Sci Fi & Fantasy / Time Stopped

                 The Time-Keeper’s tale
                  ..........................

Time stopped.

Just for a split-second, so that it wasn’t enough for anyone to notice. And even if they did, it was put down to absent-mindedness. People just suddenly forgot what they were doing and simply re-traced their steps to remember.

Just a split second, which nobody would have missed?

So then, why did one small being notice it?

Perhaps it was because he was THE ultimate time-keeper. The Ultimate time-keeper was known to his friends and colleagues as Tut. He never really had a real name. Or at least he couldn’t remember his old name. He’d been around forever. Since the dawn of man at least, if not the universe.

None of the other planets in the universe had the concept of time. It was only the earthlings who did: The other planets were not too bothered about punctuality or keeping track of how old they were.

Tut therefore knew that whatever/whoever it was, that was responsible manipulating time, it was an Earthling. Or at least it was on Earth. This was the fiftieth or so split-second which had been stolen.

It may not sound like much, but when multiplied by the number of life-forms on earth, it was a lot. You see, when a split second is stolen from time, it is not just stolen from time, it is stolen from everyone who exists in time. So therefore a split-second is actually a split-second for every life form on earth.
When it adds up, it’s a lot of time to go missing.

Time does not just vanish, Tut thought to himself. Whoever had stolen it, was very clever. They were also up to no-good. Nothing good can ever come from manipulating time, which was why Tut had obviously been issued with the responsibility of being the Earth’s Time-keeper.

He had two gadgets which enabled him to keep the time. One was a digital watch: this told him the time in every time zone. The second was a measure for actual time, which dated back to when time began, which was when the gadget had been invented.

His job had been to guard the dimension of time on Earth, and to make sure that Man did not find a way to manipulate time. Once man could manipulate time, He could find his way through to the twin dimension. The Twin dimension, was where Tut lived. The Twin Dimension, was parallel to Earth’s dimension: Earth was an experiment, created by G.O.D (The Great Old Doctor).

GOD had wanted to see how fast it would take for a planet to grow; for the life forms to advance; and for the planet to fade and die again, in order to see how long was left, in the ultimate existence. He Had tried with other planets, but earth had seemed like the best bet, as the humans were like no other creations he’d ever made.

It was called the Twin Dimension, because every time a life form was born, it had a twin, who was born on earth. He had employed Tut to keep a watch on Man and how advanced he became, in-case it was necessary to abort the experiment.

GOD needn’t worry much longer, because he knew man was coming to the end of his days. The signs were all there: Global warming, technological advancement and the age of enlightenment. He liked to watch his earthlings and to play with them.

He often teased them, by flying his remote control hovercraft over the surface, so that men thought they were being abducted. He used this s an excuse to experiment and watch on them more closely.

He also used it as a holiday when he needed one. The great thing about living in the twin dimension was that you could manipulate space as much as you liked. You could be an inch high in one moment, and you could be 100 foot high, the next.

His nephew Tut, liked to be small, because he liked to hide and play with the earthlings. This was partially why he had chosen him for the job as the time-keeper.

Tut liked to take the form of a little yellow rubber duck. He’d been curious as to why people liked them so much, especially as they seemed to have no purpose in the world. He found it also gave him anonymity on Earth: people seemed to regard him as an abandoned toy, and carried on without giving him so much as a second look.

That was, until one day, a girl named Hazel came along. She picked him up, thinking how cute his little waistcoat was, and pocketed him.

...............................

Tut also had a twin on earth. By sheer coincidence, it was Hazel. Yet despite this, neither of them was any the wiser. (well.. If you found a rubber duck on the floor, would you ever for a second think it could be your twin?)

Tut was  unaware of the fact that everyone on earth was twinned with one of his people. Hazel was a very clever young girl. Her earth age, was 20. She had the mental capacity to do anything she wished, but she was unaware of this, and just worked in a shop instead. She sighed as she picked up the can of peas. The scanner beeped as she ran the barcode past it.

“That’ll be 13.94 please.”

She smiled sweetly at the dark haired guy, who quickly tried to stuff the canned peas, in his carrier bag, along with the rest of his shopping. He handed over the money, and waited for the change. She felt her supervisor standing behind her, gave the guy his change, and turned around.

