The Pocket Watch

by Michael Shaw

  The lights were off, so the figure was just a mere silhouette. But I knew who it was. She sat in her wheel chair. I quickly walked over to her. “Mrs. Nelson! It’s me.”

  As I got closer and closer, I realized she wouldn’t be responding. Everything came into view, and I saw a bullet wound in her chest. Blood stained her shirt. Her eyes looked off to the side, as lifeless as Jacob Richards’.

  “No,” I barely exhaled. I felt myself getting lightheaded. I put a hand against the wall. “He couldn’t have…” I turned around and saw the streak against the wall. It looked like David had pulled Alex out of there. My eyes dropped down to Mrs. Nelson once more. And that was the moment that I was filled with complete rage. Too many people had fallen to this man. My guardian, Jason. Cooper. Sam. And now, Alex’s mother.

  I ran out of there as quickly as I could, with only one thought repeating in my mind.

  David Kemp has to die.

  ∞

  I rushed back to the gas station bathroom. As I pulled into the lot, I felt a loud ringing in my ears, and then my head cleared up. It was as though a cord had been wrapped around my brain, and that it was suddenly cut loose. I parked the car and ran inside.

  My past self had left. Hunter stood in the middle of the room. As I came in, he turned around. His face looked puzzled for just a moment. He pointed at me. “Are you…”

  “Old Jon just went back,” I said. “So now, I’m present Jon.”

  “Okay,” he nodded. “What happened?”

  “Nothing good.” I turned to start walking to my car. “Come on.”

  Hunter caught up and walked with me.

  “David still has Alex on the seventeenth floor. I couldn’t warn him in time.”

  “Then we’re going to them.”

  “Yes.” I pulled out my gun and checked the rounds in my magazine. “Bring the Midas gloves.”

  “Of course.” He scratched his chin. “You know, if you look at it this way, we’ll be killing two birds with one stone.”

  We stopped at our cars. Hunter at the Jeep, and I at the Mustang.

  “What?” I asked him.

  “We save your friend, and get the video destroyed. We’ll do the mission right now.” He shrugged. “You know, maybe this is a blessing in disguise-”

  “He killed Alex’s mother,” I said.

  His words caught in his throat.

  I leaned forward. “Because of us,” I whispered intently. “We’ll get your mission done, Hunter. But I’m saving my friend before anything else.”

  He held his hands up. “Got it, got it.” He turned and opened the door to his vehicle. “Just saying, you know? You still want to find Steven Edward, don’t you?”

  My head was too focused on saving my friend. “Follow me to Luna, Hunter. He said the doors are open for us.” I got in Jacob’s black car. “We’re going to accept the invitation.”

  ∞

  We stood just outside Luna headquarters. Hunter and I had quickly acquired dark hoodies and masks; even though David said we could come right in, there was still security that could be standing between him and us. I felt like a wannabe criminal, but it was the best we could do. We parked our cars a few blocks down so they wouldn’t be seen. The night was still alive in the middle of Sacramento; plenty of people were walking by, driving by, and making lots of noise, but around Luna, there wasn’t quite as much bustling. Hunter and I stood on the sidewalk, just to the side of the entrance, our masks in our hoodie pockets.

  “We’re two people short,” Hunter said. “This is going to be difficult.”

  I checked the pocket watch. 1:30 in the morning. Our time would be up at two.

  Hunter and I faced each other.

  “Just like we planned,” I said.

  “Yeah,” he replied. “Pause time. Get past the front desk and to the elevator. Un-pause time. Climb the elevator. Pause time.”

  “And then we get Alex.”

  “And the video.”

  I nodded. If this worked, we wouldn’t even have to confront David.

  Hunter cracked his knuckles. “So, if we’re in contact when time is paused, I’ll go through with you?”

  “Yes.”

  Hunter and I both took a breath and began.

  We started by casually walking by the front doorways. I peered inside as we walked. Two security guards. One sitting at a desk, computer screens in front of him.

  After we passed the entrance, we turned right back around and knelt down.

