Chatterbox: Inkwell

“Okay. don’t panic, just act normal.”

“Considering the situation I’m in right now, I would say panicking is the normal thing to do.”

“Well, then just act like it’s a normal day,” He grabbed my wrist. “And pretend you’re just out for a walk. Now let’s move.” I jerked my hand back from him, backing away.

“No thank you, what do you want from me?”

“I’ll explain everything to you later if you would just please come with me” I glared at this peculiar boy, that looked a little `older than me, dressed in strange clothing that didn’t look very modern. He had a long dark gray coat on, and leather boots that looked like they had been through a lot. There was a brown satchel by his side. “This is important.” I let him pull me through the crowd, and as I was bumping into people rushing past me, I looked at the boy’s hand that was firmly holding my wrist. It had a black leather glove on it, with the initials A. M. on the back. We were soon out of the busy streets of New York, and wound up in an alley nearby my house. He pulled me behind a dumpster, and let go of me.

“What do you want?” I stared at him annoyedly. He pulled out a notebook from his satchel, and flipped through it. “Do you own any sort of significant trinket, or jewelry?” I huffed. “So that’s what you are. A mere pick pocket, probably hoping I would bestow you something. Goodbye.” I turned around and started walking out. He ran up beside me, and explained. “No, I just need to know if you own any sort of trinket that could be the Time Stopper.” I looked at him and stared at him, wondering if he truly thought I was dumb enough to believe the story he had just weaved. He was either very good at acting, or genuinely believed that a piece of jewelry was “the Time Stopper”.

“Well, no, but if you would tell me why you imagine there is a ‘Time Stopper’ in my jewelry, I may be able to assist you.” He looked at me with an annoyed frown and then started talking.

“So, let me tell you first of all about the Time Seekers, who are basically an evil cult that want the ability to control time, be able to move backwards in time, and all that jazz. And then there’s me, who, uh, has been trying to find the Time Stopper based on my father’s research, who died when I was young. I don’t want the Time Stopper to use it, I simply need it to destroy it. For according to my research, if the Time Stopper is used more than 10 times, it just destroys time completely, turning the Universe into a timeless void, which would freeze everything, causing it to implode. This is why for the past 5 years-” He was interrupted by a clank behind me. I whipped my head back, and saw a woman there with long brunette hair, and piercing green eyes standing in a defensive stance, as if to corner us into the alley. She was looking at the notebook in the boy’s hand, and then looked at me. “So, Avien, I see you’re recruiting a new member to your little lonely club. What’s her name?” He quietly grabbed my hand, and started slowly backing away from the woman. I didn’t know why, since there was simply a dead end behind us. I just went with him. The lady took one step closer, and pulled out a gun.

I looked at it in horror, and then to my slight relief realized it was a tranquilizer gun. “Give it to me.” She was looking at me with a strange greed in her eyes, and I backed away even more. “There’s nowhere to advance, so you might as well just hand it over, sweetcheeks.” The boy pulled me closer to a wall near a dumpster, and pressed his hand on it, with some strange precise movements. My hopes lifted, expecting the wall to open up to reveal perhaps a secret passageway for us to escape through. To my disappointment, nothing happened. I looked back at the woman, who was now fiddling with her gun. “hand it over to me, and no one will get hurt.” The boy looked the lady in the eye, and said,

“Well for that threat to be valid, I believe we would have to be trapped first.” And then jerked me into the wall that he had just touched, and I closed my eyes and braced myself to be smashed into a brick wall. I had my eyes closed for 10 seconds, and then when I felt no impact, I opened my eyes and saw a tunnel surrounded by brick, and then dirt. I gasped and looked around. Avien, which was apparently his name, was still there, standing in front of me. My eyes widened as I looked at the brick wall that we had just smoothly passed through.

“Waaaaait a second. Did we just…” I poked the wall, and to my immense surprise, my finger was met with no barrier when it touched the wall, and glided straight through the wall as if it wasn’t there. “Woooaaahhh.” I stuck my whole finger through the wall, then my hand, until my entire arm was in a wall. I wiggled my arm, and I felt my hand brush against cloth on the other side of the wall. I felt around, and came to an object made out of plastic. I grabbed the cloth around it, when I suddenly heard a loud female shriek, and felt the fabric jerk away from me. I grabbed the plastic object and quickly pulled my arm back. I was holding the tranquilizer gun that our attacker had been wielding earlier. I turned back around to face Avien with an amazed wonderstruck look on my face, and he chuckled.

