The city of deception

The finale day

BEEP BEEP BEEP!

I wake up from a nightmare and turn off the alarm, breathing heavily from waking up so quickly. I get up and go to the bathroom after a minute of sitting there and trying to calm down, splashing some water onto my face and sighing when I look into the mirror. My reflection stares back I sigh again, finally relaxing.

I hear a loud knock from my door which startles me for a second, but I calm down quickly and go to answer the door. "Who is it?"

From the other side, I hear someone say, "Mail for Nate Everson?"

I open the door slowly, saying "Yeah that's me, but I didn't order anything."

"Well, it has your name on it, so it's for you. Take it." The man says as shoves a box into my hands before leaving the apartment doorway. I stand there for a few seconds, dumbfounded by what just happened. After a minute or two, I close the door, walking to the kitchen, and putting the box on the table as I started to make myself some eggs for breakfast. "Well let's see what this is all about," I say to myself as I open the box.

Inside of the box was a letter, a smaller silver box, and an old pocket watch that was slightly rusted around the edges. I set the box and pocket watch aside, opening the note to read it.

"Dear brother,

If you are reading this, then the world is about to come to an end, and I am most likely dead. I should probably explain what happened finally. There were a lot of rumors going around, I'm sure. Well, they're probably all wrong. As you probably heard, I'd died in an excavation accident in some ancient ruins on February 7th, 2030 from a cave-in caused by an explosion. This is wrong sadly, as my fate was far worse than that. But I won't explain it right here because it would take far too long, and I'm in a rush. This is where the box comes in. It has all the data from the past 5 years you thought I was dead. It explains what really went on, and it will play automatically at certain intervals so please, do not tamper with it. Finally, the pocket watch is for an anchor. Watch it until the start of the next hour. If nothing happens, you can think I am insane. Although, from reading this, you probably already do.

Your brother, Daniel Everson."

I reread the note in disbelief. "My brother couldn't be alive," I say to myself as I check the time. It's 8:45 am. Maybe I should listen to the note even if my brother wasn't alive. I pick up the pocket watch, noticing it was already in sync with the current time. I start watching the time tick by slowly as if it were the end of a school day and I was watching the countdown to the dismissal bell. Eventually, it came to the last 30 seconds and I almost found myself counting down with them.

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...0. The moment the watch struck 9 am, the ground shook underneath me and I almost lost my balance, but I somehow managed to stay standing. The power went out, and the trembles stopped finally. I walk to the window of my apartment to look out and see the damage done to the outside.

"Oh my God..." I said as I watched, slightly in awe, and slightly in fear. The sight truly scared me for once. The ground was mostly intact, with just a few large cracks. But that was not what got to me. The thing that horrified me was the giant purple planet that was taking up most of the sky. Some of the buildings had been ripped in two, but instead of the top half falling to the ground, it simply stayed suspended in the air. From behind me, a voice rang out "testing, testing, is this thing on? Eh if its not working then it isn't that important. Anyways. Day 1 of excavating the newly found ruins. Not doing much today setting up camp and just making sure the ruins are safe to enter. Besides those two points, the ruins look like none of any other ancient civilization that is around the same age as these ones. Well, don't know what else to put here so I guess I'll just end log."

It was my brother's voice I haven't heard it in years, but I recognized it immediately. It came from the silver box I picked it up looking for a button that would continue it but couldn't find one. "WHY LEAVE SOMETHING FOR ME TO LEARN FROM AND NOT GIVE ME A WAY TO CONTROL IT!" I threw the box in a fit of anger and confusion.

The box hit the wall and clanged to the ground and on impact, it said "please do not throw the box. It will give you the information in time the next one is in approximately 9 hours." The box went silent.

I sigh "why am I so calm when a simple nightmare Can nearly paralyze me in fear." Despite just waking up I fall back to sleep.