We are nowhere and it's now

She had expected to remain alone. The path was barely visible, a thick layer of snow covering her tracks from earlier. The cold air caressed her bones as she walked out into the landscape, making her shiver. It was a feeling similar to fear but more brutal.

She was well-dressed for winter, a too-large knitted sweater and an even bigger coat covered her small frame, and her boots were sturdier than the large pine trees her father used to cut down for firewood. But now her father was long gone, and his old cottage had been passed on to her. It was a cozy little house, though desolate in its position. The nearest village could be found in a valley at the end of the narrow mountain path she was now walking, but the trail took more than three hours to walk and could not be accessed by cars. So to meet someone else fumbling through the snow was not a common experience.

She heard him from a distance, clumsy footsteps interrupting the wailing of the wind. She listened closely; afraid a bear would emerge from the woods and attack her. But it was not a bear, but a man that appeared. He was far from prepared for the weather, only a torn shirt with a floral pattern and beige dress pants with holes at the knees were protecting him from the cold. Around his neck a medallion hung, and in his hands he held a pair of socks. He was barefoot, and walked through the snow as if he was walking on an acrobat's rope, biting his tongue with arms stretched out.

When he saw her he started waving and tried to run towards her, only to fall forward and collapse at her feet. Not left with much choice, she picked him up and carried him back towards her cottage. Leaving him to freeze to death seemed a bit harsh, even if it was incredibly stupid to run around in the middle of nowhere with no shoes on.

Once back inside, she put the man down on the couch, removed his shirt and covered him in blankets. Her eyes lingered on the medallion as she unbuttoned the shirt. It was made of some sort of metal, strange letters engraved around a stone in the middle. It emitted warmth as if it was a radiator of some sort.

She tried to dismiss it as a peculiar but unimportant trinket, and moved on to boiling some water for tea. The arrival of this stranger had disrupted her day, but she couldn't suppress the sense of adventure that had awakened inside of her. Since childhood she had longed for excitement that only could be found within the pages of books, so far away from her own reality she could never hope to have it for herself. So it was with hope, but also with a certain suspicion that she handed the cup of tea to the man as he woke and almost fell off the couch.

"I hope you like tea, I was out of coffee," she said and sat down in an old armchair.

"Thank you," he mumbled and then he stared at her as if she was misplaced somehow or maybe had something strange on her nose.

She scratched it just to make sure. "Who are you anyway?

"I'm Caspian, and you are?"

"My name's Jenna. But really, what are you doing here?"

He shrugged and smiled at her sheepishly. "Well, I 'm not sure. When and where am I exactly?

"Mount Keffler, 19th November of 2011."

"Bummer. The apocalypse is in about a year."

"You believe in that?" Jenna smiled and took a sip of tea.

"Not really," he said and emptied his teacup in one gulp. "You must have a lot of questions."

"Yes. Do you want a refill?"

He laughed. "Sure. But aren't you at least a little freaked out?"

Jenna went over to the kitchen and poured more tea into his cup, remaining quiet until she was back in her armchair.

"Slightly so, yes. How did you end up here?"

"Time travel, believe it or not."

"Time travel with no shoes on?"

He laughed again, this time a bit more loudly. "I was in a hurry."

It was getting late and the snow began to fall, yet again covering any trace of life on top of the mountain. Caspian fell asleep the moment Jenna turned away to do the dishes and get the fireplace going. The cottage had no electricity, running water or heat, so she relied on older methods. For many people this would feel time-consuming and frustrating to the point of madness, but Jenna was used to it, and some days the chores of cutting wood and getting water from the well felt calming to her.  She had grown up like that after all, and she didn't mind returning to the life she had once left.

Grief trickled down her spine like a hungry snake. Her father had died here alone, without ever knowing she regretted the callous words she had thrown at him when she smacked the front door shut and left at age 17, tired of living closed off from the rest of the world.
The world had been cruel to her, just as she had been cruel to him. And now she was back where she had started, but this time she was alone. Well, not at the moment. Caspian was snoring loudly on the couch, reminding Jenna that it was time for sleep.

She was met by the smell of bacon and eggs as she sleepwalked to the kitchen, her dark hair tangled up and messy, falling into her eyes.

"I took the liberty of cooking you breakfast," Caspian said with a proud smile covering his freckled face. "Hungry?"

"Thanks."

They ate in silence, washed the dishes in a collaborative effort and collected water from the almost-frozen well.  Caspian was wearing her father's old boots and jacket.  He didn't break the silence until they were inside, each with a cup of tea in their hand.

"So you actually believe me?"

"I don't know, are you lying?"

"No. But it wouldn't be crazy to think I am."

"Caspian, you seem like an honest fellow, if a bit strange. I'd like to hear your story."

He cleared his throat and started talking.

"I'm from the future, the year of 2247, and we recently invented time travel machines. The medallion I wear is one of these devices. But the early technology proved to be a bit tacky, I can travel through time but I cannot decide where or when I will end up. So I can't go home."

"That's really sad. I'm sorry."

