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This story is a part of the 2nd Kasarberang Story Contest, check out everybody else competing at the link! Hello everyone. This is my first story here, and kinda my first anywhere that isn't an unfinished NaNo (but we all have those... right?). Either way, this takes place in a setting I created for some RP with close friends, called Time ABerrations. I'll leave the details for the story to disclose, but as the name implies, there's time travel shenanigans that are being used to regress the main character through twisting his past. If it matters, he's never going to be any younger than he currently is, but he may recall events from his past as the story progresses. Anyway, enjoy the first chapter. It's mostly setup, but that's how these things go. I welcome any feedback, and I'm already working on Chapter 2. Thanks for reading! Chapter 1 Oliver was lost and alone, sitting at the end of an unmade bed in the cheapest motel he could find, trying to understand where it all went wrong. It had been several weeks since he moved to the city, and every hope, every plan he had coming in had dissolved into dust, leaving him here. No job. No apartment. No hope. It wasn’t that way just a month before. Back then he and his three best friends from college all had careers lined up in the big city, and had e-signed their lease to all live together. Ben had already started writing for the hottest new news startup, Kyle was setting up his high-end laptop with the latest CAD software, and Thomas was sketching layout ideas while paging through his company’s website. As for Oliver, he was told the company’s code was proprietary, and that required its hardware remain on site. Not an uncommon issue, but it did leave him with a gap to fill, so he packed his car and moved early. After all, the apartment was already waiting for him, and he could use the time to get some basic supplies and scope out the city. As Oliver drove out to the city, his car still half empty, despite containing everything he owned, he could feel the future on the horizon, endless possibilities out here on the open road. With every mile, every hour, he dreamt of his future, and swore it would be a good one. See, Oliver wasn’t very outgoing, he only made his three friends in college by chance, and even they felt like they were always closer to each other than to him. But as that dark cloud of self-doubt started to well up, he just swore harder that things would be different this time. After all, he was in the prime of his life, well educated, with a clear, well-paying future ahead of him. All he had to do was be brave, and press on towards the horizon. One busted pipe was all it took for it all to start crashing down. “Sorry kid, we’re going to have to put you up in a hotel for a day or two til we get this sorted,” the manager grumbled at him. “Shouldn’t be much longer than that.” Oliver fell back on old habits, and nodded meekly, jotting down the address of the hotel, and hopping on the group chat with his roommates, telling them to wait before moving out. “No worries” “All good” "Have fun without us, bro!” He sighed, lying back on the memory foam mattress. They were right, nothing to worry about, it probably happens all the time. After all, the apartment manager did set him up with this pretty sweet hotel; it saved him a few days of having to figure out a bed and furniture. Oliver opened his phone and started scrolling mindlessly, letting the exhaustion of the day take him away shortly after. He awoke sometime just before noon, his phone buzzing away. “Uhm, hello,” he answered, trying to hide the sleep from his voice and failing. “Yeah, kid, look, no easy way to tell ya, but the apartment’s no longer available. I got some city guy up my ass about-“ he continued on, but Oliver didn’t hear him. That old familiar fear gripped his throat, and he had to fight back tears. “Kid? Hey, you there?” “O-oh, y-yes,” Oliver replied, his voice cracking, tongue dry, and body numb. “Great. Now tell your friends you gotta find somewhere else. Corporate will forward you any rent you’ve paid sometime in the next three months.” The line went dead, and that was it. Oliver just curled up under the blankets and slept until the midafternoon. When he awoke, he felt weak and smelled terrible. He dragged himself to the shower, but ended up lying in the tub, the shower pouring down on him while he sulked. He couldn’t stand to tell the guys that plans had fallen through, that they would need to find a new apartment at the last minute. He just didn’t want to do anything anymore. Lying there, staring up at the ceiling, he saw the light of his phone turn on. Then again, and again. He managed to stir himself enough to shut off the water, partly dry himself off, and check his phone. It was the group chat; apparently