“There once was a boy named John, a talented boy who would one day grow into a fine man. One day he would have a lovely wife, and perhaps a few children of his own. Only this would never come to pass, for this boy would never come to exist… nor the family he was to have, nor the world in which he lived. I am a Time Keeper, and my world, my existence, everything I ever knew, every life I ever touched and those they touched in turn… have vanished from existence. I’m not even certain of my name. I bet you don’t remember yours either… sweetheart. But you do have something, a clue, a small semblance of the person you used to be, the world you left behind… a Relic, of what is no more. You see it’s like an instinct or something, a desperate attempt to hold on to some fragment of the life we once knew. In fact, it is even more precious to us than you can even know. For though you feel it inexplicably, that you must protect this thing… this piece of a time no more. The truth is… it is the only thing standing between you and the Paradox. You see, the Time Piece allows us to focus our power, our ability as Travelers. Without it, we could never stay ahead of them, without it we could never escape the Beasts of the Paradox.”

He’d found her just in time, at her wits end, hiding in an abandoned diner on the side of a deserted highway. He stood there looking at his pocket watch, reading the inscription – To John, a loving father and husband, who we adore – as he tried to explain as concisely and urgently as he could, about what was going on. Because he knew they were coming for her, for them both, and she had to get it together. She had stayed here too long, or she’d done something that had changed too much, and now they had found her… just as he did. Of course, he had only happened upon her by chance. He’d only realized once the Paradox Beast passed him by. It hadn’t been after him, it wasn’t his Paradox. But it had noticed him, and his beast was now on its way. The sky was the real tell. It had darkened out of nowhere, the threat of harsh weather driving any witnesses to ground. Soon they could come unrestrained, upon their prey. But before that, he must convince her, and show her how to focus. She was lucky after all, too few Time Keepers escape Paradox on their own, at least when they are so clueless as to what is going on. How many times had he not made it in time to save someone in a similar situation. Not that this happened often, but when Time Keepers met for the first time, it was usually under these kinds of circumstances. Someone had been there for him after all, and he had far too few successes returning the favor.

She’d obviously Traveled by accident, and again, perhaps as an act of desperation. Only the second time was only a minor jump. She had the potential, she was simply disoriented. It was possible she could make it through this on her own, but she was getting tired of running, of not knowing. That was dangerous… if she decided to fight, things would probably end poorly for her. But it seemed like that was exactly what she was trying to figure out how to do. Otherwise, she would have Traveled to another time already, instead of ending up in an old diner… itself, all but forgotten by time. No, she was here because she didn’t want to run, she wanted time to gather her thoughts, and a place to stand her ground. He had to convince her otherwise.

It wasn’t that fighting a Paradox Beast was impossible, only that it was reckless and ultimately fruitless. Because even if one did defeat the creature, it would be only a matter of time before it reconstituted itself. He’d have a better chance at it of course, since it hadn’t come for him and he’d had more experience with the enemy at hand. But, while there was a time for such actions, this was not one of them.

“Who are you?” She asked, as if she hadn’t heard his introduction tucked between the sandwich of words, which seemed to her so much like rambling at the time. But really his question unsettled her, because she had been struggling with the very same. Who was she? Where was she, and why was that thing after her? Really, she’d only asked him out of instinct, to buy herself more time to think.

“I’m here to help, if you let me,” John responded, “now stand up.”

She rose to her feet, she had been searching the lower cabinets for something, anything she could use to fight what was coming. She nodded, after all, she hadn’t yet come up with a plan. She was willing to try anything right now, even accepting help from a stranger who might just be as mad in the head as she was.

“Good, good… now listen carefully, I only have time to say this once. You’re one of us, a Time Keeper. You have something precious to you, some possession, and you need to take it out. You see that’s not thunder you hear, it’s the wailing of the Beast calling your name… a name that doesn’t exist anymore, at least not for you. Now, believe me when I tell you this, you don’t want to hear it. Because if you hear that creature scream your name, if it rings out clearly through your mind, it just might be the last thing you ever hear. But don’t worry, we still have time, time is the only thing we have. So long as you can’t hear the whispers… their like memories or something, something you can’t quite make out, but you want to. It’s a lure, meant to confuse you and throw you off. But you must learn to hear it for what it is… a warning, that its closing in.”

“Whispers,” she replied in a half-hushed tone.

John looked back at her, with a look of resignation telling that his hopeful facade was little more than wishful thinking. “You hear them… we have to hurry now. I’ll explain the rest later,” he insisted, as she searched her person for it. The chain had broken, and she had stuffed it into one of her pockets in a hurry. The key she had hanging around her neck, the one she thought must belong to her house… a house she no longer remembered, a home that no longer existed. John looked upon the young woman, wondering if he might have had a daughter, if she might have been around her age. She appeared to be in her late teens, still filled with a rebellious fire. He was committing her image to memory. As soon as he saw her retrieve the key from her pants pocket he presented his watched. “This is a Time Piece, just like that key… they can be anything,” he said, in response to her look of confusion, “but we can talk about that later… I hope. You can use it to help you Travel far away from here. Not just to another location, but to another time. But the important thing is that you can sorta chose where you go, or at least who you go with… well mostly, if you’re lucky. Just think of a number, 1973, imagine it as a place, a time… think… that’s where John is, good ol’ John.” He paused briefly to confirm she had registered his instruction. “I’ll meet you there… Kit.”