Flashforward
Nobody and... nothing... can be trusted.
The flashforward flickered in front of him, emitting a blue glow. Jaegar watched impatiently as a copy of him materialized inside the hologram. A second figure appeared, and he recognised her immediately. Vera was facing the hologram version of himself, crying. She was touching the heart locket around her neck, as he was yelling at her. The flashforward was silent, but he appeared threatening.
Jaegar waved his hand dismissively, a scowl on his face. The flashforward lingered a moment longer to taunt him, before flicking off.
Vera was waiting for him at work. ‘It’s business, Jaegar,’ she said solemnly. The heart locket gleamed on her chest. He had always wanted to know what was in it, but she wouldn’t tell him. He wanted to be with her romantically, but its mysterious contents kept her from allowing it to happen.
‘Isn’t it always,’ he said, following her into their boss’ office.
Dolion regarded them coldly as they entered. ‘You have a job,’ he said. ‘Another false flashforward appeared to a man across town. He saw himself bombing a school. You know what to do. Convince him that it was a fault in the system.’
The system. A year ago, some geniuses invented a computer system that tapped into people’s head and foretold their future in vivid detail – in holograms. The public had demanded household installations and for months, the operation and profit had run smoothly. But too soon, the system was overloaded and crashed. Now not only did people see flashforwards anywhere they went, but ones that could be entirely inaccurate. The geniuses who had built the system had been killed in angry raid of customers, so nobody knew how to shut the damn thing down.
Jaeger leaned back in his seat. A flashforward about bombing a school was something to take very seriously. If the person was unstable – and they often were these days – they tended to commit the crime anyway, even if they were told it was false. It was his job to track these people down and negotiate.
Dolion handed over a file and Vera took it, before Jaegar could outstretch his hand. He didn’t show his irritation, but he made sure to get to the car first.
They followed the address to a run-down apartment lot. Wire fencing surrounded the building in a cold rage. Shivering, Jaegar turned his collar up, as Vera pulled herself out of the car. She stopped to watch the children playing on the dead lawn. Jaegar cast a glance over his shoulder. ‘Keep up,’ he said.
She clenched her jaw and pushed past him up the stairs. When they reached the room, Vera grimaced at the peeling paint and grimy doorknob. She knocked. There was a murmur inside before a pale face appeared in the open doorway. ‘You work for the government?’ he asked.
‘May we come in?’ Vera asked.
‘No.’
‘Please. We must speak to you. It’s about the flashforward you witnessed.’
The man flinched, his lips trembling. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ he said.
Jaegar took a threatening step forward. ‘Let us in now, before we announce to the entire floor what your flashforward depicted,’ he said, gesturing to another soiled face peering out from down the hall.
The man threw the door open. ‘Fine. Please, come in,’ he grumbled.
Jaegar immediately looked for weapons. ‘The flashforward,’ he said. ‘Do you recall what you saw?’ The man hesitated, omitting a shaky breath.
‘There’s no point lying to us,’ Vera warned. ‘We have access to the system.’
The man backed up to the window. Jaegar narrowed his eyes, wondering whether he was going to try and flee from three-stories high. ‘I didn’t get a flashforward. I don’t even have one of those machines installed,’ he said, gesturing to the bare, dirty apartment.
Vera sighed. ‘You don’t need to have one. After the system failure, flashforwards have been showing up anyway, no matter who has or hasn’t paid for them.’
A troubled look passed the man’s face. He took another step back. ‘I didn’t get a flashforward,’ he said.
Jaegar gave him a hard look. ‘The flashforward was false,’ he said.
The man’s lips quirked into a smile. ‘You’re only saying that because you don’t want a murderer on your hands.’
Jaegar shared a look with Vera. They both agreed he was one of the nutcases. The sane would have thanked them profusely and cried in relief to hear it.
‘You think you’re a murderer?’ Vera asked.
The man reached the window, bracing his hands on the sill behind him. ‘I haven’t killed anyone yet,’ he said.
Jaegar took another step towards the man. They would have to arrest him now, but they both were cautious of the fact that he seemed to be trying to escape through an impossible route. They had no idea how he might react to them detaining him. The man didn’t wait long, before throwing the window open with a hard tug. He climbed backwards onto the sill and fell.
Jaegar halted in his steps, stunned by the act. Vera gasped. ‘Did he just…’ she began. Jaegar moved to the window. Below, on the asphalt was a splatter of red and a crumpled body. He exhaled slowly. Vera joined him a moment later and he could hear her sharp intake of breath. ‘I just don’t understand,’ she said, tearing her eyes away from the body.
‘They do it all the time. You know that.’
‘But I don’t know why. They kill themselves for a stupid hologram,’ she said, bitter.
Jaegar was unsure as to why she was so sensitive this morning. He followed her gaze to outside. The children had walked over to the body and were staring at it in fascination. Jaegar felt a sick twist in his stomach. ‘It’s a Saturday,’ Jaegar said. ‘The kids aren’t even in school. He would have blown up an empty building.’
Vera pushed away from the windowsill, her hands on her stomach. She began to pace the floor. Jaegar was puzzled by her behaviour. ‘I have to tell you something,’ she said.
Jaegar straightened. ‘What is it?’
‘I… I think I’m pregnant.’
Jaegar was stunned. ‘Is it mine?’ he asked. Vera gave him a dirty look. He nodded, rubbing a hand over the stubble on his face. ‘How do you know?’
‘I saw a flashforward. This morning,’ she said. She looked near to tears, which Jaegar found even more peculiar.