"Well, it can be really fun as well, though dinosaurs are a bit intimidating. Pirates on the other hand, are fun. At least if you are on their side." He chuckled. "Anyways, I was a beta-tester for the medallion project, and when I found myself further into the future they had refined the tech quite a bit. But they wouldn't let me use it to go home. You see, at this point in time the government had prohibited all time travel."

"Why?"

"Sight-seeing is fine, but when almost everyone is going back in time to fix mistakes or get revenge on someone or otherwise mess up their own timeline, things gets chaotic. So it was banned and all devices were gathered up and burned. Agents were sent to find and stop those still spread out in the cobwebs of history. When I asked for help, they tried to kill me."

"What did you do then?"

"I tried to kill them right back, and then I ran for my life when I failed to do so. Since then they've been hunting me. I can never stay long at one place or they'll find me. This leads to some mishaps, like forgetting to put on shoes."

"I'm so sorry Caspian."

"Don't be, it's not your fault. I just wish I could settle down somewhere, but they don't give up easily."

"So why don't you just throw away the medallion?"

"It wouldn't matter. They want me dead no matter what."

He curled up beneath the blankets, a solemn expression haunting his face. Jenna retreated to her bedroom, unsure of what to say to make things better. Words could be so strong, and yet so useless. She buried her face in the pillow. Everything felt so surreal and she didn't know how to react to it anymore. She had thought herself calm but now that certainty was fading. But hiding never did much to solve things.

She returned to Caspian. "I was running too."

He looked up at her with the same curious eyes as earlier.

"I ran away from home when I was 17, and two months ago I ran back home. All the things I did in between feel like a daze. I got a job in the city, lost it and got a new one. I had a girlfriend for a while but she left me. None of it feels important to me. My father died here and left me this house. I dropped everything and went here in the spur of the moment and I can't bring myself to go back. I am running, yet it feels like I'm standing still."

Caspian walked up to her and folded his arms around her in an embrace. They stood like that for a while, escaping into the warmth of each other, and Jenna found herself breathing in the rhythm of Caspian's heartbeats.

"When you leave, I want to go with you," she whispered into his chest.

"Aren't you scared of dying, Jenna?"

"Yes. It doesn't matter."

"You barely know me."

"Who says I'm doing it for you?"

Caspian buried his face in the mess of her hair, then let go of her slowly and placed his medallion around her neck.  

"Don't leave without me," he said and turned around, gazing out of the window at the snow swirling down from the sky, both harsh and soft in its promise. Snow always returned, covering up the uncertainty of the ground beneath it.

There was a knock at the door. Jenna picked up a shovel and pointed at Caspian to hide in the bedroom.  She tucked the medallion into her shirt and opened the door.

Two men stood outside, one had a Salvador Dali mustache, and the other wore a green top hat with a matching green suit. They certainly didn't look like the usual type of mountain hikers or ski tourists, but they didn't fit her image of assassins either. But every doubt Jenna had carried of Caspian's story disintegrated when she saw the mustache man reaching for a gun from inside his jacket. She fastened her grip on the shovel.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"I think you know," answered the man in the top hat.

"Just let us in and everything will be fine, said the mustache man. "Well not for Caspian, but for you."

"Okay," Jenna said, and weaved them inside. Then, with all the strength her petite body possessed, she hit the mustache man in the head with the shovel. He fell to the ground and when she looked at the shovel it was sticky with blood.

His friend had his gun pointed at her before she had the chance to make another move. "You little bitch!" he yelled, and took a step towards her, hatred in his eyes as he pulled the trigger.

The next moment Jenna was on the ground, Caspian breathing heavily on top of her. He crawled off her and rammed their enemy into the wall, struggling to get a hold of his gun. It fired twice more, hitting the roof and a spot on the floor just next to Jenna.  

Carefully she rolled over to the dead mustache man, and pulled out the gun from inside his jacket. She had never held a gun before, so it was with shaking hands she aimed it towards the two tangled up bodies fighting like rabid dogs for their lives. Jenna bit her lip, and tried to get the aim right, one misplaced bullet and she would never forgive herself.

"Caspian, down!" she shouted and he threw himself onto the floor the same second as the gun went off. Jenna almost lost balance at the recoil.

The man was still standing up when she looked up from her trembling hands, a hand soaked in red clutching desperately at his throat. He fell to his knees, fear etched into his eyes as he tipped over to the ground, gurgling on his own blood. Jenna stared at him, suddenly filled with the sheer reality of her actions. Caspian placed a hand on her shoulder.

"It's not your fault."

"I killed them."

"They would have killed you if you hadn't," he said with bitter confidence.

Jenna tried to meet his eyes but couldn't seem to face him. "Have you ever..?"

"Yes."

When the shock had past Caspian collected a metallic wrist watch from each of their victims, and explained that these were the time travel devices that could take him back home.

"You can finally go back."

"No." Caspian looked away, and ran his fingers through his ginger hair, pulling a few strands behind his ear before he continued. "There are more and I don't want them to follow me there. I can never go home."

Three hours later two graves were dug in the snow behind the house. In spring, the snow would melt away to reveal her brutality, but for now Jenna's guilt was buried. Blood still stained the walls and floor of the cabin, but Jenna didn't plan to return. They exited the house with their hands clasped together, Caspian's medallion wrapped around their wrists.