Time Passages (Queen or Freddie Mercury Fanfic)

8. The Not-So-Great Escape

Danny

I have no idea what's going on.

I'm so confused right now. There's just so many weird things happening, all the guys are dressed up like girls, all the girls are dressed up like guys, and the ones that aren't still look really creepy except that one lady in the funny hat which gave Mom directions; she's the most normal one here. At least now Mom's got me. I'm not as scared as I was, though I don't get why Mom is for some reason wearing her Catwoman costume from last Halloween.

"So all this stuff is real?" I ask.

Mom nods, reaching down into her collar to grab something.  "Very real."

"But K told me T-Rod was like the Matrix."

"Yeah, he told me that, too, at the end. But it's very real- as real as you are."

My head hurts. "Then- then-"

"Danny, you weren't inside T-Rod, you were in Speck, which is a time machine plus a whole bunch of other stuff apparently. We're in the mid 1980s in Germany- and K is waiting for us forty-two years from now. So we'd better move."

It's all real?  Oh, dang.  Now I'm even more scared.  The mean guy with the black shirt might actually try and get us!  I try to warn Mom about him, thinking he's the Freddie guy, but she corrects me, says his name is Paul, then makes me take a rubbery-feeling pill with a pinkish gel inside.  I swallow it, even though it sticks a little in my neck like I knew it would. 

But then Mom's head jerks up and she hisses, "Danny, hide!"  And then she scrambles back into the dark.

I frown.  "What?"

That's when I realize the door is opening.  Mom said to hide, but I'm too scared to move.  I freeze up and stay right where I am, curling up on the floor almost like I'm bowing down before a king.  I really hope he doesn't yell at me. 

After a second, the man says, "Well."

My shoulders relax a little.  It's not Paul.  It's a different guy.

But then, I start to wonder if he might be worse.  My arms are kind of smushing my hood against my ears and I can't hear very clearly, but his voice is really ticked off when he tells me something that sounds like, "Get up or I'm going to whip you."

I let out a teeny little whimper, and tuck up even tighter than before, even though that's what he said not to do.  I am so scared, I just don't want him to hurt us.  I didn't do anything bad. 

I hear some rustling as the man gets closer, and a hand touches the top of my head.  I relax a little, and now I can actually hear what he's saying. "Please look at me, you're not in trouble, I just want to, uh..."

He has kind of a weird voice. It's not at all like the one Dr. Preus has.  I've always thought his voice sounded like a trumpet- not that he's really loud but his voice is kind of brassy and clear, not very nice to listen to for very long. But this guy sounds soft, low, and a little fuzzy, more like a clarinet; I know because sometimes when I'm over at Lauren's house, she'll be practicing on hers for the school band. His accent is weird, too, way more British than Mom's. For some reason, even though he sounded so mad before, it makes me feel better, a lot less scared.

I start to sit up, but then I stop, because I hear the mean Paul's voice say,"Shall I remove him for you?"

Now the hand pats my shoulder, and the softer-sounding guy tells Paul to basically go away.  I let out a "whew" and sit up, still covering my head.

When Paul is gone, the guy says, sounding annoyed again, "Oh, would you take it easy? My God. I'm really not going to eat you, okay?"

I don't want to make him madder, so I lift my head, lower my hood, and push my glasses further up my nose.  It's the man I saw on the dance floor, the one I thought needed a hug or something.  And I smile.