The Boy and The Psycho

743

After a short time, both Five's finally stop blinking everywhere and blink in front of each other tiredly.

"Getting tired yet?" The older Five pants.

"I can do this all day."

"Ooo that's hot," I shout as I grab my heart.

"Guys, this has to stop," Luther interrupts.

"Eat shit, Ape Man," both Five's shout.

They both run at each other and blink at the same time, causing their two blinks to clash, sending them flying backward onto the pavement.

Luther quickly grabs the sniper from the ground and points it at the two, "hey! Assholes! I'm done listening to you both. I'm in charge now," he shouts as he points the gun back and forth at the two Five's on the ground.

"Now, Luther! Shoot him!" The older Five's shouts up at our brother.

"No! Luther, shoot him!" The other Five shouts as he stumbles up to his feet.

I jump off the hood of the car and run behind Luther, hiding behind him slightly.

The two boys shout at Luther to shoot the other as Luther points the gun back and forth. Finally, he turns and points the gun towards the younger Five.

"Luther, what the hell are you doing?" I shout as I grip onto the back of his coat.

"Luther..." Five pants as Luther aims the gun at him.

I begin to cry quietly as my older brother ignores my pounding fists on his back.

"I'm sorry, buddy," Luther says quietly as the four of us wait for him to pull the trigger on the younger Five.

All of a sudden, Luther swings the gun around and hits the older Five in the face with the butt of the rifle. He groans as his body smacks the ground and Luther hustles over to the fence.

"Now! Open the portal!" I shout at the younger Five as I wipe the water from under my eyes.

"Right," Five turns to the car I was once perched on and begins churning the energy in his fists, causing a portal to ripple open and our 2019 selves are shown on the receiving end.

Luther and I wait behind Five as the energy crackles louder and louder and the wind blows into our faces.

All of a sudden, I hear a noise behind me and turn around quickly to the older Five slowly reaching for the briefcase. I tap Luther on the arm and he swings around to face him.

"Don't even think about it!" Luther shouts as he points the gun at the older Five.

"Into the vortex you go, asshole," Five shouts as he points to the portal.

"Fine! But give me the math. So I don't end up looking like Tiger Beat over here," the older man shouts as the wind blows harshly at our faces.

"You stand next to the vortex and I'll tell ya. Go!"

The old man slowly inches towards the vortex, all of us watch each other closely making sure we all keep our deal.

"Closer!" I shout as he slowly inches near the vortex.

"This is close enough! Now give it to me!"

Five looks to Luther and I and the two of us both nod, signaling that he seems okay.

"It was a typo," Five begins.

"Typo?"

"We put the decimal in the wrong spot in our proof of the existence of a bound for the number of limit cycles of planar polynomial vector fields of fixed degree. We wrote done five-point-seven. It should be..."

"zero-point-five-seven," they both chorus together.

"Son of a bitch. I knew that didn't look right. All right... I guess this is it," the older Five looks at the three of us and then to the vortex.

"This is it. Go," younger Five says.

All of a sudden, the fire extinguisher Klaus threw in 2019 shoots out of the vortex, hitting Luther in the head, knocking him out.

I look up from my brother on the ground to the two boys running towards me.

"No!" Younger Five shouts as he chases the older Five.

I watch as the two boys fight over the briefcase as the vortex ripples smaller and smaller next to me.

"Five!" Luther shouts from the ground.

"It's shrinking!" I point.

Five struggles with the briefcase and then Luther kicks the old man into the vortex as it shrinks up for good.

I quickly help Five up to his feet as Luther comes up behind the two of us.

"We did it!" Luther shouts as Five and I look down at the ruined briefcase.

"The briefcase, you idiot," I mumble quietly as Five and I walk over to the fence.

"What?" Luther pants as he looks at the briefcase, "hey, you know what? A thank-you for preserving your existence would be nice."

Five and I silently pace back and forth as the radio chatters behind us.

"And here they come. The presidential car is moving out..."

I look up at Five and we both book it to the fence.

"Luther! Luther! Here he comes!" Five shouts as he pulls himself up to see over the fence.

Luther rushes over and picks me up so I can see over the fence with the two taller boys.

"Look, there's Dad. What do we do?" I ask worriedly as I point to the man with the black umbrella on the knoll.

"Uh-oh," Five mumbles as Luther and I turn to see what he's looking at.

"Oh, shit," I begin.

"Diego," the three of us finish together as we watch Diego sprint across the grass towards Dad.

All of a sudden, Diego crashes into Dad and hovers over him for a second. The gunshots ring out and all of the crowds of people run away screaming as the presidential cars pick up speed away from the scene.

"KLIF bulletin, from Dallas, three shots reportedly were fired at the motorcade of President Kennedy today, near the downtown section. KLIF News is checking out the report. We will have further news and updates soon."

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EDITED