I Have to —

“Should I do this?”
“I think it would be unwise. It seems dangerous.”
“I don’t think I can handle the temptation, though. I have to know.”
“Alright…”
“Here it goes.”
“Ten years.”
Darkness. Silence. Nothing. His heartbeat stumbles.
“Okay… five years.”

Darkness. Silence. Nothing.
“Oh, no… no, no, no!”
His hands begin to shake.
“One… one year.”
Darkness. Silence. Nothing.
“I…”
He begins to sweat. His heart pounds in his chest and he struggles to breathe.
“I have to stop. I can’t… I can’t do this.”
“But I have to know…”
“Twenty-”
He freezes for a moment.
“Twenty-four hours.”
Darkness. Silence. Nothing. His mind freezes, his body paralyzes, time stops for a second.
“Less…”
“Less than twenty-four hours…”
He stares at the wall for a minute.
“I… I have to do something!”
“I have to…”
“She has to know.”
“She has to know.”
“I have to tell her.”
“She has to know!”
He drops everything and runs outside. He looks at his watch.
“No time to waste. I’ll make a run for it, it doesn’t matter how far it is. I won’t stop for anything.”
He starts running. He’s panicking. He takes the shortest route he can think of, pushing people out of the way and running like he’s never ran before.
“She has to know.”
The world around him is a blur. He runs and runs without slowing down. He runs through a busy intersection, there are no green or red lights anymore, just a destination.
“She has to know.”
“She has to know.”
“I have to —”