crazy pseudo scientists
Grinning to myself, I made my way back to my bedroom. Oh, yes this life turned out to be lovely. Full of adventure, exciting but not horror inducing. More like a children’s version of the last zombie infested world. My morning routine didn´t change, I only needed three hours sleep anyway, time travel in the night doesn’t faze me. Whistling, I made my way to the old man. Like some days I had my school uniform and bag already with me, I would shower in the dojo and head directly to school. That way I was able to train some more. Especially because I felt I wouldn´t be able to hold my routine in the near future. I was just throwing knives with a slightly deranged look, when I heard footsteps. Luckily, I recognized the approaching person, well lucky for them…I wouldn´t have minded a bit of killing in the morning. What do you expect from Death Master, sunshine and rainbows? I nailed the bullseye with my silver knife and turned around swiftly.
“How can I be of service?”
Normally the old man was never awake at this time of the day. Seven a clock was way too early for him. That left the conclusion, that he probably needed something from me. Especially taking his contemplating, carefully blank face into account.
“Spit it out, old man.” I grinned, pulling another dagger out of nowhere and spinning it around. He answered with a matching grin, laughing.
“I want you to participate in the next tournament, and trash everyone present”, blunt as ever. Now it was my turn to laugh
“Any reason? I did participate in the one last December, and you told me I brought down moral. Because not even the renowned masters were able to touch me.” I shrugged, what can you do?
The old man, maybe I should start referring to him with his real name? Nah… He nodded sagely, as if he was the reason that I was kicking butt each time. “I need money!“ I chuckled. I knew damn well, why I liked spending time with him. He was so straightforward, it was refreshing. I appreciate it if someone was honest with me. “You know the deal. It´s still 60/40, I do all the work, and you still get 40 percent. When is the next tournament?”.
“At six tonight.” For a second I was stunned.
“Sure, why not. Where is it, you know I am still not allowed to drive? And how the heck did you manage to get myself entered on such short notice?” The old man smirked. “I will drive you. It isn´t far anyway, only an hour by car. Blackmail is a wonderful gift." “Why do you need money this suddenly anyway?” “My woman wants a new chair and a new couch.” Solemnly and in full accord, we both signed: “Woman.” As if we had called the devil, the old man´s wife Roselyn came into view.
“Gwaine, good morning. Come on in you two, the breakfast is ready. Gwaine, you need to eat more since you are a growing man!” Usually I would get myself something from the cosy café at the corner, but Roselyn’s food was heaven, so who am I to complain?
Leslie met me at the school gate like every morning, only this time she was even more energized than usual. She had informed me, that she had researched all night, searching about the sect (Aunt Maddie had filled her in), time travel and prophecies. I listened patiently and with a small smile, while she ranted. As soon as she needed to breath, I interrupted and told her about my encounter with my grandpa last night.
“Why are you taking all of this so well? Shouldn´t you be frightened?” Leslie was shaking me with her hand on my shoulders. “Time travelling is nothing, compared…” Before my friend could ask more questions, we were interrupted by a giggling. blushing girl, her friends spying on us from two feet away Urgh, fan girls. Reminding myself that murder was not an option, I turned her way and nodded my head in greeting.
“I…mm…I…”, she took a deep breath, bracing herself, “I am in love with you, can you please be my date to the school ball?” The poor girl was heaving, like she had run a marathon. Hopeful eyes pleading me to say yes. I stepped a bit closer to her, in turn she started to hyperventilate even more. Grabbing her hand and planting a kiss on the air above it: “I am sorry, but I already have someone, I am about to ask.” I wasn´t even sure if the girl understood one word I said, but nevertheless I turned around and made my way into the school with Leslie.
“You are such a charmer and a heartbreaker to boot”, Leslie lightly punched my arm.
I only shrugged. The only person I want, was, is and will always be my soulmate. Just when we arrived on the second floor, I was overcome by that dizzy feeling again. Dropping my school bag, I winked to Leslie and vanished on the spot. Ball music greeted me. The corridor was lit by candles, laughter flowing through the building. I ducked behind a column, when a hysteric giggling man ran up the stairs, quickly followed by what seemed like a servant. The wonders of alcohol. Strolling through the corridor, I inspected the paintings on the wall. Admiring the craftsmanship of my school to be. When another two people climbed the stairs.
