Warmth

• Jessica Fenton, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2021

“I stopped because I realized by time travelling, I was only hurting myself”
You had whispered this with a voice dripping with emotions. You see yourself push away a thought that had bubbled in your brain. You still remember what the thought you had in that moment was, it was the heavy realization of knowing you had just lied to a young girl's face. In that moment all those years ago, you felt like you would drown in your own guilt.
You remember how much you regretted this as soon as you did it, but now watching the scene reoccur before you, you realize just how much.
You knew when you started time travelling it was a bad idea, that you shouldn't have given in. it was just another scam the government proposed to lure people in. “You give us your money; we give you access to YOUR past and future”. You thought it was stupid, but it turns out the offer was just too good to be true.
You had thought it was fine at first because you had started with innocent things, like looking if an event you were nervous about went well. A cheat sheet of life. Though it soon became something you felt a terrifying empty without. An empty that settled deep within your gut, threatening to come up to your throat.
As soon as the government realized someone was addicted, they slowly started charging more. You helplessly fell into their trap, like an animal being hunted. As you spent more, you could longer afford to keep the young girl alive.
Now as you watch the young girl's eyes lock with yours of the past. Bitterness meeting warmth. God those eyes had radiated a warmth you thought was gone in the world and now it is.
“But it’s ok now, you stopped. Also, I’m here and I’ll always be here”
The irony and innocence of that one sentence sent you over the edge. You couldn’t handle it anymore, the tears falling from your eyes stung your cheeks leaving tracks of red. Your tears felt like fire.
Not sure if you will survive if you don’t, you press the button of the watch on your wrist. The same watch you spent the rest of your money on to rent for three hours. Money well spent to see her again. So, you could feel her warmth again.
A whizzing sound stings your ears as years of wasted time zooms by. Wasted time you could have spent with her. There you are in the present kneeling on her grave, staring at her tombstone. Her warmth is gone.
“I’m sorry I lied, the truth is I stopped because I realized I was only hurting you”
A buzzer rings out of the watch, your time is up. If you don’t press the button two times the watch will self-detonate, killing you. You decide to not press the button. You decide to join her in the mansions of rest. You die.