Content note: knife threat
Illisa Varrow swallowed and checked her tablet one more time, scrolling through her notes. She knew she wouldn't need them, but she had to be sure she wanted to go through this. The Hierarchy of the Elsewhen awaited, and she had worked for this moment throughout her university life. Six years of temporal mechanics, ethics, and divergence theory culminating in the interview ahead. Her name was called, and she stepped through into the chamber. The steeply banked seats placed so she had to tilt her head back to see the speakers: the Ruling Council of the Hierarchy. The most experienced manipulators of the timelines of the present age, whose wisdom was sacrosanct and rendered untouchable by future Elsewhen.
"Student Varrow, your test results have been confirmed. I now bestow upon you the rank of TD(i) and you may from this moment call yourself Doctor of Time, and a member of the Elsewhen. Congratulations on your ascension to the lowest rank of the Hierarchy," Chairwoman Grainda intoned, her voice betraying a smile only at the very end of the speech. Illisa bowed her head in silence.
"As you know, every Elsewhen, upon ascending from Student to Doctor of Time, is permitted the opportunity to present a case for some event in their life to be edited so that their life as experienced shall be improved. This entitlement is bestowed because any Student who reaches this point in their career is shown to be capable of choosing such an event in the full knowledge of the questions and consequences any manipulator must bear in consideration.
"Do you have such a case to present us?"
"I do. I beg the Council's leave to present the details of my event." The words were ritualised but it had taken hours of rehearsal to be able to deliver them with confidence. The members of the Ruling Council in turn declared, "Aye," which gave Illisa time to compose herself. Finally, Chairwoman Grainda announced, "Leave is so granted. What are the details of your case, including how you will avoid category 1 paradoxes, and resolve category 2 and 3 paradoxes?"
Illisa took a deep breath.
"The event I wish to alter is to prevent my rape from occurring, and here are the details."
77 months earlier:
The letter came in the morning. "Your application to the University of Temporal Studies has been accepted. Full details of the course are enclosed, including when and where you should enrol and a provisional class schedule." Illisa called all her friends with the news: "Party tonight! I'm gonna be a Time Traveller! See you at the Deyro Bar, 8ish." She picked out her shortest party dress, all sparkly blue sequins and strappy shoulders and cleavage. Her matching stilettos would do fine. This was a proper celebration.
When they showed up, they proclaimed, "Time to get so drunk we'll need a time machine to figure out what happened tonight, yeah?" "YEAH!" It was that sort of bar. It was that sort of night, and they were that sort of young.
There was bright light, raucous laughter, and lots of drink. There were the sleazy guys with the cheesy lines, who thought drunk women didn't know a drunk and horny guy when they saw him stumble across the floor towards them. There were the accidental spills, and the gossip thrills. They were a gang, and they would always be friends, like their favourite song.
They kept it up until the bar closed at 1am. Illisa and her friends staggered into the darkened street.
"Love you guys," Illisa slurred as she hugged them goodbye, "Home's just a couple of blocks from here, I'll be fine."
"See ya, Lissy," they chorused, as they tumbled into their taxi. The vehicle looked overcrowded even without Illisa along for the ride. She waved them off, and headed down the alley she knew was a shortcut to her flat.
"Since the event took place after I decided to train as a temporal manipulator, and my acceptance here," her voice wavered, "There is no possibility that erasing this event from my timestream would prevent me from carrying out the alteration directly. Therefore, I am confident that there would be no category 1 paradox involved in the alteration."
"Agreed," the Ruling Council members declared. Illisa continued reliving the fateful night.
A few metres in, the alley branched off. Illisa realised that there were two men blocking her route home and her heart rate quickened. She hesitated for a moment. She didn't have time to react to the sudden footsteps behind her before a third man grabbed her elbows with one arm and clamped his free hand over her mouth. The first two men sauntered up to her and her captor, it seemed like it took just the blink of an eye. They were tall. The one on the left, dark hair, blue eyes, a scar on his cheek, all in black. His friend was slightly shorter, blond, a slight beard and hazel eyes she thought, though the distant street light made it hard to tell. He stroked her cheek, making her shudder.
"Now, look what we've got here," he gloated. The man holding her laughed, "Some little strumpet looking to get fucked!" Illisa tried to shake her head, to refuse the lewd assumptions, but his grip on her head and her arms was too firm. The taller guy sniffed, "And the way her breath stinks, no one's gonna believe she wasn't asking for it!" All three laughed. Illisa struggled and tried to kick the guy holding her. Tall guy punched her in the gut while Blondie slapped her face. She choked and gasped, close to vomiting as her legs buckled and her cheek stung. Tough guy took advantage to spin her round and slam her face and chest against the rough cinder block wall. His hand released her mouth before the impact and as soon as she was pinned, he pushed her dress up over her arse. If anything, her cheeks burned worse from the humiliation than the injuries and she wished she'd worn something more conservative than a bikini thong for her underwear.
