Timestream - Ep. 7 - Undone (383 hits)
Category: Quotes & StoriesRating: 2 on 10 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Remy L (View user info) at 2006-02-23 07:38:57 EST
Timestream - Ep. 7 - Undone
I sit here writing about something that never happened.
Will never happen. At least not in this Time.
---
Never trust anyone. I need to remember that.
I tried to do this Isolation thing. I couldn't figure it out. I was so confused and it was all too much information. I figured it was bullshit.
There was a knock at my door. When I opened it, there they were.
Four of them. I leaned out to see if there were any others.
He placed his right hand on my chest and shoved me back into the apartment.
"There are only four of us."
I lunged towards him. He disappeared as I felt an arm wrap around my neck.
"Stupid."
I passed out.
---
My eyes opened and he was standing in front me me. We were all in a meeting room, somewhere. I didn't know. Big table, lots of chairs. I couldn't move my arms, and I looked down to see that my hands were nailed to my knees.
"You won't feel any pain. Great numbing agent from the future. I memorized the formula a while ago. It also keeps you from focusing enough to control Time. You'll still remember all of this, though."
The four of them were seated in front of me. From left to right was a teenage boy, the man I had already spoken to, a middle age woman and an old man.
The woman leaned forward.
"Allow us to introduce ourselves."
"Beginning." The teenager.
"Now." The man I already knew.
"Future." The woman.
"End." Old man.
Me: "Cute."
End: "We want you to know that we know more than you about this. We are better than you."
Future: "That's how you work. You're more cautious about people who are smarter than you are."
Beginning shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
Future: "But you know more than him. You think you're so smart because you studied and you know some physics. He's wasted years on video games until a few months ago. We found him early and he hasn't had the luxury of constantly backing up Time to read books the way you did."
End: "We'll get to the point. The rules are very, very simple. Do not control Time while in the presence of others. Do not reverse Time. We specifically broke these rules to deal with you. Your generation with its science-fiction sees this all as some kind of exciting adventure. It scared the life out of me at first. As did all of us. But not you."
Me: "What if I don't follow the rules?"
Now: "Then this is what will happen."
He held up a compact disc.
Now: "This is from the future."
Me: "How did you take something with you?"
Now: "I know how to do things you can't."
Beginning: "It's from YOUR future. It's already happened. They'll reverse you past it, but they'll always be able to make it happen if you decide to break the rules."
From the look on his face, I knew he had recently gone through this same routine. The man named Now glared at the boy for telling the truth. It didn't click in my mind until later that Now was trying to lie to me.
Now: "Watch this, and when it's over we can leave this place."
A screen dropped from the ceiling and Now put the disc in a small projector.
My wife sitting in a chair, holding my daughter. Cold, empty room. I can see my wife's breath as she cries. My baby is crying too. Someone takes a syringe and injects most of it into my wife's neck. She screams. They inject the rest into my daughter. She screams louder.
Now: "Another chemical from the future. Keeps you conscious. People combine it with the pain drug you're on now to be awake through surgery, child birth, things like that. We didn't give her the pain drug."
The person in the video holds my wife against the chair as another person takes the baby from her hands. The view zooms in and the screen is filled with the image of my daughter with arms wrapped around her in a bear hug. I watch those arms start to squeeze.
I remember I screamed for it to stop. Beginning was staring at the wall. Future and End were looking down at the table. Now stared at the screen and was smiling.
The arms squeezed and I heard something crack. Tears were pouring from her eyes. Her screaming got louder from the fear and the pain.
I tried to turn away but Now was standing behind me, holding my eyes open with his fingers.
I heard another crack and another. Her mouth was bleeding. The arms relaxed for only a second, and then squeezed completely against their chest. The sound of her body snapping silenced her and she went limp. My wife screamed off camera.
They dropped my baby's limp, dead body in my wife's lap. She vomitted on the floor. The man with the arms angled himself so I could watch him punch my wife in the face. I watched him beat her for almost an hour. She screamed until her voice was gone, but still she kept crying out. She begged them to kill her. He broke each of her fingers. Her body shook and she vomitted again. Finally he held a drill and bit against her head and slowly drilled through her skull. I watched it come out the other side. Her eyes were wide with the pain. She couldn't scream. She called my name. He pulled the drill from her head and slit her throat. She was awake as she bled to death.
Now opened a door on the side of the room. I turned my head to look and could see their bodies on the floor.
