Time Loop Read online

  Copyright 2012-2017. All Rights Reserved, Jill Cooper. No part may be duplicated, reproduced, sold or distributed without permission.

  Cover by Laécrio Messias

  Edited by: Jacob Neff

  Chapter One

  “Fifteen minutes.”

  I turn toward the guard and nod. Biting my lip, I let out a long breath and stand up. Only seventeen, I’m in a pinstripe blazer and matching skirt. My curls are pinned back respectfully.

  It’s not an outfit I’m comfortable in; it’s like wearing someone else’s clothes. But I’ve been living someone else’s life for over a year, ever since I went back in time and messed up the future. The present.

  And this is my penance.

  Donovan stands beside me and takes my hand. Our fingers coil around each other and we lean in for a light, sweet kiss. I never thought I’d love him the way I do. In my past, I was with a boy I’d known all my life, but when I’m with Don, I’m light. My heart soars. I’m confident.

  “Nervous?” He nuzzles his nose against my cheek and I close my eyes.

  “Not anymore.” I smile and kiss his cheek.

  We linger in silence, but it’s comfortable. I relax against his chest and his arms draw around me in a protective cocoon. Nothing can hurt me when I’m so deep inside myself and with him. That’s the problem. I am in so deep; I can’t acknowledge the truth, even as it stares me in the face.

  When the door to the courtroom opens, I jump. The guard waves us in. Donovan makes his way to the seating area, and I keep my head high. I take my place behind the witness stand and raise my hand as instructed. The other one rests against the hardbound cover of a bible, soft but cracked beneath my fingers.

  It feels so real, that no one would even question it.

  Unless you knew the truth.

  “…tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”

  “I do.” Smoothing my skirt, I sit down. My eyes fall on the defense table where Senator Patricia James sits. She is Donovan’s mother and the one who nearly killed me, my mom, and my entire family, all in the name of illegal time travel research. Everything I’d done was to stop her, and now she’s going to pay the price.

  If I can just ignore that the clock on the back wall is spinning backward.

  My eyes close and I take a shaky breath.

  “Can you recount how you knew Joyce Meyers?”

  My fingers twist together; exactly how my insides feel. My eyes sweep over the courtroom and I see my family—my brother and sister; Jax, my step-father; Mom, with her famous curls that exactly mirror mine. Behind them sits Dad, the man who’d lost ten years of his life to prison, thanks to Patricia James.

  I wet my lips and bend forward to speak. “She wrote an article exposing the illegal research that Rewind was doing. I was her source.”

  A hush falls over the crowd. The prosecutor smiles and approaches me. He leans against the wooden divider that separates us. “And were you there to give her evidence on the day in question?”

  “Yes, sir.” I lick my lips again. I just can’t get a handle on my emotions. My eyes flutter from the senator’s face to the clock and back to the prosecutor. “I hid in the closet. I saw Senator Patricia James and some men enter the apartment. They killed Joyce Meyers in front of me. When they searched the apartment… I snuck out.”

  “Why don’t you tell us what happened last May, Lara?”

  I took a deep breath. “I escaped from the hospital and went to my friend for help. Rick. I thought he was helping me, but he’d been paid off by the senator’s men to help apprehend me. I was captured, along with my family, to stop me from spilling the truth.”

  “For the record, Ms. Montgomery, is this the same Rick Miller who pled no contest to kidnapping charges?”

  “Yes.” My breath shakes and I struggle to maintain eye contact, but it’s important. I want the jury to see I’m telling the truth. I want to show them I’m strong.

  “What happened when you were in captivity?”

  I glance at the studious faces of the jury. “They performed experiments on me. They wanted to create the perfect time traveler.”

  “For?” the prosecutor says.

  “Objection,” the defense attorney interrupts. “Leading.”

  The prosecutor rephrases. “Do you know why they were performing experiments on you?”

  I nod. “They told me. They want to create the perfect assassin and control the future; someone who can slip in and out of time, without any government body able to regulate it.”

