First 5 Pages April Workshop - Harrington Rev 1

Name: Sarah Harrington

Genre: Young Adult Science Fiction

Title: Of Time and Blood

Some Timekeepers saw the Schedules as a rigid set of rules never to be broken, but I figured a little creative interpretation never hurt anyone.

The dust was thick in the air and heavy on my tongue as I inhaled. With every breath, history took root in my lungs. A flowery perfume tried to hide the musty scent, but the smell of years long gone still lived on in the antique store. 

“Change of plans,” I said as my assignment partner rounded the corner of the aisle. He jumped out of the way to avoid sending a teetering pile of old books crashing to the floor. 

“Why do you always do this, Mik?” Trent closed his eyes and sighed. “What was wrong with the original plan?”

“The Schedules never account for personality, so it’s too simple for a guy like that. Some people need a gentle push and others need a shove. This one definitely needs a shove.” If this was my last assignment, I was going to make damn sure we did it right. 

Trent moved beside me and we looked towards our target.

Twenty-six-year-old Joseph Bolland stood on the far side of the store with stiff shoulders and a straight back.. The window behind him, dirtied with years of grime, let in very little light. Even with the dingy overhead lamps, the wine decanter in his hands was barely visible.

I ran through my mental checklist for matchmaking assignments. The briefing was on point with almost everything, but it had failed to mention that Joseph was a real jerk.

Trent’s voice sliced through my annoyance. “What’d he do to piss you off?”

“Elbowed me out of the way. He was muttering about how rowdy teenagers don’t deserve to be in a place like this. Apparently we ‘don’t appreciate the history behind the objects’.” I dropped my voice as low as I could, feeling the vibrations in my chest, to imitate Joseph’s grating tone.

We stood at the back of the antique store, surrounded by old figurines and bits of secondhand kitchen equipment. Although most of my focus was on Joseph, I could just make out our secondary target in my periphery. Coraline stood behind the cash register with her lips pursed and fingers drumming on the counter. Her eyes were trained on us and I could almost hear her mentally screaming at us to get out of her precious shop.

I ached to tell Coraline that nothing about me wanted to be in this dusty old store with uninteresting and poorly maintained items. We were only there to set her up with her future husband and we would certainly appreciate not having to operate under the shopkeeper’s icy glare the entire time. 

I turned to relay that thought to Trent, but stopped short at the sight of him cradling a clay Chinese teapot. 

“My mom had one just like this.” He ran his free hand over the smooth surface, light sandy skin contrasting with the deep reddish brown of the clay. “She used to sneak in tea to me during all the hospital stays.” His voice was tinged with a sense of longing for a stolen time.

A time stolen from all Timekeeper recruits.

At his words, my hand crept up to touch the silver anchor charm hanging around my neck. It was the only thing I had left from my time in the outside world but, unlike Trent, I didn’t miss my life before the Timekeepers. They had saved me from an endless rotation of foster homes and orphanages and given me the closest thing I’d ever had to a family.

“Careful!” The sharp sound of Coraline’s voice shot across the room. “These aren’t toys to be played with; they’re antiques.”

“They deserve each other.” Trent shook his head in disgust as he set the teapot down. “We should probably hurry up. Can’t have you being late for your own Advancement Celebration.”

The nerves that had been swimming lazily in my stomach all day burst into a frenzy at his words. The thought of this being my last time engaging with the outside world sickened me. Staying on as an Agent would be a dream, but it was such a rare occurrence, and it wasn’t likely for that dream to become my reality. 

But there wasn’t time to worry about that now.

I pushed my anxiety aside and moved to stand with Trent. Our eyes poured over the store, looking for all possible ways to bring Joseph and Coraline together.

A burning sensation interrupted my thoughts. I pulled my pocket watch out of my jeans and ran my fingers over the rusted surface of the hunter case. The hot metal singed my skin; it was a warning, but I couldn’t initiate the interface here to read the message. There was too much of a chance the targets would see the hologram coming out of the watch. “They’re telling us to get a move on. We need to figure out a plan.”

“Well I thought the original plan in the Schedule was good enough, but we can’t do that anyone because someone decided we should change things up and made us miss the time slot.”

I ignored his sass and squinted in Joseph’s direction. “It wouldn’t take a lot of force to shatter the glass display case behind him.”

Trent followed my gaze, catching onto my plan. “But it would cause a lot of damage. It doesn’t really fit in with the whole “unnoticed” part of our mantra, does it?” 

He was right. Being yelled at by Coraline was one thing, but causing lasting damage to property in plain sight of the targets was something else altogether. The Councillors would probably ream us out as soon as we got back to Meridian; but time was ticking down. “Do you have any better ideas? The next customer will be here any minute. This needs to be done right now.”

Trent pressed his lips into a thin line but nodded. We broke away from where we stood, creeping down opposite sides of the store towards the target. Inching closer, I saw Joseph’s eyes dart towards Coraline. He didn’t know what the future held for himself and the young shopkeeper.

But Trent and I did.

We always did.

And it was our job to make sure it happened. 

I walked down the aisle, trying to look as natural as possible for Coraline but keeping my footfalls light to stop Joseph from noticing me. My mind wandered back to the last time I saw Joseph almost ten years ago. He had been one of my first assignments. Maybe he remembered the seven-year-old girl who spilled her milk on his jacket. I felt my lips twitch at the memory. Joseph hadn’t been as awful back then. He’d even bought me another milk carton to show he wasn’t upset. What happened to that man? I should’ve looked at the database to see his full Schedule. Another Timekeeper must have been responsible for the assignment that turned him so sour. 

I stood close enough now to catch the spicy scent of Joseph’s cologne. He was so engaged in examining a vase for chips in the glasswork that he hadn’t noticed us sneaking up on either side of him. Trent’s brown eyes met mine.

Now.