You thought everything was normal (well, as normal as things can be right now), but now you don’t know what to do. What is one supposed to do in a situation like this? Do you talk to her? Do you run? You mutter a quick curse and decide to be brave, it’s not something you’re very good at but the voice in your head is telling you to suck it up and just do it. You push your glasses up before taking a step, careful to avoid the statue of a man in front of you. Nothing like this has ever happened before, you’ve been able to freeze the world for almost your entire life, it was something you did when you were bored or wanted to cheat your way through the day to make your life easier, but this? This is completely new.
She’s moving now, away from you, you doubt she’s seen you though, she looks like she’s inspecting the world around her, unaware of your presence. Taking another step you agree it’s best to move faster, you can’t risk losing sight of her. Picking up the pace, you finally manage to reach her, your light frame prevents much noise and she seems to be in such a trance that it’s unlikely she would have heard you even if you ran. Your hand reaches towards her bare shoulder and you notice how much her tan skin contrasts with your pale hand. As contact is made you also notice how hot her skin is, you can’t help but wonder why she seems to be radiating so much heat but your thoughts are interrupted by a sharp pain across your cheek.
She pulls her fist back, clutching it close to her chest. Her brown eyes are boring into you; she seems to be deciding whether you’re a friend or a foe. Despite the pain you’re in, you give her a shy smile and hope she keeps her hands to herself. “Who-who are you?” she seems scared, “Who are you?” her voice is steading as she straightens up. You notice her hands ball up and think that it’s best not to get hit again.
You stretch your hand out to her and state as clearly as you can, “My name’s Johnathon.”
She doesn’t take your hand and scoffs, “Well, Johnathon,” eyeing you up and down as she says your name, “Mind telling me what the fuck is going on? Why are you still moving?”
You almost want to lie and claim you don’t know, “It’s, uh, something I can do. Like, like a superpower or s-some-something,” Your stuttering makes it hard to sound convincing.
“So you did this? Why ain’t I frozen then, do you want something from me?” She hisses the last question at you, it’s obvious she doesn’t trust you.
“I’m, well, I d-d-don’t know, This has never happened before.” You really don’t know and hope that she believes you
“Huh.. thanks for your help I guess,” she says painfully sarcastic, “Since you seem like such a baby I doubt you could hurt me, my name’s Lucien.” You hardly pay attention to what she's saying, not because you don’t care but because you’re still trying not to panic at the fact that somehow she’s still walking around and not frozen like everybody else.
“...fix this?” Lucien turns her head to look.
You missed anything and everything she said, “Umm.. what?”
“Seriously? What are you going to do to fix all this? We can’t just stay frozen in time forever, I have family waiting, is waiting the right word? for me back home.”
You stare down at her, “I really have no idea, plus nobody has ever been able to move around before, you were the first person th-that wasn't frozen, maybe that means so-something”
She stares blankly at you for a second before replying, “What the fuck does that mean?! What, do you think this is some kind of prophecy and I'm here to help you fulfill it? This is bullshit! Unfreeze the world now!” she’s waving her hands in the air and pacing back and forth in front of you stomping her boots into the ground with each step.
“I d-don't, uh, I don't know w-w-what happened.” Something's wrong, you know that, but no matter what you do nothing changes. You’ve tried almost everything you could possibly think of.
“Ugh,” she groans, “this is so stupid! Why am I even here, what do you want from me?!”
She storms off and you don't know whether to walk after her or leave her be, you're kinda unsure when it comes to girls. It’s probably not a good idea for her to wander around on her own, neither of you has any idea who(what)else could be “unfrozen” around here. She stormed off in a hurry so she is kind of far ahead. “Wait!” You yell as you start to run after her, “I don't th-think it's a good idea to split up, what if something happens?”
She stops abruptly and you almost run into her, “what could possibly happen?! The world is frozen, remember?!”
