Adventure in Time

Mapleview, North Carolina.
December 3rd, 1988.
1:04 A.M.

A grave, tireless evening unfolded after the battle at the Evervale home.

Deep in the woodlands, far down the isolated and blockaded street of Maple Branch—the laboratory stood, but not as it once was, not with the metal gateway and the concrete walls. Now, everything had been redone; the walls appeared metal, the front gateway gone, replaced by a ten-foot wall with a single opening at the threshold of the road, keeping the new and improved Canterbury Lab completely out of sight.

All around the building, within the security walls, many of the black cars and trucks were parked, and nearly every employee was now inside. The lobby, the bedrooms, the barracks, and the general sense of disarming comfort that the facility once held was entirely gone from the place now; there were no longer any patients or children here, and there was no façade of comfort and welcoming warmth in the rooms or the halls, no gym, no game room, nothing to resemble the accommodations that Canterbury Lab once had. Now—every hall was a dark metal color, with a single strip of fluorescent lights down the ceilings, and each new doorway led into a single, isolated room with nothing inside it at all, nothing except for an open, darkened rift that led to parts and times unknown.

The night that Amory freed Zyon and destroyed the lab had completely torn the rifts asunder—and now, the new Canterbury had constructed its rooms, doors, and hallways all around them. Every small room led to a rift, which they planned to use, explore, and label depending on which time period each one led to. The construction of the place was finally complete, and only one room in Canterbury remained the same as before.

Valek marched down the darkened hall, dragging his son’s limp body behind him with an expressionless visage. He headed through what was once the medical wing—and he kicked the door of the procedure room open, stopping at the single metal bed in the center.

A woman with short auburn hair approached them from behind, lifting Vincent’s feet, and they placed him on the procedure bed.

Then, Valek straightened up, still glaring down at his son, and still grimacing.

“Thank you, Victoria,” he grumbled with a rasp, his eyes venturing over to her. “And… do you have it…?”

Victoria nodded, reaching into her tightly-fitted suit jacket and pulling out a small, white vial, one that almost seemed to shine on its own.

Valek took the vial, examined it thoughtfully, and stared down at Vincent again, his jaw crooking as he made a gentle shake of the head.

“Oh… now I have to do something I really don’t wanna do,” Valek growled, turning to the nearest counter and grabbing his injector from it. “I hope you’re happy, son.”

He inserted the vial into the injector, leaning over Vincent’s body, over his mangled, destroyed skull covered with dark, dried blood.

Valek pressed the device into his neck—and he administered the full dose, injecting Vincent with the mysterious compound.

Then, a miracle began; Vincent’s head began to shift and morph, bubbling and contorting until the entire right side of his skull seemed to regrow, manifesting anew. Valek watched with an unreadable face, Victoria raising her thin brows, both of them observing as the dead man slowly regained color of the skin, and fullness of the skull. Minutes later, Vincent’s chest arose, and he let out a choking gasping noise, clasping the side of his head and suddenly springing back to life.

Victoria gazed down at him in awe, glancing over to her boss.

Valek merely continued to stare into his son with a face devoid of feeling.

“The power of an angel,” he murmured faintly.

Vincent’s mismatched eyes wandered around, fixating on his father and gazing up at him in confusion. “What happened…?”

“Oh… you went and got yourself killed is what happened,” Valek replied with an odd nonchalance. “And maybe that will teach you a little lesson about continuing to go behind my back. Now. Listen to me.”

At once—Valek’s hand shot out—clasping Vincent’s throat tightly and pinning him onto the metal bed. Vincent made a rough choking noise, and his father loomed over him, glaring daggers down into his blood-spotted face.

“When I tell you… no, when I order you… to kill every last bloody runaway from here,” Valek glowered through gritted teeth. “Then you… will do… just that. No more running off with my units and doing whatever you please. No more trying to corner your little buddy and offer him an ultimatum. No more surprise family reunions at his house. No more fucking goddamn mercy. No more… of any special treatment… regarding… Amory… Evervale.”

He leaned slightly closer, eyes shining red as his grasp tightened more.

“So many people watching so many locations… and you just had to be in charge of the one watching the Evervale house,” Valek sneered. “How did I know? Eh? How did I know what you’d go out there and try to do…?”

Vincent tried to speak, but to no avail, his face beginning to turn red.

“I didn’t put stock in your humanity , boy—I put stock in your being like me ,” Valek growled, giving him a hard shake. “And I just had to use a part of that bloody winged pest to bring you back to life—so I hope you’re ready for a hell of a big booster shot of an anti-angel vaccine.”

He removed his hand from his son’s throat and slammed it against Vincent’s forehead, holding him there and raising his other hand to the ceiling.

Victoria moved to the wall and hit the switch.

The circular mechanism in the ceiling began to open, a dark, shifting void appearing directly above them.

Valek’s eyes began to shine a wicked, piercing crimson color—and he summoned every ounce of evil he could—a flood of darkness soaring down from the ceiling and shooting into his hand—traveling through his body and funneling into Vincent—into his mouth—eyes—ears—nose—everywhere—his body convulsing as the demons completely overcame him.

