by Sean McMahon
In the end, they decided to keep things simple. Kara would cause a scene upstairs to distract her past-self enough so that she wouldn’t see Jerry, Hal would run through Robert’s bedroom, through the shared shower room adjoining his room, and would hold the bedroom door closed from the inside, preventing his past-self from exiting the room.
Kara started proceedings, by dutifully knocking some plates off the island in the kitchen, sending her friends into a panic upstairs whilst, more importantly, keeping her past-self busy in the process. Meanwhile, Hal watched eagerly, as his past-self entered his bedroom and Peter knocked on his door asking for a phone charger he could borrow.
“Come on, come on,” thought Hal, needing Peter to open the door to Robert’s bedroom so that he could nip through and prevent past-Hal from leaving his own room. Hal didn’t want to spook Peter by opening the door to Robert’s room in front of him, as there was no telling how that would change things.
Peter sauntered along at an excruciatingly snail-like pace, as he made his way to Robert’s room, with Hal in hot-pursuit, struggling to resist the urge to physically push Peter along.
As Peter opened the door, Hal noticed a wisp of blue light, which sprung from his own hand, causing him to shiver. Whilst residing within a restart, a temperature change within his body shouldn’t have been possible, but Hal was far too preoccupied to notice that he’d felt anything at all.
Slipping into the room in Peter’s wake, Hal noticed the bedroom door close behind them, reasoning that the incline of the building must have created the illusion that the door was closing of its own volition. Hal slowly opened the bathroom door, which connected to the bedroom his past-self was currently in, but stopped as he saw Peter, who was pressed against the bedroom wall.
A faint blue sizzle of energy was radiating from Peter’s eye sockets, contrasting eerily against his black skin thanks to the dimly lit room, resulting in only his eyes and cheeks being illuminated. A memory flashed through Hal’s mind, before his life had been consumed by all the madness of repeatedly travelling back through time. He remembered how, just before he had called Jess that Saturday evening, he had looked through Robert’s bedroom window, as Robert had lazed about in the hot tub. He recalled seeing Peter’s face illuminated by a faint blue glow. At the time, he had assumed it had been emanating from a phone screen, but clearly there were far more sinister forces at work here.
Something was seemingly holding Peter in place, preventing him from moving, and that something appeared to be directly connected to the blue energy that kept Hal and Kara apart.
Suddenly, Peter whispered, causing Hal’s heart to skip a beat.
‘Ha-Hal?!’ said Peter and, for a brief second, he thought Peter could see him. ‘Um-su..sorry.’
Whatever was going on, Hal didn’t have time to help Peter. He had spent too long here already, his past-self now visible outside the bedroom window and walking past the hot-tub.
‘Shit. Peter, I’ll come back for you,’ said Hal, as he ran through the bathroom and out of his now-open bedroom door. Meanwhile, Kara’s past-self was making her way down the staircase, as his Kara shouted out to him.
‘Hal, I’m sorry,’ said Kara. ‘Smashing the plates didn’t work!’
He nodded, making up a plan B on the fly.
Running past the pool table, around the side of the lodge, and rushing past the hot tub with impressive speed, he accidentally knocked Robert’s bottle of beer over with his arm.
Robert lifted the rim of his red Santa hat that had been covering his eyes, and grumbled at the tell-tale sound of glass connecting with wooden decking, as his beer clinked against it.
‘Ah man, beer fell off,’ said Robert, groggily.
Rising out of the water, Robert reached over the side of the tub, wobbling significantly, planning to retrieve another beer from the cool box. It was then that Robert lost his footing, the perpetual current of the water causing him to land hard on his knees, with a sickening crunch. He grabbed clumsily at the edge of the tub, trying to grip the side to pull himself back up, but his wet hands, pruned from the water, refused to latch on and slipped from the edge of the tub to the control panel. Losing his balance entirely, Robert slipped into the water, now fully submerged, pulling the control panel of the tub from its socket and into the tub with him.
