Counting Down

Counting Down

I'm not sure how to tell anyone this, but I can't just keep it to myself anymore.  I think that something is seriously wrong with me, and I'm afraid that if I went to see a doctor or a priest about it, they would put me in a mental institute or something because they'd either think I'm crazy or possessed by the Devil or something like that.

Anyway, let me start off by saying that up until a few days ago, I did not believe in the supernatural.  I knew pretty much all about how psychics are frauds or simply just entertainers, how ghosts and other creatures are mostly just the products of people's superstitions and fears, I even had my doubts about God and religion.  But now after all of what's happened with me, I'm not really sure what to believe now.

I'll just go out and say it.  I can see clocks over people's heads.  They're not normal clocks like you would have at home or on your phone or anything like that.  They don't really tell the time of the day.  They tell your time.  Or rather, the time when you will pass on from this world.  I don't think that you will believe it, but I don't really care, I just want to get it off my chest.

To be honest, this isn't just some strange phenomenon that has just happened recently.  I keep remembering a time when I was just a young child and my uncle was in the hospital.  He was in a car accident.  My parents told me that he was drinking and couldn't control the car.  He was put into intensive care, and we went to see him.  All I can remember is that I saw something that was out of place.  I remember the room being all white except for one thing.  I saw a strange color above my uncle's head, and what I think was numbers.

I think I saw his time.  It showed up because his time was coming.  A bit after that, my uncle died in the hospital.  He had damaged his heart, and it gave out during surgery.  I had forgotten about seeing his time.  I remembered it because of what happened a few weeks ago.

See, I go to high school and all.  You probably know what it's like.  I don't really have much to do after classes so I end up walking home most of the time.  The roads I cross to get home are busy a lot of the time, but hey, that's the city for you.  Some days when I walk back home I see this girl from my school who walks back in mostly the same direction I go.  She's mostly listening to music when she walks, and she mostly depends on watching the sign at the crosswalk when she has to cross a street.

One day when I was walking back, I saw it.  I saw a clock over her head.  It was fuchsia colored numbers that looked like they belonged to a stopwatch or a timer of some kind.  It was counting down.  It was crazy.  In broad daylight, I saw numbers counting down over someone's head!  Nobody else seemed to notice it!  I ended up following that girl, but that turned into a mistake since she noticed I was following her and asked if I was a stalker or something.  Then she started yelling and making a scene, so I just ran out of there.  The clock over her head said that it had about forty-seven hours or so left.

The next day I didn't try to follow her.  But the numbers now said there were around twenty-four hours left before the countdown was over.  So the next day I ended up following her.  She didn't seem to notice me, mostly because she was probably focusing on her phone and her music as she walked.  There was around ten minutes left.  I walked as I normally did, and went the same way as I usually do.  

Five minutes left.  At this point, I was at the turn where I usually stayed on the sidewalk, but I just followed her across the street.  Like I did two days ago.  I waited a bit after she crossed, and then  hurried after her when the crosswalk sign lit green again.  She was still in sight.  
Two minutes left.  She didn't notice me.  I almost couldn't believe that I was following this girl I hardly knew.  She even called me a stalker the other day.  I think she'll even call the police or something if she catches me now.  I think I was too curious to see what would happen if the numbers counted down all the way.  I kept following her.

One minute left, it turned into seconds.  I tried to keep a good distence between the two of us.  She was heading for another crosswalk.  Thirty seconds.  The girl got a text on her phone.  Twenty seconds.  She started texting.  Ten seconds.  She started crossing the street, I noticed a car coming from the left that was going a bit too fast.  Five seconds.  I dunno what came over me.  I started running at the girl and ended up tackling her, pushing both of us onto the sidewalk.  The car barely hit her.

The countdown was gone.  I could hear her yelling “Stalker!  Pervert!  Help!” and soon enough a lot of people showed up, and some grabbed me and pulled me away from her.  Some of them roughed me up a bit until a police officer showed up and took me away.

I tried to tell the officer that there was a car coming that was going to run into the girl, but he didn't want to hear any excuses from me.  I was taken down to the local police station where I told them the same thing I told the officer.  They let me off easy.  I wasn't really charged with anything.  The girl wasn't really harmed and I didn't seem like some kind of crazy stalker or something like that.  They called up my parents and my dad showed up where I told the same story.  He didn't want to hear it.

After that, not much happened.  Things went back to normal, though now there's a rumor about me being some kind of stalker or something stupid that'll go away in a week or so.  I figure that I'd try to figure out exactly what caused me to see those numbers, but I'm not holding my breath.  This is almost too bizarre to be real.  Though, stranger stuff has happened.  I don't expect you to believe any of this, you can take it as you will.  Though, the next time it happens, I should think twice about helping the person who is counting down.  They'll probably be as grateful as that girl who pinned me for a stalker.

The End