The End Of Time

A quiet obscurity.
An empty road.
Streetlights.
The endless repetition.
There was nothing to break this cycle of monotony.
A notebook with loose, torn pages was firmly placed in the palm of your hand. You've always assumed it belonged to you.
It was the only thing to entertain yourself with.
Yet.. there were still a few pages missing.
You have a gut feeling that you know where they are.
You've forgotten how you've entered this place. You don't even know how you got here.
All you know, is that you need to keep walking.
Your memories have faded away.
Paranoia has taken over your mind and body.
The silence is loud.
The crunchy footsteps of your worn-down shoes have been echoing through your conscience for what felt like millennia.
The sky darkens.
The silence is deafeningly loud.
You feel like somebody is watching your every move.
It's driving you crazy.
You just want something to break this loop. You fall to your knees and beg.
But you're begging to someone that's not there.
...
Suddenly, a rumble quakes the ground around you.
Was your wish granted? Were you finally going to leave?
You look up in excitement-
-..what?
The highway you've been walking on is crumbling right in front of your eyes.
In a moment of desperation, you throw the notebook clutched in your hand out into the void.
That's when it hit you.
The memories came flooding back.
You didn't write that notebook.
It isn't yours.
You are thrown out into the abyss.
You know what you have to do.
You close your eyes.. and wait.
For decades..
For millennia..
For eons.
And eventually, of course..
The light shined brightly once again.
You open your eyes.
You look in horror.
You're back here again.
To restart it all.
You ponder about the number of times you've been here.
You finally realize.
You were never free.
Your destiny was to be forever trapped in this cycle.
Your actions never mattered. Your "free will" was merely a set of predetermined actions.
Your fate had been sealed.. since the very beginning.
...
We are nothing more than slaves to time.
Playthings for inanimate forces to experiment with.
The universe, and everything within it, is nothing more than a glorified cycle.
The Ouroboros. A snake eating its own tail.
That is all it is.
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d
Category:Tales
Category:Always Tale Contest 1
zh:时光之末