The End of the Dream and the Final Rewind
I step out of the shadows and into the blinding sunlight.
It was a desert. I stood upon a dead land where not even a single blade of grass survived.
Beneath a vivid blue sky stretched an endless sea of sand, sand, and more sand. Scattered across the glaring dunes were the crumbling remains of ashen pillars, lonely and pathetic. The final traces of some legacy left behind by someone from an immeasurably ancient time.
But none of that mattered. This was my destination. I had endured that endless life just to reach this place, just for this moment.
I walked a few steps under the pouring sunlight before dropping to my knees.
My right hand pressed against the ground. The soft, scorching heat of sand baked beneath the sun seeped into my palm. I scooped up a handful and let it slip slowly through my fingers. The fine grains that had filled my fist scattered like dust on the wind.
With my other hand, I reached into my inner pocket and pulled out a watch. It was an old wind-up pocket watch, a gift from someone in a time so long ago it felt like another life. Even after all those years, it still gleamed like new, ticking away the seconds with perfect reliability—so long as its spring was wound on time.
I clutched the watch tightly in my left hand and slowly stroked the sand on the ground with my right.
The faint vibration of the second hand, the delicate tremors of the spring and gears turning inside the watch, tickled the fingers of my left hand. The fine sand, constantly shifting in the ceaseless wind, soon covered the right hand that had been touching the earth.
With my eyes closed, lost in thought for a long while, I finally parted my trembling lips. One careful syllable at a time, I spoke the words like a desperate prayer.
"Rewind."
⟨ Time Rewinding ⟩
The command left my lips, carrying every ounce of my will, my longing, and the weight of an eternity I could no longer bear.
