Flash Showcase: The Past and the Future by Abhijatya Singh

Father is setting up the Time Fleeting Belt. After years of effort, he has finally figured out a medium for us to move through in time. He says that I will be able to see everything that has occurred or will occur like a spectator. He is telling me to not test its limit. I should just go back a few days and come back. He is pressing the button to activate the Belt.

I am moving back in time. I can see my father instructing me to not test the belt’s limit. I am going back. I see him celebrating after he realizes what he has made. I am floating through time. I see myself making out with my girlfriend for the first time. I see me, ten years old, trying to look through the door to see what my father does in his lab. I see my mother taking her last breath after giving birth to me. I should return now. I just need to turn the dial from past to present. But my curiosity is getting the better of me.

I see my parents getting married. I see my father being expelled from college for being obsessed over ‘Time Theories’. I see my father playing in the garden with Grandpa. I am seeing the atom bomb crashing over Hiroshima. I see dying faces and their unheard cries for help. I see the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. I am going back. I am too far back now. I see the Roman Empire. I see the Mesopotamians. I see humans evolving. There are no humans now. Mammoths are running around the world. I want to go further back, to the beginning of time. But I have already pushed the limits of the Belt. Father will be mad. I am turning the dial to the present.

I am moving forward now. Once again I see everything: Romans, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Nikola Tesla and Albert Einstein. I see the dead people from wars. I see my parents getting married. I see my mother dying. I see myself making out with my girlfriend. I see my father instructing me to not test the Belt’s limit. I see him pressing the button. I should be back in my body now, but I am not.

I see my father looking at my body patiently. I am trying to turn the dial back but it is not working. I see my father getting worried. He is trying to bring me back. My body is not reacting. I see my father crying. They are burying me now. I see my father collapsing near my grave. I see my father dying in the hospital. I am moving forward. The world is changing rapidly. Technology is taking over everything. I see them developing Artificial Intelligence. I see them making robots. I see people lying around doing nothing. Robots are serving them. I see the world changing.

Artificial Intelligence has taken over the world. There is chaos everywhere. Robots are killing humans. Robots are destroying our countries. All historical landmarks are destroyed. I see the robots killing the last human. I see robots turning the world into their sanctuary. Earth is becoming too hot now. There are no trees left. The metal of the robots’ bodies has started to tear now. The heat is too much for them. I see them stop functioning. There are no living beings on Earth anymore, not even the insects.

I see Earth dying now. I see it falling into a black hole. I see other planets and stars dying. I am moving forward. I will finally find out if there is an end to time. I have a lot of knowledge now that could have changed our entire perception of the universe in the time where I originally belonged. I know a lot of secrets of mankind that would have altered humanity. Now, with all the knowledge that is useless now, I am moving forward, towards eternity.

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Abhijatya Singh is a new writer from India who wishes to present stories from around the world and beyond.

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