  The questions drone on, and when they are done with me, I am exhausted, but glad it’s done. That my part in the story is over.

  I step down from the stand and smile at my family, ignoring the penetrating glare from the defense’s table. I ignore the eyes that follow me. I take Donovan’s hand and we step out of the courtroom.

  Taking a deep breath, I lean against the wall, but a small, satisfied smile dances across my face. Donovan caresses my arms and kisses my forehead. “You did it. I’m so proud of you.”

  “So am I. I just want to put everything behind us. All of us. You know?”

  “We’ll get there,” he says softly and caresses my chin. Such a small movement and it makes my heart skip a beat. “How about I take you out of here now for some ice cream?”

  “Yum.” I grin and take his hand. We start down the hall toward the elevator. Donovan pushes the down button and we wait. He plays with my hair and I rest my head against his shoulder.

  The elevator dings.

  We wait for the doors to swoosh open. A dark figure wearing a ski mask is inside. His arm is held out straight, a gun trained on me.

  “Lara!” Donovan screams and pushes me out of the way as the gun goes off.

  I drop to the ground, my shoulder taking the bulk of the shock. With a grimace, I sit up as the dark figure races down the hall away from us.

  “Donovan!” I screech. My eyes fall tol on his crumpled body on the tile beside the elevator. His skin has already turned pasty and there is blood on his buttoned shirt. I press my hand to his stomach and he cringes.

  This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. This isn’t supposed to happen.

  “Just a … flesh wound.” Donovan whispers with a grin, but his eyes are lidded and the color left in his face fades fast.

  My teeth grit. “You hold on. I’ll get an ambulance on the phone. You’re going to be fine, you hear me? Just hold on?”

  People swarm into the hall, charging to see what’s happened. My hands tremble as I search for my phone, but I can’t find it. Then I remember I left it on my bedroom dresser that morning.

  Damn it. Of all the days to forget my phone.

  My jaw tenses. My skin burns with rage. “Rex!” I scream. The pounding in my head, the one I’ve spent so much time wishing would go away, returns.

  And then, this fantasy of my life, the fleeting happiness, disappears. It disintegrates around me one pixel at a time until there is nothing there but me.

  Into the darkness, it all fades.

  I blink my eyes and real life breathes and sways in front of me.

  I’m in a cage.

  ****

  The walls of my cage are made of plexiglass and I am in the center of a large room.

  I tear the electrodes from my head and slide my legs over the side of the bed. I’m wearing white sneakers and matching hospital scrubs, as if I’m a patient; but what I am is worse. When I stand, my legs wobble and I grab the edge of the bed to stabilize myself.

  Somewhere a door opens and I hear footsteps approach. There’s a small clacking as heels meet the floor. Not enough to be a woman. I sneer as I grab the only chair in the room and fling it at the plexiglass. I know the wall won’t break, but I’m so angry I can’t contain myself.


  Rex has the face of my step-father, Jax. But his hair is black instead of blond and there’s a nasty scar down the side of his face. He glances down at the chair and then up to my face. His smirk makes me want to tear into his flesh, and I would, if the cage didn’t separate us.

  “You told me I could keep Donovan. I need him. Give him back to me.” My hands clench into fists, even though there’s nothing I can do. I’m a rat in a cage; a highly functional, time traveling rat, but caged, I’m completely at their mercy.

  “And you, my darling Lara, require some additional motivation. I could promise you a room with a comfortable bed, maybe some music, but I know that won’t be enough for you. But Donovan…” Rex smiles and I quiver from a sudden rush of cold.

  I cross my arms. “Bring him back. Turn it into a flesh wound.”

  Rex raises his eyebrows. “Sorry, I can’t do that darling. That’s up to you.”

  My heart stutters. “Me?”

  “We’ll plug you back in. Then you can travel back in time to save Donovan’s life, for what it’s worth,” he snarls.

