I woke up at 6:00 am 1 hour before my daily premonition, just like I do every day. Each day I brush my teeth, I eat my breakfast, I take my shower, and I kiss my wife and daughter before heading to daycare and tell them I love them no matter what I do. Just in case things take a turn for the worse. In this world there is no freedom, no running from your future, from your premonition.
Me and everyone on the face of the earth has them, always at 7 am on the dot, a random event that will happen in the future is shown to us. Sometimes you only see a second into your future. Some people see how all 24 hours of their day will go, but everyone sees it and no one can change it, no matter how hard we fight.
Last year my best friend saw a vision of him streaking across a baseball field and he did everything he could to stop himself. He put on 4 winter coats, he chained himself to his bed, he hired people to keep 24/7 surveillance of him, and make sure nothing led to him exposing himself in front of thousands. Naturally they robbed him blind as soon as he was chained, taking everything in the house and accidentally leaving the door open, as well as dropping some of the items on the road. Naturally a very burly Good Samaritan stopped by to check on the dude that nearly crucified himself. "DON'T YOU TOUCH ME DON'T YOU TOUCH ME" he screamed as the man pulled out some bolt cutters and freed him. "I'm not sure what freaky kind of Stuff you're into and I wont judge but you should get out more" the man said as he erupted into laughter, smacking my friend in the back, right out the door into a truck carrying a species of of extremely aggressive moths rolled over some of the items the robbers dropped, opening the door to the vehicle. My friend slammed into the back of the truck surrounded by hungry moths as an employee hopped out of the truck and locked the door "Watch out for any more random street trash, we need to get these moths to the baseball game pronto," My friend heard in the calm before the storm. "These moths are the mascot of our star baseball team, the Tinea Pellionella" My friend screamed in frustration as the moths descended upon him, ripping and tearing at his clothes until they're was nothing left. As soon as the truck was opened on live television for the entrance of the pellionellas My friend took off in desperation to find a towel or something and the whole world watched.
You can't defeat it. You can't run so when I witnessed my family fading from my arms and my home consumed by a white light as the world as I knew it faded away I didn't flinch it seemed like reality was being blotted out. Everything around me was disappearing, being consumed by a white emptiness that left nothing in its wake And just like that it was over. I brushed my teeth, I ate my breakfast, I took my shower, and I kissed my wife and daughter and left, leaving my house a damned man.
I hopped in my car, and blasted the radio, singing along on my way to my work. I stopped at the light as a crazy man ran across the street, cutting off some other cars, screaming "I don't want to traumatize children! I am a good person, I don't care what some stupid premonition says!" We truly live in a world without freedom, our only comfort being the fact that we are in this together. I drove past the man as he wandered off. Another man was shouting about how he would be late for some important job, he had a large turquoise suit with shielded pads on, it really caught the eye to say the least. I eventually made my way to work. I'm a news casting coordinator, whatever the hell that means. I work in a giant news tower, but usually just sit around playing snake on my computer and collect a fat check every Friday, Perks of being a friend of my boss, Percy.
"What's going on Moth Man!" I playfully said to my boss. If you're wondering, yes he's the same one that streaked across the baseball field. He was cleaned up and forgiven after his brain was analyzed for the premonition. "Didn't I tell you to stop talking about that!?" We had a hearty laugh about it, "Get anything good today?" He asked. "No, not really." I lied, "How about you?" I asked. "Not much, just got a glimpse of some dude laughing and then everything goes white, seems like a nice guy, anyway, be on the lookout for a man with a large turquoise suit on, he said he had an incredibly important premonition to put on the airwaves." Percy said, as he was leaving. "Everything goes white huh... wait where are you going?" I asked "I'm doing a report on the way children perceive premonitions, and how it relates to negative premonitions like mine. Honesty streaking at that baseball game was the best thing that ever happened to me, it's the only reason I got so popular! I was Born to play the victim role!" He exclaimed with a wink as he headed out with a camera man.
Turquoise suit... that sounded familiar. In any case I immediately got to work, racking up a new high score on snake. After a while a man busted through the door wearing a Turquoise suit, every live camera we had was trained on him "EVERYONE! LISTEN UP!" He shouted "THERE IS NO TIME I...I SAW SOMETHING SOMETHING BIG. Today I saw the world end, not in a blaze of glory but a whimper, everything you know and love will disappear before your very eyes!" He screamed erratically. Everyone gasped, completely terrified.
