The Watch – Part 186 and Part 187:

Stepping outside, the fresh air hugged me and the bright sunlight snuggled up to me.

‘Morning, Sebastian,’ I heard Jake’s voice say beside me. I turn around and see him standing in his front garden with four suitcases in toe. He must have noticed my disconnected look for he asked if I was OK.

‘Um… Yeah, I’m OK,’ I said. I must have sounded as if I wasn’t telling the truth, and to be honest, I’m struggling to figure that out myself.

‘You look tired,’ Jake noticed. ‘Are you sure you’re alright? Nothing’s gotten you down or anything has it,’ he said sympathetically.

‘No, I’ve just been staying up later than I normally do, that’s all. You know how it is when the summer holidays get here,’ I said trying to sound as convincing as possible whilst in reality I really was tired.

‘How was your holiday?’ I asked in an attempt to change the subject. I knew that he said that he was going away, hence the suitcases, but I couldn’t remember where he went.’

‘Oh, Paris was awesome,’ he said studying that question. Is he thinking that it’s unlike me to forget something like him going away to Paris for so many days, because he would be right? ‘Me and friends just had a relaxing time of it really. We didn’t want to do anything wild, so we just sat on the balcony with our feet up. Hey, that’s a nice watch,’ he said suddenly.

‘Oh, yeah,’ I said raising it up so he can get a better look at it. Now that he’s seen it, then there’s no point in trying to hide it – as if I was trying to hide in the first place. ‘I got this on the last day of school,’ I explained.

‘Oh, yeah, now I remember. So that’s what he was delivering.’

‘What?’ I said, my eyes widening, ‘who delivered it?’

Jake looked at me curiously.

‘How come you don’t know who gave it to you?’ he asked. Oh, heck. Now I’ve gone and done it. How do I get out of this one? I need to come up with a suitable excuse but my tired brain isn’t in the mood to think fast.

‘Oh, um… I…’

‘Are you alright?’ Jake asked again. My eyesight was going fuzzy. The last thing I remember before everything went dark was my knees giving way and smashing against the ground as I feel unconscious.

***

‘I need to save them.’ I sat bolt upright.

‘Easy,’ Jake said sitting beside me. I was laying on my sofa. Jake was sitting on one of the chairs from the dining room table with his mobile phone beside him.

‘What happened?’ I asked.

‘You fell unconscious,’ Jake explained, placing his hands on my shoulder in an attempt to get me to lay back down. ‘I rushed right over and picked you up. You know, you may not look it, but you’re heavier than you look,’ he joked.

‘Why did I fall unconscious?’ I unintentionally asked out loud.

‘Only you can tell me that,’ he answered truthfully. I asked if there were any long-time side effects, not short-time side effects when Interface was explaining everything to me. Well now I don’t have to as I now know what they are. Extreme tiredness that leads to falling unconscious. Any more that I need to know. Well, I can’t find out as that would be giving showing Jake, and I don’t want any more people besides Amy, Tom and Alex to know my secret. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot that Alex knows my secret. That’s not really that important. I have no idea why I brought that up.

‘Anyway,’ Jake continued, ‘I brought you in here and that’s where you’ve been laying for ten minutes. Don’t worry, I’ve phoned for the ambulance. They’re on their way and will be here in about twenty minutes, which is quite a long time considering the hospital is…’

‘You did what?’ I said resuming my upright position.

‘Easy,’ he said again, repeating his action of trying to get me back down.

‘Why did you phone the ambulance?’ I said.

‘Why do you think? Why? What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing,’ I said quickly knowing that the can of worms is now already open and trying to get all of the worms back in the can would be very hard indeed.

‘Well, it has to be something, otherwise you wouldn’t have freaked out. Now, I’ve also phoned your parents – it went straight to voicemail, mind – and so I’ve left a message stating that it is urgent.’

‘What?’ I said sitting bolt upright for the third time. This time, Jake didn’t bother trying to push me back down. This is all that I need. Things have gotten way out of control. I was expecting a casual walk down the road, not this. Why did this have to happen?

‘What about your luggage?’ I asked, ‘you can’t leave them outside. They may get taken.’

‘Don’t worry about that,’ he said, ‘after I made sure you were settled, I brought my suitcases in and stood them in the hallway, but let’s not talk about my luggage at the minute, there’s something I need you to explain to me.’ I know where this is going. I don’t see a way out of this except by telling the truth. I don’t want to tell the truth. I know Jake is my neighbour, and a close one at that. He’s been there for me whenever I needed company. He’s an awesome person to talk to, but… Does all of that deserve to be told everything?’

‘Call off the ambulance,’ I said, ‘then I’ll explain the truth,’ I said.

‘I can’t just call off the ambulance,’ Jake said matter-of-factly, ‘and what can be so important, so secretive that you need me to do so anyway. You can tell me before the ambulance arrives.’

‘No,’ I said with finality. I don’t want the paramedics here either. That’s the dilemma that I’m face with. If the paramedics come here, they can do all sorts of tests and they might stumble across that chemical. I know Interface said that it’s now out of my system, but I just don’t want to risk it. And I don’t want to tell Jake everything either. But, comparing the two, telling Jake everything is so much better than the paramedics stumbling upon an unknown chemical in my body. Who knows what that will lead to next?

