Falling Worlds (COMPLETED)

TIME 08:

(monday the 11th)

"You're still really tense," she said. "Um... let's try this." She clicked a button on her keyboard. Instantly, music started to play. It was quiet, peaceful music. Flute music. It's not that I hated flute music, it just wasn't my favorite. There was no way I could relax with it playing. I sat there, trying to relax.

"Hmm... You need to relax a bit more," she said, trying to sound encouraging. "The music doesn't seem to be having any effect." There was a long pause. "What kind of music do you like to listen to?" she asked. "Maybe that would calm you." She turned the computer towards me so I could enter my own song. I quickly entered my favorite song and listened to it play. Sydney was a bit startled when she could hear the music from the headphones just as well as I could. I smiled and rocked out to the song Uma Thurman, mouthing the words as it played. Sydney just listened and watched me spaz out, jumping back a bit when she heard some of the lyrics that sounded questionable. After the second verse, she clicked the pause button.

"That didn't seem to calm you down at all," she said. "Is there anything that really calms you?" I thought a bit. There was a long pause.

"I like working out," I said. "I find that calming-"

"No, like relaxing in the sense of physically and mentally," she said. "Like... some people do yoga, some people smell candles, some people listen to meditation music, things that bring your brainwaves down a lot."

"Watching TV brings brain waves down a lot," I said, remembering something I had read on sleep like brain waves occurring when you watched television. She laughed weakly.

"That's not what I meant," she said. "Something that you find calming. Actually calming." I thought for a while, but my mind was blank.

"I don't have anything," I said. "I'm never really calm." Sydney sighed and rubbed her head.

"I can fix that, if you want me to," she said. "If I adjust the settings of the headphones, I can set them to control your powers and activate them without you being calm. Under normal circumstances, you need to be calm in order to have control over your powers. I can sync the headphones to your thought patterns so that you can control them through the headphones. It would be like a translator from your thoughts to your powers." I nodded

"Okay," I said. "Then what would I do?" She shrugged.

"You would just need to think about using your powers and the headset would do the rest. It's not really the best way to control your powers, but it will work for now." I smiled and nodded.

"Let's do it," I said. She turned and typed away at the computer. I thought for a moment. "Thank you," I said. "For helping me with this." She smiled.

"You're welcome," she replied. "I enjoy this kind of thing. You need to figure out how to stay calm though. It's not healthy for you to be that tense." I agreed, though I didn't really care about being calm. If the headset could do it for me, I wouldn't need to be calm. She stopped typing.

"See if they work," she said. I jumped off the table and thought about my powers. I didn't want to go back in time. It would be boring, reliving something over again. I wanted to live in the now. Right now. Then: time froze. Everything stopped. Sydney froze, the flickering lights stops flickering: everything was in a state of not moving. I walked around, examining the motionless world. It was cool, and a little strange. I thought of all of the things I could do like this. I smiled at the thought. I ran out of the lab and down the hallway. I ran around outside, feeling what it was like for there to be absolutely no wind. People were standing around: like statutes. It was an incredible feeling. I thought about time going back to normal, and it did. People didn't even notice I had randomly appeared in front of them. I froze time again and kept running around. I had all the time in the world: literally!

First, I started by walking down to my old school. I had stopped going there after the incident with the police. They didn't allow me back. I went into the school and started time again. I spent the new few minutes wandering around the halls, looking into classrooms and seeing people hard at work. It was quiet, for a while. Then I heard a voice: a woman's voice, yelling something about "magic" or a "witch". Curiosity filled me, and naturally I went to see what was going on. I saw a teacher running down the hall. She looked scared. I looked down to see what she was running from. It was a young girl, about my age. I gasped as I realized who it was. It was Sydney's younger sister! She looked exactly like her, but younger. She had powers too. I guessed she had just learned about them now. I remembered what Roman had said: to stay out of it. But I wanted to talk to her. I didn't want to be the only one. Suddenly, an alarm went off. The girl fell to the ground, covering her ears and cowering in a corner. I looked down the hall I was standing in and saw police running through the door. They had found her already. I froze time and ran over to the girl. Time started again. She looked up at me as though she didn't know what to do.

"Who are you?" she finally asked after staring at me for a while.

"There's no time to explain" I said quickly and quietly, trying not to make too much noise. "You'll understand later" The police were coming closer. She didn't have much time. "You need to get out of here" I said, "fast".

"How?" she asked, "The door is locked." I sighed and froze time again. I ran down the hall and burst into the control room. I flipped the right switches to shut the alarm off and to unlock the security doors. I ran back in front of her. Time started. Everything snapped back into motion.

"Go!" I exclaimed and waved my arms towards her ushering her out. She ran out of the school. I sighed and turned to see the police.

"Hey! You there!" they yelled. I froze time and left. I went back to the college and went into the lab. Sydney had been worried sick. She babbled something about missing me and calling my brother. I assured her that everything was fine. I didn't tell her what I had done. No one had to know.

That evening, she got a phone call from the hospital. She left immediately: without saying a word.