Day 220 - Repeat Offenders - Chapter 8.1 - (1750 words)

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REPEAT OFFENDERS

By Wayne Webb

 

CHAPTER 8.1

Harold Prime was trying to explain the process to himself, not succeeding in the slightest way though and mostly just frustrating himself. Harold Two was in shock, though likely he was thinking very similar things to the thoughts that ran rampant through Harold Prime only an hour or more ago at most.


“This doesn't make any sense, how can we be... this can't be true. It must be a trick.”


“I thought the same, or that perhaps...”


“I'm … you... we are crazy?” Harold Two laughed and looked as manic as Harold Prime when Brian first started explaining the situation to him. “So now what?”


“What do you mean, now what?” Brian countered.


“I mean now what? I mean now what happens? What happens next future boy?” Harold Two was waiting for the sting, for the twist that would bring his certainty back. An advantage would be taken, he knew it and could sense one coming. When it happened then it would prove that this was a trick, plastic surgery or drugs or some delusional gas pumped into his office, yes that was possible too.


“You are not listening. I get that, I was looking for the answer, the trick or whatever – but there isn't one. I mean there is, but it is what we said, what I said already about the device. And we are not from the future, we can go back to the past, so if we do, and I assume we will have to now, then this is the future. For now.” Harold Prime tailed off the sentence, realising as he spoke how lost he was getting.


“Well nothing happens now, not really. We can go pretty much any time we like. This is not really about you it's about him.” Brian indicated Harold Prime, the one he had brought in.


“Except he is me, I am him etc..? Right?” The sarcasm in his voice belied the words he used.


“Yes, but as soon as we reset the device you won't exist.” Brian regretted it the instant he said it.


“So wait, what? Are you threatening me? You are, aren't you?” Harold Two was getting angry and he considered the situation ludicrous enough now to act. “Jerry! Call the Police! Hey! Jerry – call the police now!” He shouted the warning so much louder than Brian expected he could have, and Harold Prime just cringed at the sound of his own voice, cracking under the strain of the volume and the oddity.


“This has gone on long enough. The police will be on their way, now unless you two can magically disappear like you say you can, then you will be in custody within minutes I can promise you.” Harold Two was getting red in the face, slightly puffy and embarrassed by the lack of response. There was a red light above the door that lit when an alarm had been raised.


It stayed off.


“Jerry? JERRY!!!” Harold's voice cracked more noticeably this time.


“Jerry is not out there, he's gone for his...” Harold Prime looked at his watch, “Coffee across the Plaza, you know where he fancies that girl at the … you know the place.”


“You have gone to a lot of trouble, I'll give you an A for effort.” Harold Two nodded at the watch on Harold Prime's wrist.


“Right, yeah the watch. I must admit that I did not believe that either. Though to be fair it was not on my wrist, the copy that is. I mean I have mine, and you have yours and they are the same sure enough, but there's also Ivan's and … oh dear. This is getting us nowhere.” Harold Prime took the watch off and showed the inscription to Harold Two. “We both know that proves nothing. But... ah, who would know this but you? Maude has an aversion to doggy style, she doesn't like not being able to see me, us, you – whatever you want to say.”


Harold Two blushed and then went white. “Oh god no, you went to Maude, what did you do to her?”


Brian spoke up. “He knows what you know. She … we have never met Maude.”


“Well I have, repeatedly. I'm married to her after all.” Harold Prime was getting into the swing of the duality of his reality.


“Yes, sorry about that – I meant we as in the team. Though maybe you are now, I'm not sure what else to do with you and it's not like you can stay in the future. I mean you literally can't when the timer runs down.”


Harold Prime pondered that thought, even when they reset they would be in the same boat as they are now, there would be a Harold Two, and if they took this guy with them to prove a point, a Harold Three as well. It could get complicated pretty quickly.”


“You never told any one about your one gay experience. I know I never did, not even the therapist. We did not trust her at all, after all it was the bank paying for that and Angelo was none of her business. You know he's dead and could never tell anyone. You know now don't you.” Harold Prime had hit the jackpot, this was the defining moment where doubt was punctured and his other self was unsure of his reality, he was nowhere near acceptance, but this was a possibility now, with an impossible piece of information. Anyone could have guessed at the potential for a fumbling drunk experience in the past, but to get the name and to know that he had been dead for fifteen years, that was an impossible fact to guess or know.


Angelo had died in a car accident the next morning. He had no chance to tell anyone. No one could have known, the fear and the regret and the shame it was clothed in made it a secret tied up tighter than could be undone.


“Oh god. What now?” Harold Two's voice had dropped to a mere whisper now and he was going to accept whatever happened next, nothing could surprise him, or so he thought.


“I'm guessing that our team-mates are outside preventing any calling of the police, though they must be on their way by now.” The light was not on, but in the faint echo of intervening walls there was a burst of sirens and a loud hailer mumbling something indistinct.


The door to Harold's office opened slowly and Ivan popped his head through the door. “So the cops are here, should we go?” He looked at Harold Prime but the question was for Brian.


“Yes, we should.” Brains reached for his wrist device to reset the anomaly field and make this whole thing a moot discussion, but Harold Prime's hand shot out and stopped him taking any action.


“Since we are here, and there are more partners now, we should really get the jewels, the gems or whatever. I mean, it's a waste otherwise right?” Harold and Ivan were nodding in sync, the younger man who had lost his perspective with the unfettered violence was now appreciating the decision to keep this version of the Bank Manager alive, maybe Brian was smarter than he gave him credit for.


Probably not though.


“What gems?”


“Oh for goodness sake... me, I mean really? I know you know about them, remember?” Harold chided himself. It was like talking to a child version of his own personality, even though it was only hours behind his own.


“You are joking right? You know who they belong to and ...” Harold Two clicked as to what was going to happen. Now that this time device was a possibility he could believe them it was all of a sudden going to happen.


“See?” Harold Prime could read his mind in his face, though it was disconcerting to see it from the front and not from behind his own eyes.


The three men walked out of the office to find Michael standing with two guns pointing at the assembled people on the bank's floor. He spoke to Brian first “Are we done? Good to go now?”


“We were thinking, I mean since we are here...” Harold Prime looked to Brian for permission, a fact not lost on Michael.


“Go on then, but hurry I can see they are getting ready to come in.” Brian was referring to the red and blue reflections on the bank windows, and the refractions on the ceiling.


Harold Prime left the bewildered and downbeat Harold Two waiting and disappeared into the vault with Ivan trailing behind, a huge grin on his face. They were gone only for a minute before coming back with the actual safe deposit box in hand, he held it up and then handed it to Brian, and a frown crossed Michael's face as he saw more and more deference to the scientist.


That would have to change.


“One more thing. Hang on?” Harold Prime walked to Harold Two and picked up his hand hesitantly. It was the most surreal thing he could think of to be holding his own hand, even for a second. He unclasped the watch and took it from his other's wrist and brought it back to the group. He handed it to Michael and then as he got a confused reaction he pointed at his own wrist and then at Ivan. “We should all have one, it's like a thing.” He grinned.


“Now.” said Brian, but once again he was not asking. The four men walked away from the assembled people and he lifted the switch on his wrist and pressed just as Harold Two raised an arm and surged towards the men only to see all four of them vanish in thin air.


Someone screamed and then Harold Two felt wet and faint all at once. He fell forwards on his face and his right hand's fingers were missing, severed in a straight line across the knuckles on three fingers and a slice off the top of his thumb. The last thing he saw before he fainted was blood spurting from his fingertips like a demented Tarantino movie scene and someone reaching for him with a piece of cloth being torn from a shirt tail.