-- Prologue --

The smell of burning tobacco blended with the crisp air as sentries gathered around a crackling fire. They laughed and talked while enjoying their brief respite after patrolling the Draxurion Wall, a massive barrier of stone and mortar, running along a mountain range in the eastern and northern parts of the kingdom. The fire's warmth was a good help against the bone-chilling cold, and the flames formed dancing shadows on their faces. Nearby, other sentries led their horses to designated areas to ensure they were secure for the night.

"It's time to switch with the lads," one sentry announced, stubbing out his tobacco. Another sentry, feeling sufficiently warmed by the campfire, volunteered to head up first.

The way to the top of the wall was through a wooden winch cage. It took considerable strength to turn the wheel and lift the cage, protected by a wooden roof, to the top. Three operators strained at the mechanism, their muscles bulging with effort as the cage slowly ascended until the panoramic view of the little village could be seen below: buildings and streets lit up by lanterns and torches.

After what felt like ages, the winch cage finally reached the top. The operators stopped cranking it. The sentry stepped out and immediately noticed three guards lying on the cold stone floor. Rushing over, he checked for signs of life and found none. The bodies were lifeless, their faces frozen in expressions of shock and fear.

Suddenly, the torches along the wall began to extinguish one by one, plunging the wall into darkness. Only one torch remained lit. There was no moon, and the stars in the sky were hidden behind the heavy clouds. He wasn't sure if he was more afraid or intrigued by this. For a moment, a figure came into view, walking slowly forward from darkness.

He grabbed the last torch, "Show yourself!"

The figure in a cloak stepped closer to the breathless sentries, and the sentry instinctively stepped back, the smouldering torchlight showing only the edges of the cloak. Fear mounted as he shouted down and waved the torch urgently to the operators below, "Pull back the winch cage now!"

The operators saw his sign. They immediately followed the order but they struggled to operate the winch as their efforts were hampered by the strain and the cold. With a loud snap, the wooden roof of the cage broke, rendering the winch useless. The sentry was trapped on the wall, alone with the unknown individual.

Desperate, he waved the torch again, trying to see his adversary more clearly while waiting for the cage to come up without knowing it was already broken in this moment of emergency. He looked in every corner as he held the torch defensively, but the figure vanished, only to reappear behind him. Then, a sudden cold hand gripped his head, and he felt a terrible draining sensation as he listened to an ominous whisper: Shadow and night, end thyself. Light die, embrace the void. His reign shall rise once more. The torch slipped from his hand to the ground as his strength and life force were siphoned away. His eyes rolled back, turning a ghastly white as his whole body went limp.

Thud.

A lifeless body in military uniform crashed brutally onto a campfire below. The sentries, who had been busy talking amongst themselves, now sat frozen in terror, their faces blanched with fear as they suddenly recognized the identity of their fallen comrade.

February 15 - Gregorian Calendar ( Day 27 )

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A cemetery, where the rows of tombstones stuffy in the still and heavy atmosphere, as if holding its breath. Here, Ella sat on the ground with her back against a weathered tombstone. She clutched a can of beer in one hand, the other absently stroking a sleek white cat named Michiko in her lap.

Tears streaked down her face, combining with sporadic revel. The silence of the surroundings was only interrupted when her voice cracked as she spoke to the tombstone with sorrow and irony.

"We...we used to joke about all those wack fantasies, but I'm shook AF that one actually came true," she said. "I mean, of all the things we imagined, this? The whole world just hit PAUSE n' sht? It sounds straight out of one of our wild stories, no cap. But hey, I'm here in this crazy-ass nightmare while you're chillin' safe now. Far AF away from this madness."

She took a sip again, then laughed. Being the only one left moving in a world frozen in time was something she couldn't know how to handle. But when she looked down at Michiko, the cat's steady purring was a small comfort in the overwhelming silence. At least she had him, a tiny anchor in this strange, silent world.

No more drama. She sighed heavily and pushed herself to her feet while wiping the tears with the edge of a sleeve of her maroon jacket. Crying over her friend's tombstone wouldn’t help bring the world back to normal anyway. She gave the cat one last pat before tossing the empty beer can into a nearby trash bin.

Almost a month had passed since everything had come to a standstill. She had thought the cause might be low iron levels because she often stayed up late after her part-time job. To check if she was imagining things, she had even slapped her cheeks multiple times, but the pain had told her it was real. Everything had truly stopped. The sun hadn’t moved from morning to noon or evening which made herself realize that time itself was frozen. She had speculated about possible explanations for it: a temporal anomaly or a cosmic disturbance. But none of her theories mattered now. The world was steady, time itself seemingly halted, and she was the only one left to witness it.

The streets were still, cars abandoned mid-journey, their drivers and passengers locked in place. She walked past them, glancing at her reflection in a side mirror. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she couldn't help but laugh like a lunatic. While Michiko, seemingly unimpressed, meowed, making her stop from laughing aloud. Then, she continued her walk as if she were window shopping at a mall. Pedestrians stood frozen in mid-step, their expressions and motions captured in time. She weaved through the immobile crowd, feeling like a ghost haunting the living.

Michiko faithfully followed her everywhere until they paused by a bus stop, where people waited patiently for a bus that would never come. Her eyes scanned the frozen faces, and gave them a faint smile before continuing to walk away.

On the way home, she looked up to see the motionless group of birds and airplane. Nothing changed.

When she reached the front of her apartment building, she looked at the sky again and noticed a twinkling dot in the grew steadily larger that transforming from a curious spot into a unsure presence. What was that? She felt a sense of unease growing with it. She squinted, then blinked two times, until the object had become a massive, blue meteor, moving at a great speed toward her home. It was too late to run.

Her heart thumped as she instinctively covered her eyes and bent down, bracing for impact. She expected to hear a deafening crash and feel the ground shake, but nothing happened. There was no loud thud, no crumbling of walls, no sound at all. Moreover, she still alive. It was as if the meteor had simply vanished.

Cautiously, she opened her eyes and straightened up. The building stood as it always had, untouched and undamaged. Confusion befuddled her but her urgency overrode it. She broke into a run, heading toward her apartment on the fifth floor. And the frozen landlord was still there in front of the door, just as he had been a month ago when he had knocked on her door at 6:30 am, grumbling about overdue payments. She barely glanced at him as she pushed past and entered her apartment.

Breathless, she paused in the middle. Her gaze swept over every corner, but nothing seemed out of place. She moved to the window, expecting to see some sign of the meteor's impact, but the view outside was as still and unchanged as ever. What was going on? Had she imagined it?

The apartment seemed to resonanate with a faint energy, a barely perceptible vibration that made the hairs on her arms stand on end. She turned away from the window until an aquatic light on the floor caught her eye. It was coming from her room and the slightly -ajar door. Her neck craned forward to get a look inside as she approached. She pushed the door slowly, the light growing stronger as it flooded the way.

"What the..." What she saw made her gasp. She wasn't tipsy nor intoxicated. No one would believe her when everything went back to normal, even if her cat could vouch for her. The world had stopped, frozen in time, and now a large, fiery, aquatic-blue circle appeared in her little room.