Falling to my knees, I broke down in tears right there, I had finally found a dimension where my mum was alive, where I was given the chance to meet her, and again she was killed! The fireman knelt down beside me and places his hand on my shoulder,
“I’m so sorry,” He said in a calm, reassuring voice,
I jumped up from where I was kneeling, wiped the tears from my eyes and started at the fireman,
“Is this your fault? Did you burn my mum’s house down?” I questioned,
“No,” He replied as he stood up, “You did this…”
“What?”
“I said no, son, but I should have saved them, it’s my job,”
“You’re right, you should have saved them,” I replied as I began to walk away,
As I approached the corner I took one last look back, and as I did, I saw a car pull up and two smartly dressed men got out, taking a closer look I noticed that one of the men was Detective Jenkins. In a blind panic I turned and ran, heading straight for my home, if I was going to get out of this dimension, I had to do it now, I didn’t know what the Detective wanted with me, but after my mum saying he was looking for me, I wasn’t taking any chances.
Arriving home I burst through my front door and ran straight to my kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and an empty glass, I went into the living room and sat at my computer desk. Taking a sheet of paper from the printer and a pen from my top drawer, I ripped off two small pieces of paper and wrote “Here” on one piece, and “Family” on the other. Just like the times before, I completed my usual routine, place the paper on the glasses, focused, transferred the water and drunk it down in one big gulp.
I turned off all the lights and began to head upstairs when I heard a loud banging on my front door that froze me in place, terrified, I started to slowly make my way towards the top of the stairs when the banging continued,
“Mr Clark, I know you’re in there!” A voice said from the other side of the door,
Paralysed like a rabbit staring into the headlights of an oncoming car, I could do nothing but listen,
“Mr Clark, it’s Detective Jenkins, open up, I’ll only come back with a warrant,”
Holding my breath, I stood staring at the door as another voice spoke,
“C’mon Jenkins, he’s clearly not in there, we’ll go get a warrant and nick him tomorrow,”
“You don’t understand, he’ll be gone tomorrow,”
The voices began to fade as I quietly climbed the last couple of stairs before crawling into my bedroom and peering out of the window, the Detective and the officer who had accompanied him were climbing into a car just across the road, and then they left. I sat there in the darkness thinking about my mum and both versions of Lucille when I was overcome with an overpowering sense of grief and for the second time that night, I broke down.
I began to hear voices speaking through the darkness, first one, then two, then so many different voices I couldn’t count them.
“Murderer… Murderer,” The voices called in unison, echoing through the darkness
A number of voices began to whisper, while others screamed, taunting me and reminding me of all my previous jumps and how I have killed those who were closest to me,
“You slaughtered your mother… You pushed your wife down the stairs… YOU LET YOUR LITTLE SISTER BURN!”
I heard the sound of static filling my room as the dim lights from outside of my window began to fade, the voices drowned out by the white noise. I could feel an immense pressure building inside my head and my heart felt like it was going to jump right out of my chest, the blackness of the void surrounding me began to feel tight as I was gasping for air. I began thrashing around the floor, panicking as the suffocating blackness consumed me and the voices returned,
“Get up… GET UP” They screamed, “Alex, get… up!”
I jumped up from the spot on the floor where I was laying as daylight beamed through my window, I could hear nothing but the sound of nearby vehicles going about their day,
“Did I…? Was that… a dream?” I thought to myself, horrified,
I didn’t feel like I’d slept, but then again, I wasn’t tired either. Remembering the Detective knocking at my door, I didn’t want to stick around longer than I had to, I rushed downstairs and headed out of the door still wearing “yesterday’s clothes”, I got into my car and made my way to the shop.
Arriving at the shop, I went inside and walked over to the counter,
“Hello… Janice,” I said, looking at the cashier’s name tag, “Can I get 20 Lamberts and a pack of paracetamol please?”
The cashier turned around to pick up the cigarettes off the shelf when I heard a voice behind me,
“Heya mate!” The voice called,
“S**t man, Ian! How’s it going?”
“Yeah not bad man, sorry about your sister, but hey, you escaped the old ball and chain eh?” Ian remarked,
“Yeah but I married her for a reason, right?” I replied, “I could have been happy, couldn’t I?”
“Sir,” The cashier called, “Are you okay?”
“Do you mind, I’m f*****g talking here!” I shouted at her, “My private life has nothing to do with you!”
