027 - Timeless Romance

Very rarely, like once every century, there is the possibility of having a rift in the space-time continuum. Most of the people who believed in this theory were quickly dismissed as 'nutty' scientists, and as a result, the general public was unaware.

One of the reasons why people didn't believe it is quite simple. "If it exists, why has there been no reports about seeing them ?". And to be frank, that was a good question. But the answer was quite disappointing. Because in fact, those rifts did appear as theorized, but at locations where no one could see them. In 2017, like it did many other times in history, a rift opened. But this time, it appeared at a visible location.

Damon was a teacher. In the day, he taught history at a local school near his town of residence, and for the rest of his time, he spent most of his time relaxing in his house in the countryside. Though he initially settled there for the comfort, the lack of an urban environment began to wear him down. With no partner, he felt quite alone.

On a unusual night, he was woken up by a weird sensation. He had trouble putting in into words, but he described it as if there was an earthquake that could only shake him, but not his house. Even though this shook him awake quite efficiently, he didn't feel compelled to check out the origin of that sensation. He simply looked over his body, didn't find anyting special, and went back to sleep.

The next morning, Damon was doing his usual routine, getting ready for work. On his way to the front door, he briefly looked at the window that had a view on his backyard. And there, he saw something weird. Some kind of black object was there, just floating in the middle of nowhere. Damon decided to ignore it, dismissing it as an hallucination. It was probably for the best, at the time.

Even though he managed to brush it off for the rest of the day, curiosity rose again where he came back home. He checked his backyard. Sure enough, he didn't hallucinate this morning : there WAS something weird. More than terrified, Damon was curious. He tried to get a better look. The closer he got to it, the more anxious he felt. What in hell could it be ? He peered into it and saw something really strange. He saw a field that looked very similar to the one around him. It took a bit of time, but he managed to confirm it. There was no doubt that what he saw was his own location.

However, this did not answer the most important question : what the hell was he looking at ? Clearly, this object didn't seem like a screen, and it was even floating in midair. Actually, you could barely describe that as floating. It was just… being there. Damon was way too curious to notify anyone, so he kept silent about it.

Everyday, once in the morning and for a couple hours after work, Damon went in his backyard and examined the weird object. He always came home with the anticipation of it not being here anymore, but it never moved, or even changed shape. Some times, he could observe some events unfolding, like people passing by in the distance. Eventually, he considered reporting it, because he came to not find it interesting at all.

One day, with his regular inspection, he noticed that he wasn't clearly seeing the field. Instead, he saw someone. A woman, who seemed to be checking out whatever camera was filming the scene. The woman was dressed in some old clothes. Not really believing this would work, Damon tried to start a conversation.

"Hello ?"

But surprisingly...

"Oh, hello !" the woman replied.

"Can you… like, see me ?"

"Yes ! What is this ?"

"What do you see ?"

"I see some strange object in the air… and I can see things inside."

Damon and the woman, who was named Sarah, discussed for a while about this situation. At some point, Damon felt compelled to ask.

"What year is it ?"

"Well, this is the year 1857, if I am not mistaken." Sarah answered.

Even more than when he initially discovered the strange object, Damon got a shiver through his spine. The discussion continued, and they were both made aware of this anomaly. Truly, this was an amazing experience. And this time, Damon went back to  his original idea : never showing this object to anyone else. Both of them discussed for a while, until Sarah had to leave.

"Will you be here tomorrow ?" asked Damon.

"Yes, let us meet at that time !" she replied.

At that moment, Damon felt happy. Even though there was an infinite distance between them, he felt like this moment was precious.

The next day, with the fear of not seeing her again, Damon cautiously approached the object. And he saw her, sitting nearby the object where he could see her. He said her name, and she got up immediately. Once again, they discussed for a long time. And even though they couldn't see each other everyday, they tried their best to find a moment to talk.

Throughout the days, and soon weeks, a real link was forged between the two. When he stepped back a little to consider the relation he had with Sarah, Damon could only use one word. Love. For a while, he tried to hide it. But soon enough, he felt like confessing about his feelings. And thankfully, it was reciprocated. But 'thankfully' wasn't right. Because the more he grew attached to Sarah, the more he realize how unhealthy this relation could be, mostly for his mental health.

As time passed, Damon felt extremely conflicted. In one hand, he wanted to talk with Sarah for hours, notably about her life in this past time period, but on the other hand, he knew that the separation would feel awful. For some time, the meetings were less frequent, sometimes even delayed.

But then, on that fateful day, Damon came to the usual meeting hour, but saw nothing. He thought, that wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe she was late, or had unexpected responsabilities to attend to. But she never came. Not then, not 5 minutes later, not an hour later… not even four days later. This whole time, Damon was even more conflicted than usual. It was such a perfect time to forget everything and go back to his 'normal' life, but he desperately wanted to know what happened to Sarah. He simply wanted to see her again, to talk to her again.

The fifth day after her mysterious disappearence, Damon was still sitting there. He spent so much time monitoring it, that he was starting to fall asleep. But all of a sudden, a voice jolted him awake. He could recognize it instantly. Sarah. He looked up, and saw Sarah's face, crying.

"My love… I am sorry, but I can not keep seeing you anymore…"

"What happened ?"

"They think I am the one who created that thing… and they are casting me away !"

Damon denied it internally, but he knew what it meant. They will never be able to see each other anymore.

"Hold… hold on ! Are you in a hurry now ?" Damon asked.

Sarah nodded. "If what you said is true… I left you a message right here. You will find it ! I love you, Damon !"

After saying those harsh words through her tears, Sarah ran away, far where Damon couldn't even see her. For the first time, he tried to stick his arm through the object, but he immediately wished he hadn't. The object started to change shape, and even began to shrink. In a matter of seconds, the object became a single point, then disappeared.

Damon was suffering from shock. This whole situation was unreal, but nonetheless his heart was broken… for real. He recalled the last words he heard from Sarah. 'A message right here'… this could only mean one thing. In his shed, Damon grabbed a shovel. He went back to where the strange object was. And he started digging. The whole process lasted for about an hour, but Damon lost his notion of time. Any minute now.

Suddenly, the shovel hit something harder. Damon gasped at the sensation, threw the shovel away, and dug around that spot with his bare hands, fiercely. There was something. A small, wooden box. It seemed extremely ancient. But Damon knew immediately when this was buried. Anxiously, he opened it, and inside of it was a necklace. But not any necklace. It was the necklace that Sarah always wore.

What he thought would destroy his live, actually ended up saving him. By parting in those terms with his 'love from the past', Damon managed to move on fairly quickly. Despite that, he made sure to keep the necklace forever.

Later on, he gave it to his new wife, as a gift for her birthday. Damon didn't usually get emotional, but for the first time in years, his eyes got quite watery when asked if the necklace belonged to one of his ex-girlfriends.

"Yes. But she's far away, now."