It was a normal day for Mark Jones. His classes had ended for the day and he was left with a few hours to kill before the love of his life Sharon was done with hers. The small apartment was quiet, with only the noise of normal campus traffic filtering through the walls. It had been a challenging semester, his advanced classes in engineering had demanded a lot of work from him and it was rare for him to have more than an hour or two free, most of which were spent driving around the city and the nearby towns looking for jobs.
And not just engineering jobs, but any jobs at all. Mark's resume was severely lacking in actual work experience, he had spent most of his high school experience playing basketball and baseball. His grand total of work experience could be summed up with "Worked a summer at Wal Mart". And even though he was now highly educated, in this economy not many companies were looking to hire engineers that had no work experience.
It had stressed Mark out and he hadn't even been able to find much comfort from his parents, who used every time they spoke to bad mouth Sharon or talk him out of marrying her.
"You're both too young" or "She's an atheist, you can't marry an athiest" or "I know this sweet girl that already has a fast track job to a corporate executive position, you should get to know her, I'm sure you two will have so much in common!"
Nor could Mark bring himself to talk about his problems in front of his friends or even Sharon. He felt that it just wasn't their problem or business to deal with, and even though he did love Sharon, he didn't want to give her cause to leave him if he appeared weak or that he wouldn't be able to provide.
So with all these worries weighing down on him, Mark did the only thing a stressed out guy could do: Play some video games.
He was sitting down on the couch in front of their modestly sized TV, the Xbox powering on when suddenly a flash of light and a loud pop killed the power. Mark looked around for the source of disruption and was startled to see and hunched form of what appeared to be a naked woman on the floor in behind him, a small circle of singed carpet surrounding her.
"What the...who the fuck are you!?" Mark yelled, jumping up from the couch, the Xbox controller raised threateningly. "Tell me who you are right now or I'll call the cops!"
With a gasp the woman shot up, her long dark hair swinging wildly and her exposed breasts bouncing. As she rose, Mark caught the sight of what looked to be a purse, or a holster of some sort. Something metallic gleamed in the late afternoon light. She turned to face Mark, her eyes wide and full of adrenaline, and she tore around the side of the couch faster than Mark expected grabbing him by the shoulders.
"I don't have much time, you have to listen to me! I'm from the future and the world is ending! I've come back in time to give you this!" She almost screamed in his face, Mark so taken aback that he could only blink before shoving her backwards.
"Get the fuck off me and get the fuck out of my house!" Mark yelled as the woman stumbled backwards, giving a slight grunt but recovering quickly.
"There's no time!" The woman said, quickly pulling the metallic object. Mark tensed up, waiting for it to be a gun or a knife or some other weapon. Instead, she held it out to him and he could see it in it's entirety.
It was a remote. It wasn't any brand or design that he recognized, but it was clearly a remote. It had a screen at the top, which set it apart, but other than a few strange dials and knobs the rest of the buttons looked pretty similar to the remote to the TV next to him.
"Go on, take it! Take it!" The woman hissed with urgency, taking a few steps forward and shoving it upwards into Mark's face. Mark, however was hesitant to touch anything. Clearly this woman was on drug and that remote could be stolen property! It just wasn't worth it.
"No way. I don't know you, and I don't know how the hell you got in here but you need to leave. Now." Mark said, backing away towards the phone behind him.
"What? Oh. Right." The woman looked puzzled for a moment, "This is all new to you. I don't have much time though. I'm from the future, I'm here because the time machine can only send two inanimate articles back with someone. You my ancestor, and the world is literally coming to an end in my time as we speak. It may have already ended. I don't know. You have to take this device, you are the only person in the world that can prevent my timeline from happening. You can't marry Sharon. That's the key! But you can't just break up with her! You've got to-ARGH!"
"Miss, I...Are you high? Am I? I just...what are you talking about?"
Mark never got his answer as the woman began to scream, the remote tumbling from her hands and dropping harmlessly on the couch cushions. Her entire body turned...fuzzy. That was the only word Mark could find for it. She seemed to suddenly look like she was part of an old VHS tape, and pieces of her began to break apart and vanish into nothingness.
"Oh god it hurts!" She screamed, falling backwards as her legs began to fragment away into nothing. "Please, Mark, you have to listen to me! I've changed things just by coming back, I'm being erased! But so long as the remote exists, the end of the world is still going to happen! You have to stop it!"
"I..." Mark was speechless, and with a blood curdling scream that faded into distortion, the woman was gone and only sign that she had ever been there was the remote, sitting on the couch. Even the burn marks behind the couch were gone, and the power to the TV and the Xbox were restored.
"Holy shit..." Mark whispered to himself, "Did that just happen?"
Despite his caution Mark found himself reaching towards the remote, picking it up and moving his hands across it. It was cool and metallic to the touch, the button and knobs easily pliable. He pressed the large red button at the top of the remote, assuming it was the power button and his guess was proven correct; the screen came to life though only with a slight blue glow
WELCOME it said, PLEASE SELECT MODE.
And Mark, in his curiosity, pressed a button.
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