Hal raced to the cupboard, which he had opened earlier to save time. Meanwhile, his past-self had finished up his failed attempt to phone Jess and was already walking back through the hall in response to past-Kara, who was summoning him. Robert’s predicament remained invisible to him due to the obstruction of the hot-tub cover blocking past-Hal’s view.
“This can still work!” Hal said to himself, unaware of what his actions had set in motion, as he flipped the switch, causing the light bulbs to pop in the sauna room, plunging him into complete darkness.
He rushed outside for the next phase of his improvised plan, but was stopped in his tracks at the sight before him. Robert, now face-down in the hot tub, was twitching violently, as the electrical current coursed through his body. All of the exterior lights on the same breaker were out, and with the rest of his friends currently inside Fir Lodge, there was no one there to help. Hal heard his past-self and past-Kara walking away up the driveway, duty-bound by fate to take Jerry home, blissfully unaware that their act of kindness was about to curse them by sending them to a purgatorial prison that would displace them entirely from their current perception of time.
Kara sprinted up to Hal from the side of the lodge, appearing from the driveway entrance.
‘What happened? All the lights are out,’ said Kara.
Hal cleared his throat. ‘I, erm…I think I messed up.’
Robert stepped up behind Hal, completely dry and wearing nothing but swim-shorts and a Santa hat.
‘Doesn’t sound like you mate,’ said Robert, raising his arm to slap Hal on the back. ‘What have you done now–owwww?’
Robert’s hand recoiled, as the intense blue energy repelled them apart.
It was at that precise moment that they had been exposed to an intoxicating possibility; that Robert could see them, which in turn meant that Hal and Kara had made it back home.
But their elation was short-lived, once they realised that there were now two Roberts, one of which was bobbing up and down in the hot tub in front of them, very much dead. What truly shook the Restarters to their core, however, was the inescapable revelation that this could mean only one thing…
That they were dead too.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Hot Tub Crime Machine
9th Restart – Saturday Afternoon, 8:47pm
Kara acted quickly, standing in front of Robert so he couldn’t see past her and into the tub, where his dead body was, rather awkwardly, bobbing up and down. They only had twenty or so minutes before the restart. Eleven minutes for their past-selves to reach Kevin’s lodge, and the same amount of time for the walk back. That wasn’t nearly enough time to explain the predicament Robert was about to find himself smack, bang in the middle of.
Hal was currently frozen in time, as if the act of imitating a mannequin would absolve him of the consequences of what had just happened.
‘HAL! I need you with me,’ said Kara. ‘We need to get jolly ol’ Saint Nick as far away from here as possible.’
Hal snapped out of his reverie, realising she was right. They didn’t have time to answer all the questions he was about to bombard them with. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he attempted to compose himself.
‘Rob, mate,’ said Hal, as casually as he could muster, ‘we need you to come with us okay?’
Robert shrugged, and peered over Hal’s shoulder.
‘Sure, whatever, let me just grab my beer,’ said Robert, attempting to walk past Hal.
As he unknowingly moved closer to his own crime scene, Kara stepped to her right and blocked him from proceeding.
‘Robert,’ she said softly, ‘please come and help us for a minute, would you?’<
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She maintained eye contact, and slowly moved further to his right, as if she was trying to herd a wild animal by ensuring he wouldn’t bolt off in the wrong direction, gesturing towards the expansive rear garden. ‘We need to go down here, right now. To get more bulbs for the lights that have just blown,’ she added, as an additional convincer.
‘There are bulbs at the end of the garden?’ questioned Robert, not convinced at all.
‘Yup. In the shed, at the bottom,’ lied Kara, flawlessly.
‘Okay,’ said Robert, ‘but I don’t know why we need to worry about the lights, I can see everything perfectly clearly? It’s really bright out here…’
They led him down the garden, spacing themselves out a few paces behind him.
‘I was wrong,’ Hal whispered to Kara. ‘I mean, after seeing what we saw with Robert…we have to be dead right?! It’s the only logical–’ but she cut him off, whispering quickly.
‘Sshh. Not now Hal. I’m not ready to go there just…not now okay?’
He nodded vigorously, taking the hint.
