Time Ended Yesterday

Content warning; suicide & self-harm symbolism.

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Time ended yesterday.

I suspected it would eventually. The days grew shorter, the evenings became longer. Night stopped existing. Eventually, the sun became trapped as everything stopped spinning. Everyone stopped moving for a short time, too. Everyone but me.

Slowly, they disappeared as they regained motion. They all wandered off in a trance as they headed for the horizon, as if heeding a call I was immune to. Soon, I was all alone.

I sat outside to stare at the eternal setting sun. All was quiet and still, and I wondered if I was the last creature who remained a person — who hadn't become a mindless wanderer.

And then it spoke to me.

I looked up into the sky as a whispering voice emanated from the cosmos. Through the pink and orange clouds, I discerned a large eye that gazed over all. It stared at me for some time, and I remained silent in awe. Was it angry with me because I did not heed the call to the void?

Its whispers echoed throughout the empty neighborhood in response to my thoughts, and although I could not understand the ancient language, I knew it was not cross with me after all.

'Time has moved on without you because you wished to move on without it.'

I stood from the porch and lifted my arms. Upon flexing my hands, fresh blood seeped from my wrists.

I had become trapped. Time hadn't stopped for everyone, it only stopped for me. I left myself behind as others followed tomorrow. I'd yearned for yesterday.

I looked off into the distance. A shadow flickered from behind a dead train on the railroad tracks. Another stared at me from a window in the antique store next to my house. Its hand pressed against the pane as its eyes bore into me, and as I looked up into the second floor, another watched me with interest from an open sash.

I looked back at the silent world around me.

I was home at last.

©2023 Shane Blackheart