Kendra was awoken by silence, a calming change of scenery compared to the dream she just had. It was one of those dreams that you swore was vivid and detailed- almost lifelike- but once you awoke, "poof!", you couldn't relay it to someone for the life of you.
Shaking her head to rid her mind of it, Kendra slid out of her bed and groggily stepped towards her bathroom. As she looked in the mirror, something caught her eye. Actually, that something was her eyes. Around her pupils were her normal blue color, but this time stained with flecks of dark, dark brown. "Have those always been there?" she thought. Eyes were known to change color, but this had to be out of the ordinary, right?
Her attention was diverted by a familiar beeping downstairs. Someone had left the door open to her family's time machine. The year was 2207 and time machines were the "it" appliance for upper-middle class households. As Kendra shut the door she read the travel logs blinking on the side of the machine. The most recent travel was dated to only a day ago. She scoffed at that, rolling her eyes. "You have the most cutting-edge device of the 22nd century and you use it to go back one day, typical". A noise disrupted her thoughts, and she turned, expecting her Mom's daily "Good Morning". What greeted Kendra instead was her cat, prancing down the hallway to rub against her leg. "Hey Ferguson, you hungry?" Her question was met by loud purring. She chuckled, walking to the kitchen to grab the cat food from the lower pantries.
As she entered the kitchen, more silence. "This is odd", the girl thought, "Usually mom is in here at this time." She looked at the clock. It read 8:45am. "Dad should be getting back from his run about now". Kendra glanced through the front window of the kitchen overlooking her house's driveway. Both cars were there, but no one was to be seen. She decided to investigate, scouring every room in the household. Parent's room: empty. Living room: empty. Both bathrooms: empty. Her stomach churned as it filled with slight worry. "Hello?" she called, holding her breath for an answer. The home was silent, except for a dripping sound coming from the coat closet under the stairs. "That's Strange, is there a pipe leaking?" Before she could even open the closet- "BUMBUMBUMBUM". Heavy and aggressive knocking was coming from the front door, causing Kendra to jump. She sighed in relief assuming her parents just went for an early jog together and had locked themselves out. As she neared the banging door, it broke open, and two police officers in riot gear grabbed her by each arm. Kendra screamed, demanding what they were doing. The two burly men didn't answer, and instead dragged her outside, kicking and screaming, straining against the too-tight handcuffs. She glanced at her neighbors, just, standing there, watching. "Help! Why isn't anyone helping me!!" tears of frustration rolled down the girls face as she was shoved into the backseat of the squad car.
Thoughts swirled around Kendra's mind, too fast to even gather into anything logical. She tried to listen through the divider, tried to get the slightest clue of why this was happening to her. The two cops' voices were low and gruff, murmuring between each other as they drove to the station. The only words that could be made out were "insane" and "closet". "The closet! What about that damn closet!" Her mind filled with screaming questions, wanting to be let out of her mouth, but she kept it shut, biting her lip as they pulled in to the parking lot. "Stay here", the taller of the two barked at her, slamming the door on his way out.
Right after hearing the cop's orders was when Kendra couldn't fight the urge to escape any longer. She anxiously waited for them to disappear out of sight, then used her cuffs to widen the tiny crack she noticed in her window on the drive over. Finally, it shattered, sounding off the car alarm. She didn't have much time to strategize, so headfirst out the window it was. Kendra staggered up and bolted, running the fastest one could with their hands behind their back. Shouts erupted behind her, but she didn't look back. She knew the only thing that could save her- and possibly help her figure out what was going on- was residing at the bottom of the steps in her home.
As Kendra neared her street, so did the sound of sirens. She reached her house and hopped over the shards of wood left from a door. She skidded to the time machine, and typed "24 HRS" into the control panel and squeezed her eyes shut.
Silence.