Mapleview, North Carolina.
September 25th, 2025.
11:23 A.M.

Crowe, Raven, and Iggy strode out of Evervale Manor together a while before anyone thought to follow them; the three had a fun time ogling the bizarre-looking KIA Soul sitting parked over to the side, and Raven eyeballed the stone sign in front of the mansion with an odd expression before they all walked off down the hill.

Crowe took the lead as they stepped off the end of the grassy hillside and onto the road, glancing around and quickly determining that they were on the north side of the town. The three strolled down the street, stepped onto the sidewalk, and marched past the long concrete wall that ran alongside Mapleview Cemetery, chatting and continuing onward until they spotted the McDonald’s in the near distance.

They all slowed to a stop at the edge of the sidewalk, trading strange looks with each other.

“Oh—what a jip,” Crowe complained, swatting at the McDonald’s. “Where’s the playground? What’s a McDonald’s without a bloody playground?!”

“Well… we’re not little kids anymore,” Raven laughed. “It’s not like we’re gonna go run in there and try to play in it now.”

Crowe turned and gaped at her. “Uh—speak for yourself.”

“We might, uhmm… might should go and talk to someone,” Iggy proposed, scratching his hairs. “We don’t know if Mapleview Credit Union is still around… or, um… if it’s still in the same place it was before…”

“Good point,” Crowe nodded, resuming his pace. “Let’s go.”

They marched on, crossing the street and passing by the McDonald’s, all of them sparing peculiar looks at the weird-looking cars in its parking lot. They did the same thing when they walked through the parking lots of the thrift store and the diner, and a while later—Crowe emerged on a corner, spotting a building that was familiar to him.

It was the hotel, the very same one that Candice Evervale worked at in the 70s. It now had a different name, with a much larger front parking lot and a far cleaner look to its exterior, but it was most assuredly the same place.

Shrugging, Crowe walked across its expansive parking lot with Raven and Iggy close behind.

They pushed the glass doors open, entered the lobby, and walked up to the front desk, the interior now much bigger with an entirely different layout, colored white and sky blue rather than the yellowish design that it had many years ago.

Behind the desk was an older woman with graying blonde hairs, tied back in a bun, egg-shaped glasses resting on her nose as she typed away on her computer, a small name tag reading SARAH pinned onto her chest. She blinked and glanced up, only just noticing the three people standing at her counter now.

“Oh… hello,” the woman named Sarah said. “Can I help you?”

“Right… yeah, is Mapleview Credit Union still around?” Crowe wondered.

Sarah stared, then made a nod. “Well… yes.”

“D’you know where it is?”

“Yeah… it’s right around the corner from the main road.”

“Okay… so it’s in the same place, then. Gotcha,” Crowe understood. “Would ya’ mind calling us a taxi? That’s a bit of a walk from here.”

Sarah’s mouth opened, and she briefly glimpsed around her desk, then grabbed her smartphone.

“Um… I don’t know of any taxi companies that run here, honestly,” she informed, raising her phone. “Why don’t I just call you all an Uber?”

Crowe made a face, exchanging glances with his companions, all of them looking bewildered.

“Ah…” Crowe uttered, leaning closer. “What’s an Ooo-ber? ”

Sarah stared at him for a second, her face changing, then she breathed out a laugh. “Um… well… an Uber is like a taxi. It just costs a little more, and it’s usually a little bit nicer, if you get the right person… but I can call you a Lyft instead, if you’d prefer that.”

“A lift …?” Crowe said, now totally lost. “I don’t think an elevator is gonna get us where we’re going, not unless you’ve got flying ones now. Blimey—have you got flying ones now?!”

Sarah giggled and shook her head. “I really can’t tell if you’re kidding or not, sweetheart.”

“Um… I’m sorry… he’s brain-damaged,” Raven said, patting Crowe’s arm and giving Sarah a polite smile. “And… he’s also British. British people say ‘lift’ instead of ‘elevator.’ I think that’s where he got lost.”

Sarah laughed and nodded. “All right, sweety, I getcha. Do you want me to go ahead and call you an Uber…?”

“Ah… yeah, I think that’ll be fine,” Raven agreed.

“Okay…” Sarah looked down at her smartphone as she typed, pausing and glimpsing up at them. “I don’t think we need UberXL… and, we’re making it for Mapleview Credit Union… ah, that doesn’t cost much. There we go. Your ride will be here in just a few minutes. They’re in a black KIA Optima, and I told them who to look for. Y’all might wanna step outside so you can meet with them. They’ll probably pull up in the roundabout out front.”

“Okay. Thank you very much,” Raven said nicely, she and her friends taking turns thanking Sarah and waving her off before they all headed toward the front doors.

So—Crowe, Raven, and Iggy stood in the paved, rounded arrival area in front of the hotel, glimpsing around and observing what they could see of 2025 Mapleview from here.

