At 7:53 tonight, you die.
Those words have been echoing through my head all day. The time now was 6:53pm, only an hour left, and my mind still can’t make sense of what’s happening. Throughout the entire day, all I saw was death, more specifically, all I saw were black robes, scythes, and hoodies with either a grim reaper or a skull on the front. I’ve been hearing voices in my head telling me to run away, leave town, catch a flight, go to a new city, and start a new life, but I can’t do that now. Not after what happened last time. . . at 7:53.
My name is Jason McKenzie, and I have the power to control time.
My life story isn’t very complicated, so it’ll be quick to explain. I was born on July 5, 1953 to a mother that worked as a receptionist at a law firm and a father that was a world class doctor. Neither of them had powers. When I was three, I discovered that everything would freeze at approximately 7:53 every night. Every time I looked out the window I would always see a reaper standing there menacingly, just staring. I looked inside the abyss that was his hoodie as he disappeared every time the clock struck 7:54. When that happened everything went back to normal and my parents would act like nothing happened. I started discovering my powers when I was thirteen, every day I woke up at 7:52 am, just thirty-eight minutes before I had to go to school, and at 7:53 time would freeze. In the mornings, I was able to literally move time from one place to another as if it were a physical object. At night, at 7:53pm, I could only fast forward and rewind. Throughout my teenage years and adult years, I’ve discovered I can do a lot with time: move it from one place to another, fast-forward and rewind, transform it into energy and make it do my bidding and much more. I call this power Time Mastery.
Over the years I’ve controlled time and used it to my advantage on numerous occasions. One time, I used time to move myself from my bedroom in Brooklyn, New York to a secret area of the Amazon forest somewhere in the tropics and found the fountain of youth and took the elixir. I haven’t aged since.
Up until this point I’ve been having a good time. Staying out all night, banging hot chicks, riding motorbikes off rooftops, smoking pot and psychedelics, you name it, I did it. Then one time, at 7:53pm, things went too far. I was trying to impress this girl with how I can move time in four dimensions, and everything was going well. She told me the town had some fire two weeks before and she wanted to see it, so I said why not and moved us to that time. The fire was devastating but nothing major in the grand scheme of things. Three houses and a saloon burned but the town survived. The time there was about 7:52 at night but I didn’t know that. When I tried to move us back to our spot the time hit 7:53pm and I accidently brought the fire back with us. Don’t ask how ‘cause that one’s still a mystery to me. Anyway, the whole town burned to the ground. No one was hurt, but that’s when it all started. . . my life on the lam.
At 7:53 tonight, you die.
As it approaches seven o’clock the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, like something is reaching for them. Every time I look behind me I see nothing, then I hear a whooshing sound and chill runs down my spine and an arrow through my heart. The sweat sprints down my forehead and chest as visions of hoodies, robes, skulls, and scythes consume my vision and the tick tock of the clock is all I can hear.
Suddenly, a loud, long, creaking sound fills the room and I swear my heart was going to burst through my chest and leave me for the exit. The sound is coming from all over. From the ceiling and chandeliers. The hardwood floors. The beige walls. The cutout glass windows. Even the leather couch I’m sitting on. I feel a looming presence hovering over me and I jump out the couch and run to the window.
I look around the room and nothing’s there. The only thought in my head is what the hell’s going on here. My hands start trembling and tingling, which means I haven’t used Time Mastery in a while. I try to think of a place in my mind. Anywhere but this room. I think of the forest where I found the fountain of youth and I use my power to take me there.
When I try to transform time, nothing happens. It just sits still. I try again and again but nothing happens. The room is still here. At 7:53 tonight, you die. The time is 7:30pm. What! How?!
I see something flash to my right then my left. I try to follow it with my eyes but it’s too fast. I spot something flash through my periphery and it’s getting closer. I go to move to a different spot, but I can’t. I’m stuck. I try to rip and tear myself from the spot, but I can’t, it’s like something is holding me there. I feel weight, pressure, like the solar system is on my shoulders. I look at the clock again and it says 7:50. I turn to look out the window and the sun is going down faster than usual, as if time is being sped up.
At 7:53 tonight, you die. Those words and the approaching time hit me with the magnitude of a 10.0 earthquake. The weight of death grips me to the very depths of my soul as I watch the clock go from 7:50 to 7:51.
At 7:53 tonight, you die.
The clock on the wall jumps from 7:51 to 7:52. One minute.
At 7:53 tonight, you die.
My eyes don’t leave that clock for a second. They don’t even blink. My mind is racing a million miles a minute trying to think of a way out. Trying to think of something that can either stop of delay the inevitability of death. My hands grow cold and my toes go right along with them. I feel like my body is freezing on me like everything else has at 7:53 for the past fifty-seven years I’ve had this power. I feel like I’m not even in the room right now, like I’m having an outer body experience. I feel like I’m at a movie theater watching in first person. . . like my life is ending right before my eyes.
7:53. . . time’s up.
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