The Endless Shift

Every time Sarah closed her eyes, the world around her changed. The sound of the ticking clock by her bedside would fade, and when she opened her eyes again, it was always a different year—sometimes a few years into the future, sometimes decades back into the past. At first, she thought it was a bizarre dream, but as the shifting continued, it became clear that something much stranger was happening.

She woke up one morning in the middle of the 1980s, her room a far cry from the modern one she’d known. The posters on the wall were of rock bands she had never heard of, the music on the radio was a mix of songs she could barely recognize, and the TV, an old box model, flickered as if it were about to give out. Sarah panicked and tried to find a way to connect with someone, but everything felt alien. She was alone, unsure if the people in her life would recognize her.

Then, just as quickly, the world shifted again. This time, it was the year 2024. She found herself back in her apartment, her phone still in her hand. She quickly checked the date, unable to believe what she was seeing—this was the present, or what she thought of as the present.

But that, too, didn’t last. When Sarah fell asleep again, she woke up in the year 1955. This time, she was in the middle of a busy city square, surrounded by people in vintage clothing. It was as though she had stepped onto a movie set. People walked around her, oblivious to her sudden appearance, and the sounds of old cars filled the streets. Every time she closed her eyes, she woke up somewhere entirely different, as though her life was being rewritten in unpredictable ways.

Sarah began to keep a journal of every year she found herself in, noting down every detail—every change in technology, every shift in fashion, and the subtle differences in the people she encountered. Her journal grew thick with information, but it didn’t seem to help her make sense of it. Was she caught in some sort of time loop? Or was there something more to this bizarre, fractured reality?

The worst part was the loneliness. No one could understand her, no one could explain why this was happening. She tried to reach out to people in each year, but they never remembered her when the year changed. It was as if she was a stranger to them, no matter how long she stayed.

The shifts in time began to affect her in ways she couldn’t control. She’d wake up with new skills and memories she didn’t recognize, sometimes feeling out of place in her own body. It became clear that she was not just experiencing time travel—she was living in different versions of her own life, each one with a different outcome, and yet they all felt incomplete.

One day, she woke up in a year she didn’t recognize at all. It was the year 2100. The world had changed completely. Technology had advanced far beyond what she could have imagined, and yet, the people seemed strangely disconnected. She tried to speak to them, but they couldn’t understand her, and no one knew her name.

Sarah realized that she wasn’t just moving through time—she was existing in time. She was a witness to the flow of history, but she was no longer part of it. Each new year brought her closer to the realization that she might never find a way to return to the life she once knew.

And then, one night, as she closed her eyes once again, she whispered to herself, "Please let me stay in one place. Let me stop moving." But when she opened her eyes, she knew the world would continue to shift, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

________________________________________