It felt like an intrusion, like thoughts that weren't his own.
He shook his head, trying to shake off his unease. There was no time to focus on this. He had to go to Vortex Mechanica for his internship. He had a routine to follow.
Her hand was on the doorknob, and for a moment, he felt like he was forgetting something—something important. His mind raced, but he ignored the feeling and walked back into the apartment. He could forget. He always could.
Once inside, he threw his coat on the sofa, glancing at the clock on the wall. He was late, but he still had enough time to change and go to his internship. Besides, he couldn't show up at Vortex Mechanica looking like he just woke up. That's crazy.
River moved quickly to his small closet and rummaged through his clothes, pulling out something cleaner and more presentable—dark trousers, a fitted shirt, and a tailored jacket that made him look more like someone who belonged in the engineering world than the mess he was now. As he buttoned up his shirt and adjusted his collar, the anxiety in his mind seemed to grow, but he held it back. He had to focus.
The mirror reflected a version of himself he hadn't seen in a long time—a man of manner and poise, a face with sharp features: high cheekbones, a soft yet angular jaw. His eyes were a deep gray, his hair dark and messy, which he hurriedly brushed back. The thought of his internship gave him a small boost of confidence. Vortex Mechanica was the company he had dreamed of working for, where he could finally apply his studies in mechanical engineering. Today was just another day in that process.
He grabbed her bag, adjusted the strap on his shoulder, and walked out the door. As he stepped into the hallway again, he could still hear the strange thought echoing in his head. Sooner or later, you have to face it.
He rubbed his temples, feeling the weight of it all pressing down on him. It wasn't just the voice. It was the feeling that his life had been disrupted, as if he were stuck in a pattern, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. The confusion from the morning began to stir in his gut again, but he pushed it aside. He had to go to work.
The walk to the internship was nothing but familiar streets and the sounds of the bustling city of Lumeira. He passed the market where he had bought apples earlier, but it seemed like a distant memory, like it had happened only days ago. His steps quickened, and before he knew it, he was standing in front of the Vortex Mechanica building—a sleek structure with steaming gears attached to its walls that towered over the cityscape.
The familiar hum of activity greeted him as he entered the building, but even that felt a little out of sync today. The overhead lights flickered as if adjusting to an unknown frequency, and the technicians walking past him seemed a little too hurried, too absorbed in their work.
"Good morning, River!" Lena's cheerful voice broke through the fog of his thoughts. Lena Faye, the type who radiated energy—short, quick to smile, and always full of life. He turned to find Lena waving from across the lobby, a bright smile on her face. "You late again?" she teased, walking over to him.
"Yeah," River mumbled, trying to smile back, though it felt forced. "Overslept, I guess."
Lena stared at him for a moment, her smile fading slightly, but she brushed it off. "This isn't how you usually act," she said, crossing her arms. "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Just tired," River replied, his voice even. "I'll be fine. Got a project to work on, right?"
"Alright," Lena said, raising an eyebrow. "Let's get started. You'll be working on a new prototype today. We need your calculations for the temporal gear system before the team starts assembly it."
River nodded, though his mind was still hazy. Time management system. The words felt... heavy. They should have been just technical terms, something he'd learned in school, but they had a strange resonance today, as if they were tangled up in something more.
He followed Lena down familiar hallways, past glass walls where engineers were testing prototypes—machines that hummed and clicked and pulsed with strange energy. He could barely focus on any of them, his mind constantly pulling in different directions. Every corner of this place felt familiar, yet everything seemed strange.
They arrived at the workspace where River would spend his day. The workbench was littered with blueprints, gears, and mechanical components, all laid out for the prototype they were working on. A large machine stood in the center of the room, humming with energy. The machine was a mix of polished brass and steel, with intricate gears that meshed in a smooth, almost hypnotic rhythm. Its design was designed to harness the power of time manipulation—a fitting project for a company like Vortex Mechanica.
Lena pushed open the door and pointed to the table. "That's the prototype. You know the drill, Storm. We need those numbers for the gears. I'll be in the other room, so just call out if you need anything."
River nodded, trying to focus. He moved to the table, his eyes scanning the intricate blueprints before him. He felt his fingers trace the design, and once again, that strange sensation crept in—a feeling he knew from having done this before.
A sharp pang of déjà vu hit him. His heart pounded in his chest, and he froze. The diagrams, the machines, even the actual layout of the tables—it all felt so familiar. He blinked, trying to clear his mind, but the more he tried to focus, the more memories slipped through his fingers like sand.
Lena's voice came from behind him, bringing him back to the present. "River?"
"Yes," she said quickly, turning to him. "I'm fine. Just give me a minute to get started."
He didn't know why, but the machine, the calculations, it all felt like a puzzle he couldn't solve. Like he'd been so close to solving it before... and now it was slipping from his grasp again.
He glanced at the blueprints again, the strange weight on his chest growing heavier.
⛭⛭⛭
Five minutes had passed.
