Destiny

She was gone by the time he awoke, David taking the blanket back up to the bedroom. He saw nothing of her as he showered and then went downstairs and breakfasted, talking in quiet reverence to his youngest brother. Later when he went to change into his suit, there was a knock on his bedroom door. His mother entered, smartly dressed in black, head to foot.

'Have I gone down in your estimation?' she asked. David, sitting on the bed, looked her up and down.

'I can't say it was something I ever considered mum. But I'm not going to lie and say I didn't enjoy it; it was just unexpected.

'As enjoyable as Elaine?' she asked slyly, moving closer to him. David's attention was on her legs, clad in black nylon and he wondered if they were stockings. 'More so,' he said, sounding embarrassed and shocked as he realised his mother knew of his liaison with his aunt.

It was as if she knew what he was thinking, 'Why don't you find out,' she asked seductively, his hand going to her black-clad legs and inching beneath the hem of her dress as he moved it upwards until he encountered flesh. He could feel his cock start to thicken, but after allowing him his grope, she moved out of reach. 'Finish getting ready. People will be arriving soon. You could always stay here again tonight, it's nice having you home.'

It had felt like a long day, the church reasonably full of friends and relatives. He had sat next to Carol, his sister secretly holding his hand throughout the service. Andrea couldn't be there, it wouldn't have been proper and just like the first time, he missed her.

That night, his mother left the new gas fire on low when she went to bed. There had already been a whispered conversation between them during the evening as she asked him to wait a couple of hours before meeting her back downstairs.

This time they were naked as they made love in front of the fire, close enough that the light it cast illuminated his mother's slim figure and her auburn hair. Despite her age, the smallness of her breasts meant they had kept their shape, David gazing at her body as he knelt between her open thighs, his cock buried in her cunt. Her eyes seemed to sparkle in the light, David's arousal increasing rapidly when she used terms and words which he could never have imagined her saying.

Her nipples were large, as if making up for the smallness of her breasts and cast shadows over the creamy white mounds as he wondered if she had enjoyed him suckling on them as a baby. As if to find out, he bent forwards, his mouth encompassing the nipple and half of her breast as he licked and sucked on each teat in turn, his mother moaning her appreciation.

David found it exciting when she pleaded for him to 'fill my cunt with your spunk,' to hear his mother say the word 'cunt,' was just astonishing. Their hands were never still, caressing, fondling, and exploring each other bodies until together they climaxed, Molly thrashing beneath him as he saturated her wet pussy with his cream.

Andrea had left her husband and moved in with David, hesitant initially because his flat wasn't really suitable. It was only then that he had disclosed the house that he had bought and was having renovated and decorated. Most of it was done and the rest they could complete themselves over the coming years. Within twelve months she had found herself pregnant, the first of the three children they would have together.

Sex with his mother was an occasional coming together and his affair with Elaine had slowly declined as the opportunities began to disappear. The only person that continued to share his affections was Carol, his sister. Maybe if his life had been different, if he had been someone else, she would have made a perfect partner. As he settled further into the life he was living, memories of what had been, diminished, they didn't disappear, more they were filed to the back of his mind.

Events followed each other in a kaleidoscope of déjà vu episodes, David experiencing the joys as his children were born and ultimately the despair when his mother passed away once more. Years passed as he grew older and was presented with grandchildren.

He was sixty-two when the doorbell rang, opening the front door to find his sister standing there. She looked sheepish as he invited her in, but David knew why she was here, his memories may be fading, but he still retained a head for dates and knew that her husband had left her. Years previously, knowing what he did, he had worked it out, broaching the subject with Andrea so that it wouldn't come as a complete shock.

'Come and live here with us,' David said when they were all seated. 'It's only the two of us now rattling around the house and there is plenty of room, also, it will be company for Andrea when I'm pottering about. It's only time before Bobby wants half from your house, so sell it and enjoy the money.'

Within a few weeks, Carol had moved in with them, just like himself and Andrea, her children were grown and had families of their own, the last thing they needed was a mother going to live with them. They had four fantastic years together, going out to dinner, holidays, or simply pottering around the house and gardens.

