The Warning

    I sighed as I scrolled through my apps quickly growing tired of each one. I rolled my eyes and plugged in my earphones and put on some music, I set my phone in my pocket and wandered around aimlessly. The air was damp and the ground was wet yet it still managed to feel fairly warm outside. I had nothing to do and anything I tried to do seemed to bore me, so my solution? Walking around aimlessly till I find something reckless and dumb. I get in trouble all the time and at this point I'm used to it, so my options were not limited at all. I didn't care what it was as long as it made time fly by. I looked ahead to see the town park, the benches were wet and were not a suitable place to sit at all. I walked through the park and looked at the damp but nicely catered trees. I got back on my phone and went to Google Maps, I looked around for a place I hadn't been to before. I've basically been all around town since I tend to spend my time away from my toxic home. I looked through the map and decided to go wandering in the woods since it would probably be better than anything else. 

I placed my phone back in my pocket and slowly but surely made my way to the damp forest. I placed my hands in my pockets as I looked around the woods, the ground was covered in leaves as it was late fall. Mother nature was preparing for winter and I wasn't quite excited. It was my least favorite time of the year, always cold out and everything covered in white. I just didn't take too much of a liking to it. After a lot of walking around I came up to a small cave, it was surrounded by decaying bushes and any plant that was near it was dead. In Front of the cave sat an old man in a rotting chair. His skin looked brittle and was covered in wrinkles, his eyes seemed to sag and his white thin hair hung to the sides of his face. I could barely see his eyes and I couldn't tell if they were open or not. His lips were the same color as his skin and were thin and chapped. His clothes were torn and stained and looked like they didn't do the job at keeping him warm.

“Go.” The man's head tilted up slightly and he looked at me, he barely managed to lift his shaking hand to shoo me away. I looked at him, I was confused. What was this old frail man doing in the middle of nowhere? Why was he.. “Protecting” this cave? I scoffed and looked at him, straightening my posture. “Look old man, I don't know who you think you are but I'm not leaving.” He groaned and rubbed his eyes. I couldn't help but laugh a little, I was clearly going to go into the cave. I mean there is nothing better to do. “Leave this place, tis nothing but trouble I tell you.” The man sighed and looked at me again, he brushed his forehead with his hand moving away small debris. I walked forward and the fragile man placed his arm in front of me as if in an attempt to stop me. “That cave will age you years in just a few seconds kid i'm telling you, now back away and leave.” His voice was shaky and his body was trembling, I pushed his arm out of my way and laughed. “Old man you are crazy, why would I believe that?” I laughed and I stepped back looking at him. “Well then, If i'm crazy then you might as well be too.” I rolled my eyes, this man was crazy. I remember thinking to myself. If only I knew how selfish I was being. I pushed the man aside as he then fell to the ground, I rolled my eyes and walked into the cave as I brought out my phone for light. 

I froze in my steps as I looked at the ground. The ground was covered in phones and headphones, all of them were exactly the same as mine.. I dropped my phone and stumbled back, I started to feel weak and dizzy. I lifted my hands in front of my face and watched as wrinkles appeared on my now old and frail hands. I collapsed backward and got out of the cave as fast as I could. The Old Man that had laid on the ground before was now gone. As I looked at my now old body I had only just now realized that the man had been wearing the same clothes as me. I looked down at my clothes that had seemed to age as my body, they were now all torn and stained. I placed my shaking hand on my head and sat in the rotting wooden chair. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as I then heard the sound of rustling leaves.
I opened my eyes to see my young self standing infront of me. I don't know how to explain it but I knew what had just happened. Guess I found something that really made the time fly by after all..