“What, uhhh…” Iggy mumbled, making a face and looking to the other two in confusion. “What is a KIA Optima…?”

Crowe and Raven both faced him.

“No idea,” Crowe shrugged with a laugh.

They all fell silent for a moment, the cool autumn breeze gusting by, leaves fluttering across the parking lot as the midday sun shined brightly above the town.

“Would’ve liked to bring John here,” Crowe murmured under his breath.

Raven glimpsed over at him, frowning and sighing.

The sleek black KIA Optima coasted around the circular stretch of pavement, stopping before the Moonevalers as the driver window came down. A young man with long brown hair, much of it combed back beneath a baseball hat, leaned out and spoke to them.

“You guys waiting for an Uber?” the driver asked.

“Yeah… that’s us,” Raven confirmed.

“Well’p… come on in,” the driver said with a smile. “I’ve got drinks and snacks in here, and there’s plenty of room.”

Raven smirked, but Crowe and Iggy looked to one another with strange expressions etched across their faces.

“This is… this is a little creepy, innit?” Crowe mumbled to him as Raven pulled the side door open. “Weren’t we always trained not to get into a stranger’s car? Especially when they’re pulling up and acting all like ‘Oy, get in! C’mon, I’ve got some candy for ya’ in here!’ ”

“Haheh… yeeeah… heeeew,” Iggy breathed, flattening his mouth and sauntering over to Crowe’s side, giving the sleek black car a curious once-over. “Now that… is one… weird-looking car. Looks more like a space pod on wheels.”

“Right,” Crowe laughed.

He then crawled into the back, Raven pulling the door shut behind them. Iggy chose to sit up front, sinking into the passenger seat and closing the door.

The interior of the car was spacious and inviting, and filled with a smooth flow of air conditioning to contrast the hotter weather outside, as it was an unusually warm day in Maple County for September. Crowe and Raven were seated cozily in the back, and there was a small black platform on the back of the center console, complete with a cup-holder of four, and there were four ice-cold fountain drinks sitting there, waiting to be enjoyed by the passengers. Beneath this large cup-holder was a small pouch made of woven paracord, and it had various candies, snack cakes, and bubblegums inside, free for the taking. In fact—there were even two touch screens on the backs of the seats, large tablets that were positioned so the passengers could use them however they pleased. The radio seemed to be playing a smooth, upbeat song that none of them had ever heard before, though the mood of the song seemed to suit the situation quite well as the shiny black Optima rolled out of the circular stretch, driving down the path and cruising back onto the road.

“Can't stop, addic-ted to the shin-dig. Chop-Top, he says I'm gonna win-big. Choose not a life of imi-ta-tion-dist-ant cou-sin to the res-er-va-tion! Defunkt, the pis-tol that you pay-for. This punk, the feel-in' that you stay-for. In time, I want to be your-best-friend-east side love is liv-ing on the West-End!”

Raven grinned as she began to dig through the pouch of snacks, Iggy gazing out his window as the passing scenery, and Crowe was nodding along to the interesting music.

“What is this?” Crowe asked, leaning forward and eyeballing the driver with intrigue. “What’s this song? And what’s the band called?”

“Um… it’s Can’t Stop , by the Red Hot Chili Peppers,” the driver informed, glancing back at him through the rearview. “I can change it if you want… or you can just change it with the tablet back there.”

“Oh, no, I like it,” Crowe smirked. “It sounds very… Cali.”

The driver nodded, then gave him another glimpse in the mirror, this time squinting interestingly at him. “You never heard them before?”

“Naaah… I’ve kinda been living under a rock for the past thirty-seven years,” Crowe laughed, looking down at the cold drinks. “Oy… are the drinks free? Can we have ‘em?”

“Oh yeah, yeah, those are for passengers,” the driver told him.

“Brilliant. Thanks,” Crowe smiled, grabbing the nearest beverage and taking a sip. “Mm… this one’s sweet tea. Who wants the sweet tea?”

“I do!” Raven beamed, Crowe handing it off to her.

“I hear… someone… digging through some snacks back there,” Iggy remarked, turning partly around and perching his brow down at the cup-holder and the pouch beneath it. “I would like… something… chocolate. Please and thank you.”

Raven tucked her sweet tea between her legs and pulled out a plastic-wrapped brownie from the pouch, leaning forward and handing it over to Iggy. Crowe continued to taste-test the drinks, handing them off to those who requested them.

“The world I love, the tears I drop—to be part of, the wave, can't stop. Ever wond-er if it's, all, for you? The world I love, the trains I hop—to be part of, the wave, can't stop. Come and tell me when it's... time to.”

“Oh… this is nice. This is posh. I like this,” Crowe smiled contently, leaning farther back and outstretching his arm on the back of the seat, Raven sitting cozily up against him. “I think I could love living here.”

He turned his head, peering out the window beside him, watching as the sideline of town coasted past his vision, his expression softening as he did.

Crowe rested his head back against the seat, flashing a peaceful half-smile and feeling as if he was farther from his every pain and worry than he ever had been before.

