"Did you fall asleep back there?" a familiar voice calls from the front seat.
Evan groans tiredly in response, the haziness of sleep around him slowly fading into reality. He's awake now, and something immediately feels off. He's in the backseat of his parents' old car, the one they sold two years ago and there his parents are in the front, looking younger than when Evan last saw him. Panic settles in. What is he doing here of all places? Just what had the clock really done?
"What are we doing here?" Evan asks and instantly he shrieks in horror. His voice sounds younger too! Like a total pipsqueak.
Evan's mother sighs. "Evan, we've been over this. You're staying with your aunt Kathryn, and that's final!"
Oh no, Evan thinks, No, no, no, no way he's been transported all the way here, but as he catches a glimpse of himself in the mirror overhead, he sees a 12 year old looking back, the very same age he'd been when he spent the summer with his great-aunt. The very summer any chance of a normal life for Evan was tarnished. And now he's back here. It's cruel. Evan wants to scream. So he does.
"No, no, this can't be happening!" Evan yells.
His loud voice seems to agitate Trigger, who's currently sitting beside him with his head out the window, letting out a startled whimper. Oh god, Trigger! Evan can't believe it. Trigger had been there that summer too, eaten some Monster Blood and grown to the size of a house. Before he met Andy, Trigger really was his best friend, but he'd eventually passed on, as all old dogs tend to sadly do, and just seeing him again brings on an emotional response. Instantly, Evan wraps his arms around Trigger in a tight hug, petting his soft fur. The poor dog looks surprised at the sudden affection, and so too do Evan's parents.
"Evan, I really don't know what's gotten into you, but you can't come to Atlanta with us. We'll only be a couple weeks at most." his mother says.
"You have to listen to me, Mom, Dad, I know this sounds crazy, but I shouldn't be here. I'm not 12, I'm 17! Last night, I was almost killed by a monster who wanted to take over an entire town. I tried to time-travel to stop him, but now I'm here. I know everything that's going to happen, and you have to take us far away from here. Aunt Kathryn's cat, she's really an evil witch named Sarabeth who's enslaved her and taken away her hearing. She's going to use her magic to curse this stuff called Monster Blood, and it's going to keep growing and growing, eating whatever it wants, and it's almost going to KILL me. I can't stay with her! I can't live through this again!" Evan pleads.
Evan's parents just stare at each other, looking like they're not sure how to respond, but then they look just plain angry.
"Evan. I really don't have time for your crazy stories. I don't know where you've gotten this one from, maybe you've been reading too many comic books or your dad let you watch a scary movie, but Kathryn is not a witch and her cat is just a cat. And I don't know what this Monster Blood nonsense is about, but you're staying here. End of story." Evan's mom says.
"Your mother's right. I wish you'd stop being such a child for once and start acting like a man." his father scolds him.
Evan just scowls. Of course they don't believe him. Why did he ever expect them to? Before he can say anything else, the car has pulled into the gravel driveway and Evan sees the familiar sight of Aunt Kathryn's small gray house. Already he has chills, and as he opens up the car door to let Trigger out, the dog begins running in circles around the rectangular yard. Evan's heart breaks seeing him look so happy, because to him, it was Trigger in better days.
Evan has practically this whole neighborhood etched into his memory. Every house is as he remembers. But then he spots something across the street that makes him pause. A black car, almost a limousine. Evan doesn't know if he's imagining it or what, but the driver, an odd, thin-looking man with a suit and sunglasses, looks as if he's staring right at Evan. Studying him. If the guy was there when Evan was a kid, he doesn't remember, but he feels very out of place, and that makes Evan nervous. Stepping up to the front door, he watches as his mother knocks on the door.
"Mom—why are you knocking?" Evan asks, "You said Aunt Kathryn was totally deaf."
Evan doesn't know the words even leave his mouth. He hadn't been thinking them. It's as if he's just following a script and going along with it. He watches as his mom's face reddens with embarrassment.
"You got me so upset, Evan, with all your complaining, I completely forgot. Of course she can't hear us." his mother replies.
And then the door finally opens. Evan finds himself once again startled just looking at his great-aunt. She's intimidating, with her black hair pulled into a long ponytail and pale sunken face. Not to mention the knife in her hand, currently dripping blood.
"I was slicing beef," she says in her deep voice, waving around the bloody knife. "You like beef?"