  “One guard next to the elevator hall,” Hunter noted.

  “And one at the desk,” I added.

  “Luna’s big. You’d think there would be more security than that.” He pulled out his gloves and rubbed them together. We both put our masks on.

  “Let’s hope not.” I pulled out the watch. “Any final thoughts?”

  He flexed his fingers. “They won’t see it coming.”

  “Good.” I looked down at the watch in my right hand and put my other hand on Hunter’s neck.

  He gave me a confused look.

  “Contact, remember? That’s how it happened with David Kemp.”

  “Right,” he closed his eyes. “Do it.”

  I took a deep breath. “Three, two, one.”

  ∞

  Time paused. I took it fine; the ringing, the headache. Blood seeped out my right ear, but I stopped it with my finger. The only thing that was different was an picture that splashed in front of me. It was one of Donald Lane.

  “We have the scans,” he said. “Do what you need to do.”

  “I got it,” I heard Hunter’s voice say.

  When I was brought back to it, I looked to my side at Hunter. I realized I’d just seen a piece of his memory, but I shook my head and got my mind back on task.

  Hunter was doubled over, experiencing the flash for the very first time. I gave him a moment and glanced at the watch; internal time was. at seven seconds.

  He finally picked himself up.

  “First time’s a difficult one,” I said.

  “No, it’s fine,” he mumbled. “I love the feeling of getting punched in the face, remember?”

  Now that time was paused, we ran in through the front doors and past the front desk.

  I stopped at the computers. The guard hadn’t even been watching any security cameras, just internet videos. I leaned forward and disconnected him from the server. “Just in case,” I mumbled.

  Hunter walked up from behind him. “Ready?”

  I touched the guard’s neck. “Go.”

  Time returned to the guard. Hunter pushed him with Midas, slamming his head against the desk.

  The man groaned.

  He pushed him again.

  The guy fell to the floor.

  We made our way up to the next one. Hunter dragged the unconscious guard by the feet telekinetically.

  A small set of upwards stairs connected the lobby to the elevator hall. Hunter left the guard at the bottom, pointed his palms down, and jumped over the stairs, looking like a man taking steps on the moon. I didn’t know he could do that; he practically floated over the steps.

  I caught up to him while he stopped next to the guard by the elevator hall.

  “Access card.” He pointed to a small card on a clip attached to the guy’s belt. “We need that to get to our floor.”

  “Do your thing.” I placed my hand on the guard. “Careful this time. You don’t want to kill him.”

  Time came back to him. He jumped back momentarily; in his eyes, two masked men had just appeared in front of him.

  I was already pulling his gun out of his holster.

  He turned to subdue me but was immediately knocked back by Hunter’s telekinesis. The man tried to get back up, but Hunter forced him down.

  He looked at me. “I gotta’ knock him out like the other one.”

  I nodded, dropping the man’s weapon to the floor.

  Hunter made a fist with one hand, keeping the other hand pointed down at the guard. He made a strong
punching motion through the air, and the man’s face rocked to the side. He groaned in pain.

  Hunter punched again.

  Blood crept out from his nose.

  Again.

  “Stop.” I put a hand on Hunter, watching the guard.

  His lights were out.

  “We need to hide them,” I said.

  He and I both looked around the place.

  “Men’s bathroom.” Hunter pointed to a door behind me.

  I ran over and opened the door. Hunter went down, picked up the first man, and dropped him with the second. He dragged both across the floor just by pointing his hands toward the bodies and walking. The second guy’s bloody nose created a line of red that followed them into the restroom.

  “They’ve had a hard night.” Hunter used his telekinesis to push them into the handicapped stall. “They deserve the spacious one.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Hurry.” Internal time was at four minutes and counting.

  Hunter pulled the security card off the second guard’s person and closed the door to the stall. Using his gloves, he locked it from the other side. We ran into the elevator hall.

  “Okay,” I said. “Brace yourself.”

  Hunter put his hand against the wall.

  I pressed the button on the watch and felt the force of the flash.