“I see why he came here,” he murmured to himself.

“Hey. Crowe,” Raven muttered, waving to get his attention as she fidgeted with the tablet in front of her. “Look. Look at this.”

Crowe straightened up and leaned over, watching closely as Raven slowly dragged her finger across the tablet, making a new screen appear that seemed to have several options on it, labeled MUSIC, E-BOOKS, NETFLIX, SPOTIFY, and YOUTUBE.

“Wow. Lookit that. Space-age technology,” Crowe smirked, turning to the tablet in front of his own seat and swiping the screen, now seeing all of the same options as Raven. “Hm. Okay… well… the only word I recognize here is music, so… let’s try that one.”

He hit the MUSIC button on the touch screen, thumping it hard with his finger, and nothing happened. He blinked and tried again, to no avail.

“Hey… you’ve gotta be gentle with that,” the driver commented. “Or else it won’t read what you’re doing.”

“Yeah… it’s not analog technology,” Raven whispered to him, snickering as she did. “Don’t treat it like the TV in Moonvale.”

Crowe turned and gave her a look, slowly and gently tapping his finger to the screen, and maintaining firm eye contact with her while he did, which made her giggle even more.

“Drama queen,” Raven laughed.

“You got it?” the driver asked.

Crowe examined the screen, now seeing a long list of several songs by various different artists.

“I got it,” he affirmed. “Ooo, lots of music on here…”

“Yeah… that list is all my mp3s,” the driver told him. “If you wanna listen to something newer than 90s or 2000s stuff, then you’re probably gonna have to play it off of YouTube or Spotify. My mp3s are all Millennial stuff, or 90s stuff, or divorced dad rock. Y’know. All that type of Millennial fuckboy music. Pardon my French.”

Crowe slowly raised his head, staring at the back of the driver’s head as if the man had just spoken an alien language to him.

“I’m sorry. My age comes out a little bit when I talk about music,” the driver laughed. “But you don’t have to worry about me talking like a Gen-Z or a Gen-Alpha, saying cooked and deadass and skibidi and all that stupid shit. I mean, I get it, it’s just slang—I just personally don’t like it. Anyway—whatever. Sorry. I’ll shut up.”

Crowe slowly reared back in his seat, exchanging befuddled expressions with Raven.

“Do you have any idea what he’s saying right now…?” he whispered to her.

Raven grinned and covered her mouth.

“Okay… let me just start with this question, among the millions of other questions on my mind right now,” Crowe said, leaning forward and shooting the driver a peculiar stare from behind. “What in the bloody fuck is divorced dad rock? ”

“It’s just… y’know, like, nu-metal and grunge and stuff from the 90s and the 2000s,” the driver explained. “All that kind of stuff that people like me ended up getting raised on… like Nickleback, and Seether, and Creed, and Foo Fighters, and Nirvana, and—”

“ Whot? !” Crowe blurted loudly.

Everyone in the car stared at him for a second.

“Y—you know Nirvana?!” Crowe asked excitedly, suddenly grinning from ear to ear and scooting to the very edge of his seat. “You’ve actually heard of them?!”

The driver glanced between the rearview mirror and the road ahead of him, seeming perplexed by Crowe’s reaction.

“Um… yeah… man,” the driver eventually replied. “I think most people have…”

“Ohhh… thank you, God, thank you,” Crowe breathed, flumping his head back and placing his hands together as if in prayer, gazing into the ceiling of the car with a gracious smile. “I’m finally not alone anymore…”

Then, he suddenly hunched forward even farther, practically laying his stomach on the four-part cup-holder as he patted the driver on the arm.

“Oy—what is that one Nirvana song called?” Crowe asked. “That song that goes ‘I’m not the on-ly-one, a-a-a-ah—I’m not the on-ly-one.’ ”

“Rape Me,” the driver answered.

Everyone fell silent, Crowe scrunching up his face at him. “Excuse me?”

“Rape Me—that’s what that song’s called,” the driver clarified.

“Oh.” Crowe glanced down, then gave him an odd look. “ Really …?”

“Yeah… the name of the song is kinda take it or leave it, but the song itself is pretty good,” the driver remarked. “You can play it if you want. Just search for Nirvana and it’ll pop up.”

Crowe turned to the tablet, squinting strangely at it and spotting what appeared to be a search bar at the top. Slowly, he gave it a tap, and a keyboard appeared, allowing him to carefully type in the word Nirvana. Then, a long list of Nirvana songs overtook the screen—and he clicked on the correct one, near the bottom of the list.

The speakers went quiet, and a slow melody began to play. Crowe listened attentively, Raven giving him a curious little squint.

“Is this it…?” she asked.

“Hold on.” Crowe held up a finger.

Just after the slow start of the song—it suddenly erupted into a faster and more familiar rhythm that Crowe knew quite well.

