I was staring down at the dirtiest bathroom floor I’d ever seen. My phone, cigs and lighter were scattered on the grimy mat at my feet. The mat wasn’t mine. This wasn’t my bathroom. Carmen never allowed our flat to get that dirty. She had me scrubbing alongside her every weekend. As I dropped my hands from my head and looked around, I realised I was back in Darren and Michelle’s bathroom. My hand was bandaged as it had been after I had kil– pre-emptively defended myself against the neighbours.

  I was naked too. My skin looked a little wrinkled and tight at my chest, strands of white hair sprinkled amongst the black, and I had a slight gut hanging out. I wasn’t the kind of guy to notice my appearance every day but I couldn’t remember when I’d gotten so soft around the middle. Maybe it was the donor kebab from last night. Or maybe the stress of today was just making me see things. Nothing a good night’s sleep couldn’t fix.

  I grabbed the cigs and the lighter and my phone, and checked the time. 10:11 am. Nine minutes had passed since we’d left the apartment. I called Carmen.

  “Hey! What happened?” she said.

  “I had to reset, but it changed. I’m not on the balcony.”

  “Where are you?”

  “In Darren and Michelle’s bathroom. Where are you now?”

  “Just coming up to Hampstead. You’re in their bathroom?”

  “Yeah. Naked too. No gun, no clothes, my phone and cigs on the floor.”

  She went quiet for a moment. “You said you reset us to 3 am in the morning on the balcony. And you must have been resetting everything within your range to that time, right? Otherwise, the dining room would have been a mess.”

  “Sure. I guess so,” I said, opening the bathroom door. I knew what she was getting at. The guns were still in the bedroom at this moment earlier. “Give me a sec.”

  I walked across to Michelle’s room, my knees niggling with small, sharp pains. My hips too. I struggled down to the floor and looked under the bed. Sure enough, the revolver was there but on its own, by the side of the box. I pulled it out. There was a little latch on the side behind the cylinder where the bullets go. I pressed it, and the cylinder swung open, four bullets inside. I’d fired two at the police. The third I’d used against myself. Within my range of reset. So was the gun, my phone and cigs. My keys were in the car.

  I put the phone to my ear as I walked back towards the lounge, walking past the dead bodies with the revolver in hand. “You’re right. Everything within my range of reset – seems to be about four or five metres around me – was reset to where it was at this moment.”

  “And you were wearing those jeans and the polo top at that moment. Which you got changed out of when you got back to ours. So maybe the clothes you changed into…will still be where they were? In our wardrobe?”

  I walked across the dining room and lounge and out to the balcony. It looked out over the car park. “You might be right. I’ll call you back when I can figure a way out of here.” I could see the police cars all across the car park, and the two at the exit, my gnome-mobile sat on top of them. I loved that car.

  “How are you going to get out?”

  “I’ll think of something, but I don’t think it’s going to be soon. There’s police all over the place here.” They looked like slightly large ants as some swarmed around the car, whilst others moved towards the building. They’d be up here any moment. “Remember to dump the car once you meet up with Kian and Charlotte. I’ll call when I can get out of here. Don’t call me.”

  “Okay. Stay safe.” The line cut out.

  I was in the tiniest bit of a pickle if I was honest. I needed clothes and I needed to get out of here, but there must have been at least fifteen police cars and vans down there and dozens of officers. As for clothes – the thought briefly crossed my mind of finding something in Darren’s wardrobe. He was roughly the same height as me, but skinnier in the arms and legs. It wasn’t the thought of the clothes being tight-fitting that put me off though. It was the thought that they were Darren’s.

  There wasn’t really much I could do right now. I needed to lay low, so hiding in Darren’s place wasn’t actually a bad idea. They’d never expect it as they rummaged around my place next door, probably trying to find clues as to where I might go. I’d need to wait for them to complete that before I could decide anything. I didn’t mind in all honesty. I could do with the breather. It had been over an hour since this all began, and I won’t lie. I quite liked the peace and quiet of the moment. Just being alone with my own thoughts.

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  I strolled back into the lounge. The TV was still on from earlier, still playing the same news channel. It still had the System message scrolling from bottom to top on the right hand side, with the time – 10:14 am – in the corner. I glanced at the sofa, wondering whether I should sit down on the grey leather but who knows what’s happened on that sofa. I knew what had happened on mine.

  I pulled the ashtray over to my side of the coffee table, faced the TV and risked half my arse-cheeks on the edge of the armrest – that should be safe enough to sit on and my knees were grateful to be relieved of their duty.

  “…reports that River Clarke has managed to evade the police. Let’s go to our reporter on-site…” I tuned the rest out as I watched the images of my apartment building, with the police cars in front, lights flashing. Small crowds had gathered. Yeah, I wasn’t getting out of here anytime soon. I took my phone out and text Kian with the info and told him to watch the news. I’d contact him as soon as I could.

