Elsewhence...

Elsewhence started as a writing project from a creative writing course I took. It has becoming the spring point for the story work I am writing currently for the upcoming anachronistic adventures of Chloe and Lexington, the Anachronis Chronicles. Below is the unedited version as it was presented in class. 

“Can we try to acknowledge where things went wrong this time?”

            Chloe wrung the water out of her jacket and took off her aviator cap. Running her hand through her short auburn hair, she took her chair at the automat. Lexington followed, slumping soggily into his chair holding his mechanical eye in its socket. The wall behind Chloe was filled with little windows; each one displaying a different piece of food on a small plate. Aside from the low hum of the refrigerated units, the automat was empty.

            “Well, for starters,” Lexington began, “you let me go in there with a headache.”

            “Not the damn laudanum thing again, I told you we didn’t have time to travel back another hundred years to when it was legal.”

            “Chloe, point of order; we are time travellers…”

            Chloe raised her hand and directed her gaze toward the door.

Lexington followed Chloe’s gaze; turning to see three hooded figures blocking the door.

            “I told you we should have shifted up the line.”

            “And per usual, you were right as cats,” Lexington admitted, standing and locking in his eye with a click.

            Two of the figures started slowly taking positions to surround the anachronists. The tallest stood in place, continuing to block the front door. It made a move to crack its neck and stretch its arms as if preparing for a fight. Its hood fell back with the motion; the fog-like spectre had no neck to crack.

            Lexington took a quick glance down at the stun pistol on his belt.

            “This isn’t going to work on incorporeals from the Nether,” he said flatly as he glanced back at Chloe, who was doing something with her handheld.

            “It will in a moment,” she slyly responded as a surge of energy warped the space around the room.

            There was the distinct smell of cinnamon as Chloe stepped up onto a table. Time slowed down for a moment as she and Lexington assessed the situation.

            Three hours ago, at a seedy, ready to be condemned, warehouse next to the fishery, the pair of them had successfully located an anachronism from up the line. The device in question had the potential to cause a level two paradox. A level two could alter the timeline enough to prevent its own existence, and that’s why they’d been sent. What they hadn’t bargained on was the small cult of psychos worshipping the thing. They had been able to tag the device for removal and escape, but apparently the cult had a little more sway with the Veil than they had anticipated.

            “So, any chance you blokes are just here for a late night snack?” Lexington offered to the wraithforms.

            As the timeline came back into speed, there was now something more solid about the three figures. It was as if whatever in the universe that was saying they shouldn’t be there had suddenly given them permission to exist. Lexington didn’t know exactly how Chloe had done it, but something in their past had been shifted to allow them to be on this side of the Veil. Something to do with optics, but Lexington had never bothered to enquire because it usually just worked.

            The shorter of the two approaching made its way around the vending windows, brandishing claws. It scratched against one of the windows and a slice of apple pie molded to rot.

            The other had a slimy sheen to it. As it stepped closer, Lexington saw its footsteps on the floor melt through like acid.

The leader by the door just pointed at Lexington and called out a snarl to the others.

            “Bollocks! Why is it they’re never just here for a snack?” groaned Lexington.

            “It could be they want to snack on you,” commented Chloe, plainly.

            “I was really hoping to avoid entertaining that possibility, thank you.”

            “I’ll give you a head start. Will that make you happy?”

            “Loads.”

            Chloe tapped out a quick message into her handheld and the two figures leaping toward Lexington seemed to freeze in the air.

            Lexington’s eye calibrated with a whirring sound as it began to track his assailants. He pulled out the rusting old stunner out of its holster and took aim at the slimy one first, fired once, and then swung round to the second before time reasserted itself.

            The one wraithform dropped instantly through a table, splintering it in two before dissolving it. The second put its clawed hand up in apprehension as Lexington fired again.

            Two down, one to go, Lexington and Chloe thought in unison.

            The faceless form by the door gave off the impression of a smile as it pulled aside its cloak, revealing a sidearm of its own.

            Normally, this wouldn’t have fazed Lexington. He was a pretty quick draw and had a panic button for back up, but this case had given him cause for alarm. A shift cannon was not playing fair. A shift cannon could cause a level six paradox on its own just by being there. How had this wraithform come by one? Neither Lexington nor Chloe were given time to ask.

            The next three seconds took an eternity to unfold in an instant.

            The wraithform fired the cannon at Lexington.

            Lexington dove for cover and plunged his hand into his pocket to activate the panic button.

            Chloe called on the Anachronis to counter the damage that was about to be unleashed by the shift cannon.

            It was all coming down to a split second between Chloe and the gun. For that split second, time froze.

            A blinding flash and the familiar scent of cinnamon labelled Chloe the winner.

            Lexington fired from behind the utensil stand at a shocked wraithform standing by the door. It dropped like a couple of brooms falling in different directions.

            “Nicely done,” Lexington grinned over to Chloe.

            “Good shooting,” Chloe replied, after taking a slight bow.

            Lexington cautiously approached the one by the door and tagged the cannon for removal.

            Chloe tapped away again and the three figures shifted out of the timeline. The melted table appeared to phase itself back together and the apple pie was inviting again. She made her way back to her chair.

            Lexington strolled over to the vending windows. He reset the panic button and took out a handful of coins.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I could go for a nosh-up after all that,” he proclaimed.

            “Grab me some more of that potato salad if they’ve still got it.”

            Chloe typed in their report though the projected keyboard of her handheld. The situation was neutralised, and they were ready for their next assignment…

            Lexington returned with an egg salad sandwich and a plate of lumpy potato salad.

            …right after a little late night snack.