“I’m not the on-ly-one, a-a-a-ah… I’m not the on-ly one, a-a-a-ah… I’m not the on-ly one, a-a-a-ah… I’m not the on-ly-one. Hate, me-e… do it, and do it, a-gain. Waste, me-e… rape me-e… my friend. I’m not the on-ly one, a-a-a-ah…”

“HAH!” Crowe bellowed so abruptly, Iggy jolted awake in the passenger seat after having halfway fallen asleep. “This is it! This is it! God blind me! God fuckin’ bloody blind me— we’re in the future! ”

“The future…?” the driver chuckled at him. “This song is kind of old, man.”

“Hah! Listen to that!” Crowe beamed with delight. “We’re in a world where future music is old! We are sooo in the future!”

He managed to get his friends to sing along, the driver laughing as they all cruised through the town of Mapleview.

By the time the black KIA Optima arrived in the heart of 2025 Mapleview, it was nearing noon, and the car pulled to a stop in a small parking lot behind a bank building on the corner of Madison Avenue. It was the same place Mapleview Credit Union was in the 1980s, but the building had been completely redone, the front now sleek and shiny with tall glass windows alongside the automatic doors—and Crowe, Raven, and Iggy, all climbed out of the Optima, waving their driver farewell before walking into the bank.

The three of them ventured inside, greeted by a gust of air conditioning again and seeing a couple of large flat-screens on the walls of the lobby, service desks over to the left. So, Crowe broke into a brisk stride and approached the nearest bank employee, an older gentleman with glasses who was quietly using his computer.

“Oy. Could you possibly do me a favor?” Crowe asked, digging into his leather coat and pulling out a debit card, his four friends all hovering closely behind him. “Could you tell me what my balance is?”

He handed the card over to the employee, who took it and adjusted his glasses, examining it closely. The man surveyed the old card—a card with a basic design, and no chip inside it.

After the man gave the card a long stare, his eyes flickered up to Crowe, studying him intently.

“This card expired in 1990,” the man stated in a flattened sort of tone.

“So? I lost my new one, all right?” Crowe replied. “I just wanna know what I have… and I’d like to withdraw it, if I can.”

The man’s eyes narrowed behind his small glasses, glimpsing down at the card again, then back at Crowe.

“Are you the same Crowe Quintrell who originally opened this account?” the man inquired.

“Yes,” Crowe said.

The man gave him a long, skeptical stare. “You’re the same Crowe Quintrell who had this card issued in…”

He glanced down at the card again.

“1984,” the man uttered, shooting him a caustic look.

“ Yes ,” Crowe reiterated.

The man stared for a moment longer, his face fully devoid of any expression.

“You look just a little too young to have opened an account with us during the early 1980s,” he remarked, a note of sarcasm in his voice.

“I moisturize,” Crowe argued. “What, d’you wanna see an ID? I can show you that too.”

He groped around inside his jacket’s inner pocket, pulling out his license and handing it off to the man.

The man squinted through his glasses, reading the license, then lowering it and giving Crowe another caustic stare.

“This card is even older. It expired in ’86,” he said, planting the card down and sliding it back toward him.

Crowe slowly took his license back, staring down at it in silence. Raven and Iggy giving him the same vexed look, eyeballing him in slight disbelief.

“Your license has been expired for two years …?” Raven whisper-yelled.

“Well—I was locked up in a lab, and then I rode around with my band everywhere before I ended up in Moonvale,” Crowe retorted. “Whaddoya want? I haven’t had any reason to drive for years. I haven’t even had a bloody car.”

“You drive Miss Morgan’s car!” Raven breathed. “Did you tell her you’ve been driving her car on an expired license?!”

Crowe stared at her, opening his mouth, then slowly biting his lip and fighting a smile.

“Look… unless you have something to show me that’s in-date, or at least in this century, I really can’t help you,” the employee disclosed, handing the debit card back to him.

Crowe took the card and sighed, slapping it against the edge of the desk before shoving it into his pocket. “Right, well, thanks for nothing…”

He turned and marched away with his friends, all of them heading toward the automatic doors—then, Crowe skidded to a stop, glancing to the side and spotting an ATM along the wall, just beside the entryway.

Smirking, he broke into a harder stride and stopped in front of the machine, his friends following him and giving him a series of odd looks.

“What’re you doing?” Raven said in a hushed voice, glancing back over her shoulder at the service desk in the distance. “I really don’t think a machine in this time is gonna take your card, especially if the people here won’t take it.”

“I don’t need it to take my card,” Crowe murmured, reaching out and placing a hand on the screen. “I just need it to give me my money. I know I must’ve worked up at least four grand in my account by 2025, and that’s bare minimum. I’m gettin’ that one way or another.”

“Y…” Raven uttered, glimpsing back again and hoping no one across the spacious room was paying them any mind. “You’re gonna use your power? Here …?”

“I’m gonna try,” Crowe muttered, his eyes focused intensely on the ATM. “Never really done it to a machine before… except radios…”

Raven took a side-step, further shielding Crowe from the view of the people behind the far counter. Iggy pocketed his hands and stood nearby her, both of them crowding Crowe and keeping him safe from sight.