‘You know,’ said Hal, continuing to whisper, ‘this might be a good opportunity for us.’
‘Explain to me how murdering Robert is an opportunity?!’ she hissed, with an unexpected, lightning-quick velocity.
‘All I’m saying is, having a fresh perspective on this thing might be just what we need,’ explained Hal. ‘Follow my lead.’
Once they were far enough away from the others, Kara stopped walking and they stood there in silence. Robert coughed awkwardly.
‘Guys…you’re acting weird. And you’re strange people anyway, so for me to notice, something’s obviously wron–’
‘Robert,’ said Hal, interrupting him, trying to break this down for Robert in a way he knew he would understand. ‘You remember that episode of Stairgate, where they go through the gate and then relive the same day over and over?’
The question, as well as Hal using his full name, caught Robert off guard, distracting him from Kara’s now-obvious lie, given that there was no indication of a shed at the end of the garden. Being a not-so-secret sci-fi geek himself, he was happy to respond.
‘Why are you saying it weird, it’s Starga–’ but Hal cut him off a second time.
‘I’m not saying it weird, you’re hearing it weird. Anyway, Kara and I saw this movie recently. Basically, two friends come back from a long walk, right? Only when they get back, their friends can’t see them. They’re invisible. And they can’t interact with anything.’
‘So, they’re dead?’ said Robert, letting out a fake yawn. ‘That’s boring. Way too predictable.’
Hal bristled a little. When Robert was in one of these moods, it was virtually impossible to steer him towards a more receptive mind-set.
‘No! They’re not dead you dick. I mean, they might be dead…but that’s not…it doesn’t matter, what I was going to say is–’
‘Blatantly dead. Next question,’ said Robert.
‘Fine,’ replied Hal icily. ‘Fine, they’re dead. Then every day, at a certain time, they travel back in time to the beginning, and have to relive the same day over and over again–’
‘What’s the film called?’ interjected Robert, once again.
‘Restarters,’ said Kara.
‘That’s a terrible name for a movie,’ said Robert, constructively. He stretched, breathing in the night air, noting to himself how odd it was that he didn’t feel even the least bit cold, given his current attire.
Hal pinched the bridge of his nose, scrunching up his eyes, which Kara took as a sign to take over, seeing where Hal was going with his approach.
‘So,’ said Kara, ‘they relive the same day over and over. If they’re dead, they don’t know it. They try to retrace their steps, but nothing seems to indicate they died. They just return home and the restarts…well, start. The film ends on that cliff-hanger. We just wondered what you thought? What could they do to find answers to what was causing them to relive the same day over and over?’
Robert thought for a moment, before replying to Kara’s question.
‘Did they stop off anywhere on their walk?’ he asked. ‘That’s a terrible place to end a movie by the way. What was it called again? I want to avoid having to watch it.’
‘It doesn’t matter what it’s called,’ said Hal, all but completely losing patience.
‘It matters to me,’ said Robert, sniffing to clear his nose. ‘I’ve got a second kid on the way Hal, I can’t be wasting Robert-Time on a movie that–’
‘They did stop off briefly at a…a cabin, I guess,’ interjected Kara, aware that time was a factor.
Robert rolled his eyes. ‘Oh, so two kids stop off at a creepy log cabin, get back home and realise they’re stuck in a time loop?! Guys, how have you not figured this out.’
‘Figured what out?!’ replied Kara and Hal, in unison.
‘Wow. Stupidity in surround-sound. Whatever caused it obviously happened in the creepy-arse cabin,’ said Robert, in a tone that implied he was attempting to teach his Grandad how to send emails via a smartphone.
‘Settle down Santa, they didn’t go into the lodge,’ said Hal. ‘I mean, just inside the doorway to take a…cat back inside,’ he added, wincing at the pointlessness of amending such an irrelevant detail when the truth would have done just fine.
‘Well, clearly they did, and they just don’t remember or something,’ said Robert, confident is his problem-solving abilities. ‘On their next rewind, they should just head straight to the house and watch things unfold from inside. Front row seats. Job done. I’m going to get my beer.’
