The Prisoner in Time
I didn’t plan to land in prison, but I think it is the only thing keeping me alive. There have been twenty-eight attempts so far for my life, all of them made by me. Why my future self would be trying to kill me, I have no idea. Every week after my capture, there has been an attempt to get to me. I lie in fear in my dark cell, hoping for a pad to write things down. Put things into words and they start to make sense, my mother always said.
The first few were barely enough to even be called attempts. So unworthy, I hadn’t even heard about them until the fifth one, and even that, only because a guard was celebrating his birthday and happened to spill it over a glass of wine. I was my usual self, chatting with them about the bleak state of the cell and how it was unfair to put me inside for a small crime like that.
“You don’t know what it’s like outside.” he had said, “On the outside, we fight you every week. We keep you safe from yourself. There have been attempts on your life every week since you were brought in. The last one almost got through to the prison room and each one keeps getting better.”
“Why would I be trying to kill myself?” I had wondered. I knew it must be a future version of me. So, something was going to happen while I am in prison. Something that would make me attempt to go into the past to kill myself…
I have kept my eyes open and ears wide since then. Twenty-two attempts I have made since then, twenty-two times I have failed. And tonight is going to be the twenty-ninth one, I am sure of it. I have nailed my pattern and this time I am going to have a chat when I strike.
Illegal time travel… This was what my crime was. The government has always kept close tabs on anyone traveling in time. It’s too easy to use it for personal gains. A short trip back with a small tip could make one rich beyond doubt. All time travel was therefore limited to official trips to fix minor issues. Fiddling with time is a thing best left to the experts. I was not the expert. I was the person who found stuff that required these experts. You see, fixing things in time requires a detailed study of the events, of the persons we are trying to interfere with and more often than not, there was not enough material to study. This was what got me into trouble, I went looking too far into the past.
The power suddenly went off. It brought me back from my thoughts of the past whirling into the present. This was new, the first time future me was able to get the power off. Surely, this would be the end of me, I thought. Several flashlights started coming on slowly, guards fumbling to their feet. They had been expecting me this week, but not for another two hours. It was early this time. A loud thud and a flashlight was thrown from the first-floor lobby and that rested near my cell, shining bright white light through the bars, throwing tall shadows behind me.
Everything after this happened too quickly and he was suddenly in front of me, an older me, graying hairs, but much more muscular. A smile touched my lips, I (he) must have been working out. Before I could get any word out, he flung something at me. A dark round metallic ball, the torch glaring on its smooth surface. And then it hit me, this would be the end of me … and him I suddenly realized. He can’t live if I am dead.
