"Good morning, Vietnam!" I hear Alex's voice say, "You're slacking Cas! I'm up before you for once," I made it back. Alex is alive. And I'm in my past selves' body, just like we thought I would be.

"Sorry I was up studying last night," I say, as I push myself out of bed, I realize the watch is still in my hand.

"Where'd you get that?" Alex asks peering down at the watch.

"Just something I found,"

"You sure it's not Dad's? It looks familiar,"

"Nope, I found it when I was on that hike the other day," I used to hike a lot in high school, so this should be a good enough lie.

"Ok then, I made pancakes and bacon better come get it before it gets cold," Alex says while leaving and closing my door.

The rest of the day goes as it did 10 years ago, Alex and I help Mom with all her baking, Dad comes home after his team won the game only to get ambushed by us amidst our flour-war (which will never get old, flour wars are awesome), we clean the kitchen, order pizza and call it a day.

The next day the alarm I set last night annoys me, so I tell it to shut up. Which of course does nothing, so I get up to turn it off.

In the car Alex tells me that I don't have to go to college immediately and I brush it off as I did before, trying to stay as close as possible to what happened last time. After Alex died, I stopped looking at colleges, my grades slipped, and I never got those grants I applied for.

I was lost and had no idea what to do then I when I was cleaning out Alex's room (we left it exactly the way it was for a year before deciding it was time), I found a sticky note that said, "You might need this: Doctor Jo Davis." After a quick Google search, I found that she was a theoretical physicist who specialized specifically in quantum mechanics and the idea of time travel.

I convinced her to take me on as an apprentice to work on her time travel studies and we eventually came up with the prototype that brought me here. I asked her about Alex but she had no idea who I was talking about.

In the middle of the tour Alex whispers to me, "Is it just me or are there some major déjà vu vibes going on right now?" Well, I do but I don't know if I'd call it déjà vu since I do have a memory of this instead of feeling like I do. Alex shouldn't though, this didn't happen last time.

"Nope, just you."

Alex doesn't ask about the complimentary food this time so we just head out to the parking lot. I thought everything would stay exactly the same but maybe by me just being here it changes small things.

"Give me all the money you have! All of you!" People start frantically handing over purses and wallets, Alex doesn't move, just stares forward confused. This feels so familiar but it didn't happen like this before. I guess this is what was happened with those cops last time, I forgot all about that.

"You, money now!" the dude gestures to Alex with the gun, I came here to protect Alex and that's what I'll do.

I cautiously step forward with my hands raised, "Listen, why don't you put the gun down and- "

I don't feel the bullet at first. All I hear is the resonance of the shot and all I see is the sky and Alex's frantic face as I pass out.