𝐛𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐫 [𝐡.𝐬]

chapter two

The world spins in here, rainbows of colours flash in front of my face. It's an instinct to duck but in here there is no point, nothing can hit you, it will just run straight through you. Sometimes you feel a shiver as something flies through your body, almost like a ghost tickling you. Today's journey back to present time felt different. I went flying past scenes of the past, an old couple fighting, a man with a moustache in a bunker. Soldiers playing football, 100's of woman stood at London, faces silent.

I had come across the time machine more than a year ago, not many know I own such a valuable and rare item. Everyone just thinks it's a scented candle. Tobacco and Vanilla. My head spins and the machine takes me off course. I appear not in the scene but simply watching a small boy run around his room, he seems happy. Rows of old Victorian toys line the walls like train tracks. The small boy can't be any older than 112.

The boy and I are both interrupted by a banging of a door, a man walks in. A crown upon his head like a trophy. "boy do behave! You are a prince!"

"father I want to be an explorer!"

"none of that rubbish boy!"

Just as I thought the scene has ended the crowned man leant forward and slapped the small boy around the face. I gasped and the boy leapt into tears. I expected the machine to do its usual and spit me back onto my bedroom floor, but it didn't. I stood staring at the crying boy until I heard a shuffle and a sniff from beside me.

I turned slowly, too see the man from the ball. He was stood watching the little explorer like a hawk. I was confused. The machine had never shown me someone I had already seen in the past down one of the corridors.

Suddenly the scene swirled, the toys and the boy becoming blurred distorted memories of the past.

The next 30 seconds of the travel to the present was a blur. I couldn't tell you anything that happened. I'm the only person who has travelled through the machine and I cannot explain or get to the sucking feeling when you come out. It feels like you're being sucked through the end of a vacuum, like a defenceless spider. It's all a blur of pain and discomfort until you land softly on the floor of your bedroom.

I traced my hand over the warm carpet for a few seconds, the past can be unkind and make you feel sick. So, it's best to stay still for a bit. Then, you forget who you are and where you are. You pick up random objects, trying to figure their value to you. I once came back to reality with a toothbrush in my ear.

I had just snapped from the haze. Turning around I saw the candle it was smoking. The smoke gracefully flying softly into the air like a ballerina swirling around the dark. This had never happened before. Panic rose from a place I had never experienced before.

The candle was after all some sort of magic, so I walked to it, keeping some sort of 2-meter distance at all time. It sputtered and sent sparks across my room, luckily not causing more fire. For a second, I thought I saw a face in the flame, but it disappeared.

Deciding it must just be overworked, I turned away from the candle. A few seconds later, there was a huge flump and a scream.

I turn to see the man, spread across my floor. His face was an awful shade of green and he looked faint. His hair was spread out across the floor, in swirls of golden brown. His dark pupils where dilated and a thin streak of forest green surrounded them.

He was staring off into the distance of my room. He snapped out of the first stage of machine travel and onto the part where you have no clue. He bounded up from the floor, the sick colour draining from his face to reveal beautiful soft and clear skin. He was a lot taller than what I had first seen at the dance, maybe it's because I had high heels on at our first meeting?