“Yes?” She looked at Sabrina with a narrowed stare.

“Tea break. Fifteen minutes.”

“Thanks.”

She logged off of the till, noted the time, and got out to let her supervisor take over. She walked past the queue, towards the back of the store. Once she was in the staffroom, she walked over to her locker, opened it, grabbed her bag, then headed towards the smokers exit. She knew it was bad for her, especially with her asthma, but she didn’t care any more.

She put one in her mouth, clicked the lighter, and took a deep breath. Looking at her watch, she wondered how it had already taken her 10 minutes to get there, when it was barely a five minute walk from the tills. She wondered where the time went, but dismissed it to daydreaming. She wondered what she’d been day-dreaming about when suddenly her alarm went off.

Had it been fifteen minutes already? It barely felt like five to her. She looked at her cigarette. She’d barely had more than two or so drags on it. It wasn’t even worn down that much. She sighed, put it out, then replaced it in the box and went back to the till.

When she got back, she had the strangest feeling of dèja-vous but she had it all the time, and saw no reason to question it.

“You’re early. You only went about ten minutes ago.”

“What? But my watch…”

Hazel looked at her watch. She gave up. The stupid thing was probably broken. It had been doing that a lot lately.

Later, when she got home, she slumped onto the sofa next to Roger, her boyfriend, and told him about it. He sniggered at her.

“what?”

“Nothing.”

“No, come on, what’s so funny?”

“Come with me, I’ll show you.”

He took her upstairs into the spare room which she had not been into since they moved in just over a year ago. When she walked in, she couldn’t believe her eyes.

There were wires, clocks,  a computer, books and other bits and pieces everywhere, strewn around the room. At the centre of the desk by the bed, was a desk lamp, and a weird looking gadget, which Roger had obviously made.

It consisted of her old mobile phone, and a watch, somehow moulded into the shape of a möbius, and it had a second dial on the back (if you could call it the back).

“Roger, what have you done to the spare room? I thought you were just playing on the X-box, or playstation or whatever.. this whole time… But all you’ve done is make a mess!?”

“You know how I came up with the idea of a way to time travel?”

“Yes, an idea, that’s all it was. It’s impossible due to the laws of physics.”

“Well I came up with something better. A way to freeze time, and to steal it.”

“What? No. It doesn’t work like that, you can’t just steal time! It’s just… No! You can’t do it!”

“I’ll prove it.” He picked up the device.

.............................

Tut Blinked.

He looked at his gadgets.

It had happened again.

This time, it had been about 5 minutes that had gone missing. This time it had been different though. It had only been five minutes from one person. He pressed some buttons, and it gave him a destination.

He remembered what GOD had told him to do in the event that he should catch someone who was fully able to manipulate time. He took what he needed and left. He found their house, on a small street in a place called Manchester, England.

He pressed a button on his time device, and everything around him froze in its place. He walked into the small, terraced, red-brick house, searched all the downstairs rooms, then climbed the stairs.

He opened the door at the top of the stairs and walked in. He saw them both standing in the room, looking at the device, with some numbers on the screen. He got out the remote, pointed it at everything in the room, piece by piece, and as he did it each time, the objects vanished into thin air.

He did this until it was just the two humans standing in the room holding the time device. He took the device from them, put it into one of his many pockets, and then turned to face them.

He got another device out, scanned them both with it, pressed some buttons, and they were transported from the spare room, into their own bedroom.

He placed them both in bed, reset the clocks, and re-wound time. He erased Rogers mind of all knowledge of any meddling he’d done with time. Tut then hid behind one of Hazel’s teddy bears in her closet, and pressed the start button on his remote, and waited.

Hazel woke up. 5.30 am. She turned over to face Roger, kissed him and got up. She walked over to her wardrobe, got dressed, picked up her good luck charm, and went to work.

She took her little rubber duck everywhere. She couldn’t remember where she got him from, but he had these weird clocks painted on a little waistcoat which was covered in pockets. She named him Alex. She didn’t know why, but time always seemed to go a lot faster when she had him.

