What if time hiccupped for everyone… except you?
First Line:
The second hand froze mid-tick, and the silence slammed into me like a brick wall wrapped in velvet.
Opening Paragraph:
One moment, the city was a symphony—horns blaring, footsteps slapping the wet pavement, a street vendor shouting about the “best tamales in the world.” The next, it was as if the air itself had congealed. The man mid-bite into a hot dog was now a statue. The steam rising from his bun hung in the air like a ghost. A bus stopped inches from the crosswalk, the driver frozen with a half-blink that made him look almost… scared. My phone still ticked forward. My heartbeat thundered in my ears. The world hadn’t ended—it had just… stopped. Which meant that for some reason, I was outside of whatever force had hit pause. And that left me with one question that tasted like adrenaline and fear: if I was the only one left moving, what exactly was I supposed to do now?
Three Questions for the Writer:
- What’s the first risk your character takes in the frozen world—and why?
- How does the stillness reveal something hidden about them?
- What happens when time suddenly restarts?