I have been awake for 96 hours, the last time I showered was… ok I don’t remember; to say I stink would be a massive understatement. My beard is rough to say the least, and I won’t even talk about my clothes. I cut through the park to get to this motel and sat on a bench to rest. There were kids playing across from me, someone kicked the ball, and it went into the bushes behind me. I could see them arguing about who would get it, then they pushed the smallest kid out of the crowd, and he slowly made his way over. When he got close enough to hear the sound of the 17 mini radios I have around my neck, blasting out nearly just as many stations, he freaked out and ran away crying.
You probably think I am just another down on his luck homeless guy that needs some help, mentally, but no I have a beautiful wife and two lovely children. We live in a nice house in the country, that comes with a big chunk of land, and we both have really good jobs, so money was never a problem.
So, you might ask, why am I living like this, well, it all started… wait a minute. Ok, technically it has not started yet, and if I leave this computer, fall asleep or the batteries run out, you will all forget this ever happened, like everyone else and I will have to start again.
Let me make something clear, I am not one of those nut cases, that came from the future to warn the world of impending doom. No, I am not from the future, and the only doom that I am trying to stop is my own. Nor is there anything special about me, I am just an average guy, living in an average town, with average people just like me. Nothing interesting ever happened here, well, that I know of, until now. I know this might seem very confusing, but please bear with me and I will try to explain.
I woke up this morning, ate my breakfast and watched some TV with the kids. Then we went into town to get some groceries. It was like any other Thursday apart from me and my wife were off work for a week and the kids were on summer holidays. On the way I didn’t notice anything strange, the kids were trying to guess the color of the cars before they passed. Suddenly Jake my son, started shouting about a car passing us twice. I didn’t really have any interest, I was talking to my wife about our plans for the day, so I ignored him, until Tracy, my youngest screamed “THERE IT IS AGAIN” and caused me to swerve off the road. I just thought they were messing with me and warned both of them not to talk for the rest of the journey. Which they did, surprisingly, probably because I nearly crashed, not because they respect me so much, I’m afraid. Out of me and my wife I am the push over, which they take full advantage off.
When we got to town, I dropped off Jake at the mall, before going to the supermarket across the road. As we were pulling up the security guy was lifting up the shutters, which I thought was a bit unusual since it was 12:30, and they usually open at 8, but I didn’t think much about it. Before pulling off, I shouted out the window for him to meet us at the store in 20 minutes. Which seemed to embarrass him because he gave me a dirty look, before walking off.
As we were going into the supermarket, we met our neighbor Tom Mullins walking out, he said some of our mail got dropped off at his place by mistake, and he would drop it over later, that was basically the whole conversation. About 30 minutes later I noticed Jake was not back yet. So, I rang him, but there was no answer, I decided to run across and check on him while my wife finished up, we had a schedule to keep to, so we were in a hurry.
When I got back to the mall that same security guard was pulling up the shutters, again, I found it strange, but I didn’t say anything about it. Instead, I asked him did he see my son, he looked frustrated, and said, “we are just open, sir” while shaking his head. When I looked in the place was empty, I had a look around anyways, but he wasn’t there. Being a teenager, I thought he might have met up with one of his friends and forgot to tell us, so I wasn’t going to panic just yet. I did plan out a list of chores in my head, that I was going to give him if he was not back by that time, which I probably would never have followed through with.
When I got back to the store my neighbor Tom was walking out, he was babbling about dropping over mail again, I just nodded and kept on walking, I thought he was losing it. I was gone for less than 10 minutes, not enough time for my wife to have finished shopping and check out, yet she was gone. When I went to the car park my car was gone too, I was really confused, I knew my wife would never leave me like that, well not at first. But after an hour of hanging around that car park waiting for her and she not answering her phone, I started to worry. First my son disappeared, then my wife, I thought, is this my wife’s way of getting rid of me so she can pack up and be gone by the time I got home. There was only one way to find out, so I got a taxi and went home. My paranoia became worse the closer I got, I started to believe she might have met someone else. I know it might seem stupid to worry that much, but my wife would never do anything like that, and the fact that no one was answering their phone didn’t help.
I could see our car as we were pulling up, which gave me some relief. I had left the key with my wife, so I had to knock, after a worrying amount of time, the door opened and my wife stuck her head out, squinting. Before she got a chance to say anything I pushed past her, complaining about her leaving me in town. I will never forget that look on her face, a mix between confusion and pure terror. I continued to try explain what had happened, but I knew my wife and she genuinely had no clue what I was on about. She even called the kids to prove it, when my youngest daughter Leah heard she burst out laughing and started running around shouting, “daddy’s going insane” to be honest I was starting to believe it by then.
