I opened my eyes, having to squint because the light was so bright. Who am I? I thought. What am I doing here? Was I kidnapped or something? On that thought, I bolted out of bed, only to be greeted by a nurse. “Hi there, Jane. How are you feeling?” I stare at her. “Jane? Is that my name? Where am I?” She chuckles to herself and says “No, we’ve been calling you Jane Doe because we don’t know your actual name. You’re at a hospital in Birmington, California. One of our workers found you outside, passed out. We thought that you were under the influence, but everything came up clean; you’re healthy as a horse! It’s strange you don’t recognize your surroundings, though, as there was no signs of brain damage on your reports.”
I took a second to realize what’s happening. No way, I thought, This is not happening to me, please. “Well, what should I do now?” I asked the nurse, squinting even more to try and see her name: Candice. Candice looked at me and shrugged. “I’m not sure, we have a ward that you can stay in while you try to get your memory back. But as of right now, just try to make sure you get a lot of rest. I’ll check back in later and see how you’re doing.” She walked out, and I closed  my eyes, thankful to not be looking at that bright light.
Suddenly, I’m running. I’m rushing through an office building, holding something in my hand. I try to look down, but I can’t see it, everything is blurry. I hear people yelling at me but I can’t tell what they’re saying or why. I’m flustered, and suddenly there’s a big explosion.
I bolted awake, covered in sweat and tears. I was crying? What’s happening to me? “Candice! Someone! Please come in here!” I can hear the heart monitor going nuts, and an attendant runs in. It’s Candice. Thank God, I tell myself. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I’m just so shaken up from my dream and I didn’t know what to do. How long was I asleep for?” I asked. Candice checked her watch and said “About four hours. I’m not too sure how to help a bad dream, maybe turn on the TV to get that stuff off of your mind?” She takes the remote and turns on the news. “2016 Election News” it bolts out. Is that what year it is? I wonder. What year did I lose memory in? I turn to Candice but she’s focused on the TV. “Ugh, I hate these guys so much. They have no idea what they’re doing. One day I’m gonna run for president, I know how to fix every issue better than those stupid politicians.” Suddenly, I realized that Candice did look a little familiar. “Have we met before?” I ask her. “Like, before I came here?”
Candice turns away from the TV and chuckles again. “Don’t think so, I probably would have remembered you. I have a really good memory when it comes to people.” She paused for a moment, still watching the TV. “Okay,” she said, “I’ll come back in a little bit, just press that button if you need anything from me, got it?” I nodded as she walked out of the room.
During my few months in the rehabilitation center, Candice and I became really close. She would pick me up breakfast and check me out of the place, this way we can go out around town and try to find some familiar landmarks. Although the whole town felt familiar, it didn’t spark any memory. At night, I continued to have that same dream, each time getting a little bit more clearer. Someone, a man calls me Jane and tells me that I have to kill something. But what? There’s flashing lights now, in a ton of colors. The thing I’m holding in my hand is a piece of paper with a person’s picture on it. But whose?
And then the explosion. I’ve learned to brace myself for it every night, and the lack of sleep that comes after it. I laid awake wondering what the dream meant, was it a memory? Candice said sometimes old memories come to amnesia patients through their dreams. I wished I knew Candice before I lost my memory, at least she could help me more. Plus, she was a really good friend, and I was thankful to have her.
About a month or so later,I got a job at a supermarket, and soon enough I was making enough money to move out of the rehab center. When I found a tiny apartment, Candice was my only visitor. “Honestly, I don’t know what I would have done without you.” I mentioned to her one evening. “What do you mean?” she asked. “Well,” I replied, “if you hadn’t helped me as much as you did, I don’t think I would be doing as good as I am right now.” Candice blushed at me and smiled. “Aw, that means so much! You know I’m here for you anytime. But, Jane, there’s something I wanted to tell you.” I looked up from the remote I was fiddling with, and asked her, “What?” She looked me in the eyes and said, “You know how when we first met I said I had better ideas to fix this country? I decided to finally step up and work on them. I’m quitting nursing to run for city council, and I hope you’ll vote for me.” She handed me a flyer with her headshot on it, and I knew I recognized the picture from somewhere. I wanted to tell her but something deep down was saying I should keep quiet. “Yeah, I definitely will!” I yawned. “I’m kind of tired, though, so I think I’m gonna go to bed soon.” Within the hour, Candice was gone and I was off to bed.
When I had the dream again,something sparked. Everything cleared up this time. “You’re gonna be called Jane Doe,” a man said to me. I know him from somewhere, yes, he was my boss! How did he know about the accident? Did he hurt me? When I looked down at the picture I finally saw it: Candice’s flyer, her headshot. How could I be dreaming this? I wondered. I woke up before the explosion even took place. I lay awake wondering what this was. Maybe just my mind mixing things up? Something didn’t feel right though. I knew I had to go back to sleep and try to solve what was happening.
I focused as hard as I could that night, constantly remembering that I needed to think about my surroundings. When the man came up to me and yelled, I focused as hard as I could. “You’re gonna be called Jane Doe. We’ll put you outside the hospital she works at, in the year 2016. We thought it would be the safest to put you somewhere before she’s gotten into politics. But remember, do not mention anything unordinary about politics to her. She can’t know who you are. All you have to do is assassinate her, and then hopefully the country will be saved. This is important. You’re making history, literally. We won’t be able to communicate with you but in case you get lost we printed out the instructions in your neck- What the hell was that?” Everyone started screaming at me to go by the flashing lights. I heard loud noises and realized we had been bombed. I ran over to the colorful lights and got into a tube, then I watched as the explosion took place, killing my coworkers.
I bolted awake, everything was flooding back to me. I wasn’t from this time, I was born 10 years from now, and left from 30 years into the future. My name was Madison Wishworthy, and I was born during the first communist-totalitarian reign in the U.S.: Candice Albright. I lived in the same town I was in right now, but everything was different. Under Candice’s rule, the country had gone to ruins, we were unable to escape, and we were poverty stricken. I worked for an underground rebellion group, and I was given the assignment to go back in time and assassinate our evil leader. As I was leaving, Candice’s spies had found out about our plan, and had tried to stop us using bombs.
I reached for my necklace, and found that the heart charm on it actually opened it up, and inside was a small sheet of paper. It listed three things:
1.Your duty is to assassinate Candice. DO NOT SPEAK TO ANYONE OF THIS.
2.You must not interfere with the same time as your childhood. If the mission takes that much time you must quit and come back, or you must die.
3.Once your assignment is finished, you will return back to the same time as you left.
I sighed, knowing that this was the only thing that would take me back to normal. I grabbed a knife out of my drawer, put it in my bag, and started the walk to Candice’s house, knowing that I was about to complete my mission.