"Uh… yeah." Evan replies. Even now seeing the blade makes him nervous. Kathryn obviously doesn't have great knife skills. One wrong move and she'll take out someone's eye.
"He's big," Kathryn says to his mother, "A big boy. Not like his father. I used to call his father Chicken. Because he was no bigger than a chicken."
Then she laughs at her own joke and Evan is groaning having to relive this conversation, so he just starts drowning it all out, only snippets of information managing to enter his ears.
"I can tell by looking he's a good boy," Kathryn says before grabbing Evan's face to inspect.
Evan feels himself squirming as she examines his face. At least Mr. Dark kept his hands to himself.
Good-looking boy," Kathryn says, giving his chin a hard squeeze. "He likes the girls?"
Well, sorta, Evan thinks to himself. How would Kathryn react if he told her liked guys too? As Aunt Kathryn continues to get up in his face, embarrassment rushes through him. Her cold blue eyes just leer at him, and then there's that pungent breath. Evan has to remind himself that while his great-aunt is odd, once this little adventure is over, he'll discover she is a good woman after all, someone who, like him, had something bad happen out of sheer bad luck. Evan may never truly know all the details to her past and what exactly happened with Sarabeth to begin with, but surely, Kathryn didn't deserve this punishment. Still, her strange sense of humor as she starts to threaten to bake Trigger into a pie is more than a little grating. Made even more so by the fact that he's lived through all this before.
Evan helps his mother carry his suitcase up to his room and he's instantly hit by the smell of mothballs. It makes Trigger sneeze, and Evan too. He peers out the window that faces the backyard. All of this is too familiar, and just like he did way back then, he wants to be out of this stupid house and anywhere else.
"I'm late. Don't want to miss my plane," his mother says.
She gives him a hug, a long one, and he's struck by the scent of her perfume. She really doesn't wear it anymore as far as Evan knows but he still associates it with her. He's not really used to getting hugs anymore either. That seemed to fade away once he reached a certain age. Maybe it's because Evan really was concerned with wanting to seem tough, or something else, but in hindsight, it seems pretty silly now. Evan starts wondering just where his parents are, back in the present in Dark Falls, and he once again feels afraid. If Mr. Dark was able to hypnotize them as he said he had, just what else does he have in store? While his parents are far from perfect, Evan hopes they're safe.
From out of her pocket, Evan's mom hands him a ten-dollar bill. "Buy yourself a treat. Be good. I'll hurry back as fast as I can."
She says goodbye and Evan is left alone in the room staring at the ten-dollar bill in his hand like it's a cursed object he shouldn't be touching. This is what I'm going to use to buy the Monster Blood, Evan thinks, This is what's going to cause all the trouble. Just glancing at it, Evan realizes now he's faced with an interesting choice. He's literally gone back in time. He can change what happens by just not buying the goddamn Monster Blood in the first place. Maybe then he can finally fix his nightmare of a life and have an ordinary childhood free of bad dreams. But then new thoughts creep in. Who's to say something even more terrible won't happen? What if Sarabeth curses some other object and that's what terrorizes him? And what about the costs? Will he be erased from existence if he doesn't purchase the stuff? Evan has no idea how this whole time travel thing even works.
Then he thinks of Andy and his other friends in Dark Falls and knows he can't just abandon them. Evan sighs. Why does making the right choice have to be so hard? But the problem remains of how exactly Evan's going to escape. Does he really have to wait five years just for a chance to get the upper-hand on Mr. Dark? No. There has to be an easier way, right?
He pockets the money and finds himself drawn to the closet, passing shelves of dusty old books. Evan knows exactly what's going to happen when he opens that closet- Sarabeth, the evil black cat, really a witch in disguise is going to come flying out. Sure enough, that's exactly what happens, but Evan has the tact to avoid it this time and now he's just staring at the cat on the ground, barely noticing as Aunt Kathryn appears in the doorway.
She begins talking to the cat as Evan watches as Sarabeth rubs against her leg. The mewing noises she makes unnerves him.
"Did Sarabeth scare you?" Kathryn asks. "That cat has a strange sense of humor. She's evil. Pure evil."
