Ramses awoke to the same suffocating silence that had greeted him every morning since the world had frozen. His mind felt as heavy as the air in his apartment, thick with stillness and emptiness. There were no sounds of birds chirping outside, no cars rumbling down the street, no distant conversations or laughter drifting from nearby homes. The usual hum of the city had been replaced by a deafening void. Time had stopped.
He rolled over in bed, blinking at the ceiling as if expecting something to change. But nothing did. The clock on the wall was frozen at the same time it had been for days, maybe longer. He checked his phone—no messages, no missed calls. He felt disconnected from the world, as though he no longer belonged to it. In fact, it was as though the world no longer existed at all, and it was just him, alone with his thoughts, stuck in an endless loop.
For a moment, Ramses allowed himself to lie there, staring at the ceiling, his mind clouded with doubt and confusion. Is this a dream? Am I losing my mind? Am I dead?
But there was no answer. No sign. No clue. Just an unbroken stillness that gnawed at the edges of his sanity.
The loneliness was unbearable. He could almost hear his own heart beating in the silence, a constant reminder of how utterly alone he was. He stood up slowly, walking to the window. The familiar view of the city streets was no longer vibrant or full of life. It was frozen—empty. Not even the occasional passerby, the cars that usually crawled through traffic, or the gentle rustle of trees swaying in the breeze. The world outside was completely still. His world was still.
As the days passed, Ramses struggled to make sense of his situation. He wandered the apartment aimlessly, looking for something to anchor him, something to make the time pass more quickly. But there was nothing to distract him. No social media to scroll through, no television shows to binge-watch, no errands to run, no places to go. His apartment, which once felt like a sanctuary, now felt like a prison.
He tried to sleep more, hoping that when he woke up, things would be different. But every morning, the world was the same. Still. Frozen. Silent.
It was during these long, lonely days that Ramses began to reflect on his past. The feelings of isolation were nothing new. He had always felt disconnected from others, even when surrounded by people. In college, he was often lost in a sea of faces, never quite fitting in, never fully understanding how to connect. His anxiety and depression had always hovered just beneath the surface, keeping him at arm's length from the world. His self-doubt, his fear of rejection, had made him pull back from others, leaving him trapped in a cycle of loneliness and self-isolation.
He thought of his family, how they always tried to support him. His parents had loved him unconditionally, but Ramses never fully opened up to them. He had always kept his struggles to himself, never wanting to burden anyone with his darkness. And now, in this frozen world, there was no one left to talk to. No one left to share his thoughts or his feelings.
His mind was full of regrets. He thought about the opportunities he had let slip by, the relationships he had failed to nurture, the dreams he had abandoned. What was the point? Why bother trying anymore? The questions echoed in his mind like a broken record. He wanted to give up, to retreat even further into the shadows of his mind.
But then, in the midst of his despair, something shifted.
It was small at first, almost imperceptible—a fleeting thought that seemed to appear out of nowhere. What if this is an opportunity? The thought caught him off guard, but it lingered. For the first time since time had frozen, Ramses felt a flicker of something—hope, maybe.
He didn't understand it at first, didn't know what it meant. But as he sat in the silence, he realized something important: This is my chance. In a world where time had stopped, where everything else was frozen in place, Ramses had the rarest of gifts: time. The world had paused, but that didn't mean he had to. He could use this stillness to change, to rebuild himself from the ground up. He could finally become the person he had always wanted to be—if only he was brave enough to try.
His first instinct was to do something, anything. So, he stood up and walked to the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of water and chugged it down, then put on his sneakers and opened the door. He stepped outside onto the balcony and took a deep breath. The air was still, the world outside as silent as ever. But within him, something was shifting.
Ramses began with something simple. He started with exercise—something that, in his past life, he had always neglected. His body had become weak and lethargic, a reflection of how he had treated himself mentally and emotionally for so long. But in this frozen moment, he realized he had the time to change it.
At first, his attempts were slow and clumsy. His muscles ached, his body screamed in protest, but he kept going. Push-ups, sit-ups, squats—basic movements, but enough to get his blood pumping. Each day, he pushed himself a little harder, a little further. He set small goals for himself: a certain number of reps, a longer workout session. Slowly but surely, he began to see results. His body was becoming stronger, more capable. His energy levels rose, and the fatigue that had once consumed him began to ebb away.
But it wasn't just his body that needed work. His mind, too, needed to be reshaped. Ramses had spent so many years running from his thoughts, avoiding the things that made him anxious, hiding from his fears. But now, there was no escape. No distractions. No way to avoid himself. So, he began to confront his demons.
He started reading—books on psychology, philosophy, self-improvement. He devoured the words, seeking understanding, looking for ways to better himself. He read about mindfulness and meditation, about how to build emotional resilience, about how to cultivate self-compassion. For the first time in his life, he realized that he didn't have to be at war with himself. He could be kind to himself. He could forgive himself for his past mistakes.
Ramses began practicing meditation, learning to quiet his mind and focus on the present moment. It wasn't easy at first. His mind raced with thoughts of the past and the future, of what he had lost and what he still hoped for. But with time, he learned to let go of the anxiety that plagued him. He learned to sit with his emotions instead of running from them.
He also began journaling more deeply, using it as a tool for self-reflection. He wrote about his fears, his insecurities, his hopes for the future. He wrote about the loneliness that had haunted him for so long, and the ways he had pushed others away. But most of all, he wrote about the possibility of change. He wrote about the person he wanted to become, about the strength he was beginning to feel in himself.
There were moments when doubt crept in—when the weight of loneliness felt too much to bear, or when he questioned whether his efforts would even matter in the grand scheme of things. After all, the world was still frozen. No one else was out there. But even in those moments of doubt, Ramses knew one thing for sure: he was no longer standing still. He was moving forward.
He had made a choice—to take control of his life, to reclaim his future, to stop waiting for the world to change and start changing himself.
As the days stretched into weeks, Ramses began to see the fruits of his labor. He was stronger, both physically and mentally. He was more resilient. More confident. His body had transformed, but it was his mind that had undergone the most significant change. He had learned to face his fears, to accept his flaws, and to embrace the possibility of growth.
One evening, as he stood in front of the mirror, Ramses took a long look at his reflection. The man who stared back at him was different than the one he had seen just a few weeks ago. He looked stronger, not just in body, but in spirit. He no longer carried the weight of his past mistakes on his shoulders. He had learned to let go of the things that no longer served him.
The world might still be frozen, but Ramses had found something more important: himself.