"Please," she whimpered. The three men were gathered behind her, taking it in turns to grope her naked buttocks. They took no notice of her, just rubbing their fingers lewdly in her crease and digging them into her vulva. She closed her eyes and held her breath.
"I think she's good ready for it, the slut," she didn't know which of them spoke. Two hands on either side yanked her undies down around her knees, and they felt her up again, fingers actually digging into her hole this time, drawing a plaintive, muted squeal from her. "Yeah, you love it," sneered the abuser. One of them pulled her thong all the way down to the floor. "Spread 'em!" The hand between her thighs gave her no illusions what they wanted her to do. She sobbed uncontrollably as she opened her legs, her dress around her waist. A second later, a thick, hard cock forced its way into her tight cunny, and even though she knew it meant nothing it still shamed her more to realise that they were right: she was wet and ready for the intrusion. He gripped her wrists tight enough to hurt, his body pressing hers against the cold wall, his greedy grunts in her ear, his vicious, uncaring thrusts bruising her. She gasped with relief when she felt him come inside her, and withdraw, his hold on her arms relaxing. She stayed where she was, too terrified to move.
"Well, I ain't takin' sloppy seconds, man," complained a second.
"Then fuck her in the arse, she's not gonna stop ya!" the third guy suggested.
"No!" she whimpered, "Please!" But the guy already had his cockhead pushing against her anus.
"Relax, bitch, or you ain't walking home tonight," he hissed. She swallowed hard and did her best to loosen the tension in her rear, to obey in the hope it would be over soon, that they would leave her alone. She still screamed when he shoved from his hips and his cock ripped through her body's defences to fill her rectum. He gripped her hair and slammed the side of her head against the wall in time with his savage assaults on her rear. The pain was incredible and all she could think was, "Please let me live, please let me live." Suddenly it was over. She felt him spasm and grunt, and then he was withdrawing. She collapsed to her knees, and would have fallen sideways except he grabbed her hair to wipe his cock clean on it.
"Not taking a turn?" Oh God, there were three of them. She sobbed as she finally collapsed on the floor, her whole body in agony and her abdomen feeling like it was on fire.
"Not after you guys have done with her, the disgusting skank!" A kick to her head left her dizzy. The men's footsteps receded.
Somehow she made it home, showered, again and again, stared in horror at the blood in the drain from her torn arsehole, curled up, too scared even to call an ambulance, let alone report it to the police.
"Methodology?" queried the Chairwoman, "How do you intend to prevent the rape?"
"In accordance with the ethical considerations, I intend to use a non-intrusive method. I shall erect a WARE field around the entrance to the alleyway in time for my earlier self's arrival there. The effect will be to give her a sense of foreboding about the usual route home so she goes the longer, but more brightly lit and public, route home. She should then avoid crossing paths with the rapists and thus avoid being raped. As you can see, this will result in a huge positive improvement in my life experience and development, will not interfere with my ability to make the correction, and shall minimise the category 2 effect. Since there will be no self-dependent information involved, no category 3 paradoxes should be involved at all. A standard cat.2 resolution should suffice to maintain the new timeline."
Nods went around the Council. Illisa answered a few more questions about the details of her proposal, before the Ruling Council members once more gave their verdict each in turn: "Approved", "Approved", around the room. The Chairwoman raised her stamp and made it official. "Approved!"
Illisa and her friends staggered into the darkened street.
"Love you guys," Illisa slurred as she hugged them goodbye, "Home's just a couple of blocks from here, I'll be fine."
"See ya, Lissy," they chorused, as they tumbled into their taxi. The vehicle looked overcrowded even without Illisa along for the ride. She waved them off, and headed towards the alley she knew was a shortcut to her flat. Something felt wrong this time, though, so instead she walked down the high street and went the long way round. A short shower when she got home, and she drifted into sleep still in her clothes, dreaming of the future.
It was her first night on campus, and all her new neighbours in the Hall of Residence were out partying. Illisa celebrated the start of a new and exciting academic career in the field of temporal manipulation and time travel. "We are gonna get so drunk we'll need a time machine to figure out what happened tonight!" they chorused, like dozens of classes before them. Most of her friends left before her, but she stayed because she was getting on well with a couple of the guys from the male dorms. Her life had never given her any reason to be fearful.
It was a short walk across campus from the bar to the Hall, and she gladly accepted their offer of an escort through the darker parts of the route. They seemed like good people. When they reached the Halls, though, it seemed to change.
