One Minute to Midnight (30 page)

"I want to try reversing time back to
before your sister was turned into whatever these things are."
Jason said. He could see the sun rising in the east, and knew what
he would have to do.

"Okay, please, anything." Shannon
pleaded.
"Take my hand."

"Are you going to leave that bubble
there?"
"Sure, why not, it seems to be preventing those things from getting
in here." He shrugged.

Jason smiled at Shannon, and wanted to
kiss away the tears from her dirt-streaked face. For the first time
in a long time, he was doing something for someone else just for
the sake of being helpful.

"We're going to walk west, but we'll
have to stop every once in a while so we don't overshoot the time
before she turned."

"Are we even able to do that?" Shannon
asked. Jason looked over at Lyric sitting against the wall shackled
in place.

"It's worth a shot."

Shannon took his hand, and Jason
pressed the time slip button. They began to walk west, a pace at a
time. And then they turned around, and they could see Lyric
sitting, crying, alone and undead. But as they walked further west,
her features began to change, and then they saw Lyric being carried
into the room by two undead as they held her struggling body. In
this slip between the moments of time, every image of Lyric was
like rewinding a movie one frame at a time. Jason pressed the time
slip button again. The undead dropped the little girl in their
surprise, shocked at the sudden appearance of living
people.

"Grab your sister!" Jason
screamed.

His most recent time bubble was gone,
but he opened another one, and as Shannon grabbed ahold of Lyric,
he took her hand and they ran for the bubble before any of Lyric's
captors had time to react. Jason held onto Shannon as they leapt
inside the smoky orb, and as soon as he landed on the train station
floor he closed the gateway behind him. They had done
it.

"You ladies alright?" Jason asked. He
was picking himself up.

"Yeah, I am." Shannon
replied.

"Where are we Shannon? How
did you get past the scary men to find me? I thought I'd never see
you again. They said they were going to turn me into one of them,
make me
right
."
Lyric said.

"You're safe from them now, although
I'm not sure where we are or what else is going on." Shannon
replied. They both turned to look at Jason.

"Welcome to the train station of time.
I'm pretty sure it was created by my own mind, but this seems to be
a way station, a jumping off point for adventures. Do you two want
to travel the cosmos with me and see what else is out there?" Jason
smiled. He was warm and inviting. Shannon looked down at Lyric, who
was smiling back up at her.

"Seeing as how we are kind of stuck
together anyway, I don't see why not." Shannon hugged Jason. "Thank
you for saving my sister." Lyric hugged both of them with her tiny
arms.

"We'll get some sleep here, and then
we’ll need to get you two a shower and change of clothes." Beds
appeared in the station. "I heard there's this great restaurant at
the end of the Universe. I've always wanted to check it out." Jason
said. Shannon got the Douglas Adams reference and laughed loud and
hard.
The three shared many more exciting adventures in their quest
through time, and if you happen see Jason, Shannon and Lyric pop
into your neighborhood on some fine day, they may invite you to
join them. Grab a hand and take a leap. Who knows where time will
take you?

watertown vortex

For years, the people of Watertown
have been disappearing in Thompson Park, and when Doug Peters takes
his grandson to the site he had visited when returning home from
WWII, they go on an adventure little Jimmy will ever
forget.

"Grandpa, tell me again
about the little men you met when you were younger, please?" Jimmy
asked.
Jimmy was perched on his grandfather's lap as he read aloud an old
favorite,
In the Company of
Wolves
, by Steve Lang, to his grandson.
Doug Peters was lost in the story and heard only part of what Jimmy
asked.
"This author's one of my favorites. I'm sorry, what did you say
little guy?" Doug said.

"I want you to tell me about the
little men again." Jimmy was smiling up at him.

Jimmy was six years old and naturally
inquisitive about the world around him. On weekends, when his
mother had to work, she would drop him off with his grandparents.
Grandpa Peters loved his grandson and they were best friends from
the time Jimmy was born. On weekends they spent together, he would
read him stories of faraway lands and the people who lived there.
Today, however, he felt like a little adventure, and decided to
leave his favorite armchair and take Jimmy on a field trip to
Thompson Park.

"I can do better than that. You want
to go see where I met the little people?" Doug asked.

"Sure, grandpa! That's awesome!" Jimmy
said. He smiled from ear to ear.

"Let's go, then. It's only about a
half an hour drive to the park." Doug got up, grabbed his keys, and
the two got into his Toyota Tacoma. In a half hour, the two were
turning off Gotham road and onto Thompson Park road. Doug had not
been there for many years, and he could feel his anxiety building
as they drew closer. He had also begun to wonder if bringing his
beloved grandson on this trip had been a good idea. Did he really
want to show Jimmy where he had first seen the little people, or
was it just that he did not want to go alone?

"Maybe we should turn around and go
back to the house." Doug said.

"Why grandpa, we're almost
there. We'll be OK." Jimmy reassured. Doug was often impressed with
his grandson's maturity, and thought he understood the saying that
someone was an
old soul.
His grandson's mannerisms and the things he would
say reminded Doug of something an adult would say to reassure a
child. Jimmy could actually consider other people’s concerns. And
maybe Jimmy was repeating what adults had always told him when he
felt unsure, but perhaps this was not his grandson's first
dance.
"You know, you're right. Let's go." Doug smiled. Doug had not been
to the park since the residents had constructed a sign identifying
it as Watertown's Area 51, but when they passed the almost
comical—smiling—alien head on that sign, Doug felt a chill, and
goose bumps broke out all over his skin.
"It's right over there, if memory serves." Doug said. He parked the
truck and they got out.
The September afternoon air was fresh and cool, and smelled like
new beginnings. The two ventured further into the woods. Doug
searched his memories, feeling around inside for the way to the
place he had been so long ago. Doug listened for the voices and
music of that distant time when he had seen so many fantastic
visions that his pulse quickened just thinking about them, even
sixty-five years later.
"Grandpa, we've been walking for a while. Are you sure it's this
way?" Jimmy asked.

