Time Traveler's Log

Day 3: Going Back

Log 10

7:01 am

July 25, 20XX

I can't take this any longer. I don't care about the consequences. I'm not going to get any sleep until it's done. Until Samantha is saved. Last night, I created an outline that would help me with changing fate. 

On September 15, 2011 at 9:40 pm, my wife died in a car accident on the way to the store to pick up groceries that weren't on the list. Obviously, I can't just go back and tell her not to go. Instead, as I suggested last night, I will puncture the tires of both our cars. That way, she won't be able to leave until they're repaired. My next log will be written once this task it done.

Log 11

9:36 pm

September 15, 2011

Using my pocket knife, I punctured the tires of both our cars. Quickly, I climbed back into the camouflaged sphere and shut the door. While I'm writing this, I'm also watching Samantha through the monitor. After giving a short look at each tire of both cars, she went in, probably to tell past me.

The whole time I watched her, I was overwhelmed with tears. I wanted so badly to run out and embrace her. But I can't. Not yet. But soon enough, I will be able to see her again. Just a bit longer.

A minute has gone by when past me came out to look at the tires himself. Myself? Anyway, they went back in. I waited another hour, just to be safe, but they didn't come back out. I think I did it. Time to go home.

Log 12

7:02 am

July 25, 20XX

As soon as I got back, I could tell things didn't go well. My time sphere returned me to the garage right next to another one. I got out and saw the two spheres squeezed together in the same room, lightly scratching each other. What the hell, I muttered under my breath as I tried to process what happened. To make matters worse, another man came out of that sphere. A short fellow with blonde hair who looks nothing like me.

"What the hell," he said, reading my mind. I asked him who he was and, instead of answering, he asked the same thing, telling me that this was his warehouse. I told him that I was Doctor Coshorn, to which he responded with a laugh. I asked him what was so funny and he told me I rejected their job offer years ago. Seems in this new timeline, I refused to come here. In fact, I remember coming here only to try and recover from my grief. If only it worked.

I gave up on talking to him. I went back into the sphere and went into the dark dimension. I'm going to my house one minute in the future. Time to see what else changed.

Log 13

7:12 am

July 25, 20XX

I made a grave mistake. By trying to change things, I only made them worse. I snuck over to the window of my house to find not just Samantha, but another me. It appears this version of me never discovered the time sphere, and, even if he had, he would have no reason to go back and save someone who's still alive. 

It seems my timeline has been erased and I'm all that's left of it, saved only by my ability to travel through time. Being that I'm a meaningless paradox, I have nothing left to do but go back and fix my mistake to the best of my ability.

Log 14

9:40 pm

September 15, 2011

Before 'I' could puncture any tires, I knocked 'myself' out and carried him into his own sphere and shut the door. Next, I went into my own sphere and watched my wife pull out of the driveway and leave, knowing that she was going to die. I cannot describe the guilt that courses through my body as I write this.

It's time to see if my mistake has been undone. While I'm unsure as to what will happen to the me that failed to save her, I know that only time will tell. I only hope it doesn't cause more problems...

Log 15

???

???

I am stuck in the dark dimension. The power went out. I can't return to my time or the past. I even tried the 21XX date, but nothing worked. I'm freezing. I have no food and no water. My oxygen is limited. I don't know how this happened or how to fix it. Perhaps the time sphere requires a special fuel and it simply ran out. All I can hope for is the unlikely. It will take a tremendous amount of luck for the sphere to suddenly work and take me to a time, any time. I don't know how long I can even survive in here.