I love a good writing prompt. Every 2 weeks I give myself the challenge to grab a writing prompt online that sparks an idea and try to write a piece of fiction from the prompt in and around 500 words.

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WRITING PROMPT: 

Set your story in a world where time travel has been perfected, and people can use it to hop between alternate timelines — but at a cost.

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Rose’s Dilemma

By Jess Knaus

‘So you’re telling me that this is a…a…a time machine?’, stammered Rose.

The Doctor laughed, astounded by the question. 

‘Have you not been paying attention? Why of course! A time travelling spacecraft, if you will! The finest there is and will ever be in this universe and all that follow it!’ the Doctor remarked, a nod of childlike bemusement on his face. 

Rose’s jaw reached a new depth, breath leaving her lungs as she stepped back to take in the whole spectacle. In sheer excitement she yelped with glee. A real life time machine. 

‘So, wait – you’re telling me you can go anywhere, at any point in time, whenever you like?’ she asked tentatively. 

The Doctor smiled from ear to ear before replying. 

‘Yes. And so can you.’

A future. One nothing like the one she was headed for. No council flats. No boring job at the shop. Seeing the universe, at any point in history. Unguarded, at will, freely.

How would she explain this to her mum? Her mum would flip her lid if she just took off without warning, no note as to why. But perhaps she could come back, explain the whole thing. She had a time and history travelling machine – she could do anything!

‘Can I come back and see my mum? Tell her where I’ve gone?’ she asked the Doctor quietly.

‘You can. But be aware – time in the machine is not like time on earth. As time moves here in the machine, it moves faster on earth. Your mum will believe you have been gone longer than you expect. She might think you’ve even disappeared,’ he finished.

Rose didn’t reply, but began pacing the outside of the machine, biting her lip. Mum wouldn’t like that. Maybe she could leave a message now, here, somewhere.

She lifted her head to assess her surroundings. Realising after a few minutes that she was standing next to the graffiti wall that had presented their building to the street for decades. She turned to the Doctor abruptly.

‘Got a marker?’

The Doctor smiled broadly, disappeared into the spacecraft for a moment and returned with a marker. Rose snatched it from his grasp and found a spot along the wall where an old poster had been ripped off. She popped the lid off the marker and began to scrawl. A few minutes later she replaced the lid, and stood back, smiling.

She turned and followed the Doctor into the TARDIS, the words ‘I’ll be back Mum’, drying in the small hurricane the spacecraft generated leaving the earth’s atmosphere.

They were gone.

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