Chapter 28: A look into the past

I woke up to the sound of a knock at the door. I bolted up, screamed, and started to try to protect my body. The door opened and a young nurse and an old man wearing a lab coat were standing there. I stared at them like a deer in head lights and slowly uncurled from the fetal position. "Oh, um… hi?" I stuttered out as I sat back up.

The nurse looked at me funny and then scribbled something on a clipboard. The old man turned to the nurse. "Thank you Nancy, I can take it from here," the nurse nodded and shut the door.

He pulled up a chair and sat down. "Hello Ms. Desiree Stoll," he said.

I stared at him. "What? My name is Charlotte Behr," I insist.

He smiles. "You have your Nan's eyes, of course you're Desiree Stoll. Also, I can see through the mist, you can't fool me,"

I stared at him. "Who are you?"

"Dr. Miles Potter, but that's not important," he replied. "What's important is why are you here and why did you blow up New York?"

I dropped the British accent. "It wasn't my fault!" I argued. "They killed almost everybody I loved! They killed my fiancé for crying out loud! I had no idea what that button was for!" I started crying. "It wasn't my fault!"

"Okay, okay, it wasn't your fault, I understand," he said softly. In his coat pocket he pulled out a syringe. I stared at it. The liquid inside of it was brown.

"What's that?" I ask.

"It's something that will make your hair grow out as brown since you're now Charlotte Behr," he replied as he took my arm and rubbed some disinfectant on it. He didn't do it like regular doctors did it when they just rub it on like they're trying to get rid of a stain, he did it very gently. "Plus it will alter your DNA so if you ever decide to have children then they have a high chance of getting brown hair, instead of blonde since none of your fake parents are blonde,"

Almost fatherly even. It reminded me of the times I scraped my knee on the sidewalk and my daddy would do that too. I blinked a couple times and watched as he inserted the needle and injected the brown liquid slowly into my arm. He took out a Band-Aid and unwrapped it then placed it on the open hole on my arm.

"There," he said. "Now when your hair grows you don't have to worry about dying it all the time," A smile spread across his face that outlined his crow's feet and the ()'s on his face.

"Um, thank you," I replied. He got up to leave. "Wait!" he turned around.

"Yes?"

"How do you know my grandmother?" I watched him sit back down.

"It was college; I met her there when we were lab partners in chemical science. That was when we hit it off. We'd always hang out with each other and she showed me the city even though she wasn't even from New York,"

He paused for a moment and blinked. "Katie was beautiful. Your grandfather was lucky to have her. Ev'ry time I saw her she took my breath away. But I saw that she was content with that git so I didn't say anything. Eventually I left America, we went our separate ways. I saw her live her life with that man; she had your dad and your aunts. And of course all of them were good-lookin' due to her and that boy. But honestly she deserved better,"

"Wait, so you liked my grandma?" I asked. It was odd hearing her name since I've never seen the women or known her by anything else than: My grandmother. "You had a thing for a woman who had a boyfriend and then husband?"

"For a while yes, but then I got married, I moved on, we continued being friends, that's all."

We talked for a while until he left. I was left all alone, again. Then these two girls came bursting in.

"CHAR! OH MY GOD! YOU'RE HERE!" the blonde girl screamed.

"Shh! Hollis, we're in a damned hospital!" the black girl said in a whisper. She turned to me. "Oh, hello Char,"

I stared at them. "I'm sorry but who are you?" I asked.

They looked at each other. The blonde girl named Hollis bit her bottom lip. "Oh my god, Madison, she doesn't remember us!"

"No duh Hollis, she doesn't remember anything from the past so of course she doesn't remember us," Madison said.

"Oh, oh yea,"

I still stared at them. "Who are you again? Because you're creeping me out," I said truthfully.

"Char! We're your best friends!" The blonde named Hollis yelled.

"Hollis, will you stop yelling? You're just scaring her!" Madison said. Madison turned to me. "Anyway, I'm Madison Noble and the screaming blonde is Hollis Adams. I've known you since primary school and we both met Hollis since the end of secondary and into Uni."