Yeah, no kidding, Evan thinks, and now he knows just how evil Sarabeth really is. The cat is looking at Evan strangely. He's tempted to just cut the bullshit and demand the cat reveal itself, but he's unsure of how exactly that would end. Then Evan wonders if it's possible Sarabeth somehow knows he's time-traveled? It sounds a bit crazy but surely there must be some kind of magical detection for this sort of thing. Looking at Trigger, Evan wonders if the dog can sense her true form too, because he wastes no time taking a swipe at the cat. Maybe it's true that animals can see things humans can't. Evan finds himself cheering on Trigger until he's reminded of Aunt Kathryn's rules about fighting in the house.
I have to find a way out of here, Evan thinks, The more time passes the more he risks something catastrophic, be it screwing up the timeline or whatever. The next events play out just as Evan remembers. He takes Trigger on a walk, only for the darn dog to start chasing after a squirrel. Evan's just about to grab the dog when a hand grabs him from behind and he hears an all too familiar voice.
"Hey—who are you?" it says.
He sees it coming, but it somehow startled nonetheless. Then Evan turns to see her. Andy. He can barely contain his excitement. Finally, Evan thinks, Andy will be able to help him get out of this. But then it hits him. This isn't quite his Andy. In fact, they're not even friends yet. It's hard to believe he's re-living their very first encounter and even stranger to see her look so relatively.. normal, for lack of a better word. Even now, though, Andy's look draws attention- an oversized yellow shirt over black spandex leggings and yellows Nikes. It's the kind of yellow so bright it hurts your eyes, but now it just makes Evan smile.
"Boy am I glad to see you!" Evan says. He doesn't mean to say it.
Andy looks at him oddly. "Do I know you?" she asks.
Not yet, but you will, Evan thinks to himself.
"Yeah. I'm me." Evan says. "I meant that I'm just glad to see another kid around here."
Nice save, Evan.
Andy nods. "Did you move into the Winterhalter house?"
"No. I'm just visiting." Evan replies.
Andy starts following him. She almost looks disappointed. Evan starts to think about how he's going to proceed with this conversation. Should he just play along or scare Andy off by telling her how he's time traveled and in the future they're trying to defeat an evil family of monsters?
"I'm staying with my aunt. Actually, she's my great-aunt." Evan says.
"What's so great about her?" Andy asks.
This time Evan laughs at her joke. Somehow it's a lot funnier knowing what someone's going to say before they say it.
"She's weird, but she's okay." Evan says.
He's surprised to hear himself coming to Kathryn's defense.
"I like weird people." Andy says. "Is that your dog? He looks real stupid. I like stupid dogs."
"What about stupid people?" Evan asks.
She likes him at least, doesn't she? Andy kneels down to pet Trigger, looking confused at his question.
"Not so much." Andy replies.
"His name's Trigger." Evan tells her
"Yeah. That's pretty stupid," she said thoughtfully. "Especially for a cocker spaniel."
Here it comes, Evan thinks.
"I have a stupid name, too," Andy says.
Evan almost forgets he has to ask her what it is. "What is it?"
"Andrea." Andy replies.
Evan chuckles. While so much has changed, one thing hasn't. Andy still despises being called Andrea. It was his one trump card over her.
"Let me guess." Evan says. "It's too stuck-up, like you should be wearing a corduroy jumper with a prim, white blouse, walking a toy poodle so everyone calls you Andy?"
Andy looks at him stunned and a little weirded-out. That's the part Evan was afraid of. Now he just hopes she doesn't run away.
"How do you know that?" she asks.
Evan smirks, a little embarrassed. "Because I have a stupid name too. It's Evan."
"That is pretty stupid," Andy replies. "But it doesn't explain a whole lot."
Fair enough, Evan thinks.
"Well, what if I told you we've met before? That I've already lived through this whole awful summer before?" Evan asks.
Andy just shrugs. "I guess I'd just call you a wackjob."
"Andy, do you believe in time travel? No, do you believe in monsters?" Evan asks.
Andy is still staring at him. "Why not? I'll believe anything if you pay me enough."
Evan chuckles. "Well, how does ten dollars sound? "
He pulls the bill from his pants and offers it to Andy, who wastes no time accepting it.
"Sweet." she replies. "Now what is this about monsters?"
Evan takes in a whoosh of air.