  He might as well ask me to build the Golden Gate Bridge as far as I’m concerned. I promised myself no more time travel, real or imaginary, and I refuse to give him what he wants.

  “You want me to jump back in time? It’s virtual. It’s not real.” My eyes fill with tears at the truth of my words. I’m not with my parents. I’m not with Donovan. Whenever I try, I find I’m just in a layer deeper. Rex has me trapped and I don’t know what to do.

  Every day I am a step closer to becoming the woman with the purple hair—the time travel assassin they want me to be.

  But I can’t. I won’t.

  I resist; I pull, but my will to survive is fading. And I’m fading along with it.

  “Perhaps”—Rex’s smile chills me—“but your brain, your emotions, thinks it’s real. And that belief will play out the same. We can study your brain. See how you do it.”

  “So you can duplicate the effects?” My skin shivers. “No thanks.”

  He steps up to the cage and grits his teeth. “Then we will plug you back in and you will experience his death … every … day. We will make you suffer and slowly rip away everyone you love. Dear Mommy. Daddy. Baby sister.” His lip curls.

  I back away from the glass without thinking. My fingers curl into fists. I think back to the day all this started. The cage lights up as I tap into my time travel ability without meaning to. The coils above my head radiate heat and emit a golden glow that is punctuated by a hum. The pain hits my head all at once. Gripping it I fall to my knees, groaning.

  Rex continues as if he isn’t witnessing my pain. “There’s only one way to end all this. Plug back in. Do what we ask.” Rex’s voice is so even and calm, he might as well have just asked me to make toast.

  He’s lying. I know he is. I shake my head, causing rivers of pain. They jolt through me. I can’t remember anything before the pain. It’s been everything for so long; over a year. Is anyone looking for me? Has everyone forgotten me?

  Does anyone remember who I am?

  I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.

  “You’ll never let me go.” My chest heaves. I hold my breath and wait for his answer, but I know the truth is in my words. Not his.

  “If you stop fighting us, it doesn’t have to be like this. We can give you anything you want. You just need to cooperate. Do a few small things.” He’s smooth like milk chocolate, but I know Rex is just a bitter pill.

  “Whatever you give me won’t be real.”

  “Fine.” Rex’s jaws clinch firmly together. “Maybe you would like to live in the real world for a while. Feel that pain. Is that what you want, Lara?”

  What I want he won’t give me. I want to go free. I want to see my family again. I want anything but this.

  “Bring her some food,” Rex speaks into the air, as though someone is listening, but I’ve known there is, for a long time. Someone is always watching me, even while I’m unconscious.

  “And bring her some newspapers,” Rex sneers and walks away.

  Newspapers. It’s what I’ve been asking for. Proof that things on the outside are as bad as Rex says. But if he’s willing to give me what I want, with no negotiation, I know two things.

  I can’t trust him. And the news must be bad.

  Real bad.

  Chapter Two

  I thought I’d broken free. But I’m wrong.

  I went back in time to Rick’s apartment and escaped capture. That really happened, but when I met up with Donovan, I thought I had traveled back in time to stop Rex from killing my mother. I thought I’d apprehended him.

  But it’s all a figment. A lie. Virtual reality plugged into my brain so Rex could see what I would do next. So they could study my brain waves, when I believe I’m traveling in time, saving my family time and again.

  And again.

  Now, I know I am stuck in an endless loop and that knowledge allows me to remember—really remember what happened the night Rick turned on me.

  ****

  Rick chases after me. “Wait!”

  I hurry past the van and make a break for the curb. Shielding my eyes, I hear movement to my side and then gunfire. I leap to the ground, ducking behind a light post and an old newspaper vending machine for cover. I look up at the glowing Dunkin’ Donuts sign covered by a dream-like fog. It shatters under a hailstorm of bullets.

  I cover my head as a set of tires squeals. Donovan’s sports car pulls up to the curb to cover me. I dive into the passenger seat, my head down low, and scream, “Go!”

