Chapter Text
The thing about life itself, is that it won't be worth living until you tell it to be. But to me, the life I lived was far too boring for me to even want to find meaning in it. I did the same thing every weekday. Then, on the weekends, I sat around trying to think of ways to spend my free time, only to realize I'd spent it all trying to find something worth doing. There wouldn't ever be something worth doing. I've always been much more interested in fictional worlds, and fictional people with awesome, fictional lives. Nothing would make me feel more alive than to live in my favorite video game, Final Fantasy XV. No life sounded more fulfilling than one spent fighting alongside the main characters of said video game, who I'd grown to see as cherished friends. I thought about it so much that it was starting to make me hate the real world, and its real people.
As I drove to my last day of high school, I thought about the events that happened last night- which made me hate real life even more.
My alcoholic father had been fighting with my mom over something stupid again. They were going at it until midnight, and from what I could hear from my room, my dad had lifted a chair at my mom, like he was going to throw it at her, but then set it back down. I wonder if almost hitting someone you used to love out of anger, is just as damaging to that love as actually hitting them. The 'but I didn't actually', doesn't hold much weight when, for a split second, you actually did intend to.
Lately the fights seemed to be getting worse and worse. My mom even had to call the police on my father a couple times in the past two months, for getting a little too violent. He was never physically abusive to me or mom, but he was just scary enough that I still thought he might hit me sometimes. Every time he stomped up the stairs, I quietly rushed to check and make sure the door was locked again, just in case. One of the nights my mom called the police, it was because dad had punched a hole in the wall. The police did nothing about it and my mother had it cleanly covered up with a painting the next morning, like nothing ever happened. My family was expertly good at sweeping things under the rug, and pretending like nothing was so detrimentally wrong, that it was slowly killing all of us. It was no exception when my father had drunkenly told me to 'go drink poison,' for saying I wanted to go on a bike ride by myself after he asked if he could come with me. The only reprimand he got was a light "don't say that" from my mother. I didn't end up going on that bike ride after all.
* * * *
The school day was long and boring. My only 3 friends had been a grade above me and graduated last year, each going off to a college farther away than the last. We tried to keep in touch, but it didn't last very long. None of it would matter tomorrow, because as of five minutes ago I was done with the last day of my senior year, and tomorrow was my 18th birthday. I was planning to get the hell out of my parents' house, move somewhere at least a little less scary than my father, and get a job until I could do something worthwhile.
There was a tradition my old friends and I had for the last day of school. Every year we would go to the little 60's themed diner in town and get milkshakes. Last year was pretty much the death of that tradition, but since this would probably be the last time I ever even saw the place, I decided to go by myself.
An eccentrically dressed young man, maybe in his mid 20's, caught my eye as I pulled up to the diner and parked. As I was walking past him to go into the restaurant, he said the strangest thing.
"Nice weather we're having today, isn't it?" No, it wasn't. It had been raining the whole week, and this day was no exception.
I decided to humor the odd stranger, and skeptically threw him a passing, "right." I thought anyone happy to exist in this weather must be crazy. I kept an eye on him as he sat and enjoyed the humid, soggy weather outside. He had pretty, dark skin and wore a dark blue velvet coat with gold details. His brown curls spilled wetly across his shoulders. He must've been ruining that expensive-looking suit, not to mention he kept checking an ancient-looking pocket watch. At least try and protect your valuables from the rain, I uselessly scolded him to myself.
Once I was half done with my strawberry milkshake, I threw weird dude another glance, only to see that he was gone.
"Looking for me?" A voice asked from behind, startling me.
"Uh- no I was just-"
"Hah, it's fine, I was just messing with you." The light accent that danced in his speech contrasted with his Hispanic features, making it harder to place.
"Ah- um, okay?" I was very socially inept, so I tried to nonchalantly drink the rest of my milkshake until weird dude went away. I found myself a little afraid of men as I grew up. This stranger was no exception, as there were already major red flags. The way he was standing in front of my booth, cutting off the only means of exit, made me shiver uncomfortably despite being in public. You'll be fine, just don't look at him. He'll go away eventually.
"I'm sorry Finley, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."
My heart dropped into the anxiety-riddled pit of my stomach as I slowly looked at him, suddenly very leery. The straw of my milkshake fell from my mouth. "You have ten seconds to explain to me how you know my name before I scream," I said through gritted teeth, trying to make myself seem like as much of a threat as possible.
