Ben’s situation does not improve.

“Shitfuckshit!”

The string of curses were the first thing that greeted Ben as the warm oblivion of unconsciousness began to fade.

Despite the pain, he blinked his eyes, slowly and with effort. For a horrible moment he wondered if he had been struck blind, but things began to clear somewhat and he came to realise that he was in a very dark room.

No, not a room exactly. He looked around slowly and took in the cold cement floor, the water heater in the corner, stacks of old furniture and junk cluttering the place. A work bench for woodwork.

He was in a basement.

Tight rope dug into the flesh of his wrists and bound him to an old chair and from the aching in his shoulders he had been in this position for a while. Licking his top lip he could taste more dried blood. Fucking terrific.

His head was aching from the punches he had received, which made it hard to focus, but he was able to follow the frantic pacing of his teenage mother. A string of curses continued to leak out of her mouth, some of the most foul language he had ever heard.

It occurred to Ben that he hadn’t really known much about his mother’s youth. He had seen the odd photo here and there, but his grandparents had passed away when he was younger and his mom wasn’t close with her sister so there weren’t many opportunities to talk about the past.

And here he was, smack dab in the middle of it.

She must have noticed he was awake because her pacing immediately stopped. Her jaw worked as she ground her teeth in frustration. She looked ready to attack him again.

“You fucking crazy piece of shit,” she hissed, “what am I going to do with you, huh? You break into my house, go into my room to do perv stuff, saying crazy lying shit and then you fucking almost die when I hit you!”

She sounded manic and on the verge of frenzy. And Ben didn’t doubt that she would attack him again if provoked. How the fuck would this crazy chick go on to become his loving mother? Had she gotten a lobotomy or something?

“Now I can’t even call the cops on you because I’ve had to tie you up down here,” she shook her head in disgust, “they’ll find some way to make me look bad, just another black mark on my record. Fuck’s sake.”

Ben swallowed and cleared his throat. It was very important that he should get exactly right what he knew he had to say, the more so since his head was pounding and it was possible he’d black out again.

“Suzy,” said Ben in a thick voice, “Suzy, please listen to me. I didn’t break in. I don’t want any harm to come to you. I’m not a liar and I promise I won’t go to the cops.”

A huff of disgust escaped her pouty lips. “Yeah, right.”

“I can prove it. It’s crazy sounding..but I can prove…that I’m from…” his eyes grew heavy and he had to shake himself, “the future. I’m from the future.”

He **** himself to lock eyes with her and felt his heart break momentarily when he saw only disgust looking back at him.

“Your favourite song is California Dreaming,” Ben said with distinction. “You randomly sing it to yourself whenever you get fidgety.”

Suzy’s eyes went wide, then narrowed with rage. “You been stalking me? Watching me on my way from school? Is that what this is you Norman Bates fucker?!”

Ben’s mind raced, fighting through the murky pain of concussion as he tried to recall something, anything that might give him a reprieve.

“You….always say the name of that one actor wrong.” Ben swallowed, thinking hard. “That one guy from Rambo First Blood. Brian …ah, fuck what is it? Brian Dennehy. You always call him Brian ‘Denhenesy’ even when people try to correct you.”

Suzy froze in place. Suddenly that burning aggression began to melt away as something resembling confusion and fear crossed her face.

“….how do you know that?”she whispered.

Ben sighed, his whole body aching. “Because in the future, I know you. I know you very well and every time we’ve watched that movie together I’ve had to tell you off for saying the guy’s name wrong.”

He could see he was getting through to her, but there was still a final wall of resistance he had to overcome. A familiar oval shape rubbed against his leg and inspiration struck.

“I’ve only ever watched that movie with my dad…” she shook her head, worry clouding her features, “it was just the two of us, how could you…

“I have a small, sort of…like a discman thing. It’s in my pocket right now.” He pushed out a shaky breath. “I think that’s how I ended up here, in this time. You can see for yourself.”

Suzy’s expression grew guarded, her eyes flicking to his pants and then up to his face warily. Her fists clenched tight.

“Don’t try anything,” she spat, inching closer.

Her hands patted around his pants pockets until she came upon the heavy object in his left pocket and drew it out. Frowning at the device while turning it over in her hands.

“The screen,” he offered, “tap at the screen.”

As she did, light sprung out into the darkness and illuminated her pretty face. She visibly flinched away, but curiosity won over caution and she began to rub and tap at the screen like a toddler, bringing forth a variety of images.

“What in the world…” she breathed, “there’s no… buttons or a keypad or ……anything.”

Ben sighed. “See?”

She frowned up at him, though with much less hate than before. “Let’s….say I maybe believe you. You’re, what, like that guy from terminator or something? Sent back on a kind of mission to save the world?”

“No,” despite his aching head, he couldn’t help but laugh. “I just found that thing and fucked around without thinking and now I’m here. And if you let me up, I promise I’ll just be on my merry way, back to my own place in the timeline. No harm no foul.”

Suzy chewed her bottom lip. He could see the gears of her mind turn round and round as she considered the situation. Tentatively she approached, walked around and untied his restraints.

“Don’t make me regret this…” she muttered. “If this is a trick I’ll kick your ass again.”

With his hands free Ben slumped forward and began to rub his wrists, his body relieved now that it could move again.

“So….what do you do now?” She asked. “Does Scotty beam you up or something?”

He held out his hand. “Look, I really don’t know the specifics but I figure that little thing is my ticket home.”

There was another pause as she gave the device another longing look. After a small eternity of silent observation she reluctantly she held it out to him.

Ben clicked the device, went through until the time and date menu came up. He scrolled through until he found his ‘present’.

“Before you do anything,” Suzy’s voice was ****, but forceful. “Just tell me one thing. In the future…how do we know each other? Because you said some weird shit up in my room and it’s freaking me out.”

Ben thought about it. Could be tell her? He had already kind of let some of their relationship slip when they first met. But given how high emotions were running she probably wouldn’t make sense of it. It might be better to leave things ambiguous. After all, weren’t there all kinds of weird rules for time travel? He’d probably broken a few of them already, but better not to dig himself any deeper.

“Look I was pretty disoriented, what with the whole shift in the time stream,” he shrugged, “but in the future…we’re friends. And we’ll see each other again, so don’t worry.”

Yep, he thought. _That sounds cool enough. _He clicked through the device on his time and gave a casual wave as he felt himself be enveloped in light.

There was a shift, gravity began to move, he almost felt like he was floating. His atoms vibrated with energy. The world began to morph around him…

…only for it to suddenly stop.

He felt himself lurch forward and stumble. The device in his hand began to beep and then flash a painfully familiar icon across its screen.

“No battery?” He cursed, “ motherfu-”