there was a girl who grew up with a ticking timer over her head. every day the numbers stared her down dropping steadily-- years, months, days, hours, minutes, seconds getting smaller. "when this timer reaches zero" an old man told her "the whole world is going to end." the timer was such a constant in her life that even when she wasnt looking at it she knew exactly what it would read, how close it was to zero, to the very second. "inevitable" "inescapable" it was supposed to be this thing twined inseparably with the very nature of the world she was created in. when the timer reached zero her world still stood. the destruction that was supposed to rain from the sky didnt come. but it was supposed to. she knew that it was supposed to. the timer wasnt meant to read zero but for a fraction of a second before it was obliterated with everything else. but it stared at her and kept staring for years. it kept staring for a decade. the girl could not be relieved that the world still stood. there was something more precious to her that could not continue to exist without that destruction. she feared every day that it might disappear as though it had never been there in the first place because without the destruction it wouldnt have been created. so the girl spends that decade examining everything as closely as possible, testing every possibility, making every adjustment, trying and trying and trying to bring that destruction she had been promised. the precious thing starts to hate her and she lets it. she doesnt need for it to think well of her she just needs it to live. the precious thing doesnt disappear and the girl cant prove that it isnt in part due to her efforts. maybe the work shes doing is promise enough of a coming destruction that the universe wont write it off as a failure just yet. but what if she eases up? what if she becomes satisfied with a decade of undisturbed status quo and decides that nothing has any consequences after all? what if that choice to stop is what kills her precious thing? i dont know how to resolve this story satisfactorily. im sorry that i cant give you a nice conclusion.



