Suddenly and without warning, first Charlie and then Kayleevanished from the sofa in quick succession, leaving Josh and Lauren alone.
In June 2025, Vanessa, dressed in her black assassin’s gear,looked down at the fluttering flower that was all that was left of the youthfulKaylee she had just blown into oblivion. She smiled and again blew theimaginary smoke from her laser weapon, something that was almost becoming atradition now after each kill.
That made six in total. All she needed to do now was get ridof that silly little tart who ran the pub and she would have Josh exactly whereshe wanted him.
Upstairs in the pub, in 2057, the disappearance of Charlieand Kaylee wasn’t the only change. At the moment they disappeared, the wholeappearance of the room was altered.
All of the mess on the table disappeared, various bits offurniture appeared and disappeared, including the sofa they had been sittingon, which changed from red cotton to black leather – the same black leather asthe one he had in his flat in Oxford.
Overall it was as if the room had experienced a seriousmakeover. It was significantly cleaner and smarter than it had been.
“Hurry up and finish that coffee,” said Lauren, seeminglyoblivious to the changes. “I want a quickie before the afternoon shift.”
Here we go again, thought Josh, reaching for the coffee cupwith his left hand. As he did so, he noticed that his wedding ring had changed.It was thicker, and as glanced across at Lauren he could see that she waswearing one, too. That was something he had never expected to see.
Looking around the room, he noticed a picture of a couple ontheir wedding day on the wall. Looking closely, he could see that the woman inthe wedding dress was a young Lauren, and that he was the handsome groom in themorning suit.
Clearly Vanessa had now taken out Kaylee and Charlie. Theirremoval, sometime in the past, had somehow resulted in him now being married toLauren and living in the pub with her.
He turned back to Lauren, knowing that she would probablyhave no inkling of what had just occurred, but he had to try and find outexactly what had happened to Charlie and Kaylee.
“Does everything seem normal to you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” she replied.
“I mean, two minutes ago, we were sitting here with Charlieand Kaylee, and now they’ve vanished.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake, you’re not going to start with allthis crap again, are you?”
“Look, just let me try and explain.”
“I’ve heard it all before, Josh. It’s pure fantasy. I reallythink you need to get some sort of help.”
It was interesting that he had apparently brought this upbefore. Clearly the Josh she had been living with had at least some inkling ofwhat had been going on. He’d had some experience of this sort of thing before,when both Alice and Lauren had been haunted by dreams of bleeding through fromtheir other selves in other universes.
“I don’t need help,” he persisted. “There’s this woman, hername’s Vanessa and she’s going back into time and killing our friends, one byone, and every time she does it, she changes history.”
“If that were true, how come you can see it and I can’t?”asked Lauren.
“I don’t have time to go into all that now, but you’re interrible danger. Since the last change you and I are now apparently married,which means you’re highly likely to be next.”
“What do you mean, apparently we’re married? We’ve beenmarried for over twenty-five years.”
“In this timeline, maybe, but not mine. Up until a few daysago, I was married to a woman named Alice. Now she’s dead, as are a lot ofother people – including Charlie and Kaylee.”
“You know as well as I do, Charlie and Kaylee have beenmissing, presumed dead, for decades. I’m sorry, Josh, but I think you’reinsane. I’m calling the hospital again. I think we need to get you committed.”
“I am not insane, Lauren!” he insisted, aware that the morehe protested, the more he sounded as if he was. “You’ve got to believe me.There are now only the two of us left.”
“Seriously, I’ve heard enough,” she said angrily. “I’m goingdownstairs to do some work. I think you’d better stay up here and get your acttogether.”
“Just tell me one thing,” he said, as she turned to leave.“It could help. When exactly did Kaylee and Charlie disappear?”
“Oh, shut up, Josh,” she said, leaving the living room andslamming the door behind her.
Clearly, he wasn’t going to get any help from her. Alone inthe room, he attempted to gather his thoughts and figure out what the hell hewas going to do next. He had no tachyometer with him and he didn’t even know ifthe tachyometer existed anymore.
If he had been married to Lauren and living in the pub,would the past three decades of time travel research have even happened? Hedoubted whether he’d have had the time as he would probably have had to spendmost of his time attending to her insatiable sexual needs.
He didn’t have long to dwell on these thoughts becausebefore he had even had the chance to begin thinking of some sort of plan,everything around him changed again.
The décor and all the furniture were seriously upgraded thistime, changing to luxurious velvet curtains, an expensive-looking glass coffeetable and various expensive-looking pieces of Rugby Union memorabilia adorningthe walls, as well as a well-stocked trophy cabinet. He had no idea who livedhere now but it clearly wasn’t Lauren. It didn’t take a genius to work out thatVanessa had clearly got to her.
She certainly had. Furious at discovering Lauren beingmarried to Josh in the new timeline, Vanessa had gone back to their wedding dayand blown Lauren away at the front door of the church, just as she was about towalk down the aisle.
Josh headed for the living room door, needing to get away,not that he had any idea where he was going to go in this timeline that was nolonger his own. His intention was to head for the stairs and get out of thepub, but even that was going to prove problematic.
As soon as he came out of the room,