“What are we doing here? We shouldn´t wander around, the count will be searching for us”, tried a tense young man to reason, but his companion wouldn´t listen and shortly arrived on my floor.
I grinned. I already had an inkling who those two were. “Simply follow me, you will see in a moment.” I had to swallow down a laugh. It was funny for myself to meet myself in the past. Guessing my other self may have already experienced this meeting and the universe hadn´t collapsed, I revealed myself.
“What?”, Gideon froze stunned. My future-self seized our soulmate by the arm and dragged him into an empty room, I followed amused.
“Well, I love a good twist. Do tell, how is the future going? Still interesting?”, I asked, eyes twinkling. Future-self, having set Gideon down on a couch, answered: “Oh, it gets even better. Especially because I have this lovely man at my side.” Future-self caressed Gideon´s cheek gently. He promptly blushed.
“Yeah, we are truly fortunate.”
“Just one thing. Make sure to have shoes in size 43 in our flat”, advised future me. I just shrugged and made a mental note to buy some sneakers. That was not the strangest advice I had been given. Sadly, my time was up, I managed to plant a quick kiss on my soulmate’s cheek, before I was yanked back into the present.
Only my quick reflexes saved me from crashing straight into a human mannequin. I straightened and turned around, only to be confronted by a gaping Leslie. “I am back”, I deadpanned.
“I…wow…that’s amazing! Where were you? I had to lie to Mister Whitman…”
Mister Whitman was the new teacher. Leslie swore he resembled a squirrel. In my opinion he was a shady character, twisted and hiding something, he was one who wouldn’t mind walking over corpses to archive what he wanted. In my old age one learned to read people… After I had bluntly told Leslie these observations, she promptly dubbed him squirrel murderer.
“What did Whitman want?”
“He saw me standing in the hallway, your bag lying on the floor. He picked your bag up and started to interrogate me. Urgh, I told him you were feeling sick, throwing up everything in your stomach. I swear he wanted to strangle me.” “I am glad you survived”, came my sarcastic reply. Leslie, already used to ignoring some of my comments, argued: “Anyway you need to call you mom! You can´t just randomly disappear! You could seriously get hurt”, she handed me her phone all the while pinning me down with a demanding look.
I sighed, then grinned mischievously. Oh yes, let’s cause some chaos in that stuffy organisation. Not ten minutes later mom fetched me from school.
“So how is it that I have the genetic defect and not Charlotte?” Honestly maybe I was having too much fun with this situation. But who could blame me? This was no life or death match, no small misstep could mean my doom, so why shouldn´t I relax a bit. Mom dragged me through the city. “I will bring you to the lodge of Count Saint-Germain.”
“Oh, so this Count is supposed to be able to help me?”
“They are the only ones to be able to control your gene.”
“This all sounds way to shady…”
“Here we are”, mom pulled me into a huge building. It was huge, finely crafted and with lots of stone carvings. The entrance hall was wide open, hurrying up the stone stairs, we arrived at a small office. Like those you saw at the train stations, or ticket vendors because glass walls surrounded the person inside. The woman holding a teacup, smiled at our arrival.
“How can I help you? Oh, Miss Montrose, nice to see you.”
“Sheppard, I married. I urgently need to speak with Mr de Ville.”
“I am sorry, but they are all in an important meeting.”
“Then tell them I am bringing them the ruby.” The woman´s mouth fell slightly open, staring at me bewildered. “What?” Oh, this was entertaining. “This is no joke!” With that the woman put the cup down and hurried out.
“How is it, you know everything and everyone here so well?” “My grandpa was grandmaster in the lodge. They are investigating old myth, and time travellers like you.”
“How many time travellers are there?”
“As far as I know, only twelve. Almost all are long dead. You are the last one.”
“Grace? What a pleasure to see you.”
“Thomas George. I am afraid you will be the only one in that mindset.” Bemused I followed mum and Thomas into a pretentious hall.
The ornaments were even more pronounced, old paintings, marble and outlandish archways everywhere. On the left sitting on a couch were my aunt and Charlotte. But the man in the front demanded my attention. He was sitting behind an office desk, scrutinizing me like I was some kind of strange insect. I only arched an eyebrow, it was sweet how he tried to be intimidating. Next to him, still standing, was a man wearing glasses and a bowtie. He prompted me to tell him about my time travelling experience. Somehow I fell back into the depriving mode I had back in my last life. Explaining short and to the point. The eyes of the people in the room were getting bigger and bigger, not trusting their ears.