"I'm sure. Just listen…" He held up a
hand, and then he heard the rhythmic drums and whimsical music of
flutes. "Listen." Doug breathed. "They're close!" He whispered to
himself and instinctively grabbed Jimmy's hand. Eyes scanning the
forest. Louder now.

"It's right around here." Doug
said.

They stepped into the remains of what
used to be a clearing, but new saplings had taken root and whatever
had been here was being quickly reabsorbed by Mother Nature's low
lying plants and shrubs. When Jimmy was inside the circle with his
grandfather, the music became louder still, and within a second of
his stepping in, the scenery suddenly changed. They were now
surrounded by gleeful little men wearing leaf-crafted skirts, with
bare muscular chests and wooden spears. These men were chanting and
dancing around in a circle, waving their hands and having, what
Jimmy surmised, was the time of their lives.

"Faeries!" Doug shouted.

Jimmy joined in, and a moment later
Doug did too. After a few rounds neither of them remembered how
they had come to the festive ceremony, or what had brought them
there in the first place. Their problems in the world of man were
lost and a peaceful veil of forgetfulness fell over them. Magical
energy surged through the two as they celebrated whatever this was
with the two-foot tall faeries.
"Grandpa, this is amazing! These people are so happy." Jimmy
yelled.

"Yes they are, we can stay
here forever!" Doug said. His smile stretched from ear to ear as he
and Jimmy danced with the little half-naked men. Around and around
they danced, twirling, grinning, chanting, and in peril for their
lives if they were not soon brought out of the spell. Doug was
hypnotized by the magnificent experience, and had it not been for
an approaching dragon, he would have remained in that circle for
the rest of his days with Jimmy.
A
clang
of heavy
armor was all Jimmy heard before he was knocked free of the circle,
and sent tumbling to the earth. His grandfather went sprawling to
the ground after him as the faeries fled in terror. A knight was
standing over them, looking down with disapproval through his
raised visor.

"You two must be mad! Dancing with
faeries? They were draining the life force right out of you with
every round. Don't you blokes know anything?" The knight scolded
with a thick British accent.
He shook his head at Jimmy and Doug, and then raised a crossbow as
the great black dragon dove toward the terrified, running faeries.
When the winged horror scooped four faeries in one fatal crunch
with massive toothy jaws, the knight fired a bolt into the dragon's
neck. Doug grabbed his grandson and carried him out of the way as
the knight reloaded his weapon. Fire shot from the dragon’s mouth
in a yellow-red stream, scorching a flock of birds passing
overhead. Doug could smell the stench of their charred little
bodies as the ashy remains fell to earth one by one. It growled and
hissed, and then turned on the knight, who was running forward
screaming like a maniac. He fired his crossbow one more time,
piercing the dragon in her right eye, sending her reeling downward
toward the ground. The bolt drove home, sticking out like a black
splinter from her right socket, but despite the pain, the dragon
whipped her tail, sweeping the gallant knight from his feet.
Doug hid behind a tree with his terrified grandson shaking in fear
as a creature from his nightmares stomped her large feet on the
ground and attempted to trample her attacker. The brave knight
rolled out of the way just before becoming a grease spot in the
dirt, quickly scrambling to his feet. He drew his sword, and as her
tail swished his way again he slashed down with gritted teeth and
sliced off the spike at the end. Doug could see that the dragon was
about to breathe another gale of fire and cook the knight in his
armor, so he took action, scared as he was, and ran for the
crossbow. The dragon's attention was on the knight as she inhaled
slowly and deeply, a flammable chemical mixture forming within
secreted glands inside her mouth. Doug grabbed the crossbow, and
saw there was only one more bolt left in the stock-mounted carrier.
He suddenly felt like a young man again, as the aches and pains of
old age evaporated in this place beyond reality. Doug drew back the
impossibly tight bow, placing it over a notch near the stock, and
nocked the last bolt in a trough fashioned out of solid teak wood.
She was ready to blow, and Doug's heart was racing as the knight's
attention was captured by the swishing tail, whipping to and fro
like a steel cable.

"One good thump from that thing, and
I'm dead." The knight said to himself.

Doug leveled the crossbow at the
dragon's mouth as the first flames began to ignite inside a mouth
filled with razor sharp teeth. Doug fired. His aim was true and the
black bolt vanished into the flames, sticking the dragon in one of
her chemical vents, shutting it down and causing the flames to back
up inside her head, igniting the sinus cavity. The knight turned in
surprise, driving his sword into the dragon's stomach as her head
burst into flames and blew apart into a sticky flaming mess a
moment later. The scene reminded Doug of a pumpkin his brother had
blown up with a quarter stick of dynamite when they were children
as the sticky, smoldering pieces of dragon skull splattered all
over him and the ground. Her body relaxed and the dragon's remains
toppled over like a felled tree.

"Well, you might be of some use after
all, mate." The knight said. He removed his helmet to reveal a
square-jawed handsome face with multiple scars displaying the
rigors of war. A long flowing mane of golden hair, drenched in
sweat, fell free of his armor, cascading down the steel plating of
his back.
"Grandpa, is the d-d-dragon dead?" Jimmy asked. The little boy had
wet himself in the excitement, and there was a large visible stain
on the front of his pants.
"My poor boy! I'm so sorry." Doug said.
"Yep, dragon's dead. Now it’s time to carve her up and have one
helluva feast. There's enough meat there to feed my family all
summer. You saved my life, sir." The knight said.