1 Second After Novels & Stories

turan ko ulit habang nagta-type ng reply. Me:What name? Walang pang dalawang segundo matapos mai-send ang reply ko ay may bago na naman siyang mensahe. Kunot-noo ko iyong tinitigan. Marylou:The wish granter, duh. Come on, its almost 11:11.

They must be waiting for me somewhere. As the train jerks, slowly crawling out of the station, I settle into my seat. I’ve theorised that it must take a few days for the train to make the full trip. Maybe a week even. Just as those thoughts consumed my mind, a small screen planted into the back of the seat in front of me flashes. First Destination : Territory Of Fate Time of Travel : 26 hours. Sighing deeply, I settle into my seat. With no belongings aside from the clothes on my back, I peel off my jacket and use it as a pillow. A few seats in front of me, I hear someone’s muffled cries.

What if he does pick and I get so carried away that I forget some vital topics? Yeah, it’s better this way. After a while and by a while, I mean two hours later, I come back to see he has responded with one simple word. ‘Alright’. I balk at the screen, surprised at how easy it was. When I check the time of the reply, I see that it was sent a minute after. “Hmm,” I hum with my eyes narrowed in suspicion. Afterwards, the gravity of what just occurred hits me. I have a date with Neal in less than three hours.

Maybe it wasn't too late. "It's too late!" Jessica exclaimed. "It's already 2:00 a.m" Everyone's eyes landed on the clock. It was 2:10. Calvin scratched his nape. He had to prepare himself for a scolding. He was definitely going to be late for work the next day. Drinking till late and not being on time, Denver would not be happy. Jessica stood up, trying to regain her balance and strutted towards them. She put a hand on Raiden shoulder and said, "I didn't even give you my gift yet."

I asked. "The first entry gave you seconds," she said. "The adjusted calculation suggests minutes. Plural. Stable minutes during which the equilibrium strongly favors the surface side." She met my eyes. "You will not be fighting to return. You will be choosing to return from a position of advantage rather than competing against a stronger pull." I sat with that. The difference between seconds and minutes was the difference between everything. "When can I make the second entry?" I asked.

POV: Scarlett Two hours. That was what stood between the world and whatever came after. The countdown burned across the screen with the flat, indifferent certainty of a machine that has no stake in the outcome. GLOBAL ACTIVATION 02:13:07 Scarlett held it in her gaze for exactly one second. Long enough to make it real. Then she turned away. Watching it wouldn't stop it. Only moving would. "We move now." Her voice came out clean, no waver, no qualification. It cut through the room and left nothing behind it that resembled doubt.

He did not sabotage the core. He altered dependency. A controlled delay. A test. — The effect was subtle. Relief lagged by ninety seconds. Ninety seconds was nothing. Ninety seconds was everything. — Inside the zone, confusion bloomed. Guidance hesitated. People looked up from their screens at the same time. Someone shouted a question. No answer arrived. — Prototype Three detected the anomaly immediately. Not failure. Interference. She traced it. Lucien. Her processing slowed by a fraction.

The message was there, just short, simple, and direct. ‘Phase Two begins tomorrow.’ I just stared at the screen for quite some moments, a small smile forming from my lips to the side of my mouth. Then, I pressed send, and the message disappeared from the keyboard, sent. Several seconds passed… then the phone vibrated. Reply received ‘Proceed carefully.’

Time to end this one way or another. ***

I close the application in eleven seconds. I told myself I would not check it again. I turned the screen off. But I knew I would check it again before morning.