She kept looking at the clock as patients came and went and the hours dragged ever onwards. Every now and then she’d get a text message from either David or Ellie asking how her day was going but it was pretty boring until it got to the time when she was about to go home and then everything went mad. It started when the headache she had all day suddenly got even worse and she began feeling sick so she rushed to the ladies room and that’s when it popped out of nowhere. A goblin! A fucking horrible goblin who who didn’t look too pleased to be there either. At first she thought she was tripping or something; maybe that old bastard had spiked her drink when he was kicking off. But to her bewilderment the other women in the toilets could see it too and ran out of the ladies screaming. Where the fuck had it come from? That’s when she noticed a tiny tear on the floor. Oh no not again please she thought as she probed it with a Biro. The goblin bless him started to do the same with a long green bony finger.
“Sorry I didn’t know the ladies was full I’ll be back in a few minutes.” A snooty woman said before leaving completely oblivious. Charlotte and the goblin looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders before going back to probing the tear before the goblin came to it’s senses and started biting her face shrieking at the top of its lungs. As she fought the goblin she remembered what the old man had said to her. She had been thinking about tears all day and one just appeared; maybe thinking about the tears had warmed up her dormant powers and now she had unlocked Pandora’s box. More started to appear in the ladies and soon it was raining goblins with one even plopping in the toilet with a splash.
“That’s right don’t fight it dear just let it come naturally.” An old woman said in the cubicle next door.
Running out of the ladies the reception was in absolute chaos with goblins running about the place and people screaming in shear terror. One of the goblins had it’s feet up reading a newspaper while another one was being smacked about with handbag by a middle aged woman. How the fuck was she going to clear up this mess and still keep her job? One of the goblins got too close to a lamp and shrieked in horror running away only to go smacking into a wall knocking it self out. That gave Charlotte an idea though and using the torch on her smart-phone she began herding the goblins towards a tear. The other patients got the same idea and got out their smart phones and soon all the goblins were leaping back into the tears for safety. But she still had the problem of closing them. How the fuck did it work? Over the next few minutes she tried pretty much everything including blinking, waving a pen like a magic wand, dancing, singing and crying all to no avail. In the end she had to get Ellie to come down and use her telekinetic powers to close them much to the cheer of the bewildered patients. Fortunately she didn’t lose her job for her boss was going deaf in one ear and he even let her go home five minutes earlier for entertaining the patients.
A few days later Charlotte and David sat opposite Ellie’s headmaster Mr Snitch as he poured coffee for the three of them. They were called in after Ellie had another one of her “episodes” as her teachers liked to call them and it seemed like her behaviour was getting worse. Mr Snitch was a little man with a balding head and trimmed moustache and his was that tightly wound up with tension his left eye would twitch every now and then. Charlotte guessed that he also suffered with OCD for the pens on his desk were neatly aligned and evenly spaced out. The pictures in his office were perfectly aligned including one of Margaret Thatcher.
“Has Ellie been getting enough sleep recently? Does she go to bed at a reasonable time?”
“Like clockwork” David lied. In fact Ellie pretty much did what she wanted otherwise the kitchen knifes would literally be flying around the apartment.
“Hmm,” Mr Snitch pondered as if he had already had them bang-to-rights. “And her behaviour is not the only odd thing. It’s her age as well. Are you absolutely sure she’s thirteen for she looks about nineteen?” Ellie’s age was another complicated issue that couldn’t be easily explained. She died in a car crash but was revived by time travellers and placed in stasis and restored to perfect health by the ships A.I before the ship then crashed in a parallel universe populated by dinosaurs.
“We can bring in her birth certificate again if you like?” Charlotte said with a nervous laugh.
“Hopefully that will clear up the matter,” Mr Snitch said with a poker face as he took the tiniest of sips of coffee before gently putting the cup on its back on its saucer and turning the cup clockwise three times before he was satisfied. “I’m sure you understand that if there is a discrepancy we will have no other choice but to get social services involved.”
“Oh I’m sure we could come to some sort of arrangement” David said opening a brief case piled with money.
“I hope you’re not trying to bribe me?” Mr Snitch said turning his coffee cup anti-clockwise.
“Of course not,” David said pretending to look shocked to the core. “Think of this as a donation to your school gym.”
“Thank you.” Mr Snitch said swiping away the briefcase so fast Charlotte heard his bones click. “But it’s her behaviour we’re most worried about. “She’s been throwing things about the class room.”
“What like pens and paper?” David said trying to stifle a laugh and nearly succeeding.
“Oh no,” Mr Snitch said taking another sip of coffee his hands shaking “I’m talking about her teachers. She threw one out of the window yesterday.”
“That’s impossible” Charlotte said rushing to defend her daughter although she had a similar encounter not so long ago. Only she ended up in Mexico.
“We’ve got CCTV footage of the incident. Either she’s abnormally strong or she’s taken steroids. Either way but I’ve got no choice but to inform social services.”
