短編小説『INSANITY』(ENG/JP)
“When time finally winds back to zero, will I be "born," or will I simply dissolve into nothingness?”
INSANITY
by Rom.L.Des(2026)
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It was a little past three in the morning when the hands of the clock began their mad, backward spin.
The old round clock hanging on the living room wall kept up its dry, clicking rhythm, steadily unwinding time toward the past. At first, I thought it was just my imagination.
But when I watched the words of the diary I had torn to shreds yesterday slowly bleed back onto the blank scraps of paper and reassemble themselves into their original shape, I knew.
時計の針が、左回りへと狂い始めたのは午前3時を過ぎたころだった。
リビングの壁にかけられた古い丸時計は、カチコチと乾いた音を立てながら、確実に「過去」へと時間を巻き戻していく。最初は気のせいだと思った。
だが、昨日破り捨てたはずの日記の文字が、白い紙片のうえからじわじわと滲み出し、元の形へと組み上がっていくのを見たとき、私は確信した。
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Time does not move forward. It frays, and it retraces its steps.
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Outside the window, weeds retreated from the cracks in the asphalt like a film played in reverse, sinking back into the earth until they vanished. Passersby walked backward, swallowing the words that slipped from their lips back down into the depths of their throats. The world was quietly, yet with overwhelming precision, contracting toward its starting point.
Without thinking, I pressed a hand to my chest. The beating of my heart had also begun to keep a reverse cadence—thud-thump, moving backward.
When time finally winds back to zero, will I be "born," or will I simply dissolve into nothingness?
窓の外では、アスファルトのひび割れから雑草が逆回しのように引っ込み、やがて地面へと吸い込まれて消えていく。通行人たちは後ろ向きに歩き、口からこぼれ落ちた言葉をふたたび喉の奥へと飲み込んでいく。世界は静かに、しかし圧倒的な正確さで、始まりの地点へ向かって収縮していた。
ふと、自分の胸に手を当てる。心臓の鼓動もまた、ドクン、と逆の律動を刻み始めていた。
このまま時間がゼロに戻ったとき、私は果たして「生まれる」のだろうか、それとも「無」に溶けるのだろうか？
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
I looked at my own face in the mirror. What spread across it was no terror at all. It was merely a smile of crystal-clear madness, born from witnessing the beautiful miracle of everything running in reverse.
鏡に映る自分の顔を見る。そこに広がるのは恐怖ではない。すべてが巻き戻る美しい奇跡を目の当たりにした、あまりに澄み切った狂気の笑みだけだった。
END🔚
