The Clockmaker's Shadow | ONC 2021 | LGBT

3. Turning Back the Clock

(Author's Note: This chapter is dedicated to my friend SallyMason1 who is always ready to help out with her professional advice. Her ONC 2021 story, Guilty as Charged, is a stomach churning legal thriller. One of my top picks for this year's ONC)

The first time Rik had seen the green lights inside his head, he'd passed it off as his imagination. But when, a few months later, he'd experienced two more episodes within days of each other, he'd hurried off to an ophthalmologist, terrified he'd damaged his eyes. Was he going blind? That fear eventually put to rest, his curiosity had burst free. What was he seeing? Was it something real or just his imagination going off on some weird tangent? Whatever the phenomenon was, he had no control over it for years. Just as he'd work out a theory to test, the episodes would stop, only to eventually start up again, after he'd almost forgotten about them.

It was only a month or so before his eighteenth birthday that he began to gain control. The green lines developed into something resembling the pages of a book, giving fleeting glimpses of the illustrations within. He wondered whether these were snapshots of the past or, even more thrilling, the future.

He leant forward once, trying for a closer look and scared himself silly. He jumped backward, physically, breathing hard. For a moment there, he was certain he'd been falling, sucked in to... wherever. He'd only just pulled back in time. He stopped invoking the phenomenon for a whole week after that, before temptation rose up and overtook the fear.

Rik could remember the day he first jumped between worlds as if it were yesterday. He was in his room, the afternoon sun shining through the skylight, the sound of the radio playing downstairs. He'd put on his boots and a jacket, just in case it was cold wherever. His brother, the only other person he had ever told about his visions, was there too, his face eager, jumping from one foot to the other in his excitement.

"What do you think it will be like? Will they speak English? Will you have to learn to fly a spaceship?" Then his face had clouded as he thought of something else. "It will be safe, won't it?"

Rik had grinned and thumped his shoulder. "I'll be fine. I'll tell you all about it when I get back. I'll be home in time for dinner."

He smiled again at Jaxon, squared his shoulders and closed his eyes, then stepped forward between the pages.

~~~

Jaxon's POV

Jaxon knew he'd made a mistake the moment he sought refuge in the toilet block. There was only one entrance and no other exit. He was trapped. On the verge of panic, he shot into a cubicle, locked the door and then crouched up on the toilet seat. With no sign of him to be seen under the door, maybe his pursuers would give up and go away. Then he heard footsteps.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," the singsong voice came from the other side of the door, followed by a giggle. "Come on, Jaxon, we know you're in there. Come out now and be a good little boy."

"Go away!" shouted Jaxon, clenching his fists.

Giles' round face appeared over the top of the door, grinning. "I thought you were in there. You might as well open the door, otherwise I'll just have to climb in and get you."

"Go away!" Jaxon whispered.

"What's the hell is going on here?" demanded a new voice, the voice Jaxon most wanted to hear in the world at that moment.

Giles' head disappeared immediately. "Nothing. Just a bit of fun," he said airily.

"Rik?" Jaxon's voice came out as a squeak.

"Jaxon? What the- are you all right?"

"I'm in here. Make them go away."

"For fuck's sake, Giles, he's only six! Leave him alone or I'll smash your face in!"

Rik sounded really angry, thought Jaxon, feeling warm inside. He heard the sound of Giles and his mate leaving, even as he climbed down from the toilet seat and opened the door.

"Come here, you!"' Rik drew him into a brotherly hug and knuckled his blond hair. "Did they hurt you?"
Jaxon shook his head.

"That's good. You tell me if they give you any trouble again, right?"

Jaxon nodded.

"Now let's go home. I'm starving." He took his brother's hand, swinging it, as they walked along. Jaxon smiled. No one could hurt him as long as Rik was there.

But things changed as they grew older.

Rik hit puberty, growing taller and gangly, with hair sprouting in unexpected places. More importantly, he asked Mum and Dad for his own room, moving in to what had been the attic, up in the eaves. Although he was still happy to kick a ball around with Jaxon from time to time, it wasn't the same. After school, he was more likely to go off with his mates than play with his brother. The six years between them had never seemed so big.

And that was before things turned really weird.

"Rik?" Jaxon opened the door into Rik's room and went inside. Rik had told him to knock first but he kept forgetting and in any case, he had something important to tell him. The room seemed empty, even though he hadn't heard his brother come down the stairs.

"Rik? Are you here?"

Then he saw the shape of Rik, standing on the other side of the room... at least, it looked like Rik, except that he could see right through him, to the window beyond. Then Rik turned to face him, as solid as ever.

"Freaky!" Jaxon gave a nervous laugh. "How the hell did you do that?"

"What do you mean?" asked Rik, his voice urgent.

"When I came in, I could see right through you! Was it your reflection? Some sort of trick with the mirror?"

"I wish! That would be cool, right?" Rik laughed. "But no, you must have been imagining things."

But Jaxon didn't think he had.

Another two years passed before Rik let him in to the secret.

~~~

Jaxon peppered him with excited questions.

"Wow! You can see into the future? What's it like? Have we discovered aliens yet?"

Rik laughed. "Honestly, it looks much the same as here. It's hard to tell, I can't see very much from inside my head. Don't tell Mum and Dad, but one day, soon, I'm going to try and go there, for real, and find out for myself."

Jaxon had felt proud that Rik had shared his secret with him, but anxious at the same time. What if something went wrong? Maybe he should tell Mum and Dad just in case.

And then, it was too late. All of a sudden it seemed, Rik was preparing to go.

His brother had smiled and squeezed his shoulder one last time. "I'll be home in time for dinner."