TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.1 - Of The Device

PART 1b: TIMELY DISCOVERY 2

Carrie tossed her covers aside, rubbing her eyes to try and clear the sleep from them. There was a knock at her bedroom door. "Hey, are you all right in there? Was that you screaming?" her father called out.

"I..." Carrie stopped, not sure what to say. Had she really seen a figure breaking into her room, or had she been dreaming? Wait, hadn't she closed her window before going to sleep?

Carrie scrambled out of bed and moved towards her window. There was what looked like fresh traces of dirt on the surface of the desk and the windowsill. She peered outside. Nothing immediately apparent, but if the person was quick, they might have made it down the tree and around the side of the house.

So someone had been here. And now that she thought about it, Carrie reasoned that the silhouette had been strangely familiar. Someone from school playing a trick on her? If so, Carrie didn't think it was very funny.

“Carrie? I’m coming in!" her father announced.

Carrie grabbed a couple of textbooks and stuck them down to conceal the few dirty smears on her desk as her door opened and the lights clicked on. If her dad found out about how she could use the tree out back to get onto the roof, he might chop off the branches - and her social life would be dead on arrival. She didn’t need that sort of aggravation during her first year in high school.

"It's all right!" Carrie said. "I... I had a bad dream and overreacted."

Her father paused. "Are you sure that’s all?” He took another step into her room. "It looks like you've broken something..."

Carrie blinked, and with the lights on she noticed for the first time the demise of her crystal swan. She choked back a cry of horror. "The swan... the swan mama gave to me,” Carrie said sadly, biting her lip.

But she was not going to cry, damn it. She was not going to display such weakness, not with her father here. Carrie didn’t want any fake words of comfort from him. After all, she knew he didn’t care about her. If he did, he would have explained, as soon as mama had disappeared, he would have explained... anyway, the less attention her dad paid to her, the easier it would be for her to improve her social life at school.

"It... the wind must have knocked it off the desk,” Carrie continued. Even though her father couldn’t know about the prowler, this settled it. Whoever had just been in here, playing this horrible, stupid prank, they were going to pay! She would see to that! Except - how was she supposed to figure out who had done it?

"I'm sorry," her father replied sincerely. There was a pause. "Maybe I can find you another crystal--"

"Don't bother," Carrie said curtly. She reached out and slammed the window shut. "I'll clean up the mess tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going back to bed. See you in the morning."

Her father frowned, perhaps at the abruptness of her manner, but he didn't seem to know what to say about it. So it was with a final 'goodnight' that he turned the light back off and departed the room.

For her part, Carrie curled up in her bed, partly incensed but more despondent than anything else. And with her father out of the room, she finally allowed a tear to trickle down her cheek. Who had broken the swan? One of the few remembrances she had of her mother. Was there anyone she knew who could help her track down the culprit and get revenge?

***

Ten minutes later, the doorbell rang at Julie LaMille's house. Or, mansion really – the LaMilles were by far the richest family in the area. It was only after three rings that Jeeves answered the door. This surprised Carrie on two levels.

Firstly, because she had thought that Julie had given the family butler the evening off, what with the party and all. Secondly, because he was wearing a bathrobe. It wasn't midnight yet, and Carrie had always thought that the family help didn't go off duty until sometime after that.

"Yes?" Jeeves said archly. "Why are you disturbing us so late at night?"

"Uhhhh, I'm looking for Julie," Carrie said uncertainly. She was probably quite a sight too, knee still scraped up, looking dirty, and now sweaty after having run all the way over here. But she simply didn't know what else to do. Carrie had to figure out what was going on! But there was no party here. Where WAS everybody?

"Miss LaMille is asleep, as is the rest of the house. Come back tomorrow." Jeeves started to close the door.

"No, wait! Jeeves, just tell her it's Carrie, please, I... I don't know where else to go. I think somehow I just met myself... I'm so confused..."

"Neither Miss LaMille nor I know of any teenager by the name of Carrie. So whatever problems you have, either take them elsewhere, or come back at a more decent hour." With that, the door slammed shut.

Carrie reeled. Now Julie's family and servants didn't know her? But they'd been acquainted for almost two years now! What. The. Hell. Were people being replaced by alien pod lookalikes? That could explain the other version of herself had been sleeping in her bed... Carrie suddenly felt like she was lost in some bad science fiction movie.

But everything had been fine not two hours ago! Well, not fine exactly, she'd had to sneak out of her house, and then had skinned her knee on account of that...

The box. That damn black box thing. That had to be it, Carrie realized. Somehow, it had done something to everyone! Or, no... more likely to her! But what? Well, she'd soon figure that out. With nowhere else to turn, Carrie hurried back towards the spot where she'd left the device.

As she approached the location, she heard a rustling in the bushes... someone else was here now! Had the original owner tracked down their property? Would they have answers? "Who the hell is out there?" Carrie demanded.

In response, in the darkness, a shadowy figure jumped up and turned, starting to run away. Screw that - Carrie was fed up with the entire situation now. Whoever this person was, they weren't getting away.

Calling once again upon her athletic abilities and ignoring the aches in her body, she sprinted forward and tackled the stranger.

Both of them fell to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.