A glimpse into the past

Jay's life till now had not passed simply as lightly as a breeze.

Jay was in his 50 vampire years. Or more. He had lost count after the first 45 years, soon after he had met Myra. He knew about a lot of things, and he was more careful as compared to the rest of his kind.

The streets he was walking through were dark, dingy and messy. Beggars sat begging there in the mornings but not at nights. An i.v. drug abuser sat there, getting high and having the time of his life.

Jay wondered if he would make a good meal. He needed the blood, but the cocaine would get into his bloodstream as well and give him an unwanted high.

He sat down beside the second person, who frequented the gambling houses when he had something to spend. He had been sharing needles with the first man.

The second person passed the needle towards Jay.

The needle wouldn't prick Jay, and Jay knew that. He just wanted the inside story that only they could tell. About a specific thing.

He passed the needle to the first person.

***

Jay had come to know a few valuable things after the people he had associated himself with had shaken off the cocaine high for the day.

In those dark, dingy streets was a manhole which after climbing down gave way to a sewer which had a disturbance in the space-time continuum which, if visited at the right time, could teleport you 25 years back into the past. A time machine.

He chuckled as he thought what Poppy would have done if she knew. "Poor Popsicles," he thought.

It was discovered when the beggars who were there tried to pass a leaf which had a circle drawn on it with a pencil. The leaf disappeared and appeared again the next day, at the same spot. Absurdly remarkable as it was, the beggars did not take notice of it. But Jay did.

He spotted the manhole the next night and came into the sewer. He had drank off of a buck the last night near the core area of a forest, miles away from home.

He did not want to feed on humans right now.

The trick to get the disturbed time-space continuum to accept him was to speed up, gathering a huge momentum as he passed through.

He was a vampire. He could do what those puny humans couldn't.

"Myra, wait for a fortnight," he had said.

"If you don’t come back till then, I am following you through that dark abyss," Myra had said and kissed him.

Jay ran to a start and jumped.

A slight shiver, an unsteadiness took hold of him as he sunk. Then without warning, the tunnel was filled with light.

Absolute, pure sunlight.

***

Astonishingly, he was not burnt.

He looked as the daylight illuminated all the corners of the previously dark place.

He had come to 25 years from his birth.

Not his rebirth as a vampire, but when he was human.

He was 25 years old in this reality.

Was this a time warp? How was his skin not alight with fire? Did he have some immunity because his past self was not yet a vampire?

It seemed so.

Jay wore a black cloak and a black cap before he came back to his home. His real home. The one where he lived when he was human.

22/1 Wicker Lane, London.

His home.

He was a sickly pasty adult. 24 years old. Going to be 25 years.

Not surprisingly, he heard his parents bickering. Shouting and throwing stuff at each other.

The next part was the moment he had been waiting for.

His father rushed out, late for his office.

And his mother...

Jay ran into the house quickly.

The Jay of that day was fast asleep, oblivious to the future.

But not the Jay of today.

***

Just as she hung herself from the rod and fell, Jay caught her from behind.

"WHAT THE ---" she screamed.

Jay quickly took the sash and tied her arms and eyes.

"WHO IS THERE?" she said out loud, squirming.

Jay was aware that he was changing the future by changing the past.

What Jay wasn't aware of was that, even when he had done so, his past wouldn't change.

The Jay of the past went to the train station at night when his father didn’t come back.

Met with Nancy, the beautiful vampire who turned him so he could be her plaything.

***

Jay followed his old self.

A black cat meowed at him.

"Myra??" he called.

"Jay," she said as she turned, and hugged him.

"Has it already been a fortnight?" Jay asked, perplexed.

"No, Jay. I read the fortune. I know you are my future fiancé," she said darkly.

"Listen to me, Jay. Go to the sewer and get back to the future. You'll see."

Jay looked at the past him and frowned. If only he had met a vampire other than Nancy.

But he decided to listen to Myra.

***

"Oh thank Goodness!" Myra said when he came back, as he hugged her.

"Your mom and dad both survived. Don't worry about Nancy. You remember having lost her in a pub?" Myra said.

"Yeah?" Jay said.

"I made her drink the Brew of Torment, " Myra said, a cold and frightening light in her eyes.

"She turned you into a vampire so she could study how to evade sunlight. You were going to be the sacrifice."

"Wow. I owe my life to you, my love," Jay said.

"I love you. Anyone who comes in our path..." Myra trailed off and snuggled her head on his neck.

"I love you too."

"I never went back," Jay said. "Do you know what happened to my parents?"

"They stayed together 50 years after losing you, I believe," Myra said.

"At least some thing came off of me disappearing from home," Jay sighed. "Thank you."

"It was all you," Myra whispered.

"Ditto," Jay smiled.

***