  Hunter held his head and squinted.

  Time started ticking. I scanned the card on a little black box next to the elevator. A small green light illuminated. I pressed the “up” button on the elevator and looked around. A security camera was in the corner of the hall. I adjusted my mask.

  The door opened. Hunter achingly got himself to go inside.

  “You’ll get used to it,” I told him, pressing the button for floor seventeen.

  The door closed.

  “Have you?” He asked, looking at my blood-red hand.

  He and I shared a glance.

  “Not completely,” I sighed.

  Light jazz played in the background.

  We stood quietly as the elevator made its way up.

  Hunter scratched the back of his neck.

  I looked at the device that was fused to his skin. Some red irritation on his skin surrounded the black case. “How is that thing powered?” I asked.

  He rubbed the front of his right fist with his left palm. “It’s part of me… It can lift only as much as I can lift, deliver as much force as I can muster. It lasts so long as I keep going.”

  My eyes followed the floor display above the door. Six. Seven. Eight. The elevator was ascending fairly quickly. “We won’t need much time to do this,” I said. “I just need to be able to pause the clock as soon as we step out.”

  “Got it.” Hunter lightly did toe raises up and down.

  I grasped the watch tightly. As soon as I step out onto the floor, I reminded myself. Pause time. Get to Alex. I checked that my gun was in a place I could pull it out easily. Take out David. We reached floor Fifteen. Sixteen. I took a deep breath.

  Seventeen.

  The elevator stopped. Hunter and I shared one last glance, and the doors slowly slid open. Before us was the seventeenth floor. A large room of cubicles and computers. At the edge of the room, in one single cubicle, sat Alex, bound to a chair. He sat in shadow, just in front of the wide wall of windows that gave us a view of the city. The moon hung low, shining into the office and giving us our only light.

  “Alex.” I took a step forward, my thumb just over the button.

  As soon as I emerged, I saw him in the right side of my peripherals. But I wasn’t quick enough.

  David Kemp knocked me on the back of the head with the hilt of a pistol.

  I fell over, and the pocket watch slipped from my grasp.

  Chapter 29

  The watch slid under a desk in one of the cubicles. I looked up at the bodies above me.

  Hunter stepped out and whipped David’s arms to the side with his gloves. The gun flew out of David’s hands and into one of the cubicle rows.

  I crawled under the desk and groped around for the watch.

  David and Hunter tripped over my feet as they struggled against each other.

  “Didn’t you think I’d be ready for you?” David punched him in the face. “Luna’s real security isn’t two measly guards.” He beat down on him again. “Patrick Corley gave me access to the entire building!”

  The tip of my finger touched cold steel. I quickly dragged the watch out from under the desk using my index finger.

  Two hands came down on my back and yanked me up by my hoodie.

  No! I tried to resist. I couldn’t fully grasp the pocket watch.

  David pulled my gun from the back of my pants and kicked my right leg just under the knee. I cried out in agony. He tossed me to the side and bent over, grabbing the watch.

  Hunter yelled and made a wide punching motion from behind me.

  David fell several feet back from the invisible force, collapsing down the aisle that Alex was on. He dropped the watch onto the floor.

  Hunter jumped over me, knocked my own gun out of David’s hands with his telekinesis, and ran toward him. “Jon, the watch!” His voice shook. It seemed he wasn’t expecting David to be able to match his force when he had the Midas gloves.

  The room spun. I shook my head and got up. My leg felt as though it were on fire. I bit my tongue and pushed through the pain. Where is it? I ran down the aisle looking for the watch, hobbling on my right foot.

  The other two kept tumbling toward Alex and the wall of windows. David punched, grabbed, and kicked, and Hunter pushed and resisted as best as he could with the gloves.

  I ran along the aisle, scanning the rows and desks.

  The struggle escalated to yelling, and the blows grew stronger and stronger. The two were practically about to fall onto Alex.

  A glimmer caught my eye. There it was.

