In The Eye Of The Beholder
Mike wanted to remember the minutiae; the passing moments, easy
to forget. The simplest gestures, as she sipped her coffee in the morning in
the café, savouring that first taste; the casual spread hand, holding the pages
of her book apart as she read; the sweeping of the curls from her forehead;
flame lit in the sudden glint of sun. He
would retain it all. That was the
why. Now he could. And would.
They had assured him of total recall, as and when; whenever. Hit of a switch, no glitch. Prompt playback. It had proved perfection so far – and pretty
painless, all things considered. Worth a
slight discomfort, for considerably greater gain. No more moments lost; not ever.
Mike had them all to hand, for later evenings - date order;
perfectly catalogued. Something to while
away the time whilst they were apart. It
allowed him to appreciate her lipstick kissed smile. Sadly, he hadn’t seen that in a while. Checking back, it had been one week, one day,
nine hours and twenty five minutes, precisely.
More recently, it had been replaced by a slight crease of the brow –
something he simply wanted to smooth away.
It had been there too often – six occasions and counting. He had.
He knew. Just not what to do
about it – and he had thought it through, many times. So much so, he had a headache somewhere
behind the back of his eyeballs; a grinding, relentless thud, which wouldn’t
give over, no matter how many painkillers he took.
Mike had tried distracting himself; replaying recent moments
of footage. It simply seemed to make
things worse – the dull ache becoming a hammer head pounding out its drum beat,
making him queasy to the stomach. It
made him wonder, given its recent appearance.
They had, after all, offered him complete and total recall, no
limits. There had, however, been no
guarantee that there would be sufficient space or storage, capacity-wise, to
allow for it fully. He wanted – needed -
for it to fit. No matter what, he had to
have everything. He had to have her.
(350 words)
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Another piece for the Office Mango "Horror Bites" challenge, which I haven't been unable to write for for a while, unfortunately, due to lack of proper internet access and time constraints. It's nice to be able to put something together for the prompt again! This one is my random sci-fi (sort of) stalker story..
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