They Put It On Their Timeline

The warm sun inched its way towards the horizon. A balmy evening was at its end. In the distance, a mountaintop was visible with its peak illuminated in gold. A giant bird perched at the top, their feathers made of mountain azaleas. They watched as the sun used the last bit of its energy to light up the sky.

There was a slight breeze, and the imposing woman nearby felt the breeze run its way across her skin. She sat for a moment taking it all in: the last warmth of the sun, the gentle zephyr, and the vitality of the early spring trees swaying in the land between the sky and the ground. Colors abounded as they did everywhere if you pay enough attention. She was paying attention. That was her fate: to witness the world. She was an empty vessel, and creation exploded into existence every moment around her.

The mountaintop bird continued to watch the sunset. In another life, maybe they would consume her liver, a punishment for stealing an elemental force and for spreading technology. She was a modern-day Prometheus trying to run from her collaboration with men. Her phone rang.

“You can’t change this, Mark,” she said.

“We need to talk,” said the voice momentarily trapped within her phone. “It’s not too late.”

“I don’t think you get it,” she said, amused. “It didn’t have to be like this, but this was your choice.”

“I didn’t want it to be like this,” he said. Surprisingly, there was a pregnant pause. “I’m sorry.”

“It is too late, Mark,” she added before hanging up.

She looked up at the sky, and the sun was gone. The temperature instantly dropped, and she rubbed her arms to warm up a bit. She looked to her left and saw an out-of-place doorframe in front of a meadow. No building, just the doorframe at the edge of the grassy expanse. The door was closed and painted turquoise. She walked towards it and knocked three times before twisting the steel knob. It had just spent the day basking in the sun’s light, but it was already cold to the touch. She opened the door and walked through.

Instead of walking into the meadow behind the door, she took a step into a stunning office. Floor-to-ceiling windows overlooked a small patch of trees outside. The sun was still in the sky here. To her right, there was a glass desk lined in light wood. Behind it sat a man, awkward and visibly worried. There was an everything bagel on his desk burned so badly that it was charred black. He was rushing to write something down, a bit out of character for him.

Her footsteps on the wooden floor were silent as she moved towards the desk. She stood in front of it for a moment, observing the man. “Mark,” she whispered, toying with him. He gasped and jumped in his office chair. He looked around frantically but saw nothing out of place. Miles away, an entire city was burning.

“Mark,” she whispered again, this time louder and more sternly. He jumped again.

“You’re here, aren’t you?” He said, suddenly dejected. She waited silently. “I tried. I wanted it to be better.” Still smiling, she slammed her fist down into the glass desk. He jumped again and recoiled.

“Let’s see about that,” she said as she drew her other hand into a fist. There was a clap of thunder that eventually rumbled into an awful tearing sound. Mark held his head in a shock of pain and screamed. The tearing sound continued, and there seemed to be a cut in the air next to him. He leaned to his left side, wrenching in agony. As he leaned to the left, another Mark leaned to the right in a mirror image of  him. He was screaming, too. The tearing grew louder, and she started banging her fist on the desk rapidly. It was all too much. The banging, the tearing, the worry. Both Marks eventually lurched away from each other and vomited. The noises stopped.

“Pleasant,” she said with a grin. “And weak.”

“What is this?!” Shouted the new Mark. “Where am I?” There was a flash of fire in the room, and she stood before both of them, now visible. Her black hair reached the ground, and her blue skin was nearly iridescent. Along her neck was a chain of skulls, some dripping with blood and chunks of flesh.

“Hello, Mark,” she said.

“But we just finished talking,” he said exasperated. “I thought I had time.”

“You did have time,” she said. “Twenty years. I want to show you what you what you’ve done with what I’ve given you.” He looked around the office and saw another version of himself standing next to him. This other version was older and much more haggard. The older Mark looked to the ground, forlorn and ashamed.

“I don’t understand,” said the younger Mark. “This place looks amazing.”

“Tell me what you wanted.”

His eyes suddenly stared blankly ahead, and he spoke as if on auto-pilot. “I wanted everyone to know me. I wanted to make money and to leave my influence on the world.” He snapped back to awareness. “That doesn’t sound too bad!” he said, utterly confused.

“When I came to you in a dream, you said you wanted to connect the world,” she said almost wistfully. “I outlined the dangers. Said you were building a modern-day Tower of Babel, but you said you would tame it. Tame me.”

“But everything looks fine! This office is beautiful! From the looks of it, I’m successful.”

“What you come to build plays a major role in bringing about the end,” she said cryptically.

“The end of what?”

“Don’t be stupid, Mark. You know who I am. Information is a powerful tool,” she said. “You of all people know that.”

“All I did was help people at my school find each other! How could that have led to the end?”

“That is the question, isn’t it? Too bad there’s not enough time to regale you with the details. He gets it, though,” looking in the direction of the older Mark. That one began to sob. Sirens started to ring out all over.

“This is moments before it all ends. You’re both here to witness this with me forever,” she said. “I’m sure you’ll come to appreciate the beauty of this particular ending in time.”

A bomb struck the ground not far away and ripped creation open in a flash of light. Those at the epicenter vanished instantly. Those dozens of miles away took out their phones to record the mushroom cloud quickly expand into the sky.

The charred bagel on the desk began to vibrate wildly as another explosion ruptured nearby. The Marks screamed. Donuts started falling from the sky, and she began to laugh in ecstasy.