Robert began to make his way back to the lodge, when a scream broke through the night, making its way to the three of them.
‘That sounded like Daisy?!’ said Robert, picking up the pace and then, inexplicably, collapsing onto the ground in a heap, his arms tingling. He realised Hal and Kara were on top of him, ripples of faint blue energy erupting from their hands and into his arms.
‘Guys, what the hell?!’ said Robert, squirming under their combined weight.
‘We’re sorry Robert, really we are,’ said Kara, tears running down her face. ‘You really don’t remember what happened?’
‘What are you talking about?!’ shouted Robert, effortlessly pushing them off him, as an arc of electricity temporarily pulsated around his hands.
Robert was a lot stronger than them, an attribute that clearly had transferred over and carried notable weight, despite him now being out-of-phase with time.
‘ROB!’ shouted Hal, brushing off the imaginary grass from his boiler suit once again, an old habit that, much like the three of them, clearly refused to die. ‘Robert,’ he said, softer this time, ‘I know I never really say it, you make it so hard. But you know we’re mates, right?’
‘Acquaintances,’ said Robert, correcting him.
Hal looked at the surly Santa, standing there in swim shorts and a hat and looking utterly ridiculous. Hal thought for a moment, trying to find the words that would not only show Robert he cared about him, but that would also appease Robert’s cantankerous nature and inability to open up.
‘You’re such a bell-end Robert,’ said Hal finally, with a smile.
‘Ha!’ said Robert, ‘True. What’s with this fog anyway?’
Kara threw her arms around Robert and kissed him on the cheek.
‘Ouch! You just gave me major static Kara, get orf me!’ said Robert, just about managing to hide his smile, his love for his friends betraying his pointless show of bravado.
‘Hey, want to see a magic trick?’ asked Hal.
Robert grimaced, partly because he hated Hal’s magic tricks, but also because he needed to check on his wife.
‘Can you just show Kara,’ groaned Robert, ‘and I’ll pretend to watch after I’ve checked on Daisy?’
‘Nah man, trust me,’ said Hal convincingly. ‘Daisy’s fine, and you’ll really like this one.’
Hal raised his hand in an attempt to draw Rob
ert’s attention from the fact that the fog had begun to erase everything around them now, with only the three of them remaining fully-rendered in the lifeless space. As the sound of rushing air invaded their ear-drums, Hal clicked his fingers. Not that any of them could hear the click.
‘Shazam!’ shouted Hal, in a display of perfect choreography, as all three of them were erased from time, sent hurtling thirty-three hours into the past. A brand-new timeline being forged from nothingness, reserved for just the three of them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
The Flutterby Effect
10th Restart – Friday Afternoon, 12:02pm
Hal stared out across the rear garden of Fir Lodge, struggling to find just the right combination of words that could fill the awkward silence, one that he had brought on himself as a direct result of his actions.
‘Well, one thing’s for sure, we need to be way more careful,’ said Hal, as he took a panicked drag on his second of three cigarettes, having never been so glad to be in a fresh restart as he was right now. Despite it not providing him with any nicotine, the routine was no less of a comfort. Kara shot him a look that wasn’t a million miles away from smugness.
‘Who’s we? You got a mouse in your pocket?’
‘Funny. You know what I mean,’ said Hal, who was starting to get the feeling he wouldn’t be living this one down in a while.
‘All I’m saying is, it wasn’t my time-travelling finger on the fuse board,’ said Kara, helpfully ensuring the blame was assigned correctly.
‘Okay, we can both agree this was my fault. Can we please go over what we’ve learnt now?’ pleaded Hal, still shaking from the traumatic experience.
Hal and Kara were sitting on their picnic bench, their past selves having just arrived. The ever-so-faint static fog that they’d noticed several restarts back was more noticeable now. It seemed to Hal that every time they restarted, the fog got incrementally thicker. Hal blew smoke into it, to disguise the problem they would no doubt have to confront in the upcoming days ahead, given that they had far more urgent matters to discuss.