the apartment complex sent an email notifying them of the cancellation of their lease. At least that’s the awkward part of the conversation down. “Yo, Ollie, you good man?” Kyle texted first. Oliver always hated being called Ollie, his childhood bully used to call him that, and he never really got over her teasing, not really. “It’s alright dude, we all called our bosses. They’ve got telework set up for us,” Ben followed. “We should definitely look at somewhere local after we get our deposits back though. Three months is HARSH though,” Thomas added, and the conversation continued from there about finding somewhere later on, including some links to places with availability that far out, but none sooner. They had gone and figured it out without him, so he just replied with an unenthusiastic “K.” He didn’t want to be stuck in limbo for three months, but he could figure something out, for sure. Things still sucked, but he could see the horizon again. Oliver ended up getting some cheap fast food, then turning in for the night, hopeful tomorrow would be a better day. He awoke early, hopeful, wanting for some good news, and so he got dressed, hit up the complimentary breakfast, and decided to stop by his office. He wanted to go get a glimpse of his future again. Even if he didn’t start for another two weeks, he was sure he could at least get in and say hi. He punched the address into his GPS, and drove to the far end of the city. He must have missed it, or made a wrong turn, or typed in the GPS wrong, or… something, because the lot he stopped at was entirely vacant. There were a few warehouses down the street, but nothing resembling an office building of any kind. Scrambling, Oliver checked everything, made sure the GPS address matched the website, ran out of the car to the street sign, but it all matched. He was in the right place, but there was nothing here. Oliver frantically pulled up his boss’s contact and called him, but the number was disconnected. “How did I screw this up?” he asked, on the verge of full blown panic. He took and aced a skills test, did a quick interview and got along great. All the paperwork had been online, something he though marked a modern company, one willing to embrace a fast paced digital world, not… not this. Not a scam. His legs gave out as he realized he gave them everything. His social, his bank account number, everything someone would need to take his identity and leave him with nothing. He didn’t cry though, he was too afraid for that. His shaky hands gripped the steering wheel and he sped along. There was an ATM for his bank not far from here; he noted it on the way in as a nice way to grab some cash after payday. “Where, where, where…” he whispered to himself, too afraid to speak any louder. “It has to be… there!” he yanked the wheel to turn in to the ATM, hitting the curb in the process, but making into the parking lot. Oliver ran up the ATM, fumbling with his wallet and card, and even typed in his pin wrong the first time before calming himself down enough to do it right. The dots swirled on the screen, loading his balance…. $278.48. He had nearly five thousand in there before he left. They must have left just enough so he didn’t notice immediately. He withdrew all that he could, $270 in cash, that’s all he had to his name anymore. He had never opened a credit card, but it wasn’t like it would do any good with his identity stolen. Oliver climbed back into his car and sobbed for hours. His luck continued to tumble. The wheel of his car that hit the curb now had a dangerous wobble to it, so highway driving was out of the question. The hotel the apartment manager set up for him was cancelled along with the lease, so he moved down to a cheap motel, but even that was burning through his cash too fast. He tried applying to every software firm he could find, but by his calculations by the time he even got his foot in the door for an interview, he would be homeless. As his situation worsened, he grew desperate. He had to sell his car to get enough money to keep going, and lowered his expectations, applying to fast food and retail stores, but now that he didn’t have reliable transportation, he couldn’t get in there either. And so, here he was, alone and hopeless. He could have reached out to his friends, or to his parents, but doing so would be admitting defeat, so he just left their messages on read, and hoped for one last chance to turn it around. Meanwhile, unknown to Oliver, Rose watched, and waited. Compared to her big sisters, she was almost nothing, but she was still a Daughter of Time, an Anomaly given will and purpose. Such small deviations were well within her power, and were all it took to bring him to his lowest. She smiled to herself, almost giddy at the idea of calling him her own. Tomorrow, she would finally get to bring her new baby home.