The Library of Time

326 - SLAVERY AND EMANCIPATION

There had passed since their conversation about the Third World War, and Bonnie couldn't stop noticing there was something bad going on with the Prof. Really, bad.

For some strange reason, he was no longer the curious and peaceful man he used to be. There seemed to be an enormous affliction over him, something tormenting him so much that he couldn't concentrate or find interest in anything.

He had clearly spent entire nights there, inside the library. She could tell by the dark and heavy eye bags that formed a common element in his clever face. He looked tired, sleepless, and dry.

Indeed, his spirit was dry now, for he had discovered something so big, so impressive that he could barely live. He needed to take it all out, he needed to tell someone so desperately. But still, his morals of communication were stopping him. He couldn't condemn anyone with the acknowledgement of his new discoveries. He would turn Bonnie's life a hell if he did so.

The information he had was a burden he had to carry on his own. But after all, he was a human. Mortal and weak, as all the rest. And pain made him forget his promise of keeping it a secret.

It was a normal day, Bonnie crossed the dark hall and walked into the filled with light new area she liked a lot. It was perfect to work in, there were big lamps in the ceiling that made it a perfect place to read. Much more comfortable than the other area.

Once inside, she found something she was clearly not expecting. She looked at the desk and found Professor Jonas Brookston seated in a chair, bending down to read a book placed over the now perfectly clean desk.

Since he spent the nights there, and tended to arrive later than Bonnie, the girl had taken care of keeping the desk clean. It was astonishing that Brookstone didn't seem to need all those books he usually had around him anymore. The only thing he was constantly taking was his journal, a notebook with soft light brown leather covers.

He scribbled some notes from time to time. But most of the time he simply sat there, looking at the shelves from afar. Thinking.

"Prof.!" said Bonnie, getting closer to see what was that that had changed the man's habits today.

"Sit down, sweetie. I need you to listen to something."

She did as was told, and the man, as he had done years earlier, tore a sheet of paper out from his pad and grabbed his pen.

"You must remember my theory. The one I made up to explain where this library was placed."

"Sure. It was the first lesson you taught me about how this place worked."

The man stopped for a second and stared into the wall at Bonnie's' back. He remembered that day perfectly too. It had been so long ago, long before he discovered the truth. Those were other times, when he was completely sure of his capacity for giving an explanation to everything in the multiverse. When he believed completely in himself.

Then he returned to this dimension, and remembered he was explaining something.

"I've... I've found out it was wrong." He stopped to take a deep breath. "If not entirely, at least partially. But wrong after all."

Bonnie said not a thing. She couldn't believe it either, but she had run out of words and asked for an explanation only with her gestures.

"As you may remember, I said there were other parallel universes, copies of US, moving at different speeds. But as I see it now, we are moving. So if someone wanted to go back to 2015, to the exact moment when I first explained my theory, he couldn't go back to this dimension because now we are in 2017. That moment forms part of the past for us.

All the same, the rest of the parallel universes are moving forward. But if so, then how could we return to the ancient ages?"

This was the point in which he started drawing his well-known maps down.

"This could be explained very easily, it's just that we need to keep in mind, and present at all moments, the idea that the past is the future and the future is the past."

Now Bonnie was scared. She had always trusted Brookstone's sharp mind, and she knew he liked to experiment with abstract concepts and mind-blowing ideas. But this was somehow going too far, and now she started doubting if he was still sane. Or if he had ever been.

"We can return to the Elizabethan Era, for example, because the planet is always regenerating. It is living in an infinite cycle. Same story repeating over and over again."

"We understand that there are an unlimited number of USs moving at many different speeds, alright. However, all universes have to part from the same spot; Earth's birth, and will end in the same spot; Earth's death."

"That means that, at some point, each version of US will explode so another version could be formed from the debris. That means the destiny of this planet is to die, and start all over again. Same things happening just in the same order."

Now Bonnie was scared by what she was listening to, haunted by fear and uncertainty.

Brookstone stared at the wall once more. "I only know I have no more objective in life. I've discovered the absolute truth, our imminent death. As I see it now, there is no point in living if, anyway, I'm going to die and be born again in millions of years to come. And keep on doing the same thing and living the same life over and over again, until the end of times."

He stood up, giving shape to a new idea in his mind.

"I've filled my brain with knowledge I was not supposed to get. I found this library by chance and now I see my existence as pointless. I've done things no human is supposed to do, thought things no human is supposed to even conceive. If I am going to die anyway, I'll mock rules once more and I'll get to the bottom of this library. I'll find out how is the Earth actually going to die."

Not a word came out from Bonnie's mouth. Now the Prof. was like a ghost, only the shadow of someone who had once been a genius. In front of her, all she could see was a madman, a creepy and mysterious man who looked like someone she had once been her friend. Now a stranger.

Bonnie stood up, turned around in silence, and started walking out of the library to never return again.

She didn't turn back to glance one last time at the Prof. as she left.

She was scared of losing her head like that man, and she couldn't further believe in all those crazy theories of his. She thought the wisest thing to do was simply to forget everything she had lived there and focused on her studies. To believe all she had seen there was a dream, lies and hoaxes written down by that crazy man. Fake predictions.

Now the genius was alone. There was no one to listen to his theories. He had drowned on his own. But once he had taken the right track to discovering the absolute truth about destiny, a little piece of it was not enough to satiate his thirst. He needed to know it all.