by Sean McMahon
‘Fffffffff!’
‘…One.’
Hal and Kara jumped into the nothingness, as everyone and everything in the timeline they were currently residing in was indiscriminately vaporised.
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Return of The Pink Flamingo
53rd Restart – Saturday Afternoon, 2:07pm
The entirety of the group were dispersed in the rear garden, with the exception of Alex and Rachel, who had remained inside. Rachel was preparing some additional food for her ravenous guests, as Alex wandered into the open-plan kitchen.
Grabbing himself a beer, Alex twisted off the cap and, in one swift motion, flicked it into the bin that was situated several feet away. He smiled at the satisfaction of nailing the shot.
‘This place is awesome Rachel,’ said Alex. ‘Thank you so much for arranging it!’
Rachel thrust an additional tray of spicy chicken wings into the gas oven that dominated the north wall of the kitchen area, utterly unconvinced that one tray alone would be enough. She span around to face Alex, and leant on the counter. Alex noted that her eyes were shockingly bright, amidst the red and blue lightning bolt that was painted on her face.
‘Not too shabby, right?’ said Rachel, ‘I’m just thrilled so many of the gang could make it. Wait,’ asked Rachel suddenly, ‘can you smell–?’
As she said it, she immediately experienced a faint queasiness, as a severe case of déjà vu took hold.
‘Gas?’ said Alex, finishing her sentence. He swallowed his mouthful of beer, and did an over-the-top sniff. ‘Kind of, actually. Should we be worried?’
The sensation released its grip on Rachel, and she pushed it to the back of her mind.
‘Nah, it’s probably just this beast of an oven,’ said Rachel, ‘it takes forever–’
‘To heat up,’ said Rachel and Alex, at exactly the same time.
‘Ha! Woah, that was weird,’ said Alex. ‘Well, back in a sec, just gonna–’
‘Pop out onto the balcony,’ finished Rachel, not knowing why.
‘Okay, stop it now, you’re being creepy,’ said Alex, taking another swig of his beer and walking out onto the eastern-side balcony, moving sideways to ensure his inflatable proton-stream dispenser didn’t get caught on the doorway. He stared at his lighter, then hesitated, seemingly in a trance for several seconds, experiencing a sharp, momentary sense of quantum-despondency.
Placing the lighter back into his pocket, he decided against having an unnecessary cigarette, and made his way onto the balcony, overlooking his friends in the garden below. It was a scorching hot afternoon, and he was slightly regretting his choice of costume, as an illuminous, pink, inflatable-flamingo flew up to him, landing at his feet.
‘What’s up mate?’ Alex shouted down to Jon.
‘Bring some more booze down will you?’ asked Jon. ‘We’re all out.’
‘No worries,’ said Alex. ‘Be down in a minute.’
*
‘Ha!’ blurted Hal.
‘What is it?’ Kara was following Rachel around the kitchen, pretending that she was helping to prepare food.
‘Oh, nothing,’ said Hal. ‘The bottle-cap, the flamingo, little tweaks…’
‘Uh huh, sounds hilarious,’ said Kara, continuing her fake conversation with Rachel.
‘We changed something else, you know,’ said Hal. ‘Alex. He hesitated before lighting his cigarette. Out of all the restarts I spent following him on the lead up to bringing him to us, I’ve never seen him do that before. And did you see the way they finished each other’s–’
‘Sandwiches?’ said Kara, turning to face him. ‘Yeah, that was weird, right?
‘Oh, we’re referencing Frozen now?’ questioned Hal disparagingly.
But, much like Elsa, he decided to let it go, not least because his recognition of her joke’s origin had all but levelled the high-ground he was striving for. After all, who was he to judge.
‘Very weird,’ said Hal. ‘I think this proves their theory that we can create a temporal constant, and influence events permanently…’
‘I guess so, sort of,’ said Kara, not really seeing how a few conversational changes really made that much of a difference in the grand scheme of things. ‘It really was the best thing ever getting to talk to them, wasn’t it?’ she added.