Everyone pulled out their phones to show them to me, they all said 8:30am apart from mine, which said 1:15pm. After hours of talking it through, we put it down to sleep walking, which I suppose didn’t really make any since, but it was the most likely scenario at the time. My wife made me promise to see a doctor asap, I told her I would go first thing tomorrow morning, little did I know tomorrow would never happen for me. We decided to start the day, again, and went into town, it was so surreal, the kids played their game and then shouted about seeing that car twice. Then we went to the mall. The guy was opening the shutters, talk about déjà vu, I couldn’t handle it, and drove away before Jake got out.
I thought staying together was the safer option, so I took him shopping with us, which did not go down well, I won’t tell you what he said, but again he is a teenage boy, so I’m sure you can use your imagination. When we got to the door guess who walked out, yes you got it Tom Mullins, that was the last straw, I wanted to go home but no one would go with me, they thought I was crazy. So, I went to the car to wait for them and turned on the radio to take my mind off things, it did not help, because they said it was 8:15 so did the clock on the dashboard.
I felt dizzy and thought I was going to vomit, so I went out to get some fresh air, only to see Tom coming out of the store again. I tried to ring my wife, but there was no answer, I didn’t even go into the shop to look for them I knew there was no point, I just went straight home. They were all still in bed when I got in, this time I did not tell them what happened, what good would it do? I decided to stay home and let them go shopping without me, I needed to think. I spent the first 3 or 4 hours trying to figure out what was happening, then I noticed my wife was not home and I began to worry, but what could I do, she had the car.
Then it came to me, everything seems to reset when I get far enough away, so I went for a walk to test my theory, sure enough as soon as I got out of sight, the car appeared back in the driveway. So, I figured out I must be in some sort of time bubble and everything that was in there with me, moves with me in time. Everything outside the bubble only moves past 8 o clock while I am there and resets when I leave, apart from the radio and tv, things like that, which seem to reset if they go off even for a second. I know it’s confusing, but imagine what it’s like for me, I have to live like this.
Plan number one was simple, keep everyone together for 24 hours, and hope that might do it. First of all have you any idea what it’s like to keep your family that close for even an hour, never mind a full day, and the fact they thought I was insane didn’t help. Let’s just say I had a lot of resets. Some were my own fault, I needed to sleep and when I did, I was back to square one. To make a long story short it never worked, and what’s worse it really freaked out everyone when they realized I was telling them the truth and we were trapped in a bubble, since then I thought it was better to keep them out of the loop, (pun not intended) as much as possible. It was not a complete waste of time, because a strange thing happened on one of those resets, the time didn’t go back to 8 it went to 9:30, I never really figured out why, I guess I must have done something right.
My next plan was to try to get as far away from that place as possible, bad idea, trying to convince my wife not to go to the police when her 9-year-old daughter suddenly disappeared was not easy. She was devastated, there was no way to console her, I had to drop her off at the side of the road to end it, she must have thought I was a monster. One-time things got so bad I just walked away, I had to steal a car to get home, I gave up after that. I couldn’t put them through that hell anymore, but again I must have done something right, the reset time went to 1:05pm.
I realized if I watched tv I could literally see into the future, so I sat down and watched local tv for the day hoping for clues. I really needed a day off anyway, so I was happy with the break. At 9-o clock the news came on, they said a man died in an accident after swerving off the road to avoid a young boy, at around 8 15pm. In the background I could see my car, I would know it anywhere, even though it was barely recognizable. I was in shock, I just stared at that screen for the best part of an hour, but I had no idea what was going on. When it all finally sunk in, I figured out a plan. It seemed simple, find that child, stop him from being there at that time, but I couldn’t find him anywhere no matter how hard I tried.
I ran out of ideas, so I went online for help, which reminds me, I would like to thank everyone that got me this far, even though they have no memory of it. So, thanks, with the help of you guys, time only resets to 7:30, 45 minutes before I die, but unfortunately, we haven’t been able to get any further.
I still haven’t found out where that crash was and if I fall asleep, I wake up out in the middle of nowhere 40 miles from home after stopping to help an old lady change a tire. So, every time I wake up, I could die or worse, run over that child, so here we are, I am sitting down in front of this computer, with 17 radios blaring trying not to fall asleep, hoping someone can help me before it’s too late.