In part 14, Squint realized that the vampire faction was using him as bait.  Now he remembers everything from all the other timelines, but in this timeline he's still a child.  Feeling powerless, he decides that he needs to find another time traveler for help.

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Did you miss part 14?  If so then click here.

Want to start from the beginning?  Then click here.

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Part 15 - Over the river and through the woods

  I came home from school one day when I was four, and my mom told me that grandpa was sick and we were going to go visit grandma and grandpa.  And just like that we were off on a plane ride.  Grandpa was very sick.  He was bed-ridden and required oxygen and a constant IV.  Grandma said he had already died and the doctors were able to resuscitate him back to life.  We didn't have much more time to say our goodbyes to the man who had given us life.  My mom leaned forward and whispered something in his ear.

  Then after she was done I did exactly the same thing, except what I whispered in my grandfathers ear was the quickest summary on how to travel through time that I could manage on short notice.  Then I coughed a little and gave my grandpa a big wet kiss on the cheek just like grandma did to me when I arrived.  I sincerely hoped that would be the right dosage of germs, just enough to get a vaccine back to the past where I hadn't been born yet.  He was too exhausted to move but his facial expression let me know that he had understood every word.  “Give that stinker a butterscotch,” he managed to tell my mom.  It was his favorite candy. 

  “Okay Dad,” my mom said, and handed me a piece of grandpa’s butterscotch.  I said “Thank you,” to both of them and smiled as I ate the candy.  I liked butterscotch candy too.  But I was still going to miss my grandpa.  He had always died when I was very young and I never really got a chance to get to know him.  Grandpa lasted a few more weeks after that and then one morning he had to go to the hospital again.  The next thing I knew everyone was crying, and grandpa wasn't around anymore. 

  A few months after that we moved out of grandmas house into the house right next door to grandmas.  I finished kindergarten at the same school my mom went to.  And then we were moving again, this time to a small town about an hour away.  Now we were living in a trailer at the end of a very long driveway in the middle of the woods. 

  I started first grade there at a small school in that little town.  On one of our walks my mom and I discovered an old orchard and a small natural spring in the woods behind our trailer.  But when it started to snow I began getting nervous.  I was still haunted by memories of the other time-lines.  I was only about six or seven years old at the time, but I still would not have been prepared, even at any age, for what was going to happen next. 

  I woke up in the middle of the night before my seventh birthday and saw a very large gray thing standing in the middle of my bedroom doorway.  I almost screamed from fright when I first saw it, but I couldn't see it clearly.  I thought maybe it was the Easter Bunny, but I felt like that just wasn't right.  I thought it looked like a huge pile of dirty rags.  It was just standing there, almost motionless, except for the occasional twitch or jerking motion of its head. 

  I wanted to hide under the blankets and yell for my mom, but I knew she would never get to me before that thing did.  I just laid there motionless for a long time, and then I slowly started to sit up, thinking maybe I could get a better look at it.  But before I could even blink to clear my eyesight the thing spotted my movement.  Instantly it bolted straight toward me and I could see it clearly now, though I wished I hadn't.  It was the ugliest man I had ever seen, no, it couldn't possibly have been a man, it looked like a shriveled up rat that somehow had wings, except it was the size of a full grown person.  I hid myself under the blankets but that didn't do any good, it was on top of me, biting and scratching at my face through the blankets. 

  I felt crushed and my bed collapsed under its weight.  I had a brief moment to catch my breath and scream as I fell backwards with the bed.  Then it was on top of me again.  I wasn't nearly strong enough to fight it off, and for a moment I thought I was going to die.  I had tried to tell myself that the vampires needed me alive because of causality, but the giant bat thing was trying to eat my face, and didn't seem concerned at all for my well-being.  It was just vicious, and angry, and it was killing me. 

   Just then the lights came on in my bedroom.  The first thing I heard was my mom shouting the F word, and then there were two very loud bangs.  It got dark and quiet all of a sudden and I felt like that thing was slowly pressing down on me.  A moment went by and she rolled what was left of the creature off of me onto its side.  I could see again, my mom was standing over me crying and shouting frantically.  I was surprised to see her holding a shotgun.  My mom had always hated guns. 

   “Oh God, Squint, what the hell is that thing?”, I tried to stand up as quickly as I could but I was bleeding and in pain, and it took effort just to get on my feet again.  “I think it's a vampire.” I said.  She looked at me in shock, “No no no, honey, vampires aren't real!  This is a...” she looked more closely at the thing that was still bleeding all over what used to be my bed.  I got the impression that she meant to finish that sentence with normal words like 'mountain lion' or 'bear cub', but those words never came.  “That's a freaking vampire!” she shouted, and then looked at me as if I could explain it. 

   I couldn't explain it though, I almost began to try, but then we both saw movement outside the window.  “I only have two shots left.” she said, and quickly reloaded the shotgun.  We heard strange bizarre clicking, and growling sounds coming from outside, they were all around the house.  I had to think fast, “Okay, mom, I think I need to tell you a secret right now.” I said. 

   “Don't do that!” she yelled, “You're not going to die tonight!  We are not going to,” the back door of the trailer burst open just then and she leveled a blast of shotgun pellets through whatever had opened it.  “This way!” she yelled, and pulled me by the arm.  She led me to her room where she had a box with another gun in it.  “Mom, what the heck!” I said as she picked up the revolver and tried to load it in a hurry.  “There's no time to explain, just do everything I say and,” then the window behind her shattered into a million pieces, just like my last hope for survival.  Instantly my mom was gone, pulled back through the window, kicking and screaming.  The last thing she did was drop the gun so that I might pick it up. 

   And that's exactly what I did.  I had no idea how to use a gun, or even how many bullets were in it, but I was mad as hell and out for revenge.  I dove out through the window after her, hoping beyond hope that it wasn't too late to save my mom.  But that was really a bad mistake, I was instantly surrounded and she was nowhere in sight.  But just then a bright set of lights came pulsing on, it was brighter than daylight.  I tried to cover my eyes and briefly noticed a very large triangle shaped thing above me in the sky.  Suddenly all of the vampires around me were bursting into flames.  Dozens of running, flying, and screaming bonfires fell sizzling to the ground, rolling and shaking in agony.  Now it was just me and that space ship hovering above.  I may have been saved from the vampires, but I didn't feel very safe at all.