This is going to sound crazy, but I'm from the future. Sorta? I know exactly what's going to happen next. You and I are going to go to a novelty store called Wagner's Novelties and Sundries. There, I'm going to buy a dusty old can of something called Monster Blood that I never should have picked up in the first place. Heard of it? Well, it's evil. The Monster Blood is going to keep growing and eating everything, including a couple of people, but don't worry, they'll get spit back out. There's an evil witch involved in this too, but that's not important right now. What's important is the two of us become best friends, which might be hard to believe since I sound like a total weirdo. But when I move to Atlanta, you follow, but that's not the end of the Monster Blood. We end up feeding it to a hamster named Cuddles. He almost destroys the entire school until I eat some myself and turn into a giant to fight him. Then there's my cousin Kermit. We want to prank him and I end up eating Monster Blood again and get chased by the cops and the fire department. Then there's the Monster Blood that's not really Monster Blood but an underwater fighting force consisting of blue blob creatures that multiply upon drinking water. Long story, but we survive those encounters, Andy, and now we're in our greatest battle yet. There's someone named Lawrence Dark and he's taken over a town called Dark Falls. He wants to use the Monster Blood to turn the planet into undead creatures. He almost succeeded until I used a magic cuckoo clock to travel back in time and I ended up here, when I first encountered the Monster Blood. And uh.. that pretty much covers it." Evan explains.
By the end of his rambling, Evan is out of breath and realizes how crazy he probably sounds. Andy is just looking at him blankly.
"You're a weird kid, Evan." Andy replies. "But I guess I believe you."
Evan can't believe it. "Y-you really do?"
He wants to cheer.
"Well, maybe, not really, but you put a lot of effort into that story and I'd feel bad for you if I didn't. Plus you DID pay me." Andy replies.
Evan shrugs. He'll take what he can get.
"Trust me, Andy. Not even I could make up a story like that."
Andy raises an eyebrow in response.
"I really want to thank you for not calling me a wackjob. I knew I could count on you. You really are my favorite person." Evan says, and feels immediately embarrassed after.
Andy laughs. "Hey, don't get all mushy on me. I still think you're a wackjob. And probably an idiot too, but eh, I don't have anything else going on. And I don't really have a whole lot of friends either."
Andy mutters that last part, but Evan can hear it and feels a little bad for her.
"Hey, me too." he replies.
"So what now?" she asks. "We get that Monster Blood stuff?"
Evan nods. "The store owner won't want to sell it, but I manage to convince him. It will only cost us two dollars!"
Andy looks at him suspiciously. "Two dollars? And will this be coming out of MY allowance?"
"Relax, you'll have eight dollars, Andrea." Evan teases.
"Don't call me Andrea!" Andy gives him a playful shove. It still hurts.
The two are about to start walking when a black car rolls up. The same one Evan had seen watching him earlier. Just who are these guys? As the door opens, out steps what look like two secret agent types, both sporting the same suit and sunglasses combo. If Evan had to guess just by looking at them, he'd almost think they're from the government.
"Evan, are these friends of yours?" Andy asks.
"N-No. Not at all." Evan replies.
"You did something really stupid kid." one of the men says. "You think we wouldn't notice?"
"Yeah, stupid, stupid, stupid," the other guy responds. "He must be pretty dumb if he thinks he can just mess with time all willy-nilly like this. GUESS WHAT, KID? YOU'RE WRONG. DEAD WRONG."
"You got that right. Now you have to come with us."
"Yeah, COME WITH US!"
"I'm not going anywhere!" Evan yells. "You stay away from me!"
The two suited men laugh.
"You hear that? This kid thinks he can get off scot-free!" one of the men laughs. "In your dreams, kid! Soon you won't be sleeping at all!"
"Leave him alone!" Andy snaps.
"You stay out of this, girl! You're lucky you aren't our target. We're just here for the boy. Although we WILL have to wipe your memories, won't we?"
The other agent laughs and nods. "You got that right. The knowledge this boy has passed onto you is a severe violation of the Reality Codes. If he tells you anything more, or alters this timeline further, he may break reality itself."
Evan sweats nervously as the two men now surround him and Andy. They tower over them.
"Reality?" Evan asks. "Just who are you guys anyway?"
Both of the men laugh, like Evan's just told a joke.
"You want to know who we are? We're your WORST NIGHTMARE!" one of the men says with mad glee.
Evan stares blankly. It's not a helpful response.
"You really don't know? We're the Reality Police, kid, and we've come to arrest you for your crimes against reality!"
