Page 7 of Before the Summer He Found Her

“Yes,” Sasha interrupts. “Do you want to go back in? I can prove it to you. You are viewing time. That is what I have spent the last decade of my life researching.”

My heart is racing. I can’t believe this. No matter how realistic it seemed.

“I witnessed true moments from the past?” I ask, tone incredulous. “Are you sure?”

“Oh, they’re real.” Sasha nods. “Think of it like this. You know those people who claim they’ve experienced a near-death experience and see the beyond?”

“Uh, yes,” I say, vaguely familiar with a couple stories I’ve read about on the news. Still not buying any of this and wondering how Sasha could pulled data so real it felt like a version of Channah was in the room with me.

Sasha’s smile deepens. “My device induces that state of mind, without the death part obviously. I’m also not sending people to the ‘beyond’—I’m allowing them to pick when and where they go throughout past events that have already transpired. It’s all energy, after all.”

I shift in the seat, discomfort washing over me. Even if this were real, and even if this thing only viewed time, I’ve seen enough sci-fi movies to know time isn’t something one should mess with.

When I’d visited Channah, she’dseenme.Spokento me.

That hadn’t been a viewing. Whatever the fuck this thing is.

“You still don’t believe me,” Sasha muses.

I swallow. “It’s not that I don’t believe you. I’m trying to wrap my head around this. The woman I visited, uh,Channah… she spoke to me. Interacted with me.”

“Ez,” Sasha says, “you’re a computer guy. You’re in read mode only in there. Not read/write. You understand?”

“Yes… I… yes, I do. I think.” I understand read/write mode, but I don’t understand this. Still not truly believing this, I ask, “Alright, so this time viewer, then. How did it know what years to send me into?”

“It’s more of a subconscious thing,” Sasha says, “but you decided that, too.”

“How? I don’t know Channah’s life,” I say. “Or the lives of pirates, for fuck’s sake.”

She shakes her head. “You’re thinking of this in the wrong way. You don’t have to know history or know someone’s life. You thought of them, or a time period, or whatever, and something about the thought brought you to a specific moment. Does that kind of make sense or did I break you?”

“Channah was in pain,” I breathe, entirely aware that neither of these people knows who the fuck Channah is. “Whywould it take me there?”

Shaking her head, Sasha says, “I can’t tell you why you went anywhere, Ez. Onlyyouknow, somewhere deep down.”

I must look just as confused even after she answers me, for Sasha’s brows furrow. Her gaze drifts between me and the machine.

She said before I entered that the aftereffects on my body would only last for mere seconds, but I’m beginning to doubt that. There’s something uncomfortable bubbling beneath my surface, and my entire body feels out of whack. I’m still finding this entire ordeal hard to believe.

And yet I somehow believe it.

I was only in there for thirty seconds—and I’m already coming undone.

Dazed, I slide out from the chair.

I’ve seen enough for one night.

Maybe I was wrong to encourage my employs to go out and enjoy a night of fun.

Work is always safer.

CHAPTER THREE

CHANNAH

Past

All I see is that he has beautiful eyes.

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