Chapter 1

It was summer. I recall that much. Not a cloud in the sky as families lined up across every road in the near vicinity of the launch site. The faces of the brave volunteers were projected on huge screens dotted about the desert and broadcast to the entire world. I remember the way they smiled as they waved to the crowd and entered the capsule.

I wonder if any of us really knew what was going on back then. If the happiness of exploring a new frontier was really just a thin veneer over an ever-present anxiety of what the hell might happen if this all went wrong. After all, it wasn't just space we were playing with now. It was time. Harder to understand, but so much easier to break.

They'd already sent atoms back, then microbes, then small inanimate objects. None of it made headlines. Even the local news was bored of it after a while. But this was supposed to be the event that launched us into the new age. The age where man conquered time like we conquered all other things.

The countdown began. The crowd joined in as a thousand voices called out. Five… Four… Three… Two… One… Then – nothing.

Just the desert breeze, a billion eyes, and an empty space. They were meant to be gone for only a second. That's what we were told. There and back in the blink of an eye. But after a lot of noise and a blinding light, there was no one there to be seen. They'd gone. They didn't come back. We must have all stood there for hours, assuming it would be fixed in a matter of minutes.

But as I drove home that day, the sun slowly setting over the sand, I knew deep down this wouldn't be the end. How stupid we were. As much as I tried to ignore it, I knew the world was about to change. I just didn't know how badly it would change.

It was almost a month later, and like most catastrophes, it had all but been forgotten about by the mainstream news outlets, overtaken by that week's military strike or political scandal. But I think we all still felt it in the pit of our stomachs, even if we tried not to talk about it.

Of course, there was talk about trying to get them back. But the thing is, they didn't know for sure if they had even made it to their destination. How would you? Maybe they vaporised on impact, or just disappeared from reality entirely. This was the line the United States government took. It was a waste of money sending four more willing participants back to their near-certain deaths to rescue people who were now nothing but an atomic mist in the four corners of yesterday.

How could they justify more lives? they asked. And we all ate it up. Perhaps because we knew meddling any further may not have been the best idea. So we did what we always do and left them, trying to forget it had even happened.

It was in the second month that things began to unwind. We didn't know it then, but we'd all begun to forget things here and there. Get confused in places we didn't recognise. But the thing is, none of us attributed it to the event. I certainly didn't. As far as I was concerned, I was just tired and confused. I had no reason to believe everyone else had the same problem as me.

I remember around this time, a man at work went home one day and never returned. No one seemed to mind. Most seemed not to have known him. Strange, I thought. He seemed to be so popular, but didn't appear to have made an impact in any way. Those who did remember his name struggled to recall his face. And in truth, even I couldn't quite make it out. Being the only one who seemed to have an ounce of concern for the well-being of this man, I found the phone number he left with HR as his emergency contact. His wife.

But after a long night debating with myself, I couldn't find the confidence to call her. So I simply left it there: a scrunched-up piece of paper on the coffee table. I'd say it was two weeks after that when I found a man walking alone down my street whilst I was outside watering the flowers. I don't usually talk to random people, but this man seemed lost somehow. I thought maybe he was new in town, so I wandered over and introduced myself.

He began rambling semi-incoherently. But from what I could pick up, it seemed that he walked home every day after work. But three days prior, he'd walked back to find nothing but a half-empty lot: just dirt, overgrown shrubs, and a rusty swing set in the corner.

His house hadn't vanished. It simply had never existed. He said he took a look at his keys to find they didn't look the way he remembered. They looked newer. So he had a house. He just didn't know where it was.

As you can imagine, I found it hard to believe a house could just vanish. But clearly upset, I let him continue without interruption.

He said he'd taken to walking the streets, hoping that one building might seem familiar and the key might fit. It was sad to think of this poor man walking up and down town, lost and alone, looking for a house he didn't know. I'd have invited him in, but he was keen to get moving. It was only as he turned to leave that he brought up the family he'd left inside. Where they'd gone, I don't know. It seemed he didn't either.

That night, I decided to call the number of my work colleague's wife. Unfortunately, his name escaped me. So as the phone dialled, I thought desperately of what to say. When she picked up, I stuttered my way through explaining that her husband hadn't been seen at work and that I was just checking he was okay. The line was silent for a moment. Then a voice spoke. "But I'm not married." "But you must be. This is the number he gave as his emergency contact," I said, hoping that she'd suddenly remember a man she'd never met. I even read aloud her full name and address. She said that was definitely her name, and that was indeed her address. But no man matching any description I tried to give had ever lived there. And she definitely had never been married.

It wasn't uncommon in the coming days to hear stories like these. Everyone lost someone. Like hikers in the woods, people would simply be there one second and gone the next. We'd never find a trace of them.

Even the CCTV cameras wouldn't pick them up. It was as if the world had begun swallowing people whole. Their pasts and futures folded in on themselves, leaving no note or last known whereabouts. Their loved ones were left to look for the people they lost for as long as they could hold on to the memory of them.

The worst part was the changing faces. No one looked the way you remembered them. Every day was like meeting everybody for the first time. But in the confusion, it's hard to tell if it's the faces changing or simply the memory of them. I recall a young lady I'd have sworn I'd never met before talking to me for at least half an hour. We stood in the aisle of an empty supermarket.

She told me that a week prior, she'd checked her bank account to find a lot more money than she'd ever known she had. She'd never been poor, but never rich either. The trouble was she couldn't work out where it had come from. I wish I had some good explanation for her, but I couldn't work out where I'd seen her before. This threw me for a while and left me somewhat absent from the conversation. It was as she mentioned her feeling of emptiness that I came back to it. We all felt it by then.

She said she couldn't understand what she'd lost. Why she felt this way. She worked a good job, even if she had no idea what it was. She had enough money to retire at an early age. But nothing could quite fill that hole left by a lifetime unlived and an absence she couldn't contend with. As we said our goodbyes, she stepped closer and, with a tear in her eye, kissed me on the cheek.

A strange thing for a woman I hardly knew to do. But stranger still, it felt kind of right. Something in the way she smelled dislodged a memory too dark to make out. My heart called out, but I stayed quiet as she walked away in tears.

I don't know how long it's been now. Maybe six months. No, that can't be right. Maybe a year? I woke up this morning with a pain in my head like I'd never known. After walking around the hallways for what seemed like hours, I finally found my way to the bathroom. In the mirror was a man I had never met before. His life is one I didn't live. His world spinning too fast, out of control. I wonder if today might be the day. The day the record finally scratches and time will finally run out. Or will we all keep living? Slowly spiralling down to a place we never knew we could fall to.

We tried to rule time. But time, in the end, was always going to win.