I squeezed myself close to him until it stppped.
That's when I slowly opened my eyes, it was dark with faint lights. Luckily, nothing fell on us. Nor did the ground have away.
I looked at a smirking Jason and frowned.
"What?"
"On a normal situation, I would have enjoyed you holding me like this. Regardless though, I am glad."
"You are sick."
I quickly removed my hand from him and he chuckled getting up, though still kneeling down,and dusting the white dust from his suit. I sat up looking around.
Cracked ground. A big gaping hole, a ceiling almost touching Jason head.
It's a surprise he isn't freaking out that moments from now that ceiling could fall on both of us and crush us to death.
The exit was blocked now, completely choked by twisted metal and broken beams.
Water flooding area.
"Well," he muttered, glancing at the blocked path, "so much for getting out that way."
We crouched together in the shadow of a toppled shelf, breaths shallow as dust and smoke filled the air.
My ankle was a lost cause, it throbbed viciously, a relentless, white-hot pain that made my vision blur.
Jason noticed. "Hold on," he said, shrugging off his suit jacket. He knelt down, sliding his arms beneath my injured leg with surprising gentleness. "This is going to hurt like hell," he warned, "but it'll keep you from, you know, bleeding out and dying from lack of blood."
I just nodded, biting down hard as he wrapped the jacket tightly around my ankle. I winced, gripping his shoulder to steady myself.
When he finished, he glanced up at me. Our eyes met, and for a second, all the noise around us faded into a strange, pressing silence. I managed a soft, almost breathless, "Thank you."
He nodded, his face shadowed with worry. He glanced around, his jaw clenched, but then his gaze returned to me, and it softened just a little.
Followed by a frown.
He must have noticed the redness of my eyes in this dim lighting.
I could feel the tears welling up, unbidden, blurring my vision.
I tried to blink them back, but one slipped down my cheek.
Jason caught it before it reached my chin, his fingers brushing my skin lightly. "Hey, hey," he said, voice steady but low. "None of that. We're getting out of here. No crying on my watch, alright?"
"I am trying."
"I know Kiara, I know. But you have to be strong. Okay?"
I managed a weak, tear-streaked smile. "For you."
"Yeah, that's better," he murmured, the smallest smile tugging at his lips.
I took a breath, the words slipping out before I could stop myself. "I'm glad I'm not here alone. Really."
His gaze softened even more, and he didn't answer right away, just held my gaze. Finally, he nodded, his voice rougher than usual. "Yeah… same here."
I bit my lip, the flood of questions burning in the back of my mind. Jason had been here before, in a past life—or, at least, that's what I remember.
We were all tensed. Worried he would be dead even from the lower subsidiary. The stocks was going down.
But he hadn't wanted to talk about it after the accident.
He never did.
I wonder, does he know a way out?
"How… how did you even deal with this before?"
He didn't respond.
As if he didn't hear me.
Instead, his eyes flicked around us, like he was scanning for any escape, any crack of light that would let us through.
I swallowed, frustrated. "Seriously? So you come back to this place? Knowing what happened? You almost died in your past life. I know I sound crazy but it's true."
Jason's face froze, making me frown.
He isn't going to believe me is he?
"At least say–"
I noticed something, an odd flicker above us.
A chunk of concrete, larger than a car tire, was tumbling down from the ceiling, spinning toward us like it was aimed. There was no time to think, no time to yell or scream—I just shoved him as hard as I could, the weight shifting off me as he stumbled to the ground.
The stone hit the floor with a deafening crash, and dust billowed up around us. Jason lay beside me, wide-eyed, staring at the piece of rock that had narrowly missed us.
"What… the hell just happened?" he asked, his face caught somewhere between astonishment and disbelief.
I didn't know what to say. I replayed it all in my mind—the way I'd seen the stone coming down, my hand shooting out to push him, and the way it all felt as if time had paused, just for that one crucial second.
"Jason…" I started, swallowing hard, "did you see that?"
He stared at me, unblinking, like he wasn't even sure I was real.
"Jason, I think—I don't know how, but I think I… I can control time."
Jason sat up slowly, looking around us, his face still blank with shock. "You're… saying what now?"
"I—I don't know. But it's like, I mean, it felt like everything just… stopped. The stone, you, everything. For just a second. And I pushed you. And then it kept falling."
Jason took a deep breath, his gaze sharpening as he looked back at me. "So… you're saying that somehow, you held that thing mid-air. Long enough to—"
"Yeah," I interrupted, barely able to believe it myself. "Yeah, I think so."
Jason's expression shifted, from confusion to something darker, something closer to awe… and maybe, a little fear. He ran a hand through his hair, then took another steadying breath. "Well… alright then. Guess we can add 'time-control powers' to your list of… skills."
I let out a shaky laugh, still reeling, still unsure if what I'd just done was real or a desperate hallucination. "Yeah, if only it came with an instruction manual."
He smirked, just the faintest bit. "Wouldn't be nearly as much fun that way, would it?"
"You don't believe me, do you?"
He chuckled. "Yeah…I don't. It's probably the situation. I am sure."
"Song Joong ki and Song hye Kyo got married and then they got divorced…"
He stopped blinking.
He stopped breathing.
Indeed. Saying things that happens in the future does stop time.
Another rumble vibrated through the walls, and his face sobered, the lightness draining as he looked around the ruined store. His voice dropped. "You know, in case we needed another problem… every single exit's blocked."
I swallowed, nodding, still the thought of my rime stopping powers in the back of my head.