  Donovan peels away from the curb, spins a 180 and drives back the way he came. His eyes stay on the road, but his hand squeezes mine. “You all right?”

  I nod and clutch the duffle bag to my chest. “Keep driving.”

  “Where?” His eyes flash from the road to me.

  “Police station. I need you to drop all this stuff off in case I don’t return.”

  Anxiety creeps into his voice. “Return? Return from where?”

  “The past.”

  “Lara, you’re not making any sense.”

  “I know, and I’m sorry.” I bite my lip. “There’s no time to explain. I need to fix all of this so my dad is never framed and Molly is never kidnapped, and there’s only one way to do that. I need to go back to the beginning.”

  Donovan drives under an old, abandoned bridge. He cuts the engine and turns to me. His eyes study me, and I study him because I’m afraid the next time I see him he won’t love me at all.

  “How do we do that? Do we need to get into Rewind?”

  I shake my head and stroke his cheek. “Not anymore.”

  The features of his face are drawn together. “You never make things dull, you know that?”

  I laugh and lean over. In the background, sirens wail and I heard a rush of footsteps. “Remember me when I’m gone.”

  “Don’t talk like that. I could never forget you, Lara.”

  When our lips meet, the moment is magical. I feel warm everywhere in the blanket of his love, understanding, and compassion. My mind opens up, and suddenly I remember everything.

  Everything.

  I wish to stay with him forever. I grip his jacket, and his arms squeeze me tight.

  But in my mind, I see an alley. I see—

  The doors yank open. I squeal and someone grabs me. His hand clamps a cloth over my mouth and the fumes sting my nose. He pulls me from the car, and my heels drag along the pavement. I can barely keep my eyes open. I throw a glance across the car and see Donovan.

  One of the thugs twists his arm behind his back and forces him to his knees. “Lara!” he screams and the thug grips his shoulders.

  “What do we do about the senator’s son?”

  “Don!” I shriek as a warning. Donovan fights even as my insides scream for him not to. He swings wild, taking out one of the thugs, and springs to my location.

  A gun goes off.

  Donovan’s eyes grow wide
right as he reaches me. Shot in the back, I watch the pin prick of blood on his chest spread into a pool. His body drops like a sack of rocks to the pavement.

  Behind him the cool, calculating eyes of Rex Montgomery. I won’t rest until he pays. I won’t rest until he’s dead.

  “You killed the senator’s son!”

  I scream in terror. The drugs, or whatever they clamped on my mouth, have worn off. I kick and fight as they lift me up and carry me into the back of the van. That damn van. That stupid van.

  They toss me inside and I clank against the metal floor. I cringe as Rex puts his hands on me to keep me still. “Let me go!” I wail. I scream. I fight.

  “What are we going to do with her?” someone I can’t see asks. The van speeds away.

  “Soon she won’t remember any of this.” Rex smiles coolly at me. “You tried to run and now you have gotten the senator’s son killed. She is going to be most foul with you, Lara.”

  Already on the floor of the van, I crumple into myself. My body quakes into a painful cry. I did everything I could think of to change time, to get away. But they still caught me.

  And now Donovan’s dead.

  ****

  I hope it’s all a lie. I hope it’s nothing more than a made-up memory, used to break my spirit.

  But now, after eating a sandwich and some Jell-O, I know it’s not. In front of me are various papers from the past year, and the one I hold in my hand contains Donovan’s obituary. I saved it for last, but they were all equally bad.

  Molly is still missing.

  Jax is arrested and jailed for embellishing money from The Rewind Agency. His angry tirade claiming he was set up land him in the psych ward. Then he went missing in the middle of the night. No sign or trace. An enigma.

  Mom hasn’t been seen since the day Rex kidnapped us all.

  And Dad, oh God, Dad was killed during an attempt to escape prison once he’d heard the news that I had disappeared without a trace.

  Nothing is left. It’s all gone. And unless I get out of this cage, I can never try to go back in time to fix it.