Entering into the door, I went to see everything black for a moment before a background flashes in front of me. something which felt like I was in another universe.
A lush field with a bright morning sky, bird chirping around and everything feeling pleasant with a breeze– is something cliche like this i wouldn't be coming across.
I was welcomed with a dimension I wouldn't expect–
The same neighbourhood where I used to live, but everything was still in time. The sky was cloudy, all houses were engulfed with moss and climbers, and many miscellaneous items were rusting, as if the entire place was slowly fading from existence. It felt almost vivid like any other fantasy I would have read, but slightly terrifying if we were to see the real thing with our own eyes.
I walked through the neighbourhood street, looking around with curiousity and fascination. I saw many familiar house where I used to walk around while going to middle school.
My phone flickered with a message.
[Enter the correct house within 1 hour.]
[Lives left: 5]
[Time left: 59 minutes]
The time started ticking as soon as I opened the message, I kept my phone away and looked around again, this time with fear in my heart.
"There's no way we could search every house like this..." I told myself with distress.
Kiyoshi heard me, and asked what was in the message. I took my phone out and displayed the message to him, with only 58 minutes left.
"We must find the correct house within this time limit. Choosing the wrong house might end us in losing 1 out of 5 lives." I explained as briefly as possible. As the guy he is, kiyoshi understood it. "We might have to start with the houses of our closest ones-"
"No. That's a terrible idea." I remarked, "remember what I told? We only have 5 lives at stake, and not an hour extra with us. We must think of a lead, no matter how small."
"You're right. My mistake." He repented awkwardly, and looked around as well, bring more observant as usual. His eyes widened, as if he caught the attention of something.
"Look at that lamp." He told as he pointed towards an old gas lamp which looked recent.
"Yeah, what about it?" I asked him, slightly confused while drifting my eyes away. I noticed a light post near the house behind me and noticed how it looked like it would crumble to dust on touch.
I stared at it for a while, then looked at the house kiyoshi pointed a moment ago back and forth. I wanted to confirm something, and saw a seemingly fresh leaf on the ground. Picking it up, I went near the gate of the house I saw and blew the leaf towards it.
The leaf started to wither faster than it should be, on a normal time basis. I stepped back and picked another leaf on the ground, this time blowing it towards the house kiyoshi pointed.
The leaf took it's time to get dry and wither compared to the last one. something like this always has a twist, a task given so plainely is no joke. I snapped back and looked at the remaining time in my phone.
[Time remaining: 49 minutes]
I was slightly tensed to realize I had only 49 minutes
"I think the correct house is the one that runs in time at a normal speed." I stated. Kiyoshi looked at me slightly confused, "what' ya mean?"
"I meant we just have to go to a house where time runs normally."
"But we can't examine every house in under 49 minutes," he was right, the time was limited for us.
If we were to measure seconds by fingers, we need a second gap before lifting up each finger. I can't possibly be checking the time in the phone since time stands still in the neighborhood road.
I walked around each house, glancing around the neighbourhood over and over again. I hovered my phone near the gates and was surprised to see the change in speed of the time.
The tension seemed to grow even more as the time gets more crankier wherever I pass by. I can't read the time properly now.
I stopped at a particular house and hovered my phone there. the time seemed to run normally, but slightly faster I think.
I used the old-fashioned finger counting method and waited for each second to pass by as I lift each finger. I couldn't confirm myself at all, as I looked at the house with doubt.
It was old aunt emma's house, which looked picture perfect as the one way back at earth. Now it's completely liable.
I turned to see kiyoshi wasn't behind me. Maybe he had went to check the other houses, but how could he without a proper watch?
I went inside the house, the atmosphere slowly tensing up as time felt it was going at light speed. I reached my hand towards the door and opened it. When I saw nothing, I scrunched my eyes.
"Tch, wrong one." I muttered as I walked away, just to feel something pulling me inside the house. I tried getting off but it was too strong and I was pulled in, falling into an abyss endlessly.
I couldn't scream at all, my body starting to freeze as the depth got colder and colder. The fall speed was intense, but instead of heating up into flames, it started to freeze enough to kill me–
Wait, am I going to die?...
I lost grip in my phone, and started to fall much slower than me. I saw a message in the phone.
[Lives remaining: 4]
The surroundings went black, as I opened my eyes just to see myself back into where I first came from.
I wondered, this might be what kiyoshi saw when he lost a life back in the first scenario.
"What did you do, hide?!!" Kiyoshi exclaimed behind me. I jolted by the sudden sound and rubbed the back of my head.
"I'm sorry, I went inside a house thinking the time is normal." I apologized
Kiyoshi sighed and nodded back. Sadly I couldn't take any pictures on where I went or I would have got back on track easily.
A thought struck in my mind and I checked the remaining time.
[Time left: 38 minutes]
A devastating 38 minutes. I cursed myself and hurried kiyoshi. I went back into the path with the memory power I had, and I was able to make it back to the house where I used to my life.
I followed another path, doing the same that I did by hovering my phone over the gates. I stumbled upon a house I wasn't expecting to see, and I don't expect it.
It's my own house. I left it so I wouldn't have to linger behind my family's memories and give myself a bad feeling everytime.
I know it sounds cruel, but I must move on with life, so much it gave me karma of relieving them back again. I'm happy with kiyoshi back, but it's disrespectful to disrupt the people resting the peace.
I hovered the phone near it, and time seems to run normally again. I can't trust it at this point, not after what happened.
I'll never spare this living being, a person or a monster, that played with my life.
But, if they had this much power to do all this, I would ask them one wish; to let me have kiyoshi's fate of disappearance.