There are certain universal desires, and chief among them is the desire to possess a button that will allow you to turn back time. The answer to all your problems.
They thought that they had discovered the means to achieve the secret desire of their hearts. They thought they'd discovered magic. But we know that magic does not exist. Not in the way that most people wish it would. It was only an illusion.
You cannot turn back time. You can only move forward.
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She hit the stone floor, and the door slammed closed behind her. The double boom echoed in the silence. She lay there for a long time, blind either from pain or panic for the space around her glowed with an eerie yellow light, and felt.
She felt her heart beating in her chest, erratic but welcome. She felt her shoulder aching where it had been pulled out of its socket. She felt the floor beneath her, cold and warm at the same time, like a living animal left out in the chilly night air, shivering and breathing.
She tried to sit up, but she seemed glued to the floor. When she finally gained the strength to wrench her eyes open, she was surprised to find that she was lying not on stone but on black metal, cut into perfect square tiles.
She heard a shuffle of feet to her right. Somehow managing to prop herself up on one arm, she turned sluggishly to face whatever had materialized to attack her. A cry was torn out of her lips when she saw the man standing there.
He was propped up against the wall on shaking legs. His arms hung limp at his sides. His breathing grew louder, filling the room and forcing her to press one ear against the floor to block out the sound.
When she looked back at him, the man was staring at her. His jaw worked as he struggled to speak through his labored breathing.
"No, no, no. He's dead. He's not...You're not...My brother is dead!"
The phantom's expression remained impassive. She forced herself up to a sitting position, and with a howl of rage that burned her throat, she flung the key clenched in her fist at him - at it. She expected the key to pass through the phantom and clang into the wall, but it bounced off the phantom's chest. It flinched.
Before either could react, the girl heard a sound like a door opening and slamming shut. But how...
She whirled around, scrambling away from the door on all fours, and caught sight of another figure leaning against the wall beside the door. The figure turned, eyes sweeping across her to the man in the corner, and then sprang forward. His hand clamped down around the phantom's throat for an instant, and then it vanished.
He turned in slow motion, hands clenched into white-tipped fists, and stalked toward the girl. "Pima?" He knelt, extended a tentative hand, and placed it on her leg. He gripped it tight, his nails cutting into her flesh. "Pima...Pima..."
He scooted closer, throwing an arm around her shoulders and drawing her to his chest.
"Ahhh!" she cried out in pain when he squeezed her injured shoulder.
"What's wrong?" he asked, pulling back. His fingers traveled lightly up her arm, and his brow furrowed. He began to twist the arm this way and that.
"It's...my shoulder," Pima whispered.
His eyes flicked up to hers and held for a long moment as they examined each other's faces.
YOU ARE READING
The Time Tower (the first visit)
Short Story****** There are certain universal desires, and chief among them is the desire to possess a button that will allow you to turn back time. The answer to all your problems. They thought that they had discovered the means to achieve the secret desi...
