Another dawn. At least my headache is almost totally gone now. I wish I had Zyra's constitution. The girl could party three days straight without skipping a beat. I just loved my lab and my work.
When dad asked what happened after I moved back in, I told him all about the messages and stuff. He thought about the case for quite a while, before telling me it was probably someone associated with Dalton Fox that hired a hacker. He said it was likely that they gave them my bank info. Quantum Encryption hackers only needed the account number and routing to hack into any bank through their SSN. I also read on the net how the identity of those who did that stuff were rarely ever found out because of how sophisticated their security and firewall protocols were to hide their exact location.
Then, when I thought I'd garnered enough sympathy from dad, he finally started talking again about how even if time-travel was somehow even possible, I'd probably not even be the one to come up with a way to do it. All I was doing was wasting time and digging myself more into more and more student debt.
I remember that I got so mad at dad's words, I began to search for an investor even more because I had something to prove. And as soon as I found anyone ready to help me out, I took their help. I kept working and working and working. Somewhere in my mind, I told myself that I could do this. Flying had once been an impossibility for the people who lived on Earth. Now it was an everyday thing.
I was going to work on this until I got what I wanted. I had this buzz that I was getting close, and then I sidetracked my own work by doing some very closely related project. I figured that there would probably be some side effects of time traveling, and so I wanted to try to create something that would ameliorate those. I knew if I didn't do it now, before I finally worked everything out, I would be too impatient, and heaven only knew what would happen.
I worked for weeks and weeks until I finally was done creating it. I called it the Quantum Chain. It was a necklace that's supposed to protect me from the effects of the timeline changes, whatever time period I found myself in. I did all the work I could do, but I had no chance of discovering if it really worked, and worked well, until I actually used it. So I placed it in a container and hid it as well as I could.
Then I returned my focus to syncing the Quantum Chain with the small wristwatch I used to initiate the time-travel protocol with. It took more weeks, and more weeks, before I worked out the code. The day I wrote down the last letter of the equation, I sat back in my chair with disbelief.
After years of working on the same project, after tons of failures, after all the harsh and demeaning comments I'd had on my work, I couldn't believe I had finally done it. I went to where I had kept my Quantum Chain, and took it out almost reverently. Then I put it on, sat in front of my computer, and began the time-travel process. I wasn't sure whether I had done it, whether it worked, not at first. Truthfully, I didn't expect it to. Everywhere, everything was the same. My apartment was still littered with papers and files, like I had been working on for a long time. I probably needed a break now. I just never really took one. Ever. Probably never will either.
I felt a vague sense of disorientation, and I didn't understand why. It was probably because I'd been working for hours already with no food, or at least that was what I thought. Suddenly, deciding to actually go out and see the sun, I grabbed my cellphone and house keys and walked out the room. Yet the disorientation continued to where my vision became very blurry. I searched my room for something until I came across the thing I was looking for-a pair of glasses.
"Glasses? When did I ever need these?" I sighed. That was a very drastic change. After I put them on, I looked through the pictures on my phone. I was curious about something. Have I always wore glasses? My phone showed every selfie I took of myself in various colored frame glasses. My favorite color was fuchsia. I got a couple of plants by the same name around my home also! My phone was loaded with pictures with me taking pictures of myself and my plants. So I wear glasses now? Check. But I admit, now I look even nerdier, not just with the degree to back my 'nerdiness' up... Ha!
Then I got a whiff of my own scent. It was enough to make me grimace in disgust. I took my bath, brushed my teeth, and changed clothes. That's when I noticed a medium-sized tattoo in the center of my chest after I saw myself in my bathroom's mirror. It was the Greek letter Sigma in a red color. The tat was layered in different shades of it to look embossed. The center-most layer was the lightest.
Okay, when did I get this?! Several months ago was what came to my mind. Never thought I would get one of these. Things you learn in a new timeline about yourself... Huh! After pondering over the small things about myself that was different, including my obsession with all things pink, I tossed my laundry into two big bin bags. Yeah, okay, I'd become a slob. How you like that? You would too if you were trying to figure out the perfect calculations and whatnot needed for time-travel.
I took the clothes to the Laundromat, then walked on for a bit to get to my favorite restaurant in the neighborhood. I stepped in there and approached the counter. When I looked around the place, I wondered how it was possible that the placed had changed in barely any time. Though I hadn't really come in recently because of how busy I was.
Still, how come I couldn't even recognize any of the workers there? I was already ordering my food, when the news came on. I think my mouth totally dropped open. It was 2020. No. No way. That wasn't possible. I didn't do it... did I? Had my dream finally become a reality? I called the attention of the guy at the counter. "I'm so sorry, what is today's date?" I asked him.
"Today's the nineteenth," he replied.
I wanted to ask him for the full date, but I knew it would be really odd, and if my suspicions were true, this was so not the time to draw attention to myself. I changed my order to takeaway, and I headed home. I dumped my food on the table in the living room and probably never ate it. I then walked to my room and began to search through all of it. Some of my research was still there, but almost nothing I'd done in the past few years.
I was trying to figure it all out, just standing there in the center of the room, when my phone rang. It was Zyra. After letting out a deep breath, I picked up the phone. "Hi Zyra," I said. I didn't know if I could tell her yet. I decided to just wait.
"Hey, cuzzo," she said. That made my senses reel. I'm Zyra's cousin here? I try to keep my voice and breathing as natural as possible. "I just called to check up on you. I was sure you'd have been so buried in research, and you've probably not eaten all day. Go get something to fill up your stomach, Sigma."
"I actually just got in from buying dinner," I told her. She gave a loud yell.
"I'm so proud of you, cuz. Hey, did I tell you Will was back in town?" Zyra asked.
"Will? Which Will?" I asked, and then clasped my palm to my face. I wasn't supposed to act like I didn't know stuff.
"Uh, hello? My brother. Seems like I need to come dig you out of those books once in a while."
Thank God she attributed my mistake to that, I didn't know what I would have done. I pushed away the thought of Zyra being my cousin and having a brother. I'd have to think about them later. Taking advantage of the opportunity though, I finally asked what I'd been dying to know.