

But I won't.

I mean, I may be angry sure, but I'm not going to kill him. Instead, I barge into him, running at him with all his might. I knock him over. But as he lies on the ground, he fades out with another ripple, and teleports near the window again. "You really think I didn't have a backup plan?" He says smiling, before making the wall disappear. The same trick I pulled back at the lab. He walks into the rain as it pours down onto the carpet. Then, the wall seals itself back up.

I lie down on the full, comfortable bed. And close my eyes. I have worrying dreams ahead and I must try to get them over with now.