I wake up in a cold sweat, like every night since that day. That day is the sole thing that haunts me every night and day, and that I remember more vividly than any given moment of my existence, and that I have nightmares of every night.
It was a cool September night in my hometown of Mithborrow in the year of 2013. I was 12 years old, and I was as carefree as the wind. I wake in the middle of the night when I hear sounds of screaming and the smell of smoke fills the air, so I rush downstairs to see what was happening. It turns out that the microwave had exploded, and shards of microwave killed my father. This explosion also lit the house ablaze, and my mother was too frantic to try to put in out. Burying my sadness, I grabbed a bucket and filled it with water to try to put the fire out, yet to my dismay, this had only made the fire bigger. Realizing that this was a grease fire, I went to my neighbors’ house to borrow the phone to call 911 because the microwave had damaged our phone too. While waiting for them to answer their door, I heard a massive bang, which I later found out had destroyed my left ear. I then looked back at where my house was, and all I saw was ashes. The explosion was so large that it had also demolished the houses directly next to mine, and the flaming pieces of wood, plastic and insulation hit the neighboring houses. This caused them to spontaneously combust. I watched in horror as all of the houses around burnt down, leaving nothing but ashes and smoke behind. Then in my final moments of hysteria, I saw a man walking towards me. He was wearing a burning black suit, had ruffled black hair, and a 5’o’clock shadow. As he was walking towards me, he fell reaching toward me. He then mumbled something under his final breath, and burned along with the rest of my small hometown of 122.
When I woke up, the only thing there to consult me was my fiancée, Cindy Stewart. She was 5”6’, had flowing brown hair, and a perfect figure with tan skin. She was my best friend, and I loved her dearly. So after about 20 minutes I was able to go back to sleep again, only to be woken up by my alarm clock at 5:30 am. I woke up and took a shower. Shaved close, yet not so close to get rid of my 5’o’clock shadow. I put on my favorite suit, combed my black hair, and headed off to work. I headed a project studying one of Einstein’s most famous theories. In summary this theory states that if man would be able to go faster than the speed of light, then he would be able to go forward in time. Yet, this would be to simple to achieve, so instead of studying how to go forward in time we are studying how to go backward. Many physicists say that this is theoretically impossible, yet I say nay. The government had given us enough funds to make anything possible, yet we are still stuck on how to actually achieve this yet, although we have it all down on paper.
Before I can explain how this is achievable, I need to explain how the space-time continuum works. The space-time continuum is layers of flexible material that theoretically the whole of the universe is laid out on. The space-time continuum layers a new version of itself on top every single second it exists. Also, if something has enough gravity, it can bend the space-time continuum, even to the extent of tearing it.
We could use wormholes to teleport us to another part of time and space, for wormholes are the “bridge” between two parts of the space-time continuum to another. Yet our research tells us that wormholes are not always randomized. They appear when something happens to the space-time continuum that causes it to tear. This could be because of a black hole collapsing in on itself or something on a scale as massive as that. Anyway, when this traumatic event happens, it would tear right through one layer and onto another one. This would make a 1 second back-in-time portal. Yet, if the wormhole is big enough, it could cause the wormhole to tear through multiple layers.
Yet, my team faces two major problems. One, there is no material known to man strong enough to withstand gravitation forces strong enough to rip through the space-time continuum. Two, nobody on this earth has power strong enough to make a wormhole, and doing so would probably cause the apocalypse.
