The air was chilly and cold, snow
covered the ground and snowflakes drifted through the air, occasionally flying
into things and getting stuck. Lanterns hung from thin black metal poles that dotted
the road. The road and everything else was covered in snow. The surrounding
trees were covered in snow and the lake was frozen. Fog hung in the air, adding a pale gray and darkness to the white sheets of snow.
Through the fog a man could
be seen. He wore a brown overcoat, black shoes, warm leather gloves and a
scarf. He wore a bowler hat and was walking up the road. Wind blew, but he
didn’t fight against it, he just walked like normal. He walked up the road
calmly and didn’t seem bothered by the ice, snow, wind and cold. The man’s
white hair blew around, messing it up. The man had a trimmed white beard, it
came down to his neck. The man was thin and old, but didn’t seem burdened by
that either. In his hand he carried a lantern. It was a metal lantern with a
handle and the light was glowing a pale blue. It helped him see through the fog
and did a better job than the street lamps that were burning their normal fire
and producing yellow light.
The fog parted as the man passed,
as if the blue light was repelling it. The man walked at a slow and stead pace,
where he was headed, was a mystery. Then the man stopped and pulled a pocket
watch from his side coat pocket. He looked at the time, then clicked the top
several times. The very next second, the man was gone. He vanished from
existence as if he never existed at all.
The old gentleman reappeared in a
completely different place. This place was an empty chuck of land, floating in
a dark and endless abyss. The ground was cobblestone and chest high walls were
built alone the edges of the floating island. The walls were brown old brick,
but were in decent condition. These plain old walls were the only thing keeping
someone from stumbling off the edge and falling into the endless abyss. Old
Fashioned black metal street lights sat in each corner of the main square. The
square was the center of the island, from this location, little cobble stone
paths ran off into different directions. Each stone path linked smaller
floating islands to the main square. On the southern side of the square is a
half built bridge that doesn’t go anywhere. The old man refers to is as “The Bridge
to the abyss” because walking over the bridge would cause you to fall right in.
Each little connected island or
‘room’ also had small walls build along the edges, but no roof or doors
anywhere to be seen. If you go to the north there is a lone door. The door has
never been opened. It doesn’t seem to lead to anything though. Its just a door
sitting in the middle of one of the rooms north of the square. All of this was
know as the End of Time. this floating island was like a lost and found for the
universe. Anything with memory and importance that is lost, ends up at the End
of time. there is a room on the cobblestone island that is filled with
trinkets, knick-knacks, mementoes and anything that was a physical with hopes,
memories and sentimental attachment attached to it. But for the more obscure
things, like a single thought or the name of a long lost friend, those things
all end up in a large leather bound book. The book had its own stand and was
located in the square with the old man. The man, who was named ‘Zindel’, would
also use the book to summon up the words of other books and documents through
history.
The
creation of the island of cobblestone and walls wasn’t a plan, but series of
random events. There was a point in the future when time, the universe and all
of existence ends. The dark abyss of nothing was all that remained. But such an
enormous event as all of time suddenly stopping made this moment in oblivion to
be linked with every time and place that had ever existed. The story of Zindel
and his floating island will have to be for another day. For now, this is how
the End of time came to be and how it works.
Now Zindel lives for eternity in a
place were time doesn’t exists. He uses his perch to oversee time and watches
it all pass before his eyes on an infinite loop. Time is a tricky thing, its
hard to explain and isn’t something you can see or hold onto, yet everyone
believes in it and is conscious of it at all ‘times’.
Zindel had been visiting an old
wintry land that was familiar to him before he returned to the end of time. He
cannot interact with anything in any time, but still likes to go visit.
Occasionally Zindel will peek into a random country on earth and view a New
Years Eve celebration. To him, it looks like a countdown to the end of time,
but to the others, it is a great and wonderful time. It is a time for hope for
the future and reflection on the past. Every year the people of the land want
to receive a better year than the last one and every year seems just a new and
fresh as the last one. It’s a cycle the people get stuck in. they have
anticipation for the New Year and are tired of the old one. It is as if they
are stuck in a time loop. Zindel watches this and laughs. The blissful optimism
is as funny as it is enviable.
Time ticks on, the world clock
ticks, tick tick tick. But still life goes on, so lets all enjoy this New Year
and look forward to the challenges and rewards it will bring with it.
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