Now: "We're almost 300 years after the day we took you. This is a special place we keep where we can safely accelerate and reverse Time. We used some of the drugs from this era on you and your family. They were only killed about an hour before you woke up."
Before I could react, Time Rewound itself swiftly. The video passed in a blur. I couldn't see anything during the time I spent unconscious.
I woke up on my couch. My wife was sitting next to me holding my baby girl. She was holding the disc in her hand.
"This was in an envelope someone just delivered. It was addressed to me and I tried watching it, but it's blank."
---
I played with my little girl for the rest of the day. I put my daughter and wife to bed and stepped outside for some fresh air.
Beginning appeared next to me. I held back from punching him, images of my family in my head.
"Sorry for scaring you. It's my turn to watch you right now."
He giggled.
"They threatened to kill my parents, but they're my foster family. I don't want them to die, but it's just not the same."
He checked his watch.
"I don't have much time so you have to pay attention. They are lying to you. First of all we are not reborn later. They told you that thinking you wouldn't kill them. Honestly, they don't really understand how our generation thinks. They were born a long time ago and accelerated themselves to their future, our present. Like the old guy said, our generation is different. You can do things they can't. They would never think to slow Time and jump in the air or any of the other cool stuff you do."
"You can take people with you when you slow or accelerate Time. You have to have your arms around them and picture in your mind that you are surrounding them with your spirit."
He stopped and looked like he was thinking.
"Oh! The Isolation thing is bullshit. There was a lady a few years ago that could travel through Time AND Space, though. She taught it to that guy who shot you in the leg. All I know is that Time has to be stopped for it to work. That's how he did that stuff in your apartment yesterday. He's the only one of us that can do it. Me appearing here was just stopping Time and walking from behind that truck over there."
He looked at his watch again.
"I don't have much more time. Heh heh, no pun intended. Last thing, though. None of us know how to reverse Time except that psycho who killed your wife and baby. And he only figured it out because you can do it. We all do feel it when Time reverses itself. I don't know about all that stuff about having to kill some other woman. But we do feel Time reversing. Yeah, it pisses us all off to involuntarily relive things. You and him are the only ones that can do it."
He handed me a piece of paper.
"These are their names and addresses. We all have to sleep. Mine's on there too, to be fair. I know what I'd do to me if I were you. I should warn you though that you better practice your reflexes if you plan to mess with any of them."
He smiled at me. The smile of someone who knows he's going to die and has accepted it. He walked across the parking lot and leaned against the truck he had pointed at before.
I looked up at my apartment. My wife was standing in the window, looking down at me. I smiled at her and waved. She waved back. I looked down at the list and started the end to what would be the longest day of my life.
---
Timestream - Ep. 1 - Technicalities - http://www.ubersite.com/m/83953
Timestream - Ep. 2 - Tragic Rewind - http://www.ubersite.com/m/84075
Timestream - Ep. 3 - Earth Stands Still - http://www.ubersite.com/m/84121
Timestream - Ep. 4 - Take Flight - http://www.ubersite.com/m/84213
Timestream - Ep. 5 - New Fear - http://www.ubersite.com/m/84337
Timestream - Ep. 6 - Ultimatum - http://www.ubersite.com/m/84414
User Reviews
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2006-02-24 09:31:57 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by consuelo212 (user info) at 2006-02-24 04:40:22 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Benny (user info) at 2006-02-23 21:53:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Jesus! Some of that stuff was fucking vicious. He has to kill them all without a doubt (except for the guy who gave him the truth).
I can't wait to read more.
Submitted by thecaes (user info) at 2006-02-23 18:41:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-02-23 11:37:04 (#)
Ranking: 2
Supremely excellent. Now we are getting somewhere.
****************************
The description of the baby-killing was fucking bruuuuutal. Good show, there.
Interesting how these 'time lords' are all assholes.
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2006-02-23 16:01:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
'Kicker of all ass'
Submitted by Yes (user info) at 2006-02-23 13:35:07 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Yar!
Submitted by drivebyasshole (user info) at 2006-02-23 12:57:38 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by HighVoltage900 (user info) at 2006-02-23 11:37:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Supremely excellent. Now we are getting somewhere.
Submitted by ripple (user info) at 2006-02-23 08:28:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Hilarity_Ensues (user info) at 2006-02-23 08:11:00 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
The best so far.