Lashton One Shots

Countdown

Everyone is born with a timer. The timers are invisible of course, they rest just above your head, so you can't feel them, or notice they are there. But Ashton sees.

He was born with the ability to see everyone's timers.

What are the timers exactly? They count down the seconds, minutes, hours you have to live. When it hits zero, you die.

Ashton has grown used to his new ability, but sometimes it's hard to know when your friends and family are going to die. Especially since no one except him even know the timers exist.

But it's weird...Ashton can't see his own timer.

And it's also weird that...Luke can.

Inspired by Nickelbacks music video Savin' Me :D <3

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Ashton pulled his hoodie over his head as he stepped out into the rain.

His eyes drifted to the space above people's heads.

They were bright orange. Easy to see in the rain.

He couldn't help but look at them, everywhere he went.

He saw an old man, sitting under the awning of a cafe. He smiled when he saw at least eleven more years.

He kept walking. He didn't know why he did this, he just did. He had to know. Somehow, seeing other people's made him feel like he was seeing his own.

He didn't know what they were at first.

Ever since he could remember, he saw bright orange flashers above people's heads. He would stare and wave his hand over them, but he couldn't touch them. People gave him weird looks and he realized he was the only one who could see them. The only one who knew they were even there.

He became more secluded after that. As he grew older, he realized they were timers, and that they were counting down.

Counting down to what, he didn't know.

Until one day, he found out the horrible truth.

It was nice out. A bright, normal day. He was on his way to school like normal, when he noticed an elderly lady sitting on a park bench, feeding some birds.

He stopped and stared. Her timer was at a number he had never seen before. In the one digit numbers.

He had never seen someone with that low a number. And then, it hit one, and vanished. The lady gasped, and bent over, falling off the bench.

Pedestrians ran over to help, but Ashton knew.

She was dead.

The timers counted down how much time you had left to live.

And suddenly he looked at the timers in a different light.

He stared at them more, his friends, family, teachers, completely unaware.

Random people off the street. Oblivious.

That day he ran home, skipping school.

He slammed his bathroom door shut and looked at himself in the mirror.

He looked at the space above his head.

The empty space.

No timer. No countdown for him. He hadn't ever noticed it before, but now he did.

He didn't have a timer. That, or he couldn't see it.

Am I already dead? He wondered. No, that couldn't be, people heard him, talked to him, touched him.