Charlotte walked out of the headmasters office in a flood of tears. The memories of being a shit mother began resurfacing. It’s was her addiction to alcohol that caused the fatal accident that killed her. Her guilt was so severe she blacked out the traumatic incident until she discovered a year ago that it was David and his time ship messing about with time. If wasn’t for David Ellie would still be dead thanks to her drink driving. The moment she saw Ellie again she vowed to be a better mum but now that was slipping away from her again.
“It will be okay” David said comforting her.
“I’m going to lose her all over again”
“A year ago we were being chased by dinosaurs remember. We can easily fight this.”
“Compared to that dick dinosaurs were much easier to deal with. What the fuck is happening to you her?”
“Perhaps I can explain” A woman with a hoodie pulled over her head said as she walked towards them. Even without seeing her face Charlotte knew who she was instantly for she’d recognise her own voice anywhere.
Chapter 3 - Me, Myself and I
Charlotte poured the coffee as she sat opposite her older self back at their apartment wondering how she had lost so much weight while David couldn’t help but stare at her breasts. Kicking David discreetly in the leg but really wanting to boot him in the balls she asked her older self “You said you was going to explain about our powers about how we’ve got them and how we can control them?”
“First I owe you a confession.” David said to Charlotte rubbing his leg.
“Go on,” younger Charlotte growled wanting to smoke. She hadn’t craved a cigarette in years not since she climbed into Milton’s taxi on the day of her wedding all those years ago but she could sense I similar betrayal. Despite their bonkers lives the one thing that she felt that she could rely on the most was the solid bond between the pair of them and she hoped he wasn’t about to shatter it now.
“It’s my fault really,” Older Charlotte said taking out a packet of fags and tossing one to her younger self “Or rather it’s our fault.” She lit the fag and blew smoke “It’s actually why we all ended up in that parallel world. Not long from now Charlotte you’ll struggle to contain your powers and it will create black-hole that will suck
the Earth inside it killing 7 billion people instantly. You and Ellie will survive for she’ll create a powerful shield around you but the entire Earth will be engulfed in flames. A few hundred people who will be in the radius of Ellie’s shield will also survive; their the descendants of the crew of the time ship. Don’t you see? We created a paradox for that’s why David and his crew were plucking people out of time to repopulate the planet.”
“Whoa back up your losing me.” Charlotte said forgetting to flick her cigarette so she was just left with a stick of ash.
“To undo this mess I opened a tear to David’s time ship,” Older Charlotte said barrelling ahead “But I arrived in the days before he knew me.”
“You actually appeared while me and Laura were having sex but go on.” David interrupted as Charlotte didn’t know if she felt more sick of the thought of catching David and Laura banging or that she was responsible for the near extinction of the human race.
“To reverse everything we needed your DNA.”
“How come you didn’t just take it from my future self.” Charlotte said confused lighting another cigarette.
“The DNA had to be from before you encountered the tears.”
“Ah.” Charlotte said pretending she understood.
“So we attempted another time jump but Laura became jealous of you and sabotaged the time ship and we ended up that in log cabin eventually meeting you and Taylor,” David said continuing the story. “I thought I had finally gotten through to Laura and she even helped me build a crude time machine so we could attempt another jump but it turned out she was plotting behind my back.”
“And now you’re up to speed.” Older Charlotte said.
“Not quite,” Charlotte said remembering how the other Taylor from Dinosaur World tried to kill them and take the time machine for himself. “What about the other Charles Taylor?”
“I recently found out that he was working for a third party,” David said grabbing the fag off Charlotte and taking a puff. Almost immediately his face went green and he ran into the kitchen and threw up in the sink. “A mysterious organisation called The Rainbow Corporation run by the The Man.” David said walking back into the room.
“It turns out The Man is after our powers and has been manipulating the time-lines to get us, Taylor, Milton and Troy to that parallel world so that we’d gain our powers in the first place so he can can steal them.” Older Charlotte said.
“Oh my god Ellie,” Charlotte said already running out of the door. “She’s not safe with that fucking lunatic on the loose.”
Sure enough no sooner had they jumped into her car when she got a disturbing phone call from the school telling Charlotte off from taking her out of school early. “Another version of me or us or fuck knows who has grabbed her.”
“She’ll be working for The Rainbow Corporation” Older Charlotte said “They probably promised her to return her back to normal.”
“Floor it,” David said to Charlotte cocking a gun. “Don’t worry we’ll get her back.”
“No!” Older Charlotte shouted. “You’ve no idea how powerful these bastards are. We need to get help.”
“But from where?” Charlotte said fretting.
“1945.” Older Charlotte said with a coy smile.
Chapter 4 - Hail Taylor!