‘Yeah,’ agreed Hal. ‘I have to admit, it was getting a little boring hanging out with just you if I’m honest,’ said Hal, shooting her a wink as he sparked up a cigarette.
‘Busting one out a little early today, aren’t you?’ said Kara, ignoring his comment. She hadn’t seen him use his second of three cigarettes this early-on in a restart for a long, long time.
‘I’m celebrating. We blew up a lodge, had an actual conversation with our friends, and came up with some interesting ideas on what to do next. You want one?’
‘No thanks, those things will kill you,’ said Kara earnestly, the intentional irony of her statement having no less of an impact on Hal, who took it on-board, throwing his cigarette over the edge of the balcony.
He really wanted to quit.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Breakthrough
56th Restart – Friday Afternoon, 12:01pm
‘All I’m saying is, I don’t care how good a shot you are, there’s no way you’d be able to find enough lemons in the first place,’ said Hal, materialising into the next restart and walking to the left of the driveway to avoid the oncoming arrivals, only partially losing his balance, tripping over his own feet, as his body adjusted.
They’d spent the last few weekends at Kevin’s place, looking for anything they could use in order to orchestrate the defeat of The Big Bad. Kevin’s lodge hadn’t shown any evidence of gas leaks, poor electrical work, or even so much as a leaky faucet, resulting in them having to review other options.
‘Yeah true,’ replied Kara, having allowed a few seconds to adjust to the restart before attempting to walk, and making her way over to stand next to him, as their friends arrived in the order they always did.
‘Morning Will!’ she said chirpily, waving to Will and Stacey as they arrived.
She found that speaking to her friends every now and then kept her grounded.
‘So, putting our murder-plan aside for the day, you still want to focus on helping Kevin pull a Houdini?’ asked Kara.
‘Actually,’ said Hal, ‘I’ve been thinking about what Alex said about this blue energy.’ He stared at his palm and flexed his fingers, as if doing so would cause the energy to arc around his hand. ‘What if he’s onto something? About it having more potential than we realise?’
Kara wasn’t entirely convinced.
‘I think we would have stumbled across any evidence of that by now.’
‘Maybe we have? Take Pete, for example. Maybe he’s all whacked out on Scooby snacks because we’re using him as a conduit,’ countered Hal.
‘I thought we were going to avoid entertaining that possibility by not following up on that?’ said Kara, reminding Hal of the plan they had agreed on all those restarts ago.
They had decided that they could potentially change the timeline if they left Peter alone, whilst also ruling out the possibility of them being the cause of whatever was going on with him in the process.
Hal rubbed his temple with the palm of his hand, trying to keep the inevitable headache at bay, that was sure to follow by discussing the paradox surrounding their friend.
‘Yeah, I know that was the plan,’ said Hal, ‘but I’d like to explore this, unless you’re dead against it?’
‘Nope. Just dead in general,’ she said, causing Hal to wince. She softened her tone, realising he clearly wasn’t in the right frame of mind for hard-hitting jokes this afternoon. ‘If you want to do this, let’s do it,’ said Kara, ‘just know, the moment we get involved with Peter…well, it means we’re confirming that we’re probably responsible for what’s happening to him.’
*
They had a solid thirty odd hours to kill, before th
ey could investigate what Hal was referring to as “The Peter Paradox”, and Hal had another experiment he wanted to try. They had been holding hands for the past forty-five minutes, remaining as close to their past-selves as possible. The blue energy varied in intensity, its volatility being entirely dependent on which of their past-selves they remained close to. At the moment, they were directly next to past-Hal, who was daydreaming whilst waiting for the kettle to boil.
‘I th-think we sh-should try linking arms inst-stead!’ jittered Hal, who was struggling to maintain contact with Kara, as their hands were being forced apart like industrial-grade magnets.
