I was in Mr. G.'s old classroom at Winslow. What? But Winslow was destroyed! I was also smaller. What the hell had happened? Had I been hit by some sort of Stranger illusion? But no, what would be the point? This seemed real to me, if very odd. And even if I had, I'd have to trust my teammates back in the real world to get me out. Either way, it would probably be best to treat this like the real world and just keep my eyes out for anything weird.
I glanced around the room and found it. "Taylor," I breathed out. I started to tear up. Taylor was dead. We killed her, and now someone was obviously tormenting me by showing her alive. I wasn't sure what to do. I….I didn't want to deal with this. But if Taylor was alive in this dream world, I'd have to make it up to her somehow. But how?
Then a horrible, but sort of wonderful at the same time, thought occurred to me. If Taylor was alive and Winslow wasn't destroyed, did this mean we were in the past? Were Emma, Sophia, and I still…bullying her? Well, not anymore. Even if I had to make myself the target for Emma and Sophia again, I wasn't going to let the bullying continue, and I was absolutely going to prevent Taylor's death this time.
My musings were interrupted by the bell ringing. I watched as Taylor marched determinedly out of the classroom, then snapped out of a slight trance to pack up and rush out into the hallways after her. I needed to catch up to her and apologize and make sure the others backed off. I rushed out, nearly tripping as I got used to my smaller legs—another point of evidence in favor of the time travel theory—and looked back and forth in the hallway, but I couldn't see where she had gone. I resolved to search the halls until I found her. Taylor's death and bullying had been the biggest mistakes in my life, and if this was really an opportunity to fix them, I was going to do everything in my power to do so.
But where would she be? Taylor never ate in the cafeteria anymore, it was too easy for us to find her. Another pang of remorse filled my chest, and I had to remind myself what I had told Riley—I wasn't that person anymore, I was doing good now, and I'd never be that person again if I didn't want to be. And I didn't want to be. I was a hero now.
I couldn't find Taylor for a long time; she wasn't anywhere we'd found her in the halls before, which made some sense, but I wasn't sure where she could be. Eventually I decided to check the bathrooms, feeling even worse about it. Who bullies someone so hard that they have to eat lunch on the toilet to escape? Oh right, me. In the second bathroom I checked, the lights were off for some reason. I flicked the light switch on and saw there was one stall with the door locked. Feeling vaguely creepy, I glanced at the gap at the bottom of the stall door and couldn't see feet. So she probably was hiding in there. I knocked on the door, but there was no response. I knocked a little more insistently, tentatively asking, "Is anybody in there?"
"It's occupied," was the response. I recognized the timid, squeaky voice immediately.
"Emma? What are you doing in there? It's me, Madison."
"I don't…leave me alone, I don't want to talk about it."
I had a sudden flash of inspiration. "Emma, is something weird going on? Are you…" I almost asked 'Are you wondering how you got here,' but if she wasn't, I didn't want to look weird. Instead, I looked around to make sure nobody else was in earshot, then asked, "Oversight?"
"What? What's Oversight?" Oh, I guess not. I had thought for a moment she might be from my time as well. "But Madison, this probably sounds crazy, but I think I travelled back in time." Oh, I guess I was right. But if she didn't answer to the name Oversight, what would that mean? Maybe she was from earlier than me, before she got her new name? "I knew you were going to think I was crazy. Just don't tell anyone, please," Emma continued, sounding panicked.
"No, wait, I don't think you're crazy! Me too!"
A pause. "What?"
"Me too! I'm pretty sure I also travelled back in time. We just…well, we just killed Jack Slash. When did you come from? I think it was probably earlier."
"What?" Emma sounded shocked. She opened the stall door and I could see her surprised face, as well as two small shadow monsters. I almost yelped and ran away, but she was petting them, so they were hopefully harmless. "What do you mean, you killed Jack Slash?!" Yeah, something weird was going on here. Even if we were both time travelers, I was pretty sure we weren't from the same timeline.
Madison is from Atonement by Cerulean and Emma is from Nyctophobia by Lord K.