Crossing The Threshold (editing)

He looked like I was out of my mind. I would have too if I were someone else, but we have to accept reality, and we need to do it quickly.

    "Theo are you messing with me...no you couldn't be." He looked as though he was computing everything in his head, but I didn't have any time to wait for him to catch up. I looked down at my watch, trying to turn it on. It wasn't working. Of course. We are in an entirely different time period, even before the internet was invented. Nothing from our time could survive here.

I swiveled around Carmen while he was doing whatever it is Carmens do and stalked towards the door, looking out of the small rectangle window to see was was outside this room. It was a brightly lit hallway lined with other windows that showcased a garden on either side, and further down a vertical hallway lined with more doors. I heard distinct chatters, and quickly ducked out of the way to avoid being seen. I backed up, and bumped into Carmen, who was creepily peeking out above me, taking advantage of the slight height difference.

    "Alright, so we came through a portal."

    "Correct."

    "And now it's closed."

    "Correct."

    "And I lost a scientist."

    "You did what."

    "So how are we going to get out of here unnoticed?" I started thinking, analyzing the situation beyond the door.

    "Can we rewind? I think I missed something." I was too focused on trying to get out of her to actually care about his inquisitions.

    "Okay here's what's going to happen. When the path is clear, we are gonna exit this room conspicuously. Try not to bring too much attention to yourself, please. We have to find Dante Caruso, and swiftly. Who knows what kind of trouble that kid could make."

    "Hold on-"

    "One,"

    "Wait Theodo-"

    "Two,"

    "Wait I'm no-"

    "Three."

    I opened the door and started walking down the hallway, dragging Carmen with me. We weren't exactly dressed to fit in, so it would be best if we got out quickly. He scuffled trying to keep up behind me. We turned down corners and I thought we were going to make it out safely, until we came to a staircase. As we tried to get closer, down the hallway, we heard a loud, "STOP RIGHT THERE." We halted in our tracks and whipped our heads toward the noise. To our surprise, he was pointing right at us. Without sparing another glance, we scrambled to the stairs, practically flying down them as he was hot on our tail. His constant yelling for us to stop only made us go faster.

We reached the bottom of the staircase and booked it for the first open door, slamming it behind us before he could catch up. I was breathing heavily, leaning against the door happy to finally find some rest. Carmen was behind me barely breaking a sweat, but quiet to hear footsteps of the security agent. After waiting a good 2 minutes, I relaxed, my shoulders dropping and my heartbeat returning to normal.
    "We got lucky." I stated, and Carmen chuckled.

    "Especially with you practically carrying me. You're lucky you didn't mess up my hair." I scoffed while he turned to the side and touched his hair up through the reflection of a glass cabinet.

    "Lucky about what?"

    I turned my head toward the direction of the stranger's voice, and was met with a tall blonde man who looked quite young. His hair was combed into an Ivy League hairstyle, wore a white overcoat over his gray suit and blue tie. Carmen's head almost turned a full 180° as he peered at the man, a frown falling across his face instantly.

    "I don't think that's any of your concern." He taut. I mentally facepalmed at this egotistical brick wall. "Hello..we are the newbies that work at this facility. We are looking for the lobby?" He stared at us for a while, as if he was trying to contemplate if we were lying or not. If he figured out or didn't, he played along anyways. "Wouldn't you have had to walk through the lobby to get to this part of the building in the first place?" I just dug a deeper hole. "As you know, newbies." I awkwardly laughed, which amused this suspecting man.

    "Well, if you're not going to tell me the truth, I might just have to turn you over to the proper authorities, have them take care of you." He sauntered over to his desk, and sat down, skimming through papers.

    I sighed, and looked over to Carmen, who was glaring at him with a look of intent. "Fine, we don't work here. Can you help us, and maybe not turn us in? We're in a bit of a bind." He looked up from his desk, a welcoming smile replacing his façade. He stood up from his desk, firmly placing his hands on it.

    "I know that you don't work here. You don't have an identification card attached to your uniform. Which brings me to the fact that you are dressed really oddly. Something so casual in a place of business is unacceptable to some, yet I've never seen anything like it. So tell me, who exactly are you?"

As I was beginning to retort back, Carmen interrupted, leaving me in a state of complete horror. "Look. You might not believe what I'm about to say, but I'm telling you the absolute truth when I say, that is? We're from the future."

I looked at him in bewilderment. How did he actually expect to receive sympathy from that outrageous alibi? Even I wouldn't believe that! "To your surprise, it is not the first time I've heard someone confess that to me today." My ears perked at that revelation. The only other person who could actually be stupid enough to blurt that out to a complete stranger has to be Dante.

"Did this other person happen to be named Dante, Dante Caruso?" I waited expectantly for his answer. If he'd seen Dante, the quicker I'd be able to leave and a step closer I am to harnessing the powers of the literal universe!

"Actually, yes. He just passed by here maybe 5 minutes ago. I can send you his directions if you want." That's weird. We only just arrived, and he's being so understanding of our situation. I glanced over to Carmen, and he was surely murdering him with his eyes. What is his problem? I pulled Carmen into a brief conference.

"Carmen, what's your problem with this guy, it's been 5 minutes." This guy was insufferable.
"None of your business." He gruffed immaturely. I give up on this guy. I can't wait to get back and be rid of his temper tantrums and constant degradation of not only me, but sadly himself.

"That would be great, thank you sir." I said looking back at blondie.

"My pleasure."

He exited out of a side door, and we both followed through. We were led down a series of hallways, one after the other becoming more desolate and frankly colder than that last. Every time someone looked over at us, blondie would nod towards them, and they'd head off.

"What is your name, by the way?" I may as well know the name of this gentleman. We reached a door that sat at the very end of a dead end. Upon opening it, he said, "Michael." I nodded up at him and entered the room, being introduced to a room practically stacked with materials and resources, potentially types that could be useful for our way back home.

"Do you think we'd be able to use this lab," choosing to play through our peculiar but very real situation,"to try to get back to our timeline?" He nodded, and I continued to look around while Carmen very well was reluctant to even step foot inside. Stubborn as a mule. I noticed that Dante wasn't here, so why were we brought to this place?

"Was Dante here?" I questioned. He looked at me as if he'd forgotten our entire agenda, but quickly replaced it with a slight look or surprise. "Yes I sent him here, but he must have left. Unfortunate." If I'm being completely honest, this Michael guy was kinda off putting, but this isn't the time for judgment of character. I had to find Dante and build an entire new 'time travel machine' without technology or internet trying to remember the process. I'll need a computer, to start. I glanced back at Carmen, who was looking at me like I was crazy. This whole thing was crazy. But divide and conquer, you know?