The Watch - Part 11

‘Er…’

‘Oh, you’ve only just arrived,’ Amy said smiling at my confused expression. She walked over and offered to sit on the sofa. I slowly made my way over and sat down. I was still getting used to being in a ‘new’ body, so the sofa felt incredibly comfortable and extremely weird at the same time. I gradually settled myself down, but the situation was still rather confusing and kept me rigid.

‘Don’t be nervous,’ she said. I didn’t know what to say. Too many thoughts were racing around my head that I struggled to voice them. My internal clock has somehow been magnified so I was able to count every second of awkward silence that dragged by at a very slow rate.

‘You are probably wondering about what I am doing in your house,’ Amy said. I nodded as that was the only way I could answer the question. ‘Well, I live here. Have been all my life. twenty-one years to be exact. My parents are at work at the moment, but they should be back this evening, that is if they don’t get caught up with anything sudden.’ With my thoughts being so loud and her talking fast made it difficult for me to understand what she was saying, let alone everything else.

I looked around some more. Then I noticed that Amy was looking at me sympathetically. ‘Before I explain anything else,’ she said, ‘would you like a coffee?’ I nodded. ‘Be back in a moment,’ she said getting up and heading through to the kitchen.

I have travelled to a Parallel Universe. I am now in one now. That Amy who's now in the kitchen looks and sounds the exact same as the one I know back in my Universe, yet she now lives in my home. But it isn’t my home. This is her home, which looks exactly like my home. I studied the living room that bit more and literally everything was identical, right down to the DVDs on the shelf beside the TV.

A couple of minutes passed before Amy returned with two steaming hot cups of coffee, which I gratefully accepted. I took a sip and was instantly hit with that sensation. My tastes buds were also affected by the trip from one Universe to another, so, as far as they are concerned, they haven’t felt anything as hot as a mug of boiling hot coffee flavoured water. It almost burned my mouth, but the sudden shock from the hotness, quickly made them adapt to the texture and the taste and I was able to swallow it without much difficulty. The aftertaste made up for it all though because it started to tingle my tongue pleasantly, allowing me to take in all the flavour at once. The caffeine in my system took immediate effect and I was able to relax that bit more. It kicked started my system and my brain, allowing me to push aside any unwanted thoughts and focus on the necessary ones. I smiled.

‘There’s the Sebastian you know,’ Amy said taking a sip from her cup and holding it in her hands. With my head so clear now, I was able to form words, which quickly evolved into sentences.

‘That is one heck of a coffee,’ I said a little croaky.

‘I’m glad you like it. I picked up some fresh beans from the market down the road this morning,’ Amy explained.

‘You have a market?’ I said.

‘Sure we do. It’s just down the road there,’ she pointed to the left. ‘Why, don’t you have a market where you live?’ she asked.

‘No, we don’t,’ I said. ‘We just have a high street full of shops.’

‘Oh, we have one of those, too,’ Amy said enthusiastically. ‘If you keep going down, past the market, you’ll enter the high street, which is always packed full of shoppers. I mean, I don’t know how anyone can get about without bumping into at least someone, but somehow they manage to not do so.’

I took another sip of coffee. My feelings were starting to get back to normal. I was able to relax a bit more on the sofa and my feet were getting used to the hard floor. My subtle adjustments made for blank expressions making Amy ask whether she was talking too fast.

‘No,’ I said a bit too sharply. ‘Sorry. It’s just I’m still getting used to everything, that’s all.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ Amy said smiling, ‘I understand. Why don’t you head upstairs and take a nap?’ she suggested, ‘that might clear your head a bit.’ As she said it, I suddenly came over all tired and exhausted. Travelling from one Universe to another with nothing but your consciousness can really take it out of you.

‘You sure,’ I said.

'Yeah, go on.’ Amy encouraged. ‘The spare bedroom is opposite to mine and the bathroom is on the end,’ she explained, ‘but of course, you already know that, don’t you,’ she said.

As I was slowly heading up the stairs as my legs struggled to take my weight, Amy called up and said, ‘I’ll tell you what, I’ll make you a nice lunch for when you come down,’ she said. I stopped on the stairs and turned around to face her.

‘I’ll like that,’ I said.

‘Do you have anything in mind?’ Amy asked.

‘Surprise me,’ I said.

‘One surprise meal coming up,’ she said heading towards the kitchen, leaving me to continue climbing the stairs. On the landing, I looked around and noticed that everything was identical to my landing back home. And when I walked into the spare bedroom, I wasn’t at all surprised to find that everything was the same in there as well.

I closed the door and let out a massive sigh, ‘Oh, my God,’ I said, my body so close to shutting down.

‘The first travel from one Universe to another is always the strangest,’ the man in the watch said, materialising into view in front of me.

‘You could have warned me,’ I said.

You never asked me what the experience would be like, nor did you require my help at the time other than refer you to the random button,' he explaied professionally and to the point. 'But don’t worry, you’ll get used to it after a couple of more trips. And after a good nap, you’ll be back to your normal self.’

‘What was that place that I travelled through, anyway,’ I said as I peeled back the duvet.

‘That was the Void,’ he said simply.

‘And the Void is?’

‘Space between spaces,’ he said. ‘Between every Universe is the Void where nothing exists. Nothing will be able to last more than a few seconds before going insane in there.'

‘Then how did I manage to come out of it OK?’

‘You were protected by the watch, but in the Void you see nothing and feel nothing, so although the watch protected you, you still felt the effect of absolutely nothing. That is why you felt so strange when you entered this world. But, as I said, you will get used to it and eventually you will be travelling through the Void without being affected in the slightest.’

'So,’ I said wanting to clarify what he had just explained for my mind was still adjusting, ‘when I travel to a Parallel Universe, I travel through the Void, which has absolutely nothing?’

‘Yes,’ he said simply.

‘But isn’t nothing something in its own right?’ I asked.

‘That is how you perceive nothing,’ he began to explain, ‘your brain cannot handle nothing so it automatically creates this loophole and say that nothing is something, but in the Void, there really is nothing and no living brain, no matter how powerful cannot understand and contemplate nothing and that is what will drive you crazy if you spend even a single moment in there.’

‘But the watch protected me,’ I said. ‘You protected me?’

‘It did,’ he said. ‘I did.’

‘How?’

‘The watch has an in-built shield that wraps around you during your travels between Universes. The watch has knowledge of what the Void is and so the shield can protect you, but the person or persons that built that watch, as I have explained, cannot contemplate nothing, so can only create the shield based on their knowledge, that is why you felt so weak the first time you travelled. But the more times you travel, the shield will protect you and you will become accustomed to the effects, meaning that you won’t feel them as much if not at all eventually.’

‘That sounds reasonable,’ I said thinking about what he said so that I can process it that bit better. ‘I have no more questions for now. I just want to go to sleep,’ I said. I climbed into bed and the moment my head hit the pillow I was out for the count.

TO BE CONTINUED….

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)