time stands still//phan

one - 9:42 ♡

9:42.

9:42.

9:42, he repeated in his head.

Hallway, pain, shoelace

9:42

Phil tries to recollect the vague details of the dream he had last night.

9:42, hallway, pain shoelace.

This was a daily ritual. Remember and repeat his dream until he was certain he would not forget.

9:42, hallway, pain, shoelace. 9:42, hallway, pain shoelace.

Finally, he rose from his bed after he was content with his evocation, glancing up at the clock which read 8am. He recalled the number 9.42; as usual, he had no idea whether this time signified morning or afternoon, but decided he still had a while to figure it out.

Grabbing his bag and spraying his ebony hair with dry shampoo, he slammed the door behind him and heads off to the bus stop. Slouched against the condensated bus window, a blast of fall out boy vibrated through his headphones, muffling the buzz of rowdy high school kids, none of whom which liked phil very much. They didn't hate him, but he could feel the way their judgemental glares burned into him during class whilst he frantically, obsessively checks the time every few minutes. He was used to it.

8:31. The bus pulls up outside of his grey-brick high school. 42 seconds until 8:32. Heaving his body up the bustling steps, Phil heads through the main doors and counts the seconds in his head. 240 seconds - he is sat in his geography class. Inhaling subconsciously, he places his bag by his feet and begins counting down to 9:42; he had already figured that (if this time implied an occurence in the morning)  this time would transpire during the switch of lessons, probably in a hallway, which would decipher the hallway aspect of the dream. Shoelace - would he stop to do up a shoelace? Concluding that this would be the most probable situation, his fists clench - just as they had so many years ago. Pain. The word sent an eruption of terror throughout his body; was it a fear of the unknown? After all, by now, he was essentially insusceptible to the horror of these dreams of pain, though they still were unpleasant.

8:59 - 20 seconds until 9am. Phil began digging in his rucksack for his pencils, making sure to write the first word of his essay at 9:01am; leaving himself a precise 38 minutes and 40 seconds  before he would finish his work, leaving him enough time to head into the hallway and experience the shoelace incident, if it was in fact going to ensue in the morning.

The sparse amount of people that knew about Phil's...powers would often inquire as to why he would always be in the predicted location (or at least his best guess as to where it might be) at the time it would happen, and why he didn't avoid it. At first, he had always tried to stay away from any situation that he could possibly link to his previous dream in any way, but no matter what he did, fate would always find a way to make it happen. He could be on top of the highest mountain, or drowning in the deepest ocean, fate would inevitably supervene and play out the scenario that he'd dreamed of the night before.

Hellooo again :)
So many people read the prologue danggg
Thanks again for reading. Let us know what you think!
5 votes before next chapter? We want to make sure people actually like this lol.
Also it's 12 years of Phil today dang time flies
Have an amazing day/night 💓
Chapter done by: Sammy 🌙