FABULA TEMPUS PART VIII | PART IX | PART X

PART-VIII

In front of Bram Cape was lying another Bram Cape. From the future. His chest all bloody and his eyes closed as if he was sleeping. Was this how everything would turn out? If this Bram was from the future then this was his future. How would he know that whatever he did, did not lead to this? The game was far ahead now. He would have to make a very smart move. What did he have to be careful, by the way? He was told everything he had to do by the body lying on the floor. All he had to do was to follow those instructions.

You will return to see your dream.

And so, he was determined he would. He would change the past so that nothing bad ever happened. It would not be perfect. Of course, he did not even want it to be perfect. That would leave no difference between Rafael Hale and himself. But it would be better.

He ran outside the house and grabbed the Tempus. It was not alone. He picked both the Tempus and used his own.

2020.

The left button pressed and there it was. The merry skies of 2020. Before all the devastation. Before any of it had begun. Bustling streets. Bright sky. Buildings standing high with pride not knowing what was to come. Only a matter of months before anything happened. And months was enough time for Bram to accomplish his task.

He was walking on the footpath when something wrapped around his legs. He looked down to see that it was a beggar. He had long hair, torn clothes, and was sitting on a newspaper. Bram said,

“Hey, let go of my legs.”

“Please, I want some bullets. I have nothing to live for!” The beggar said, sobbing.

“I don’t have any bullets. Look, man, I am in a hurry. I have got to go.”

“I cannot let you leave until you give me what I want.”

Bram was getting frustrated now. He shook his leg off and threw his watch down.

“Keep it and get some money. Just don’t kill yourself.”

“Lord, I thank you.”

There was a very strange twinkle in the beggar’s eyes. Bram walked ahead. He was just making a turn when a man stopped him. The man was wearing a hat that covered half of his face and cast a shadow across.

“Man, I have really to get going. I’ll be late.”

“Oh no, you have nothing to be late for now.”

“What?”

“What did you give to that man?”

“My watch.”

“Was that only a watch? Look, Bram, I know what you are doing.”

Bram took a step back. Who was this man? And how did he know his name? By his tone, Bram knew deep down that this man knew the truth. 

Bram was not the only one from the future.

PART-IX

“Who are you and what do you want?”

“I cannot answer your first question and as for what I want, I don’t want anything. All I wanted to tell you was that you have made a grave mistake.”

“What mistake?”

“You did not give that man your watch. It was something more than that. That machine you just gave that beggar was a Triumph Edition 7. And Triumph Edition 7 shows more than just time. It has a lot more features than just a watch. Triumph Edition 7 was not invented until 2030.”

He is right. If that beggar sells it, all my plans will be spoiled. Everyone will know I am from the future.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk. You just seem to have a knack for making mistakes. And that is not all.”

“What?”

“That beggar is not just anyone. You see, he will be the one who will steal the machine from where it is now. You inspired him. And he will forever credit you in his heart for being the reason for all this.”

“God, what should I do now?”

The man sighed.

“Well, it is not all bad. You will not have to steal the machine yourself. He will help in some way. When he has it, you take it from him.”

“When will he steal it?”

“Well, you seem to think I know everything. Well, I do. It will be two weeks later. He will dedicate his mind to breaking into that vault. It is not very heavily protected, though. You can come with me.”

“Thanks. I would also like to know who you are.”

“Oh, you will know. There is one thing I can tell you, though. You can trust me. It was never your fault. I can’t tell you my name. You can call me Al.”

The man took him to a very small wooden house. There Bram stayed but never slept. He could not. All the mistakes he had made. However, he could not think of any clue using which he could have deduced the true identity of the beggar. Perhaps this was how events were to turn out after all… And that man, he seemed too familiar. Bram was certain he had met him somewhere, or he had been with him everywhere he went……

So, weeks passed and it was one day, the first time he had fallen asleep. Al woke him up. He said.

“Hey, today’s the day. It’s the day of the heist.”

 

 

 

PART-X

“We will go back to that place, that street where you first met him. First, we will check that place. He might come back to this place with the machine.”

They walked to the street. Al was not at all looking tense. It was like he had done this before.

“I don’t even know the name of that man,” Bram said.

“His name is Jonathan Bage,” Al replied.

They were on the street, looking around for the man. There he was. Hiding something in a cloth. Something big, something like a shoebox. Tempus was with Bage. Al said,

“You bring him to that corner and I will knock him down. We will take the machine and get away.”

Bram nodded. He walked casually towards Bage and faked a look of surprise,

“Oh, it’s you! I met you two weeks ago, didn’t I?”

Bage looked more than happy on seeing Bram. He cried,

“I had the fortune of meeting you, sir. Yes, we have indeed met before.”

“Let’s take a walk, shan’t we?”

Bage nodded vigorously. Bram led him to the corner of the street and into a place where there was no one. Al appeared out of nowhere and hit Bage on the head. He fainted and fell like a dead body. Al took it out. Tempus. It was there. Then he wrapped a shoebox in the cloth again.  

“It’s not necessary. Still, there’s no loss. Is there?”

They ran, ran as fast as they could, and entered Al’s small house. They were panting. Al gave Tempus to Bram. It was with him finally. After all that he had seen and gone through, the key to changing the future was now in his hands. The key for which his future self had sacrificed himself. And now, with only a thud on the ground, it could all be finished.  

He brought his arms over his head, ready to smash it. That was just when Al said loudly,

“Wait! What are you doing?”

“I’m breaking it so that it does not even exist.”

“God, you are in a great need of a proper working mind.”

“What you mean?”

“I’m saying that if you destroy that machine, then the one you have will never exist. How will you go back to your time?”

“I always think that I will not make a dumb move but you always outsmart me. What should I do now?”

“You will go home. Before that, I need your help. And for that, I will have to tell you who I am.”

“Ah, the answer to the most buzzing question. Who is Al?”

Al took off his hat and said,

“It’s me, Bram. I’m Samuel. Just a lot bigger. Like in my mid-twenties now.”

Bram stood there in shock. How could he not have thought of this? Where was Samuel all this time? For a moment, Bram had thought that Al was his future self. That didn’t matter now.

“Samuel, I’m so sorry. All this time I was thinking about everyone else except you.”

“You don’t need to say all that. It was all my grandfather’s fault.”

“What happened? How are you here?”

“As you know, after you saved my grandfather, he experimented on people. He forcefully made them use Tempus. I worked for him and studied a lot about time travel. Rafael used me too. I landed in the year 2015. I have been here for five years. I then realized that all those people disappeared, they did not die. They got transported to other worlds.”

“Other worlds?”

“You see, every time someone time travels, they leave behind a world and enter a new world. Then if they go back, they return to another new world. That way, so many different worlds are formed. You created so many. And those people, they got dispersed into different worlds. Including my father. Please, Bram, I need your help in saving them.”

“Of course, I will help you. How do we go?”

“I know how to do that. Before that, I am warning you. We could land up in terrible places and see terrible things. You need to be sure of what you are doing.”

“I am.”

Samuel nodded. Bram picked up the three Tempus.

“It’s a mess. It’s like we are collecting these things or something.”

They laughed. Samul said,

“Oh, you will need them.”

He put his hand on the black ball and Bram put his hand there too. Then Samuel put his hand quickly together on both the left and right buttons. And then, off they went.