“But sir, there’s…” She began saying,
“There’s… There’s…” I mocked, looking behind me, “There’s a queue, do your f*****g job and hurry up!”
“No, but sir, who…”
“Oh, shut the f**k up, it’s none of your business, what do I owe you?”
“£9.03 please,” The cashier said, looking on worriedly as Ian began to laugh at her,
“Here, take a tenner,” I said, throwing a £10 note on the counter,
I began walking out of the shop and Ian followed, as we were getting into the car, Ian asked me,
“Did you see the way she was looking at you?”
“Who? The cashier? No, why?”
“She was looking at you funny,” Ian said,
“She looked at you like you’re a worthless piece of s**t, she knows you killed your mum, she knows everything!” I heard a voice echo,
“Who said that?” I thought, looking around,
“Are you okay mate?” Ian asked,
“Yeah… Yeah, I’m fine, wait here,” I said, getting out of the car,
I walked back into the shop, pushing my way through the queue and shoving customers out of the way until I reach the counter, I leant over and grabbed the cashier’s collar, twisting it until it tightened around her neck and pulling downwards, slamming her face into the counter,
“Got a problem with me, w***e?!” I shouted, turning around to the customers, “Have any of you got a problem with me?”
The customers looked on in horror as I grabbed the cashier by the hair and slammed her face into the counter for the second time, I took my phone out of my pocket, holding it up to the customers, I took a picture,
“Now I know all your faces, any of you go to the police and I promise you, I will find each and every one of you, I’ll come into your house at night, I’ll rip your f*****g throats out and butcher your families while they sleep!” I screamed at them all,
I dragged the cashier to the back room, and took the tape out of the CCTV before smashing it across her face and the cassette exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces, blood poured from her nose and her eyebrow as she fell to her knees. I picked up the unraveled tape and wrapped it around the cashier’s neck,
“I asked you if you have a problem with me!” I shouted as she gasped for air,
“N… no…” She mumbled
I let go of the tape and kicked her in the side of the head, knocking her to the floor,
“Looks like you fell, love… Do you hear me? You fell!” I said as I left the back room,
Some of the customers remained on the shop floor, I assume waiting to see what happens, while a number of them had clearly left,
“One of you might want to go in there and help Janice, she’s just taken a nasty fall,” I said to the remaining customers as I left,
I got back into my car, Ian sat there waiting for me,
“Better?” He asked,
“Oh mate, don’t…”
“You f*****g savage,” He laughed, “Let’s get a move on,”
We began to head back to my house, I wanted to see if the Detective was anywhere in sight, and if not, I needed to jump, I didn’t even know if it worked the night before, we were driving down my street when Ian asked me,
“Who’s in your house?”
There was a car parked in the driveway and a man was carrying shopping bags inside from the car boot,
“Excuse me mate, what the f**k are you doing in my house?” I shouted out of the car window,
“You’ve got the wrong house pal, you don’t live here,”
“Are you saying I don’t now my own house?” I raised my voice,
“Well, you clearly don’t, I’ve lived here for 13 years,”
Confused, I looked on as the man continued to take the shopping inside,
“Ian, do you know if my jump worked last night?”
“I don’t know mate, only one way to find out, who knows, if it did, maybe you have your wife back, you did ask for a family, after all…” He commented, “But, I won’t find out, you’ll have to update me, I need to get off,”
“Oh, okay then,”
“Go and see your mum pal,” Ian said, getting out of the car, “See you later,”
Ian was right, I needed to go to my mum’s house and see if it was still burnt, or if my jump had worked. I put the radio on as I began driving, the sound of my DFG CD came through my radio…
“Not this time,” I thought to myself, turning into Radio One,
As I approached my mum’s street I was met by a lovely sight, little children running around the street playing their games and my mum’s house still standing, I was overcome with a sense of joy. I began looking around for a parking space when I saw a familiar looking little boy come running out of my mum’s garden,
“Why do I know that face?” I thought,
As he got closer, the reality of what I was seeing dawned on me and a chill went right down my spine, I was looking at a child that looked exactly like me, I didn’t fully understand what I was seeing, or how, but this little boy who was running towards my car looked exactly the same as I did when I was five years old…
“This kid is me! Is that even possible?” I thought to myself,
The child was showing no sign of slowing down as he approached my car, he was shouting something, though I couldn’t make out what over the sound of the car’s engine, and that’s when he opened my car door and screamed at me with a look of pure joy on his face,
“Daddy!”