She’d had a flashforward about being pregnant, the same time he’d had one about almost hitting her. She had been crying then, too, he realised. ‘How do we know it’s not false?’ he asked.
Vera stopped pacing. ‘I just know.’
Jaegar hoped. ‘Does that mean that we can-’
‘No,’ she said.
Jaegar frowned. ‘Why not? You know how I feel about you.’
Vera touched the locket tentatively with her fingers. ‘I just can’t.’
‘It’s because of whatever is in that stupid locket,’ he said.
She glared. ‘You know nothing,’ she snapped.
‘Because you won’t tell me!’ He pursed his lips to stop from shouting again. He didn’t want his flashforward to come true. He would never have her then.
There was a moment of weighted silence before the door was kicked in and Dolion barged into the apartment. His gun was already pointed in his hand. Vera and Jaegar stared at him, perplexed by this interruption. ‘Boss?’ Jaegar asked.
Dolion wiped his forehead furtively, darting his eyes between the two of them. It took a moment for Jaegar to realise that his gun was pointed at Vera. ‘I heard yelling,’ Dolion said. ‘Did you catch the guy?’
‘Why are you pointing a gun at me?’ Vera asked, shocked.
Jaegar felt his stomach twist again. ‘The man is dead. He jumped out the window. Is something wrong, boss?’
‘Yes. I had a flashforward that I stopped Vera from shooting you,’ Dolion said.
‘I’m not shooting him,’ Vera said, exasperated.
Jaegar glanced at the gun on her belt. ‘She hasn’t shot me,’ he said. ‘You can drop the gun.’
‘And then I came here, and I heard yelling. I thought she was about to do it,’ Dolion continued, not dropping his arm. He turned his eyes on Vera suspiciously. ‘You received a flashforward this morning. What did you see?’
‘Not me shooting Jaegar,’ she said.
Jaegar narrowed his eyes at Dolion. ‘Drop your gun. Nobody is going to shoot anyone.’ He used the voice he reserved for negotiating with suspects.
Dolion shook his head. ‘No. I’m sick of this. I don’t know what to believe anymore. I see flashforwards all the time and I have no idea which ones are true!’
‘Please, boss. Calm down,’ Jaegar said, holding his hands up. He inched slowly towards Vera, because if their boss was going to shoot, he didn’t want to see a bullet ripping through the body of the woman he cared for, or their baby on the way.
‘Did you know that I saw my wife cheating on me in a flashforward? I dismissed it as false, but then when I came home that night and walked into that scene in real time, I couldn’t believe my eyes,’ he said, spit spraying from his mouth.
‘I can understand your anger, boss, but nobody here is responsible for that.’
‘I know that! Don’t you know that I know that? It’s those darn machines! They won’t turn off!’
‘It’s our life now, boss. We have to do with it what we can.’ In the time Jaegar had been trying to console Dolion, Vera had moved towards the window. She stared out of it her lips parted in disbelief.
Jaegar wondered what she was looking at but was distracted by Dolion stepping closer, the gun held tight in his hand. ‘Is the safety on that thing?’ Jaegar asked.
‘Of course not. You expect me to shoot with the safety on?’
‘I hope you won’t shoot at all.’
‘Not my choice. The flashforward has already predicted it.’
‘You saw yourself shooting Vera?’
‘No. But I don’t doubt that it will show.’
‘That doesn’t make any sense.’
‘Nothing makes sense anymore!’ Dolion yelled. ‘I don’t know if what I’m living is real or fake!’
‘What are we fighting for?’ Vera asked, her voice shaking.
‘I don’t know,’ Jaegar said to her.
‘What am I fighting for anymore?’ she said, her voice dipping lower.
Confused, Jaegar turned to watch her instead, forgetting their lunatic boss for the moment. ‘Vera? Are you okay?’
Vera locked eyes with him. ‘I don’t know what I’m fighting for anymore,’ she said. Her voice was deadly quiet.
‘Don’t say that. Please, Vera.’ Jaegar began to panic. Vera edged closer towards the open window. ‘Come away from there.’
‘This is no world to raise a child. He knew that,’ she said.
‘Who knew that?’ Jaegar asked. ‘Please, Vera. Don’t do this.’
Vera touched the locket on her chest with trembling fingers. ‘He did,’ she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.
There was a flicker of blue, before a body fell out of the window. Jaegar’s heart leaped out of his chest. ‘No!’ he yelled. Vera’s eyes were wide as she watched the flashforward of herself disappear. ‘Save the baby, Vera!’
Vera swallowed. ‘I am, Jaegar.’ She moved in front of the window, getting herself up on the sill. ‘You can’t trust anyone.’ Jaegar jumped towards her to pull her back, but a shot rang out. The force drove her body out the window, seconds faster than her own push would have done.
Jaegar stared wildly at Dolion. ‘Why?’ he screamed.
Dolion shook his head, a forlorn expression on his face. ‘You should have seen it coming,’ he said, before a smile grew wide on his face. He put the gun to his own head and pulled the trigger.
Jaegar fell against the wall, sobbing into his hands. Why hadn’t he seen it coming? The flashforwards were supposed to have saved him from this misery – not cause it. He couldn’t trust anyone.
About the Creator
Amber Foxwell
Hi, I'm Amber. I am currently studying a Bachelor of Creative Writing at university. I love writing and have written a few short stories and even a couple of novels (all unpublished). I am excited to be a part of a wider writing community!
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