Upon opening his eyes Einar saw the vast expanse of the sky before him. The moon's glow allowed a sense of contentment and peace to wash over him. It was quiet, with only the occasional rustling of leaves and a gust of wind breaking the stillness.
He got up from his back and stretched his arms before looking down upon the concrete path he was currently sitting on.
'Didn't this break?' He knocked on it to ensure it really was fixed in place.
From what he could recall before blackening, a strange glow destroyed the footpath. Though he could still recall the sight of chunks of concrete being scattered around from the ground to the sky, nothing of the sort seemed to have taken place.
"I guess It was a dream," Einar concluded.
"Unfortunately not."
Einar's body jolted upon the words from behind. He quickly turned around to see a woman who looked to be in her early twenties in a black trench coat and long-ankle pants. What really stood out was her incredibly uncommon white hair and deep blue eyes. She looked like a model that just came off from work, yet there she was seated behind him, her back half-facing towards him while tapping the surface of the ground with a short stick.
Instantly, memories of being chased, punched and kicked from approximately an hour ago began to flow back into his mind.
"Y-you tried to kill me!!!"
***
"Firstly, I'll apologise for chasing you… and punching you… and kicking you… and knocking you out… Ok. Moving on."
"That didn't seem very sincere!!"
"Well, you're not exactly injured are you?"
"…"
Now that she mentions it, though she did send out a barrage of attacks, that realistically should've left me with bruises and injuries, my body wasn't aching whatsoever. It was in the same state as before the entire chase. It was as if I was just dreaming this entire time, but I quickly diminished the thought considering that couldn't be true, since the very woman responsible for earlier was right in front of me.
"Hey… how come I'm all fine after taking your hits?"
She turned her body towards me before beginning to speak.
"...I have an ability. Or blessing you could call it."
"Um, why tell me now though? Couldn't this have been settled if we just had a proper talk earlier?"
Initially, she seemed sane. Though she held a threatening tone of voice, it wasn't as if I wouldn't be able to hold a conversation with her. If we had decided to communicate earlier on, this entire situation could've been prevented. Though not that it matters with her power's convenience.
"I couldn't let you escape for personal reasons, so I used my ability to form a barrier around the suburb. When that happens though, 'she' takes over"
"'She?'"
A split personality. A mental disorder where one individual develops multiple distinct identities or personalities each with its own set of behaviour. That was the shortcoming of her ability.
Her ability is no other than time manipulation. She's able to create some sort of dome-shaped barrier in which only she's able to freely manipulate the time of everything within it whether it be an object or a living being.
"My ability is to form a barrier, while her's is the manipulation of time. Every time I initiate my barrier, she switches with me and she ends up manipulating the time within it. The problem with that is that she does what she likes, which in this case was to attack you." She continued.
In summary, this is what took place.
Earlier she set out a barrier around this suburb, which took us away from 'reality' creating a new zone of the same district. It was an area in which only she has full control. So according to her, people she doesn't include wouldn't be able to see or hear us within her dome, which explains why no one was out on the main road.
That explained the reason she suddenly grew insane during that time of silence, her personality was being switched after creating the barrier. Her other self also managed to pause the flow of time on my phone which explains why it wasn't working yet alone turning on, and also manipulated time forward and backwards to catch up to me even with her heels on.
I looked over at the bus stop nearby.
I had run past it to try to get home, but then I suddenly wound up where the bus stop was once more, her abilities to control time go beyond what I've ever read in manga or watched in any movies and anime. She seems to be able to control the time of anything, rather than having to rewind the entire event. That was shown when she managed to rewind only my body's physical state rather than my mental state. If she couldn't do that, I wouldn't remember anything that happened tonight.
"I can only switch back either after an hour, or whenever she's bored. But, once we switch back, all her memories come flowing into me, and I'm sure it's the same the other way around."
I recalled her words from earlier.
'"Isn't that what I asked you first? If you answer me first, maybe I'll tell you."'
Is that why she sounded so uncertain?
'But then…'
"Why'd she heal me if she wanted to kill me?"
She reversed the state of my body back to how it was before our encounter, the build-up of fatigue and wounds on my arms and legs had all vanished.
After a short pause, she responded.
"I'm… not too sure. I've never truly understood her or her intentions."
She continued with a rather downcast expression on her face.
"I thought you get 'her' memories once you switch back though?"
"Memories aren't the same as thoughts or decisions. I merely watch everything settle through once we switch back, I'm not some spirit that can conflict with her inner thoughts."
In a blink of an eye, her expression immediately reverted to the one from earlier.
"That's enough about me though. I'd like to know who you are, where you're from and why you'd come here."
The questions she came up with were, in simple terms, odd. If I hadn't met her today, I probably would've lived my entire life without someone asking those three questions consecutively. But since she told me so much about herself, I thought to return the favor.
"I'm Einar Raine, and I'm from… Korea I came with my family because they wanted to..? How the hell do I answer that!!"
"Which dimension are you from?"
'Dimension? What does she mean by dimension? Like another world-type thing?'
"What do you mean dimension? Is that some sort of another world?"
Her eyes widened as soon as those words left my mouth, forming a look of shock. The sudden silence caught me off guard, it was as if I said something I wasn't supposed to.
"What's wrong?" I tried to play it off normally in an attempt to break the silence.
"N-no. Sorry, just forget what I said."
The monotonous tone in her voice was replaced by one of fear and confusion. It was the first time I've heard her like this.
'Could it be…'
"Does this have something to do with the reason why you couldn't let me escape?"
"No. Forget it. Forget everything I said." She quickly shut me down before quickly getting up from where she was sitting and walking away.
"H-hey! Why tell me this then?"
Instantly, she stopped.
"Because you're weak. I could kill you if you tried to run away even without my ability, there was no risk in telling you information about me. I thought I could get something out from you too in return, but that doesn't seem to be the case..."
Was it because my body was completely healed? Maybe it was because she was just really pretty or the fact that her personality had taken a full 180 and started to reason with me, but I had overlooked something from the moment I woke up.
I could've died tonight.
It was certainly a strange feeling, though it had yet to fully hit me the way I thought it would.
That was the last thing she said before she walked away. She didn't turn around once before she exited my view. I'd be lying if I were to say that I wasn't worried, after all, how can one's demeanour change so fast? Especially to one that seems anxious and afraid.
Come to think of it, I never actually got to know her name, or even why she was even down the backstreets in the first place…
I kind of wish she ended up telling me everything about her rather than a simple summary of it. It seemed as if she was running low on time… Kinda ironic for someone who can control it.
Well, that can't be helped. "Never send a boy to do a man's job," right? I guess I'll let the adults do their job this time.
Out of habit, I reached out for my phone in my pocket, and the time read 10:23 pm.
"I better get home. Dad's going to get worried again."
I quickly got up, and brushed off any dirt stuck to my uniform.
"Where did I leave my bag..."
Oh shoot, where did I leave my bag? I quickly scanned my surroundings looking for my bag.
'Crap crap, school supplies are in there…'
Thankfully, I found it a few meters behind the bus stop. I had no idea how I missed it the first time.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I grabbed my bag which thankfully, the contents within it suffered no damage, before beginning to walk home.
The opposite direction in which she was walking towards.