Timeshock - I Want My Life Back (3 page)

Nigel felt a pang of compassion and then thought of the bodies of Natalie and his children. He raised up the gun again and shot Raymond directly in the head.
 
The splatter was even worse this time as a shaking Nigel stood over the remains of Raymond Deville.

Nigel then realised he needed to get away from this crime scene.
 
He dragged Raymond’s body into the cottage.
 
Inside he found two bodies of the family who had lived there.
 
It seemed like Raymond’s time machine had materialised right on top of the couple crushing them to death.

Nigel panicked - he did not want to end up being arrested for multiple murders.
 
He then saw what was left of Raymond’s time machine tangled with the bodies.
 
He needed to get rid of that as well.
 

Nigel started to disassemble the remains of Raymond’s time machine.
 
He noticed that it used technology massively more advanced than his own - and for a while he toyed with the idea of ditching his own machine and rebuilding Raymond’s machine.
   

But he understood his own creation - he had no idea how to fix Raymond’s machine no matter how advanced it was.
 
He unscrewed each component of that machine and started walking around the local area throwing pieces of it away.
 
He kept some of the most sophisticated pieces and put them in a carrier bag.
 
He then activated his own time machine and set it to return home almost twelve years in the future.

Time began to speed up at an increasing rate - he saw several guests coming and going in the hotel room he was in.
 
Nigel then worried whether the hotel still existed in his time - then he remembered walking past it in his time.

Time progressively returned to a normal speed and Nigel found himself in the room again with a couple actively making love in the bed next to where he appeared.
 
Everyone looked very embarrassed and shocked. It became very clear that the couple, while both married, were not married to one another.

Nigel frantically made his excuses and took the machine out of the room.
 
Thankfully the couple were so shocked they didn’t react at all.

Nigel wheeled the machine out of the hotel and walked towards the station.
 
He was glad that most people in London didn’t ask difficult questions of strangers - as he felt so self-conscious sitting next to his time machine all the way home.

He got up to his front door and tried his key. It didn’t work.
 
In fact there appeared to be a few extra locks on the door.
 
He was very confused.
 
He rung the doorbell.
 
The door opened and he saw a familiar figure.
 
He saw himself - another Nigel Saunders.
   

The two men stared at one another for what seemed like an eternity;
 
eventually the other Nigel answering the door looked at Nigel’s time machine and started ranting: “Look - just leave me alone! I just want to go back to a normal life!”
 
With that he slammed the door shut on Nigel.
 

A shell-shocked Nigel woefully trudged away and found a local hotel - again he was sitting alone in a dingy hotel room.
 
What had happened?
 
Why was there another him?
 
Maybe time travel didn’t work the way he thought it did.
 
Oh, how he regretted not appreciating his old life more when he had it.
 
He had just drifted into married bliss and had not counted his blessings.
 
Now he was a man with nothing; a man out of time - what was he going to do?

A very evil idea came into his head - he kept on dismissing it but it kept coming back.
 
Why not get rid of the other Nigel and take over his life.
 
No, he wasn’t a murderer.
 
Well, except for the older Raymond, of course.
 
He had killed once, what would one more death mean?
 
Nigel did not like what he was becoming.
 
First thing first - he had to find out what had happened.
 

Nigel still had the gun. He loaded it and headed out. He would force the other Nigel to tell him what had happened.
 
He hoped this Nigel worked in the same place as he did - he knew there was an alleyway near to where he walked home at night - if he grabbed him there he could make him talk.

Nigel waited.
 
He concealed his gun in the pocket of his coat.
 
Suddenly he felt a chill down his neck when he saw the other Nigel walking past.
 
He jumped out, grabbed him and pulled him into the alleyway.
 
He held up the gun to his face.
 
The other Nigel looked petrified.

“Leave me alone!” shouted the other Nigel.

“Look, I just want to know what happened?
 
I travelled back in time and I came back here!”
 
Nigel spoke in a world-weary tone.
 
It helped to calm down the other Nigel a little.

“Did you get a visit from Raymond Deville?” asked the other Nigel.

“Yes - he killed Natalie and the kids - I went back in time to get revenge.”

“Oh.
 
I see.
 
You didn’t realise.” The other Nigel sounded almost pitying.

“Realise what?”

“That time travel is a poisoned chalice.
 
Raymond held me and the family hostage but I realised the best thing I could do was to let him go back in time.”
 

“What?
 
But you never knew what he could have done to the present!”

The other Nigel smiled wryly. “No, it doesn’t work like that.
 
The present stays as it is - the person travelling through time just moves to another alternative reality - with an alternative you.”

The penny dropped for Nigel - he had made the wrong choice.
 
This Nigel had chosen to let Raymond travel back in time.
 
By travelling back in time he had switched to an alternative time-line. This was why the Raymond he killed was so surprised to be shot - it was a different Raymond that had killed Natalie.
 

“Does that mean Natalie is alive?” asked Nigel.

“Yes, though she and the kids were badly traumatised by what happened.
 
That is why I don’t want her having to put up with another me wandering around.
 
Please just go somewhere else - start a new life.
 
Your Natalie is dead - there is nothing you can do about that. And stop using the time machine.
 
Destroy it.”
 

Nigel let his grip on the other Nigel go.
 
The other Nigel ran away and Nigel stood stunned in the alleyway.
 
Tears began to well in his eyes.
 
It wasn’t supposed to be like this!

