14

"See there is nothing here!" I complained and kicked a charred piece of wood out of the way.

We hadn't walked far until we had came across the ruins of a small building. I had pointed out that it was most likely useless to investigate it but Peter had still insistent that we do it.

There wasn't much left of the building because what ever had turned the forest into a barren wasteland also had burned down, what I assumed had been a families home at some point. On the floor were half melted children toys, pieces of furniture and other things that had become unrecognizable thrown around in between the leftovers of the collapsed roof.

Seeing the state of the place made me wonder what had happened to the family.

Had they gotten out? Did they got to safety before this happened? I wondered and picked up a doll that layed in between the rubble.

I dusted ashes off it's face.

"I hope you are alright." I mumbled to myself.

With a tried sigh I then put it down on the fireplaces mantel, not wanting it to lay any longer on the dirty floor.

"Just keep looking and stop being so pessimistic all the time." Peter said, drawing my attention back to him.

I turned towards him and grumpily retorted, "I'm not pessimistic. This is just fucking useless."

"Right you aren't..." He started but then something between the rubble seemingly caught his attention. He clambered over a shared beam and then picked something up.

"Ha! Would you look at this!" He triumphantly said and held out a slightly melted mobile phone for me to see.

I scoffed and scoffed that I heavily doubt that the thing would still work.

"It's not about if it still works or not." He argued back while climbing over the rubble towrds me.

"Then what is it about?" I questioned, not understanding why he thought a molten piece of plastic was so important.

But instead of answering my question he just handed it over and said, "Take a look at it."

I groaned and took it from his hands. When turning it around in my hamds I didn't noticed anything besides that the screen was cracked and the plastic warped. Out of curiosity I pressed the button on the side. I wasn't really surprised when it wouldn't turn but there was still a slight sting of disappointment.

I then turned it around in my hands a few more times, hoping it would give me any insight on what he was talking about but I just didn't understood.

"I don't get it."

"It's a normal smartphone right?" He asked with a slightly annoyed tone in his usually monotone voice.

I nodded and then he finally spoke out what he really meant, "That means we aren't that far in the future."

I struggled for a moment to comprehend what he just said but when I did the blood in my vaines froze and a shower of dread washed over me. "You... you mean...that..." I stummelte, while holding the phone in my now shaking hands.

He nodded and then replied as a matter of fact, "Yes. We are most likely only a century in the future. Maybe even less."

The phone fell out of my hands and I felt my heart beat quickening.

"See that's exactly why I didn't want to explore this shit!" I screamed and started pacing back and forth.

"I didn't wanted to fucking know when everything goes down the drain! I..."

If this and most likely all the other times I had been to the future were only a few years from our present then that meant I was fucked either way.

The realization hit me hard that there was no avoiding this future because it would still most likely happen in my lifetime. I felt my breath becoming ragged, a clear sign for myself that I was about to have a panic attack.

"Oh fuck! This is bad. Like seriously bad! No no no..."

"Felix!" Peter yelled getting me to stop my pacing for a moment. He walked up to me and grabbed my shaking hands and gave them a squeeze. "You are forgetting something." He stated more calmly then before and lowered himself so his eyes where at the same level as mine.

"Oh yeah?! And what am I forgetting?!" I hissed back, while attempting to free my hands of his grasp.

He sighed, stepped even closer and leaned his forehead against mine.

"The future isn't set in stone, Felix." He said and then he added with a soft smile, "We can still change it."

"But how?" I inquired, my voice only a breathless wisper. "By figuring out what will cause this." He explained, calming my nerves and making my heart beat go back to normal.

We stood like that for what felt like hours.

His light blue reminded me of the sky and his warm breath whisking over my lips caused me to have goosebumps all over my body.

I didn't understood why he had this kind of effect on me but every time we merely even touched it felt like I had finally found something that I had been missing for a very long time and even if I didn't exactly knew what it was I didn't want to lose it under any circumstances. 

I closed my eyes and took deep breath but then I suddenly felt something soft pressing against my lips. It only lasted for a split second but it still managed to spread a strange warmth from my lips to the core of my body.

It was even more intense then the last time.

I slowly opened my eyes just to see to my disappointment that Peter had already stepped away and was now looking around the room as if nothing had happened.

He cleared his throat and only quickly glanced towards me before he saying, "Well then let's see if we can find anything else."

I nodded, not feeling like discussing what had just happened any further.

Maybe it was better for at least know to ignore the fect that he had kissed me now twice even though he and Preston were a couple.

We went through the other rooms but we weren't able to find anything else of importance.

I nervously nibbled on my bottom lip and tried not to focus on the butterflies in my stomach to much.

When Peter suddenly stopped infront of the open basement door the butterflies turned into spiders. When there was one thing that I hated just as much as time traveling, possibly even more then it was dark basements. From my experience there never came anything good from going down them.

But to my dismay Peter pulled out his phone from his pocket and turned on the light. I gulped and weakly asked, "Do we really have go down there?"

He tilted his head in consideration and then replied, "Stay up here and keep an eye out."

"Right because splitting up is always a good idea." I grumbled and could have sworn that I heard Peter chuckling while he descended down into the darkness of the basement.

The light of his phones flashlight got dimmer and dimmer the further he went into the basement until I could barely see it anymore.

I took a step back from the darkness and then went back to the livingroom.

There wasn't really anything to do considering we had already searched the ground floor and the upstairs floor was to unstable to be explored safely so I sat down next to the fireplace, resting my head against the cold stone. My eyes started to feel heavy and even though I tried to fight against it sleep still took over me drifted away.