Chapter 5 – Part 2

Forgetting about my plans for a jog, I turned around and sprinted back to my house and tore through the yard, not slowing down until I had reached the front door. I was about to jerk open the door when I caught a hold of myself. I needed to calm down. I couldn’t go into the house in this kind of state. My parents would worry that something was wrong.

Chapter 5 – Part 1

I had been watching the Parker house all day. Whenever I happened to walk near a window with a view to the house, I would glance to see if Peter Blank had returned. But by the early evening, the house had still remained modern. This was very frustrating for me, as I had several burning questions for Peter Blank.

Chapter 4 – Part 5

Now you have some idea of my power, said the Grim Guider. And yes, the events you mentioned are due to time twists.
And what are time twists? I asked.
Time twists are obviously orchestrated by me. They occur when I take a certain element of the world and revert it to how it was many years or even centuries ago. But these time twists can only be seen be seen by you. That is what caused the rather delicious situation when you and Angela saw a different person standing in the same place and doing identical actions.

Chapter 4 – Part 4

That night I found it difficult to sleep. My mind was racing through the day’s events at a blistering pace, from the changing bedroom floor, to the return of the wrestling men, all the way up to the strange events surrounding my encounter with Peter Blank, and the latter’s connection to the Grim Guider.

Chapter 4 – Part 3

I felt paralyzed. What could I say? If I told him that I did, he would want to know why, and then they would find my room ransacked. But if I remained quiet, the officer might just go away… I shrugged. “I never called the police.”

Chapter 4 – Part 2

Peter Blank was no longer standing in front of Angela and I. Instead, I saw a tall, middle-aged man wearing a green golfing shirt. It was none other than Mr. Parker. I looked over at Angela. Nothing about the man had changed for her, apparently. I rubbed my eyes thoroughly and looked back up. Mr. Parker was still standing there. Peter Blank was gone for now.

Chapter 4 – Part 1

I was in a rather tight situation. My parents would be home in two minutes. The police would follow them here in another two minutes. As if that wasn’t bad enough, a man whom Angela saw as Mr. Parker, and I saw as Peter Blank, was heading toward us. All of these things were going to happen simultaneously, and I needed to do some serious preparation.

Chapter 3 – Part 6

“Oh, I was just…” I began. “Bringing it in because of the rain forecasted for later tonight.”
I played the answer back in my head. It was plausible. I looked at Angela; she seemed convinced. “Oh, I guess I had better take in some of the things in our back yard too,” said Angela. I couldn’t tell, but there may have been a hint of a mocking tone in that last statement. Or maybe I was just paranoid.

Chapter 3 – Part 5

As I stepped out the back door of Peter Blank’s house, I was immediately hit by the vibrancy of the colors. Inside of Peter’s house, everything was dull and gray. Outside in the present day, trees swayed in the wind beneath the bright sun, and the red paint from the house on the next street contrasted brilliantly with a blue car in its driveway… and who am I kidding? Dempster Duggins is not supposed to care about the beauty of nature. Annoyed, I climbed out of Peter’s back yard and across the driveway to my own back door. The door was ajar, and there were two clean boot prints on the welcome mat.

Chapter 3 – Part 4

I followed Peter’s slow progress into the small kitchen. There was a vague aroma left over from lunch; the smell of bacon wafted from the ancient stove. Peter pointed his cane to the refrigerator. Stuck to the appliance with a magnet was a calendar. I could tell that it was from National Geographic by the yellow rectangle. I peered closer to the calendar in order to determine the year.
I flipped the calendar to the cover page. And there I saw it. Something so unbelievable under normal circumstances, but almost believable based on everything that had happened in the last two days. The year on the cover, in an old but fancy brown font, was 1942. I looked back at Peter. He smiled at me.