Watching You: A Refresh Story

Prince and Knight

   "I was only a child. Eons ago it feels like. When there was still an Omniverse."

   "Omniverse?"

   "A collection of all things in all of existence. Everything that was, is, and ever will be. This multiverse is just a chunk of what the Omniverse was."

   "Okay... "

   "The Watchers lived outside of a specific place and time. We just were. We oversaw everything and had infinite knowledge. There was a king and queen of our society. They oversaw the Watchers and the Watchers oversaw everything else. They were very... kind people." The memories slipped away from Matthew. It was so so long ago.

   "And..?"

   "And they had a son. A young prince with extraordinary capabilities. His imagination ran wild and he crafted new worlds like no one had ever seen before. But he got lonely. There weren't many children because of the virtual immortality of the Watchers."

   Seven had a sinking suspicion he knew where this was going.

   "So he started playing with his magic. He had no clue what he was doing. With all the imagination at his disposal he had to be able to do something. . . So he stripped some of his own imagination away and gave it a form. And Matthieu was made. The young Prince and Matthieu went everywhere together. They made worlds together. They were a team and the king and queen were very kind to Matthieu... but he never quite clicked. He was artificial. He wasn't real like them. He wasn't a part of them." Matthew inhaled shakily again.

   Seven was reminded of himself and Crayola. The prince and Matthieu sounded close. Like best friends. Brothers almost. "But why is he here?

   "At the prince's coronation Matthieu swore his life to protect the Prince. But Matthieu had already grown dark at that point. He morphed his imagination into manipulation. He began chipping away at the princes code and replacing it with his own. He tried to take the princes place."

   Seven's soul skipped as he figured it out. He held his breath and waited.

   "And when the prince returned home from one of his worlds he found Matthieu sitting on his throne. Next to his parents. And his parents didn't even notice him. So the Prince opened the code and tried to remove Matthieu from existence... But it didn't work. Matthieu became a virus. He killed the king. He split the Omniverse into chunks and banished the rest of the Watchers, that survived his wrath, to their own chunk. And he killed the queen in front of the young prince just as a rift opened and swallowed him into a different part of the Omniverse. The prince lived the rest of his life in exile among the worlds he created as he vowed never to interfere again."

   Seven shuddered. "You're the prince... Aren't you?"

   Matthew put his head in his hands. "And I've regretted splitting my power to make him for centuries."