Timeless (Finished)

Chapter 3

"He was at the cafe on the bench next to me while I was "waiting" for you." Emma's eyes widened to an almost ridiculous amount as those words left his mouth. As suddenly as the realization hit him it seemed like everything and everyone around Charles had heard what he said, and it felt as if the world had stopped spinning. Charles felt an unbelievable amount of pressure on him as if he was being crushed and soon enough everything went dark.

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"Where am I?" The last thing I remembered was driving home with Emma, she was mad at me... What happened after that? I racked through my brain, trying to think about what had happened earlier, and how I got here, but all I could focus on was where I was. My head was throbbing and felt as if my skull had been crushed. If I looked around all I could see for what seemed like miles was white, just plain white. Did I die? Is this heaven? My mind was all over the place trying to figure out how I could've ended up in this situation, inside of this endless white world. My eyes burned as I looked around the frosted room. The colour white had never looked so lifeless and bright at the same time, it was disorienting, to say the least. After a while, I got over my paranoia and decided to get up. I sit up, finally gathering enough courage to get up, and explore. Not only was it all white it also had no corners, walls NOTHING. "If this is heaven I didn't want to be here, I felt like I was gonna go insane. I have probably only been here for a few minutes, but it feels like an eternity. "Who knows, maybe this is all a bad dream and I can leave if I figure it out." I get up as slow as I can, feeling as if this is all a trap and if I move too fast I might set it off.

I tried to "explore" this ethereal world that I had found myself in, but there was nothing to see as silence surrounded my every step. At first, it felt as if I hadn't even moved since with every step nothing came closer or went further away. I would have said everything was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, but I couldn't even hear myself walking. My voice feels powerless, which left me with only the sound of my own thoughts to keep me sane enough to keep going. Trust me if I could I would just give up right now, but the tortuous thought of staying here any longer felt nauseating.

"Charles Davison?" a strong voice thundered down on me, snapping me out of my thoughts, Is this it? Have I finally gone crazy? "Charles you're not dead and you are not going insane" "What?! "How, Who!?" "Oh, right I forgot to introduce myself... you see this is quite an awkward situation for me as well. I've never done this before, actually, I wasn't even sure if I would be able to pull that off if I say so myself." "Who are you?" I said cutting the anonymous voice off. Maybe this could be my way out I thought to myself. "Well yes if you choose to do so, this could be your way out of here. I am the creator of this story... Oh and I can hear what you're thinking so you might as well just say it out loud ." "What do you mean you're the creator? A-and how do I know this is real?" I had never been more puzzled in my life, how was this happening, how did I get here, why don't I remember anything, and who is this creator? "I know this might be hard for you to believe and I get that you might not trust me, but... Umm, you are just a character in a story I was writing, and I have decided that it would be best if I just banned you from the story."

What is happening? As a 27-year-old man never in my life had I been so confused. The shock of the situation finally got to me. I couldn't believe this, and I didn't believe it. The whole concept of this was absurd. "Listen I don't know who you are, and I don't know what kind of sick joke you think this is but all I want is to get out of here." "Right as I said earlier I can do that, In fact, I'll prove it to you right now"

I stop listening as my eyes focus on something in the distance. I couldn't believe it finally something to look at. I sprinted towards whatever it was that I could see. "A t.v screen?" Instead of making it better this had just made it worse. In front of me was a t.v screen that had Emma on it, but she wasn't moving, nothing was. Everything there had stopped as if it were waiting for something. Almost like the whole world was calling to me. "See you were supposed to be the main character of the story I was writing, but since you're currently banned the story can't continue without you. I also realize that I haven't told you why you're here but between all that's happened so far, I didn't really get the opportunity to do so." My mind was powerless, incapable of comprehending, anything as all my thoughts escaped me in one moment.

"You see since I was writing a story, and like most others, there was a plot twist that was supposed to happen a few chapters later. It would've worked out just perfect, but unfortunately, you figured out what was going to happen. Remember the man in the gray hoodie? Well he's a clone of you, and you weren't supposed to know about him till chapter 30 but you found out way earlier than you were supposed to. Knowing that he exists puts everything I had planned for this story in jeopardy. Now I know that might not seem like a valid reason to ban you from existing but you knowing what might happen could change everything, and frankly, if you make your own story it would give you way too much power for a simple character. Things like this have consequences, that could put a lot of people in danger. So, I just chose to remove you, and therefore you now get a strenuous choice. You can either go back to the story or you can stay here."

The most evident choice in this situation was obviously just to go back home and continue on with my life, but as they say, all good things eventually come to an end. "If you go back everything will continue the way it's supposed to be but you'll forget that this ever happened, and you'll have to live out whatever I had planned for you no matter how bad it is, or you can stay here for what, to you seems like years but in the real world is only a few days with anything you wish for. You will live in comfort and luxury, but you will eventually stop existing." "You have an hour to think it over and pick one or else I'll just have to erase you"

The choice is too crucial for me to just pick one, but I had to choose. I practically collapsed while I tried my hardest to weigh my choices. I wanted to go back, of course I did. If I did make it back I could be with Emma again, and it would be like none of this ever happened, but I won't remember anything. Although that seemed like a dream right about now I couldn't bear the thought of not knowing that any of this exists, not knowing that I don't exist. How could I just go back and knowing that whatever happens from then on would be a lie? Not only that I will also have to live out all the pain and misery that was initially planned out for me. Who knows maybe this story doesn't even have a good ending, and I don't make it out alive either way. It would be so much easier to just stay here, and live in extravagance. Although I fully understood living here meant I would die a slow death by myself, and I'd never see anyone I loved again it just seemed so much easier. "Charles have you decided?"

The creator's voice seemed to echo over the whole world as he started speaking again. "Yes I have" "What is your decision?" I wanted to stay here and not deal with the chilling curiosity of what would happen if I went back. I would get anything I wanted, whenever I wanted it. "I want to go back" I stated making my voice as clear as I could. Staying here would be so easy, too easy, and throughout my life, I have realized that if you want something you have to work hard for it. Even if I did pick the easy way out I knew I wouldn't be able to go to long without seeing Emma.

"Good choice" his words rang in my ears and it seemed like everything got brighter. Even though I couldn't see the creator the tone in his voice felt warmer than it had before, almost as if he was smiling and content with my choice.

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When they made it to their house, they went inside and Emma collapsed onto the sofa, glad to finally be back home. "Ahhh, home sweet home." Charles smiled at her warmly while he poured himself a glass of ice, cold refreshing water. "Hey, Emma you're not mad at me are you?" he asked, knowing that the answer would be no, but it didn't hurt to make sure. "No I'm not..., but still I feel like you should make it up to me. Let's go out somewhere and have fun. I feel like I haven't seen you in forever, and when we finally meet again it turns out like this " Charles grinned to himself "As you wish my lady." he replied happily, that everything had finally worked out.

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