Scary Short Stories

The Past Regrets Of A Time Traveler

I am a time traveler.

Or I mean I was.

You see, I was capable of travelling time however I pleased, past or present.

I was a scientist with a great mind, I think, being the only person in my time (no pun intended) to discover time travel. I say I think because I don't really remember my past. When I discovered this ability, all I remember was euphoria. My vision sparked colors I've never seen before, my body dissipated into millions of tiny particles, and suddenly, I'm in another dimension of time. Amazing, right? The thing is, whenever I travel time, through that tunnel that propels all of the particles and atoms that are a part of me, I lose a portion of my memory, somewhere in that jumble of hyperspace. My first time travel, I forgot pretty much everything.

Ever since then, I've taken caution to how I time travel and how often I do it. I chose to limit my abilities to inhibit the possibility of forgetting something important. I've forgotten a multitude of things, some smaller than others. Around a year ago, I forgot the color of my hair, only to remember immediately upon seeing my reflection in the mirror. But it could get much worse, as I once forgot to how to breathe, forcing my own body to jump the engine when I passed out to allow myself to breathe on my own.

It was my curiosity that screwed me over.

On June 18, 9214, scientists, with the assistance of advanced supercomputers developed a prototype, an invention capable of previewing possible occurrences of forthcoming events. The minds of this millennium were able to see the freaking future. The display, provided by code and text, made expert computer programmers look like toddlers playing with C++. Nevertheless, it was read, making its predictions. It ran for 3 years, producing accurate images of the future. But in 9217, it ceased to continue. The image of the end date was incoherent, even to the damn supercomputers. Scientists theorized this would be the end of existence, the complete opposite of the big bang. Religious wackos marked this as the apocalypse and the end of God himself. I wanted to know better.

It provided a date of the year and a hazy image of a dark and decaying earth, just months before the end date. Being a time traveler, I enjoyed having the information no one else had. It made me feel wonderful. That's why I decided to go there, to find out what the hell happens and go down in the books.

And I did. Boy, do I regret it.

I was trembling, my bowels loosened, my stomach turned. I was terrified.

Not because the tall man with the inhuman grin on his face was walking towards me.

Not because the deafening screams that were in my ears didn't resemble humans.

Not because I had just found hell on earth.

But because I forgot how to time travel.