The Watchmaker

Phillipe was an old man who lived alone in a cottage just big enough for a single occupant. Like most of the world at this time, Phillipe's home was in disrepair.

The bricks of the cottage were discolored due to age and the growth of moss. In some more worn areas it appeared as if the bricks may fall out of the wall at any given time. A draft silently snaked through the cottage and reminded Phillipe of the emptiness around him.

Phillipe warmed himself next to the fireplace as he looked out the window. Through the window, he looked into the bleak reality mankind had driven itself into with greed and overdevelopment. A muddy field with a footpath around the edge led to a crumbling factory building.

The factory building stood ominously, as it had since it was in use. Phillipe gathered himself to head out to the factory. He put on his worn out boots, his jacket, grabbed his water bottle, and put on his watch. He took his time putting on his watch, there was a reverence reflected in the handling of his gold, analog watch. He had built the watch himself as a younger man and had kept it working for forty years. Phillipe had crafted many watches. He was a jeweler and watchmaker before the Great Downfall, but this watch was his true work of art.

Phillipe set out from his cottage and headed down the dreary path toward the factory as he reflected on the history of the factory and the Great Downfall of society.

There were few who understood the nature of the work performed in the factory when it was in use some fifty years ago, but this factory, and many like it, seemed to be closely related to the Great Downfall. There were secrets kept in this factory and developments were known to cause haywire results that affected the world around in unimaginable ways. Sometimes it was startling, with stories of people disappearing and reappearing in far away locations, sometimes it was just strange sounds emanating from what seemed like inside your own head. As with all misunderstood technology, there appeared to be supernatural elements at play. Unexplainable weather phenomena was the most frequent unexplained occurrence. Phillipe recalled how he would hear torrential rains outside his cottage, only to see a cloudless day.

Even with no clouds, the sky was always muted. The sun never shined brightly as it had before the Great Downfall. Whatever was being done in the factories like this one seemed to have an involvement with the Great Downfall, but it was not easy to explain and those who sought to understand were left stumped or disappeared entirely. What was clear though, was that the strange phenomena was most noticeable near factories like the one Phillipe trudged toward today.

The strange phenomena was precisely why Phillipe was drawn to the factory. This particular factory was on the outskirts of what used to be his childhood town. The cottage he lived in now had been built to house the man who would go on to lead operations inside the factory.

When the Great Downfall occurred, it seemed to affect the very fabric of life on planet Earth. There had been signs of stress in the fabric of time and space itself, but it was not apparent until it was too late that the signs were related. Plants had been dying at alarming rates. Many people assumed that wildlife was thinning out due to the loss of plant life, but there were stories of entire ecosystems disappearing from existence in a single moment. The signs were not heeded and the factories and their secrets pressed on into the dangerous unknown until people were lost in droves. For some reason, it was hard to recall the Great Downfall. Nobody had a clear memory of the day it happened. Some said the sky shattered that day. Some say people disappeared immediately while others say people simply walked off into the distance, never to be seen again. Whatever it was, the world had become a darker place with much fewer people.

Phillipe was not drawn to the factory to learn about what had occurred in the Great Downfall. As a local, the strange phenomenons allowed him to reminisce of his old life. He had moved into the cottage when he realized he could occasionally hear sounds of his village before the Great Downfall when he passed near. Since moving into the cottage, he was gifted with occasional visions of childhood friends playing games and running through the now decimated field. The grass and cattle that used to reside there could sometimes be seen out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, it would be gone.

Phillipe had discovered in the ruins of the factory were parts. Springs, cogs, wheels, and screws were strewn about the damp, dark floor of the factory. This piqued the interest of the old watchmaker. For a time now, he had been digging through the rubble of the factory. There were emotions attached to some of the parts. When he drew near, he could feel screws in despair or cogs that were happy. It had been unnerving at first, to feel these projected emotions from inanimate objects, but Phillipe was determined that it meant something.

