Supernatural Nation: One Steps Back, Two Step Forward

One Steps Back, Two Step Forward
























Chapter 5


















Anthony sat in the chair beside Liz’s unconscious body and held her hand and worrying. It had been a week since his father had attacked Liz and Kylie had been healing Liz each day she visited and the doctors were calling Liz’s rapid healing miraculous but found nothing special when they checked her blood. One doctor who specialized in rapid healing came in to ask Anthony if they could examine Liz closer and do more tests. Anthony had told the man no and when he wouldn’t take that as an answer Anthony had called security to have the doctor removed from the private room and banned from entering again. Other than the nurses only one other doctor had come into Liz’s hospital room.

“Anthony Caine,” a man’s voice called over the murmur of voices in the waiting room. Anthony head jerked up from his hands Eliza stood with him, the other were sleeping uncomfortably in the waiting room chairs, the two hurried over to the doctor.

“How is she,” Anthony asked as soon as they were close enough for the doctor to hear his words without having to yell.

“She is stable, and we stitched up the cuts and set the breaks,” the doctor said and looked strangely at Eliza.

“Are you the one who checked her over at the scene,” he asked. Eliza shook her head and pointed over at Kylie who was sleeping with her head leaning onto her twins shoulder.

“Will she be okay,” Anthony asked bringing the doctor’s focus back to him. Kylie had been accelerating the healing of her wounds but she could say why Liz hadn’t woken up yet.

“She is in very little danger of dying at the moment but she has slipped into a coma. We are still hopeful that she wake but the longer she stays unconscious the more her chances of ever waking will become,” the doctor said.

“Can we see her,” Anthony asked. The doctor led them to Liz’s room and let them inside Anthony sat down in a chair by her bed and Eliza left after a moment to get the others. That had been a week before and Anthony had only left Liz’s bed side to shower, eat, and use the bathroom. The door opening behind him caused him to jerk out of his memories and he turned to face the door.



******************************************************Eliza**********************************************************


Eliza stepped through the door and closed it quietly before turning back to the room. Anthony was watching her but when she didn’t speak he returned his gaze the Liz and didn’t look up. Eliza’s worry grew as she studied him while he wasn’t watching her. He had lost weight in only the week that Liz had been out and he looked like he was starving. He went home every other day showered ate and drank something and then went to bed to sleep for an hour before coming back to the hospital. She and the others had tried to get him to eat more or sleep longer but he said he wasn’t hungry and they knew he was having trouble sleeping. He woke screaming or covered in sweat and didn’t even try to go back to sleep. She was frantically panicking in her head, while maintaining a calm outer facade, trying to find some way to help Liz or Anthony. She knew that he loved Liz differently then he loved the rest of them. He didn’t love her more than them but she was his sister and she understood the bonds between siblings and she was worried what might happen to him if she didn’t wake up. Suddenly an idea struck her as she quietly turned and left the room before hurrying off down the hall. She exited the hospital and hailed a taxi and had it take her home.

“How is Anthony,” Sar-Rah asked waiting at the front door having heard the car pulling into the drive.

“Worst,” Eliza said and Sar-Rah’s face tightened and tears formed in her eyes but she didn’t cry. She nodded her understanding and turned toward the kitchen and walked off. Eliza hurried to her lab and hurried over to the sheet covered item that was to have been Anthony’s prize for winning that bet. She had finished it and had intended to give it to him but Liz’s attack had stalled her plans. She pulled the sheet off the covering, revealing a round machine waist high with what looked like a calculator and a bracelet sitting on top. Her work on the instant matter transmission machine had given her the idea for this and Anthony had seemed interested when she had casually mentioned the idea of a time machine to him. She had had to finish the teleporter before she could complete this so it had taken a while. This was much like the teleporter except instead of sending her only somewhere else it would also send her some when else.

“Note,” she said to remind herself. She walked to her desk and pulled out a sheet of blank paper and set it in the middle of the desk. She wrote down her plans and where and when she was going in case something went wrong. Then she clipped the metal bracelet on her wrist and pushed on a symbol etched into the metal and a hidden button depressed. The bracelet was a high power electromagnet and vibrated with power when she turned it on. The machine also began to hum with power when she activated the bracelet.


The machine would track the massive magnetic signature of the bracelet, and when the time specified was up or she initiated an early return, it would put her back to the present along with any living thing she was touching.

