You think about what to do for a long time. Unlike this guy- Alex, of course his name would be Alex– you don’t have all the time in the world. And you want to stay alive, thanks.
You tail Alex around for a while. If you kill him that’ll do it, but you’d have to murder someone. And sure he was a murderer first, but you don’t want to be one. You also think about trying to get him in a time loop. That’d work, but you don’t know how to make a time loop. He’s also on your trail. Apparently people with powers pop up according to an algorithm and you were due to manifest powers around now. It’s only luck that you manifested them a few months ago, in time to cheat your way through the SATs. You’re hoping for a perfect score.
You’re getting nervous though. Alex went looking for you at first, doing a weird little circuit to locate ‘anomalous behavior’ and flashing a fake Marshall badge. After failing to find whatever would betray your identity, Alex had begun hanging out on various street corners around the city.
Alex seems to be waiting for something now, though for someone with time travel powers maybe that’s just how he is.
Any day now, he thinks, impatiently. He’s on a new street corner and the busy rush hour foot traffic streams around him.
And then you see him.
Alex again, but across the street. You have to really push your range, picturing it like sticking out your tongue incredibly far, far enough to gently taste other-Alex’s mind.
Where is that bastard, other-Alex is thinking, gaze darting around. He spots Alex and his eyes widen. I have to warn him about the mind reader girl, other-Alex thinks desperately.
Your heart pounds. You’re out of time but you’re already moving.
You nearly crash into Alex as you rush out the door. What the hell? Who is this? Alex looks closely at you, then smiles warmly. Fucking bitch.
“Don’t worry about it,” he says, even as he thinks about how much you’re inconveniencing him.
“Your brother sent me,” you say with some kind of indignant and self-preserving instinct. “You guys really do look exactly alike.” You offer him your customer service smile, and Alex the time-traveling moron believes it.
“Yeah we’re twins,” he laughs weakly. Why would I trust some bimbo with information?! Is something happening?
“He said to tell you that there are debt collectors after you.” You shrug. “He says you’re out of time.”
Me? Out of time? What the hell happens in the future?
“He say anything else?” Alex scratches behind his ear, turning around and making eye contact with his other self. Other-Alex makes eye contact with you behind original Alex’s back. Oh hell.
I’m too late, other-Alex thinks loudly. You’re inspired.
You drag your index finger across your throat slowly, keeping eye contact with other-Alex.
“He said something weird, that if you don’t go forward one year today that everything ends right now.” You keep your eye on other-Alex, but you can hear original Alex panicking.
It’s too late, other-Alex thinks again miserably- and vanishes in the middle of the street.
“Oh fuck!” Original Alex stumbles away from you, people are staring at him.
“If you stay here you’ll die,” you say simply in a voice that could strip skin off bone. You channel Meryl Strep. “I already got rid of him.” You let the customer service smile go feral as he turns to you in horror. “See you in a year, Alex.”
He vanishes in a panicked flurry of expletives. Everyone is yammering around you, you back into the crowd and then turn the corner away from the sight line from the incident.
“Okay,” you whisper to yourself, “okay I have one year to prepare for this.”
You’re not out of time yet.