“If you hang out with me, you’ll see way weirder than that.” I then realized what I had just experienced.

“Who was that lady, and what did she want from you?” Avien shrugged and just said,

“I don’t know, probably my notebook, or maybe even you, if they thought you were something important.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“How did they learn we were here? And why did that lady have my mom’s necklace? My mom never takes it off.” Avien looked at me in horror. His face grew pale as he put a hand on my shoulder.

“Where was your mom today?” I looked at him strangely.

“At home, of course.” I wondered what this had to do with anything.

“Who else was home?” Avien appeared to be extremely worried.

“Uh, my little brother, and I was just out to go for a walk.” Avien sorrowfully looked down.

“And you say your mom never takes off her necklace?” I nodded. “Do you have a father, Kirana?” I was astounded that a complete stranger knew my name.

“How do you-”

“Everyone searching for the Time Stopper recognizes exactly who you are. You are known as the Time Keeper in our society, as you are the one known to hold the Time Stopper, passed down by your father.” I shook my head and backed away.

“No, I think you have the wrong person. I am definitely not the Time Keeper, considering I don’t have any sort of Time Stopper that I know of. My father also passed away when I was young.”

“Well, you definitely are the Time Keeper, whether you’re aware of it or not. And I’m sorry to inform you this, but you are now an orphan.” With that statement, he glanced away, unable to look me in the eyes.

“What? You can’t just randomly say that. I have a mom, idiot.”

“Yeah, well you used to. Unfortunately, if what you say is true, and your mom does never take off her necklace, then that would mean that the necklace was taken from her by a confrontation. Common people don’t survive when they’ve had a confrontation with the Time Seekers.” This couldn’t be true. My family was safe at home, and the Time Seekers couldn’t have gotten into the house.

“My family was safe at home, and plus, we survived, and we were just face to face with a Time Seeker.”

“I just said, common people don’t survive. We are not common people that don’t understand what Time Seekers even are. I am qualified to deal with the Time Seekers, since I’ve been learning many practices and facing the Time Seekers for years. And you, well, you’re the Time Keeper.”

“So… My entire family, they’re all dead?” I croaked, choking back tears. He seemed uncomfortable, and that was a mere understatement.

“Well, I would say, if they went to your house to retrieve something, most likely everyone in your house would be dead. They usually leave no survivors.” I then realized something. My dog, Taco, had also been at my house. Did this mean she was gone too?

“My dog, she was also at home; Would they be brutal enough to kill a dog?” He just gazed at the brick walls and nodded. I felt a pang of pain in my chest. Everything, my family, my dog, it was all gone. I had nothing to return home to. Where would I live now? I don’t have any relatives. Would I have to go to a foster home?

“Uh, we should probably move now, since we don’t want to stay in one spot for too long.” He started walking further down the tunnel, and I just trailed him, dazed from the shocking news.

“Where will I go now?” He just glanced back and gestured for me to be silent and move quicker. I followed him quietly, wondering what the hell was happening now. We walked for about fifteen minutes, just rushing through dark tunnels with nothing for light other than Avien’s flashlight. After a long walk of silence, we came to a dead end that was just a wall made of drywall. “Is this a magic wall too?” I said as I pushed past him and touched the wall with my hand. Nope, it was definitely solid.

“No, you have to activate the gateway first.” He leaned forward, and did the same strange thing I saw him do with his hand earlier on the brick wall back in the alley. This time, I warily stuck my finger out, and it slid straight into the wall, as if there was nothing but air there. It was as if the wall was a very opaque hologram. We passed through, and I looked around for a second at the lilac walls of the new room we were in, and I realized we were in my bedroom.

“WHAT?” I exclaimed in shock, surprised that he had access to my room. “You can get inside people’s bedrooms? That’s so creepy.” I walked around my room and exited it into our hallway. I started stepping down the stairs, but then I realized that Avien was searching through my room. “Hey! That’s my stuff, stop looking through it!”

