“DON’T HURT US!” sobbed my make-believe mom, just as I programmed her to do. “Who are you?”
The Prayer, grinning devilishly, raised its pincer and froze time the same way I had frozen it.
We were definitely all even Steven in the powers department.
I saw its antennae twitch as it took in the smells of the kitchen and then the whole house.
The thing actually purred because it was so satisfied that it knew where (and, more importantly, when) it was.
Then, with a quick sideways flick of its cornstalk neck, The Prayer spied me spying him crashing into our mutual past.
“My, my, my, Danny Boy,” sneered the sickening skeevoid. “What an extremely logical choice. Flying back through time to our first, fateful day together? At long last, you show some small promise as an adversary.”
“And you show your enormous stupidity,” I sneered back. “Falling into my trap.”
The giant mantis stalked around the room. I countered his every move. We were two deadly predators, circling each other.
“Clever, Danny Boy. Beat me here and you never become a poor little alien orphan. You never have to face all my many minions on The List. There is no hideous torture in your future. No black hole threatening to suck this putrid planet off into the vast void of space. Your choice of time for our final confrontation impresses me.”
Psyche. My mind-trick trap was working.
“I’m so glad you approve,” I said sarcastically, as I circled behind my stand-in dad who was frozen in midleap out of his chair. “I’ve been wanting to come back to this day my whole life. This is my chance at a do-over, Bug Face. If I kill you before you kill my parents, so much horrible history will change.”
“So true,” chortled Number 1, sliding to the left on his gangly limbs. “So true. Why, you could even save your pathetic planet if you killed me before I ordered its destruction. But of course, you couldn’t.”
I smiled. “You catch on quick. Especially for an insect with a brain the size of a frozen pea. Right here, right now, we’ll erase all the pain you caused my family.”
“If,” hissed The Prayer. “IF! A small but hugely important word, Danny Boy. If you can stop me before I do again what you were too cowardly to stop me from doing before.”
“Hey,” I said. “Cut me some slack. I was only three years old.”
The beast rumbled up another contented purr. “For me, you will always be an infant, Danny Boy. What you suggest will never happen. You defeat ME? Ha! NOT POSSIBLE!”
“Never say never,” I said confidently. “Besides, you’ve already messed up.”
Confusion filled the giant insect’s scuzzy black eyes.
“What?” It stamped its feet like a spoiled brat. “HOW?”
“Well, for one thing, you’re making way too much noise,” I said. “And, for another, you forgot to freeze time in the basement, thereby altering history.”
A three-year-old me holding a ball of pink Play-Doh appeared at the top of the staircase leading down into the cellar.
I threw my voice over to my childhood self. “Mom? Dad? Who’s this big loud bug?”
“Game over!” screamed The Prayer. “I will kill you now as I should have killed you then!”
In its blind rage, The Prayer stomped across the room, turning its back on the real me.
And giving me the chance I’d been waiting for all my life.