This peculiar time travel tale comes straight from Reddit’s NoSleep district. Now, sure, a good chunk of the posts over there are just stories. Tales for the campfire, I guess. But that doesn’t make them any less interesting. And, occasionally, you come across something more substantial.
On March 22, 2012, for example, Reddit user actionslacks submitted a post about a strange encounter he’d had while driving home the previous night. He’d been on his way back from a party in Maine at about two in the morning, when he caught something in his headlights.
That something turned out to be a teenager, about 14 or 15 years old, slumped over on the ground. Naturally, actionslacks pulled over and jumped out of his car to help. The kid was breathing, but covered in dark soot and smelling like fire.
No, that’s not the weird part.
After some prompting, the kid revealed his name was John, and said that, no, he hadn’t been on fire. But then he got up, walked over to the car, and climbed into the passenger seat. Whether he wanted to or not, apparently actionslacks was going to give the teenager a ride.
A hospital seemed like a good idea.
So off they went. At first, it was a quiet ride. Nothing happened. Then actionslacks decided to ask a few questions. He asked the strange teenager when he was born. “March fourth, twenty-thirteen,” he replied. Why was he out there? “I’m not supposed to be,” he said, hesitating. And then the boy asked, blankly, what time it was, and if he was too late. When told it was March 22, 2012 at about three in the morning, his only response was, “My God.” The remainder of the car ride was spent in silence.
They eventually arrived at the hospital, and actionslacks went inside to speak to a receptionist. But when he returned to his car, the teenager was nowhere to be found. In his place was what appeared to be dark soot.
So, what happened? Was this an encounter with a real time traveler? Was it an April Fools joke? Was the story even true? Can’t be sure, but luckily nothing catastrophic occurred on April 1, and so the world goes on.
