by Hunter Blain
“Why does it matter?”
“Time is a powerful river running in one direction, and our universe is a boat steadily moving downstream. For the sake of both argument and your own limited comprehension, let’s set the foundation that there is only one boat upon one river.”
“So no multiverse like with Marvel? Shucks,” I playfully lamented while snapping my fingers. “I really wanted to meet other versions of me. Oh! Like Zombie John or Metal John or…or-or-or Bat John! Yeah! I’d totally keep the beard, though, even if it made it easier for people to guess who I was under the mask.”
“John, please focus. It is of utmost importance that you understand what I’m trying to tell you.”
“Right. Okay. Neat.” Words spilled out of my mouth as I shifted on unsure feet while my hands tried to locate a comfortable position. “Neat…neat-neat-neat-neat-neat.” Arms crossed before uncrossing and falling to my sides where hands explored pockets before pulling out again and grabbing my hips.
“Time is a river that cannot be changed by you. If you are standing on a sidewalk in the year 2000 and a jogger passes where you happen to be…you might very well explode, while nothing would happen to the person. Not even a bruise or red mark. So you must be conscious of everything going on around you.”
Jose chimed in with, “What if it rains?”
“Excellent question,” Gabriel admitted, impressed.
“What about it?” I asked, looking back and forth between the two, shifting my arms into an awkward pose that looked like I was getting ready to do a photo shoot for my first hip-hop album.
“Raindrops are made of water, right?” Jose asked, glancing at my ridiculous stance before shifting back to Gabriel.
“Ooooooooooh!” I let out as my hands dropped back to my sides. “If I’m standing in the way of the water, it could obliterate me like the jogger!” I thought on my own words for a millisecond. “Hey! Wait a sec…why am I excited about that?”
Ignoring my last question, Gabriel addressed the real concern.
“The armor will protect you from natural phenomenons such as air displacement, wind, rain, and even walking and interacting with stationary materials such as metals or concrete. It is the will of man and all living creatures that you will be unable to contend with.”
“Ah. If someone wants to drive down the road, I can’t interact with their will, and I’ll es’plode if I try. Neat…”
“Not just driving, John. You need to pay attention to where people walk, birds fly, and—because you love puppies so much—even watch out where they might play. And before you ask, creatures smaller than a tennis ball shouldn’t be a threat with your armor, though you will still be aware of their presence.”
“Whoa…” I breathed out, taking off my beanie and running a free hand through my black hair. “Why did movies never cover this? Seems pretty damn important.”
“This is real, John. There are laws you must abide by even as an angel, for all intents and purposes. I would actually recommend staying within the boundaries of the In-Between until you’ve located Depweg.”
“Oh! Good idea!” I agreed enthusiastically, not being too keen on es’ploding. “But wait…how will I get Depweg back once I find him? And while we’re at it, how the hell do I find him? Do I just, like, wander the Earth from a certain point of time and search for him like I’m trying to find the last parking spot at the mall during Christmas? ’Cause I hate that!”
“Are malls still around?” Jose asked.
“Not really.” I sighed, raising my arms to the air before dropping them to slap against my sides. “But my point remains the same.” Turning back to Gabriel, I asked again, “How are we going to find him? This isn’t going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. It’ll be more like finding a needle in a thousand haystacks.”
“We will need a part of him.”
“What, like his teeth? I, ah, actually think Locke might have a few spares left.”
“What about his blood?” Jose asked, drawing my attention.
“What about it?” I asked, looking the were up and down. “I don’t see you with any containers of the stuff.”
“I am the container. I’m surprised a vampire hasn’t caught that fact.”
“He’s right. Depweg’s blood does flow through Jose’s veins,” Gabriel confirmed.
“How’s that now?” I inquired, crossing my arms and tilting my head.
“It doesn’t matter,” Jose stated flatly. “All you need to know is his blood is now a part of mine.”
My scrunched-up face shifted to Gabriel, who only nodded at Jose, once again confirming the statement.
“Sure don’t like this wordless messaging going on between you two. Nope. Not at all. Very un-neat of you.”
Jose stepped forward, effectively completing a triangle alongside Gabriel and me.
Sensing my frustration, Jose breathed a sigh of exhaustion before saying, “Look. Were packs always know where the other members are. At least the ones bound by a shared virus, and in this case, we have the added benefit of shared blood.”
“So why are you just now looking for Depweg? I mean, if you always knew where he was…why wait until now?”
“It isn’t exactly a GPS, vampire. It only nudges us in the general direction,” Jose explained. “And I don’t know why I haven’t felt him for the last couple of years.”
My mind chimed in with a male voice that sounded suspiciously like the old AOL login message, You have thought. Opening the attachment and praying it didn’t contain a computer virus, I palmed my metaphorical forehead.
Returning to the now, I said, “Oh, right. He was in Faerie.”
“Hmph,” Jose acknowledged, slightly nodding to himself.
“What about before that? When were you made again?”
Jose took in a breath to explain before Gabriel interrupted, “That’s not important right now.”
My eyes narrowed as a frown disfigured my face. Peering at Gabriel, I languidly crossed my arms, making a point that I knew something was off, but would allow it…for now.