“Oh, yeah, I’m sorry, but we must find the Time Stopper immediately. According to legend it should be somewhere nearby you, like in your room. If you could help me locate it, that would be great too. It’s supposed to be a trinket or a piece of jewelry of some sort, perhaps a compact timepiece?” He sifted through the junk in my vanity’s drawers, looking through my necklaces and earrings.

“I don’t think I own anything like that.” I peered out of my bedroom window, and I noticed a burly man standing by my front door. “Uh, Avien? There’s a guy at the front door, but he’s not facing the door.” He quickly darted to the window and looked down.

“Oh shoot!” The man standing by our front door glanced up, and saw Avien and my face peering down at him through the window. He immediately shoved open the front door and ran inside the house, clutching his tranquilizer gun. We heard his footsteps thundering up the stairs. Avien whipped his head around, whispered, “Go.” And shoved me into the closet after shoving his hand in there first. I jumped into the closet, and made room for him. To my surprise, he picked up my chair and hid behind my bedroom door. What is this nincompoop trying to do now?? I backed away a little into the closet, afraid of being discovered. My closet felt roomier than usual, and I had a lot of space to back up.

The man stepped into the room, and I held my breath. He had short brown hair, stubble, and black eyes. He furtively inspected the room, his eyeballs darting back and forth. I took a step backwards into the closet, and knocked into an old bookshelf. I gasped, and then scurried backwards, randomly grabbing a book from the bookshelf to use as a weapon in case I needed it. I gripped the book tightly, and it was thankfully a hardcover book. The Time Seeker stepped menacingly towards the closet, with a devilish smile on his face as he aimed his gun. I held my breath, trying to shrink into the closet. I looked back, and then realized that my back was already halfway sinking into the back of the closet. So that’s what Avien was doing in the closet with his hand! He had opened a gateway. I backed up into the wall until nothing but my eyes were poking out of it, and grinned in anticipation.

The man threw the closet door back, and immediately shot his tranquilizer gun three times, exactly where I would have been if the wall hadn’t saved me. After a second, he seemed to realize there was no one in the closet, and peered around in confusion. Avien gripped the chair he had hid with, and lurked out from behind the door. He swung his chair up, and brought it down hard on the man’s head. I saw the guy’s eyes widen as he realized what had happened, but they soon closed as he collapsed onto the floor. I jumped out from the closet, and squatted down by the man to search him. The first thing I found was an identification card of some sort, with his name, which was Edgar Rutherford. It also had a chip on one end, which was most likely used for access to exclusive areas for Time Seekers only.

“This card could come in handy.” I said as I pocketed it.

“You probably don’t want to keep these things in your pocket. I recommend getting a bag or something to contain all your finds, weapons, and research.”

“Alright then, this should work.” I pulled off the satchel from Edgar’s shoulders, and tucked in the identification card and my new tranquilizer gun. It was just a gray cloth bag, but it had things in it. I looked inside, and found some money, a Swiss army knife, and a pen with a strange red light on it. “What’s this?” I asked, fiddling with the pen. It also had a small button.

“That is a bug, I believe. It can be connected to by Bluetooth from someone’s phone, and stuck on someone else to spy on their conversations. We could actually use that right now, and put it on Edgar. It does seem a little too bulky and easy to notice though.” He gestured for me to hand him the Swiss army knife that I had just found, and I dug it out and gave it to him. He popped out the blade, and began cutting through the pen. After slicing off almost all the plastic, and getting rid of all the pen functions, he was left with a small chip with the red light on it, and a microphone, connected by a tiny wire. The whole contraption was about half an inch long.

“Let me see,” I inquired as I took the little set back. I inspected it, and saw a small hole that must have connected to the button. I took the knife and poked into the hole with the blade. It hit something in there, which caused the red light to turn off. I felt four short vibrations, and then it was silent, except for an almost silent whir. I held the device closer to my ear, and I could still barely hear the quiet whirring sound. That was good, as the person wearing the device would hardly be able to detect it on them. I leaned in closer to Mr. Rutherford, and tucked the tiny device in his hair. I would just have to pray he didn’t shower often. I stood up.

