The Egg Said Nothing - Caris O'Malley [17]
I have taken steps to ensure your ideas will be realized—just not by you.
Then what is it you have to do? You must ensure certain events don’t happen. You must not make it to Ashley’s apartment. You must not read that book. As insurance, I have to insist on some drastic measures.
This is going to be the hardest thing you ever do, but it will be the last.
You cannot live. If you die, a certain chain of events will be prevented. It’s too convoluted to go into detail and, honestly, I don’t have all the links yet, but it is essential that they be stopped now. Nothing of any significance has happened yet. It can all be prevented.
Ashley cannot live. Tonight, the two of you will conceive a child. He will be the leader of the movement that opposes you. He will be the presidential assassin. It’s not possible to know if your DNA is essential for the creation of the child, so it’s absolutely essential that all of the child’s genetic makeup be destroyed.
That’s your responsibility. There’s a shovel in your closet. You must kill Ashley with it. After that, do what you will. I can assure you that you will die by your own hand with no effort.
I know this is insane. But you must do it for the greater good. The world must receive the gift you have to give. Things must change.
Please forgive me for what I have written. You would have been a great man and, in some version of reality, you already are. What you must do will destroy you, but it is the only way.
You are, no doubt, wondering how I can come from the future. My latest work has been in the field of quantum physics. To explain it all would take many, many years. And, honestly, I don’t fully understand it. But here’s what I can say with some certainty:
Time is a human construct. We have control over the universe, if we choose to take it, and can freely transport back to previous and forward to future versions of ourselves. We can move objects, not just in the present time, but through all time and space as well. Again, none of this is fully understood, but it’s very real. The world is what you make of it, and there are an infinite number of places and times we might find ourselves. So much so that I have realized any notions of time are irrelevant. But what we do still matters. I believe that above all else. We matter.
In a few minutes, you’ll make the disc. I don’t know which version of you will do this. And I don’t know how the multiple versions of yourself will react in the same time as you. You must do as I have instructed. If not, I’ll be forced to make it happen.
Again, I’m sorry.
Kill Ashley with that shovel.
“Motherfucker.”
~Chapter 9~
In which the narrator kills himself with a shovel.
I decided not to look any more at the contents of the disc. Whatever was on there wasn’t going to change a thing; I wasn’t going to kill Ashley.
This couldn’t be as hopeless as it seemed. The more I thought about it, the less it made sense. I believed my future self had gone to all this trouble. There was enough evidence for me to accept it. Of course, the only other explanation was that I was batshit crazy. And that alternative hardly seemed an alternative at all, simply more of the same.
So, I’ll become someone great in the future. That was fantastic. Much better than what I was doing, that was for sure. I had no intention of killing myself now, not when, for the first time, I had everything going for me. Plus, I didn’t even know the third female president of the United States. And who’s to say there wouldn’t be some benefit to her dying? Maybe she’d inspire someone greater than herself, some stronger leader who would really set things right. Everything my future self said was still just my own bullshit reasoning, and I was wrong almost all the time.
Anyway, it seemed to me that there was plenty of time to change things. I could make sure Ashley