She's practically screaming at you and you don't know what to do, you've never been in this kind of situation. You feel anger bubbling up inside of you, why is she mad at you? You didn't do anything, you're just as confused as she is. “Look, I know just about as much as you do,” you can feel the anger showing on your face but honestly, she's been kind of rude too, “we better stick together, it'll only make things worse if we split up”
You think you might have hurt her feelings, she seemed to have flinched when you said that to her. Now you feel a bit bad. She gives a small sigh and sits down on an empty chair outside of the coffee shop that you always go to do your homework. There’s another empty chair a table down so you drag it over and sit a couple of feet away from her. “This really can’t be happening, can it? This is insane! What if things never go back to normal? What if you never see Jumbo again? What about Mom? What about...” Your head’s spinning. You try to stop the flow of thoughts so you close your eyes and count your breaths, Lucien seemed to notice and asks if you're ok, “yea, I'm, uh, I'm f-fine,” You stutter and silently pray to nothing in particular. She gives you a suspicious look but doesn't press forward,
“ok,” she drags the k out and squints in your direction, “but how do you suppose we fix this?”
You sit with your eyes still shut, “maybe, um, we could maybe go back to the place w-w-where I first used my powers?”
She snickered quietly and rolled her chocolate eyes, “what is this? A horribly written script for some sappy romantic movie?”
Your eyes widened at the word romantic.
“Hey!” She immediately realized what she said and her cheeks turn a soft rose color, “I didn't mean it like that!”
You chuckle nervously and lean back in your chair. “I do-do-don’t really know what else we could do. I’ve been trying all sorts of things and nothing’s worked. Also, I’ve been thinking about going back to that spot to see if it’ll work for the past few days, it’s just a really long w-w-w-ways away so I haven’t done it yet.”
she frowns at the word long, “long? How long? Where is this place?”
“it's in Portland, Oregon.”
Her jaw drops, “Portland?! Oregon?! What the fuck?! That's practically across the country!” She's screaming as she jumps onto her feet.
You figured you'd get this kind of reaction, “yea, um, that’s why I haven’t done it yet and it d-d-doesn’t help that, uh, cars won't be, be any help. The roads are blocked by the other cars. Bikes, might, uh, work though.”
She scoffs in frustration, “Bikes. Goddamn bikes.” She's pacing back and forth and stops short, “Bikes huh? What about Motorcycles?”
Motorcycles? You've never driven a motorcycle, you've hardly ever driven a car before; you just recently got your permit at the age of 17, a little late but at least you had it,
“I can drive,” she can obviously see your uncertainty, “I used to ride dirt bikes with my-” she stops abruptly, “Anyways, I can drive.”
“Wait, are you going to come with me?” you ask
“Well, what else am I going to do? Plus what if there are other people or wild animals that are unfrozen too? You obviously can’t defend yourself.”
Ouch. “I gotta go back to my house to grab some things before we leave then. My house is just a couple blocks from here.”
“Yea, me too. How about we meet back here in 3 hours?” She takes out her phone and sets a timer.
She still has her phone! You remember how yours finally died last week, “How does your phone still work?”
“Oh, I snagged a solar charger from the store like the second day after everything froze”
“Isn’t that still technically stealing?”
“Yea, but who’s gonna know?” she giggles to herself.
“I'm definitely gonna borrow that later. Well, I’m gonna head to my house now, I guess I’ll s-s-see you in 3 hours.”
“Yea, see ya.”
As you walk away you set the timer on your watch, “I can’t believe somebody else is still here! This is so crazy!” You can’t help but get excited. You haven't seen anybody else still “alive” in 3 weeks so this is a groundbreaking discovery, though, it is weird. There are so many unanswered questions.