I blinked. "Okaaay, explain more please,"

Hollis pulled up a chair and Madison did the same. "You guys met me because I spilt coffee on your lap!" she piped. "I don't even know how you forgave me since I almost burnt your legs though,"

"You work as a vocal coach for some famous people," Madison explained. I smiled a little bit. It was nice that I was still working in the music business.

They told me some important things like that I was an only child, that I liked mint ice cream, I loved the night, etc.

"Tell me about past boyfriends," I said.

Hollis looked at me funny. "I would think that nobody would want to think about some blokes from the past,"

"Trust me, I need to know everything," I replied.

"Well, there was this bloke named Erin…"

We talked and talked for hours on end and I laughed. It surprised me the first time since I haven't laughed in such a long time but over time I got used to the sound of being happy.

'Happy,' I thought, 'Wow, that's what it must feel like'.

Once they left I smiled to myself. It was great that Charlotte chose such great friends.

Over time I got used to being called Charlotte, but inside I still knew that I was Desiree Katherine Stoll, the woman that bombed NYC.

Over the past year of staying at the mental hospital I start to learn about my fake life. I learn that I was an only child, that I had braces when I was 12, and all the things you need to know about yourself which is everything.

I sat on the hospital bed staring outside. "Are you sure about this?" I asked holding the phone to my ear.

"Yes," he replied. His voice was soft like a feather and I have come to love that voice ignoring the guilt in my stomach about a dead man who had been dead for almost a year and a half. "Since you have nowhere to stay you can just move in with me in my shitty flat,"

I laughed. "Trent, it's not shitty, it's just small,"

"Now you're just being nice," he laughs. "You've been over there; you know it's shitty,"

I roll my eyes. "Okay, you're right, it is shitty. But it will be our shit hole,"

"Oh, how romantic, our little shit hole whereas we live our beautifully shitty lives,"

"You're such a romantic," I teased.

"Only for you dear," he replied. I blushed and didn't say anything back. "Oh, sorry," he said after a while.

"It's okay, I'm getting better," I yawn as I stare at the night sky. "After all, I'm getting out of here…" I pause and look at the clock. It's one in the morning. "Well, today,"

"You sound tired," he says as he yawns. "Better get some sleep. Bye, love you,"

I blinked for a moment before responding with, "Love you too,"

Then I hung up. I set the phone down and just as I did it the door was kicked open. A man with golden eyes was staring at me. "Desiree Katherine Stoll?" he asked. He was a young man but his voice sounded all old and metallic.

"Who are you?" I asked. On instinct I grabbed for my sword which was in my bra cup still (That's where I always kept it anyway).

He laughed. "Oh, I am your great, great grandfather young woman," he laughed as he stopped time for a moment and then made it move again. "And I am here on a mission,"

"What the hell do you want Kronos?" I yelled. "You're evil!"

"As are you young one, as are you," he replied. "Now, Desiree Katherine Stoll—"

"Wait, why do you look so young?" I asked.

He rolled his eyes. "I just jumped into the nearest male body,"

"Oh, like I'd be so familiar with people jumping," I said sarcastically.

I expected for Kronos to stop time for me to annoy me but he just smiled. "You'd make a great host for me if I was into being a woman, but alas, I am here on a mission,"

"What mission?" I asked.

He sighed. "Never in my lifetime would I help out the gods, but for once, I agree with them. The gods and titans are being forced to resign being alive and reproducing because of your bastard aunt and brother pointing out how we're hypocrites. So our last thing that we need to do is to make you forget about your past life," he pulled out a syringe. "With this,"

I stared at him. The syringe wasn't really godlike and mythical so it threw me off. "Do you think I don't?" I ask.

He smiled. "I know part of you doesn't want to," he replies as he twirls around the syringe with his fingers. "Part of you doesn't want to forget that fake ass blonde that sang and danced on stage for a living."

I stared at him. How could people see right through me so easily? "What do I get in return?" I asked.

He started pacing the room, still smiling and twirling around the syringe. "I knew you would have said that," he replies. "You're just like that damn Stoll that started this whole mess." I had to think for a while until I came up with my grandfather.

"Tell me," I repeated. "What do I get in return?"

