The Watch – Part 200:

There was no post on Saturday because I was recovering from food poisoning. Long story short, I ate a sausage role that I believed was still OK, but instead was the exact opposite and I fell ill. Today's post would have been The Watch - Part 201, however, that wasn't my initial plan. I had planned on releasing Part 200 on Saturday, and then releasing an update about where the story will go from there today. Instead, that update will be on Friday with a new part being released on Saturday as planned.

I do apologise for not uploading with no explanation, but I just had no energy to do anything, and so I didn't do anything. Thank you for continuing to be interested in the story, I'm looking forward to sharing it with you and watching it develop together.

(Sebastian’s perspective)

The laboratory faded in all around me. A chair sat in the middle with the straps still tied together from when I left. The room was messy, full of bits of technology and various other science equipment that I didn’t care for. I came back for one reason and one reason only, and I’m not leaving here until Amy and Tom are safely back home.

‘I don’t believe it. I don’t believe it,’ the person who was obviously the one in charge muttered loudly as he tore out his hair with frustration. His back was turned toward me so he never saw me wake. ‘I thought I had the correct amount. Where did I go wrong? My math’s never wrong. What did he do? How did he do it?’ He was searching through a pile of papers and documents to try and find the mistake but when he couldn’t find one, he got angry and, picked them all up with both hands and chucked them across the room. As he was throwing his tantrum, I focused on escaping from these bonds. It didn’t take much, I just twisted my wrists this way and that and they slid out easily – it was obvious he was expecting me to be unconscious that he didn’t need to worry about tightening the straps too much. I climbed off the laboratory chair and just stood there, waiting for him to find me here.

And when he did, his eyes popped out of his head. I could tell he was trying to analyse what was going on from the way his head was titled to the left. It was as if he was trying to clarify that I was actually here. And when he realised that I was indeed real, his eyes settled down and he stood up straight.

‘You are going to release my friends,’ I said sternly. I was angry and I wanted him to know it.

‘Or what?’ he said. ‘I’ve heard stories about you, you know,’ he said. ‘You won’t hurt me. It’s not in your nature.’

‘I really couldn’t care less,’ I said slowly to make sure that he got the message that I was not to be messed about. ‘What gives you the right you take my friends and put them in a box? What gives you the right to pump a person full of chemicals? What gives you that right?’ I was only acting angry so that we wouldn’t be going through that tedious process of him trying to bargain with me. I will not let myself go over the edge. But he doesn’t know that.

‘Now, you either tell me where they are, or you will regret it.’

‘I’ve been studying the human body for all my life,’ he said, ‘I know exactly how everything works. I can tell that you do not mean what you are saying.’

I took a step forward.

‘Are you sure you want to test that theory?’ I asked.

‘Are you sure you want to hurt me. What will it do your conscience? How will you live with yourself knowing that you hurt someone who only ever thought he was doing the right thing? You must know that everyone does what they do with the thought that they are doing the right thing?’

‘Did you hurt them in anyway?’

‘No,’ he said.

‘I swear. If you laid a single finger on them.’

‘I am a man of my word. I told them that I was not going to hurt them and I didn’t.’

‘Tell me where they are.’ He knows that I won’t do anything, even when threatening that I will. I must not let him keep talking.

‘They are through that door,’ he pointed. ‘Tom is in the left room, and Amy is in the right room. I designed both rooms with the ability to communicate between the two. And depending on the person inside, the glass in the front sees whoever is on the other side as the same gender as they are, just to give a bit more of a calming atmosphere, if you know what I mean. You might be wondering why I didn’t design it so that the two boxes were directly side by side each other, well, that was simply down to poor planning on my part,’ he chuckled. ‘I can assure you that they have not come to any harm,’ he had gone too far and saw in my eyes the red flame flickering rapidly, almost blinding me.

I’ve had enough of this. I stepped towards the door, ready to kick it open.

‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ he said casually. I stopped in my tracks and turned on the spot. This time, I wasn’t acting. Somehow, though, he managed to keep his confidence.

‘What have you done?’

‘The moment that you step through that door, the sensor on the top of the door will recognise you as a stranger and will activate the emergency procedure. They will be transported to a random Parallel Universe.’

‘You wouldn’t dare,’ I stepped up to his face. He was a little shorter than I was, allowing me to look down upon him.

‘I’m afraid I already have. And it cannot be disabled.’

Fine. I’ll just teleport myself to the other side of those doors so that the sensor isn’t triggered. A simple solution. As I was looking at him in the eyes, I was communicating with Interface within my head by giving him instructions to activate the necessary commands within the watch to teleport me to the other side of the door.

‘You said that you’ve heard stories about me,’ I said wanting to get a few answers before I teleported. ‘What have you heard?’

‘Oh, a bit of this and a bit of that,’ he teased.

‘Tell me,’ I demanded.

‘OK,’ he gave in, ‘I’ll tell you this one thing. One day, you will meet the previous owner, and you will get quite a shock, I can tell you,’ he smiled. What did he mean by that? No, if that’s the way he wants to play it, then I couldn’t care less.

‘Interface, teleport me,’ and then I was gone.

I appeared on the other side of the door. There were indeed two doors in front of me. I kicked open the one of the left: Tom’s room. There was nothing in this room except a large glass box. It had no bed, now shower and no toilet. I had dreamt that, which only made me even angrier with him.

Tom wasn’t in there.

I didn’t bother with any doors and smashed my way through the wall to the other room where I saw that Amy wasn’t there either.

That only means one thing. They were now in a random parallel universe. I was too angry to be angry. I had failed to rescue them. They could be anywhere. In all the parallel universes – scratch that. In all the infinite universes, Amy and Tom could be anywhere. I fell to my knees. I had failed them.

I’m sorry.

‘I’m sorry.’

I can’t imagine what must be going through their heads right now. They must hate me. I hate myself. I should have done more. I should have… I should have…

TO BE CONTINUED…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)