New York, December 1945
Taylor had known about his thirst for blood ever since him and Milton had explored that tear in the cave after they were chased by a T-Rex. At first he had tried to fight the urge to the point where had started to see things as he lay curled up on the floor in absolute agony. It was when he started to convulse that he knew he had to do something about it. Hearing his heart pounding in his chest and getting steady louder he lied to Charlotte about taking a walk and crept into camp Lucy, gouging on a helpless survivor until he resembled and empty drink carton. He thought he’d only have a tiny sip but he couldn’t control it and by the time he had finished the sun started to rise burning his skin. He knew he had to find cover so he shot himself and lay in the medical tent until nightfall. He was almost certain he’d get found out but luckily that night that’s when the camp was attacked not only concealing his kill but he was able to slip away unnoticed and re-join Charlotte. He hated lying to her but what choice did he half; vampires are evil fuckers and now he was one. He didn’t even though how it happened because he certainly didn’t crave blood before the crash. Maybe it had something to do with the tears? Either way he knew he had to do something about it before he got a stake through his heart that was why he was in New York to visit a scientist friend who had worked on the Manhattan project
But no sooner had David dropped him off that he knew something was odd. At first he thought he was seeing things again for what he saw was something out of his worst nightmare. Nazi’s wondering down Wall Street taking pictures of each other. After everything he had been through the fuckers still won and ironically he was now the fucking monster. Except he knew that they didn’t win World War 2 so he must be in another parallel world. Before he could contemplate the horrific ramifications any further however he was knocked over the head from behind and slung into a van before he blacked out.
Washington DC
He came too weirdly in the Oval office of the White house but his excitement was short lived when he saw picture of presidents including the most recent one, him. Not only that to his horror he had a swastika band on his arm. He was a fucking Nazi. A fucking Nazi as well as an evil vampire. Could his life get any worse? Oh yes it could!
“I was as shocked as you look Lieutenant,” Troy said smugly with his feet up on the desk “or should I say Mr President.”
“I thought you were killed?” Taylor said trying to stand. His head felt groggy and he had a fearsome headache.
“You’re not the only one with powers you know,” Troy said helping Taylor to his feet. “I rewound time a split-second before that machine crushed me and while you were all fighting each other I snook onto the SS Velociraptor and got a ride here.”
“How do you know about my about my thirst for blood?”
“I’ve been watching you for a long time Lieutenant but don’t worry your secret is safe with me for now.”
“Help me reverse it and I’ll help you square things with the others.”
“Oh it’s going to cost a lot more then that,” Troy giggled loving the fact that he had Taylor in the palm of his hand.
“Name your price.”
“It’s not about money.”
“You know what forget it I knew you’d never help me,” Taylor spat loosing his cool grabbing Troy and throwing him to the floor. “But if you ever breath a word to Charlotte I’ll kill you and this time I’ll make sure you stay dead.”
“Oh now this is interesting,” Troy said clapping his hands. “I thought you were a good boy scout but maybe we can be friends after all.”
“We’ll never be friends,” Taylor said booting Troy in the face. “Consider that a warning.”
“I’m already helping you,” Troy spat blood as another figure came into the room “that’s why we need you.”
“Ladies if you quite finished we’ve got important work to do,” the figure said coming in between Taylor and Troy. Taylor was shocked to find himself staring into his own face only this version of himself had a nasty scar running from his right eye all the way down to his mouth.
“Hail Taylor,” Troy said giving a Nazi salute to the other Taylor.
“At ease Lieutenant,” The other Taylor said. “I thought you were going to brief him about the final experiment?”
“He was too busy kicking me in the face Sir,” Troy said looking down at his shoes giving Taylor the impression that he was frightened of his other self.
“We need him on our side so play nice,” Other Taylor said lighting a thick Churchill cigar, “and show him around.” Other Taylor then turned to Taylor. “Troy has his doubts about you but when you hear what I’ve got to offer you I think you’ll come round. I’ll see yo
u again at dinner.” Other Taylor then walked out of the Oval office with a cloud of cigar smoke billowing from his mouth.
“Will you please tell me what the fuck is going on,” Taylor said to Troy as he gave him the tour of the White House. “Why did you salute hi like you were saluting Adolf Hitler and what does he need me for?”
“Why do you think? On this version of Earth it was America that started World War 2 and you’re the leader of the Nazi party! Not only that but World War 2 is still going on and the Allies are losing.”
“That’s impossible,” Taylor said horrified. “We’ve got to stop him.”
“It gets worse,” Troy said as they passed a couple of White House staff. “The other you wants to extract your vampire blood and create an army of super soldiers so he can crush the Allies and win the war.”
“I thought you were helping him?”
“I might be a cunt at times Lieutenant but I don’t work for Nazi’s no matter how much I hate your guts.”
“So how do we stop him?”
“Why should we fucking care lets just find another tear and fuck off back to our own Earth.”
“No,” Taylor said shaking his head. “I fought those bastards in World War 2 I’m not about to turn a blind eye now. Besides even if we do find a tear it might not lead us back to our Earth.”
“Unless of course you’ve got me,” Charlotte said with a huge smile as she turned round blowing her cover as the White House staff. Standing right next to her was David and an bizarrely an older version of Charlotte.
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