It was me.

I could stop time.

Those were the words that echoed through my mind as I reached for what I thought was the light switch.

Click. On.

Click. Off.

Click. Dance.

Click. Pause.

At the school disco, my classmates moved in rhythm—until they didn’t. The music surged through the air—until it vanished, as if it had never been.

I flicked the switch twice more.

On. They danced.

Off. They froze.

On—

Nothing.

Off?

Still nothing.

Then, without warning, life resumed. Movement flooded back into the room like a wave breaking on the shore. Laughter, music, feet on sticky floors—all of it rushed in as if time had never faltered.

I blinked, dazed, and that’s when I saw him.

Jace.

Across the room, he stood like a fixed point in a storm. Unchanged. Watching.

His eyes met mine, and for a moment, the air between us thickened—dense with the weight of everything we’d never said.

Without breaking our gaze, Jace extended his hand and snapped his fingers.

On cue, the world fell still.

Again.

Except him.

Except me.

We said nothing.

But in that silence, so much was spoken. Questions tangled in the air between us—some old, some suddenly new.

And just like that, he was gone.