There was a sound. One sound. A sound that always had Amber tossing and turning in her sleep. She was always curious and just a little bit frightened at the clanking and cluttering sounds that always seemed to echo off of the walls at night. Yet, there was something familiar about that mechanical sound. It caused slight anxiety and excitement to rush through her body, but Amber didn’t know why. There she was now, in her bed in the middle of the night her bright green orbs staring at the ceiling above her, slightly glazed with exhaustion.

Amber let out a quiet sigh, shivering a bit in the cool night air. She heard the mysterious clanking again, causing curiosity to burn inside of her. Amber sighed and turned onto her side quickly, trying to quench the constant thirst for information she wanted. She bit her lip, not feeling even remotely tired anymore. With another quiet sigh, Amber hesitantly sat up and placed her bare feet on the floor next to her bed. She stood quietly, cringing at the slight creak of her bedsprings relieving their weight.

Amber took a couple of quiet steps, starting to regret her decision as the thick oak door started to draw nearer and nearer to her. A pale arm reached out and stopped on the shining handle, frozen in anxiety and fear of the unknown. Amber almost withdrew her hand thinking the night time hunt wouldn’t be worth it, but she gulped and turned the knob slowly. She stood still and let the door creak open slightly. A short breath crossed her lips before Amber took a step across the threshold. There was no going back now in Amber’s mind.

She started feeling more confident as she walked through the hallways. Her feet padding softly on the wooden floors. Amber cringed as the sound of her footsteps echoed quietly around her, worried she would wake the house up. She followed the clangor in the distance, feeling her stomach knot in anticipation. Amber chewed on her lip, a habit she had whenever she was nervous, and stopped in front of the door that would lead her into the darkness of the basement.

She turned the knob inch by painful inch, the handle barely protesting against her light grip. After the door was finally wide enough for her to squeeze through, Amber quickly slid through the small gap with a sigh. Taking the stairs one at a time, Amber paused every other step to ensure that nobody would hear her descending into the basement. She winced as freezing concrete came into contact with her bare feet and stifled a surprised gasp.

Amber’s feet walked towards where she knew the noise was coming from, almost as if they had made the journey many times. Crossing her arms, a chill went through her body and she shivered silently. Her seemingly familiar path turned her down another small hallway and then stopped her before yet another door. It was metal this time, and there was a small square window that allowed a faint light to spill out into the hallway.

It bathed her on an almost eerie glow and Amber had a strange sense of déjà vu again. Shadows danced across her form as something or someone appeared to be working inside of the room and Amber stood like a statue. If she was caught snooping in the basement Amber knew there would be consequences. Brushing her fear of being caught away, Amber stood firmly where she was and prepared herself. Placing a hand on the cold knob of the door, Amber took a quiet breath and slowly started to turn the knob.

Heart and brain racing at the thought of what was behind the door, she quickly pushed the handle down and let the door creak open slowly. A sudden confusion filled Amber at the sight before her. The room itself was quite small, but almost every bit of technology she could ever imagine filled the space. Blueprints were plastered on the walls and spilled off of tables and out of trashcans. Newer sheets of paper were piled on some of the old ones, the only indication that they were old being the slight yellowing of the paper.

Amber had originally thought the strange noise and shadows had been from someone actually at work on a project. However a small machine was the source of the light. It was oddly the only object in the room that had its own space. Staring at it with wide eyes, Amber observed it as it shook, emitting a sound that was similar to a box of tools being shaken. Amber’s eyebrow quirked a bit as it let off a bit of light. She hesitantly stepped towards the strange contraption and looked over the exterior.

It reminded her of a modern microwave except it had no window to reveal what would be inside. There was a similar key pad with numbers as well as knobs and levers in various places. Amber wondered what would happen if she were to press one. Letting her hand trace one curiously she decided it couldn’t be too horrible if she pressed only one. After all, it would only be to see if it did something. Her hand hovered over the rows of buttons, wondering which one to press. Her eyes found a small red button and she tentatively pressed it, the curiosity eating away at her.

As soon as her finger came into contact with the button, Amber gasped and lost memories flooded into her mind. In her mind she saw herself in the same room, but at different periods in her life pressing the same button. The memories playing in her head showed her travelling to different times, gazing at the past and future alike. It was a strange and terrifying experience. Yet it gave her a strange feeling of satisfaction and wonder. It was as if her memories had been hidden and she had found the missing pieces. It filled the empty gap that she had, helping her realize all that she had done.

In her memories, she saw various people, places, and technology of both the past and future. Every small detail was breathtaking and Amber could only stand in shock and amazement at the revelation. It seemed as if many minutes passed while she was in this trance, but almost as fast as it had happened, it was over. The memories had been a flash in her mind, but she remembered it all. The building of the pyramids, walking with the dinosaurs, she remembered every place she had ever been to and now she stood frozen in a new environment.

It seemed as if the machine had taken her somewhere new when her secret life had flashed before her eyes. Amber knew she was physically in another place, and not in her memories anymore. It was thrilling, knowing that she had traveled in time. Amber blinked a couple of times to let her eyes adjust to the darkness around her, snapping out of her musings. Looking to the machine clutched in her hands she raised an eyebrow at it, slightly confused.

Amber didn’t remember picking it up, but she must have held onto it for dear life when the strange memories came back to her. Looking around the unknown area with slight fear, Amber worried more about where she was rather than what year it was. She snapped out of her shock as muffled voices finally reached her ears. Looking around, Amber could tell she was in a hallway somewhere. It didn’t seem very modern due to the absence of electric lights everywhere. It was extremely dark where she was and it was very unnerving.