Today, Phillipe was looking for another of these strange parts for his project. He had many internal pieces, but felt there was something important missing from the emotional parts. He entered the factory through a large opening. This was previously the front door, but the door had rotted away and the entrance had deteriorated. Phillipe stepped over the stones that had fallen from the entrance and into the dark factory.

There were no lights inside the building, but the walls and ceilings were crumbling, allowing some of the dim light from outside to penetrate into the factory. Although this dim light did not seem like enough to light the factory, the interior lit up with a soft, sunny glow. It was as if the factory was creating light, but the source was impossible to determine. No shadows were cast as Phillipe moved through the mess of destroyed factory assembly lines, but he felt the warmth of the sun on his back.

Small pieces cried out to Phillipe in his mind. It was as if they could tell he was there to take them away. It wasn’t voices that Phillipe heard, but feelings. Similar to the pieces he had already taken home to his workbench, some of the parts had feelings oozing from them, while some were just normal bolts and cogs.

Phillipe had learned these feelings projected by the parts by now. He had searched in the rubble long enough to feel that many parts had similar feelings, while others stood out. He did not know why, but in his efforts to assemble something he could feel what parts he needed. Phillipe moved further into the factory than he ever had before that day. He found his way into an area that was closed off from the outside. The light with no source grew dim as he pushed through what remained of a doorway to an office space. When he entered, the emotions he felt from the other parts in the building diminished. It was as if he was truly alone in this part of the factory as nothing called out to him any more. Phillipe began to rummage through the desks, looking for anything that stood out. He opened drawer after drawer, turning out pens, pencils, staples and deteriorating papers but nothing of value stood out in the desks.

After spending an hour searching through the office space, Phillipe sat down on the floor to rest. He drank from his water bottle and reflected on the strange feelings in the factory and the lack of strange feelings in the office space. Before rising to leave, Phillipe cleaned his hands off with some of his water. While doing so, he noticed that soem of the water that struck the ground was immediately absorbed into the wooden, dirt covered floor, but only in one small, square patch.

Phillipe began to brush away the dirt and found there was a small hole in the floor. He put his finger in the hole and pulled. To his surprise, as he pulled, a small box was pulled from the floor. It was clear the hole had been designed as a way to retrieve the box from the floor. The moment the box was freed from the floor, Phillipe could feel a warmth emanating from within the box. He knew there would be a part inside, but this feeling was more unique than the other parts he had collected.

Excitedly, Phillipe clutched the small wooden box and began his trek out of the factory. The box stayed warm to the touch and the feeling made him smile the rest of the way to his cottage.

Phillipe ran into his cottage and sat down at his workbench where he built watches and assembled jewelry. He placed the box in front of him and felt its warmth. He pulled the other pieces he had collected from inside of his workbench and laid them out before him. It felt to him like he had finally completed his collection of parts. The other parts wanted to be with this new part. He opened the box and a heart-shaped locket tumbled out. Immediately, the warmth contained within the box spread through the small cottage and Phillipe knew the parts wanted to be assembled.

The watchmaker slaved away at his workbench without rest. The small parts desired to be placed together inside the heart-shaped locket, but the task was still difficult and the assembly seemed to be of something never seen before. After some time, the parts clicked and whirred as they fell into place, seemingly relieved to be placed appropriately. To Phillipe, it seemed that no time had passed, but when he looked at his watch, he had been at his workbench for 24 hours without rest.

Phillipe closed the locket, with all the parts inside and breathed a sigh of relief. The parts were no longer reaching out with emotions, but content to be contained within the locket. Phillipe looked outside to the field and saw that the day was brighter than it had been in years. He took the heart-shaped locket outside with him and he could clearly see the field as it used to be. The grass was a vibrant and lively green, cows mooed in the field, and children played as they had when he was young. He took the locket and placed it around his neck. Phillipe stepped into the field and disappeared into the warmth and happiness he had known before the Great Downfall, never to be seen again.