God of Light

Scene 8 *

Garter had only a split second to act. If he didn't, Maria would die. This thought bothered him--he had seen countless humans die during his lifetime; why should this one be any different?

But for some reason, this one was different. He wanted to protect her.

He grabbed her by the arm quickly, and she turned and looked him in the eye. That was precisely what he had wanted her to do, needed her to do to save her.

Time seemed to stop. Maria turned away from him and saw a bullet frozen in the air, inches away from her chest.

"Thank goodness that worked!" Garter said, wiping at the sweat on his forehead. Maria, eyes wide in shock, tried to speak, but no words came out.

Garter placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "Take your time," he said, "we have some time to relax."

Maria finally found her voice and stammered, "What...? How...?"

Garter smiled. "I used my power to accelerate you with me."

"You did what?" said Maria, "how is that possible?"

"It's possible because I'm a spirit," he replied, "and as for what I did, it's quite simple. I sped up our movements to a point where time has stopped. I'm glad it worked on you because I've never tried using it on a human before. I wasn't sure if it would work, but I'm glad to see it did."

"As am I," said Maria, a look of relief. She turned back towards him and took a step forward.

Garter flinched slightly. The last time she had been this close, she had slugged him. He really wasn't sure he wanted a repeat of last time. But to his surprise, she kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you," she said.

Now, it was his turn to stammer. He blushed slightly and said, "Y-you're welcome."

"Now what's going to happen?" Maria said, "We can't stay like this forever, can we?"

"You're right, we can't," said Garter. "Even I can't stay like this for very long, an hour at the most, you, probably half that."

"Then maybe I should leave," Maria replied. I can cover a lot of ground by then."

"Yes, you could, but you can't go," Garter said. Maria gave him a questioning look. "If you go too far from the spot where you accelerated, you'll return to normal speed." He paused.

"There's more, isn't there?" she said. Garter nodded, looking concerned.

"There are two types of acceleration," he continued. "The first type was the one I used against that soldier earlier. My movements sped up to a point where most opponents can't keep up." Maria nodded in understanding. "The second type is where I speed up to a point where I'm no longer in the same time-space as the world."

That's where he lost her. He could see it in her eyes. He tried again. "It's so hard to explain, but to return to your normal time-space, you must reenter at the exact same moment you left, in the exact same place, in the exact same position."

Maria's eyes went wide as what Garter was explaining finally sunk in. She looked from him to the bullet, still hovering in the air. When she went back, she would die.