Chapter Text
Lottie was just walking with her friends.
It was a sunny day for February and a good day considering Robert hadn't approached her yet.
Even though they where heading to french class and had to cross the entire campus to get there, at least she was with her friends.
She looked around, at the bushes, the trees, the sunlight tinting the nature in yellow and light green hues, it was beautiful.
Lottie took another step while chattering and giggling away with her two best friends but shifted, it seemed like the whole world shuddered- or maybe glitched? Objects were doing weird crap and all the people around her stopped walking, as she put down her foot, Lottie found herself in a city.
Her head flipped around her in all direction, "what the fuck?..."
She was dumbfounded, how the hell, where the hell- oh yea and most importantly- how the hell?!
The intensity took her off guard, it was like new York on crack! (Okay well maybe not that bad but still) People shoved her to continue walking and all Lottie could do was trip over herself over, and over.
She finally gathered her wits and went up to someone frantically, a lady in business attire not seeming to be much in a rush.
"Excuse me! Excuse me! I'm sorry but I have no idea where I am and-" her rapid speech was cut off by the lady
"一体何ですか？ごめんなさい、英語が理解できません…"
There was a thick silence left behind as the lady in formal clothes spee walked away.
Well there was a silence in Lottie's head, silence never wandered on the streets of Tokyo, not even at night, not when all the billboards and lights made it seem like day.
Lottie started hyper ventilating, she clutched the straps of her backpack harshly and started going to anyone in her line of sight, she didn't have time for this, all she wanted to do was go home!
But no one spoke even a lick of English! There were 0 tourists, and not a police officer in sight. There were these weird people in costumes but Lottie knew they were most likely just like those Mickey mouse impersonators in new York, so she just avoided them.
After hours of hopelessly asking more and more passerby's, the crowd started avoiding her, they literally parted in her way-what the fuck?!
Was- was that a shark head?! A man with his upper body of a shark took a sharp turn in front of her, her mouth hung open, before she could process anything her body began moving on it's own.
Her legs took her as far as possible away from anyone, which just meant a few streets down to the middle of nowhere. Well, at least it was less crowded? Positive thinking?
Lottie continued to walk, More, more and more, her legs were sore and she now reached the point where she had finally begun crying again.
The streets she wandered were shadier, twisting more like a maze and less of city, switched off signs hung desolately above haunted doorways, the type that were specifically made for the night, and switched off as light found it's way back.
The walls and light posts where also littered in posters, some ripped up or just straight up ripped off, most seemed to advertise random niche plays, but the rest were exactly what you'd expect to find at a place like this, night clubs, prostitutes, 'restaurantes'.
Lottie turned sharp at a random bar and knocked, praying for luck to be on her side at least this one time. She rapped her knuckles loudly three quick knocks.
As Lottie waited she looked up at the sign of this bar "midnight blues..." She whispered, the name was in English, just a bit of hope made her chest rise, maybe the people in there- if there where any- could speak English!
She tapped her foot expectantly and kept her arms glued to her sides, someone started unlocking the door, 'FUCK YES!! THANK GOD- wait what if they like traf-'
A tall man (she thinks) made of most appeared at the doorway, he looked like a butler.
"こんにちは、ミッドナイトブルースです。申し訳ありませんが、バーは午後8時に開店します。良い一日をお過ごしください。" The man quickly stated before trying to close the door, Lottie is not even sure if he looked at her.
She yelled out whatever she could think of, "wait! Please I'm just a kid I need help! please I don't know where I am!"
The man opened the door a slight bit more, he looked reluctant but did so anyway, "who are you?" His English was actually quite good, (NOT BRING RACIST) everyone she met before hand didn't even seem to know how to say hello in English.
"My- my name is Lottie-" she took a deep breath in and out, " I was just at school and suddenly I was here! Like- like I was teleported! A-and everything happening is just not possible- like how are you even made of mist?! Sorry... No offense."
Lottie once again took a few deep breaths to acclamate herself, and then waited for the Mist Man to respond.
"No offense taken, this... Might be harder to resolve than I thought, please come in, but please be wary and do not touch anything you have to think twice about touching."
The last part may or may have not made Lottie shiver, but she understood, in sketchy spots like these, you could never be too careful, she was surprised he even let her in considering she could of just been helping a random perso-
"Where are you from?" The man asked, not much curiosity but more need to get this over with. Lottie understood the feeling, it was quite mutual.
" I'm an English speaker from Portugal, I speak Portuguese too" Lottie winced, she was just blurting random information out now, "... But that's not very relevant, sorry."
She took a seat at a little barstool as the man went behind the counter, he stayed quiet for a few minutes before asking another question or speaking.
But eventually he turned around to her as he polished a beer glass, "are you aware of today's date Lottie?"
Lottie thought for a second, she always forgot the days, "Thursday, february 12th, 2026?"
The man sighed, something heavy and loaded with what seemed like exhaustion.
And something inside of Lottie began to dread, 'oh god no please don't let it be...'
" O-oh um, the-then is it February 13th?" They both knew that wasn't true.
The man shook his head and set down the beer glass he'd been cleaning for the entirety of the conversation.
"No... Lottie, it is February 12th, Thursday..."
Lottie took her trembling hands and clamped them together under the wooden counter top.
"But it is not the year 2026."
"It is the year 2326."