The energy cut-out whilst they repositioned themselves, then surged back to life as they linked arms. It was all Kara could do not to fall over, as her leg twitched incessantly due to the feedback. Hal was holding up his mobile phone upwards towards the ceiling. Kara couldn’t help but smirk at how ridiculous he looked, as if he were trying to find a signal in the middle of a reception dead-spot, like a yuppie on a train with delusions of self-importance.
‘An-any ba-bars?’ she said, struggling to get the words out, what with the more-than-mild electrocution she was experiencing. She imagined it was akin to being shot with a taser.
Hal scowled at her, or at least that was his intention. Due to the current running through his body, it looked more like he was trying to wink at superhuman speed. And then, without fanfare, the sweet-spot he was waiting for finally presented itself, as past-Kara skipped up the wooden staircase and into the kitchen.
‘I’ve got a ba-baaad feeling ab-bout this…’ stuttered Kara.
They gripped their arms tighter, bracing themselves for the inevitable shockwave that was sure to hit them like a freight train to the face, but were nonetheless caught off-guard, as Hal’s past-self turned around and walked into them, just as past-Kara walked into her time-travelling other-self at the same time.
The explosion that followed didn’t disappoint. The Restarters would probably have perceived it as a thing of beauty, had they not been flung in opposite directions across the top floor of the lodge. Hal got off lightly, as he flew into the kitchen counter. Defying physics, he rolled over the top of the work-surface, and into the window above the sink, causing the glass to shatter. Fragments of glass rained down onto his past-self and past-Kara, who were now cowering below him, as the sink taps bent inwards at awkward angles under the pressure of his recently gifted weight and substance.
Kara, meanwhile, was considerably less fortunate, as she was flung away from her past-self at an incredible velocity, colliding with the wooden banister rail, which splintered violently. This did little to end her journey, however, as she went head-first over the wooden railing, and tumbled down the stairs, banging ferociously as she descended the staircase, and finally colliding with the left outer-wall of past-Hal’s bedroom with an audible crack.
It was at precisely this moment that every rule they’d ever learnt, in their self-contained vacuum of space and time, crumbled. As they surveyed their friend’s facial expressions, and the unprecedented destruction they had caused, the gravity of the situation began to dawn on them.
No longer out-of-phase with time, they had broken not only through a kitchen window and banister, but also through the barrier that had kept them separated from their friends and their past-selves, their arrival generating unprecedented pandemonium.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
The Choice
56th Restart – Friday Afternoon, 2:46pm
Hal had never had reason to wonder what breaking time actually meant. Nor had he given much thought to if it was even possible. But as he sat there, with his arse wedged through a window frame, staring down at his past-self, as all of his friends were thrown into chaos, he realised three things; The first of which was that, despite his gentleman’s agreement with Will that he wouldn’t overdo it in terms of drinking too much, he had still managed to find a way to be the one to ruin Rachel’s thirtieth birthday. The second realisation he had was that he was pretty sure that he’d just killed Kara, making this the second time she had died on his watch. Lastly, it occurred to him that he needed to get to the restart-point immediately, before any of this escalated any further out of control. Not that any of what was happening fell within the realm of things he deemed could reasonably be described as being “under control”.
Jasmine and Daisy were standing in the communal living-room, and were staring at past-Hal and past-Kara with looks of horror on their faces, making this the second time that the Restarters had broken Jasmine’s perception of reality in as many weeks. Jasmine ran to the top of the staircase, and stared at something that Hal dreaded to imagine. There was something about the way she reacted, to having just witnessed a wooden banister explode of its own volition, that seemed to have broken her mentally. Hal didn’t have time to feel bad about that. Past-Hal and past-Kara were cowering amidst the debris that had been generated by the antics of their future-selves, as Hal pulled himself from the impromptu vertical seat he had created with his rear-end. It took him longer than he would have liked to free himself, due to being wedged-in pretty hard.
As he jumped from the kitchen counter, he realised he had accidently showered his past-self with another layer of glass.
