Killing Time - A Time Travel Adventure Novel

by Jack Hunt

  It was the sound of a knock at the door that snapped me back into the present.

  I glanced up. “That’s me. I need to get out of here.”

  I slid out from beneath her and started tugging my clothes back on. Kelly did the same. The bell rang and I went to rush out the back. I paused for a second at the rear door and cast a glance over my shoulder.

  “Oh, when you answered, you were in your bikini and wet.”

  “Wet?”

  I chuckled. “You know what I mean.”

  She smirked and I dashed around the pool and disappeared into the tree line. I finished doing up my shirt. I almost felt jealous of myself. That he was going to experience what had just been cut short. I remained in the bushes for a short while to make sure everything was okay before I left. I watched Kelly walk outside into the sunshine and take a seat on her pool chair. Behind her was my other self. It was only in seeing myself around her that I realized how awkward and nervous I must have come across.

  I returned back to Eric’s dorm that day knowing two things.

  One, if everything went well, I wouldn’t make the phone call from the mall and in turn wouldn’t end up getting arrested by the police.

  Two, I wouldn’t show up on Sunday and in turn Harry would take the shot and save the next president.

  If everything went to plan, I would cease to exist and my other self would continue on without any problem.

  That evening I hung out with Eric and his roommate. We went out for a few drinks and I told Eric about how things had gone with Kelly. Of course he wanted all the details. I never gave them. That night I didn’t sleep much. My mind was occupied by what had been changed.

  Sunday arrived. That morning at just after eight I received a phone call from Kelly letting me know that my other self had spent the night at her house. I replied that I already knew. It seemed that the experiences of my other self became mine the moment after he experienced them. I could only tell what my other self had done after he had done it. Everything to come was fuzzy and one of many possibilities. I still didn’t know if my other self would show up at the parking structure. All I could do was ask Kelly to keep him busy. From this point on my memory was being created with every passing minute and yet somehow I retained that which I had done before. The new memories didn’t overwrite the old. They merely existed side by side, while I remained in this timeline. Like a pair of train tracks heading into the horizon. New ones were being laid as my other self moved forward into the day.

  “So tell me, what was it like?” she asked on the phone.

  “Um.” I was about to reply when Eric interrupted me.

  “Listen, I got to go,” I said to Kelly. “Just keep him busy. I mean… me, busy.”

  “Right,” she said.

  I hung up.

  “What’s up?”

  “So when are you going back?”

  I leaned back in my chair. “I won’t need to as long as I don’t shoot him.”

  “Shouldn’t you have disappeared by now?”

  “No. I guess the possibility of my other self still shooting Harry remains even if it is unlikely, I won’t know until we are closer to one o’clock. And if all goes well and Harry is right, I will cease to exist here in the now. And the next conversation we’ll have will be whatever it is.”

  “Do you think you will remember this?”

  “No.”

  Later that morning we went out for coffee.

  “Are you getting memories right now?” Eric asked.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “What is he doing?”

  “You mean what’s he done?”

  “Same thing, isn’t it?”

  “No, I don’t know what he’s about to do until he’s done it.”

  “Many possibilities. Like seeing yourself in a mirror,” Eric said as we entered the coffee shop and got in line. He went on to explain that when we look in the mirror we are never seeing ourselves in that moment. The light rays start from our eyes, reflect off the mirror and back to us. It takes time for that to happen, even though to us it seems almost instant because light travels at 186.282 miles per hour, it’s actually taking a fraction of a second from the time the light goes out and reflects back. Essentially any time we are looking in the mirror we are seeing our past self from a fraction of a second ago.

  “I guess so.”

  The thought of time travel in itself was mind-boggling enough, I tried not to think about it too much.

  Eric ordered two Americanos and we took a seat in a booth at the corner of the room. I was wearing a baseball cap that I kept low over my eyes. I didn’t imagine that I would end up bumping into myself but I was concerned about starting another chain of events. Several students came in that I knew. They looked my way but didn’t say anything.

  “So are you just going to disappear in front of me once the clock hits one?”

  “That’s what I’m hoping. Sometime around then.”

  “If you are seeing what you have done, where are you now?”

  I took a sip of my drink. This was a whole new level of strangeness. Before a change had been made, I knew exactly what and where I would be. Now the river had taken a new course and everything I could do was one of billions of possibilities.

  “I’m still with Kelly.”

  He smirked. “Doing what?”

  I sucked air in between my teeth.

  “Come on now. Don’t you be holding back the good stuff.”

  “In bed. That’s all I’m saying.”

  We remained in that coffee store looking up at the TV. As every new memory flooded my being I felt the sense that it was going to be okay.

  “So what happens next? Will I remember any of this?”

  “That I can’t be sure about but I think you will.”

  “Well this has been crazy.”

  “I think I have learned my lesson.”

  “What about your father? Maybe you could work out a deal with Harry.”

