With my arms kept up and my eyes shut, nothing cushioned my fall when I lost my balance. When my butt hit the pavement a sharp pain caused me to yelp but I heard no sound come out of my mouth.

Odd.

I opened my eyes, slowly, cautiously. Staring at my lap. I expected to have been launched down the street, my body In pieces. But I’m still in one piece, perhaps the police car missed me?

Taking a look ahead caused me to crab walk back a few feet, my heart pounding in my chest. I gazed in wonder as the police car, which was only a few inches from hitting me before, was frozen in place. Everything was frozen in place, as if I had stopped time itself. Millions of small orbs of water were scattered as far as the eye could see, hanging in the air like glistening jewels. Trees froze too, mid-sway from the wind, their branches reaching out in eerie stillness. In the distance I can see lightning, mid-strike, illuminating the cloudy night sky. I stared with fascination as the world as I knew it stopped, out of curiosity I reached over to the closest rain-drop and touched it. Immediately upon touch, It splashed on my finger, coating it in water.

Sick.

Again, I tried speaking but no sound came out. Is this real? Is this the time between life and death? I took another look at myself, taking note that I in fact could not look through my body.

I stood up and dusted myself off and for a few seconds I inspected the car in front of me. It was floating a few inches off the floor after it had recently just gone over the hill. With the vehicle coming out of the thick fog, it made it look like an emerging beast. Inside I can see the young male officer, eyes wide in fear and shock. The poor dude is losing his mind right now.

To my right the female officer was frozen too, in a mid-air leap, in a desperate attempt to save me. I wonder if she would still arrest me if she happened to save me.

Well I’m not about to stand here and find out.

I started running towards the alleyway gate on the left, I quickly hopped over and with my remaining strength, climbed my way up the three story building using the drains and pipes. Exhausted, I rolled over the ledge.

From where I lay, I had a perfect view of the entire street. I stayed frozen in place, watching. Under normal circumstances I would have kept running until I had nothing left, but my gut is telling me to stay. Something Is at play here and I want to find out.

A slight twinge of pain in my chest marked the beginning of the flow. A feeling of butterflies at the pit of my stomach. The feeling of a roller coaster going from zero to a hundred. The feeling of anything and everything.

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Orbs of water that were previously suspended, shuddered before slowly descending. They picked up pace until the spherical shape slowly disappeared among the masses. The frozen lightning above slowly disappeared in a flash of white, as the soft rumble of rain pattered around me. My attention was now placed on the police car up ahead, as it slowly crawled towards the floor. It was only a matter of seconds before everything was set to normal. The crack of lightning thundered behind me as the vehicle slid down the hill before stopping.

The female police officer hastily got up from where she lay, and ran to the police car. She quickly crouched down to look underneath. Seeing nothing, she got up, surveying her surroundings in confusion. With the second officer now out of the car they made another attempt to find me, taking a look down the alleyways with their flashlights. I noticed how their shoulders slumped in relief, funny how they prefer my disappearance than a broken body aground.

Soon enough, they loaded back into the vehicle and drove off. Most likely driving to the next street over in hope of picking up my trail.

After waiting for a few seconds I rolled onto my back. Finally letting go of a chest full of air that I hadn’t realized I was holding. My heart was pounding like crazy, a testament of the surreal experience I had just gone through. My body, exhausted from all the running, finally at rest, feeling the cold puddle of water expanding underneath me. I raised my hand to the gray sky in wonder, listening to the gentle rumbles of thunder in the distance.

So this is derealization, I chuckled, dropping my hand in thought. Did I stop time? Or had my life just momentarily slowed down, suspended in the instant before death?

———

“Rob, this is Rowan. I was able to get away…no thanks to you. I wanted to let you know that the boys’n’blue know about OakMont.” I said over the walkie-talkie.

It’s been over an hour since the chase down the alleyways. I opted to stay low before heading back home, taking the route on the roofs of buildings then the sidewalks and roads. I nearly forget about Rob and the gang, I don't want my dough being confiscated by the cops.

“Heard.” Rob said, with a raspy voice. “New meetup is tomorrow, garage, ten in the morning. If yer late I'm pocketing ye part of whoever’s cut.” With that said he cut out. As for me, I threw the walkie-talkie away in the nearest trash can. Plus, since the rain had let up for a while, my rain poncho went along with it as well.

I was near the slums, spotting the recognizable rusty coverings of makeshift homes knitted together. It was an admirably useless endeavor in creating a community of common people. A few blocks away was my destination, an abandoned indoor mall. A place many, along with myself, call home.

I carefully climbed down before dropping myself onto an old air conditioning unit below. As I crouched beside it, I opened the back panel revealing a green backpack wrapped in a small plastic tarp. I let out a sigh of relief. I had previously hollowed out the AC unit, but I didn’t know if it would help keep out the elements as well as it had tonight.

Inside was a dry clean pair of clothes and shoes which I quickly changed into before placing my soaked ones back into the AC unit. With my backpack in hand, I headed my way back home. Deep in the slum district.