A shadow moved in her peripheral vision as she studied her surroundings. Amber barely caught the slight movement and she turned slowly, cautiously to see what had moved. She squinted in the dark and saw an outline that looked faintly like a man. To Amber, he looked rather suspicious, sneaking around in the dark. The man was shimmying slowly down the side of the same hallway, making his way towards a curtain. Amber could only guess as to where the curtain would lead, as she was still unsure of where she was.

A strange feeling bubbled up inside of her as she watched the man sneaking around in the dark. It was bad, almost like she knew something horrible was going to happen if the man reached his destination. Amber started to follow him quietly, keeping track of the man from a distance. Amber watched the mystery man like a hawk as he inched closer to his destination. Amber noticed an object clutched in the stranger’s hand as it glinted in the sparse light shining through the curtain. She couldn’t yet make out what it was and watched warily as the man drew back the curtain and light finally streamed into the hall. In the light, Amber could now see that the shadow was definitely man, and that the object held tightly in his hand was a gun.

She froze for a second, unsure of what to do. Amber had never been in a situation like this and her panic tried to take over. She shook her head and knew that she needed to do something before someone was hurt. Amber only had a couple of seconds to think as the stranger started to raise the weapon. She had no idea what he was doing or who he was aiming at, but something told Amber that he was about to hurt someone and she couldn’t let that happen. Dropping the machine in her hands, Amber launched into action before she could think about the consequences of what she was doing.

Using the advantage of surprise, she tackled the man as his finger started to tighten around the trigger. There was a loud bang as the gun went off, missing its original target and hitting the ceiling. The man shouted in surprise as Amber wrestled the weapon from him in his shock. As soon as she had it in her grip, Amber threw it away into the darkness behind her. Hopefully it was far enough away from the criminal beneath her. Now that the action seemed to be over, Amber had no idea what to do.

The man pushed Amber off of him at her hesitance to act further, but someone caught her as she stumbled. Turning around, she came face to face with a different, very familiar man in a top hat. She stared in complete shock at the man she had just saved. Sixteenth president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was looking at her with a mixture of suspicion and gratitude. She snapped out of her confusion and shock and pointed to the culprit running down the hall.

“You should probably get someone to go after him. He tried to kill you.” She suggested. The older man narrowed his eyes but nodded slowly. He turned to one of the guards near him and said something quietly. The guard nodded and grabbed some other men before taking off after who Amber assumed was John Wilkes Booth. She thought about what she had just did and her eyes widened realizing she had changed the past. “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.” Amber muttered to herself. She raked her hands through her hair knowing she had made a huge mistake.
Amber knew she needed to get back to the future. Maybe nothing too bad had happened, maybe it was a good thing she had changed a huge moment in the past. She heard voices whispering about something and she felt a hand grasp her shoulder before she could get away. “Miss, I think it would be best if you came with us for now.” A man demanded, rather than suggested. Amber just gulped and looked frantically for the machine she had dropped.

Searching the dark hallway with keen eyes, she finally found the thing lying on the ground right where she had dropped it. Amber wondered if running would get her into trouble and decided it couldn’t be as bad as changing history. She stood still and nodded, acting like she was going to cooperate. As soon as the man was conned into believing she was going to stay where she was and had loosened his grip on her shoulder, Amber shot off down the hallway.

She heard someone yelling as she bolted towards the machine. Amber heard loud footsteps chasing her and she leapt, arms extended towards her only way back home. The machine now back in her grasp, Amber started pressing buttons, just wanting to go back home. She hugged the machine to her as nothing immediately happened. She closed her eyes as the other men started to close in on her. However, just as they had reached out to grab her, everything stopped and Amber felt the room spinning in a chaotic dance around her.

When everything finally stopped, she opened her eyes slowly. Adjusting to the world around her, Amber sighed in relief as the familiar metal workshop came into focus. She laughed quietly. It was a nervous, unbelieving laugh. She was back home. Amber looked at the small machine in her grasp as it made the same mechanical sounds innocently. It was almost as if nothing had ever happened, that she had imagined the whole trip. However, Amber knew better than that.

She still had memories of every trip she had made with the machine etched into her mind. Shakily standing, Amber set the machine back in its place gingerly. It was almost as if she was afraid of triggering it again. Backing away from the piece of technology in front of her Amber momentarily forgot she had altered the past. She was just so tired that it never occurred to her that she could have changed the future. Making her way out of the room shakily, Amber knew that this trip in particular had been different.

All of the memories of other trips had faded away after they were over, but now she was able to remember every single one and it was very unsettling. She still felt the familiar feeling of disbelief that shrouded her after a trip, but there was also a feeling of extreme unease churning inside of her. Sitting against the wall, Amber put a hand to her clammy forehead, feeling unsure of herself. It was hard to keep the thoughts straight in her head. Holding her head, Amber barely had time to look up as a surprised gasp sounded in front of her.
Looking up warily, her green eyes clashed with those of a strange boy. He looked curious and suspicious of her presence at the same time. The simultaneous question of “Who are you?” resounded quietly between the two. Standing slowly, Amber took in the strange similarities that they shared. He had the same green eyes, dark hair, and striking facial features that Amber had. She answered first, breaking the strained silence between them “I’m Amber. Who are you?”

At her answer the boy gave her a confused look and he replied “I’m Ambrose.” The words that left his lips confirmed her suspicions and Amber felt dread swell inside of her. Changing history definitely had consequences, and strange ones at that.