"So, what's on your mind?" Malcolm asked, noticing me talking to myself as per usual. I kept whispering "I'm an idiot" repeatedly, although I don't think he understood what I was saying.
"Is it okay if I don't mention it? I don't even know how to explain it," I replied, shaking my head. I wasn't about to explain to him how I discovered time travel and got sidetracked by it. Despite him being my best friend, he wouldn't understand my issues. Some things are better left unsaid.
"Of course. So, do you want to go to the nearest park, or do you want to get some food again?"
"I want to get more food," I said, even though I wasn't hungry in the least. I swear, I could eat every hour of the day if I wanted to.
"Cool cool, let's go to McDonald's then," he said, pulling up his phone. He looked up the nearest one and told me we were going towards it.
As I walked with Malcolm by my side, I experienced about six timelines all at once; they included the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Normandy Landings. I witnessed firsthand the horrors of the world about to enter a nuclear war, and every second got my adrenaline pumping. I heard JFK begging the Soviet Union not to launch an attack, and eventually, they agreed to the terms declared by the United States. As for the Normandy Landings, I saw scenes similar to Saving Private Ryan, which my father had shown me; seeing the violence raging on had numbed me even more; I could have seen any amount of violence and not cared at that moment. There's only so much horror you can witness before you become numb to it all. Ultraviolence is like a drug; the more you experience it, the less it affects you.
"You don't talk as much as I remember," Malcolm said to me suddenly.
"It's just, do you ever get this feeling like the world is going to be destroyed in the next twenty years?" I asked without realizing.
"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.
"It's like the world gets worse by the second; I've seen so much horror that by this point, nothing surprises me," I said, shaking my head.
"The more pain you see, the less you think of this world."
"Exactly. At least someone understands it," I said with a tiny smile as we arrived.
"We're here."
YOU ARE READING
The October Amaryllis
Science FictionClive Andrews is a typical 16-year-old boy who never had anything out of the ordinary happen until May 16th, 2020, when he was struck by several feet of ball lightning and nearly killed. After being discharged from the hospital, he realizes that he...