And then the moment arrived which David had dreaded above all others, Andrea hadn't been feeling well and had gone into hospital, a place from which she would never return. He had been distraught; it was the second time he had lost the woman he loved and had been part of his life for over thirty years. It was a slow process, getting over his grief, but this time it was aided by having his sister close. When eventually he could see beyond it and when he considered it respectable, Carol joined him in his bed.

They had had a further two years of a quasi-husband and wife relationship, nobody seeing them other than as a brother and sister who had lost their partners and were living out their final years together.

David could now count down the days, he knew what was coming, although it could be slightly different this time. His camera bag was packed ready, would something happen or would he come away, still living this life of an old man.

He had discussed it over and over again with Carol, she hadn't wanted him to try. 'Stay here with me. We can enjoy whatever time we have left together,' she had told him. But David was adamant, it had been part of his life, why should this time be any different. The night before, they had made love, slow and tender, still delighting in each other's bodies after all those years. The next morning, she couldn't bear to be around, going out for the day and hoping to see her brother when she returned.

David didn't have far to go this time, he had bought the hidden house and had it modernised. It looked completely different inside now, but certain aspects were still there, the ornate fireplaces in the lounge and master bedroom had been kept, the one upstairs blocked off and only used for decorative purposes whist the one downstairs was used every Christmas. The rear stairs had also been retained and brought up to date, electric lighting now illuminating them, he'd even had lights put up in the attic.

For the last few days, he'd had the strangest of feelings, not that he mentioned them to Carol, he didn't want to worry her. He dressed as he had done and put his camera bag over his shoulder and picked up the torch. On the kitchen table were several letters, one for Carol, one for each of his brothers, and one for each of his children. They had taken a while to write as he told them not to worry and tried to explain where he may have gone. Inside Carol's letter were two memory cards, his family were going to be as unbelieving as she had at first.

As he climbed the stairs, he remembered the feelings from before, that slight hesitation, not completely looking forward to where he was heading. He reached the first landing and took the second set until he reached the attic door. No lock to fiddle with this time, it had been removed. Tentatively he opened the door and pushed, the door stopping when it hit the wall to the right. The passage to the left was narrow and dark and no matter how many times he flicked the light switch, it stayed that way.

David shut his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to still his nerves. Switching on the torch, he took that initial step, past the first door this time until he reached the end of the passage and found the second. As his hand rested on the knob, there was a sense of foreboding, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end and sweat breaking out on his brow. He felt scared, no, more than that, he felt fear, a compunction to turn around and run.

Turning the knob, the door opened smoothly, and David stepped inside, the room so dark that he couldn't see properly, the torch beam dying to insignificance as though the life had been sucked out of it. Inching forward with his arm outstretched, the door closed behind him and he was enveloped by the blackness as silence descended on the house.

Carol shouted his name when she returned, but her voice echoed in the empty building, no returning call sounded. She shouted again at the foot of the stairs, made her way through to the kitchen and checked in the back garden before shouting again from the bottom of the rear stairs, but David never answered, and never would do again. She turned with tears in her eyes and noticed the letters on the kitchen table, opening the one that was addressed to her.

"My Darling Carol, If you are reading this, then I am gone. Please don't be sad, in a way it was my destiny. If what I am hoping for happens, then I will see you again very shortly. There are letters for our brothers and my children, I don't expect them to believe what I have set out, but please, try and convince them that I am happy and will see them in the future. In case you need some kind of proof, I have left you two memory cards, they are full of pictures of our family as we grew up but with the date stamp that the camera was still set on. Let's see them explain pictures from the seventies and eighties in a digital format. I can say it now without getting embarrassed, I have loved you every bit as much as I loved Andrea and wish you the best for the rest of your life. My will has been set out to allow you to live here as long as you need, and then the kids can rent the house out or live in it, but I've made it a condition that it cannot be sold. So, until we meet again my gorgeous sister, I send you, my love. David xxx."

Carol could not stop the flow of tears that cascaded down her cheeks.

