The man who saw tomorrow

Part 2 – The Window Ahead

As winter settled in, the visions became more vivid.
Elias would touch a clock and suddenly hear voices from the next day. Sometimes, entire scenes would play out right before his eyes. The future came to him in snippets—never too far ahead, never more than twenty-four hours.

One evening, while winding an old brass carriage clock, a horrifying image flashed before him.
A crowded train station Smoke.
Screaming.
The massive iron roof crashing down on dozens of unsuspecting people below.
The vision disappeared so abruptly that Elias collapsed to the floor, trembling.

The next morning, he rushed to the stationmaster, pleading with him to shut down the building. The man laughed at him until Elias described, in vivid detail, the red scarf around his daughter’s neck and the exact words she would say when she arrived at noon.
By midday, panic had spread among the station staff. They evacuated the building just moments before a support beam snapped high above the platform. Iron and glass came crashing down onto empty stone.

Elias shot to fame in the blink of an eye. Some people called it a blessing, while others saw it as a curse. Crowds gathered outside his shop, bombarding him with impossible questions. “Will my son return from the sea?” “Will I strike it rich?” “Who will betray me?” As time went on, Elias found himself answering less and less. Each glimpse into the future drained him, as if the act of seeing what was to come demanded a toll.