“Using Jose’s bond, you should be able to locate the precise time Depweg is trapped in,” the archangel concluded.
“Hey, something’s bothering me,” I admitted, letting my face relax as I dropped my arms to my sides and grabbed my hips. “Why don’t we just wait. You know…let Depweg come to us. I’m not sure how long weres live, but I know my buddy would find a way. At the very least, he’d send me a letter like in Back to the Future Part III when Doc Brown sent Marty a note from the past saying he was okay.”
“Depweg is on a new path, I’m afraid.”
“The hell does that mean? I thought you just freaking said that time is one river.”
“Please understand that this is all theoretical. Only angels have ever gone back in time, and we know the rules we must follow. Depweg isn’t an angel, and we have no idea what actually happened. For all we know, his body could have been torn down to its very atoms the second he arrived in his new time line. All I can say for sure”—Gabriel stared at me with stern eyes that gave no room for argument or doubt—“you must get him back to this time. We don’t have a choice.”
“Why?” I breathed, terrified of the answer.
“He is crucial to what’s coming,” Gabriel said coldly with a downward tilt of his head, making me visibly shudder.
“What…what if he did send a note or something…and we just didn’t get it yet?”
“John,” Gabriel began, letting his posture relax as he explained, “The fact the vastly resourceful and intelligent Depweg has not contacted you yet is precisely why we must go and retrieve him. I fear he has fallen into the river and created a new stream of time. As Depweg pushes through this new time line, the stream will grow longer, wider, and fill with more water from our river. We have no idea of the long-term consequences of this happening. But what would happen if, several years down the line, his stream crashes into the river that our universe resides upon?”
“He must be returned to this river of time before the new stream grows in strength and threatens our entire universe.”
Bending over, I grabbed my knees and began taking deep, shaky breaths while unfocused eyes stared at the dirt. Between hyperventilating wheezes, I whined, “Sure…am…getting…tired…of…all…these…apoca…lypses…”
“Get yourself together,” the annoyingly determined and calm Jose instructed with narrowed eyes.
“Jose is right,” Gabriel added. “We don’t have time for this.”
With a groan of, “Ehyah!” I pushed myself to a standing position, albeit with a scowl marring my features. “Fine. You still haven’t freaking explained how we will move through time.”
“I will take you back to a point I have calculated is sufficiently out of Depweg’s potential reach whenever the higher dimension explosion occurred. You”—Gabriel pointed at me—“will manifest a sphere around Jose.”
“Like I did to get to Sheol while in Hell? Baleius…” I trailed off, feeling sorrow tug my lips down into a frown.
“Your angelic manifestation will allow Jose to travel through the black hole gateway unharmed. Then, once back on Earth, you will travel forward until you find him.”
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait…what do you mean back on Earth?”
“I will show you to the door. But it is you who must walk through it.”
“Alone? Why can’t you come with me?” My eyes flicked to Jose, and I added, “Us. Why can’t you come with us?”
“I’m afraid I cannot leave my post. There are…certain forces wishing to overthrow me.”
“Your brother?”
“That would be an accurate statement, yes.”
“Man, that Samael can be a real dick.”
When Gabriel didn’t acknowledge the accuracy of my statement, I tilted my head in confusion.
“You don’t mean…Michael?” I asked in disbelief. “He would, what, kick you out of Heaven?”
“Let’s just say Samael isn’t my only concern, but at least he embraces who he is, unlike Michael.”
“Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!” I whooped playfully.
Always the professional, Jose inquired, “If the black hole is the gateway to the past…how will the vampire move us forward through the time stream?”
“Yeah, that,” I added, pointing at Jose and emphatically nodding my head.
“You will check various points in time for Depweg, skipping forward as much as you deem necessary and prudent. Once you have cleared the period in time, you will step into the In-Between, where you will safely move forward and try again.” Gabriel raised his hands in front of him with palms facing one another. A solid ball of ivory formed in his hands. There were two golden circles that ran around the sphere where Gabriel’s fingers touched.
“You will form a ball of matter and control your passage through time by adding to its density while in the In-Between. I cannot stress how important it is that you stay between planes when using this method of traversing, otherwise, you could potentially destroy huge swaths of Earth. The ball creates a dip in the fabric of time and space, speeding up the world around you. If you are not within the boundaries of the In-Between, the gravity well you create could suck entire cities, mountains, and even the Earth’s crust into a singular point. Not only would this crush you without a doubt, but you run the possibility of creating a black hole or maybe a neutron star, depending on the contents of what is condensed into the finite space where you once were.”
“Nah, nah, nah. Hang on a sec,” I said, waggling my index finger toward the angel. “If the youtubes has served me right, a black hole would take waaaaay more matter than Earth even has to form. Not even compressing Jupiter to the size of an atom would cause one. It would take something with a butt-ton of mass…like the sun.”
“John, to me, in less than the blink of an eye earlier, mankind used to proclaim the Earth was the center of the universe and that the sun revolved around it.” Gabriel tilted his face down to emphasize his point. “Do not presume to tell me that modern-day astral and theoretical physicists have even come close to precisely mapping out the entirety of the universe within the constraints of mathematical equations.”