“Are you done?” Avien asked with a grin. I looked back at him with a scowl.

“What’s so funny?”

“Well, I mean, you seem really into busting these guys.” He chuckled.

“Yeah, these people… killed my family.” I said with hesitation. It still seemed too terrible to be true. We dragged Edgar over to a corner and tied him to the chair Avien had smashed him on the head with, after sitting him upright against a wall. I ran back to the window, and didn’t see anyone else there.
“Okay, we have to find the Time Stopper. It’s definitely somewhere in your house, so we need to find a small timepiece, or some kind of trinket that could be used to stop time. My notebook says that every time the Time Stopper is turned, or broken, time either can be manipulated, or simply stopped. This leads me to believe that the Time Stopper is a timepiece of some sort. But, I could be very wrong, since there are many types of objects that could be twisted in that way.”

“That shouldn’t be hard,” I quipped, “since I have a lot of jewelry and accessories to choose from.’ We searched for a while through all my drawers, finding absolutely nothing of any value that could even remotely be considered “The Time Stopper”. I was surprised that we didn’t find anything, considering my vast collection of jewelry. I decided to look out the window again, just in case more people were coming. I really don’t know where this day was going at this point, from being threatened with a gun, to magic walls, and now finding a magical time machine. I checked all the way down the street, and saw no one. Just as I was about to tell Avien the coast was clear, I heard a small crackle. It was coming from Edgar’s pocket. As I inspected, I realized it was a walkie-talkie. I pulled it out. A female voice started speaking. “Edgar, is the house safe? I repeat, Edgar, is the house safe? Respond with the code. Over.” My eyes widened. We couldn’t let their headquarters or something know that Edgar was unconscious and that we were searching the house.

“Uh, Avien, can you fake a man’s voice?” I called him over, and he peered at the walkie-talkie.

“I can try, but I don’t know what Edgar even sounds like. He could have an extremely feminine voice for all we know. I’ll just make my normal voice a bit deeper.” He picked up the device, and pressed a button. “The house is safe. I repeat, the house is safe. The kids have not arrived yet.” As he was about to say over, he backed up into a stack of books. “AAH!” He yelled as he went down, crashing onto my stack of my favorite books and then a smaller “Ow.” The walkie-talkie, which was now on the floor, crackled. “That was not Edgar. Who are you?! I think the kids have gotten to the house.” And with that, the room was silent.

“Welp, we’re dead.” I frowned. Avien glanced at the window. There were two people rushing over from the other side of the street.

“It’s okay. We still have a lot of time, and even if they get in the house, we can literally just jump through a wall. We have about five minutes to look around, or just grab anything and everything. Retrieve all your jewelry boxes, and your mom’s.” I gazed at the window, watching the two figures get closer and closer, even though they were still at the very end of the street. I could make out a man with slightly long black hair, and a woman with short blond hair. They were both wearing a blue shirt, and then a coat over it. As I watched them running towards my house, Avien clasped my arm. “Kirana! You have to hurry. They’ll be here within a few minutes, and this is an important matter. Please focus!”

I jumped away from the window, and rushed to my mom’s bedroom, grabbing all of her jewelry boxes, and necklaces that she kept on her vanity. I fumbled back to the room, and looked around. “Where do I keep all this stuff?” I queried. Avien went to a wall closer to my desk, and held his hand over it.

“Come here and hold my hand. The only people that can pass through the gateway are the people that were touching the gateway opener at the time when they opened the gateway.” I hurried over and grabbed his other arm. He performed his strange magic trick, and voila, there was a gateway. “We can store all the stuff we collect here for now. Later, when those fools are searching the house for us, we can sit in there and rummage through our findings.”

I stuck my hand through the wall to confirm it was gone, and then stepped through, dumping everything on the ground in the dark tunnel. I poked my head back out, and called out, “We’re gonna need a flashlight.” Avien pulled open my drawer, and produced a small purple flashlight. He tossed it to me, and I kept it by my stuff in the tunnel. I whisked through the wall and zipped to the window. The two people were almost at our door, only five houses down. “We have to hurry, they’re almost here.