  I could’ve easily text Carmen instead. She had my trust – yes, even with her past infidelity. I knew she was always on my side – at least when it mattered. I knew the same went for Kian too, and Kian had been there for me long before Carmen. I always liked to remind him that he was just as important to me as she was. I knew he’d tell Carmen right away anyway and it was my way of keeping the trust between us and strengthening those bonds. As cliché as it sounded, they were my family. Maybe that’s a side-effect of my upbringing. I’d seen first-hand what a lack of trust could do. What bonds based on what you could gain from the other, did.

  Anyway. Sheesh. No need to get too emotional. Where were we? Right. Resets.

  Resets. Resets. Resets.

  I lit a cigarette and put the pack and lighter by the ashtray. Why did I return to Darren’s bathroom? Why? Why?...I looked at the back of my left hand. The white bandage stood out against my naked skin. I extended the hand, and studied the back of it like I had only just discovered it. Then I flipped it over and studied the bloodied bandage. The blood was still fresh. Not dried yet. As it had been just after I’d wrapped it and sat down on the edge of the bath. Before I’d put my head in my bloodied hands.

  I looked at my index finger on the same hand. Saw the faint line of the cut there from last night. The cut finger that I had used to scratch around the itchy skin near the gem when I was on the balcony with Carmen. The same finger that had touched the gem in the first place when I got too curious for my own good and opened the sack the girl had. The image of the decapitated head with the clear gem marred by a smidgen of blood flashed through my mind. The way it had twisted and writhed free.

  Because I’d touched it with blood. My blood.

  I sat there quietly for a few moments, confirming to myself that it made sense. I went through what I knew so far about my reset ability. I was fairly confident about the blood hypothesis but I wasn’t sure when I’d get the chance to test it, nor how I might make use of it in the future. If I had a future. Truthfully, I’d rather be rid of the gem and go back to last night, before it embedded itself into my forehead. Actually, on second thoughts, before I’d lost that ￡6000.

  Still, no point crying about what we’d prefer to have happened in the past. It had happened. Learn. Adapt. Move on. I could set the reset point but time itself would move forwards. And I was able to reset what seemed to be everything within a range of four to five metres. Maybe a little more. So, if I could think far enough ahead, and devise my plans to account for the reset function – then I could easily stay ahead of anyone hunting me. And I wouldn’t even need to kill anyone else. Just myself.

  It was giving me ideas already, provided I could get out of here. Meet up with Carmen, Kian and Charlotte and then find somewhere safe to put a reset point with all the things we needed. The guns, the cash, maybe the car. The unconscious BDSM fan. Then we could drive far away and be really obvious about it – get our faces on CCTV and that, and use our cards and then I could reset us. Whilst people would be searching for me – two, three hundred miles away, we could be putting our feet up with hot chocolate and marshmallows.

  Although it made me wonder about the limits. Could I even move that many people along with all that gear at the same time? And there was a case of the distance, too. From my earlier resets, I knew I could move four people a few metres. I knew I could move myself sixty or seventy metres from the last reset. Could I move that many objects and people over two or three hundred miles. Could the gem handle it?

  This was the problem with having too much time to think. My mind would try and consider all the permutations. All the possibilities. Of course, I was hardly able to think of all of them. That’s why I liked to bounce things off Carmen. Kian and Charlotte were good at it too. When I regrouped with them, I’d get their opinion.

  Then it hit me. I remained silent for a bit. Was I really that stupid?

  I didn’t have to move all of us. Just me. They could stay at the reset point. I could be the one who drives as far as I could. Make sure I’m caught on cameras and my cards are used at till points. And then get somewhere out of the way and bam. Reset. Just me. Maybe the car. Gosh, I’m such an idiot sometimes that I didn’t think of that right away.

  But it sounded good to me. There was still the small issue of whether I could reset over such a distance. I didn’t know what the limitations of the gem were or even if it had any but I didn’t think distance would be an issue, especially as it was more a case of moving back in time. Maybe there might be a limit to how far back in time I could move? If it couldn’t move me back to my reset point, maybe it would set its own? In any case, I was a gambler, and it’s like I’d always say in the casinos.

  Go big or go home.

  And I was all out of homes.

  First things first. How was I going to spend the time, waiting for the police to be done with my flat?

  What to expect:

  ● A unique, fully fleshed-out world and magic system

  ● Flawed but lovable characters

  ● Action and tension

  ● Humour

  ● Feels

  ● Secrets and mysteries

  What not to expect:

  ● Constant blue boxes

  ● An unending, 19+ book series

  !