“If he’s warning you,” Jose interjected, “maybe you should just do what he says, no?”
“Fine! But we aren’t done talking about this…”
Gabriel waited a moment before confirming I had stopped a line of questioning I really knew nothing about.
“On the right side of the ball,” Gabriel continued, pantomiming turning the outside of the sphere where the golden lines separated the piece from the rest of the manifestation, “is where you will control months. On the left”—he returned his right hand to a neutral position and began turning the left side—“is how you move through years. I recommend you only use months unless there’s no other choice.”
“So moving either side of the ball increases its mass accordingly? And, um, time will pass around us faster because we will be, um, pulling the literal fabric of space and time into a smaller point?”
“Very good, John,” Gabriel said with a smile.
“But if I use the Time Sphere—that’s what I’m calling it, bee-tee-dubs—if I use the Time Sphere on Earth instead of inside the safety of the In-Between…”
“If you increased the mass at a degree that would make months pass as seconds…you’d potentially create violent waves within that stream of time.”
“And you would crush us,” Jose added.
“And I’d crush us,” I confirmed.
“If you made years move like seconds…” Gabriel shook his head, banishing the thought.
“I’d definitely break Depweg’s stream of time…which could spill into our own river.”
Looking down at the ball in Gabriel’s hands, my throat went dry as if I were standing in front of a giant, flashing red button that said Doomsday - Do Not Press. What worried me most was that I had a childlike desire to push it.
“Does he even know how to properly use that thing?” Jose asked, breaking me from my trance.
“Pfft. I got this. Righty monthy…lefty…ye-yearly.”
“Yeah, but how do you make it, vampire?” Jose asked. I could hear the real question in his tone.
“Dude, I’ll be fine. And what’s with you wanting to go back with me sooooo bad? Hmm? Why aren’t you freaking out at least a little?”
“Because this must be done,” he responded coldly.
“Jose is right,” Gabriel added before I could continue down the tracks with my train of doubt. “Plus, you need him to locate Depweg once you reach the right period in time.”
“Ah, right…” I groaned, rubbing my eyes with a hand. “Fine, fine, fine, fine, FINE. Let’s do this.” Looking at Gabriel, I extended a hand, palm up, and let it waver in the air in a gesture that universally read give it here.
The Time Sphere disappeared, and Gabriel casually clasped his hands in front of his waist.
“Um…gonna give it to me or what, angel-man?”
“You need to manifest your own, John.”
“And how exactly am I gonna do that?”
Gabriel winked at me, and an idea glided over my brain like a teasing feather.
Diving into my information city, I flew through the air toward Baleius’s memories.
Landing in what was becoming my usual spot, the butler from Tim Burton’s Batman movies, Alfred, appeared, ready to serve.
“Alfred. Two questions.” I held up one finger. “Can you find me the file…or whatever it is that’ll help me make the time-traveling ball-o-mass? And two”—I held up my second finger and put on my terrible Christian Bale Batman impression—“Harvey Dent…can we trust him?”
Ignoring my second question—rightfully—Alfred vanished before reappearing with a manila folder atop a silver
serving tray.
“Here you are, Master John.”
“Thank you, Alfred.”
Picking up the envelope, I opened it and was immediately rushed by detailed memories of learning how to use the sphere. It felt like an indescribable amount of time had passed before the sights and sounds faded, leaving me in a rigid state, like a John-tree.
My knees went slack, and I had to reboot my brain quickly, sending an emergency signal to not collapse to the ground in front of Alfred, who did nothing to try and catch me.
Wiping a string of drool on the arm of my coat, I set the file back on the tray and tapped it twice for a reason I couldn’t explain.
“Thank you, Alfred. That’ll be all.”
“Very good, Master John,” he said before beginning to fade from view.
“Wait! Before you go…can you say my city needs me?”
“Your city needs you, sir,” Alfred said with a straight face that only a professional could pull off.
“EEEEEEEEEeeeeeheheheheheeeee!” I squealed in a high pitch, shaking my fists next to my face in pure excitement.
Alfred faded completely from view this time, and I noticed it was a little bit faster than before.
Closing my eyes, I returned to the outside world, and opened them again to see Gabriel and Jose waiting for me.
“Alrighty,” I said clapping my hands and rubbing my palms together. “I think I got this bad boy down.”
A Time Sphere perfectly resembling Gabriel’s sprang into existence as I pulled my hands apart, allowing me to hold either side.
“Is…is that the Batman symbol?” Jose asked, leaning down to peer at the center of the sphere.
“Hey, focus!” I said, not wanting to draw any more attention to my customized ball. Hmm…huge ball…Batman logo on it…there’s a joke there somewhere, I was sure of it.
“So I just turn this one an—”
“NO!” Gabriel and Jose yelled at the same time.
“Guys…I’m just foolin’ around.”
“Could you not?” Jose harshly demanded.
“Please take this seriously, John,” Gabriel added, rubbing his eyes as he spoke.
“You guys really think I would do the thing you literally just told me a minute ago not to do?”
