NINE TIME MACHINES: Do you want to undo your entire life on planet earth?

CHAPTER 192

Just where the hell is my serpent? This type of behaviour I've come to expect of the shadow, but the serpent once swore she'd be with me till the end. So I demand better. But after waiting a while, I give up on seeing it appear, and move on down the next step. This time the stairs are littered with snakes. Some even break free the walls and dangle above me. Now pitch darkness kicks in. The only light is a disco bulb flashing different colours on the stairway itself, allowing the snakes to play hide and seek with me. Then it stays on red for a few seconds, just long enough to make me notice that the steps are no longer their vertical horizontal selves. Each one I touch makes what was vertical become horizontal and vice versa. Now they've added diagonals to the mix, stretching my sanity to its limit. I slump to the floor disoriented.

Moments later I come to my senses only to be caught in a snake's web. A familiar face hovers over us. He seems to be everywhere since our first meeting, popping up when least expected.

"Seems like you've found yourself in a tight spot, my dear?" Andromalius says.

"It's your snake. Tell it to release me."

"Not just yet. It's not that tight. Plus I need your undivided attention."

"So you got your snake to wrap around me? You couldn't just ask for a meeting?"

"You've been quite busy playing god," he explains. "I didn't want to interrupt."

"Then why now?"

"You're almost at the end of the road. I felt there were some things you needed to know."

"At least tell it to loosen up a bit."

"Not just yet."

"Get on with it then!" I say giving up, and the scenery changes to Florence Street Extension.

"Why do you think the old man chased you here?"

"To meet my destiny," I say in a mocking tone.

"Or to remember something you've kept buried."

"There's nothing for me to remember about that place. I've only been there once."

"More than once. Twice to be exact."

I laugh. "Maybe if I were some old senile woman. But not while I'm still young."

"And then the priest dragged you to safety inside the very same house."

"What are you saying? That we lived in the priest's house? No! Don't even say another word!"

"And the answer is yes," he says anyway. "You lived here the first few months."

"But none of this makes sense. We lived on Freedom Street."

"Your aunt had already stolen the house," he reveals. "The hopefuls took you in."

"What! No!"

"The priest's mother to be exact."

"Then why do I remember Father Paul driving us to Freedom Street?"