Sevtobis
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- Parts 14
A Michael Jackson Fanfiction. Time Travel.
At 5:30 PM, the world tilted.
Ella was in the kitchen, helping her sister with dinner, when the television in the living room began to blare a frantic, staccato rhythm of "Breaking News."
"...Reports coming in from Los Angeles... Michael Jackson has been rushed to UCLA Medical Center... unresponsive..."
The wooden spoon slipped from Ella's hand, clattering onto the tile. "No," she whispered. "It's just a rumor. He has a show tomorrow. He has to be okay."
But the news didn't stop. It got worse. The "unconfirmed reports" turned into "sources say," and then, the finality of the words hit her like a physical blow to the stomach.
"Michael Jackson is dead at 50."
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"I wish I could have saved him," she sobbed into the humid night air. "I wish I could go back. I would have told him. I would have stopped them."
She stepped into the crosswalk.
The screech of tires was the last thing she heard. A white sedan, speeding through the intersection, slammed into her small frame. There was a moment of weightlessness, a flash of red, and then... nothingness.
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"Who are you?" Ella asked, her voice echoing.
"A curator of 'what-ifs'," the man said, gesturing for her to sit beside him. "You have a very loud heart, Ella. It was screaming all the way across the veil. You want to save him that badly?"
"More than anything," Ella said, sitting tentatively. "He didn't deserve to go out like that. Alone. Hurting. He gave everything to the world, and the world just took and took."
The man pulled a heavy, silver watch from his pocket and handed it to her. It felt freezing cold in her palm.
"Time travel has its cause and effect," he warned. "You go back to fill a void, but you leave one behind. And remember, Ella... you cannot save someone who does not want to be saved. You have to make him want to live"
The hospital hallway dissolved into a kaleidoscope of colors-reds, golds, and blacks-spinning faster and faster.