‘Sorry buddy,’ he said to himself, literally.
He ran around what was left of the banister, and sprinted down the stairs to check on Kara, noting that Jon and Peter were staring at the dent she’d made in the wall. She was in the process of pulling herself up, and dusting herself off, as fragments of wood fell to the ground from her clothes, causing Peter and Jon to take a step backwards.
‘You see that?!’ said Jon.
Peter nodded, his face pale with dread.
‘Kara!’ shouted Hal. ‘Bloody hell mate, are you okay?’
She scowled at him, flicking the hair out of her face. Jon and Peter were staring at the splintered wood in her hair, and the dust covering her glasses. Jon ducked his head behind her, seemingly looking to check if she’d split her head open.
‘Well, I’m not dead, so that’s something,’ said Kara. She waved her hand in front of Jon’s face, and then tapped him on the shoulder when he didn’t respond. He recoiled from her touch.
‘Holy shit,’ said Kara, ‘We’re back!’
*
Jasmine and Daisy were midway through listing off the things they most resented having to give up due to their respective pregnancies, when they noticed Hal was making coffee. They turned around to ask him if he’d mind making them a cup of tea, just as the window behind him exploded, and shards of glass cascaded down onto the counter. This was shortly followed by the sight of the wooden banister rail erupting into splinters, the force of its invisible assailant causing the whole floor to shudder.
Jasmine heard the sound of someone falling down the stairs, and rushed over to help. She looked to her left at Hal, who was cowering by the kitchen cupboards, and then to the window above him, as the sound of more falling glass filled her ears. Her eyes followed the invisible presence that had seemingly crawled through the window, as it landed with a thud on the kitchen floor. She took a step back, hearing footsteps connecting with the wooden flooring. Whatever it was, it was stalking its way towards her.
Meanwhile, Jon and Peter had dropped their pool cues, as they heard the impact upstairs, and an unseen presence tumbled down the staircase, colliding hard into the wall next to them, the impact shaking the entirety of the ground-floor. They made their way to the point of the collision, staring at each other, and then back down at the small fragments of wood. Fragments that were floating several inches above the ground.
‘You see that?’ said Jon, Peter’s pale face responding with a mere nod.
The fragments then hovered higher, up to waist height, and then sprinkled to the ground. It was then that both Jon and Peter took a step back. At head height, Jon could see additional tiny pieces of wood floating in mid-air, and he ducked his head around behind the gravity defying objects to check
that the sunlight wasn’t playing tricks on him. Doing so merely allowed him to see something else, as clear as day; two odd shapes of floating dust, like frameless sunglasses, were staring up the stairs, also hovering in mid-air. He felt a sharp stab in his shoulder, and recoiled.
‘Peter,’ said Jon, ‘get Rachel, and tell everyone. We’re leaving immediately.’
*
Hal felt a vibration in his hand and realised his phone was working again. He held his thumb on the home button, unlocking it, and the familiar home-screen singed his retinas. He checked the signal, but was dismayed to see that he still had zero bars. He needed to call Jess. The battery indicator showed he had a full battery, but it immediately shot down to eighty-percent. Pocketing his phone, he jogged down the stairs to assist Kara, as everyone around him continued to run frantically around the lodge.
‘Guys!’ shouted Hal, ‘It’s okay it’s–’ but he was cut short as Robert shoulder-barged him. Robert turned on the spot but kept going, a look of horror on his face. ‘Kara, what’s…’
‘Hal,’ said Kara, her voice filled with urgency, ‘listen to me, they can’t see us, they’re leaving! Now!’
Hal watched, as their past-selves ran past them, on a mission to grab their things.
‘Wait, but…my phone? They saw you! I saw it!’ said Hal, as his confusion merged with denial and evolved into defiance.
‘We’ve broken something Hal!’ said Kara, frustrated by Hal for not seeing what she was seeing. ‘Something went wrong. If we, past-we, leave, we’ve broken the chain, we’ll be free, but…’