May 2019

The sun cast a glare of light on Maria's face. At this, the girl's eyes fluttered open. She groaned and pushed a pillow on her face, wishing she had more time to sleep. But she had to get up, no one else could help her mom who's suffering from carpal tunnel syndrome. Anytime now, her mother would come up and yell at her for being the lazy spoiled brat she is. Maria knew better than to argue. Old women are usually cranky and she understands that.

She got on her feet and walked towards the door.

"Oh, I almost forgot!"

Before leaving, she went back and took a picture out from under her pillow. It was no other than Michael Jackson. It was Maria's father who introduced her to the King of Pop at the tender age of two years old. Michael was her first crush. She remembered being completely mesmerized every time she would watch Michael's concerts. How smooth his dance moves were, how sweet and silky his voice was and how beautiful he looked in every way.

Maria planted a kiss on Michael's picture. It was a picture of him acting as Daryl, a high school student, on the music video entitled Bad. Maria always thought Michael looked adorable in casual clothing. More than that, Bad was the video that made her fall in love with Michael. IN a young age, it was the moment she knew and felt the word "attraction".

"I'll see you later, love," she giggled.

But Maria noticed something different on the picture. It seemed to move, focusing and blurring at the same time.

"What? Am I on drugs or something?"

Finally, the picture came into a full view, strangely burning Maria's eyes. She dropped it in pain as she felt a massive headache. She couldn't handle the pain anymore. It felt as if her head was about to split open. She collapsed on the floor and fainted.

November 1986

"Are you all right, Miss? Please wake up," a soft voice called out to her.

Maria's eyes fluttered open. She was met with a pair of brown eyes staring at her. A string of black curly hair hung between the eyes.

"Mi-Michael?"

Michael smiled at her. "Yes, that's right."

Michael had her in his arms. She was completely mesmerized and even forgot how to breathe properly. He looked exactly as she thought he would be. Smooth tan-skinned, perfectly shaped eyebrows, strong jawline, soft plump kissable lips and a hint of child-like innocence in his eyes.

Suddenly, Maria blushed and remembered she was only wearing a thin night gown. She felt cold and horribly exposed. She abruptly placed her arms over her chest.

"Uh..."

Michael realized and slowly let her sit on her own. Color flushed his cheeks as he looked away.

"Oh, boy. That was embarrassing. Where are my manners?"

He took off his jacket and placed it around Maria.

Maria blushed harder and noticed a small crowd of people beginning to stare at her. Michael's backup dancers.

"Who's she?" asked a boy with red roller-skaters.

"I don't know. I just found her like this."

"I'm... Maria," she said softly.

"What happened to you, Maria?"

"I-I can't really explain. I fainted and then I was here."

"Oh." Michael lowered his head in sympathy. "I'm sorry if-"

Maria cut him off before he could finish. "Of course I wasn't taken advantaged of!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Michael laughed.

His voice is truly angelic. Maria couldn't help but to laugh as well.

"Can I just have some water?"

"Sure. I'll be right back." Michael stood up.

Maria miraculously had her phone with her and took it out. There was a selfie of her wearing a night mask. In an instant, the picture started focusing and blurring. The sharp pain returned, grilling and squeezing the guts of her brain.

"Oh no. No!" Maria cried out, knowing what would happen. In a blink of an eye, she vanished.

"Maria, I got you some..."

Michael's mouth hung open in disbelief. "Water."

May 2019- 10:30 pm

Maria appeared in her bathroom, holding a bowl of homemade mask. It suddenly occurred to her what happened. In shock, she dropped the bowl. Its contents spilled with a splat on the tiled floor.

"Holy sh-"

Luckily, the bowl was made of plastic.

"Maria? What's going on there?" her mother called from downstairs.

"I'm fine, mom. Just dropped the bowl."

"All right. Be careful."

Maria picked up the bowl with trembling hands.

"Did I hallucinate?"

She quickly put the remaining contents of the bowl on her face and took a selfie. But deep inside, she was still perturbed and confused. Have she been lost inside her head all along? Did she took day dreaming way too far? Shaking her head, she then headed back to her room.

"It hurt, didn't it?"

She almost let out a yelp.

There was a woman standing by her bookshelves. Her back was turned as she trailed her hands along Maria's books.

"Who are you? How'd you get in here?"

The woman turned and smiled. "Relax. The name's Kathy."

"I don't care. You must be a burglar!"

"Woah. Do I look like a beggar to ya? Relax. I'm here because your powers got activated."

Maria rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I must've lost it."

"What?"

"I'm going to bed. And in the morning, you'll be gone."

May 2019- 7:00 am

The sun cast a glare of light on Maria's face. At this, the girl's eyes fluttered open. She groaned and pushed a pillow on her face, wishing she had more time-

"Psst."

Maria screamed and tossed the pillow at the woman from last night. She dodged, effortlessly. The pillow hit the bookshelves causing some books to topple over.

"What the hell. You're still here!"

Kathy laughed. "Apparently. I told you this is real."

"I'm going crazy!" Maria panicked.

"Hey, you're not crazy. Want proof? I'm going to predict the following events in the next ten seconds."

Maria was dazed. Kathy looked quite similar to her. The only difference was Kathy had a curvier figure, icy stare, and sharper nose.

"Yeah. Sure."

Kathy sighed. "Two birds would land by that tree branch. One red, one blue."

"That's an awful rare combination."

Maria turned her head just in time to see two birds land on the tree branch, exactly identical to what Kathy had described.

"Oh my gosh."

"Plates will crash downstairs and your mother will give an ear piercing cry."

And it did. Maria laughed at the sound of her mother's high pitched scream.

"Finally, you'll sneeze and a snot will land right at your feet."

"But I don't even feel like-" Maria sneezed before she could finish her sentence. She ran quickly to the bathroom to wash the snot which landed on her feet.

"You believe me now?" Kathy purred.

"Omg! This is awesome."

"It hurt the first time, but it won't happen again."

Maria was squinting, looking deeply into Kathy's eyes.

"Uh. What are you doing?"

"Oh. Sorry I thought this is like the X-Men and you're kinda Professor X."

"Um nope."

"Which means I can finally save Michael!"

"Excuse me. Who?"

"Michael Jackson! Come on, haven't you heard of him?"

Maria grabbed a photo of Michael and shoved it at Kathy's face.

She tried to keep herself from laughing. "Oh. The pop singer."

"Not just any pop singer. He's music himself!"

"Shame he died."

"I could go back and save him!"

Kathy's face turned cold. She leaned closely towards Maria, invading her personal space. Maria could feel her icy breath against her cheeks.

"You can't do that. You can't change something big as this."

"What do you mean?" Maria cowered.

"Everything has a rule and a limit."

"That sucks." Maria murmured.

"Promise me, you won't. Promise." Kathy leaned closer, her lips almost touching Maria's own.

The mysterious woman's glare pierced deeply into Maria's soul. It brought shivers down her spine. She was looking right at the depths of hell.

"I promise," she gulped.

"Good." Kathy leaned back and smiled as if nothing happened.

"But I can go back to prevent the allegations from happening."

"That, you can do. Just be careful, little one." Kathy headed back to the bookshelves, examining each book once again.

Maria took out her phone and searched a picture of Michael with Jordan Chandler. The picture focused as it did before. In a few seconds, Maria was transported back in time.