Family Reunion: Father, Part 2

Without telling anyone, Tom discovered his father’s location by tracking the bending and manipulation of time that Geoff was using to stay hidden. However, knowing what the others would say, Tom choose to face his father alone.

In the middle of Dartmoor was an old abandoned shack that was shrouded in time distortions, which appeared to disappear and reappear at random intervals in time. However, Tom had found a pattern that allowed him to distinguish that the time between each appearance had been halving since its first recorded appearance.

Having first appeared on Christmas Eve 2006, Tom had managed to note down that the time between each appearance halved, with the initial gap being thirty-two weeks; which when paired with its last appearance allowed Tom to figure out that the house would next drop on March ninth, 2008.

The two day window before its appearance gave Tom all the time he needed to plan and entrap the location where the shack normally materialised, giving him the upper hand in the fight against the suspected inhabitant.

Almost as soon as the house appeared, Tom fired his makeshift cannon that tore through all matter that wasn’t living, leaving Geoff stood in the middle of the field.

            ‘Do you mind?’ Geoff yelled. ‘It took me ten years to get that house to disappear and reappear again.’

            ‘Really?’ Tom laughed. ‘Given another year and it would be vanishing at a rate that would be unnoticeable to any human.’

            ‘And I could have used that year to find a way of hiding it permanently,’ Geoff explained.

            ‘What do you need to hide from?’ Tom asked while forming his sword of temporal energy in his right hand.

            ‘You and Jackie,’ Geoff remarked. ‘You both want to kill me just as much as the other right now.’

            ‘You know what,’ Tom sighed. ‘I really don’t care about why she wants to kill you.’

            ‘Then for your own sake I hope you kill me before she gets the chance,’ Geoff smiled shyly as he formed his own sword out of temporal energy. ‘I’m going to make you work for it though.’

            ‘I wouldn’t expect anything less,’ Tom snarled as he suddenly ran at his father at neck breaking speeds.

Geoff swung his sword up into the air as Tom brought his own down towards his father. The resulting clash released a shockwave that sent Tom flying backwards and into a tree while Geoff was forced downwards through the ground and into the Catacombs below.

Suddenly forgetting about Tom above, Geoff’s eyes darted from left to right as he suddenly realised where he was. ‘Janet…’ he whispered sadly before a series of images depicting a family party flashed through his head before focusing on an old woman standing opposite Jackie as Tom watched from the side. ‘It worked!’ he exclaimed excitedly as Tom brought his sword down into Geoff’s back.

            ‘What worked?’ Tom asked as his father slumped to the ground.

            ‘I couldn’t kill Janet, so I tried to teleport her back in time,’ Geoff coughed. ‘She is here, and she is in danger, your mum knows she is alive and will probably try to kill her.’

            ‘Why do you care?’ Tom asked cautiously.

            ‘Because I only stayed with your mother because she would not shy away from killing me if I stood up to her,’ Geoff responded as he coughed blood all over Tom. ‘You know better than anyone what she’ll do to those who betray her.’

            ‘So you hid in a house, in the hopes of disappearing from time?’ Tom asked, confused by the action.

            ‘I couldn’t kill her…I tried. That is why I hid,’ he explained. ‘I tried to but stopped myself at the last moment. At least now I can go knowing that she hasn’t won.’

            ‘We haven’t beaten her yet,’ Tom noted.

            ‘But she can’t match the power you have,’ Geoff explained as he placed his hand on Tom’s chest. ‘Take everything I have, and stop her once and for all.’

Tom stood motionless as various different auras began to emerge from Geoff and envelope Tom, one of which shocked Tom as it was black, so black that it appeared to suck the light out of the room.

            ‘Use them wisely,’ Geoff warned as he breathed out, releasing a reddish stream of air that entered into Tom’s body, causing him to feel stronger than he ever had before.

            ‘I’ll finish this,’ Tom promised as he opened a Portal beneath his father. ‘I’ll make sure she can’t hurt anyone ever again.’