burn

time travel. you think it’d be some magnificent thing, a new revelation that’ll change the world forever. it was for a time. sure, slowdowns and speedups are incredibly useful, but the moment things started going backwards - everything just fell apart.

there’s rules. stuff like, can’t go faster than the speed of light, can’t create or destroy energy, that sort of thing. time’s got rules too. only difference is that they were found out the hard way.

no one told us what to expect, i mean - we knew we were risking stuff like never coming back, bunch of us were fine with that actually - but you’d think scientists would be more… ethical, i guess. usually they are, but i guess with something like this they just rushed the ball.

to be fair, things were starting to get rough - the world’s been boiling for a year and we’ve long gone past the time where institutions told us what we needed to do. no more estimates, no more reduce X by Y. the event horizon was breached, and the earth was going to become humanity’s tomb. with something like that looming over you, it’s no wonder you start rushing.

i wish i could stop myself from blaming them, but christ. this… i need to blame someone, and it can’t be me. i need to keep my mind working somehow. i can’t just… forgive. the anger helps me forget what’s right in front of me.

we were supposed to go two decades earlier. they gave us items that would prove we came from the future. if we didn’t go early enough, people would suspect us as fakes. if we went too early, they wouldn’t understand. i had the words to say memorized too.

“hello, we are from the future. the scientists who brought us here gave us these items as proof. feel free to verify.”

supposedly we had logs that would answer any questions scientists had - but the reason we had to go back as well is the human element. they tried sending messages back but nothing worked. people kept ignoring them. they can’t ignore people though.

we’re not people anymore.

i don’t exactly know what this is, or where i am - i don’t know how long ive been here, hell im not even sure if when makes any sense here. im just screaming these words to keep my mind occupied. all i know is that i see everything. everywhere too. when time doesn’t move, you can kinda just… be omniscient like that. but you get so alone.

the others are gone. i can’t find them, but if i had to guess, they’re like me. the only solace i get, is that i can see all of history. there’s a lot to sift through, an awful lot. in a sense, it’s a nice thing. but then you look to the future, and nothing. few decades pass and humanity is no more. few centuries, and the earth has become a larger replica of mars. nothing happens after that… ive tried. had to stop myself before i went mad.

i wish i could go down there. help the earth. do something. but im trapped as a voyeur, cursed to see tragedy unfold. the last life die. i spent so much time looking for aliens… hell there might be. but there’s so much space out there that i just started going mad again. people aren’t meant for this.

maybe my screams do something. i dont know why. maybe ive lost it already. but i need to try, right? so far ive seen nothing, but maybe. so i scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

and scream.

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and nothing.