The Girl Who Stopped Time

Gilah

I've been in this room for four hours now. After he locked me in here, I spent about half an hour of that time banging on the door. Once I finally realized that he wasn't coming back anytime soon, I started to explore my room. I went to my beloved bay window first and looked out through the clear glass. It was the exact same view that I would see at my real house, except there was no death clock anywhere in sight. It gave me hope for a little while, making me think that if I opened the window I could escape. That was quickly wiped away from my mind. First off, the window wouldn't open no matter what I did, I even tried throwing my desk chair at it; It didn't even make a scratch. Second, after staring out the window for twenty minutes and watching the same squirrel run across the damp forest ground, I realized it was just some sort of simulation set on a loop.

Deceiving little shit.

The rest of my room is in perfect order though. My clothes in my closet are exactly how they were before I packed them away. The bottom drawer of my dresser, which I like to call my 'junk drawer', has all its contents once again in a chaotic mess. I'm a little bit pissed about that. I spent an hour sorting everything in it neatly into a cardboard box: now all the old movies, school projects, nail polishes, Christmas decorations and so on, are spread carelessly inside the wooden compartment. I'm not a messy person, but I believe that everyone needs a little bit of hidden clutter.

After searching my entire room for... well, I'm actually not quite sure what I was looking for. All I know is that it got my mind off of the situation. Apparently, I clean when I have nothing else better to do other than worry, because at the moment my room is spotless. I'm now laying horizontal on the middle of my bed, with my legs crossed and my head hanging off the edge of the bed. There's nothing else to do now other than wait.

I changed my clothes, there was no way I was sitting in here wearing his oversized shirt and sweatpants. They reeked of him, and the worst part is that the smell was actually quite good. He smells like axe men's Cologne, with a hint of something I can only describe as his manly testosterone. Damn him. Why couldn't he smell like feet or earwax? I changed into simple black leggings with an olive-green sweater; Light pink fuzzy socks were of coarse added, they're my favorite and if I have to be here, I might as well be comfortable.

I wish I had some books or something in here. I'm not much of a reader so all the books I have, I've already read and don't want to read again. Where's my phone when I need it? Even if it is a piece of crap.

I have my hands on my stomach and I'm taping my fingers along to a made-up beat, when the door suddenly flies open. I quickly sit up on my elbows and watch as a small girl with light strawberry blonde hair bursts into the room. She doesn't look any older than eight years old. She's wearing a long royal blue dress that drags along the floor, it has gold design across the top of it which travels into two strings which hang from the top of the neckline. The sleeves reach past her hands and seem to hang low enough to touch the ground, they are very wide. The dress is very much mid evil, and very much too big for this petite little girl. She walks to the side of the bed and stops right where my feet are. I sit up completely now and scoot to the end of the bed, letting my legs hang off the edge.

"Hello." She says sweetly, fixing her extended sleeves so they sit on her elbows.

"Um hi...?" I say back, trying to figure out what on earth an eight-year-old girl is doing in a place like this.

"It's not very polite to greet someone with a question." She says pointedly. "Atlas said that you ask lots of questions."

I'm taken aback by her words, so I guess her being his daughter is off the list since she called him by his name. It also doesn't seem like she's against him.

I try to think of an answer without it being a question. "Sorry." Is all that comes out of my mouth.

"You're perfectly fine, I believe it to be understandable given the circumstances." She says with a light air to herself. How old is this girl exactly? She looks seven or eight but she's acting and talking like she's in her 50's.

"My name is Gilah." She continues, sticking her tiny hand out in front of her.

I timidly take her hand into mine, giving it a small shake. "Avianna." I say, then retract my hand.

She gives me a toothy a smile, one so adorable that I feel my heart squeeze inside my chest. She has one of those faces that when you look at it you just want to pinch her cheeks.

I don't think she'll answer any of my questions so maybe I'll try a different tactic. Figuring out her age is a good start.

"You seem really young... how old are you?" I ask.

She giggles a little, then looks down at her body. She study's herself like it's the first time ever, taking every inch into consideration. "I've been eight for the past little while." She says, confirming my suspicions only to confuse me the next sentence she gives. "I think I need a change though; I've been this age for far too long. How old are you?"

"I'm 18, and what do you mean a change? Is your birthday coming up?"

She doesn't respond but instead just closes her eye. Her body begins to grow before my eyes, she becomes taller and her face lengthens. Her chest grows into breasts and her arms stretch to fit the long-ness of the sleeves so it ends at her wrists. The dress moves to fit her body perfectly and I realize that the gold design on top was in fact gold laces that tied up like a corset. Her strawberry blonde hair grows from the length of her shoulders to the middle of her back. It lays in loose curls with some pieces being pulled back out of her face. Her eyelashes elongate and finally open, telling me that whatever she's just done is over.

Now instead of an eight-year-old in front of me, there stands an 18-year-old girl. What the hell?

My mouth hangs agape as I stare wide-eyed at the girl who I now know as Gilah. She flattens her hands on the skirt of her dress. "Well," she breaths out. "We better not keep him waiting, come on." And with that she exits the room, leaving me with my mouth wide open and shock ripping through my body.  

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Well now you've met Gilah, she's one of my favorite characters and I think that in later chapters she'll become yours too.

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