  “I can’t, Eric. I don’t know what I would be changing.”

  “So it’s okay for him to come back and save someone that no one gives a shit about but you can’t go back and save your father?”

  He had a point but then I remembered what Harry had said. They weren’t trying to save one life but many.

  I never gave him an answer because truth be told I was still on the fence about it all. It raised a number of questions. Were we really meant to change the past? Who determined what could or couldn’t be changed?

  We spent the rest of what remained of our time talking about the future and what it would be like to go into the future. Fifty or a hundred years from now. After experiencing what I had so far I wasn’t sure I would want that. Where would the mystery be? If we knew the outcome of the future would we want to endure the present? It was the unknown that kept us pushing forward as humans. Striving for that which we wanted to change about our present.

  Over the following hours leading up to one o’clock, the memories continued to trickle in. A few times I could sense the pull to go and stop Harry but Kelly was persistent. Damn, she knew how to distract.

  As the time got closer to one, I started to sense something changing in me. I glanced down at my hand – it was becoming transparent.

  Then it just happened.

  Eric was in mid-conversation when I blinked out of existence.

  I can’t say that I knew the difference between that which was and that which became my present. As one moment I was in the café staring at Eric, and the next I was in Kelly’s home staring at her.

  The only way that I came to know what had occurred was through Kelly and Eric. When I blinked out of existence at the café, Eric phoned Kelly and she looked at me. I knew no different because I had experienced no different. My future had been changed. My memory no longer held those which I had when I’d shot Harry.

  Now I was the one acting surprised.

  After Kelly got off the phone with Eric she told me everything that had happened.<
br />
  “So run that by me again?”

  She repeated herself.

  “So the thing between me and you was just a ploy to distract me?”

  “Somewhat,” she said before smiling.

  Maybe if I still had the memories they had I might have been able to swallow what she was saying. Instead, I was still wrapping my head around it when we flicked on the TV and brought up the news. I was eager to see then what the outcome was of this change that I was finding hard to believe.

  Without the memories of having shot Harry and returned to the past, I was none the wiser.

  When the news came on, both of us stood there with our jaws dropped as we realized that Dempsey had still been shot. Though this time instead of me having shot Harry, it was the Secret Service that had stopped him. A report had been received about a white van and suspicious behavior. On live TV one of them gave their account of what happened.

  “A worker here at the parking structure had alerted us to what they believed was suspicious activity at the north corner. When we approached, the suspect looked as if he was going for his gun. A colleague of mine opened fire killing the suspect.”

  As the camera panned towards the colleague my jaw dropped. The Secret Service agent who had shot Harry was the same man that my father had given paperwork to on the day that he was killed.

  Kelly looked shocked. “What does that mean? I thought we had stopped it?”

  It shouldn’t have happened. Somehow Harry had still been killed.

  I must have screwed something up.

  The future we had hoped to prevent was still going to happen.

  Chapter 20

  The reality of the situation came down on us like boulders, crushing us beneath its weight. Not only had Harry been killed and the future would stay the same but I no longer had the means to travel back in time. I glanced out the window wondering when Harry’s home would be overrun with cops and Secret Service. They would be searching for answers, painting him as some monster. He was odd but he wasn’t a monster.

  “What are we going to do now?” Kelly asked

  “The guy that killed him. He must work for the Division.”

  “They said he was part of the Secret Service detail that was there to protect the next president.”

  “What better way to get close than to plant them in the Secret Service?”

  “No, Alex, it doesn’t make sense. What would be the point of that? You said yourself the reason they can assassinate people and get away with it is because they don’t get caught. They jump into the past, kill someone and jump back. No one is ever the wiser.”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

  I paced back and forth trying to recall everything that Harry had told me about the Division.

  “Harry said my father worked for the Division and for the CIA. He was hired by the Division but then brought in by the CIA to feed them information on what the Division was doing.”

  “If that’s the case why wouldn’t he just give them the location of where they operated?”

  “I don’t think they have an address, Kelly.”

  “Everyone has a place of residence.”

  “Not these guys. From what I can see they work by themselves.”

  “Okay, so let’s say this guy was working for both. How is that of any use to us?”

  “It isn’t without the means to travel back in time.”

  I sighed and dropped down on the sofa. I ran a hand around the back of my neck.

  What could be done?

  “Maybe Harry had another watch. If we could find one we could go back and tell your father, or Harry?”

  I nodded. I bolted upright and went over to the window. Outside it was quiet in our neighborhood. It would only be a matter of time before they showed up.

  “Then let’s go.”

  “Where?”

  “To see if Harry has another one.”

  We raced out of the house and across the sidewalk, up the side of his house and around the back. The glass still hadn’t been repaired. A small piece of cardboard covered the hole. I ripped it away and reached in to unlock the door. Once inside both of us went through the house to the kitchen. I picked up the key that I had taken previously and let myself into the study. Once in, I pulled back the book to reveal the hidden room. All the while Kelly looked on in astonishment.

