Sam felt a rush of excitement for a moment, but it quickly subsided. He could move all his limbs and feel them. He even pinched his left thigh with his hand to make sure he wasn't dreaming or he is a walking corpse.
Then he felt heat increasing on his right temple. Yes, there was a gun against Sam's temple, and there was a bullet supposed to penetrate his skull.
Sam held his left hand to his left temple. No hole existed; his temple was as it had always been – alive!
With caution, Sam moved the gun away from his temple, noticing that the bullet seemed to be emerging very slowly from the gun. He placed the gun carefully on his desk, making sure that if it fired, the bullet would hit the wall.
Returning to his chair, Sam noticed that the chair resisted his weight. Everything was indeed strange.
Did time stop? Did time stop for everyone or just him? Questions flooded Sam's mind incessantly. The more he thought about it, the more he frowned.
How does time stop anyway? And does it stop completely? It didn't seem so; the bullet was still trying to exit and fire.
Before more questions rained upon him, Sam headed to the gun and tried to fire it towards the crumbling wall.
Nothing happened, absolutely nothing. He could barely pull the trigger; it felt like he needed all his strength just to do that.
Suddenly, the sound of the gunshot rang loudly in Sam's ears. He recoiled onto the slippery floor due to the force, crashing into the chair.
"Damn it," Sam exclaimed, his head throbbing from the impact with the chair. Wait, time. Time returned ... He realized this as a lightning strike hit so hard that his ears rang.
Looking at the floor, he found a hole. Damn it, the bullet went through the floor!
Sam, feeling frustrated, searched but hadn't held the gun properly, causing it to be tilted slightly downward, directing the shot towards the floor instead of the wall.
Sam cursed vehemently before heading to the door, descending the stairs, and knocking on his neighbors' doors, whom he didn't even know, to make sure they were safe.
No one answered, only the sound of lightning and raindrops. Damn it, damn everything!
Sam knocked forcefully on the door again, but there was never an answer. He felt dizzy, and trembling consumed his body. He started to imagine there might be a dead body lying in that room.
Then he heard someone on the stairs. Sam turned to find a tall woman, almost his height, with charming brown hair and green eyes. She wore somewhat revealing clothes on the chest side, her large breasts seemingly unbothered by concealment.
Their eyes met briefly before the woman said, "What are you doing outside my apartment?" Sam stumbled for a moment but quickly found an answer, "I was looking for batteries to light the heater."
The woman pondered for a moment and said, "Of course, come with me to the room." She took out her keys, selected one, and opened the door. Sam caught a whiff of alcohol from her body but didn't say anything. He found her room somewhat tidy. Fortunately, there was no body present.
Sam asked, "Do you live here alone?" The woman turned to him nonchalantly and said, "I used to live with my husband before he went to God knows where."
Sam didn't want to bother the woman further and wasn't really interested in knowing more about her or asking more questions.
Sam noticed the bullet had lodged in a corner of the apartment; it wasn't clear as long as one didn't actively search for it. His mind relaxed a bit as he waited for the woman to give him the batteries.
"I hope these will do, even though I don't know what kind of heater needs batteries." the woman said with a mysterious smile, handing Sam three small batteries. Sam ignored her remark and said, "I'm grateful, these should be enough, thank you." He then headed towards the door.
Sam went up to his apartment and lay down on his bed. What the hell is happening? For a moment, Sam regretted not asking the woman if she felt anything strange before coming to his apartment. These questions were tormenting him.
'Calm down, Sam, calm down. Stress won't solve anything' he told himself, trying to analyze this unnatural situation as logically as possible.
First, time stopped for about a minute or two.
Second, time didn't stop completely; it moved in some way, albeit very slowly.
Third, time stopped when he pulled the trigger.
Fourth, things seemed to be less affected when time stopped; it was as if they resisted movement.
This was all Sam knew about this bizarre time phenomenon, and it frustrated him greatly. Sam was the kind of person who would accept his death in the most gruesome ways as long as he knew what it was, but he would reject the easiest if he didn't knew it.
'I need to test this nonsense' Sam thought, but the idea of putting a bullet in his temples again didn't sound very appealing. Humans are strange indeed; Sam had desperately wanted the bullet to pierce his head earlier, and now he was resisting its passage.
Sam shook his head to clear these thoughts and tried to think more about the reason this strange phenomenon began. Was it his thoughts? No, his thoughts were always pessimistic. Was it mental? Sam tried to mentally command time to stop. Time continued without paying any attention to the crazy man telling it to stop.
"Nonsense!" Sam cursed, rubbing his temples vigorously. Yes, the temples! When he fired, the gun was against his temple, that's when the phenomenon started! Sam took a calming breath.
'I need to try to see what happens' Sam thought with optimism. He placed his hand on his temple and rubbed it forcefully. Nothing happened. The raindrops kept falling, and the thunder kept striking.
'Damn all of this' Sam cursed in his heart, then began to pound the gun's handle forcefully against his temple.
A few inches from reaching his temple, time stopped.
He found it!