The Watch – Part 160:

All around me was open space. Not a soul in sight. I checked my watch once more even though Interface assured me that I was right where I left them. The weirdest part about the whole thing was that I had only been gone for a few seconds. Natural panic started to kick in, but I told myself to remain calm as much as possible so that I could focus on finding them.

I guess, first things first, is to find what planet this is – I know this is Earth, but what are the differences between this world and the one I’m from just so that I could get my bearings, or something. Where’s the nearest civilisation from here? Maybe they will have at least some bits of information that I can use?

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply to keep myself calm. I held in my breath for a couple of seconds, letting the oxygen flow through my body before breathing out all the unnecessary carbon dioxide, along with all the built up feelings. When I opened my eyes, I was ready to tackle this challenge head on.

I don’t have to find them, I can just go back in time and rescue them. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. I entered all the necessary commands into the watch: I’m to go back by a couple seconds to just after I left so that I can stop whatever happens to them.

I pressed the button and I was once again transported through the vortex, but as soon as I entered it, I immediately left as I was only travelling a few seconds into the past.

‘Blimey, that was quick,’ Tom said, eyes bulging with surprise along with trying to recover from being sick.

‘And I’m not going to be the one that has to explain it to him,’ Amy said.

‘What does that mean?’ he asked, wondering if he should feel hurt or not with that rather ambiguous statement.

‘It means that I’m surprised that you don’t understand why he was only gone for a couple of seconds,’ Amy asked, ‘being someone that’s interested in this sort of stuff.’

‘I think that’s a rather unnecessary remark, thank you very much,’ Tom defended himself, ‘I believe I expressed my surprise rather naturally considering I’m still getting used to all of this, whereas you’ve already done enough that you don’t need to be so surprised.’ I had to admit that was a rather well-said sentence, for Tom anyway. I believe that might just be a compliment and an insult all in one, probably, but I don’t think it matters because I didn’t say it aloud, so I can just push that away and carry on as normal.

‘I’m just saying that you sounded a bit more surprised than I thought you would have been, that’s all,’ Amy said, trying to sound apologetic, but also defending herself as well, but Tom didn’t quite decipher that continued.

‘So, what you’re saying is,’ he said, ‘I shouldn’t be surprised that Sebastian literally travelled from universe to universe in only a matter of seconds, whilst we were standing…’ I could see that Tom was struggling, so I decided to cut things off before they became complicated.

‘Really, I leave you on a foreign planet in a foreign universe for only a couple of seconds and you’re already at your throats,’ I couldn’t help but smile. I was so glad that they were back with me. Whatever is about to take them, I’ll be ready, or we could get out of here before that arrives.

‘So, did you save the world from the meteorites?’ Tom asked, moving on.

‘I did,’ I nodded.

‘Man, if only I was there to see it that would have been so cool,’ he smiled.

‘I’ve never heard you say, ‘man’ before,’ I returned.

He shook his head, ‘doesn’t suit me, does it?’

‘Not really,’ I confirmed.

‘Thought not?’ he shrugged.

‘Anyway, we had better get going,’ I said to the both of them.

‘Why the hurry?’ Amy asked.

‘I’ll explain once we’re back home.’ If I were to explain stuff, whatever made them disappear would have struck.

‘There’s no time to explain?’ Amy questioned curiously, tilting her head so she could listen to my answer better, but I unfortunately couldn’t give her, or Tom, one.

‘There really isn’t?’ I said keeping one eye on the distance to make sure that nothing turns up. So far, nothing.

‘I was wondering if we could go exploring, that’s all?’ Amy asked, standing up and dusting herself down. She was still a little shaky on her legs, but nothing that would make her fall to the floor again.

‘I’m sorry, but we have to get going. I promise to explain everything once we’re home,’ I pressed.

‘Fine,’ Amy said disappointed. Amy held onto my left arm and Tom my right.

‘I’m really not looking forward to going back through the Void,’ he said already going green with the thought of the side-effects.

‘Your body gets used to the more times you travel through it,’ I explained.

‘Cool, so I’ll only throw up two times instead of three. Great. Let’s get this over and done with,’ he said preparing himself.

One second we were standing in an empty field, the next we were soaring through the Void once more. As we were travelling from one universe to another, watching the usual display of brilliant spiralling lights dance in front of us.

‘So, what is it that we had to leave so sudden for?’ Amy asked as we landed back in my living room.

‘Um…’ I said, focusing on Amy who was sitting on the sofa next to Tom who was trying with all his might not to throw up. ‘Yeah, so…’ And I explained how when I returned, they weren’t there.

‘Right,’ Amy nodded, accepting my explanation by how genuine my voice sounded, ‘makes sense as to why you wanted us to leave, just so that whatever got to us first. I wonder what actually happened.’

‘I’d hate to think,’ I said.

‘Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot that you had to experience us not being there,’ Amy said sympathetically.

‘Got to go,’ Tom said rushing out the room and up the stairs.

‘I think we should wait until Tom has calmed down before we do anything else,’ Amy said trying not to smile devilishly.

‘I think we should.’

I was so happy to have my two best friends back with me. But…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)