That evil thought started coming back into his mind.
 
Not just could he get his old life back but Natalie was still alive!
 
But he couldn’t kill his other self.
 
Could he?

Nigel went back to his hotel room.
 
He was plagued by this idea.
 
He could get everything back to how it was - he just needed to kill the other Nigel.
 
He had a gun.
 
He could do it.
 
But what would it turn him into?
 
Would this other Natalie notice?
 
How different was this time-line?
 
He might not know things this Nigel knew.
 
But then he hadn’t changed the time-line that much?
 
This reality was virtually identical to his - surely a switch would work?

A feeling of massive jealousy welled up inside Nigel and he began to scheme in an evil way.
 
He wanted to take the other Nigel’s clothes and possessions - so best not to shoot him while he was wearing them.
 
Take the other Nigel prisoner, strip him, shoot him, burn and bury him.
 
He would take him prisoner on the way to work in the morning - then ring in sick to the other Nigel’s work, then go home as “himself” again.

Nigel looked at the clock.
 
It was very late at night.
 
He needed to sleep.
 
He tried as best as he could to sleep but his mind raced until eventually sheer exhaustion took over and he went into a deep sleep.

When Nigel woke he felt better but then remembered the events of the previous day.
 
He dressed, grabbed the gun and headed out.
 

The other Nigel was walking towards the station when he felt a sharp poke in his back and heard a whispered “walk with me”.
 
Nigel walked him to a hire car parked on a quiet side street.
 
“Drive,” Nigel barked, sitting in the passenger seat holding the gun up to the captive Nigel, who asked “Where to?”

“You know where.
 
The cottage,” Nigel replied.

In a tense journey the captive Nigel thought about how things had gone wrong for him.
 
He had made the right choice when Raymond had visited him and now he worried he might lose everything.
 
He never expected this.

Slowly the car came up to the disused cottage.
 
Nigel forced his captive inside.
 
He forced him to strip to his underwear and aimed his gun at the captive Nigel’s head.

Nigel aimed and prepared to fire.

Suddenly Nigel lowered the gun down.
 
“I can’t do it.”
 
Nigel wept.
 
He handed the gun to the petrified other Nigel.
 
“I am so sorry.
 
I just wanted my life back.
 
Kill me.
 
I want to die - I have nothing.”

The other Nigel took the gun and he aimed it at Nigel but then spoke: “Give me my clothes back.”

Nigel returned his clothes and possessions.
 
He felt relieved.
 
It had struck him - he did not want to be a serial-killer.
 
Whatever the gain.
 
He would rather die a good man than live with a dark secret.

“I am not going to kill you,” the other Nigel stated, once he had finished dressing.
 
“It occurred to me after we last met that there might be another way.
 
You still have the time machine?”

“Yes,” a humble Nigel replied.

“Well, given you are already out of time, why not go back in time and set yourself up a lot of bets and share purchases and then live like a prince on the winnings for the rest of your life.
 
Of course who knows what the Nigel in that reality will be like but you can start again and live out your life as a rich man.”

Nigel’s mood improved. He thought - yes, that is a good idea.
 
As a millionaire he could do what he liked.
 
It wasn’t his old life, but it would be fun.

“I am so sorry for what I was about to do.
 
You are right - I should just use the machine to set myself up with a new life.”

Nigel was directed to the door at gunpoint. The other Nigel pointed him to the car by gesturing with the gun.
 

“This time you drive.
 
Drive me to where your time machine is.
 
I want to see you go back into the past.
 
Even a microsecond in the past changes the time-line - so I’ll never see you again.
 
I wish you well.”

Nigel was impressed by the other Nigel’s magnanimity - and then wondered if he would have done the same thing himself.

They parked outside the hotel and walked up to Nigel’s room.
 
All the hotel staff pointed at the two identical twins and joked about them.

The hotel room had recently been cleaned, but Nigel saw the time machine was still sitting in the corner.
 
He climbed inside the machine, sat on the control seat and set the machine to go back five years into the past.

Just as he was about to activate the machine he stopped.
 
The other Nigel was perturbed by this. “Why aren’t you going back yet?”
 

“I will. I just want to look up some sport winners for the last 5 years first.”
 
Nigel fiddled with his smart phone to upload a series of sports results.
 
He would put a giant accumulator bet on those results and claim the winnings from his unlikely bet.

Once he had the results he pressed the button on the machine and time began to slow down and reverse. Nigel then remembered what had happened the last time he had time travelled in a hotel room.
 
He prepared himself for another moment of great embarrassment.
   

Thankfully for Nigel, this time his luck was in.
 
There was no cavorting couple; this time it wasn’t even still a hotel.
 
It seemed the building had previously been a gym - and Nigel arrived right in the middle of a large room full of gym exercise bicycles.
 

This presented a very different problem.
 
Nigel was now worried how he would get the machine out of the gym.
 
He didn’t want to look like he was stealing an exercise bike.
 
He concluded that the best thing to do was to leave it in the gym.
 
He stuck a piece of paper on the machine and scrawled “Out of Order” on it and then proceeded to leave the gym.

Due to the hastiness of his departure this time, Nigel didn’t entirely know what he was supposed to do.
 
He’d never ever really been to a bookmakers or bet on anything.
 
He looked over the sports results he had downloaded before leaving.
 
He knew you could do accumulator bets on multiple outcomes and get silly odds but he didn’t know the mechanics of doing it.