“No, we’re fine. Even if they get in the house, we literally only need to walk through that wall, and we’re safe.

“Okay, I guess, but they might stop us somehow.” I frowned doubtfully at the people advancing towards our house. I scramble and started picking up things, when I realized that I was still holding the book I had planned to whack Edgar with. I flipped it over to look at the title, and coincidentally, it was called the Time Keeper. I opened it to the first page, and I saw a list of names to whom the book had belonged to. At the very end, I saw a minuscule, scrawled handwriting. While the rest of the names were in blocky writing in pencil, Carter M.’s name was written in a messy dark ink.

I trace my finger over the small loopy writing. I slap it shut and slip it in my satchel, resolving to take a look at it later when I had the time. Now, obviously, was not the time, as we had about a minute before the menacing Seekers arrived at my bedroom door. I could hear them fumbling with the front door as of now. I jump up from my daze, toppling over a few items that Avien had piled up on my desk.

“You should probably start moving them to the wall.” I nodded, and started picking objects off of the mound and balancing them in my arms.

“They’re almost here, you know,” I commented, thinking this would make him go a little faster. “They’re almost in the house.” He simply kept searching without showing any signs of rushing or panic.

“I already told you, even if they come into this room, we simply have to walk through that wall.” He gestured to the wall right behind him, just as we heard a loud knock.

“OPEN UP!” A loud deep voice boomed from the front door downstairs, muffled by the door. “We have you surrounded, and if you try anything funny, we’re not scared to crash the door down.” I looked around frantically and then composed myself.

“Okay, we need to get the hell out of here, right now.” I was absolutely panicking, but I honestly couldn’t blame myself. I had never been in a situation so impossibly insane.

“Keep searching, we’re absolutely fine. Just trust me.” He waved a hand at me reassuringly, and continued digging through my closet.

“Trust you?? You just yanked me out of a goddamn alley and have been throwing me through walls and then now you tell me my family’s dead and everything’s gone now and I’m just supposed to follow you and go on an adventure and be happy with that?! NO THANK YOU!” I ran into the wall, feeling my way around. I heard an enormous crash in the house I had just left behind, and inferred the adults had broken the door down. If Avien didn’t get his butt in his tunnel now, he basically had no chance to live, but I really didn’t care. I noticed I had left my flashlight behind next to the room, and it was proving to be quite a hindrance.

I just wanted to get away from Avien, and go as far from my house as possible. I could try to find my friend’s house, and maybe camp there. Other than that, I really had no idea what was going to happen to me now with my family gone. I fiddled with the small ring on my middle finger, twisting it around as I often did when nervous. I now stopped, realizing I could very well be lost in this black tunnel forever. Do you have to open another gateway to exit? My heart sunk at this thought, as that would mean my only way out of this place would be the gateway at my room. And that would only be if Avien hadn’t already closed it. I sat down on the rough cement feeling ground, and looked around at my surroundings, my legs curled up in my arms. It was quite cold in the tunnel, and I didn’t have any kind of jacket besides the thin gray cardigan I was wearing when I left for a walk.

Everything in the tunnel was pitch black, and I couldn’t even tell how wide it was. I was getting up to go find out, when I saw a dim light far away from me, back where I came from. Not sure if it was my eyes playing tricks on me, I walked closer, hoping to glimpse the soft white glow again. It appeared again. That must be Avien! When I realized that, I immediately began backing away, when the light went off all of a sudden. I was blind again, and had no idea where he was. My breathing became quick and ragged as I sprinted down the opposite of where I had come from.

My satchel slid down my shoulder, looped itself around my legs, tripping me. I stumbled around, and regained my balance after running into a wall. Pulling my satchel up, I noticed I had no idea which direction led back to my room and which to hopefully safety. I knew Avien was coming down one of these directions, and that was what scared me the most. I had to avoid him at all costs, and find a way back to my normal life. I crouched against the wall I had just run into, making myself as small as possible. I could not hear or see anything, and the drumming beat of my heart sounded too loud to conceal me completely. Holding my breath, I listened carefully, trying hard to detect any human noise. Faint footsteps sounded, echoing throughout the passageway. I couldn’t decipher the direction they were coming from.