Negative

They arrived at the fair, or the site where the fair had been, only to find it had gone.
A poster fluttered past them in the breeze with yesterday's date emblazoned across it in huge letters and numbers.

Positive

"Can we go to the fair tonight, dad?"
"Yes."

Is There Anybody Out There?

He sat in a chair in his garden with the telescope on its stand in front of him.
He watched the sky every night, hoping that they would eventually come for him. He had been on this planet for 40 years and he was starting to think they'd abandoned him.
A bright light in the dark sky started to grow even brighter.

Hospital

She sat upright in bed, waiting for the nurses to bring her pills for the day.
Two nurses entered the room with a trolley and began giving out little cups of coloured pills and cups of water to those in the other beds.
They passed her bed without stopping.
"What about me?" she asked.
"You haven't settled your bill for yesterday," said one of the nurses.
The woman cried. The hospital had taken everything from her.

Swimming

He did 50 lengths of the pool every single morning. An early start was needed to ensure he got a full lane to himself.
This morning he'd overslept and the leisure centre was much busier. The pool was full of people who didn't take swimming as seriously as he did.
He needed a way to get all of these fair weather swimmers out of his way. A light bulb lit above his head.
He stood next to the deep end of the pool and shouted: "LOOK AT ME!"
He pulled down his trunks and strained as he shat out a turd on to the tiles.
He picked it up and held it aloft like a trophy, before throwing it into the pool.
All the swimmers panicked and made their way to the edge before climbing out and heading for the changing rooms.
He dived in, a personal best needing to be beaten.

Pride

The trucks drove slowly down the street, each one playing deafeningly loud music and with a bunch of near naked men dancing enthusiastically on the back.
The crowd cheered.
Most of them did anyway. But there was always a bad element at these events who wanted to spoil it.
"Where's our straight pride?" yelled one of the neanderthals. "This is descrimination!"
The knuckle draggers were as surprised as anyone when the men in the tiny leather shorts on the float which was blasting out I Will Survive produced flamethrowers with which to silence them.

Evangelical

"We'd like to talk to you about our Lord and Saviour..."
"Wait a minute. I'm not interested in Jesus Christ, God or any of those other guys."
He wished he'd not bothered to stop watching the old cowboy film when he'd heard the knock at the door. Nobody called around in the middle of the day unless they were religious nutters or wanted your money.
"Who?" asked one of the women.
"God? Jesus? That's why you're here, isn't it?"
The two women looked at each other.
"We've never heard of either of them," said one of them.
The other peeled the skin from her face, revealing a green reptilian face beneath it.

No Entry

The road was blocked. There was one of those little plastic fences barring the way and a helpful sign informed her that the road was closed, as if it wasn't blindingly obvious.
The strange thing was that there was no work being carried out on the other side of the fence; the road was completely clear.
"Fuck it," she said and put the car in gear.
She screeched forward and crashed through the fence, continuing to drive up the verboten street.
The tarmac ahead of her opened up, revealing a huge fiery pit. It happened too quickly for her to stop and she and the car were melted within a split second.

School Days

They lurked behind the science block, enjoying their covert cigarettes during the break. Nobody would see them here and they would avoid a reprimand from the headmaster as long as the teacher on playground duty didn't come around the corner.
The bell rang.
They stubbed out their cigarettes and went inside, each one of them having a class of their own to teach.

Mind-Altering

He put the tiny piece of paper in his mouth and sat waiting for the psychedelic adventure to begin.
Half an hour passed and he felt nothing. There was no higher state of consciousness and there were no hallucinations. He had been duped by that man in the club.
He stood from his chair and walked towards the front door. He opened it and looked out at the rainbow river flowing where the road used to be and waved at a creature which was half man, half elephant on the other side of the river.
He smiled and stepped out into the strange, new world.

Pain

His stomach had been hurting for a few days. Actually, it was a bit below his stomach. He had put off going to the doctor's, an online diagnosis telling him it was definitely terminal bowel cancer, and he didn't want it confirming.
Now he sat in the doctor's waiting room, the feeling of multiple knives twisting in his abdomen.
He felt weak and he was experiencing a cold sweat.
He passed out and avoided seeing the creature burst through his skin and attach itself to the throat of the receptionist.

Artisan

"A cup of tea, please."
"What kind of tea would you like?"
"What do you mean? I want a tea. How many different kinds are there? PG Tips, Typhoo, Yorkshire..."
"Sir, we have over 600 different teas."
"Just a normal one, then."
"There's no such thing as normal tea."
His lesson in tea continued and now he sat in the window with a glass teapot full of some greeny brown liquid and a tiny cup, sipping a beverage that tasted like dishwater that had cost hin £5.
What a mug.

#10

The gun was pointed at one of the boys' heads.
"What are you doing?"
"We're going to put it right."
"But if you kill us, you'll kill yourselves."
"That will be preferable to living through the hell you two created for us."
Two quick shots were fired.

#9

"You're...us?"
"Yes."
"But what's happening?"
"We're here to stop the awful thing happening to you. To, err, us."
"Oh, you're going to give us some advice?"
"Something like that."
One of the men took out a gun.

#8

The cafe door was opened and a panicked, older man entered.
"Ah, they're here!" he said.
"What's going on?" asked one of the boys.
"Don't you see?" asked the other older man.
The boys looked at the older men and then each other. They looked confused.
"We're you," said one of the older men.
"From the future!" said the other.

#7

"I suppose you have questions," said the man.
"Lots of them," replied one of the boys.
"It would probably be easier if I just told you the story."
The man told them how he was from 2010 and that the boys had travelled there from 1986 when the video they had picked from the shelf had transported them. He had known they would arrive in the shop that day. So had the others. He had come to help them.
"But why?"
"It's my destiny."
"How do you know that?"
The man laughed.
"Sometimes you just know."
There was a loud knock at the door. The people in the cafe froze.

#6

"...help us?"
They were back in the video shop. The video shop as it had been when they were simply browsing films.
"Follow me," said the man and headed for the street.
The boys followed, baffled.
The man raced ahead and entered a small cafe across the street. The boys were right behind him.
He sat at a table and they joined him.
Another man raced to the door, locked it and pulled down the blind.

#5

"Quick, with me," said a man who appeared from behind some shelves.
The boys followed him.
"What's going on?"
"I've been sent to help."
"From where? Who sent you?"
"There will be time for questions later."
The man picked a case from the shelf.
"How's that supposed to..."

#4

"What's going on? Where are we?"
"It seems we're somewhere we shouldn't be."
The boys heard a siren growing closer and looked out of the window at the street. A police van had stopped outside the shop and four armed officers got out.
"This doesn't look good."

#3

A man stepped from behind the counter and headed towards them.
"What have you got there?" he asked, nodding at the video box.
He didn't wait for a reply. He'd seen what it was. His mouth ws open in a large O.
"What?" asked one of the boys.
"They said it would happen. They said you would come here one day."
The man ran behind the counter and through a door which he slammed and locked behind him.

#2

"...get it?"
"What happened?"
"What do you mean?"
"Look around."
The video shop had changed. In fact the only video in there now was the one the boys held. All the cases on the shelves were suddenly much thinner.
"I don't understand."

Time to Die

He felt himself being dragged from the dream he was having and entering the normal world. There was a hand on each of his shoulders shaking him awake.
It was still dark.
"What time is it?" he whispered.
She pointed the gun at his left eye and pulled the trigger.

#1

"Have you seen this one?"
He picked a case from the shelf.
"No, is it any good?"
"Not really, but I'd watch it again if there was nothing else."
"What about this?"
He picked another case from the shelf.
"I've heard good things about that one."
"Should we..."