A Drop Of Time

March 2021

It wasn't more than a week before the city of the vampires revealed itself to me. Previously existing only in rumors snatched from conversations overheard, a city filled with rundown wooden shacks emerged out of the mist. It gave off the impression of being impossibly ancient. Its inhabitants wore a hodgepodge of clothing that stretched from regency England to more modern attire. A man wearing a deep purple top hat and long coat leaned on his cane, shocks of white hair burst forth from underneath the brim. A twinkle in his blue eyes drew me in.

"We've been expecting you," he said to me. "Not many people have found us." He motioned for me to follow him with one finger. I did so without question. He swayed this way and that as he twirled his cane around, leading me to an enormous and crookedly built house. "Mind your step," he said after he hopped up his stairs and into the open doorway.

By the time I had entered, mere moments after he, I found him halfway through a ham and cheese sandwich in his kitchen. He chewed so loudly it was impossible not to find him. Drops of mustard splattered onto the small wooden table in front of him as he gestured for me to sit. A simple wooden stool waited for me.

The stool groaned in protest as I sat down on it, apparently having borne no weight for quite some time. Or so the man had told me in an attempt to allay my fears. Instead of speaking, I simply stared at him in reply. My voice had suddenly vanished.

The man leaned forward and rested his elbows on the table on either side of his plate. He rubbed his palms together before resting his face in his hands, the gentle scrape of calloused flesh had been calming. A reminder of a time gone by. "I know why you're here," he said at last as he sucked his teeth.

"I have..." I started, voice hoarse from suse.

"Regrets, yes, I can tell," he said gently. "It's there," he gestured to my face, "plain as day. A life unfulfilled."

Tears welled up in my eyes as I nodded. "All I want is a second chance," I managed with my shaky voice. "I was told-"

"Wrong, I'm afraid." He pushed his plate away and folded his hands neatly in front of him. "Or at least misguided. We cannot give you a second chance to redeem yourself from the sins of your past, however..." his voice trailed off as his eyes wandered to a large device behind me. A chair of a sort, with what at first glance I had taken to be a digital clock on one arm. Several monitors were on the other arm. The entire setup was encased within a shell engraved with strange markings I could not decipher, though many appeared to be Egyptian hieroglyphs.

"I've reached my breaking point, sir," I said. Tears had finally broken free of their prison, and my whole body began to tremble. "Any sort of relationship is better than none at all." My wallet had appeared on the table while I spoke.

The man's eyes were drawn to it. Hesitantly he reached out before he snatched the wallet from the table and placed an exact duplicate in its place. "Everything you'll need is there, but I must warn you." His hands were covering mine, and his once twinkling eyes bored deeply into my soul. "The path you choose is dangerous and can have detrimental effects for your future. Once you set foot into that machine there is no going back."

Heart now hammering, I placed the duplicate wallet inside my jacket. "Will it hurt?" I held his gaze, every fiber of my being telling me to run away and carry on with the way things were.

He smiled. "For you, no. You'll be spared pain." A different look came over him as he said "the confusion and pain of everyone close to you now, though? That's very real. You cannot come back from this."

I nodded.

"Very well then. When?" he asked.

I slid him a piece of paper. "The information's all there, right down to the minute."

He nodded, and the twinkle found its way back into his eyes. "Very well, then," he said again, this time rising to his feet. "Allow me to strap you in.

The man was gentle with the straps. He explained as clearly as he could how the process worked. How disruptions to the space-time continuum helped feed time-vampires near the site of the disruption. He told me that, at any point, I could return to their city and speak with him, for any reason. "Adjusting to a new life at an older point in one's personal timeline can be difficult," he said.

I simply nodded and pressed the button to activate the machine. "I just want to see my mom again, and maybe give her a hug." A weak smile spread across my face. The last I saw of the man, the twinkle in his eye had become a tear rolling down his cheek.