On reflection, I may have come on a bit strong with Sonnet. She was even more beautiful in real life, but she strictly avoided me. She wasn't rude, but she wasn't polite either.

After one night in the shelter that'd been recommended, I was grateful for the invitation to stay at a manor. The Alams told me I'd just be another one of the kids.

No one seemed comfortable when I was there. They all noticed me when I came into rooms and all conversations came to a screeching halt. Everywhere I went, it was like I had an awkward silence attached to me.

It was a Saturday, and Mr. and Mrs. Alam assured me I'd be going to school that Monday.

Mrs. "Call-Me-Whiney" Alam had groaned when I told her how I'd told the employees of the homeless shelter I was from the year 2020. She didn't find my jokes about me being in vintage mint condition to be funny.

There was only more awkward silence.

Sonnet sat in a chair on the opposite end of the room from me. She looked everywhere but at me.

"I think I need some air."

"Then go for a walk." She didn't look up from her textbook as she spoke.

"I never liked going for walks alone."

"Then don't walk. It's freezing out anyway."

She had to have been picking up on my hints. I drummed my fingers.

"I think I need to stretch my legs. I'm going out for a walk."

She didn't say anything. I cleared my throat.

"I just don't know where you keep your coats."

I waited for her to say something. She smiled tightly like I did when my mom told me I was a smart kid and could do better on tests if I just wanted to. She stood up. She was beautiful. She had no idea.

Her smile looked almost painful just then. Maybe I should've left her alone.

"I mean if you have something else to do..."

"No. I can show you where the coats are. It's nothing." But she said it so flatly, so robotically it only made me feel worse.

I threw the coat on the second she gave it to me.

"Happy reading," I said as she opened the door for me.

"Thanks."

The door shut in my face. I'd messed up with her. I walked around the house. Everything looked so dead. There wasn't any snow. Just persistent cold.

I walked around the manor. It had to have been close to a mile. There was nothing interesting about it all. Just stone and grass that seemed like it hadn't been alive in quiet some time.

I moved quicker. The wind was getting to me. I needed more layers. Why hadn't someone made me put on more layers?

I could feel snot running freely down my face. Maybe it was better Sonnet hadn't come. She probably was the type to just get rosy cheeks and then look over at me and laugh. I was so wrapped in my thoughts of her, that I ran headlong into a man.

"Sorry," I muttered.

He brushed himself off indignantly. "No matter. Are you Robert Quillen?"

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"That's irrelevant. I'm with the Department of Strange or Unusual Individuals. DSUI."

"Great. That's a cool job." The suddenly I felt shivers up my spine, and not just because I was catching frostbite. If he was government, maybe he'd been waiting to drag me behind a bush and kill me. I always knew that would be how I'd die. I was too weak to fend him off. I'd never lifted weights in my life. I had almost no endurance. I was going to die. He probably wasn't even government.

"Man, the weather lately," I said. I was sweating and shivering at once.

"It's been a rough March. Now, I'm here because you've made some comments lately."

"I make a lot of comments all the time."

I was definitely going to die. That was not a good thing to say.

"Like that I think this weather is truly horrible."

There. I'd recovered at least some integrity. I laughed just as the cherry on top.

"Did you spend a night in a homeless shelter?"

"Yes."

"Did you get your chip on March 14th from the library?"

"Yes."

"Why did you wait so long? The library has offered identification illegally as long as I've been alive."

"Illegally? I've never done anything illegal. Am I criminal? I—"

The DSUI man interrupted me before I could incriminate myself worse than I already had.

"No. Those chips are the worst kept secret in town. Don't worry. You're not in trouble. Now tell me, did you or did you not get sent to the future by Agatha Reese?"

I was too far in now. "I did."

"Who was the mayor of Miami when it flooded?"

"Trick question, Miami could never flood."

I felt proud of myself.

"How many continents are there?"

"Seven."

"Wrong and wrong. You're either remarkably sheltered or you're telling the truth."

I wanted to sink into the ground. "Oh."