River took a deep breath, trying to calm his mind as his fingers brushed the blueprints again. The intricate gears and designs before him seemed to whir and blur, almost as if they were moving, even though the world around him remained still. His mind was racing, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it—there was a nagging feeling, like something was waiting for him to realize something, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
He tried to focus on the numbers. The equation he had to solve was simple enough—calculating the rotational speed of a gear in a time-manipulating machine. He had done it a hundred times in his college assignments. It should have been second nature to him.
But as his pencil flew across the paper, the gears on the blueprint seemed to shift slightly, the lines faded, the corners curved. The machine before him flickered in his peripheral vision, and for a split second, it wasn't a prototype—it was something else entirely. Something bigger. Something he should have recognized.
His pulse quickened.
The sound of footsteps brought him back to the present. Lena appeared beside him, her eyes flicking from the blueprints to his tense posture.
"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice softer now. It was the second time she had asked that today, and River began to wonder if he saw something he didn't—something in her manner, her expression. But he couldn't put it into words. How could he explain the feeling of being caught between worlds, where the present and the past were constantly shifting?
"I'm fine," River said, forcing the words out of his constricted throat. He shook his head, blinking rapidly. "Just a little tired today, that's all."
Lena didn't look entirely convinced, but she stepped away, giving him the space he needed. "Okay. Don't overwork yourself. You've been working hard lately."
River nodded absently, not really hearing him anymore. The machine in front of him—which had felt so foreign before—now seemed to hum with a strange energy. It was as if it were calling to him. Cogs turned in his mind, twisting and turning into something far more complex than the simple design he had been given to work with. He thought back to that morning—walking through the market, buying apples, meeting the man in the park—and something clicked, though faintly, like a dream fading as he tried to remember.
What is it? What happened before?
His hands shook as he reached for the calculator, trying to crunch the numbers and variables. His fingers felt foreign as they danced across the keys, typing out formulas he knew like the back of his hand. But the equations on the screen felt wrong. Out of place.
The office door swung open again, and River almost jumped in surprise. He turned to see Jaxon Virell, one of Vortex Mechanica's senior technicians, standing in the doorway with a clipboard under his arm. Jaxon was a tall, lean man with sharp features and a no-nonsense demeanor—an intimidating presence, especially for an intern like River.
"Storm," Jaxon said, his voice cool but professional. "How you doing, son?"
"Good, uh… good, sir," River replied, though his voice was shaky, uncertain. He straightened himself a little, forcing himself to look presentable. "I was just working on the calculations for the temporal gears."
Jaxon's eyes glanced at the blueprint on the table, taking in the calculations River had made so far. He didn't seem to notice anything strange—at least, not at first.
"There's a missing variable," Jaxon said flatly, pointing to the design. "There's a temporal coefficient to account for here." He scribbled something in the margin of River's paper, adding a notation that River hadn't noticed at all. "You need to adjust the torque for the energy flow."
River stared at the numbers on the paper, struggling to process the information. He knew what Jaxon was talking about, but the words seemed slurred. His mind wasn't working properly. He couldn't concentrate.
"I… I'll fix it," River mumbled, still staring at the paper in front of him. "Thank you."
Jaxon nodded once and then turned, walking out of the room with quick, purposeful steps.
River's heart was pounding in his chest, but not from the stress of the job. No, it was something else—a gnawing unease, a feeling that he was missing something important, something he should have known.
He looked back at the blueprint. The strange, almost magnetic pull of the gears grew stronger, as if they were trying to tell him something, calling him to a deeper understanding.
He rubbed his temples, trying to clear the fog that clouded his mind. The numbers, the machines, the gears... the time manipulation system. It all felt so familiar. But he couldn't connect it. His mind seemed to be reaching for something beyond his grasp, like a door that wouldn't open, a key that wouldn't turn. His fingers itched to flip through the blueprints faster, to turn the next page, to uncover the hidden answer.
A memory emerged—a fragment, something sharp and clear—a glimpse of a clock without hands, spinning in endless motion, the feeling of falling back into time. Her breath caught in her throat.
Before he could follow his thoughts any further, the door opened again, and this time, Lena returned with a fresh stack of papers. Her face was more serious now, and he immediately noticed the tension in River's posture.
"Storm," he said, his voice softer. "Get some rest. You're not looking so good."
River blinked, trying to focus on Lena, but his vision was starting to blur. The world around him felt distant, and a ringing began to echo in his ears.
"I'm fine," he said again, but his voice was shaky, his words breaking as he spoke. "I just need to get this over with."
Lena hesitated, but then, seeing his unease, she stepped back, leaving him alone with the machine and the blueprints. River's hands trembled as he reached for the gears, but as his fingers made contact, a jolt of déjà vu struck him like a bolt of lightning.
I've done this before.
It was like a floodgate opening. The moment widened, distorted, as a series of images crashed into his mind—images of this room, this machine, of himself sitting at this desk. He remembered the calculations, the adjustments, the way the machine had hummed beneath his fingers.
And then, in a split second, the sensation was gone, leaving him breathless.
It's happened before. And it will happen again.