The premonitions started a few years ago, there was never any way to verify that they even existed. Everyone still had them, and people started violently looting and destroying, using the excuse that their hands were tied due to their premonitions. However as technology progressed a fool proof method to analyze these premonitions was discovered. A simple app scans your brain for waves that display certain activity in your temporal cortex. Once finished it generates a completely unique verification code that any device can scan to make prove or disprove the claim.
The man in the Turquoise suit held out his verification code and no one dared to take out a device. We already knew the truth: there was no way to get away with a lie like this. Before anyone moved an inch there was a quiet blanket of silence descended upon the planet. The road of an engine snuffed out, the hum of electricity dashed, the wind itself stopped blowing. Just like that. Pandemonium.
I walked out of the building, strolling through the streets, people were running wild, their world was disappearing and they didn't know what to do. Buildings were being lifted up into the air by some unseen force, traveling a distance and then vaporizing, leaving the people inside to plummet to their fates. Their cruel Unavoidable fates. I saw a bunch of tvs in a window and there was Percy. He was being cornered by a strange man that I felt I had recognized. The cameraman was trained on the two of them, as the children stared in horror.
The familiar man cracked a terrifying grin. "All my life I've been a good person, a model citizen, but then those monsters gave me this script, this part to play in the world they made, WHY DON'T WE GIVE EM A SHOW?" He screamed. "Please stop, don't play into their hands, if you want to fix your fate, then change it with determination. We don't have to be entertainment for whoever's out there watching us." Percy pleaded. "Ohhh my dear fool, there's no running. Can't you see that nothing we do matters? You were born to play the role of my victim, all your experiences, life's ups and downs, your first kiss, your last heartbreak, every emotion and decision you have ever made does not exist! It doesn't matter, all that matters is now, this moment we share, where I am going to tear you limb from limb. Are you kids ready!? Watch very carefully..." He said as he started to laugh maniacally. He and Percy faded away in a white light. Gone. Out of the story, out of the script.
I was glad the kids didn't see anything too graphic but I'm sure the poor bastards are still traumatized. Wait.. was that... my daughters daycare? My suspicions were proved correct as my wife ran in and grabbed my daughter as the building faded away. I was sure they would go home or look for me, normally I'd be there by now. I walked away from the tv and into the bar. The place was really empty for the end of the world. The only person there was the barkeep, who didn't even acknowledge my presence.
I sat down and asked, "can I get a club soda?" "Sure," he replied, still refusing to meet my gaze. He slid me a root beer float instead of what I asked for. "Hey what the hell man! I asked for a club soda!" I yelled, frustrated. He laughed. "That's what sets you off, Noedipus?" "How did you know my name?" I asked and got no response. " You know we spend every day of our lives hoping for one thing, and getting something else. We feel like we are entitled to some fairytale ending but that's not what life is. Not everyone goes out hugging their family members. Not everyone gets to say goodbye. Sometimes people just go. Sometimes you ask for a club soda and you get a root beer Float." He said. In a way he was right I had gone through the entire day as i would any other BECAUSE I knew how it would end, and maybe I'm the type of guy that finds comfort in that "I created the premonitions so people wouldn't have to be surprised so people could live their lives with at least a little certainty in the randomness of the universe, but now I realize that's a mistake so I'm shutting it down, all of it. It goes today. The End." I stared at him, he still wouldn't look at me "Who are you?" I asked. "You'll be dead within the hour, so will your wife and daughter and everyone else in the world. But don't worry, I'll try something new, remake the world with something else that might keep us entertained." He explained I was quiet for a long time. For the first time today, I was afraid, the certainty of it all doesn't hit you until it's staring you in the face, or well in my case, avoiding your eye line at any cost. "Is- is something after death for me... for us?" I asked. "I believe so, although I can't say for certain what I do know is that you will die, however I am willing to make you an offer. You can live out your premonition and disappear among your wife and daughter, an honorable death surrounded with the warmth and comfort of those you hold most dear or you can finish it here, cut to white as the only free man on the face of the planet, as anticlimactic as the concept of death itself either way this is how your story ends." He offered. It didn't take me long to make a decision.