Lost in Time
Science Fiction/Fantasy
Billy McKiernan found a battered wooden box on the side of the road one morning. He picked it up and opened it. An old chain necklace stared up at him. For some strange reason, it seemed to hum.
Billy took the necklace out of the box and examined the lone pendant that hung from it. Time had worn it down to an almost indistinguishable state, yet it appeared to resemble an hourglass.
The longer he held the necklace in his hands, the greater his urge to slip it on over his head. This feeling morphed into a strong desire – within seconds, a need.
Billy put the necklace on. The strange humming intensified, and the hourglass pendant began to tap against Billy’s sternum. Soon, it fell into rhythm with his beating heart.
The world became a blur as Billy got swept up in a whirlwind. He closed his eyes as his limbs felt like they had become detached – his body and mind two separate entities.
And then he was standing alone on an ancient grassland near a wide lake.
Monsters waded in its shallows, eating leaves from tall trees.
“What the…” Billy murmured, his heart in his throat.
Dinosaurs stood before him.
The leaf-eating monstrosities turned their heads in his direction – at this strange being who had materialized out of thin air.
Billy reached for the pendant and held it between his thumb and index finger. “Take me back,” he whispered. The beasts – brachiosauruses, he believed – took thunderous steps toward him. The ground shook.
“Take me back!” Billy said, rooted to the spot. He slipped the necklace off and noticed it began to hum again.
The dinosaurs lumbered closer and closer, their necks like swaying tree trunks.
Billy put on the necklace again and it whisked him away, thrashing him violently against the currents of time.
When he came to, he was lying flat on his back in a smoldering, ruined city. He stood up and looked around. Everything within a two-mile radius had been leveled. There was nothing here but the smell of death and the sight of charred wreckage.
Crystal obelisks loomed in the distance on a far hilltop. Small aircraft resembling dinner plates hovered above these structures as if they were refueling or recharging.
Billy yanked the necklace off and set it on the ground before he slumped down beside it. He closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.
“What the hell is happening,” he said as he slipped the necklace back on for a third time.
When he opened his eyes, he stood in the middle of a frozen landscape – nothing but ice and snow for miles and miles around him. He had no idea where he was – or when he was.
He cried – wept. The cold froze his tears. He couldn’t believe he’d been going for a morning stroll minutes ago and was now lost in time.
Billy took the necklace off, heard it hum – felt it pulse in his palm. He needed to find a way home.
And, yet again, he put the cursed thing on.
Thanks so much for reading “Lost in Time” — I hope you enjoyed it. Please leave a comment below if that’s the case!
Take care, everyone, and have a wonderful weekend. (Oh, and don’t pick up any strange boxes on the side of the road.)
Oh, I loved this one! Used to watch the show “Lost”. I guess I’m drawn to time travel stories!
Brilliant ending to this story. So glad you did not bring him home. There's nothing like a story that stops in the middle, leaving us to imagine our own ending. Sharron at LEAVES.