W1: “If Time Travel Was Real: My First Adventure”

Wong Pui Xun, 2301502

I looked down. My arms were almost transparent. The edges of It felt like I had been asleep forever. Did I pass out? Or was I in a coma? Everything around me felt unfamiliar and strange. Did I even belong here? Where was I? Am I still alive?

"Hello? Miss? Wake up. Are you okay?" said the police officer. "We found that you're laying on the ground in the middle of the pedestrian sidewalk." 

"Huh?" I sat up, extremely confused by what the officer said. "Where am I?" 

"You're in the police station right now, do you know where you live?" the police officer replied. 

"No...I didn't know what had happened to me." I replied. 

"It's okay, we'll arrange a place to stay at the moment. In the meantime, you could maybe try contacting your friends or family. I'll take you to your room now." the officer said. 

"Alright...thanks," I said, following the footsteps of the officer. While we were walking, I was glancing around and noticing something on the wall – a calendar. The numbers on the calendar were...odd. "2103? Wait…2103!" I exclaimed while looking directly at the officer. "Hold on, isn't it 2025 this year? Why is it 2103?" 

"No, miss. It is indeed 28th July 2103 now." the officer replied. "I think you're just too tired. Here, this is the keys to the room, do take some rest." 

"Okay, thanks a lot." I said. I sat on the bed trying to recall what had happened to me. 

15th January 2025

I stumbled upon an old, scary looking abandoned building at the side of a suburban area. My curiosity told me to explore inside the building, it turns out to be an abandoned school. I went inside one of the classrooms, everything was old and unusable. However, there were mathematical equations and what seems like a drawing of the blueprint on the blackboard. What was strange was that the words looked new, as if someone had just wrote on it. “Time machine?” I questioned as I turned around and saw a big object draped with cloth. I pulled the cloth off the machine and climbed inside. “Does this thing even work?” I wondered.  

“NO!” a loud voice shouted from across the room, startling me. In my panic, I accidentally pressed the glowing blue button on the side of the seat. 

28th July 2103

And just like that, I woke up in the year 2103. “What should I do now?” I wondered, gazing out the window. Self-driving hover cars, holo-interfaces, mind-controlled gadgets, gravity boots—every futuristic invention once imagined back in the days were now a reality before my eyes, how spectacular. I took a deep breath, trying to process everything. The city outside was dazzling, a blend of neon lights and sleek metallic structures stretching into the sky. How is this possible? Had I really travelled through time? Everything looked surreal to me. But no matter how incredible it looked, the reality sank in—I’m alone in a world where I didn’t belong to. 

I checked everything on me. Nothing. I had nothing that could prove my identity with. This felt worse than being stranded in an island. Should I just tell the guy just now? He’d probably thinks I’m insane. Then I wondered, if I could track down the machine once more, would it allow me to return to 2025? 

As I was immersed with my thoughts,  I suddenly heard a familiar voice echoed through the building: “NO! GET OFF ME!”….Wait it was that guy. That’s it! Maybe he could help me with this time travel thing! I cautiously peeked out the door and saw several officers restraining a wild-looking man. “LOOK! SHE’S A TIME TRAVELER TOO!” he shouted, his eyes locking onto mine as he pointed directly at me while the officers locked him in his room. My breath caught in my throat. He knows. 

After the officers left, I quietly slipped into the man’s room to question him. He started rambling about his ideas. He was certainly…wild. The entire time he was bickering about his grand inventions and finding. “So how do I get back?” I interrupted him. 

“You can’t.” he said eerily. “You basically altered the entire timeline. Therefore, your existence is erased. In simple terms, you don’t exist anymore, in 2025 and 2103.” 

“This is impossible,” I replied in disbelief. “There must be a way!” 

“No there isn’t. This room, it’s meant to capture people like us. They’re going to kill us! Completely erasing us from this world!” he said while going crazy. “They knew. They knew we were abnormal beings that should vanish from this timeline. There’s nothing we could do.” 

“So we were basically…dead?” I questioned, hoping for him to deny. However, he nodded silently. I turned away, the sense of helplessness rose in my chest. This couldn’t be happening. I refused to accept it. If the timeline was erasing me, then I had to do something before it was too late. But what could I do? I had no proof I ever existed. No identity. No home. No past. 

“You felt it, don’t you?” he asked. “You’re already fading away.”

I tried to protest, but he was right. My voice glitched. My hands very flickering, making it barely visible. I wanted to hold onto something, but I can’t. “Please,” I begged the man, with tears welled up in my eyes. “I don’t want to disappear.” 

“I know.” the man replied with his last words as he faded into nothingness. No one would remember him. No one would remember me.my body were like a glitch in a broken program. I don't belong here. And there I was, trying to force myself into a world that was never meant for me. What have I done? 

Then, everything went silent as the world around me dissolved into darkness. 

It all felt like a dream. There was no pain. No sound. No fear. Just emptiness. 

And I was gone, like I’ve never existed. 

The lesson I learned is that some places, no matter how fascinating, are not meant for us—and forcing ourselves into fitting lead to losing everything, even our own existence.