"Come on, back to ours," the taller guy said.
"Thanks for the escort, but I really need to get to bed now," Illisa turned him down.
"Hey, you can't just treat us like that," the stockier, more muscular student objected.
"What do you mean?" Illisa started to feel nervous. The stocky guy was still taller than her and as he moved towards her she backed up.
"Fucking pricktease, with your skimpy dress and slutty shoes, think you're immune to the world, don't you?" The taller guy was grabbing her upper arms and pinning them behind her back. Before she knew it, the two men dragged her into the male dorm, Stocky grabbed her head with his hand over her mouth to stop her causing any alarm, while Tall dragged her down the corridor. They bundled her into a room. She tried to struggle, but the alcohol ruined her coordination and Tall had no trouble pulling her sparkly blue dress right up over her head. Stocky threw her onto one of the beds and yanked her shoes off, and used one of her own stockings to tie her wrists behind her back while Tall pushed her face into a pillow to muffle her screams. Stocky fetched a knife and held it against Illisa's cheek.
"You're going to do exactly what we say if you want to keep that face as pretty as it is right now, cunt," he snarled. She whimpered, "Yes, I'll be good. I promise!" Already, Tall was positioning himself behind her, dragging her by her ankles to get her hips to the edge of the bed. She didn't dare breathe for fear of offending the guys, just a slight sob as she felt him force his cock into her moist hole.
"She fucking loves it!" he crowed, feeling her wetness. She blushed and cringed as he took his time fucking her, whimpering every time he entered her. Stocky crouched with his knees either side of Illisa's head, keeping her face down on the duvet and she could smell his arousal. She could feel him shuffling, masturbating over her helpless body while his friend raped her methodically. Tall came inside her with a shudder, and a grunt, and the boys swapped places. Tall wiped his cock on her hair while Stocky shoved himself brutally into her. The previous load of come, and the fucking, may have lubricated and loosened her but Stocky was violent, vicious, and in a hurry. He dug his fingers into Illisa's arms as he pounded her, determined that each thrust should hurt as much as possible. Illisa cried out as quietly as she could, conscious of the knife in easy reach of Tall's right hand.
Stocky spasmed and gave a guttural cry as he finished. He dragged Illisa onto the floor.
"Lick me clean, cunt," he said, "And anything you've dripped on my floor, too." Tears flowed from Illisa's eyes as she did as she was told, conscious of the twin loads of come oozing from her cunt, down her thighs and yes, dripping onto the filthy carpet. When she was done, they dumped her onto the bed again and went to shower.
They took turns raping her for the rest of the weekend. When they got bored of her vagina, they switched to sodomising her. When they got bored of that, they just left her in the shower so she could pee without ruining their room. On Monday morning, they finally untied her wrists and gave her her dress back, "Go home, stay safe," chortled Stocky as he groped her bottom one last time, and they shoved her into the corridor.
She never told anyone, until five and a half years later...
"As you know, every Elsewhen, upon ascending from Student to Doctor of Time, is permitted the opportunity to present a case for some event in their life to be edited so that their life as experienced shall be improved. This entitlement is bestowed because any Student who reaches this point in their career is shown to be capable of choosing such an event in the full knowledge of the questions and consequences any manipulator must bear in consideration.
"Do you have such a case to present us?"
"I do. I beg the Council's leave to present the details of my event." The words were ritualised but it had taken hours of rehearsal to be able to deliver them with confidence. The members of the Ruling Council in turn declared, "Aye," which gave Illisa time to compose herself. Finally, Chairwoman Grainda announced, "Leave is so granted. What are the details of your case, including how you will avoid category 1 paradoxes, and resolve category 2 and 3 paradoxes?"
Illisa took a deep breath.
"The event I wish to alter is to prevent my rape from occurring, and here are the details."
When Illisa completed her account, the Ruling Council gave their verdict, each in turn.
"Denied." "Denied."
Chairwoman Grainda scowled at the applicant.
"You have created a category 4 hierarchical alteration cascade. We find that were we to grant your request, your request would alter again and again, as each time the previous alteration merely postpones the event you wish to avoid. We have therefore resolved to alter your timeline to restore the previous request, and to deny all such alterations."
Illisa gasped. The memories flooded back: memories of rapes that both had and hadn't happened, again and again, forwards and backwards through her timeline. Each time, she had stood on this spot and asked for one to be erased, only for another to take its place.
"No!" She screamed and collapsed as the experiences flooded her mind as the Ruling Council forced her to live through each version of her timeline.
"Choose your rape, Student Varrow. We shall fix your timeline. That choice fulfils your entitlement."