This is what we know from our research at the moment, yet I hear news of an astounding discovery in the testing facilities. While I was sitting, filing the information we have gathered so far in my office, I get a call on the landline. “Dr. Eric Aquas we have made an absolutely astounding discovery in Test Quarters 5, please come down here immediately”, I hear Testing Quarters 5’s manager, Jeremy Lin say. I hang up the phone, get on my Segway, and drive towards Testing Quarters 5, which is the “Wormhole Transporter” quarter. When I get there I see them testing out a new metal that I have never seen before. I go up to Jeremy and ask, “What is the astounding discovery you have made, and surely it is not just a simple metal”. “Oh, it is much more than a simple metal, it is a combination of copper and tin that when heated to above 3000°C, it becomes a brand new substance”, says Jeremy. “3000°C, that’s a bit over kill, don’t you think”, I say. “Not when this metal is harder than diamond and is not affected by gravity”. “Not affected by gravity”, I surprisingly said, “How is this possible”. Jeremy says, “I don’t know yet, but it is definitely the correct material to travel through wormholes in”.
After this groundbreaking news, I head back to my office, only to get another call on my office phone. “Hello, this is Yao Ming from Testing Quarters 2, with a discovery that has boosted our progress on developing safe wormhole travel significantly”. I again get on my Segway again, yet this time to Testing Quarters 2. When I get there I see an abundance of people surrounding a little box. I go to see what’s inside the box when Yao comes up to me. “Great news”, he says, “According to our calculations, we have figured out that we can program a safe wormhole, yet only one as big as a puppy”. “That’s fantastic”, I said, “Where is this “safe wormhole””. “It is inside this box, and it can move any object to the same place, yet 10 minutes ago”, said Yao. I then said, “Was that the interruption of my morning tea when you were screaming about objects randomly appearing in your laboratory”. “Maybe…”, his voice trailed off.
After a couple of months, both sides innovate enough to make a vehicle capable of traveling through wormholes, and a portable wormhole dispenser that can make a wormhole with adjustable coordinates. Yao also personally invented a way to adjust a wormhole to make it go into the future, thus creating a two-way Time Vortex. When the time finally came to test it, I volunteered to test it, yet my fiancée did not want me too. “Come on honey, I need to be at peace with the past, and finally get a good night’s sleep”, I said. “No”, said Cindy, “I cannot risk losing you, not when it is only 3 months until our wedding, and you have so many friends that would all miss you dearly if you left”. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine”, I said. “Yet, if you still have memories of that day, and new findings show that all points in the universe are all happening simultaneously, and then research shows that your attempts of stopping the past are futile”, she said.
I ignored her warnings and went on the test trip anyway. When they asked which time I would like to go to I said to September of 2013. So the machine whizzed and hurled, and then I appeared in the fall. I looked at the time gage on the machine. “September 4, 2013” it read. I wondered around a bit and saw the leaves falling and the children singing. I had prepared for this moment my whole life. I made a custom fire extinguisher that could put out any fire and hid it in my old basement, for we never used it.

During the following days I introduced myself to my family as Colby Diablos and told them that I was the new man that was moving in across the street. I hid in my old basement for a couple of weeks, making a system to put out fires by removing all oxygen around any fire within a hundred mile radius. The night of the incident, I had dinner with my family. I saw my 12 year old self put some macaroni and cheese in the rusty, old microwave, even against my pleading not to (at the moment I blamed my macaroni and cheese to cause the microwave to explode). After he had finished heating his macaroni and cheese, I put my implode activation device in the microwave.
Later that night I snuck down to my basement to wait patiently. I watched the implode activation device which would counter the explosion until it started getting very bad readings. Somebody was using the microwave, which caused the implode device to explode along with the microwave. I then tried starting up my anti-fire machine, yet I put the wrong fuel in it. After 5 minutes of trying to pump the bad fuel out, the machine explodes, making a massive crater where the house used to be. Amazed that I was still alive, I ran from house to house trying to tell them of impending doom, yet no one answered. After watching house after house burn to the ground, I got licked with a flame, which caused my suit to light on fire. Feeling pain worse than a thousand needles penetrating you at once, I stumbled over to my younger self. I watched as my younger self staring at me in my final hours and I realized my fate. I ran over to him, yet I tripped. I then said to the child In front of me, who had ruffled black hair and tears rolling down his eyes, “I’m sorry”, as I drifted off into the light.