The Time Is Right
Trevor’s grin widened as the numbers lit up on the old lottery board. A perfect match.
He had done it.
The Time Keepers had strict rules about using their technology for personal gain, but Trevor had never been one for rules. He wasn’t in this for noble missions or saving collapsing timelines. No, he had clawed his way into the program for one reason: to get rich.
The training had been grueling, but Trevor played the part of the devoted recruit flawlessly. He studied just enough to pass, charmed his instructors, and nodded along during lectures on responsibility and the sacred duty of Time Keepers. All the while, his real plan simmered beneath the surface.
When they handed him his $TIME watch, sleek and humming with potential, he could barely contain his excitement. It was time to cash in.
The plan was foolproof. A quick jump back to a few days before a historic jackpot draw, a carefully placed bet, and voilà—instant wealth. Trevor hadn’t counted on the ripple effect, but he didn’t care. He’d be living in a mansion, sipping champagne, while someone else cleaned up the timeline mess.
But the Time Keepers noticed.
The first clue came in subtle ways: a faint distortion in the continuum, anomalies that shouldn’t exist. It didn’t take long for the trackers to zero in on Trevor’s tampering.
The knock at the door came just as Trevor was celebrating his “win” in a private villa, surrounded by stacks of cash and bottles of the finest wine. He opened it, expecting his delivery of caviar, but instead, two Time Keepers stood there, their expressions colder than the void.
“Trevor Matthews,” one of them said. “You’ve violated the Temporal Ethics Code. Your actions have caused significant instability. You’re coming with us.”
Trevor laughed nervously. “Relax, fellas. No harm done, right? It’s just a little harmless time travel fun.”
Their silence told him otherwise.
The retrieval process wasn’t gentle. Trevor fought, his greed-fueled bravado turning to panic, but it was useless. They stripped him of his watch, and with it, his stolen fortune dissolved like smoke in the wind.
Back at the Keepers’ base, he sat in a stark interrogation room, the reality of his situation sinking in.
“Do you know how many lives you disrupted?” a senior Keeper asked, pacing before him. “How many futures you altered, just for your own gain?”
Trevor had no answer. The magnitude of his crime weighed on him, but his regret was hollow. He only regretted getting caught.
His punishment was swift. Stripped of his status, exiled from the Keepers, and barred from any further access to time manipulation, Trevor was sent back to the present—an ordinary man, broke and forgotten.
As he sat alone in a run-down apartment, staring at the empty space where his watch had once rested on his wrist, he realized the cruel irony of his situation. He had gambled with time itself, thinking he could outsmart it.
But time always collects its debts.
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