He digs something out of his pocket. It's a digital wristwatch. "You get this,"

I stare at it. "A damn wristwatch?"

He rolls his eyes. "No! It's a time traveling device. The gods know that you've always were curious about your past. Well, now we're giving you this to look back into the past of the people before you," he smirks a little bit. "But I don't know why you'd want to, your grandparents and their offspring were pretty useless, pawns they were."

I tried not to smack the time titan standing before me. "Okay, how does it work?" I ask.

"Well, you see, this watch doesn't tell the time. It simply says how many minutes or days or years you have to stay in that moment in somebody's life. See, how there's numbers here, these are how many years you're going to live,"

The numbers flittered across the screen. I only had 53 years to live and thirteen days to live. It seemed reasonable enough. He went on, "So whenever you time travel you only have a certain amount of time to be in that moment in time,"

"So when does it start?"

"The moment you put on that watch," he traced his thumb on the surface of the face. "Now, do you accept?"

I furrowed my eyebrows and stared at it even more. Did I want to forget about my past right after I viewed it? Did I want to forget about my family, my friends, and my entire life as Desiree Stoll? Did I want to just be Charlotte Behr, that girl who just came from nowhere?

I took the watch. "Good," he replied as he walked over to the little desk in my room and set down the syringe. "And if you don't do what we ask of you then we'll know, and we'll kill your brother."

"My brother has nothing to do with this," I argued.

"Yes, but he's the last of your kind," he seethes as he walks to the door. "Now, goodbye Charlotte,"

He opened the door and left. I ran to the small closet in the room and pulled out some clothes Madison and Hollis bought me and slipped into them so I wouldn't be running around in a hospital gown.

As I checked myself in the mirror I stared at the syringe filled with golden liquid that would make me forget. I looked away from it and then strapped on the wristwatch.

Slowly the room was disappearing and I saw a bathroom.

I saw a man that looked like my father sitting on the toilet seat (it was down, he wasn't doing his business you sickos) holding a baby. He looked about 18 or 19. He was holding a small baby as he stared at the bathtub that was slowly filling with water.

I was standing right in front of him but yet he didn't see me. I waved my hand in front of his face a couple of times before realizing he couldn't see me. I ran to the mirror and I couldn't see myself back in the reflection.

Kronos didn't say anything about this but I guess it was okay that I was invisible because if I was just sitting in the bathroom and then suddenly a strange woman popped out of nowhere, then I would be pretty freaked out.

"Dad?" I asked even though he couldn't hear me.

"Oh god, I can't do this," the man choked as tears ran down his face. "Why would she do this to me? I'm only 19! I can't take care of a baby!"

The baby in his arms started crying. He freaked a little bit and swore then he started to rock the baby gently in his arms. "I'm not a bad person goddamn it! This is for your own good Katherine! I can't take care of you! I can barely take care of myself!"

Katherine? Did my dad have some baby named Katherine that I didn't know about? I almost choked when I realized my middle name was Katherine and I was named after a baby that my father had to take care of when he was 19 and that disappeared.

But where was Katherine today? Then I realized why he was running a bath. It wasn't for his own enjoyment of taking baths.

It was for drowning a small infant named Katherine.

Crap, was my dad a baby drowner?

But then he started talking in Greek. Not Ancient Greek, the Greek they used now. My dad didn't speak Modern Greek…

This wasn't my father.

I checked my watch and I saw the date. It was March 7th, 1993.

Katherine was my grandmother.


DUN, DUN, DUN! What will happen to Katie? Oh, well you know since she stays alive until she's like 40 something.

And what I'm doing with the whole time travel thing is basically to summarize all three books via Desiree's POV. Crazy, I know. Plus I want to tell Vincent's story since I feel like he's been left out. I've been thinking about this part of the story for such a long time like when Rise of The Planet of the Apes came out and I got the whole drowning in a bathtub thing from that (I'm so creative).

Oh yea, I found my real life Vincent. It's the actor Harry Lloyd made me think that. Because yesterday I was watching Doctor who and when I looked at him closely it rang a bell in my head and goddamn it it was Vincent Maxwell Stoll if he was crazy!

So thanks for reading! Sorry for the short chapter!