“Is that the truth, Gwaine?”, my aunt asked almost breathless.
I only levelled her with a short look, trying and failing to find me lying, she turned to the deskguy: “That’s impossible! Charlotte is the gen carrier, her date of birth was predicted”, interrupted the man at the desk.
Mom signed and confessed: “In truth Gwaine was born the same day as Charlotte.”
“What!?”, my aunt exclaimed outraged.
Mom turned to me, an apology written all over her face. “Your dad and me bribed the nurse for your birth certificate.”
“How can this woman believe we trust in even one word she says? She was the one, who helped Lucy and Paul with their escape.” Attempting, and only succeeding because of my long life and consequently career as an actor / human, I kept a straight face. “You forged my birth certificate? And what does Lucy have to do with anything?”
“We always hoped, you didn´t inherit the gene.”
“That’s outrageous!” My aunt was so entertaining…well not only my aunt, the whole situation would definitely get a high rank on my most-hilarious-moments list. It would be right under the moment, when I the good-for-nothing-dead-last-ninja revealed being a successful businessman and consequently their last hope.
“My sister is once again attempting to catch attention, in her own pathetic way.”
“I would be damn glad, if Charlotte would carry on being the test subject of you crazy pseudo scientists!” It´s getting better and better. Oh, yes. The deskman in his black suit was starting to get angry. Standing up and striding towards us, all the while in a monologue about irresponsibility. “I hope you can deal with your conscience. It wasn´t bad enough, that you settled for that looser back then.”
“Still jealous Falk? After all these years…”
“Grace you still haven´t understood. Putting your small miserable happiness over our ideals. Where are you now?”
“We need to protect Gwaine from uncontrollable time jumps. I request nothing else.” Now, that she reminded me. I kinda feel like I could go on a time trip. I was slowly getting used to the time travelling and was starting to be able to predict how and when it happend. Dealing with magic for so long and knowing your body inside out gives you some perks.
“Keep an eye on him. Don´t let him out of your sight.” I narrowed my eyes on that Falk guy. He could mean trouble. I don´t get bossed around. I am way too old for this controlling shit. Mr George entered the room, leading me out.
“Come on, the crazy pseudo scientists won´t harm you.” I couldn´t quite suppress my retort: “Oh, no I am way faster than you.”
Mr George grinned, and when we were out of earshot, asked eagerly: “Is it true you are supposed to be participating in the big karate tournament this evening?”
Surprised, I shrugged. “Sure, well it was planned. As long as you pseudo scientists are going to set me free in time.” His eyes were almost twinkling, his steps seemed to have gained a happy skip. “I will make sure of it. I absolutely love it when you totally thrash them.” I couldn’t surpass a laugh. Who would have thought the old man was a fan.
“By the way I was a friend of your grandfathers, he loved talking about you. It´s so nice finally seeing you face to face. He was always trying to goad me into playing chess with him, claiming he had to practice to win against you.”
“All the practice in the world won´t help you, old man.”
“Let me introduce you to Gideon.” I smiled slightly in anticipation. I longed to see my soulmate. Gideon was playing the violin as we entered the room.
“This is Gwaine Shepherd. Gwaine this is Gideon de Villiers.” I leaned in the doorframe, taking in Gideon in a white shirt with a vest, his shoulder length brown her pinned back in a small ponytail. Ahh, I loved this life. Only because I watched Gideon really carefully, did I notice the slight red colour on his cheeks as he addressed me.
“Yes, we have already met at Charlotte’s birthday party.” “That´s true, it was a pleasure to meet you then, as it is now”, I replied smoothly.
“Sadly, I wasn’t able to get your phone number, but as luck would have it, we will be able to meet more frequently now anyway.” At the comment about the phone number, his blush grew more pronounced. Only to shrink again, as the rest of my words registered. “More frequently?”
“Possibly, Gwaine is the new Charlotte.” Gideon needed a second to assimilate the new knowledge.
Then his eyes lit up and he grinned at me, only to realize how obvious he was behaving and to try to smother the happy smile. Not that he was succeeding. I found it all so precious. I had to hold myself in check, and not pull him into my arms and kiss him silly. Mr George was watching all this with an amused air, keeping his thoughts and observations to himself for now.