  For a moment, Hunter was subduing him with his telekinesis, but David suddenly came back with extreme force. He punched Hunter several times. “You. Little. Rat!” He knocked him over with a heavy blow. Hunter groaned and rolled over.

  I rushed toward the watch. My leg screamed at me with every step. It was several desks away.

  “Call me a rat…” Hunter exhaled.

  David advanced to him, but he was suddenly stopped in his tracks.

  Hunter had one hand reaching up, pointed toward David. He stood. The two of them were next to Alex, their silhouettes standing just in front of the windows.

  “Call me a rat again!” Hunter growled, pushing against David’s resistance with the gloves. His voice echoed across the room. The hairs on my arm stood up.

  David pushed, and pushed, and broke through Hunter’s invisible force, yelling as he did so. Hunter responded by running straight into David, tackling him backwards. They both fell onto Alex, and the mass of all three hit the window. Hard.

  The glass broke.

  “No!” I made it to the cubicle, slowed down, and reached onto the desk for the watch, my eyes still on them.

  They fell out as a mangle of bodies. Glass flew all around. Hunter pointed his palms down and pushed, separating him and David from Alex as they all fell out of sight.

  I snatched the pocket watch up and slammed on the button.

  Everything stopped.

  I felt a massive wave of pain shoot up my arm and into my chest. My breath left me for a moment; I gagged and held myself up on the cubicle.

  Internal time was counting up.

  I pushed forward and ran over to the broken window. What do I do? I held the side and peered over the edge. Alex had fallen quickly. He was just about ten feet above the ground, still bound to an office chair. David was on top of Hunter, his arms wrapped around his neck. Hunter still had both palms pointed toward the street below them. He had been able to slow their descent with the Midas gloves. Glass was everywhere, frozen in space and time; shards scattered through the open air, reflecting the moon’s blue light.

  I quickly limped back toward
the elevator, trying to think of what to do.

  My gun was to the side. I picked it up and pressed the button for the elevator. Nothing happened. I closed my eyes. Time’s still paused. I knew that touching something brought time back to it, but I could only really touch the “down” button. There was no way to completely reanimate the whole elevator. My eyes searched all around, and I saw a door with a sign over it. “Stiarcase.”

  I exhaled, frustrated, and checked the watch. Three minutes of internal time had already passed. I made for the door, running on my unbalanced legs.

  Each floor had two flights. I ran down mechanically, letting the pain hit my leg. I didn’t care. I wasn’t about to let David take my friends down with him.

  The first two full flights took ten seconds. I picked up the speed, wrapping around each right turn more tightly than the last, and I started to take multiple stairs at a time.

  The further I went, the more I felt a pain in my chest. It wasn’t the running. My right hand twitched with every pump of pain that I felt around my heart. Whatever had been reaching up through my arm this whole time, whatever was making my veins look this way, was getting closer. But I couldn’t let it reach my heart. Not before I finished this.

  I touched down at the bottom of the stairs, and my knee buckled. I cried out and stumbled, catching myself on the guard rail. Go, Jon. I rose to my feet. Keep going.

  I ran out of Luna’s door, looking to the sky. Hunter and David had fallen halfway from the broken window, and they hung frozen over the road, which was fortunately empty right now. Alex looked close enough to reach from the ground. He was above the sidewalk.

  Internal time was at six minutes.

  I rushed over to him, my leg throbbing. He remained suspended upside down, his head the closest thing to the ground. It would take a good jump to reach him.

  What’s going to happen if I make contact with him? I hesitated. Would he hit the ground full force? I tried to remember. I closed my eyes and thought back. Back to that day in the woods, when I was testing the watch. I’d touched a bullet in mid-flight. My eyes shot open. The bullet fell to the ground.

  I looked up at Alex. No momentum. I bent my knees and leaped, reaching for him. My extended fingers missed. I came back down, and my leg felt the brunt of the land. I grunted, but I ignored it, bit my tongue, and breathed in. “Come on,” I seethed. I backed up, and with a running start, I jumped with all of my might, reaching toward Alex.