The intimidating stranger let out a small nervous laugh at my reaction. He checked the pocket watch again. With a closer look this time I could see two birds engraved on the front, they looked to be locked in a dance with flowers to either side of them.
"You'll have to pardon me, it's been a while since I've been in this dimension. I thought it made people seem trustworthy when they use a person's name." He was nervously trying to put the pocket watch back in his coat.
"Not when I haven't told you my name you psycho," I said as I made a move to get up, and as far away from him as possible. Creepy guy seemed to realize his mistake- one of many, and put his hands up to stop me in a non-menacing way.
"W-wait you'll want to hear what I have to say, trust-"
"Trust you? Are you crazy? Oh wait, you probably are," I scoffed as I moved to leave again. Before I could leave the booth, the weird- possibly crazy- dude got down on his knees and began to grovel like an idiot. Everyone in the diner stared and whispered. The attention was making my skin crawl with anxiety. "O-okay, if you get up and sit down like a normal human being, I-I'll listen to what you have to say for 5 minutes." Panic-stricken, I agreed to hear him out. Thankfully, weird- and definitely crazy- dude got up at that, and brushed himself off before sitting on the opposite side of my booth. I sat back down and started a timer on my phone for 5 minutes. As soon as it goes off, I thought I am out of here.
Crazy man let out a sigh of relief and then began to try and smash everything he wanted to say into 5 minutes. "First off, thank you for giving me a chance-"
I held up my phone timer and wiggled it at him as a signal to hurry it up. Only 4 minutes and 40 seconds left, buddy.
"R-right, well, what I wanted to discuss, actually, i-is, um, this watch." Weird dude held out the watch he had been checking earlier for me to look at.
"Are... you trying to sell me an old, probably water-damaged watch? Is that seriously what you wanted to talk about so badly, that you've been stalking me? I'm not buying that. The story or the watch, dude."
Weird dude's hands shot out in front of him, waving frantically. "N-no, not at all! I want to- to give it to you," he rushed to tell me. "F-for free," he added at my look of skepticism.
"Look, buddy, I've been around long enough to know that strangers don't just give you expensive-looking items for free. What's the catch?"
"So glad you asked Finley-" "Don't say my name. It's weird now." "R-right sorry. This watch can give you what you most deeply desire." Checking my phone timer, I saw that 2 minutes were remaining. This has to be the longest 5 minutes of my life.
"Alright, I'm not going to sugarcoat this, I'm like 94% sure you're insane. Why should I believe you? You could be trying to drug me, you could be a murderer or a human trafficker. And let's just say this watch is magical or some shit, why would you give it to me? You have a minute and 47 seconds to convince me you're not trying to kidnap or murder me."
A strange look passed over the man's expression, but he schooled his features so quickly, that I couldn't tell what it was. "How about I tell you my name and a little bit about me? It's only fair, seeing as I know your name."
"Sure, whatever man."
"My name is Malcolm. I used to be a human from a different dimension, but that was a long, long time ago. Due to certain...circumstances, now I'm here trying to generously gift you this watch."
Okay, now I'm 100% sure he's a complete lunatic. The quack, quack, quack, quack, that signaled the end of Malcolm's five minutes, rang gloriously throughout the diner.
"And I see that my time to convince you is up, so I'll be taking my leave now. I'll just leave this here for you, in case you change your mind." The enchanting pocket watch was placed in front of me, and for a second, I couldn't take my eyes off it.
When I tore my gaze away, Malcolm was gone.
"Oh, what the hell. Maybe I can sell it once I move," I thought out loud as I plucked the watch up and stuffed it in my pocket.
* * * *
I parked my car in the driveway, happy to see my dad's car not yet there, and headed for my room to continue planning my move. No one knew I was leaving yet. If I told them how I wanted to get far and fast away from here, they would call me stupid and try to talk me out of it. It might be stupid, but at least it will probably be worth it, I thought as I began shoving things into a bag.
Something clunked to the ground as I was taking my jacket off. On the floor, I saw the silver pocket watch gleaming at me in my room's dim, artificial light. Picking it up from the floor, I turn it over in my hands, looking for anything special about it. I opened it and noticed that the hands weren't even moving. Geez, what was that guy even looking at it for then? It's just a broken old watch, I thought staring down at it as I opened my closet to retrieve more clothes. What I looked up to see, however, was not my closet. Through my closet door, there was a familiar bustling city. I was staring out into the unmistakable streets of Lestallum.
I promptly closed the door and proceeded to fall the fuck over.