“Well let’s get this over with,” she mumbled and reached for the calculator like pad. It was a remote control for the time machine and had a lot of buttons with a small screen at the top. She knew of only one person who might be able to help Anthony and maybe even Liz and she had been planning to do this for Anthony for some time. So with a held breath she punched in the numbers that would take her back 12 years and a half years to the worst day in Anthony’s childhood.





*****************************************************May 15, 1999*************************************************




Eliza materialized in the living room of Anthony’s house and immediately willed herself to invisibility. She faded from sight just in time to avoid being discovered as a five year old Liz came running into the room. Her brown hair streaking out behind her as she ran and right behind her came Anthony chasing after her his face filled with a happy laughter that Eliza rarely saw on her Anthony’s face. With a shriek Liz darted to the other side of the couch and giggled running around it to avoid Anthony. Eliza stood watching and smiling at the two children and was so distracted by them that she didn’t notice the third person to stealthily enter the room until she almost ran into Eliza. At the last moment Eliza sensed her presence and stepped out of her path as the woman snuck up on Anthony and the whole time Liz giggled and laughed. With a lunge the woman grabbed and lift Anthony dropping him on the couch and began tickling him. Liz leapt onto his legs pinning them as her mother tickled Anthony.

“I give up, I surrender,” Anthony called through his laughter. Liz stood up and jump up and down in happiness and when her mother stood and held up a hand they high fived both laughing in triumph as Anthony lay on the couch trying to regain his breath. Eliza moved around to get a look at the woman’s face as they stood laughing. She looked like Liz’s twin the only difference between her and how Liz looked fully grown was a small scar just above her eye and her hair had a slight curl that Liz’s didn’t have.

“Angela have you seen my keys,” a man said as he walked into the room. Eliza could barely reconcile this happy looking man with the crazed drunk from the previous week who had mangled her daughter and cut his son to the bone with a knife. The woman turned and gave the man a loving look before her face went thoughtful.

“They’re not on the table by the front door, Richard,” Angela asked. When Richard shook his head she turned her gaze on her daughter who had her hands behind her back and an innocent look on her face. She cocked an eyebrow at her daughter and with a sigh Liz leaned over the couch and stuff her hand between the cushions and pulled out a ring of keys. Richard walked over and took the keys and gave the small girl a kiss on the forehead and ruffled Anthony’s hair before turning back to his wife. Richard and Angela kissed lovingly and neither noticed the look of jealousy that crossed Anthony’s expression but both Liz and Eliza did, thought Eliza wasn’t sure that Liz understood the emotions behind the look.

“I’ll be home late tonight,” he said and left. As he left he let the babysitter in and hurried to his car. Angela kissed her children goodbye and after giving the babysitter some instructions headed out the door. Eliza followed her and turning incorporeal slipped into the passenger’s seat as Angela climbed behind the wheel. she sat in silence and readied the bracelet on her wrist. Angela drove toward down town along the highway until suddenly an eighteen wheeler hauling a fuel tank jumped the dividing median and head straight for their car. The instant before the cars impacted Eliza reverted to normal grabbed Angela’s arm with the hand that was wearing the bracelet and pressed the symbol twice. Everything froze and Angela looked around in panic until she realized someone had hold of her arm.

“Who are you,” she asked and tried to jerk her arm out of Eliza’s grip. She didn’t even manage to budge Eliza’s hand so she didn’t try a second time.

“I am Eliza Caine. I know this is going to sound kind of crazy but try to bear with me until I am done. First of all I am from the future and I am married to your son. I will explain everything and let you see the progression of events up until my present but first I need to ask a question. Do you want to come with me? As you can see there is going to be an accident and you won’t survive if you stay here,” she said motioning out the windshield toward the truck about to plow into the car. Angela looked at the frozen truck and swallowed.

“You froze time,” she asked Eliza in a shaky voice.

“Not exactly. Freezing time is probably impossible to do because you would need a device with a range big enough to affect everything in existence or it would over load or simply have no effect at all,” Eliza explained. Angela pointedly looked out the window at their immobile surroundings and Eliza grinned at her.

“What I did is looped a time jump for a fraction of a second. I didn’t freeze time because I couldn’t so what I did is have the time machine jump us back in time to the exact same time we left over and over again a thousand times a second.