As the last of the crisp brown Autumn leaves fell to the worn pavement, the young man let out a sigh. So much had happened in the time since he left in the spring of 2001. His home, his workshop, even his favorite stores and restaurants were gone.
Walking past the town hall, he was glad to see the building all patched up, as the earthquake of ’96 had destroyed most of the building. The park was a lot cleaner now as well. Small children played, while others around them drank from thermoses and chatted as the Fall air playfully turned their noses a slight tint of red. A smile crept onto his face. He was definitely home. Life seemed brighter.
He checked his watch, 13:04. Right on time, he thought to himself. Suddenly, the man was thrown into a fuzzy, cold darkness.
“Guess who?”
The man relaxed and a small smile appeared on his face.
“Is that you, Anna?”
“Wha-How did you know?!”
John removed the gloved fingers from his face and turned around. Standing in front of him was Anna, a girl whom he hadn’t seen in five long years.
“John, what are you doing here? I thought you were in Toronto.”
“Yeah, well, I got a week of vacation so I came home.”
“To be honest, you look like you need it. You look a lot older than I remember. How hard are they working you up there?”
John smiled. He thought Anna would notice, however it wasn’t in her character to investigate too much into trivial things like that, so it didn’t create an issue.
“About as hard as the cash I’m making up there. I think I’ll have enough saved to afford a dorm when I come back. Want to go get something to eat?”
“I guess, I don’t think I have anything going on.” She smiled, “let’s go to-” “Wait,” said John, “How about we go hit a hot dog stand. After all, I’ve been craving a good American hot dog for a while now.”
“Alright, I’m fine with that.” Thank God. John was flooded with relief. He certainly didn’t want to waste time arguing about where to eat.
He looked at the watch again before catching up with his friend. 13:06, I’m making good time. Just twelve more minutes.
“So, meet any ladies up there in Toronto?” asked Anna.
John replied with a solid, “No.”
“Whoa, are you serious? You’re more hopeless than I thought.”
Clutching his chest, John made a pained expression and fell to his knees. “And to think I called you my friend,” he sniffled.
They both laughed and made it to the stand, where a young man was lazily twirling the ketchup and mustard bottles.
13:08. A little early but that’s alright.
“What can I get started for you two?”
John needed to buy some more time. “Let’s get two dogs with everything on them.”
“Alrighty, that will be…” He did some math in his head, “uhh $7.60.”
“I’ll pay, Anna.” Great. This should take a while if this kid is as slow as he seems to be, and the safest place to be is here in the open.
“Alright, here you go, enjoy!” He smiled and handed us our beautifully crafted hot dogs, moments after accepting my ten dollar bill.
13:10. Shit. You’ve got to be kidding me. Who the hell makes a hot dog that fast? How long has this guy been working here? We’re four minutes off schedule dammit.
“John, you okay?”
John couldn’t escape it. “Yeah I’m fine, just spaced out a little.” No, you’re not fine. At this rate, Anna will be done eating at 13:12, and she will NOT wait here. I need to find a way to stall. She cannot leave this spot. I must protect her.
“You gonna eat? I’m getting bored, we should go for a walk or something.”
Think of something, dammit. Keep her here. You can’t lose her again.
13:13. Six more minutes. I can’t do this. Why, dammit, why.
“John, are you sure you’re not sick?” She stepped closer to him.
“Please stay…”
“Hm? I can’t hear you, John. Spea-”
“I said, please stay here.”
In the distance, dogs started to bark. The birds seemed absent now. They knew it was coming, and so did John.
“Please, five years was too long to wait to see you.”
“What are you talking about? You’ve only been in Toronto for a month. You’re coming back to college with me next month, right?”
13:14.
“I didn’t want to have to explain this…”
“Explain what? You’re not making any sense.”
“Anna, I need you to listen to what I have to say right now. Do you know why I look older than I did last month? It’s because I am. Five years older, in fact.”
Anna gave no response.
“In four minutes, there will be an earthquake that hits here. In that earthquake, you will be killed. I’m still in Toronto.”
