Will had lived this moment before. He remembered his boss chewing him out this intensely, which seemed only moments ago, but actually was years. In the “now,” as it were, his high school band teacher was yelling at him for marching out of step. Will could only roll his eyes. He did experience this moment before. This exact moment. The only reason why he was reliving it was because of his boss chewing him out, in his office, a few seconds ago and ten years from now.
Will suffered from a mental illness, dubbed “Chronos Disease.” It is best described as Anti-Alzheimer. With Chronos, all your memories are kept 100% and are very vivid. So vivid that sufferers are known to believe they are reliving their past. These episodes are caused by recall when the patient finds themselves in similar situations as to the memory in question. Mentally, the person travels back into the memory, while physically, the body remains in the present.
Will was a Level 3 sufferer, one that has intense attacks, but the situations aren’t always exact. For instance, Will has traveled back to the 2nd grade numerous times, but while there, he sees his best friend not as a child, but as the fellow twentysomething he actually is. The doctors say this is due to the another portion of his brain fighting Chronos and trying to retain some sanity. Will believes something else.
He believes he is actually traveling through time. The doctors deny this. Will says the reason he sees people as they currently are in the past at times is that it keeps him grounded to the present. This is so he can be “called” back to the correct time. The apparations keep him teethered, is his theory. Will is further convinced he is actually akin to a character in an H.G. Wells novel by the fact that he claims to have changed the present/future. Actions he undertook while in the “past” differ from what he can straight recall. The doctors poo-poo this idea, saying whatever he did is what he always did, that his conditions make it seem new, with new memories competing for space with his old ones.
With the band teacher wrapping up his rant, Will lazily started to pay attention. Though he could reawaken in his boss’s office at any moment, he knew his spells usually ended when the similarities between the two situations stopped. Pretty soon, Young Band Will would go trudging to his locker and put his instrument away. That is not something Old Office Will would so.
As if on cue, Will’s vision started getting blurry, signifying a changeover. Before that though, Will smiled and said to the teacher, in front of the whole band, including his best friend, “Well, Mr. Crane, I will work on my marching if you work on counting the band candy money again. Would hate it if it came up short and someone got fired for it.” With that, Will turned and went to leave, but with his vision impaired, he stumbled and suddenly his boss was by his side, grabbing his arm.
Will was back and determined to prove he can change the past.
Creative Bender 