There has to be a third option. I just need to find it.

TO BE CONTINUED…

The Watch – Part 187:

‘Who do you have to save, by the way,’ Jake said casually.

I would rather be anywhere but here. All I have to do is teleport. But where to. Does it matter? All I want to do is clear my head and get rid of these short-term effects. I haven’t been able to think straight ever since the concert. Those were the days. Amy and Tom by my side, dancing all day long, listening to some truly inspirational music.

What I would give to be with Amy and Tom right now. Amy’s rational thinking with Tom’s quirky mannerisms never fails to help me out of any difficult situation. The complicated thing is, Amy and Tom are actually here. I remember saving the world from the meteorites, finding them gone, going back in time and bringing them back here, only for me to feel guilty for leaving them there, captured. Amy understood what I meant and said that it was Ok for me to go back and save them. It was a weird moment that I never actually believed would happen, yet did. Time travel can be really complicated if you let it become so.

I need help to figure this out, and there’s only one person who I trust can help me more than anyone else, and that’s Amy.

That’s it. I know where I can go. The very first parallel universe that I went to when I got the watch. I can go back there. I can recover and get my head straight. I can ask for Amy’s help and we can both discuss how best to get out of this sticky situation.

‘You’re going to like this part,’ I said to Jake. I didn’t care that I was revealing something huge right in front of his eyes. I doubt I would be coming back here in the first place. He may be questioning what just happened for a very long time, but I have to do what is necessary to get myself back on track so that I can save my friends.

‘What am I going to like?’ Jake asked.

‘This watch, it can do so much more than just tell the time,’ I said, reaching for it and searching through the menus, finding what I need. I don’t know how far back the history goes and I’ve done a lot since I went there.

‘Interface,’ I called, ‘take me to the first parallel universe that I went to, please,’ I said hoping that is all the information that he needs. Jake’s face twisted into an incomprehensible look.

‘I don’t understand,’ he said.

‘Don’t say that,’ I said. I’ve had enough of those words to last a life time.

‘Don’t say what?’

‘Just don’t say those words,’ I said.

‘Did you just say parallel world. What is that watch?’

‘Sorry about this,’ I said. I’m never going to know what his reaction to all of this is going to be like. All I can guess is that he will be very surprised, shocked, dumbfounded, probably among other things as well.

And then I disappeared back into the Void. The same spectacular light show with the twirling galaxies met my eyes as I was transported from one universe to another, re-emerging in an identical-looking living room into this.

‘Oh, hello,’ Amy’s beautiful voice said a little surprised that I had showed up suddenly. That trip had taken its toll. In any other situation, I wouldn’t have felt the effects of my body being disintegrated and rebuilt whilst going through the Void, but since I have been considerably weakened, I felt the effects much the same as I did the very first time I travelled here.

‘Are you alright?’ Amy asked.

‘No,’ I said. The last thing I want to do is hide the truth from the one person who can help me.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. I didn’t get the chance to answer. My body has been through so much; it’s hit its breaking point once more. I just haven’t rested enough to let it recover, and because of that, I passed out once more. I’m getting tired of getting tired.

*** 

I opened my eyes, slowly.

‘Hey, you,’ Amy said, smiling ‘long time no see.’ The entire room lit up.

‘Sorry it’s been a while,’ I said.

‘No need to apologise,’ she said, ‘from the looks of it, you’ve got a pretty busy life.’

‘Busy isn’t the right word for it,’ I said, lifting up my head at the smell of delicious toast and apple juice.

‘Well, I thought that I would give you something to eat and drink when you wake,’ she said. ‘Although, now that I think about it, toast isn’t probably the best as it may have gone cold,’ she said. I couldn’t help but chuckle. I was feeling better already. I hadn’t thought about food or drink until I saw them beside me. My stomach grumbled loudly. I leant over and grabbed the plate and glass and started shovelling the food down as if I hadn’t eaten in weeks, which may actually be the case for all I know.

‘Woah, steady on there,’ Amy said, ‘you’ll give yourself indigestion.’

‘I wouldn’t find feeling something different,’ I said, swallowing my last bite of toast and downing the entire glass of apple juice in one go. It has never tasted better. I burped.

‘Lovely,’ Amy said sarcastically.

‘Sorry,’ I said.

‘So what happened to make you collapse beside me, then?’ Amy asked curiously, before realising that it might not have been the best time to ask.

‘Actually, I’ve been waiting for a way to bring this up.’

‘Oh,’ Amy said even more curiously.

‘I need your help, but before you can do so, if you want to that is, I need to explain what happened.’

I started explaining everything that happened. The moment that I started, I couldn’t stop, and Amy didn’t stop me. She listened intently, gasping in all the right locations and wincing at the worst parts near the end. Now that I was able to get all of this off my chest, I felt so much better. Relaxed and able to think clearer.

‘Bloody hell,’ she said once I had finished.

TO BE CONTINUED…