...............

As it was nearing 10am, Sabrina, her supervisor came over to her, just as she handed a guy some change for his shopping which had included a tin of peas.

“I know, I know, break-time, 15 minutes.”

“How did you..”

“Deja-vous.”

............

Tut went back to the Twin Dimension. He’d taken care of that problem. He looked at the device he’d confiscated, and threw it down into the room where all the other things he’d confiscated over time, had been kept.

There were all kinds of books, clocks, and gadgets there. He knew one day, that there would be too many people trying to escape or to find the ultimate universe and that he would not always be able to stop mankind from making the discovery.

Something about the whole thing, still didn’t add up for him: He knew there were things that GOD had not told him, and he knew there was something strange about Earth.

He’d always had sympathy for Hazel, and He couldn’t explain why she was his favourite human. He’d just felt connected to her. Not in a romantic way… Just… he felt protective of her for some reason.

GOD Smiled to himself, as he watched Tut spying on Hazel again. He knew that one day he would have to tell him, but he decided that now wasn’t the time. He chuckled in spite of himself. He hadn’t meant that as a joke.

He went back to his room, full of screens, and monitored his favourite humans again. He especially liked the religious ones, because they worshiped him.

Again, this was just another one of his ways of amusing himself. He loved the fact that so many people trusted and believed him.

What was the universe coming to these days?

GOD pressed another button, typed in a location, and Hazel came onto the screen.

• Review from here onwards please :-) *

Hazel sat in the staffroom, staring into her decaffeinated coffee, and stirring it so hard, that it was creating a very strong whirlpool. She was so deep in thought that she didn’t notice a tiny black hole appearing in the middle of her coffee.

She was wondering why time seemed to slow down so much and speed up so suddenly without warning. She thought about it a bit more, and realised that however many times she thought about it, nothing would change. Every time she looked at a clock, everything was always normal.

She supposed that if there was a way to freeze time, but maintain it so that the person who froze time could still move, then no-one else would have any memory of it. Why then was she able to notice anything, and no-one else? And come to think of it, why was it only she who had noticed, and no-one else?

She was suddenly aware that she’d been stirring her coffee for the past ten minutes, when she felt a dull pain in her wrist. She put down the spoon, and noticed something strange about her coffee.

The small whirlpool she had created, was now growing larger and larger, and the coffee seemed to be disappearing into itself. She put on her glasses, in disbelief, and leaned nearer. When her hair was falling into the coffee, and down the centre of the whirlpool, the rest of her followed.

……………………..

She blinked. She blinked again. She closed her eyes very tightly, and opened them again. She was still there. She couldn’t believe it. She looked around, to find herself in a strange place, full of weird and wonderfully red and purple plants. She looked down and saw the pool of coffee on the floor.

The coffee was reacting very strangely with the ground. She felt relieved that it had not been caffeinated. It seemed to be pooling into strange shapes, and the small patch of ground it was on, was rapidly changing from one colour to the next.

She decided not to lean any closer after the last time she had done that. She was also relieved she had not drunk any of the coffee. She slowly got up, careful not to touch anything, and wondered why she wasn’t terrified of being where she was.

She had no idea where she was. She wondered if she had fallen asleep and if this was a dream but she knew she hadn’t been sleepy, and that she had most definitely been a work five minutes ago. She felt like she’d become some kind of Alice in wonderland crossed with Dorothy from the wizard of Oz. Only she was Hazel, and had no idea where she was.

And she was much older than they had been. She wasn’t so sure how old Dorothy had been, but she knew Alice had been a child of about ten, if that. Why was she wondering how old Alice and Dorothy were, when she was in some alien land?

She slowly felt the ground around her, to make sure it was safe to stand up. Then as she slowly got up, she looked around to take in more detail. The red and purple plants reminded her slightly of tulips, only they were huge, and they were the size of sunflowers. She tried to see if she could smell them, but wasn’t sure how much of a good idea it would be, seeing as they could be harmful. She also decided not to get too close, incase it ate her like a Venus Flytrap. She knew it was a silly thing to think, but she couldn’t shake te idea away after watching the little shop of horrors.