The man with the glasses glanced up from his computer, squinting at the group from a distance.

“Do you really think you can make it open your account?” Raven whispered.

“Don’t need it to,” Crowe mumbled softly, his stare hardening as he glared heatedly into the machine. “I don’t need to log in or put in passwords or anything. I just need… the machine… to get… triggered. Need it to spit out four grand. That’s all… I need it… to do…”

He took in a slow, heavy breath, his eyes drifting shut and his fingers pressing harder into the screen of the ATM, a tiny spot of blood oozing from the corner of his eye.

The man with glasses stared at them strangely from behind his counter.

Suddenly—the machine made a noise, several hundred-dollar bills dispensing in the small slot below the screen.

Raven’s eyes widened, the machine making hundreds at a surprisingly fast pace. She grabbed them and neatly folded them before sliding them into her own jacket, trying to move as calmly and nonchalantly as possible—but the machine continued to spit out money, so Iggy took a handful of it as well. The second time the slot was cleared—it quickly filled with hundreds again, and this time, and they both hurried to pocket the money as quickly and swiftly as they could.

The man with glasses straightened up, leaning on the counter and making a face as he eyed them from afar.

Crowe let out a breath, lowering his hand and blinking a few times. He glanced down, seeing the fourth pile of hundreds that had appeared in the slot, and he smirked and grabbed them, shoving them into his jacket’s inside pocket.

“It’s still going…!” Raven gasped, the ATM still producing hundreds. “Crowe, make it stop…!”

“Yeah, yeah, I will in a sec…” Crowe smiled, bending down and waiting for the slot to fill once more, seeming oddly unbothered by the urgency of the situation.

When the slot filled a fifth time, he swiftly slipped the money from it and passed it back to Iggy without even turning around, and Iggy plucked it from his hand and smoothly slid it into his jean jacket. Just when Crowe stood upright and prepared to stop the machine—the ATM made another noise, and finally, it stopped dispensing money.

Raven let out a huge sigh of relief, and Crowe then turned around—only just noticing that the man with glasses was staring rather fixedly at all of them from the service desk.

“What? I had to borrow money from her,” Crowe announced, jabbing a finger over at Raven. “Since somebody wouldn’t let me into my account, I had to have my friend here withdraw some money from hers. Gotta pay my bills somehow. I’m gonna have to pay her back later, too, so now I’ve got that hanging over my head. Hope you’re happy, you wanker.”

The man with glasses gave him a peculiar glare.

Crowe wasn’t sure if the man believed his witty cover story—but Raven didn’t seem to care. She quickly grabbed him by the arm and ushered him out the automatic doors with Iggy following suit.

The three of them speed-walked down the sidewalk by the bank and crossed the parking lot—quickly marching across the street and distancing themselves from Mapleview Credit Union.

They broke a hard right and walked briskly down a sidewalk with only trees and grass to their left, a single laundromat and post office to the right, the occasional car passing by as they ventured onward.

Crowe was in the lead—and he was laughing breathlessly now, wheeling around and facing his friends, walking backwards as he did.

“Oh… that was brilliant,” he beamed. “What have we got?”

“We should have four-thousand,” Raven responded, pulling her huge stack of money out of her pocket. “That’s what you said you were gonna get.”

“Uhmm…” Iggy flipped through his stack of bills, raising his brows at him. “I think, ahhh… I think I’ve got more than three grand here…”

“Mine’s three-thousand and five-hundred,” Raven breathed, staring at Crowe’s giant handful of cash and giving him an aghast look. “Oh my God… Crowe… you took way more than you were supposed to. You literally just robbed that bank.”

Crowe stared at her, unable to hide a growing smirk. “Whoops.”

“Wooow… wouldja look at these hundreds…?” Iggy mumbled, pocketing most of his money again, then holding a single hundred-dollar bill up to the sunlight. “It’s got a blue streak on it. Whaddoya think that’s for…?”

“Who cares—so long as it’s good money,” Crowe grinned, shoving his cash back into his jacket. “Now put it away, you two. Don’t flaunt it. That’s not a good idea no matter what time, town, or neighborhood you’re in. Keep it out of sight.”

Everyone nodded and stashed their cash away.

“Crowe!” someone yelled out.

Crowe, Raven, and Iggy all wheeled around—facing the edge of the laundromat’s parking lot, which was just across a small grass patch. The laundromat was a small yellow building, and the blue KIA Soul was parked there—Aravali standing halfway across the parking lot, giving them a look and waving for them to approach.

“Aw… aaand the field trip’s over,” Crowe laughed, breaking into a stride over the grass. “Ah well. Got what we needed, didn’t we?”

Raven sighed, and Iggy smirked and nodded, all of them trekking over to the doctor.

“What the hell gives, Ari?” Crowe snarked as he approached. “I thought you said you were gonna trust me out here…?”

“Well. We’re not just in town because of you,” Aravali replied, glancing over at the KIA Soul. “We had a lot to do in general.”

