Time-shifted Novels & Stories

I feel as though I have already failed this surreal destiny being laid out in front of me. Desperate for a change of topic, I jumped at the chance to continue our conversation about the night of my 18th Birthday. "Would you mind telling me about this event that happened on my birthday five years ago? I know we didn't get to finish our conversation about it at the restaurant before I lost my cool." "Ah, yes. The Great Shift is what we refer to it as. Did anything strange happen during your first shift that hasn't happened since?" asked Marcus.

“Hmm.” My fingers slowed. Now I was interested. I watched the timer. Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty. Still there. “No bounce.” Forty-five. Still nothing. “No relay.” A full minute. The signal held. Every other connection they ever used had shifted within seconds. This one… Didn’t.

To whisper something worse is coming. It was the preamble. Not the story. The story — the rest — was still on a timer. He pulled up the source log and scanned it again, this time reading it like a puzzle. The phrase ShieldZero used: “Story goes live on delay.” Not drop. Not upload. Live. That meant interactivity. That meant it wasn’t just a file. It was a feed. Which meant it was either real-time data… or a falsified stream meant to mimic one. He launched the investor portal.

I wasn't as surprised as Steph when she broke the news of her engagement with Daniel to us a few weeks ago, I'm just concerned about his safety because Lisa is quite the impatient one and no guy I know of has been able to withstand her craziness. "He said 9pm but he is currently ten minutes late" she replied checking her phone again. "He is just ten minutes late not an hour, calm your tits ma'am" I chided her playfully and that earned me a vicious glare. My phone vibrated softly and I peered at it to see a message from Mr Hyde. Mr Hyde: where are you? Me: with friends. Mr Hyde: who? Me: my friends Our banter went on for about a minute and I was smiling widely oblivious of the glare Lisa was

Zia Stephanie's POV I felt like time begun to lose its meaning. The passage of time felt like it was heavenly distorted where space time worked into different scale on the other dimension. What should only be a few minutes seemed like I had endured dew hours and what might feel like small width of time could be extensive.

Anna continued. “And when I look at my surgery date…” She hesitated. “…it changes how the earlier entries feel.” Silence. Adrian’s expression changed slightly. “…perceptual retro-correction.” Anna looked at him. “So you see it too.” Adrian nodded once. “Yes.” Silence. Anna gave a faint, uneasy breath. “That means the system is not just recording time.” Adrian replied quietly, “It is reinterpreting it.” Silence. Anna looked back at the screen.

In the end of her blabbering she didn't get any response. "Are you done?" Came the deep husky voice with Italian accent and heart skipped a beat.

She took a peek at the wall clock above her and realized that she had actually lost count of the time. It was already past dinner, and according to her assumption, desert should be served at that particular time. She wondered why her grandmother is yet to send for her when on a normal, she would have blast Alice’s head with reasons why she should never miss any of the food gathering, even if she is alone. Alice made her way to the adjoined bathroom in her room and cleaned her face. She then used a clean white towel to dab on the face before she changed into a pair of t-shirt and a mummy jeans before she headed for the dining area.

Then, my phone suddenly blared to life. "Alright, everyone, you heard that, right? This is actually happening," came the voice of Mr. Hero from the livestream. "If anyone in the city sees Doctor Dover, please let him know." That's when it hit me—the livestream was still running. Everything. Ben's dismissive rant, Doctor Lowe's fiery reaction—every word had been broadcast live. I glanced at my phone. The viewer count had exploded to 30,000, and the comments were flying faster than I could read:

he said. She looked at him more carefully. "You know the routine?" "I watched the showcase on Friday. The transition between the first and second sections has a half-beat delay. You're trying to close it." She was quiet for a moment. "You watched the showcase." "I was there. You were good." He said it without decoration, the way someone stated a fact they had no particular investment in, and then he shifted his folder under his arm. "I'll find somewhere else." "The transition is in the left formation," she said, before she had decided to say it. "The timing is right but the angle of the entry is creating a visual lag. It reads as a delay but it's actually a positioning problem."