Chapter 29: Lesslie Petterns

Leslie had always been driven. From the moment she met Alec and Lina back in school, it was clear she was destined for something big. The three of them had shared countless hours together, studying, laughing, dreaming of changing the world. They were a perfect trio—Alec, the quiet and thoughtful one; Lina, passionate and fiery; and Leslie, the ambitious one who always had a camera in hand and a story waiting to be told.

They had been good friends, once. Back when everything seemed possible, when they believed their bond would never break. But life had a way of changing things, and the choices they made in the years that followed would pull them in directions none of them could have predicted.

Leslie had always wanted to be at the center of things. It wasn't enough for her to simply be a part of the world—she needed to make her mark. And being a reporter gave her the perfect opportunity. While Alec and Lina focused on their own paths, Leslie went after the spotlight, using every tool at her disposal to climb higher. She covered local stories, then bigger ones. Her rise in the world of journalism seemed inevitable.

But one mistake—the biggest mistake of her life—was the broadcast that changed everything.

It started innocently enough. Leslie was always curious about the Anachronisms—those strange anomalies that no one really understood. But Leslie was different. She wanted to expose the truth, even if it meant crossing lines others wouldn’t. She knew that if she broadcasted the truth about the Anachronisms, it would be a game-changer. She would be the one to reveal the mystery, the one to bring clarity to the chaos.

The problem was, she didn't fully understand what she was unleashing. She didn’t know how dangerous it would be to expose something that, until then, had remained hidden from the world. Lina had warned her about the full truth of the Anachronisms. She'd told her it wasn’t the right time. She knew better than anyone how sensitive the situation was. But Leslie, in her desire to make history, had pushed forward.

The broadcast went live. Leslie’s voice, steady and confident, echoed across the airwaves as she revealed everything—about the Anachronisms, their origins, their connection to time itself and Alec's team and plan to fix them. She painted a picture of the unknown, of a world where time wasn’t as fixed as everyone believed. And in doing so, she set off a chain reaction.

The Anachronisms were no longer just a mystery. They were real. And the world had been forced to face the consequences of knowing too much too soon. Leslie had thought she could control the story, could manage the fallout. But she was wrong. The world wasn’t ready. And now, the rift—the very thing that Alec and Lina had feared—had begun to grow.

Leslie had been blinded by her ambition. She had thought that by revealing the truth, she would become a hero. But now, the truth was a weapon. It tore apart everything they had worked for, pulling Alec and Lina into a conflict they never wanted.

Alec stood at the edge of the rift, staring into the swirling chaos. The events of the past few months weighed heavily on him. It wasn’t just the Anachronisms that were out of control; it was everything that Leslie had set into motion. The world was in turmoil, and Leslie—his old friend—had played a part in starting it all.

Lina stood beside him, her expression hard. There was no love lost between them and Leslie now. The bond they had once shared had been shattered by one reckless decision. And yet, as much as they wanted to blame her, they both knew the truth: they had been powerless to stop it. Leslie had made her choice, and they had to live with the consequences.

"You ever wonder how we got here?" Alec said softly, his voice tinged with regret. "How everything went wrong?"

Lina didn’t answer at first. She just stared ahead, the weight of their situation settling around them. The rift was getting bigger, the consequences of Leslie’s broadcast growing clearer with each passing day.

"We were always too trusting," Lina said finally. "We thought she was one of us. But she wanted something else. She wanted to be the one to change everything, no matter who it hurt."

Alec nodded slowly, his mind replaying the moments they had shared with Leslie. It wasn’t that they hadn’t seen her ambition. They had, but they hadn’t understood just how far she was willing to go to make her mark on the world. Now, all of that ambition had come crashing down, and they were left to pick up the pieces.

The room was silent for a long moment as they both watched the rift grow larger. The air seemed thick with the tension of what was to come. They both knew they couldn’t undo what Leslie had done, but they also knew they couldn’t stop fighting.

Lina turned to Alec, her expression fierce. "We can't change the past. But we can stop this. We have to."

Alec looked at her, his gaze steady. "You're right. We’ll fix it. For Leslie... for everyone."

As they walked away from the balcony, ready to face whatever the rift held in store, Alec couldn’t help but think back to the days when Leslie had been their friend. The girl with the camera, the girl who had once wanted to capture the world. He remembered how her eyes had shone with excitement when she talked about the stories she would tell, the truths she would reveal. But now, all he could see in her eyes was the chaos she had unleashed.

Leslie’s ambition had broken them all. But Alec and Lina weren’t done yet. They still had a chance to fix what had gone wrong. And they wouldn’t let it slip away.