You may be wondering what is Writersverse? It is the name of the writing group I am a part of which speed writes every Thursday. Like the Spider-verse, each of us are given the same topics, (i.e. Spider-man) but then are given just a short amount of time to come up with our own original stories centered on the topics.
Story #5
Time limit: 1 hour
Genre: Time Travel
Theme: Music
Prompt which must be in the story: Sink
—
Jonathan blinked and then rubbed his eyes. All around him was a tropical forest filled with birds calling, water gurgling, and the smell of fresh sap.
“But, I…” Jonathan stared at the vibrant greens of the forested lands and the deep blue cloudless sky. He pulled at his collar in confusion.
He could not remember how he got here. The last thing he remembered was cleaning his dirty dishes out of his kitchen sink and then accidentally dropping a glass to the floor.
“Am I dreaming?” Jonathan quickly pinched himself, then winced in pain.
“No, you are not dreaming.” A female voice answered Jonathan.
Whirling around; Jonathan saw a red-haired woman dressed in a long tan trench coat, with a plain white shirt, blue pants, and black boots.
“Who are you? And where am I?” Jonathan rapidly questioned.
“That will all come in time,” the red-haired woman smiled, “It seems we have arrived a bit ahead of schedule, follow me.”
The woman started walking off into the forest, leaving Jonathan behind.
He contemplated not following, but his curiosity got the better of him.
The woman led Jonathan to the top of a cliff which overlooked a roaring waterfall and raging river.
She looked about a bit and then nodded stating, “Here should be good.” Reaching into her trench coat, the woman pulled out a red and white checkered picnic blanket. She laid it upon the ground and then sat down, motioning to Jonathan to join her.
Still stunned at his sudden change of scenery, he failed to notice the woman also pulled a violin out of her trench coat as well.
“Come join me Jonathan,” she pointed to the spot next to her on the blanket. Don’t worry, everything will be explained in a moment.”
Hesitantly, Jonathan sat down next to the stranger. He side-eyed her, as she fiddled and adjusted the violin and its bow.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Jonathan could not contain his questions any longer.
“Look, you seem to be busy, but maybe if you could just answer my questions I can leave and you can go back to working on your fiddle or whatever. Where am I? Who are you? What is going on and why are we here?”
“It’s a violin,” she answered softly, “you knew that before…”
“Violin, fiddle, guitar, whatever it is! Please tell me what is going on!” Jonathan attempted to stand and walk away, but the woman caught his arm.
“I know this is all confusing, just please sit down and give me a moment to explain. My name is Neviah and we are here to listen to the last song.”
Jonathan had no idea what Neviah was talking about, “The last song? What is that?”
She motioned for Jonathan to sit again.
Sighing, Jonathan sat back down, the hard ground making him wince.
Neviah picked up the bow and placed it on the violin. As she began to draw the bow across the violin’ strings she spoke.
“There was a time long ago when humans believed that science would fix the world and all her problems. As humanity grew and changed, so did the hearts of humans. They became evil, lost inside their selfish desires.”
Quickly down bowing, Neviah’s violin music took on a grim tone. “And so with greed in their hearts and a never-ending appetite for expansion, humans spread across the Earth, the moon, and even to the stars. Yet, nothing could satisfy humanities greed.”
Neviah’s violin shook and quivered with each note. At first, Jonathan thought it was an effect she was adding until he felt the earth around him shake in time to the song too.
Wide-eyed, Jonathan watched as the sky around him began to darken.
“So the humans devised a plan, why not travel to the future to when they had enough resources? Surely their future selves had come up with a plan.”
The earth shook again and Jonathan had to grab onto the picnic blanket to keep from falling over.
“Yet, when the humans reached the distant future, they found only more greed and a partially broken world.”
The wind picked up and began to howl, its tone matching the notes coming from Neviah’s violin.
“Then one day, an intrepid inventor found a way for humans to return to the past. Take the resources they needed before the need ever arrived. This was dangerous because time had already been weakened due to future travel. So the inventor sent four volunteers back into the past to scout out where and when to gain resources from.
The violin hit a fevered pitch as the trees in the forest began to collapse.
“The first to go was a scientist in his own right, but corrupt through and through. The second was a young girl, orphaned and lost. The third was a woman who had nothing to live for.”
Neviah looked at Jonathan and stopped playing, “The final volunteer, was a man who one night had everything taken from him at the hands of another. Who bravely traversed the years, realizing mankind’s answer was not within unlimited resources, but something much simpler.
Tears ran down Jonathan’s face as Neviah started playing again. He watched her precise movements timed perfectly to the destruction which was occurring around him. Almost as if she had written this song exactly for this moment.
“That man gave everything he had, to change the flow of time and redirect humanity’s path. He gave not only his time, but his memories as well. Yet in the end, little changed.”
Jonathan looked up to see fire falling from the heavens.
“So in his final moments, the man asked the woman who had nothing to live for to take him to the end of all things. To see the forbidden ending of all humanity.”
Neviah’s bow trembled and screamed along with the Earth.
“And so here they sit. A man and a woman lost throughout time, now sitting at the end of it; waiting.”
Jonathan trembled and ached.
He remembered.
He finally remembered.
All those years which had been blocked from him. The memory of the water running in the sink, the glass dropping, the gun shooting.
Then other times and places, familiar and unfamiliar faces. Cries, laughter, screams, joy, fear, hope, despair.
He remembered it all.
He knocked the violin out of Neviah’s hands as the Earth gave a final shudder and everything faded into darkness.
A final note singing out from the strings of the violin.
Pondering Author 