You walk up the steps of your front porch and make your way inside. Your mother is standing over the stove, still in her pajamas, and in the process of cooking oatmeal. Your little sister Gracie stands at the top of the stairs rubbing her eye mid-yawn, her pink shirt sleeve covers her other hand as it reaches for the railing. You squeeze past her and head into your room. Jumbo is sleeping on your bed, laying in the sunbeam coming through the window. It’s her favorite spot during the early mornings. You grab your backpack and begin packing some clothes and other small personal items that you might need: a few books, your journal and some pencils, and your phone. Before you leave your room you sit with Jumbo giving her pets and hope she knows how much you love her, you can hope she was dreaming of something nice. You pack up some hygiene things and give your sister and mom a hug. As you walk out the front door you yell goodbye to the three of them.
You make it back to the coffee shop 15 minutes before your timer goes off so you head inside and begin making a couple sandwiches. Food doesn’t go bad when the world is frozen. You’re not really sure why but then again, you’re not sure how any of this works. You take the food outside and sit at the same table you were at before and wait. Half a sandwich later you see her a couple stores down. You stand up and walk towards her, “Here,” you extend the sandwich out towards her, “it’s just a plain veggie sandwich. I wasn’t really sure if you had any allergies but figured it’d be rude of me not to make you one.”
“Oh. Uh, thanks.” She says softly as she takes it from you. “Um, well uh I saw a motorcycle on my way over here, there was some dude on it but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
You nod and gesture for her to lead the way.
“There it is! See it?” Lucien points down the road. As you get closer to it you can see that there is in fact a man on it. He’s wearing a plain black helmet and the classic leather jacket that you see in all the movies.
“So um, how do you s-s-suppose we get him off?”
“Easy. You grab under that arm, I’ll grab under this one, and we’ll drag him off backward,” she says that like she’s done this a million times.
You follow Lucien’s lead and carefully drag the man off his bike and onto the lawn of the nearest house. You feel really bad for moving him while he’s frozen like this, like what if things are unfrozen before you can return the bike and he wakes up on some random yard with his bike nowhere in sight? How traumatizing.
You walk back to the bike and you feel your palms start to sweat. You’re about to get on a motorcycle with a girl you just met, having never ridden one before, across the country, to find out why you can’t unfreeze the world. This sounds like it’s straight out of a movie!
“Here”
You turn around and see her holding the helmet, “I can tell you’ve never been on a motorcycle before, maybe wearing this will help you feel better.”
That’s actually really thoughtful of her. You see she also took the liberty of taking the poor man’s jacket as well, things are definitely gonna suck for that dude when he wakes up.
She takes a minute after sitting to familiarize herself with the bike and starts it up with ease. The motor is loud and you’re hands are only getting sweatier. She gestures with her head for you to get on.
“I don’t know about this,” you say
“What? I can’t hear you,”
You raise your voice a bit, “I d-don’t know if I can d-d-do this,”
Lucien’s eyes meet yours, “It’s ok, I promise.”
A wave of relief washes over you. Your hands aren’t so sweaty anymore and your breath begins to slow. Suddenly the idea of getting on the back of a motorcycle with this strange girl you just met doesn’t sound so bad. You climb onto the back of the bike and wrap your arms around Lucien’s waist. She says something before you move forward, though you don’t quite catch what it was. Probably not important. As the bike slowly starts to pick up speed, you look around and notice how peaceful the town seems to be. It’s been 7 am for 3 weeks now but you never really took the time to appreciate how nice of a morning it was. The spring flowers are mid-bloom, the pink cherry blossom trees shine beautifully against the blue backdrop of the sky, and the morning breeze feels amazing as it blows across your face.
“Wow! We’re really doing this aren’t we?” Lucien shouts over her shoulder
“Haha, yeah. I guess so.” You chuckle nervously at her comment. It is a little crazy that you are in fact “doing this” but you have to be honest with yourself, there isn’t anything else you can do to make things go back to normal. You’ve tried everything you could think of. Come to think of it, this was all very sudden, the whole ‘meeting Lucien and then spontaneously deciding to go across the country on the back of a motorcycle’ thing. Who is she? And why did she agree to come with you?
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