  “Come on, help me look around for one.”

  We began tossing things to the ground and working our way through the shelves. My heart was pounding against my chest. While we searched, fear crept over me at the thought of the Secret Service showing up and hauling us away.

  “Nothing. Shit. Nothing!” I slammed my fist against a metal cabinet.

  “We are screwed.”

  Her words couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time. The sound of sirens could be heard. I grabbed her hand and we dashed out the back. There was no time to go out the front. We could hear cars screeching. We vaulted over the fence into my backyard and made it into the house just as I saw men in suits along with police approaching Harry’s home with weapons drawn. Inside, both of us were breathing hard.

  “It’s okay, they don’t know about us.”

  I peered out the window and saw several of the men coming out of the back of his house. One of the was the same guy that I had seen with my father. His eyes flicked over to our house. He motioned with his head and several of them started making their way around the front of the house.

  “Shit.”

  “What?”

  My mind was racing. “What do we do? What do we do?”

  I grabbed Kelly’s hand and we rushed upstairs. I entered my father’s study.

  “Look around. Maybe he has one.”

  “Your father?”

  “Yeah. I mean he worked for them, right? I don’t ever recall anyone visiting us after the funeral. So perhaps he still has one of the watches. He certainly wasn’t wearing it on the day he was shot.”

  As we began frantically searching we heard the knock at the door. At first it was a regular knock as if a delivery guy was dropping off a package. Then it began to grow a little louder. I focused my entire attention on the drawers, cabinets. It was a messy process as we tossed them out onto the floor. Papers went everywhere. My eyes darted around the room. Had he created a room like Harry?

  “Check the books.”

  “What?”

  “The books on the shelves.”

  One by one we started pulling off the books. The next thing we heard was the sound of a window being broken.

  “They’ve got in.”

  I grabbed an entire armful of books and threw them to the floor. As I reached the fourth shelf down, I hit one but it didn’t fall. It tilted. I gave it another pull and this time a wall opened up. Inside it was identical to Harry’s. While I knew he had hidden what he did for a living from us, it was one thing hearing it from Harry, another thing seeing a secret room in our own house. The sound of boots coming up the stairs sent my pulse into overdrive. I raced into the room and began searching. It didn’t take us long to find it. As I threw a box onto the floor, the lock popped open and it let out a hiss. There in the center of the box curled up was his watch just like Harry’s.

  I yanked it out and strapped it on just as the men burst into the room. I heard Kelly scream but I wasn’t paying attention to them. I was tapping in the year, month, day and time. I looked up and grabbed a hold of Kelly.

  “No!” I heard a man shout.

  I hit the button and everything around us went into slow motion. The men flew back from the wave. Books, paper and boxes lifted in the air and then as soon as it had begun, it all stopped.

  When we opened our eyes, a part of me expected to see the men but they were gone. We were still inside of the room but the wall was closed and we were in darkness. The only thing illuminating the inside came from the pulsating glow of the watch.

  We had escaped.

  Chapter 21

  Slowly we got to our feet and b
egan to feel around the wall for anything that might open it. Outside I heard myself shouting down to my father that I wouldn’t be long.

  “That’s you,” Kelly said.

  It felt strange to be back to the day he died. The next voice we heard was my father’s. I can’t begin to say how good it felt to hear his voice. Regardless of what secrets he kept, he was still my father. Kelly pulled out her phone and turned the flashlight portion of it on. My eyes scanned the door for a wire or a lock mechanism but there didn’t seem to be anything.

  “How the hell do we open this?”

  From beyond the wall I heard my father’s voice getting closer. I shot Kelly a look and we stepped back. On one hand I just wanted to bang on the wall and get him to open it. But if it alerted my younger self it might cause me to blink out of existence. We waited quietly. I heard him shuffle in.

  “Yes, Laura. I’ll be sure to pick up some milk on the way back.”

  We could hear him opening drawers.

  Please don’t open this wall, I kept saying to myself over and over in my mind. I heard his cabinet open. He was getting his gun to take to the range. I heard papers being shuffled then he walked away.

  We stayed inside for another five minutes until we heard them leave. The truck roared to life and pulled away. Okay, time to get out of here. Quickly we began looking for a way out. That’s when we found a small black box on the bottom of the floor in the corner. We assumed it was some sort of device that worked as the mechanism to the wall. I gave it a tap but nothing happened.

  “So? What do you think?”

  “I think we are going to have to do this the hard way. Stand back.”

  I reared back my foot and smashed it against the wall. Once, twice then a third time but nothing happened. It felt as though I was hitting steel and yet it looked like regular drywall.

  “Shit, we are stuck in here.”

  I was griping about how I had royally screwed everything up when the wall behind us hissed open. I thought it was Kelly who had done it but as I turned I saw my mother standing there.