Chapter II:
last night was the last night of my past life
[1776]
Hylla was just a simple dishwasher at the nearby tavern, barely scraping by on tips from drunk patrons. Her mother was dead, and her father was a useless piece of cattle turd. All she had was herself.
"Go fetch more yak, girl!" The mean old grumpy owner yelled from across the room.
Doing as she was told, Hylla dried her hands with the dirty rag and went to go fetch another keg from the backroom.
That was when she saw him for the first time, a fleeting moment in the dead of night as he passed by on his horse. The only thing she registered were his sharp green eyes, alive from the dim fire of his torch.
And then she felt a sharp pull in her gut, roping her in as her world became dark.
-Ω-
[1980]
She had no idea what happened when she came too. All of a sudden she was standing in the middle of a large building, surrounded by loud people and bright, blinding lights. There was a sharp, mind-splitting pain at the back of her head.
Somebody grabbed her by the shoulder, and told Hylla that she was a Jumper. A person that randomly traveled through time. They told her the year, 1980. She didn't like it. At all.
But the weird sensation never came back, she couldn't will or control it. So she was stuck.
Until a couple months later, when the feeling returned while she was in the middle of watching a caterpillar build its cocoon. She didn't have time to say goodbye.
-Ω-
[1863]
Percy laid eyes on her for the first time, as him and his company of fellow Union soldiers marched down the roads towards Gettysburg. He had been here for over a year.
She was nothing out of the ordinary at first glance, just a simple girl who was watching them from the small window of her room. He had seen plenty like her before.
He gave her a small wave, and she returned the favor.
And then he blinked, and she was gone.
Perhaps it was just his imagination.
-Ω-
[2002]
Hylla didn't mind the 21st century. The people were nice enough, and there were even fancy new things that could connect her to a place called the Internet.
By now she was used to the "Jumping," which was what she liked to call it. She only got a mild case of nausea whenever she traveled, which was easily remedied with a cold glass of water.
She kept seeing him, though. The green-eyed boy, who by now was actually a young man. And for Hylla, well, she was no longer a girl either.
Their meetings, if you could even call it that, lasted for mere seconds. But she knew, that he knew, that she had seen him. He was there at almost every Jump.
It was almost like he was following her. Or maybe, she was following him.
-Ω-
[1944]
It happened again.
Percy was running from the soldiers, who were yelling in a foreign language that he couldn't understand, when he plowed into a random passerby.
"I'm so sorr—" He stopped when he realized it was her.
He could see the recognition in her dark, sharp eyes that haunted him for countless nights.
She smelled like...honey.
But he had to leave, or risk getting beaten up and locked in the slammer.
Percy hastily helped her back up to her feet, before sprinting down the alleyway and into the heart of the city.
-Ω-
[1969]
Even though the technology around wasn't the same as the 2090's, she still enjoyed her stay. It was relatively peaceful and unassuming.
Today specifically was July 16, 1969. The day humanity reached the surface of the moon. Hylla crowded around the static television and watched Neil Armstrong take his first steps, and utter his famous words.
Suddenly, her nostrils flared and picked up an obscenely strong scent of the ocean.
She whipped her head around, looking for the source, just in time to see the heel of a man's boot turn the corner down the street.
She knew it had to be him.
Hylla shoved her way out of the throng of people, and took off. Only to reach the intersection, and find no trace of him ever existing.
Two weeks later, Hylla was gone too.
-Ω-
[2021]
Percy couldn't fall asleep as he laid on the bare mattress of his bed.
All he could think about was her smell. It had been at least twenty jumps since he last saw her. He had aged ten years since then.
He wondered what her name was. He wondered what her hair felt like. He wondered what her voice sounded like.
She was the only other person he knew that could travel time.
Maybe they were connected. Somehow.
-Ω-
[1840]
Hylla was dying, she knew that she was dying.
Something went wrong with her latest Jump. And now she was on the side of a dirt road, coughing up blood.
Her vision was blurry, and her senses were numbed.
She curled up into a ball, closed her eyes, and breathed out.
-Ω-
[1863]
By pure luck, Percy ended up back in the first year that he met her.
He had been searching for years, and still hadn't gotten any indication that she still existed.
He would keep trying though, he had too.
Author's Note:
I don't even know what this is, to be honest. I read a bunch of time travel fics and combined the ideas to make my own, kind of.
Shoutout to parallaxyt for helping out with Hylla, go check him out he's a pretty cool guy and a real good writer. He's currently working on a Pertemis story, which given isn't my preferred cup of tea, but his story is a lot better than most. I think he also has a Perlia story coming out soon. Adios.
Disclaimer: Lyrics from Trevor Daniel's 'Past Life' ft. Selena Gomez.
