Coinbearer-Chapter 2: The Timeless Coin

A coin is inconsequential. A coin is unassuming. A coin can be looked over and forgotten, and doesn't complain. A coin can be somebody's world.

"What the..."  I then proceeded to say a word I usually refuse to say, but more or less summed up my situation and mind state.  My head existed on a swivel, as I stared at everything around me and tried to make sense of what I was seeing.

For those people who say that their brain shuts down when they see something they can't explain, they are lying.  Your brain doesn't shut down, it goes into overdrive.  It starts going so fast the information processing part of it can't keep up and there is a disconnect from what you are comprehending and what you know.  It is because of this that certain people can react faster and with a better solution in a dangerous situation.  More or less, like a soldier pumped full of adrenaline in a war responding to an enemy appearing around a corner.

I'm one of those blessed individuals, and somehow my brain processed and sent back the information needed to understand the impossible in three concise theories.  But first, what I saw.

Everything, and everyone, was blue.  I don't mean like sad or asphyxiating, I mean like different shades of blue.  Imagine a black-and-white photo, except its not black-and-white, but blue-and white.  I wondered for a moment if this is what it felt like to be color blind. But that wasn't everything.  In order to try and confuse my poor brain even more, nothing was moving except for me and the girl.  Behind me, a student's arm was inches from his paper, pen poised to write, but neither his arm nor pen wavered a millimeter.  Not to mention he wasn't breathing.  That freaked crap out me.

I cursed again, not even caring at the moment if the Almighty decided to strike me down with lightening for my language.  Frankly, that might have been preferable, since I wouldn't have had to make sense of the world around me.  Needless to say, I wasn't smited.  I continued looking around, noticing other things that would should not be possible; a spring loaded door half-way closed from a student having just walked in, a piece  of paper sailing towards a trash can now suspended in mid air, a girl's long hair standing up from when she had plopped down into a chair just moments before.

"This is a joke!" I whispered.  Yep, that was my first theory.  Somehow everyone had got in on a joke to fool me, freezing in place and putting colored lenses on my eyes.  Made sense, until I thought about the piece of paper, hair, and guy not breathing behind me.  At that point he probably would have passed out from holding his breath that long.  "I was knocked out, it's a dream!"  Second theory shot to shreds when I pinched myself and did not wake up.  Frankly I don't even know why I tried that, since I could still feel the girl's hand on my arm.  That was not a dream I'd make up.  The third theory was insane, but plausible.  It made the most sense, resonated inside me, and in fact, I really hoped that it was the third theory.

"It's magic!" I said louder, and the girl looked at me like I was crazy.

"No human would come up with that first," she muttered.

"Believe me I tried to explain it other ways," I responded truthfully.  To my surprise, the cold was leaving my body as a heat, originating from around my heart, was slowly warming me up.  It was also making me bolder, more sure of myself, and a lot less panicked.  "This is the only thing that makes sense.  Well, actually, it doesn't, but it explains it adequately."

"Congratulations," the girl said sarcastically.  "You're smarter than I thought."

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow as it dawned on me.  "You were hoping I would panic, pass out, and leave you alone, right?"  The expression on her face gave away the answer, and I laughed.  "Thought so.  I'm a writer, not the idiotic hero who doesn't know anything as he is thrown into a world he had no idea existed.  I think of these things all the time.  This is like something straight out of a fiction novel..."

"Well this isn't fiction," the girl muttered, attempting to regain some dignity.

"I suppose not," I murmured back.  Looking down at her hand still clamped on my arm, I asked again, "Can you let go now?"

"No."  The curt response was the same as before, and I shot a glance up at her face.  She didn't meet my eyes, but stared stonily away.

"Why not?" was my obvious follow up.

"Because if I let go, you will be ripped from this timeless state into real time. It's painful. Very painful." I would've thought she was joking if she hadn't said it with a straight face.

"That sounds...harsh," I decided. "How do you get out then?"

She held up the coin, a nondescript gold piece of metal with a clear, glass like middle. "This. It allows me to stop time for myself and the things I am touching. At the moment, that's you."

"This is some kind of magic..." I whispered under my breath. "The possibilities are endless."

"No, they aren't." I glanced at the girl with a raised eyebrow, and she continued. "People would become suspicious quickly if you went from ordinary to extraordinary overnight. Stopping time is not simple either. It taxes your body, ages it as if you were still in real time, and attracts beasts."

"Beasts. That's the second time you've mentioned them," I stated. "What exactly are they?"

"Not you apparently," she said sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

"I told you I wasn't," I spat back angrily. "It's not my fault you didn't believe me!"

"Better safe than sorry. Anyways, I knew you weren't." She looked up at the ceiling, staring at the light above us as I puzzled over her words.

"If you knew I wasn't, then why did you do...this?" I gestured to everything around us and she shrugged nonchalantly.

"You seemed interesting," was her equally vexing and vague answer. I hate it when people, especially writers, don't explain things completely. I call it a "plot hole." I abhor plot holes.

"Alright fine, then what's a beast?" I relented, realizing she wouldn't tell me anything unless she wanted to.

"Oh."

"What?" I asked in annoyance.

She pointed slowly towards the board at the front of the class. "That is a beast."