Tic Toc

Fifteen

Gaia
Colorado
Hospital

I looked down at my watch as I waited in the elevator, the red hand. Frozen in time. Once again I smiled at the thought of her.
Despite her lack of wits...

The elevator opened and I tucked my watch back in my shirt before pushing the button for the old couple.
She hadn't meant any harm when she gave my Lamborghini away.

"They'll bring it back, babe!"  She had said.

Yeah. Sure.

The doors opened on my floor and i stepped out, briefcase in hand. I walked past the front desk as though I had been here a million times. Past nurses and patients, all the way to the end of the hall. I knocked on the doorframe and stepped inside.

"Richard Olson?"

The long haired man in the bed looked up at me with much difficulty. His breathing was labored. His skin was red where the chain to his watch lay. He looked much worse than I expected.

"They call me Ricky," he breathed. "Who are you?"

"Gaiapatra Swank," I took my badge out and showed it to him. "Ticking Anomaly Investigative Services."

"What's that?" He asked.

"When watches don't do what their supposed to do, I come and fix them. I've come to understand that you're having trouble with your watch."

He gave a humorless chuckle, wincing in pain.

"Trouble. Who told you? The first doctor or the fifth? Or was it the psychiatrist?"

I took a couple steps and sat down on the edge of his bed.

"I'm sorry that no one listened, Ricky," I said. "Although yours is not a textbook anomaly, the situation should have been investigated much sooner. I'm here to do that. We'll start with some questi–"

Ricky began to cough. A wet, choking cough. I stood and handed him the cup of water sitting on the bedside table. He refused.

"What's your condition?" I asked.

"I don't have one. There's not a blessed thing wrong with me. That's what the doctor says. They won't check the watch."

"You think the watch is doing this to you?" I asked in confusion.

In all my years of work, I've never seen a watch affect a person like this.

"I know it is," he insisted.

"Have you been matched?" I asked.

"Yes. But she died a couple years ago."

It crossed my mind then— and I admit I was a bit ashamed to think so— that this was all in his head. A deep depression, or maybe psychosis. He just missed his match like any lover would after making a deep connection.
Free
"How long were you matched before she died?"

"A couple minutes."

"Huh?" For a moment I forgot to be professional, blinking at him in shock.

"She was the Pittsburgh shooter," he said reluctantly.

The Pittsburgh shooter. A mass shooting that took all of ten minutes. There was no time to make a connection at all. He had no reason to be hung up on her.

"May I?" I reached for his watch.

He nodded and lifted his head so I could remove it. He hissed as I pulled it away from his skin. It was almost too hot to handle. Looking closer, I seen that his chest was red from the burn. There was no reason for it to be this hot.
Unless...
I opened the watch. I grabbed ahold of the hands which were no longer ticking and twisted.

"What are you–"

"Shhh," I silenced Ricky. "You aren't seeing this. You don't know this is possible."

I successfully wiggled the face out of the watch. I gasped at what was underneath.

"Oh my," I said in a hushed voice. I looked up at him in shock. "it's still turning."

Alex
Nevada
Home

There was a sharp blow to the center of my back. There was nothing underneath me but air. Nothing to brace myself on. Nothing to grab.

Just as quickly, icy water enveloped me like an unwanted hug. I grappled for something to pull myself out. I became tangled in a mess of weeds and lily pads.

Eyes burning and heart pounding, I gasped for air. My lungs filled with water. I tried screaming but nothing came out. Far above the surface there was a light, but all around me was darkness.

Suddenly I stopped moving. My heart stopped pounding. I watched fish swim by me, confused at why I was there. A pair of arms wrapped around me. They pulled me up and laid me out on the cold ground. I watched the moon dissapear behind a blanket of clouds. A face came partially into view, though it was too dark to make out any features. Just the long black hair that brushed against my cheek as he bent closer.

"Gorgeous?" The face said. "Gorgeous can you hear me?"

Warm hands held my frozen face. He pulled my head to his chest and begged me to respond. He pushed my hair back and kissed my face. I wanted to force my limp arms to reach up and hug him back, but I had no control. My blurred vision was starting to go dark.

"Gorgeous, please don't leave me."

But even I knew I was already gone.

My eyes snapped open. I didn't jump up like in the movies. No, I held perfectly still, my nails digging into my palm. A knot of anxiety twisted itself in my chest and my heart hammers against my ribcage. My lungs and throat burned as if I was still swallowing water. I held my breath and listened hard, knowing that I was home alone.
No footsteps.
No voices.
No strange noises.
I felt eyes on me, and even though I knew that man wouldn't be in my room, I turned to look.

Nothing but a black wall and a clothes rack. It was in fact a jacket and not the headless horseman standing perfectly still.

A loud ding made me jump. My muscles tensed. It took me an unflattering amount of time to underatand that it was my phone.
Feeling stupid, I threw back the covers. As my feet touched the cold floor I remembered what sleep had allowed me to forget.

I fought the urge to roll over and go back to sleep. I reluctantly stood and shuffled over to my dresser where my phone sat. For a moment the bright screen blinded me. When my eyes finally adjusted, I stared in shock for a moment.

Missed calls. From Remington. And then a text.

It's gonna be okay, Moonchild. I'm coming home.