Beep.
Beep.
The eternity compass screamed, indicating that the time machine was in close affinity.
Its silver needle danced like a fly trapped in a glass dial.
10 metres, the boy deduced after calculating on his fingers.
Beep, Beep.
Beep, Beep.
Beep, Beep.
5 metres.
He looked around the wooden deck.
Only an old couple was sun-bathing, probably slumbering.
His purple, latex lab-coat fluttered in the sea wind as he took out a chewing gum from his breast pocket.
“After all these years...” he muttered, popping the chewing gum into his mouth, “I will be noticed.”
His pale face glowed in the sun as he ran his fingers through his brown hair.
Beep, Beep, Beep.
Beep, Beep, Beep.
Beep, Beep, Beep.
1 metre.
He took out the chewing gum from his mouth and stuffed it into his nostrils. And then he tapped the middle button of the lab-coat and it transformed into a diving suit, clinging tightly to his thin frame.
Beeep!
The compass shrieked in ecstasy.
Time to go, he smirked.
Splash.
The sea hit him like a frosty wall. He almost choked on the salty water which gushed into his mouth.
Breathe through your nose! he screamed in his head.
And miraculously, the water turned into oxygen as it passed through his gum-filled nostrils.
He had invented the breathing-bubblegum two years ago. He was only twelve then and the idea had came to him while eating oats for breakfast.
But the tragedy of his life was that nobody cared.
He was just fourteen -- too young to be considered a genius. The only way to be taken seriously by the adults was to be a part of them.
That will soon be achieved, he thought as his palm curled into a fist, Michael Nestien will be a legend with time in his control.
The time machine was invented by a comedian named Chiken Henslay.
Long considered as an urban legend, Michael’s eternity compass successfully picked up the time-space distortions caused by the machine.
Being the ambitious child that he was, he decided to follow the compass and now he found himself surrounded by gallons of freezing water that made his pointed nose numb.
*Click.*
He pressed the topmost button of his diving suit, and a helmet zapped around his face. He breathed a sigh of relief as the temperature control warmed up the sea water.
*Click.*
He pressed the last button and his water jet activated.
Deep...
Deeper...
Deepest...
The sea danced around him like a mystical nymph, shrouded in a thick cloak of darkness. He swam blindly in the monstrous frigidity, with all sense of time and space dissolving into that grave abyss.
But suddenly, a neon ray of blue light pierced the darkness.
The time machine! he squealed in his mind.
As he swam closer, the form of a black cubicle appeared out of the haze. It was bejewelled with lights as bright as the sun.
Near it’s door was a luminescent red button which said ‘Enter’.
*Click.*
He pressed it and the glass doors slid open.
In front of him layed a vast field of dark nothingness.
He scanned his surroundings and noticed a weak glimmer of a lamp coming from a distance.
Michael took off his suit and started to ascend towards the light.
His nose wrinkled as a myriad of smells wafted past him -- a dead rat, jelly beans, chocolates and sewage.
“Arg!” He screamed as a pair of slimy, webbed hands groped him in the dark.
“KEEP WALKING,” he screamed.
“You can do it,” he convinced himself, “just a few more steps.”
He struggled to keep himself from slipping, the pungent air made him dizzy.
He could see a blurred image of a metallic chair and table bathed in the light of the lamp hanging from above. And on the chair was perched a green-skinned woman with three tentacles spouting from her head, each holding a serpentine knife.
“Sso you want the time machine?” She hissed, her yellow eyes scanning his form.
He nodded sheepishly. She grinned, her fangs shimmering in her mouth.
“You’ll have to play a little game with me,” she said, “are you ready?”
Michael gulped. “Yes.” He trembled as he spoke, his voice barely a whisper.
The woman got up from her metal chair.
“Sit,” she commanded and Michael obeyed.
“You see thesse knivess?” She continued without a reply, “ I am going to blindfold mysself and then you’ll sspread your palm on the table. I will sstab each knife into your fingerss, if I miss twice then the time machine is yourss but if I don’t then you go empty handed.”
So my future’s going to be decided by her luck?! Michael panicked.
The woman produced a strip of cloth from underneath her chair and blindfolded herself.
Michael spread his palm.
*Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap.*
She missed.
*Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap.*
He roared.
A gash on his thumb bled profusely.
Please don’t win, he prayed.
*Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap, Tap.*
Michael waited, unsure if the knife stabbed him.
With trembling lids he opened his eyes -- he had won.
He screamed with the joy of triumph.
The woman smiled and handed him a minuscule, yellow cube.
“But how do I use it?” he asked.
“Imagine the place where you want to go. But the machine gives a person what he deserves,” she smirked.
Whatever that means, he thought.
Smiling like a baby, he pictures in his mind the world where he would’ve been an adult.
*Click.*
“But mommy!” Michael cried. “I am not a baby.”
His mother giggled.
He’s just two now, I wonder what he’ll say when he turns eighteen.
“Of course you’re not honey. Now finish your food.”
“But this is baby food.” he frowned.
“Oh no darling.” she wiped his face with the pink bib. “This will make you even bigger.”
I hate. I hate it, he cribbed, I ABSOLUTELY HATE IT!
And Michael started to cry with frustration.
Spoiler! :
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