Anna started to look nervous, though if it was in response to the earthquake part or the time travel part, he was unsure.
“When I heard you died, I started to research time travel extensively.”
A subtle smile showed up on her face.
“Through those years, I developed a way to come back. Due to expenses, I only get one shot at this, unless I can manage to get another half-a-million saved up. Anyway, this open area is left virtually untouched by the earthquake. That’s why you need to stay here with me.”
13:17.
“Please just stay here. Believe me for two more minutes.”
She gave a skeptic look. However, she quietly sighed, “Alright.”
13:18.
“When this is over, I will disappear, but the me that belongs to this time period will still be here. He doesn’t know anything, and he doesn’t need to.”
“Okay.”
13:19.
They braced ourselves. John held on to her as tightly as he could. John wasn’t going to lose her.
Not again.
13:20.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing happened. Children remained playing in the park, the hot dog kid was busy twirling around condiments and chatting it up with a few girls, people still walked up and down the street without care.
Another minute passed, and Anna quietly got up. “If this is some kind of joke, it’s not very funny.”
“I… I don’t understand.” He winced. ”It’s not a joke, I swear! October 28th, 1996, at 13 hours, 19 minutes, 23 seconds. I memorized it. Why didn’t it happen?!” His mind raced for answers.
“I’m going.”
As Anna walked off and out of view, passing a city worker who was now starting to blow leaves into neat little piles, John noticed something that made his heart sink. Looking at the large billboard across the street, he began to laugh, tears in his eyes.
I’m such an idiot, he thought.
“Don’t forget!” the sign read. “Set your clocks back an hour – daylight savings time ends October 28th at 2:00 am!”
Credit: Jubawub
Copyright Statement: Unless explicitly stated, all stories published on Creepypasta.com are the property of (and under copyright to) their respective authors, and may not be narrated or performed under any circumstance.
Good, but I didn’t like a few things. I understand it creates more tension if the guy only has one shot to do save her, but you never really explained why. I understand that if the timeline is altered (and she survives instead) then he might disappear, as he never went back to save her, because she already got saved. But the excuse for not trying a second time in case it goes wrong? He mentions he’ll need to save up another half a million? Throwing a price on time travel is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. It’s a lazy excuse. Overall it wasn’t creepy, so I don’t think it belongs here. It could have been creepy. It’s a good story, just definitely not for this site.
the thing i don’t get is why he cant just go to the girl and explain that he got the math wrong because he forgot to account for daylight savings. he can say he only has one shot to go back and save her, but that one trip to the past doesnt have a time limit on it. presumably, unless he has a way to travel back to the future, he’s stuck in the past until his actions cause a significant enough alteration to the timeline that he never would have traveled back in the first place.
Well, maybe the time travel effect/power will wear off, and he’ll be zapped back to the present, or disappear. This means he had a limited time to do what he had to do, thus no time for an explanation.
However, if he was to disappear, What would be the point in trying to save Anna? He wouldn’t be around to see her. Tbh, the more you think about this pasta, the more flaws seem to crop up. I feel like I’m searching for logical explanations a lot with this, and they are nothing but excuses in an attempt to make sense of it all.
I know this is nit-picky but its Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time.
Both are acceptable…
most people say daylight savings
Ehh, I don’t get the point. Someone explain to me?
The narrator is a guy who went back in time to 1996, which is when an earthquake occurred and killed a girl he loved, Anna. He went right back to the time when she was supposed to die, in order to save her. But the earthquake didn’t occur because he calculated it wrong – he forgot to take the daylight saving hour change into account, so it will instead happen in an hour. It was also pointed out that he only had one shot to do it, so Anna will die because he miscalculated.
This was a nice sci-fi story but not exactly a creepy one. Nicely written though
Who fucked up, You fucked up
This was written really well, and I like the idea, but it honestly wasn’t creepy. I feel like this story was good, but doesn’t really fit on creepypasta. 7/10
So, the narrator was one hour off? All the narrator needs to do is just stalk Anna until the earthquake comes OR kidnap her, if he loves her that badly.
He will disappear. . I think before said earthquake is to hit.