The Watch – Part 110:

The only way out is up. The problem with ascending through the building was, we were getting further away from the front doors, meaning we were basically running ourselves into a corner, but it’s better than nothing, and I don’t particularly want to try and fight my way through those security guards. Once we’re in hiding, we can then try to get out of here.

We continued upwards, taking two steps at a time. The guards were hot on our heels. We weren’t as fit as they were and therefore running out of breath rather quickly, but we continued onwards regardless. My legs started to act and buckle underneath me with every floor we passed. At this rate, we would be hitting the top floor and there really would be nowhere to hide, except where would we hide on any other floor anyway. This was a very sticky situation that I’ve gotten us into. Amy was breathing heavily behind me, following my every step in time to mine, forcing herself not to fall behind and get caught. I didn’t have to look behind to know that the guards were catching up. Soon, we would be in their custody.

Our loud footsteps echoed all around the stairwell, easily making everyone on their respected floor look up from their work and take a curious glance towards the stairs, wondering what was going on and whether the commotion would extend inwards. We were now on the penultimate floor. I crashed through the double doors, nearly falling over myself and Amy over me, but I managed to right myself quick enough to keep going, but it allowed the guards to catch up even further, meaning they were through the doors before we had a chance to hide, not that would be any help as they could just search the entire place until they found us. This was it, the running away deemed pointless. We might as well give up and let them take us away.

I looked at Amy, who looked back with a worried expression. But it was more than just worry behind her eyes. It was as if she was silently telling me to take the only option that presented us. I really didn’t want to show off my watch’s capabilities, but we would be taken away by the guards if I didn’t. But the problem after that is they will alert whoever at what they just witnessed, escalating the problem beyond anything that I wanted to happen. I just wanted to save two people’s lives, and now we’re the ones in need of saving. The guards stopped running towards us and slowly advanced towards us as if they were preparing for any unexpected attacks. They inched towards us, telling us to stay where we are and things would be a lot worse if we resisted any further, even throwing in the line that there is nowhere to run. This could not get any worse.

I looked at Amy again to see if she was expressing anything else, but it was the same as before, except stronger. She really wanted me to get us out of here. I don’t blame her for not wanting to go with the guards. With each step they took towards us, the stronger that temptation of teleporting us out of here became. I thought about how seeing such a strange phenomenon would create some backlash towards us. They know our faces so they can hunt us down with that knowledge. Or maybe they won’t do anything? Maybe seeing such a strange event would cause them to make a pledge to never talk about this to anyone ever again? Oh, I can’t keep this indecisiveness up for too long, they’re only a few steps away from us now. Amy grabbed my arm, tightly, as if she was signalling to do it now.

I have no choice. As quickly as I could, I reached for my watch and activated the necessary commands, setting it up to take us back home. The guards thought we were going to pull out a weapon of some sort and took defensive actions by pulling out their own weapons consisting of a baton. They tried to talk us down by saying that by using such weapons would be a really big mistake and everything would escalate out of our control.

My finger was hovering over the activation button. For the third time I looked at Amy and she looked at me. I silently said that I was ready whenever she was and she nodded her head, which the guards took as if we were ready to strike, so they decided to do so before us and lunge forward. I pressed the button the moment their bodies started advancing towards us. As quick as the teleportation is, if the nearest guard managed to collide with us, he would be coming with us, creating a new set of problems.

It took forever for the watch to work. I actually felt the tingling feeling spreading through my body as it started to disintegrate before being whisked off through the world only to be reassembled once more. Then, the room around me started to disappear, fade away into nothingness as well as the guards, but the closer they got, the longer it took for them to disappear entirely.

Then I was standing in my living room, in front of a sleeping Tom and with no sign of any guard. We had successfully escaped from them. But, we didn’t achieve what we went there for. Tom’s parents were still dead. We need to go back there. This has just become a whole lot more complicated than I originally intended it to be. But then again, when is anything that involved the watch been simple.

Amy collapsed into the armchair, out of breath and trying to calm down from that panic inducing situation. I wasn’t much better. I could do with a lie down, but that’s not going to save Tom’s parents. I was too out of breath to talk, but Amy knew that we have to go back. She nodded before standing up and stood beside me. But before we can do anything, we have to think about what we’re going to do. We need to formulate a plan as to what to do. We’ve set off a chain of events that could mean big trouble for us. Now that we’ve gotten ourselves into a mess that we didn’t want to be in in the first place, we have to try and get ourselves out of it somehow, meaning we’re going back with two objectives in mind.

Why did I have to get angry? Why did I let my emotions get the better of me? Why couldn’t I have let Amy deal with getting what we needed? Why wasn’t the explosion prevented when Amy managed to calm me down? Why wasn’t it as simple as that? So many questions, but to try and answer them would be a waste of time. From now on, I have to keep my emotions intact. I let the whole thing get the better of me, and when I’m wearing a watch as powerful as this one on my wrist, anything could happen.

Everything happened so fast it was tough to take it all in, and because of that my brain had to work extra to cope with that much information at once, but now that I’m settled, I can focus more clearly now. I’ve apologised to Amy for the way I acted and she has accepted without hesitation; she knew that I would do everything I can to make sure that will never happen again.

Once more, Amy hooked her arm around mine, signalling that she was ready to go back into the thick of it. I didn’t have to ask whether she was sure or not since I could see the determination in her eyes. I therefore set the watch to take us back to the building, back in time once more to try and make things right. This time, we’re going to think about what we are going to do before thinking that we can just go and do it. I pressed the button. Once again, teleporting us from one place to another. The moment we rematerialized outside of the building that we were just in, my head was clearer, and so was Amy’s. I was able to think better. Sure, I was still grieving over the fact that Tom’s parents were dead, but I was able to vent that grief through the knowledge that they are alive now, and we are going to keep it that way. I know Amy tried to tell me that before, but it was one of those incidents where I had to experience that effect for myself in order for it to work properly.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)