Crowe, Raven, and Iggy stared at the car as well; the back of the vehicle was open, its rear door raised, and its small trunk area in plain view, filled with countless belongings, two travel bags and a backpack on the left side, and an overflowing basket of laundry on the right. Xena had just carried one basket of clothes into the laundromat, and Mikey was working to pull the other one out of the trunk, Amory fast asleep in the passenger seat with the seat propped backwards.

“Amory’s made a couple friends here… Xena, and her nephew, Mikey,” Aravali explained. “They’ll be our new roommates… and… essentially… they’ll also be our tour guides for this time period. We had to move them out of their motel… we had to go get the power and the water turned on at the manor… and… now we’re doing laundry.”

“Ooo. Thrilling,” Crowe snickered. “So the mansion’s gonna have power when we go back?”

“It should, yes,” Aravali affirmed. “And someone is coming to hook up a modem tomorrow.”

Crowe blinked, trading odd looks with Raven and Iggy.

“I don’t know,” Aravali shrugged, reading the questions off their faces. “But apparently it’s important…”

“Right,” Crowe uttered, peeking past him and eyeing the girl inside the laundromat. “And that girl’s paying for all of this…?”

“Well… yes,” Aravali sighed. “She’s the only one here with the money to do anything, and she evidently did it all wirelessly… which I don’t know how to do, even if I did have the money. I think she just drained her bank account dry for all this, though.”

Crowe couldn’t help but flash an ear-to-ear grin.

Aravali stared, narrowing his eyes at him. “What?”

“Oh. Nothing. Nothing,” Crowe beamed. “I think me and her will get on well is all.”

Xena pushed the glass door open and marched back outside, speaking with Mikey about microwaving a cup of ramen at the gas station for lunch. All of the clothes were in washers now, and there was nothing left to do but wait and plan for the rest of the day. The two of them stood next to the building—and Crowe broke into a brisk stride toward them, Raven and Iggy glimpsing at each other before deciding to follow.

Aravali made a strange face before he approached as well.

Xena and Mikey both turned—facing Crowe, Raven, and Iggy.

“Oh… hi,” Xena said with a wave.

“Goodday, love,” Crowe replied with whimsy, offering her a charming sort of smile.

Mikey squinted oddly up at him. “Why do you talk like that?”

Crowe’s eyes flickered down at the boy, his smile instantly vanishing. “I dunno—why do you look like that?!”

“Shut up …!” Raven hissed, smacking him on the arm. “He’s a little kid…!”

“Oh—tch—please, he’s not a little anything,” Crowe argued, cocking his head and smirking at the child. “I reckon this kiddo can take as much as he dishes out. You’re a tough lil’ man, aintcha? I can see it all over your face.”

“I guess,” Mikey shrugged indifferently.

“Um… hi… sorry,” Raven said to Xena, motioning between herself, Crowe, and Iggy. “I’m Raven, Amory’s sister… and this is Crowe, and this is Iggy. Crowe is a nice guy, he’s just kind of socially crippled. Sorry.”

Xena laughed. “Aw, it’s all good. I think we all have that in common to some degree.”

“Oh, I am not crippled—I came over here to be nice ,” Crowe griped, reaching into his jacket and pulling out several hundreds. “Oy—Xena, was it? I’ve gotta ask you something. How much do things tend to cost nowadays? I was gonna get dinner for everyone, since everything else is apparently accounted for already.”

Xena stared at the thick, messy wad of hundreds in his hand, her eyebrows raising in surprise. In fact—Aravali and Mikey were both staring at him with the same looks of befuddlement.

“Ah… well,” Xena uttered. “You, um… you came from the year 1988, right? Things tend to cost a lot more now than they did back then…”

“Just gimme a ballpark,” Crowe requested. “You know all the restaurants around future Mapleview, so you can be the one to order us food—I just wanna be the one to pay. About how much do you think you’ll need? A hundred? Five-hundred?”

“Oh… not five-hundred, sheezus,” Xena laughed. “I can order off the Dominos app with some coupons and feed all of us for about fifty bucks.”

“Well, good, here ya’ go.” Crowe handed her a hundred dollar bill. “And lemme know if you need more.”

“Ah… wow… thank you,” Xena said gratefully.

“Not a problem. I like to play Robin Hood when I can,” Crowe replied with a wink and a click of the tongue.

“So you did rob someone,” Aravali grumbled, folding his arms. “Where did you get all that money, Crowe? Don’t lie to me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Crowe told him, raising another hundred between his fingers and waving it around under the doctor’s nose. “Consider this a bribe. Here.”

He continued slapping and swiping the money across his face, Aravali merely staring at him with a deadpan expression. Xena, Raven, Mikey, and Iggy all began to smile as they watched, trying not to laugh.

“Oh, fine, be that way,” Crowe grumped, pocketing his money.

“Okay… who wants to help me decide what to order?” Xena asked, pulling out her phone. “We can go ahead and do the order now, and then schedule it to get delivered at the manor later when we’re home. I need to know you guys’s preferences on pizza stuffs.”

