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In a family of people who believed in ghosts, aliens and all things supernatural it was expected that you would also be a believer of things unknown. But, for your whole life you had never quite believed in anything that wasn't tangible, you were a realist. So you were known as the one skeptic in the family of oddballs. Your parents didn't mind, encouraging you to believe in whatever you had faith in, but skeptic had stuck as a nickname over the years.
Your eccentric uncle was possibly the most extreme in the family in terms of his belief in the unknowns of life. He was the crazy scientist type, always cooking up something in the garage - small explosions were not at all uncommon. Ever since he had moved in with your family, all kinds of unusual things began to happen.
On one average day, he had been working all night on some contraption. He may have been a little unique, but you respected his passion for his work. When he stayed up all night, you always made an effort to bring him breakfast.
You made your way outside to the garage, enjoying the bright morning sun. It was a beautiful day to say the least.
"Hey!" You said. Your uncle jumped, startled.
"Sorry! I just brought you breakfast!" You said, raising the black coffee. Your uncle sighed in relief.
"You're a gem, (Y/N)!" He said, gratefully accepting the breakfast offering. He sat down at his desk, where a confusing-looking metal contraption was sitting idle. It had a few flickering lights, and emitted a soft hum.
"What are you cooking up?" You asked inquisitively. You might not have believed that your uncle could trap ghosts or contact aliens, but you did like to take an interest in what he was creating.
"It's my third attempt at a time machine,"
"Wow," you said, eyeing off the machine. It was small for a time machine, you thought it would have been bigger.
"I know you don't think it's going to work, but I think I've cracked the code this time," he said enthusiastically.
"It's pretty tiny," You mumbled, reaching out to touch the shiny metal casing. It was as cold as ice. As you removed your hand, it started to beep.
"What does that mean?" You said, your hand hovering over the machine. The hum seemed to speed up.
"I don't know..." He trailed off, standing up.
Suddenly, the beeping became frantic and the whirring hum sped up as if the machine was getting ready to take off. It began to flash and spurt sparks, as it became more intense, your uncle rushed around trying to figure out what was wrong. You found yourself stuck staring at the machine, completely hypnotised by the chemical reaction you assumed must have been happening. But, your skeptical nature had betrayed you as there was something much bigger at play.
The machine exploded, and a massive flash of white light momentarily blinded you. The wave of energy the explosion produced propelled you backward. You were slammed into the pavement forcefully. Momentarily, everything went black.
You held your head in your hands, your head throbbing from the collision with the ground. Your ears were ringing from the loud explosion. Nothing that intense had ever occurred in your uncle's workspace before.
You rubbed your eyes and blinked, the sunlight was blinding. As you slowly came to your senses, you weren't in your garage anymore - you were in a vacant lot. Had the explosion really been that powerful?
You looked around, and found there was no garage or house in sight. You furrowed your brow, confused in every way possible. You got to your feet, your legs feeling like jelly, and tried to walk around. It seemed that there were no houses on the entire street you had awoken on. The entire neighbourhood had seemingly vanished, but how?
With no house or family members in sight, you had assumed something sinister had occurred during the explosion. Trying not to imagine anything unrealistic, you decided to walk until you came across a police station. Maybe I was out for longer than a second, you thought. Maybe I've been kidnapped!
The more you theorised, the more your head began to spin. Your head had hit the ground hard, and you were quite sure that you'd gotten a concussion. Soon, the empty streets became the city - San Francisco. But something about the city you had lived in for years seemed... different. Maybe it was the head injury talking.
You happened upon a main street lined with cafes, and you mindlessly took a seat at one of the tables. You had been walking for what felt like hours and your head ached terribly. You rubbed your temples for some relief, but it did little to soothe your pain. You groaned and slumped over the newspaper on the table, the pages crumpling under you.
"Rough night?"
You jumped at the voice, jolting upright as your eyes snapped open. Across the table, a curly haired man sipped his coffee. He looked quietly amused at your manic behaviour.
"I'm sorry, I didn't see you sitting here," You said, sighing deeply as you finished speaking.
"It's fine, really," He shrugged. "You okay?"
"More or less, I think," You said, unsure if you believed yourself. "Sorry, I'm being rude, I should go,"
"It's fine, you can sit here!" He said, offering you a warm smile. "I'm Jason, by the way,"
"I'm (Y/N)," You said, putting your hand out. Jason shook it gladly. His hand felt rough and calloused.
"You look a little stressed," Jason said, observing you.
"I am," You began, not even knowing where to start. "I just hit my head really hard, and I can't find my family, or my house..."
The man's sunny demeanour shifted as you explained your morning. He quickly became concerned for your wellbeing.
"Shit, you must have really hurt yourself if you can't remember that stuff, maybe we should get you to the hospital," He suggested. You nodded and it felt like your brain was rattling around in your head. You steadied your head with your hands, glancing down at the table. The words on the newspaper were blurry, you tried to focus and read. Maybe if I can read, you thought, it might just be a headache.
You squinted, and searched for something to decipher. Your eyes landed on the date at the very top of the page - 1988.
"I definitely have a concussion, because that obviously doesn't say 1988," You laughed, pointing at the newspaper. Jason titled his head.
"It does say 1988,"
"But it's 2019?" You said, somehow more confused than what you were when you woke up. Jason furrowed his brow.
"I can guarantee you that it is definitely 1988," Jason said. He was seriously worried about you now. You were deathly pale and your eyes were as big as dinner plates. That head injury must have been a good one.
"What?" You said, standing up from the table. Your legs felt like they were about to collapse beneath you as you remembered what had exploded in the garage that morning - a time machine.
But that was impossible - time travel was impossible!
"Hey, seriously, you need to go to the hospital," Jason said. You hadn't even noticed that he had gotten up from his seat and stood beside you. He reached out and held onto your arms, because he felt like with any sudden movement, you were going down.
"I think- I think I've travelled through time," You said. Hearing such nonsense out loud made you feel queasy. Your head was seriously spinning now, and before you knew it your legs finally decided to give out on you. As everything faded to black, you felt Jason's strong arms catching you before you could hit the pavement.
[AUTHORS NOTE: self indulgent, basic ass time travel plot? Yes, 100%. Do I care? Absolutely not. Part 2?
Also gifs aren't working on my phone so idk if the one on this is working either]
