I think everyone will die in three weeks. I don’t know how or why

I’ve always seen it. Not all the time, not on everyone, but I have always been able to see it in some people.

I asked my parents about it when I was young. They knew, right? Adults know everything, that’s what you think when you’re young. But they’ve never understood it. My dad got mad if I asked too often. He told me, increasingly angrily, that people don’t have clocks on their right arms. These aren’t counting down. These don’t suddenly appear on some people’s arms while being absent in those of others.

I learnt my lesson as a child. I didn’t want to be bullied at school or even worse, be forced by my parents to go to some therapy for my ‘’hallucinations’’. So I pretended I didn’t see them anymore. But of course I still did.

I’ve learnt what they were when I was 10. I had my suspicions for a long time. It appeared on my grandma’s arm when we were visiting her. 364:23:59:59. She was already in pretty bad shape at that point. I think you see where this is going. She died, exactly one year later, when her clock hit 000:00:00:00. Days, hours, minutes, seconds.

That was twenty years ago. My life has mostly been normal since then. I’ve never dared to bring up the numbers again to anyone. I still don’t know why I see them, or why they only appear a year before someone’s death. The internet didn’t yield any results either. It has been my secret. I’ve gotten many emotions from it. Pity sometimes, when I saw the clock on a stranger who was far too young to have it.  Resignation perhaps, when the numbers first appeared on struggling elderly relatives. Sometimes just curiosity, such as wondering whether they would start counting from 366 instead of 365 in leap years.  

You can imagine the emotions I felt when they appeared on my arm. That was last year, over 11 months ago. I remember it was a Friday night, and that I emptied every single bit of alcohol I could find in my house. But the drinks didn’t prevent the clock from still counting next morning. And it still does, while I’m writing this. I look at my right arm. 020:12:37:44. 020:12:37:43.   

I was shocked, of course I was. But nothing could prepare me for being even more shocked the next day when I saw the clocks on the cashier in the shop. I saw them on old people, on little children, on every person without a single exception. They varied a little bit here and there, but I’ve never encountered one that deviates more than five minutes from mine. I’ve been to several countries for work since last year and it’s the same everywhere. If the clocks are right, and they’ve always been, every single person is going to die in less than three weeks from now.  

I know it sounds crazy. It sounds unbelievable and I know most readers will not believe this. But I hope someone understands what I mean. I’ve looked every news source I could find in every language I could read or translate. And I can find absolutely nothing that suggests a disaster is coming, but I am 100 percent sure it will come. So if anyone understands what I mean, please let me know. Please.

I look outside, to the group of children passing by the window. The youngest, probably around four of five, is laughing and teasing the girl next to him. I can see his arm. 020:11:58:18. 020:11:58:17. My heart sinks again.