“I’m good with any,” Crowe said.

“Me too,” Raven agreed.

Xena began fidgeting with her phone, pulling up the Dominos app. Aravali and Iggy both hunched beside her, examining the small touchscreen with bewildered intrigue. As she started the pizza-building process on the app, she turned and walked back into the laundromat, explaining to the two of them how the app worked, Aravali and Iggy following her inside, and Mikey trailing along behind them. They all hunched at one of the laundry-folding tables while they discussed what they would put on the pizzas.

Crowe and Raven decided to stay outside, exchanging glances, then looking to the blue KIA Soul, where Amory was sleeping peacefully in the propped-back passenger seat. They wandered over to the car, gazing down through the window and simply watching him sleep.

“Huh. He finally changed his shirt,” Crowe noticed. “That’s progress. I guess…”

Raven smirked and let out a laugh. “Yeah… that other one was in one of those laundry baskets. I guess Xena’s gonna clean it for him.”

“Kinda makes me wonder how they met,” Crowe remarked, glimpsing between the car and the laundromat. “I bet he was a total fish out of water when he first came here, and she just instantly realized he needs someone looking after him. That’s the same way I felt when I met him.”

Raven paused, turning her head and squinting curtly at him. “You know Amory felt that exact same way about you, right? Little lost Crowe, far from his nest.”

Crowe shot her a caustic look, making her giggle.

They fell silent, Amory’s head resting back, eyes closed, and mouth slightly agape. Then, he groaned and seemed to stir, blinking himself awake and gazing up at the window beside him, seeing the two figures staring back down at him.

“Heya, sleepin’ beauty,” Crowe said, flicking the window.

Amory stared up at him drearily for a moment, then yawned and pushed himself upright, popping the door open and stepping outside. He rested his arm on the door, stifled another yawn, and began to stretch, waking himself fully before swinging the door shut.

“How long have you been sleeping in there?” Raven asked.

“I’unno,” Amory shrugged, combing his hairs back. “We left the house, and then I fell asleep.”

“Yeah. Runnin’ on fumes will do that,” Crowe quipped at him.

The three of them went quiet for a moment, glancing into the laundromat, then across the parking lot, observing what they could see of 2025 Mapleview all around them.

Amory began to wander over to the edge of the parking lot, and the other two followed. He stopped at the edge of the grass, gazing across the town—the autumn trees, the leaves along the sidewalks and roadsides, and the occasional odd car cruising by.

“The chapel’s still here,” he told them. “And they have a new arcade now.”

“Yeah?” Crowe smirked.

“Yeah… and the games are really life-like, too,” Amory informed. “Some of them are kind of scary… but they’re all pretty impressive and amazing. They really are.”

“Does the arcade cost more than we’re used to?” Raven wondered.

“A little bit… but you can’t pay with coins anymore,” Amory replied. “They have this card that you put money on, and then the card pays for everything.”

Raven made a strange face, as did Crowe.

They all fell silent again, feeling rather peaceful compared to how any of them had been feeling as of late.

So many frantic things had been transpiring, they felt as if they hadn’t been given a moment to breathe or rest until now. In fact, this was the first time that all three of them had spoken calmly with one another since before the fall of Canterbury.

Without much thought, Amory slowly sank down, sitting on the edge of the grass and merely watching the town, Raven sitting next to him, and Crowe sitting on his other side.

The trio sat together, simply gazing into Mapleview, something that they often did together during a time far-gone. It’d been so very long since they just explored the town, enjoyed peace, and spent time together, they’d almost forgotten how serene it felt, but now, it was surely coming back to them, putting them well at ease.

Throughout much of the time leading up to this moment, they felt assured that certain things needed to be discussed and addressed—but now, strangely enough, they felt as if they’d already had the conversations, and already landed on their resolutions.

Raven wanted to apologize for running away from Canterbury without warning either of them so long ago, feeling desperate to find her own strength of will, hoping she wouldn’t have to rely on her big brother for protection all of her life.

Crowe wanted to address his attitude and the misguided blame he’d placed on Amory, wanted to assure him that he did not actually blame his friend for anything that had happened at all.

Amory felt the need to reassure them both, wanting to make them know that he’d always be there to love and look after them, no matter how hard it became, and no matter what mistakes he might occasionally make.

But—as they sat together here, watching the early afternoon sun shine atop the buildings and autumn treetops of Mapleview—somehow, they already knew, already felt and understood what one another thought, and as of now, they didn’t care about talking.

Perhaps it was the kind of connection that people could only have when they’d known each other for as long as these three had—but they felt fully assured that everything, between them, was all right.

It was bizarre how it had all happened—Amory, Crowe, and Raven, breaking off on separate paths only to land perfectly right here again, sitting together in some remote place in Mapleview—but, as they knew and felt to their cores, they simply belonged together.

It seemed nothing could break the bond of the Mapleview misfits three.