One of the themes of Meredith Stroud’s ‘Portal 24’ is time travel and while the idea of how it works is not further developed throughout the novel, it is still somewhat explained. The concept of time travel is a non-fiction aspect and when used in a fiction novel, how it is described is based on actual theories. ‘Think of how fast Earth spins, how fast it moves around the sun, and how fast the sun moves around the centre of the galaxy’, this is the beginning line of how a character explains how time travel works for the main character. The portal they use projects an energy field that compensates for the Earth’s trajectory thus reversing that very trajectory for anyone in the field sending them back in time twenty-four hours. However, this field creates a tear in the space-time continuum so not only are they being dropped somewhere else in time but also in another location while also generating a few smaller portals to allow easy access back to the modern time. All the characters stress the fact that they have to return to the portal before the twenty-four hour limit, why, they do not actually know. The last person who didn’t make it back just disappeared and they could never figure out how or why so to avoid the situation they list ii as a top priority to make it back on time. The concept of how time-travel works in this novel projects the idea of the theme itself being anti-heroic. The ability itself is a gift to the world, the ability to go back and correct catastrophic events, however, at the cost of having a limited time and if failed the first time than it is game over and no second chances. Time-travel is the most explored theory in history and when finally given a chance to use you realise how dangerous it is. There is no controlling time no matter if it is the past or present, time doesn’t control us either it just watches us, it sees the actions we take now that can affect the future. It does so again when going back and watches the characters change the present but this time it does take action and chases the characters and either they catch up to their own time or time catches up to them. Anti-heroism in its own right; time travel to save the present or be lost in time forever.