The Man who wasn't there

Idris' grip on the pocket watch tightened as the weight of his vision settled in. The city—the twisted skyline, the chaos, the gunfire—it wasn't just a dream. It felt real, too real.

Elise was still watching him, her brows furrowed with concern. "Idris, talk to me. What did you see?"

He swallowed, choosing his words carefully. "A city. Not this one. The buildings were... wrong, stretching in ways they shouldn't. People dressed like they stepped out of a future we haven't reached yet. Then there was an explosion. I saw myself—fighting something, something unnatural."

Elise's eyes widened slightly, but she didn't interrupt.

"And then I was back," Idris finished, exhaling. "Like nothing happened. But I know what I saw."

Elise ran a hand through her hair. "That's not possible."

Idris scoffed, waving the pocket watch in front of her. "Neither is a man dying without cause while holding a watch that hums with some 'temporal distortion,' yet here we are."

She hesitated, then nodded. "Fair point." She reached for the watch, but Idris instinctively pulled it back. Elise gave him a sharp look. "You think it's going to hurt me?"

He sighed and placed it in her gloved hand. "I don't know what this thing is, but it's connected to whatever killed him. And I have a feeling it's not done yet."

Elise held the watch up to the dim light of the observatory. The golden case reflected the glow eerily, the gears within twitching as if trying to move but unable to. "This thing looks ancient, but the technology inside it… it's advanced. Too advanced."

A gust of wind rattled the observatory's glass panels. Idris stood and scanned the body again, hoping for a clue he had missed. No wallet. No identification. Nothing in his pockets. Even his shoes had an unfamiliar make, though they looked well-worn.

Elise sighed. "I'll take the watch back to the lab, run some scans."

Idris nodded. "Good. Meanwhile, I need to find out who this guy is."

He turned to the uniformed officers standing at the entrance. "Check missing persons. Any reports of someone matching his description?"

One of them, Officer Lane, shifted uncomfortably. "Already did, sir. Nothing. No missing persons in the past forty-eight hours, no one matching his face in the database."

Idris frowned. "What do you mean 'nothing'? Someone has to know who he is."

Lane hesitated before adding, "It's like he doesn't exist."

A heavy silence settled between them.

Idris glanced back at the body. "That's impossible."

But deep down, he wasn't so sure anymore.