The Pickpocket

Chapter 16 - Back To The Future?

After that it gets quite boring, really. Dad and I found Owen, fixed our injuries (not really necessary, as the pocket watch was radiating some kind of energy that healed us almost immediately) and came back to the future.

Well, when I say the future, I mean 23:14. My finger slipped.

“Jamie!” Dad wailed when he saw where we were. We were standing in the middle of the same field but it was full of caravans. I’d managed to land us in the middle of a fair.

“This is your home?” Owen asked, bewildered. I sheepishly explained what had happened, not quite catching Dad’s eye. I could feel his angry glare burning into the back of my neck and finally looked up.

“Jamie. We. Are. In. The. Effin’. Future,” Dad growled through gritted teeth, “and I have no bloody eyebrows!”

“Actually, sir, you do,” Owen said helpfully. I glared at him and he looked worried. Dad cuffed me around the back of the head and stormed off. Sighing, I followed him.

“Dad?” I asked when he’d finally stopped walking and was leaning against a silver tree, “what’s wrong with the future? I mean, it’s pretty cool here, ain’t it?”

Dad sighed, a heavy sigh, full of regret and sorrow. That one action made the hairs on my arms stand up and my skin prickle with fear. It takes a lot to make my dad scared, let alone sad.

“Y’know how I went back in time before?” Dad said eventually. I nodded, afraid to press him further. Dad looked down at his feet and sighed again. “Well, I went to the future too. Not the future you grew up in. Now, the twenty-fourth century. See this tree? I’ve leant against it before. The exact same tree. See?” Dad stepped away from the tree and I saw something carved into the wood - no, the metal. It was a metal tree.

“‘Go back. The watch is in the fire tent’,” I read out loud. Dad nodded and turned his head.

“And the fire tent is over there,” Dad said quietly. I looked in the direction of his gaze and felt the blood drain from my face. There was a person being lifted into the air by a sharp metal pole, electric blue fire crackling around them. The tent below seemed to create the fire and there were people in black uniforms herding everyone away. The person on the pole was yelling something and I strained my ears to hear it.  

“Jamie! Mr Hatchett! Help!”

 

*

 

Jamie went paler still at the sound of Owen’s voice. I knew what happened, I’d seen it happen before. My best friend, Matt, heard his twin brother Ben’s voice calling him from the fire tent. He ran to get him down and I followed, albeit reluctantly. I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen and I was right.

“Ben!” Matt yelled, pushing his way through the crowd. I weaved my way through after him, muttering apologies as I went. Before I could even think about what we were doing Matt was right at the edge of the fire tent, teetering on the edge. The edge? The fire tent was actually a massive pit, one side of which was made to look like a tent. I could hear the crowd laughing and jeering at our stupidity but Matt was determined. Telling me to hold the crowd back (which I did, at gunpoint - hey, where’d you think Jamie gets his pickpocket skills from?!) Matt walked backwards slowly. Ben’s cries were getting fainter and the heat from the fire was growing. My eyes stung and I coughed into my hand.

Then Matt began to run, faster and faster, closer and closer to the edge of the pit. Matt was the high jump champion but I knew that he wouldn’t be able to jump over the wall of fire.

So I pulled him back, grabbed the back of his jacket. Gravity took hold and Matt fell into the fire. His screams mingled with Ben’s and they have haunted me forever.

I spoke with some of the locals afterwards. Apparently, that happens once every hour. They told me that if the jumper actually saves their friend then the fire goes out. If the fire gets two victims at once, the fire goes out. That’s how I got the pocket watch back.

Once I had it I ran back to the tree. Turning the dial to take me back to 1915, I rescued Jamie from the orphanage and vanished again before anyone could stop me.

Talking of stopping people, I should have said something to Jamie about what was going to happen.

Should have.

But didn’t.

 

*

 

“Owen!” I yelled, knocking people out of my way as I ran to the fire tent. Once there I jumped, as high as I could, adrenaline lending me strength. The fire licked at my ankles and I cried out as I felt my skin blister. Two burns in one day, I thought, personal record.

“Jamie!” Owen called, wriggling on his post. I reached out an arm but couldn’t quite reach him and I felt myself falling. The fire rushed around me and I squeezed my eyes tight shut.

Don’t worry, a kindly voice said, I have you now. I’m sorry if my brother caused you any inconvenience.

I swore at this. First I was being burnt, then I was falling to my death, then I was being rescued by the fire and something was talking to me in my head. I swore again.

Please, sir, mind your language, the same voice said anxiously. It was a young boy and, looking down, I could see a pair of big blue eyes staring up at me worriedly. My brother will hear and he will kill you.

“Um… what are you doing?” I asked. The boy waved his hand towards a large oven-type thing and the fire flared around me. I heard Owen cry out in pain as I was raised upwards.

I am stoking the fire, the boy replied. His mouth had been sewn shut but he was still able to smile. My brother wishes that I do it. He gets hungry and needs human. You are not human so I am helping you. Can you be my pet?

“Whaddya mean, I ain’t human?” I yelled, my eyes stinging. “I was born on Earth, I lived on Earth and by the looks of things, I’m gonna die on this Earth!”

The boy seemed unsure. But there’s a power around you, signifying you to be not human. If you are human… The boy raised his arm and the fire grew hot again around me. I cried out as my skin began to bubble and burn.

“Wait! No! I am an… alien!” I screamed. The fire dipped again and I was in mid air. Instinctively I reached out for something and one of my hands was met by a hot, metal pole. The same pole that Owen was strapped to. Pulling myself towards it and wrapping my legs around it, I began to climb upwards, dragging myself up with tired arms and rapidly burning hands. I couldn’t feel any pain anymore and that began to worry me slightly.

“Owen!” I choked. The smoke from the fire was hurting my throat and making my voice croaky and virtually non-existent. I could see Owen’s feet just above my head so I headbutted them. Owen groaned and blinked down at me, eyes widening in shock.

“Jamie!” Owen exclaimed. I waved with my free hand.

“Hello. I’m your knight in slightly-burnt jeans and  T-Shirt,” I said as cheerfully as I could muster. Owen shook his head frantically.

“No, that thing!” he replied, “the big fire demon thing! Like a.. a…” Owen tailed off and I twisted around to see what the ‘thing’ was. I felt my face go white and my arms go limp.

“It’s a dragon,” I said weakly.