The void had been there for thousands of years, maybe even longer than that, it was not the only one, there were hundreds scattered around the world, maybe more out in the universe and galaxy, each a tiny tear in the fabric of time. When the first homo sapiens walked the earth, they were easily accessible, but as time passed and civilisations grew and expanded, they became sites of pilgrimage or of significant interest, where ceremonies were held to the gods. As more land was cultivated, more settlements sprang up, they started to be hidden until eventually, many were encased by bricks and concrete, not accessible to the general populace anymore.

The house wasn't the void, it was simply the latest building that had sat on this site. There had been houses before it, cottages before that, shacks, dwellings, and settlements in the far distant past. The void was a conduit, a passageway to the life people had already lived and needed a certain set of circumstances for it to appear. It was as if it knew that the person in its proximity, the person approaching, was close to the end of their life.

Alfred Philips the former owner of the house was destined to die that night at work. He had no idea why he had a sudden desire to look for something in the attic. A year later, his wife Gladys, worn down by the disappearance of her husband, her only son away fighting a war, had reached the end, unable to continue as she emptied the bottle of pills and took each one before suddenly getting the urge that there was something in the attic that she needed.

It never intentionally tried to entice a person to enter, if anything, the opposite was true, that sense of foreboding, the hairs on their body standing on end. It was accompanied by a feeling of fear, a compunction to turn and run and get as far away as possible. But for those that did enter, there was never a return, they simply disappeared as did thousands around the world every year. One minute they were there, the next they were gone, never heard of again no matter how desperately their families or the authorities searched.

You see, each person is not a single entity, they are a culmination of thousands of personae and the only time that they exist as a single solitary being, is on the day they are born, thereafter, their life force divides and multiplies, a persona for each day of their lives. Time never stops, never ends, their lives are lived over and over again by each of their persona's even as time advances and they no longer exist in the present. If we could somehow travel back in time, we would see those elements of us, doing the things that we had done, repeated each day, even though they were now part of history.

Most people have no idea, they think there is a simple principle, you are born, you live your life and then you die. For the vast multitude of people that is how it ends, no realisation that the tiny spark of energy leaves your final persona and enters a new home, a new birth, but with no memories of what had gone before. For the ones that enter the void, they gain the chance to live their lives once more, but again, without any memory that they have already done so previously except for those occasions when we are suddenly faced with a déjà vu moment. A momentary recollection of a life we have lived.

It is not an endless process as far as the void is concerned, it can only be done a certain amount of times, the number of years we have lived, each time advancing forwards on your return.

David was one in a million, maybe even more, the ones who entered the void, and then managed to make it out at the other side, still carrying memories of their previous life. It had not always been like that for him, he had lived his life eighteen times without any previous knowledge of doing so.

Destiny cannot be changed, there is wiggle room, fluctuations in time, but certain events are fixed. You can't marry someone different; you can't have children where you had none previously, in essence, you have to follow the same path.

And if like David, you could do that, re-entering your timeline year after year for the full extent of your life, retaining some memories and advancing your knowledge, then that tiny spark of energy would have existed for close on five thousand years and perhaps you had the right to call yourself, a traveller in time.

David sat up as a knock came at his bedroom door, 'Hello?' The door opened and Carol his sister sidled into his room and gave him a shy smile. 'What's up sis?' he asked as she stood there momentarily before coming over and sitting on his bed. It felt as though she wanted to say something but didn't know where to start.

She was going through options in her head, trying to choose the right thing to ask without causing mayhem if she asked her brother the wrong question. Suddenly it came to her, she raised her face and looked at David. 'Have you still got your digital camera?'

He was stunned, had she been in his room and rooting through his things, and then it hit him, how did his sister know it was a digital camera. He looked at Carol in surprise, his mouth open as he tried to find the words. 'Have you......did you...... do you?' Carol grinned and nodded her head.

She told him of the final years of her life, the conversations with his children after they had read their letters. 'I'm confident they finally have an understanding now, they missed you as we all did, but at least they accepted your reasoning.'

David felt more relaxed, it was the one thing that had always made him anxious. This time around he could enjoy it more, especially with his sister by his side. Maybe there was even a chance that he could interest his mother and aunt earlier

She moved closer to him, their bodies now touching. 'I love you, David,' Carol suddenly said, just before she threw her arms around him, and their lips came together.