The ACG Short Story Collection

The Watcher

I wondered what would happen if somehow I hadn't found the message. Suppose the picture had somehow been destroyed by a freak accident before I discovered it. It was fate that lead me to the picture and it was my destiny to decipher its message. I began to understand the message. The people from the future were trying to tell us something about ourselves.

I got angry at my girlfriend, she didn't seem to understand my passion. She had no appreciation for the watcher. To me it had become a friend, to her an enemy. It had been our discovery, now it was mine. Why couldn't she appreciate how important this was. Couldn't she understand how valuable a message from the future could be. Think of what we could learn, what we could achieve, when we found the solution . This was a point where anything could happen.

The people from the future had to be great. They had to be so much more advanced, how else could they leave a message to be discovered now. It couldn't be meaningless. I had to find the answer.

I thought about how I had found the message. That day when we searched eagerly through a second hand book shop we'd just found. It was so hard to get hold of real books these days, but my girlfriend professed distaste for movies and digitised stories, and so had passed her passion for books on to me. She loved to have something real, something solid in her hands. I loved the way her eyes lit up as we discoed this shop hidden in a small back street. We searched through the piles of old books, occasionally sneezing from dust, and laughing with each new wondrous find. We brought many books that day, and it was she that found the loose piece of paper with the eye on it.

That eye that had brought so much meaning into my life, my watcher.

I thought about my girlfriend, and I thought about her irrationality over the watcher. She just simply didn't understand. And I loved her, I didn't want her mad at me, I didn't want her to get angry at me. I wanted to make her happy, I've always wanted to make her happy, seeing her smile is wonderful. I was going to have to make some changes if I wanted to please her. I was going to have to do something about the watcher, things couldn't keep going the way they were. I would have to go home, tell her I loved her and wanted to make her happy, and make her understand my passion for the watcher, make her understand how important the message was.

Its now that's important, its now, this is now, take a chance on happiness now, the future is tomorrow, but I want to live for today.

Things are going to have to change, things can't keep going on this way, she thought as she erased computer files. Then lifting the pile of paper she placed it in the tin and slowly set fire to them all. She saved the watcher to last, tearing it into tiny pieces before feeding it to the flames.

"I had to do it" -she cried
"You were obsessed, you spoke of nothing else, it was like you'd forgotten us, I couldn't live like that"
"You can never understand how important that message was, that message could be the saviour of all humanity, it could be the solution to world hunger, a cure for cancer, the people from the future would only put that much effort into sending something really important. Why? How the fuck could you destroy all my work and stand there and claim it was for my own good?"
"It was only a piece of paper"

So I left, what else could I do. And when I thought about it, I thought the people from the future wouldn't take chances, there would be another one somewhere. I just had to find it. So I starting seeking out old bookshops. I'd have to find it myself this time, but what else could I do.

Table of Contents

The Watcher