He nodded. "Then I'm just here with a proposition for you. Criminals roam among us, and you have the full power to stop them."

"I doubt that." I tried to laugh again, but the cold caught in my throat and I coughed instead. I wasn't making a good impression, which for the moment served to prove my point.

The man sighed.

"We don't need an answer until next Saturday, but we hope you consider it carefully. We'd like to offer you a job in the government. You didn't even exist in our records last week, so I hope you understand how huge this is. Even with the help of the Alams, the government is the only one who will ever build up their deplorables. Employers just don't take people who appeared out of nowhere."

He handed me a device. I looked at it.

"I just use this to contact you?"

He nodded and slipped away. I blinked and then he was out of my line of sight. I waved like an idiot.

Then I hurried inside. Evidently, I was destined for greater things than frost bite.

The butler, a mousy man who seemed to be allergic to sunlight or human acknowledgement took my coat.

"Sir, there's been an event. You should go to the parlor."

"Is everyone alright?"

"Just go to the parlor."

I ran into the room. Everyone was staring at a hologram around them.

"What's happening?"

"Rebel attack."

Figures in dark clothes stood over rubble.

"What's that?"

I pointed to an opaque flag with a woman's head. It almost looked like...

"That's the Clan of Agatha."

Sonnet just stared at the scene. I looked around me.

A mother sat clutching a child to her chest.

It was only the clan in the shot. Everything was slowed down.

The flag waved painfully slow. I felt the disk in my pocket.

Criminals roam among us, and you have the full power to stop them.

Pain was on everyone's faces.

"Are there rebel attacks like this often?"

Everyone ignored me. Sonnet rocked back and forth, and she occasionally startled.

I swallowed. I looked around the scene. People in big coats rushed under cover. The dark clad rebels were speaking, but the hologram wasn't capturing sound. Their faces twisted into sneers. Criminals roam among us.

Every little boy dreamed of being a superhero. I did not. I dreamed of going home. I rocked back and forth.

The room was packed. Everyone was breathing too loud. I needed everyone to stop breathing so close to me.

What I needed was to go home.

I caught one last look at a random child's face, horror stricken. This world was too messed up.

I felt the device, smooth and heavy in my pocket. Comforting. Someone wanted to do something. That was an immense relief.

"Excuse me."

Sonnet looked at me for the first time since I'd come in the room. She wasn't looking at me with revolt. Only curiosity. I couldn't breathe.

I rushed out of the room.

I'd been given a tour of the sprawling rooms. I walked as fast as I could. There was a library. I needed to find out what had happened to Agatha. She was my ticket home. I needed her time machine.

The library's projector was on. The attack was showing there too.

I jabbed my thumb into the spike. My DNA registered, and I felt the hair on my back standing up. That meant I was a part of this world. I didn't want to be.

"Agatha Reese," I screamed at the computer.

A profile came up with what was undeniably her face, just must older.

I scanned the page furiously.

By the time I would've had to give the directive to navigate away from the page, I'd seen enough.

The time machine no longer existed. Nor did her research. I had my parents to thank for that.

"Robert Quillen; disappeared after working in Agatha Reese's lab. Subject of Case 19083."

Case 19083 was a court case in which my parents had sued that Agatha Reese had put me in undue danger. They bled her dry. Her wok was mysteriously stolen. No one knew who, but everyone guessed it had to do with my family.

Her lab got repossessed by a bank and the time machine was lost. No one believed that anything had actually happened until a book resurfaced. No one knew who the author was. No one knew where it came from.

But it was a prophecy that had predicted every event, major or minor, that would shape the world to the point I'd been sent to. And it went a little further than that.

The computer tried to cheerfully direct me toward the book that contained the prophecy.

"No. Shut down."

I didn't want to touch a book that thought it knew what I'd do. It'd be a self-fulfilling prophecy that way. I needed nothing less than I needed getting sucked into those mind games.

I didn't need a book to tell me my destiny. I put my hand on the communication device. I'd accept the invitation. The government was looking at experimental time travel to the past. I could do some good and get home.

I was never built for adventure anyway.