Chương 105: Chapter 105
Lori had never been the kind of person to do anything particularly bad, at least not in her own mind. But in this world, that didn't matter. The Time Empress thought otherwise. The Time Empress wasn't a god or anything complicated.
No, she was a child. Just a spoiled brat of a child, no more than nine years old, but with the power to freeze time whenever she wanted. And when she froze you, it wasn't like you just stopped moving. No, you became a part of it. A statue.
Frozen in a moment of time forever, stuck in whatever position you had been in when the Empress decided you were guilty of something. It was as if time itself wanted nothing to do with you anymore. And what did Lori do to deserve this? She didn't know.
Her day started like any other. The sky was clear, and the sun beamed down over the city in a way that made everything seem hollow, like nothing ever changed. She walked down the street toward the corner shop, her mind absent, her steps automatic. Lori lived her life as if there was no consequence, no real purpose to it. The people around her came and went, just faces, no real names, no real connections. She felt like she was constantly in the background of her own life.
She hadn't even noticed the oddness in the air at first. It wasn't like a storm was coming, but something was off. A whispering, like a child trying to make themselves heard, but in a language too strange to understand. The hairs on the back of her neck rose when she stepped into the shop, but she thought nothing of it. It was nothing. Nothing at all.
Lori reached for a bottle of water from the fridge, her fingers brushing the cool plastic. But as she did, something happened. A faint giggle. A giggle, but it was so loud, so close, it shook her. The bottle fell from her hand, bouncing off the ground in a strange, unnatural way. The store was empty. Empty except for her.
"Why did you drop it?" a child's voice asked.
Lori turned quickly, scanning the aisles for the source of the sound. There was no one. But she felt eyes on her. Watching. Like something wasn't right. Something far beyond her comprehension.
"Who's there?" Lori's voice cracked, and she hated how weak it sounded. She felt foolish. Silly, even. Her eyes darted around, desperate for any sign of movement. She reached down and picked up the bottle, twisting the cap off as if nothing had happened, her hands shaking.
A giggle again, this time louder. More demanding. Then the voice came again.
"You're bad. You're not supposed to do that. Stop it."
Lori froze, the words echoing through her mind. Bad? What did that even mean? She hadn't done anything. Nothing at all. Her heart thudded in her chest, each beat growing louder, more erratic.
Suddenly, time stopped. Or rather, it felt like it stopped. But it wasn't the world freezing. It was her. She froze. Not because she chose to, but because the Time Empress had decided that was her fate. She had crossed some invisible line that Lori couldn't even see. Some line that wasn't hers to cross.
She wanted to scream, to cry out. But she couldn't move. She couldn't do anything. She stood there, frozen, feeling like she was being swallowed by the space around her. The hum of the world, the noise of the store, everything simply became muffled.
As though she were suddenly inside a bubble, cut off from everything. The air felt thick, like it was pressing down on her chest, making it hard to breathe. Her thoughts raced, trying to grasp at something, anything that made sense. But there was nothing to grab.
Then, the giggle. Closer this time. Lori couldn't see the source, but she could feel it. A childish, cruel sound, echoing in her ears, pushing against her skull. It was like the laughter had a presence, a weight of its own. The air seemed to tighten, as if the very space around her was holding its breath.
"You're bad. You're very bad," the voice whispered.
Lori's heart pounded harder, her eyes wide. She wanted to shout, to ask what she'd done, but no words came. She couldn't speak. Not now. Not ever again, maybe.
And then she felt it. A presence. A shift in the room, something behind her, creeping, like a child on tiptoe, looking to surprise her. The sound of bare feet, light, almost imperceptible, but Lori could feel it.
She couldn't turn to face it. Her body refused. Her mind screamed for her to move, to get away, but she couldn't.
"Do you know why I did this?" The voice was soft now, almost playful, like the words were being whispered just beside her ear.
The giggle again. And something wet and sticky touched the back of her neck. She shivered.
Lori closed her eyes. She didn't want to see it. Not the child behind her, not the eyes she imagined staring at her. She didn't want to think about the figure that had come for her. But it didn't matter. The Time Empress wasn't real. She couldn't be.
The child's voice again, this time quieter, but somehow more insistent, filled with a kind of cruel glee.
"You were bad. You're always bad when you think you can just do whatever. I hate people who think they're special."
Her breath caught. She remembered something—something small, something she had done just that morning. Lori had pushed someone out of her way. It had been accidental, sure. But the person had looked at her, their face crinkling in surprise. Maybe a little hurt, maybe more than that.
She had just shrugged and kept walking. It wasn't a big deal. But it had been. In the eyes of the Time Empress, it had been enough to freeze her.
Lori could feel the temperature drop. The cold settled into her skin, creeping down to her bones, tightening her muscles. It wasn't just physical. It was deeper. The air itself felt heavier, colder. The clock on the wall in front of her ticked forward, but the seconds were stretched out, twisted, endless.
The hum grew louder, consuming everything until there was nothing but the soft laughter of a child. The Time Empress was playing, and Lori was the toy.
The last thing she heard before the silence took her was the child's voice, speaking her fate.
"Now you'll be bad forever."
And then Lori's mind fell away into the cold, her last thoughts shattering, unable to form any shape. The world had become so still, so empty. Time had stopped for her, but it would never stop for the Empress. She would move on, playing with her toys, with her frozen moments of life, never understanding the weight of what she did.
Because in the end, to her, everyone was just bad.
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