The Time Bubble Box Set 2, стр. 277
“Oh my God, what have you done!?” I shouted, as Gary juststood there, motionless for a moment, a look of disbelief on his face, beforeslumping slowly to the floor, blood gushing out of him at an alarming rate. Asa trained health professional I knew this could mean only one thing.
“You’ve severed an artery,” I added as Rob just stood there,frozen in shock, blood draining from his face almost as fast as it was drainingout of Gary’s neck.
My first thought was to call an ambulance, but knew it wouldbe too late. Rob had slashed him in such a way they wouldn’t be in time. Idoubted that we alone could stem the flow even if we tried. The blood waseverywhere, pouring out of Gary all over the white ceramic kitchen tiles.
“What…what are we going to do?” bleated Rob pathetically. Heclearly wasn’t going to be any use.
There was nothing we could do. The shock of the situationhad hit me just as much as it had him, but I had to stay strong. Trying toassuage feelings of guilt I told myself that this wasn’t real and in two moredays it would never have happened. I would safely a year in the past then andGary would be alive and kicking.
As for the here and now Rob could deal with it. He had doneit, after all.
“Don’t you mean what are you going to do?” I responded. “I’mout of here.”
I ran out of the kitchen, unable to bear looking at Gary’snow motionless body any longer. If he wasn’t dead already, he very soon wouldbe. As I grabbed my coat and bag, desperate to be out of there, Rob calledafter me.
“What do you mean, you’re out of here? You can’t just leaveme.”
“I can and I will. Watch me,” I replied.
“I’ll say you did it,” he threatened. “Your fingerprintswill be on this knife.”
“Whatever,” I replied, pulling on my coat and headingstraight for the front door. “You’re on your own now. Have fun explaining itall to the police, unless your lady friend next door is willing to help youdispose of the body. Best of luck!”
And with that parting shot I slammed the front door behindme and made good my escape.
It was only when I was safely away down the road that thefull horror of what had just happened struck me.
Chapter Ten
2020
The following morning I was holed up in a room above a pubin Evesham, sick with worry and guilt. I had hardly slept all night with allthe turmoil going through my mind.
How had I ended up here? My destination had been dictated bya random choice of train after I had realised I had to get out of Oxford fast.
Was I running away? Possibly and that didn’t make me feelgreat. Everyone always said that was the coward’s way out. It probably wasn’tthe wisest move either. Simply by fleeing the scene I was making myself lookguilty.
There was nothing to stop Rob carrying out his threat totell the police I did it, and who would look the more likely suspect? The manon the scene who had called the police or the woman who had fled?
Things certainly looked bad, and there was no way I wouldhave taken this course of action if I was leading any sort of normal life. ButI knew I didn’t need to evade capture forever, just for a day and a half untilI could escape back into a past.
It had crossed my mind that I might be storing up troublefor the theoretical other me, the one who might be left here to pick up thepieces after my mind had left this body. If she existed, what would happen toher? But then she wasn’t guilty, was she? So she had nothing to worry about,right?
If I don’t sound convinced, it’s because I’m not. Who am Ikidding? I may not have held the blade as it plunged into Gary’s neck, butthere was no denying I was responsible for all of this.
I had acted like a vengeful little slag, and I didn’t likewhat I had become. I had been desperate for revenge and lustful for sex which Ihad acquired under false pretences. Gary hadn’t asked to be dragged into mylittle games and had paid the ultimate price.
Why couldn’t I have been satisfied with humiliating Rob withthe video and left it at that? Why had I had to go in for a second bite of thecherry? Talk about abusing my powers. I was no better than those megalomaniacB-movie villains. Things needed to change and they needed to start changingright now.
With thirty-plus hours to kill I needed to decide what to dowith them. I thought about handing myself into the police, but what would bethe point? It would be best to just get out of town, run down the clock andthen head back to 2018 for a fresh start.
It was unlikely anybody would be looking for me in Evesham,which was a quiet and pleasant little town across the Cotswolds from Oxford. Ihad only ended up here by chance and perhaps that was the best way. No cleverdetective would be able to follow my thought-processes to deduct where I hadgone, as there hadn’t been any thought put into it.
After leaving the house I had first toyed with the idea offleeing the country but quickly realised I didn’t have my passport, so that wasa non-starter. There was no way I was going back to get it. Booking flightswould have involved using a bank card anyway which was the equivalent toputting a large flashing neon sign over my head saying “Here she is”.
I couldn’t afford to leave any sort of paper trail as to whereI was going so I needed to deal strictly in cash from here onwards.
Stopping at the cashpoint in Headington, I took out themaximum allowed. If the police did try and track me down, that’s where thetrail would go cold.