The sky was a brilliant orange, which appeared to be on fire, with lots of bright red shooting stars. She could see no birds, but oddly enough there were creatures which looked more like fish, swooping high above in the sky, avoiding the meteors like it was some kind of dodgeball game. There also seemed to be two teams, if that were even possible. There was a group of what seemed like ten to fifteen rainbow coloured fish creatures chasing after a group of about the same number of slightly smaller fluorescent fish creatures, which appeared to have halos.

Hazel looked for the pool of coffee, and found a small creature resembling an ant (except for the fact it was the size of a mouse and covered in red spots, and had a long trunk-like nose) which had started to drink the coffee. She quickly looked around for something to poke it with, incase the creature reacted badly to it. She was just wondering how safe it would be to pick up what looked to be a twig, when suddenly the creature spoke.

“Oi! You so much as pick up that whatsit, and touch me with it, and i’ll zap you so fast, you’ll be the.. the.. the emperor’s next meal.”

“But how… what… I didnt do anything I was just thinkin..”

“You’re not from around here, are you? We don’t talk. We send thoughtwaves to each other.”

She looked at it, and realised it was right. It didnt appear to have a mouth. It was sucking in the drink through its nose.

“How can you… I mean.. where am I?”

“You’re talking again, I can’t hear you, I can just read your mind. There is no need for sound here, this is Orange spot. You might know it better as Jupiters red spot. I don’t know how you got here, but you can’t stay. If the Zeustrons or the Thoronians catch you, they’ll rip you apart like the Emperor eating a noobot. Follow me.”

“But if you can hear my thoughts, then won’t they too? And Jupiter, Zeustrons? whaaa…?”

The creature ran to the base of one of the tulip plants and let it swallow him whole.

Hazel stood in shock, and gazed up at the flying fish. Both teams had stopped playing, and had started swimming/flying towards her. She didn’t know what a Zeustron or Thoronian was, and she didn’t know why she trusted the word of a strange creature that looked like something from one of her childhood nightmares, but she ran towards the same plant, and hoped she wouldnt regret it. The plant swallowed her whole, as she closed her eyes, stood rigid and clenched her fists.

........................................

GOD quickly hit the screen, wondering if it had broken. Hazel couldn’t be on Jupiter. He’d kept forcefields around each planet so there were no cross contaminations. The screen blinked.
“Oi, stop hitting me!” it said, rather angrily.

“Sorry Sena. I just can’t believe my eyes. They better not be lying to me. How did Hazel White #142 manage to get to Jupiter, and the Red Spot no less? It’s the most dangerous place anyone could be, especially for a human!”

“don’t ask me, i’m just the messenger. Ask Tut.. maybe it was something time related?”

“Good idea.” GOD pressed a button and spoke to the air. “Tut, emergengy 42, code black.”

Within 5 seconds, The Yellow duck appeared and transformed into a floating, glowing, mass of colour. “Yes Uncle? 42 code black? which one is that, I forget? Martians on pluto?”

“No. Much worse. Your favorite Earthling Hazel, Has somehow ended up in the red spot..!”

“WHAT? HOW? THATS IMPOSSIBLE! I WAS JUST WITH.. I mean, erm.. I was just obverving her a few moments ago.. How did she get to the Red spot? who did this?” He let it sink in, as the panic in his voice rose.

“I don’t know, thats why I called you here..”

“You think I..?” Tut Interrupted.

“No, I know you’d never endanger her, I’ve seen how you care about her, which I why I called you here. I know its dangerous, but unless you’re willing to retrieve her, and seal the breach, then we have no choice but to let nature take its course, and watch her…”

“NO. Enough. I’ll do it.”

“I’ll send Peg with Gabe and see if they can find out how this happened.”

With that, Tut vanished, and reappeared in the staffroom at Morrisons in Manchester. He looked around, making sure there were no humans, and he slowly reformed. He looked for the coffee mug, and saw a huge hole in the botom of it. He examined it closer and found a silver powdery substance on the table.

Tut pressed a button on his digital watch, and spoke into it “Gabe, Peg, We’ve got trouble. It’s Mr H again.”

.........................................

To be continued on my next fit of inspiration.
  

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