A time traveler with no home

She had no name, no origin, no past. She only had the device—a small, metallic bracelet that pulsed with energy—its origin unknown even to her. For as long as she could remember, it had been her only companion, the constant tick of its mechanisms the closest thing to a heartbeat she could understand.

Time was her home now, but she didn’t belong anywhere.

Zara had learned long ago that time was both a gift and a curse. Every jump she made, every shift in the fabric of the universe, led her further away from anything resembling normalcy. She wasn’t sure how it started—whether it was the bracelet’s malfunction or a choice she had made at some long-forgotten point—but it didn’t matter. Time had no mercy on those who tried to manipulate it, and now Zara was lost in its endless currents.

She arrived in Paris, but not Paris as it was supposed to be. The streets were familiar yet alien. The Eiffel Tower stood in the distance, but it was half-collapsed, twisted as if it had been caught in a storm of time. Cars with wooden wheels and archaic designs rolled along the cobblestones, their drivers oblivious to her presence. Zara watched them pass, her heart sinking. She had seen this before—familiar places altered in ways that defied all logic.

The device on her wrist beeped, signaling her to move. It wasn’t a voice or any command she understood; it simply vibrated with a pressure, as though it had its own will. Zara never fought it. She couldn’t, even if she wanted to. Her fate had been sealed the moment she slipped into the stream of time.

She wasn’t even sure why she still tried. The hope of finding a home, a place to belong, had become a fading dream. In one of her early jumps, she had met people, laughed with them, even formed friendships. But each time, she’d had to leave. There was no stopping it, no way to tell those she met what she was, or why she had to go. Time was her enemy and her guide, always pulling her forward, leaving her behind.

Zara stood on the outskirts of a new world now, a wasteland with skyscrapers that looked like jagged teeth against a bruised sky. There was no greenery, no birds, no familiar sound of life. It was a hollow place, and it echoed with the absence of humanity. The air was thick with the smell of rust and decay.

Her mind raced as she tried to figure out where—*or when*—she was. The bracelet hummed louder, its energy crackling through her veins, and she knew it was time to move again. There was no waiting, no moment of stillness. Time wouldn’t allow it.

She pressed her palm against the device, feeling the familiar pulse that indicated another jump was near. It was a sensation she had grown used to, a feeling of her body being ripped apart and reassembled. Each jump took a toll on her, each one more disorienting than the last. Her body ached with the strain of the countless places and times she had visited.

The next moment, Zara was no longer in the wasteland. She was standing in a lush forest, the air clean and fresh, the ground soft beneath her feet. Birds chirped in the trees, and the sun filtered through the canopy above. For a brief, surreal moment, she thought she had found something real—a sanctuary, perhaps, or a glimpse of peace. But no. The bracelet on her wrist vibrated again, harsh and insistent. It was time to leave.

She had no choice.

Zara ran a hand through her disheveled hair, the weight of her loneliness pressing down on her chest. Home. It had become an alien concept, a word she couldn’t quite grasp anymore. She had once dreamed of returning to some version of the world she had known, of finding a place to settle, to rest. But now, all she knew was that the next jump would take her somewhere new, somewhere equally unknown.

And she would Keep traveling, forever adrift.. A time traveler with no home.